[103] M. Fulvius Flaccus was consul B.C. 125, and during his year of office he defeated the Transalpine Ligurians. He was an orator of no great note, but an active agitator. He perished with Caius Gracchus (c. 16): his house was pulled down, and the ground made public property.

[104] Plutarch’s Life of the younger Scipio Africanus is lost. Scipio died B.C. 159, six years before Caius was tribune. He had retired to rest in the evening with some tablets on which he intended to write a speech to deliver before the people on the subject of the Agrarian Law of Tiberius Gracchus and the difficulties of carrying it into effect. He was found dead in the morning, and it was the general opinion that he was murdered. His wife Sempronia was suspected, and even Cornelia his mother-in-law, as well as C. Gracchus. C. Papirius Carbo, one of the triumviri for dividing the land with Caius and Fulvius Flaccus is distinctly mentioned by Cicero as one of the murderers. As to him, there is no doubt that he was believed to be guilty. It is also admitted by all authorities that there was no inquiry into the death of Scipio; and Appian adds that he had not even a public funeral.

[105] This was the first Roman colony that was established beyond the limits of the Italian Peninsula, which Velleius reckons among the most impolitic measures of Gracchus. The colony of Gracchus appears to have been neglected, and the town was not built. At the destruction of Carthage heavy imprecations were laid on any man who should restore the city. The colony was established by CÆsar the Dictator.

The foundation of a Roman colony was accompanied with solemn ceremonials, to which Plutarch alludes. The anniversary day of the foundation was religiously observed. On some Roman coins there is a representation of a man driving a yoke of oxen and a vexillum (standard), which are the symbols of a Roman colony.

[106] Plutarch has here used the word oligarch (????a??????), one who is a friend to the party of the Few as opposed to the Many. The meaning of an oligarchy, according to Aristotle (Politik, 4, c. 4), is a government in which the rich and those of noble birth possess the political power, being Few in number. But the smallness of the number is only an accident: the essence of an oligarchy consists in the power being in the hands of the rich and the noble, who happen in all countries to be the Few compared with the Many.

[107] This was a proverbial expression, of which different explanations were given. Sardinia, it is said, was noted for a bitter herb which contracted the features of those who tasted it. Pausanias (x. 17) says it is a plant like parsley, which grows near springs, and causes people who eat it to laugh till they die; and he supposes that Homer’s expression (Odyssey xx. 302), a Sardanian laugh, is an allusion to this property of the plant: but this is not a probable explanation of the expression in Homer.

[108] Some fragments of the Letters of Cornelia are extant, but there is great difficulty in determining if they are genuine, and opinions are divided on the subject. Gerlach, in his essay on Tiberius and Caius Gracchus (p. 37), maintains their genuineness against the opinion of Spalding and Bernhardy. The Fragments are collected by Roth.

[109] The story in Appian (Civil Wars, i. 25) is somewhat different.

[110] The Roman stilus, which Plutarch translates by graphium (??afe???), “a writing instrument,” was of metal, iron or brass, sharp at one end and flat at the other. The point was used for writing on tablets which were smeared with wax: the other end was used for erasing what was written and making the surface even again. The word was often used by the best Roman writers in a metaphorical sense to express the manner and character of a written composition, and from them it has passed into some of the modern languages of Europe, our own among the rest: thus we speak of a good style, a bad style of writing, and so on.

[111] The form of the decree was, Videant consules ne quid respublica detrimenti capiat (Livius, 3, c. 4), which empowered the consuls or consul, as the case might be, to provide that the commonwealth sustained no damage. The word detrimentum, which signifies damage caused by rubbing off, had a tacit reference to the majestas of the Populus Romanus. The majestas (majesty) of the state is its integrity, its wholeness, any diminution of which was an offence; and under the Emperors the crime of majestas, that is majestas impaired, was equivalent to high treason. The decree here alluded to was only adopted, as Livius expresses it, in the utmost extremity, when the state was in danger; its effect was to proclaim martial law, and to suspend for the time all the usual forms of proceeding.

[112] This was one of the hills or eminences in Rome: it was the plebeian quarter.

[113] This is the Roman term which corresponds to the kerukeion (?????e???) of Plutarch, or the staff which ambassadors or heralds carried in time of war when they were sent to an enemy.

[114] The Cretans were often employed as mercenaries in the Roman army, as we see from passages in Livius (37, c. 41).

[115] This is not Plutarch’s word, but it expresses his meaning, and he uses the word elsewhere. Amnesty is Greek and was used by the later Greek writers in a sense the same or nearly the same as in modern times, to express a declaration on the part of those who had the sovereign power for the time that they would pardon those who had in any way acted in opposition to such power.

[116] The Pons Sublicius as it was called, the oldest bridge over the Tiber at Rome.

[117] As usual in such cases, there is a dispute about the person or at least his name. Velleius (ii. 6,) and Aurelius Victor called him Euporus. Both names are Greek, and the faithful slave was doubtless a Greek, of whom there were now many at Rome. They were valued for their superior acquirements and dexterity, and filled the higher places in great families. The slaves from barbarous nations, that is, nations not Greek, were used for meaner purposes.

[118] Kaltwasser remarks that Aurelius Victor (De Viris Illustribus, c. 55) says that Caius died in the grove of Furina, the goddess of thieves, whose sacred place was beyond, that is on the west side of the Tiber, and that Plutarch appears to have confounded this with the name of the Furies, the Greek Erinnyes. This may be so; or Victor may have made a mistake, which he often has done.

[119] Opimius must have been as great a knave as Septimuleius, for the fraud was palpable. Stories of this kind are generally given with variations. Plinius (N. H. 33, c. 14) says it was the mouth that was filled with lead, and that Septimuleius had been a confidential friend of Caius. This was the first instance in Rome of head money being offered and paid; but the example was followed in the proscriptions of Sulla, and those of the triumviri Lepidus, M. Antonius, and CÆsar Octavianus.

[120] I have followed Kaltwasser in translating the Greek word ?p????a, which signifies madness, desperation, or a desperate deed, by discord, for the sake of maintaining something like the opposition between the two words which exists in the original.

[121] Caius Opimius was consul with Q. Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, B.C. 121, the year of the death of Caius. The history of his conduct in Libya is told by Sallustius in the Jugurthine war. He was one of ten commissioners who were sent, B.C. 112, to settle the disputes between Adherbal, the son of Micipsa, and Jugurtha, the illegitimate son of Micipsa’s brother. The commissioners were bribed by Jugurtha and decided in his favour. Opimius and the rest of them were tried for the offence, B.C. 109, and banished. Opimius died in great poverty at Dyrrachium (Durazzo) in Epirus. (Sallustius, Jugurthine War, c. 134; Velleius, ii. 7.) Cicero thinks that Opimius was very hardly used after his services in crushing the insurrection at FregellÆ and putting down the disturbances excited by Caius Gracchus and Fulvius Flaccus: he calls him the saviour of the state, and laments his condemnation. (Cicero, Pro Plancio, c. 28, &c.; Brutus, c. 34; &c.)

[122] M. Fulvius Flaccus was consul, B.C. 125, during which year he defeated the Transalpine Ligurians.

[123] The legislation of the Gracchi, particularly of Caius Gracchus, comprehended many objects, the provisions as to which are comprehended under the general name of SemproniÆ Leges, for it was the fashion to name a law after the gentile name of him who proposed it. The most important of the measures of Caius have been mentioned by Plutarch, with the exception of a law about the provinces. At the outbreak of the Social War, B.C. 91, the Roman provinces comprehended Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, the Spanish Peninsula, the whole of which, however, was not subdued, Cisalpine Gaul, Asia, Macedonia, AchÆa, Transalpine Gaul, and some others of less note.

The original sense of the word provincia had no reference to a territory, though this is the later sense of the word and the common usage of it. The functions of the prÆtor urbanus who stayed at Rome were called his provincia, that is, the administration of justice was his provincia or business. The word is used in the sense of a function or office by Livius with reference to a time when there was no provincia in the later sense of the word. In the time of Cicero, provincia signified a territory out of Italy, which was administered by a Roman governor. The term Italy, at this time, did not comprise the whole peninsula, but only that part which was south of the rivers Rubico and Macra. The primary meaning of the word is confirmed by its etymology; provincia is a shortened form of providentia, which also appears in the shape prudentia. Providentia signifies “foresight,” “superintending care,” and so forth; and it is formed on the same principle as beneficentia, benevolentia, and other Latin words which are of a participial character. The etymology of Niebuhr (proventus) is untenable, and that which I have partly adopted (Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, art. “Provincia”) is no better. Since writing that article, I saw that the word is only another form of providentia, and a friend has pointed out to me that Mr. G. C. Lewis first suggested this as the origin of the word in his Essay on the Government of Dependencies, London, 1841, Note H. p. 353. If this explanation of the word is correct, the true orthography is provintia, but I have not yet been able to find it on an inscription.

The old practice was for the Senate, after the elections of the Consuls and PrÆtors, to name two provinces which should be given to the consuls after the consulship was expired. The two consuls settled by lot or by agreement which province of the two they should have. As the consuls were chosen before the two consular provinces were determined by the senate, it was in the power of the senate to give what provinces they pleased to the consuls, and so make the appointment either a favour or not. A law of Gracchus enacted that the two consular provinces should be determined before the election of consuls, and that the senate should not have the power, which they had formerly exercised, of prolonging a man’s government in a province beyond the year. This law manifestly limited the power of the Senate, though some writers conceive that it was enacted for the advantage of that body as some compensation for their loss of the judicial power.

Plutarch has treated the subject of the Gracchi with perfect impartiality. He has given them credit for good motives, and approved of their measures in general, but he has not disguised their faults. Appian considered that the measures of Tiberius were for the public good, but that his conduct was not judicious. Sallustius also admits that the Gracchi did not conduct themselves with sufficient moderation (Jugurthine War, c. 46); but Sallustius belonged to the popular party, and he approved of their measures. Most of the other Roman writers express an unfavourable opinion of the Gracchi. Florus however gives them credit for good intentions, but disapproves of the means by which they attempted to carry their measures into effect. That part of the work of Livius which treated of this period is lost, but we may collect his opinions of the Gracchi from the Epitomes of the lost books, and the general tenor of his History. The measures of the Gracchi were estimated by the rule of party spirit. The judgment of Cicero, who often mentions the Gracchi, is both for and against. His expressed opinion, whatever might be his real opinion, varied with circumstances. If we only knew his opinion from the second oration against the Agrarian Law of Rullus (ii. 5), we should consider him as approving of all the measures of the Gracchi. When he delivered that oration, Cicero had just been elected Consul: he was a Novus homo, a new man as the Romans called him, who was the first of his family to attain to the high honours of the State, and he had obtained the consulship as a friend of the people, as a popular man (Popularis). In his treatise on Friendship and other of his writings, he gives a contradictory judgment of the Gracchi; he says that Tiberius Gracchus aimed at the kingly power, or rather in fact was king for a few months; he calls the two Gracchi degenerate sons of their father; he extols the murderers of Tiberius Gracchus; he commiserates the hard fate of Opimius after saving the state by putting Caius Gracchus to death. All this was written or said after he was consul, after he had done what the murderers of the Gracchi had done, after he had put to death Catilina and his accomplices without trial contrary to the constitution, contrary to a special law which Caius Gracchus had carried that no Roman citizen should be put to death without a duly constituted trial; after he had, like Nasica and Opimius, made himself a murderer by putting men to death without letting them be tried according to law; whether they were guilty or not, is immaterial; they were put to death without trial, contrary to a principle of justice which, before he became guilty himself, Cicero had maintained and defended. The acts of the Gracchi were on record and well understood; but Cicero made his opinion of their acts depend not on his convictions, but on his interests; it is to him mainly that we may trace the common notion that the Gracchi were merely a couple of designing demagogues. The Gracchi were not wise enough or firm enough to be good reformers, but few reformers in so difficult a situation have left behind them so fair a reputation for honest intention. There was a great mass of contemporary materials for the history of the Gracchi, consisting of the speeches of the two brothers, of the numerous speeches made against them, the history of Polybius, who could not have overlooked the Gracchi in his account of the Numantine war, the history of Fannius, and other materials which Gerlach has enumerated in his Essay on the Gracchi. It is plain from Plutarch’s narrative, that he used these authorities; and if we consider how far removed he was from the time of the Gracchi, and his character, we may conclude that he has given as impartial a view of the times as he could collect from contemporary evidence. He may have made mistakes, and some mistakes we cannot help considering that he has made; but he can hardly have made any mistake in his representation of the nature of the reforms which the two brothers attempted, of the opposition that they encountered, and of their general character.

Misenum. Misenum was on the coast of Campania near Cape Miseno, a favourite residence of the wealthy Romans, who built villas there. The house of Cornelia had many occupants. It became the property of Caius Marius (c. 34), then of Lucius Lucullus, and finally of the Emperor Tiberius, who died here. It was seated on a hill which commanded an extensive sea-view.

In the last sentence of this chapter I have adopted the reading of Sintenis (f??att?????), which is necessary for the sense.

[124] Alluding to the fight of Herakles with the LernÆan hydra which had nine heads. Herakles struck off its heads with his club, but in the place of the head he cut off, two new heads grew forth each time.

[125] This was a frontier town, whose possession was disputed by the Athenians and Boeotians.

[126] An Athenian of the township of Thriasia, near Eleusis.

[127] A fellow-scholar of Demosthenes.

[128] A low quarter of Athens.

[129] See Life of Crassus, ch. 2.

[130] The battle of ChÆronea, B.C. 338, in which Philip defeated the Athenians and Boeotians, and crushed the liberties of Greece.

[131] The hero of a mock-heroic poem supposed to have been written by Homer.

[132] Kassander built a new city on the site of PotidÆa, on the narrow isthmus of the promontory of Pallene. PotidÆa had been destroyed by Philip, B.C. 356. The new city of Kassandrea soon became the most flourishing city in Macedonia.

[133] This was Agis III. who at the time of the battle of Issus, B.C. 333, was communicating with the Persian naval commanders in the Ægean, to obtain supplies for the war against the Macedonians. He was killed in action, about the time of the battle of Arbela, B.C. 331.

[134] The second month of the Attic year, the latter half of August and first of September. The two next months mentioned in the text correspond to the latter half of September and the first of October and the latter half of October and first of November respectively.

[135] A small island in the Saronic Gulf off the coast of Argolis and opposite Troezen, where was a celebrated temple of Poseidon which was regarded as an inviolable asylum. Hither Demosthenes fled to avoid Antipater, and here he took poison, B.C. 322.

[136] The Greek word signifies a reed, in the upper part of which poison might easily be placed.

[137] A festival in honour of Demeter. For details see Smith ‘Dict. of Antiq.’

[138] The Helvia Gens was plebeian. It becomes historical from the time of the second Punic war, and became ennobled (nobilis) by M. Helvius being elected prÆtor B.C. 197, the first year in which six prÆtors were elected (Liv. 32. c. 27). It is said that Cicero never mentions his mother in his writings, but an anecdote of her careful housekeeping is recorded by her son Quintus (Cic. Ad Diversos, xvi. 26).

The allusion is to the Volscian with whom Coriolanus took refuge when he left Rome (Plutarch, Life of Coriolanus, c. 22; Livy, 2, c. 35).

[139] Cicero himself did not claim any illustrious descent. The family had been long settled at Arpinum, now Arpino, a Volscian town. The first person who is mentioned as bearing the name of Cicero is C. Claudius Cicero, a tribunus plebis, B.C. 454 (Liv. 3. c. 31). M. Tullius Cicero, the grandfather of the orator, was born B.C. 140, and nothing is known of the orator’s family before him. Arpinum received the limited Roman civitas in B.C. 303 (Liv. 10. c. 1), that is, probably Commercium and Connubium, for the suffrage (suffragii latio) was not given to the people of Arpinum till B.C. 188 (Liv. 38. c. 36). The orator’s grandfather lived to see his grandson born B.C. 106. Cicero’s father belonged to the class of Equites. He spent the greater part of his life on his lands at Arpinum, near the junction of the Fibrenus with the Liris (Garigliano). He afterwards removed to Rome to educate his sons Marcus and Quintus, and had a house in the CarinÆ. Among his friends were the orators M. Antonius and Lucius Crassus, and Q. ScÆvola the Augur, a distinguished Jurist. His sons had accordingly the advantage of being acquainted in their youth with some of the most distinguished of the Romans. He is said to have died B.C. 64, the year before his son was consul. A letter of Cicero to Atticus (i. 6) is generally supposed to speak of his father’s death, but the true reading is undoubtedly “pater a nobis discessit;” and it is plain that Cicero is simply speaking of his father leaving Rome for a time (Drumann, Tullii, p. 213).

[140] The cognomen Cicero, as already observed, occurs early in Roman history. Many of the Roman cognomina were derived from some particular plant which a man cultivated, or from some personal peculiarity, or from some other accidental circumstance. The mark on the nose is just as likely to be the origin of the name as the cultivation of the cicer; for if the name Fabius comes from faba, “a bean,” and Lentulus, from lens, “pulse;” yet Catulus means “a whelp,” and Scaurus means “knock-knee’d,” or something of the kind.

The words d?ast???, d?af?? mean what I have translated them. Kaltwasser has translated the passage thus, according to Reiske’s explanation:—“Jener hatte an der spitze der nase einen kleinen anwuchs oder warze in form einer solchen erbse, woven er den beinamen erhielt.” But this is not a translation. Plutarch does not say that he had a wart at the end of his nose, but that the end of his nose was like a vetch, because there was a kind of split or cleft in it. There is no reason for misrepresenting even a man’s nose.

[141] The “third day of the new calends” is the third of January of the unreformed Roman calendar. Pompeius Magnus was born in the same year, B.C. 106. Cicero himself mentions his birthday (Ad Attic. vii. 5; xiii. 42). Plutarch’s stories of his aptitude for learning might be collected from the mass of anecdotes that existed in his time about all the great Romans of Cicero’s period. The story shows at least what were the traditional stories about Cicero’s youth.

[142] Kaltwasser refers to the passage in Plato’s Republic, book v. p. 56, of the Bipont edition.

[143] Glaucus was a fisherman of Anthedon in Boeotia. After eating of a certain herb he jumped into the sea and became a sea-god with the power of prophecy (Pausanias, ix. 22). Strabo (p. 405, ed. Casaub.) says that he became a fish of some kind (??t??), a change more appropriate to his new element, though perhaps not to his new vocation. Æschylus made a drama on the subject, which Cicero may have used.

[144] Cicero translated the poem of Aratus into Latin verse. He also wrote an epic poem, the subject of which was his countryman Caius Marius; and one on his own consulship, which was always a favourite topic with him. Of the translation of the ‘PhÆnomena’ of Aratus, which was made when he was a youth, about four hundred lines remain. The fragments of these poems, and of others not here enumerated, are in Orelli’s edition of Cicero, vol. iv.

[145] Philo, a pupil of the Carthaginian Clitomachus, fled from Athens to Rome in B.C. 88, at the time when the troops of Mithridates were in possession of Athens (Cicero, Brutus, c. 89, and Meyer’s note).

[146] The elder of these Mucii was Q. Mucius ScÆvola, Consul B.C. 117, commonly called the Augur. After his death Cicero attached himself to Q. Mucius ScÆvola, Pontifex Maximus, who was a distinguished jurist. The Pontifex was assassinated in the consulship of the younger Marius, B.C. 82, in the temple of Vesta (Florus, iii. 21). Cicero has in several places commemorated his virtues and talents (De Orat. i. 39; iii. 3).

Cicero, in his Brutus, c. 88, &c., has given an account of his own early studies.

[147] In B.C. 89 Cicero served under Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompeius Magnus (Life of Pompeius, c. 1. notes). Cicero speaks of this event of his life in his twelfth Philippic, c. 11.

[148] L. Cornelius Chrysogonus was probably a Greek. His name Cornelius was derived from his patron (Life of Sulla, c. 31, notes). Cicero’s speech for Sextus Roscius Amerinus was spoken B.C. 80; it is still extant. Cicero’s first extant speech, pro P. Quintio, was spoken B.C. 81.

[149] Cicero went to Greece B.C. 79. The reasons for his journey are stated by himself in his Brutus (c. 91). He speaks of his leanness and weakness, and of the length and slenderness of his neck. His physicians recommended him to give up speaking for a time. When he left Rome he had been engaged for two years in pleading causes.

[150] Cicero stayed six months at Athens. The New Academy was founded by Arkesilaus. The school taught that certainty was not attainable in anything, and that the evidence of the senses was deceptive. The words “by the evidence and by the senses” are the exact copy of the original. Schaefer proposes to omit “and” (?a?), in which case the passage would stand thus—“by the evidence of the senses.” Sintenis retains the conjunction (?a?), and refers to Cicero, Academ. 2. 6 and 7.

[151] Cicero was at Rhodes in B.C. 78 (compare his Brutus, c. 91). Cicero calls this “Apollonius the son of Molo,” simply Molo (see the Life of CÆsar, c. 3, notes). Molo had the two most distinguished of the Romans among his pupils, C. Julius CÆsar and Cicero.

Poseidonius was the chief Stoic of his time.

[152] Cicero never mentions this visit to Delphi in his writings, and Middleton thinks the visit is improbable, because Cicero (De Divinatione, ii. 56) shows that he knew what was the value of the oracle. But a man who despises a popular superstition may try to use it for his purposes, and may be disappointed if he cannot. Perhaps the soundness of the oracle’s advice may be a good reason for disbelieving the story.

Cicero returned to Rome in B.C. 77.

[153] This was Q. Roscius, in whose behalf Cicero made a speech in B.C. 76, before C. Piso as judex. The subject of the cause is stated in the arguments to the oration.

Claudius Æsopus, the great tragic actor, whom Cicero considered a perfect master of his art, was probably a Greek and a freedman of some member of the Claudia Gens. He was liberal in his expenditure, and yet he acquired an enormous fortune, which his son spent.

[154] ?? t?? ?p?????es?a?, that is, from “acting.” One Greek word for actor is ?p????t??. Oratorical action was therefore viewed as a part of the histrionic art; and so it is. But oratorical acting requires to be kept within narrower limits.

[155] Bawling is properly viewed as an effort to accomplish by loudness of voice what ought to be accomplished by other means. It is simply ridiculous, and misses the mark that it aims at. “If you mouth it,” says Hamlet to the players, “as many of your players do, I had as lief the town crier had spoke my lines.”—“Let your discretion be your tutor: suit the action to the word, and the word to the action; with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature.”

[156] Cicero was elected quÆstor B.C. 76, when he was thirty years of age. He discharged the duties of his office during B.C. 75. He speaks well of his own quÆstorship in his oration for Cn. Plancius (c. 26).

[157] Cicero tells the story himself in his oration for Cn. Plancius (c. 26). The place of the adventure was Puteoli (Pozzuoli), B.C. 74, a place to which the Romans used to resort to enjoy the natural hot springs and the agreeable neighbourhood.

[158] Verres during his prÆtorship in Sicily, B.C. 73-71, had greatly misconducted himself. He was prosecuted in B.C. 70, in which year Pompeius Magnus and M. Licinius Crassus were consuls (Life of Crassus, c. 12). Hortensius, the orator, defended Verres. The object of Hortensius and of these praetors was to prolong or defer the trial to the next year, for which Hortensius was elected consul.

There are extant seven orations of Cicero on the matter of Verres, of which two only were delivered; that against CÆcilius (De Divinatione), who claimed to conduct the prosecution, his object being to get Verres off, and the Actio Prima, which is an opening of the whole case. Before the other speeches were delivered, Verres gave up his defence and went into exile. Cicero, however, published the speeches, or probably even wrote them entire after the affair was over.

This CÆcilius was Q. CÆcilius Metellus, a Sicilian by birth, and probably the descendant of a freedman of one of the Metelli. It seems that he was suspected of being of Jewish origin. Cicero’s allusion to the hog, and many other passages in the Roman writers, show that the Jews were well known in Rome at this time.

[159] ??t?? ?????, “within doors.” Kaltwasser has translated the passage: “So solltest du hinter der thÜr mit deinen sÖhnen schmÄlen.” The repartee does not admit or need explanation.

[160] The story of the monster sphinx and her Ænigma which Œdipus solved is well known. This work of art was of metal, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat. 34. c. 18).

[161] There is probably some error in Plutarch as to the amount. In the Divinatio (c. 5) the peculations of Verres were estimated at “millies HS.,” or one hundred millions of sesterces; but in the Actio Prima (c. 18), which was spoken after Cicero had been in Sicily to collect evidence, he put the amount at forty millions of sesterces, or two-fifths of the first sum. If Plutarch’s drachmÆ are Roman denarii, his 750,000 drachmÆ will make only three millions of sesterces.

Verres continued in exile, and he remained quiet during the civil wars. Though an unprincipled scoundrel, he showed his taste in stealing: he had kept many valuable objects of art, and he would not part with them. The story is that M. Antonius put his name in the proscription list, B.C. 43, because he would not give up his Corinthian vessels. He was put to death, but he died, it is said, with great resolution; and he had the satisfaction of hearing that his old enemy Cicero had gone before him (Drumann, Tullii, p. 328). But all this story is very improbable.

[162] Cicero was Curule Ædile in B.C. 69, with M. CÆsonius for his colleague.

[163] This is evidently a mistake in Plutarch’s text. Arpinum is meant.

[164] This is what Cicero calls his Pompeianum. Middleton, in his Life of Cicero, has mentioned all Cicero’s country residences in Italy, which were very numerous.

[165] See the Life of Cato, c. 19. The time of Cicero’s marriage is uncertain. Drumann conjectures that he married her about B.C. 80 or 79, before his journey to Asia.

[166] Cicero was PrÆtor in the year B.C. 66, and it fell to his lot to preside at the trials for RepetundÆ. This Macer was C. Licinius Macer. After he had been prÆtor he had a province, and during his administration he was guilty of illegal practices, for which he was tried and convicted (Cic. Ad Attic. i. 4). Crassus, who also belonged to the Licinia Gens, felt some sympathy for a man whose crime was getting money by unlawful means. Macer was an orator and a writer. A few fragments of his Annals (Krause, VitÆ et Fragm. Vet. Histor. Rom.) are preserved.

[167] P. Vatinius was afterwards consul B.C. 47. There is extant a speech of Cicero against him, in which of course he has a very bad character given to him. Kaltwasser says that a thick neck was considered by the Romans as a sign of a shameless man, and he refers to the Life of Marius, c. 29, where a like expression is used. Cicero’s neck, according to his own account, was very thin, and he thought it no good sign of his strength. However this may be as to the thickness of the neck of Vatinius, it was clearly not a thing that he could alter.

[168] C. Manilius, a Tribunus Plebis, had in this same year proposed and carried the law which gave Pompeius the command in the Mithridatic war, and Cicero had supported the measure in a speech which is extant (Life of Pompeius, c. 30). This story of the accusation and defence of Manilius is unintelligible. C. Orchinius presided at the trials for peculatus, and Manilius should have been brought before him (Cic. Pro Cluentio, c. 53). See Dion Cassius, 36. c. 27; and Drumann’s remarks, Tullii, p. 375.

[170] See the Life of Sulla, c. 32.

[171] Sallust (Bell. Catilin. c. 22) tells a story somewhat to the same effect, of the conspirators drinking of human blood, but he does not believe the story, and perhaps few people will.

[172] The measure to which Plutarch alludes was the Agrarian Law of the tribune P. Servilius Rullus. Cicero made three speeches against the proposal, which are extant, and he defeated the scheme.

[173] C. Antonius went as governor to Macedonia in B.C. 62, where he took the opportunity of getting all the money that he could. He gave it out that Cicero was to have a share of it. The evidence of such an unprincipled man is not worth much; but one of Cicero’s letters to Atticus (i. 12), which he never expected would be read by anybody else, shows that he knew there was such a rumour; and the manner in which he treats it is perfectly incomprehensible. A certain Hilarus, a freedman of Cicero, was then with Antonius in Macedonia, as Cicero was informed, and Cicero was also informed that Antonius declared that Cicero was to have some of the money that he was getting, and that Hilarus had been sent by Cicero to look after his share. Cicero was a good deal troubled, as he says, though he did not believe the report; yet, he adds, there was certainly some talk. Cn. Plancius was named to Cicero as the authority for the report. Atticus is requested to examine into the matter, and—not to apply to Antonius or to Plancius—but to get the rascal (Hilarus) out of those parts, if in any way he can. This is a mode of proceeding that is quite inconsistent with perfect innocence on the part of Cicero. There was something between him and Antonius. Cicero says that if Antonius should be recalled, as was expected, he could not for his character’s sake defend the man; and what is more, he says, he felt no inclination; and then he proceeds to tell Atticus about this awkward report. Yet Cicero did defend Antonius (B.C. 59) and Antonius was convicted.

[174] It appears from Cicero’s oration for Murena, c. 19, that his name was Lucius Roscius Otho, and he was not PrÆtor, but Tribunus Plebis. This Lex Roscia was enacted B.C. 67, in the consulship of M. Acilius Glabrio and C. Calpurnius Piso (Don Cassius, 36. c. 25). His law gave to the equites and those who had the equestrian census a select place of fourteen rows at the public spectacles, which were next to the seats of the senators. This unpopular measure was that which Cicero now spoke in favour of (Ad. Attic. ii. 1). Cicero’s oration is lost, but a passage is preserved, says Kaltwasser, by Macrobius (Saturnalia ii. 10). Some also suppose, as Kaltwasser says, that Virgil alludes to it in the passage in the Aeneid (i. 152). There is no extract from this oration in Macrobius, who appears to suppose that Cicero made an oration to rebuke the people for making a disturbance while Roscius, the player, was acting.

[175] As to the conspiracy, see the Lives of CÆsar and Cato, and the notes.

[176] His name was C. Manlius Acidinus. There is no reason for saying that his true name was Mallius: that was merely a Greek form of Manlius. He fell in the battle in which Catiline’s troops were defeated.

[177] Cicero has recorded this answer of Catiline in his oration for Murena, c. 25: “duo corpora esse in republica, unum debile, infirmo capite, alterum firmum, sine capite: huic, cum ita de se meritum esset, caput se vivo non defuturum.” Cicero makes Catiline say that the weak body had a weak head. Cicero’s version of what he said is obviously the true one.

[178] Decimus Junius Silanus and L. Licinius Murena were consuls for the year B.C. 62. As to the trial of Murena for bribery at the elections (ambitus), see the Life of Cato, c. 21.

[179] This affair is not mentioned by Sallustius in his history of the conspiracy of Catiline. The usual form in which the Senate gave this extraordinary power is mentioned by Sallustius (c. 29): “dent operam consules nequid Res Publica detrimenti capiat.”

[180] The assassins, according to Sallustius, were C. Cornelius and L. Vargunteius. See the note of Drumann, Tullii, p. 457: “Plutarch hunted in his authorities only after anecdotes and traits of character in order to paint his heroes: the names of the subordinate persons were indifferent to him; with such frivolous and one-sided views he could not fail to confound persons.” “Frivolous,” is perhaps hardly the translation of Drumann’s “leichtsinnig,” but it comes pretty near to it. And yet the fact of the design to assassinate is the main feature in the history: the actors in the intended assassination are subordinate to the design. A painstaking compiler is entitled to grumble at such a blunder, but Plutarch does not merit reproach in these terms.

[181] She was a mistress or something of the kind of one Q. Curius. Whether Curius sent her to Cicero or she went of her own accord is doubtful. Perhaps she expected to get something for her information. Sallustius, c. 23. 28, speaks of this affair; and Cicero, Catilin. i. c. 9.

[182] Plutarch, as Kaltwasser observes, appears to refer to the words of Cicero (Catilin. i. c. 5): “magno me metu liberabis, dum modo inter me atque te murus intersit.” Catiline left Rome on the night of the 8th of November.

[183] L. Cornelius Lentulus Sura was consul B.C. 71. He had been put out of the Senate by the censors for his irregular life. His restoration to his rank and the matter of the prÆtorship are mentioned by Dion Cassius (37, c. 30, and the note of Reimarus). The meaning of the story about the ball is obvious enough; but Lentulus was not the first who had the name Sura, and Plutarch’s story is so far untrue. See Drumann’s note on the name Sura, Cornelii, p. 530.

[184] See the Lives of Marius and Sulla.

[185] It was a period of festivity, and considered suitable for the purpose of the conspirators. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 34, notes.

[186] The narrative of Sallustius, as to the proposed burning of the city, is somewhat different (Bell. Catil. c. 43).

[187] The Allobroges were a Celtic tribe of Gallia, on the Rhone. They belonged to the division of Gallia which under Augustus was called Gallia Narbonensis. Their chief town was Vienna, now Vienne. According to CÆsar’s description (Bell. Gall. i. 6.) the Rhodanus in the upper part of its course separated the Helvetii from the Allobroges. The remotest town of the Allobroges, on the side of the Helvetii, was Geneva. CÆsar describes the Allobroges as recently (B.C. 58) brought to friendly terms with the Romans.

[188] This Titus of Croton is named Titus Volturcius by Sallustius.

[189] The Senate met on the third of December of the unreformed calendar in the temple of Concord, on the Capitoline Hill.

[190] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 9, and the notes.

[191] Compare Dion Cassius, 37, c. 35. Fabia, the sister of Terentia, was one of the Vestals, and Drumann supposes that this fact confirms his supposition that Cicero had arranged all this affair with his wife, in order to work on the popular opinion. Middleton made the same supposition a long time ago. It requires no great penetration to make such a conjecture; but it may not be true.

[192] It is said that this does not appear in any of Cicero’s extant writings.

[193] The Senate assembled on the fourth of December in the temple of Concord; and again on the fifth to pass judgment on the conspirators. As to the speeches delivered on the occasion, see the Lives of CÆsar and Cato, and the notes. The whole matter of the conspiracy is treated with great minuteness and tedious prolixity by Drumann (Tullii, under the year B.C. 63).

[194] I believe that I have translated this correctly. I suppose that Plutarch means to say, that if CÆsar had been accused as a member of the conspiracy, he would have been acquitted, and the conspirators would have had a chance of escaping also. There was no chance of securing the condemnation of the conspirators and involving CÆsar in their fate. On the contrary, if CÆsar was accused, all might escape. It was better, therefore, not to touch him. Kaltwasser has made the passage unintelligible. The explanation of CoraËs, as corrected by SchÄfer, is right.

[195] Sallustius (Bell. Cat. c. 51, &c.) states CÆsar’s proposal to have been the confiscation of the property of the conspirators and their perpetual confinement in the chief municipia of Italy, and that the Senate should make a declaration that any man who proposed to set them at liberty, or to mitigate their punishment, should be considered an enemy of the State. Cicero (In Catilin. iv. 5) states the opinion of CÆsar to the same effect. CÆsar had urged the illegality of condemning Roman citizens to death without a trial, and this was provided by a Lex Sempronia of C. Gracchus. But Cicero replies that CÆÆar’s measure was as severe.

[196] The speech which he delivered on the occasion is the fourth oration against Catiline. Some critics maintain that it is not genuine. Drumann, who maintains that it is, has a long note on the subject (Tullii, p. 512).

[197] Plutarch likens the feelings of the youth at the sight of the prisoners being led to execution to the solemn ceremonies of initiation in some mysterious rites. The conspirators were taken to the only prison that Rome then had, the Tullianum, where they were strangled. Five men were put to death. Nine had been condemned to death, but four had escaped being seized. Appian (Civil Wars, ii. 6) seems to say that Cicero saw the men put to death. If he did not see the execution, we may safely assume that he took care to see that the men really were dead. Their bodies were delivered to their kinsfolk for interment.

[198] Antonius did not command in the battle. He was ill, or pretended to be ill. His legatus, Petreius, an able officer, commanded the troops. The battle was fought early in B.C. 62, probably near Pistoria (Pistoia) in Etruria. It was a bloody struggle, hand to hand, and the loss on the victorious side was great. Dion says that Antonius sent the head of Catilina to Rome. According to Roman usage, he was entitled to the honour of the victory, because Petreius was his inferior officer.

[199] Metellus Nepos and the other tribunes began to exercise their functions on the tenth of December. The consuls began to exercise their functions on the first of January. The oath that Cicero had to swear was, that he had obeyed the laws. He alludes to the oath that he did swear on the last day of December on giving up his office, in a letter to Q. Metellus Celer, the brother of Nepos (Ad Diversos, v. 2), and in his oration against Piso, c. 3. Manutius (Comment. in Cic. Ep. Ad Divers. v. 2) shows that Bestia was a tribune during Cicero’s consulship, and as he had gone out of office on the ninth of December he could not have acted with Metellus on the thirty-first of December.

As to Metellus Nepos, see the Life of Cato, c. 20.

[200] It is said that this does not occur in the extant letters of Cicero.

[201] In the beginning of his treatise De Officiis, which is addressed to his son, then at Athens (B.C. 44), Cicero speaks of the youth having then been a year under the instruction of Kratippus. Kratippus was a native of Mitylene, and he was living there when Pompeius touched at the island after the battle of Pharsalia (Life of Pompeius, c. 75). Cicero’s son was attached to his master, and in an extant letter to Tiro (Cic. Ad Diversos, xvii. 21) he expresses his affection for him. Kratippus was more than a philosopher: he was a pleasant companion, and perhaps young Cicero liked his table-talk as much as his philosophy.

[202] He is mentioned by Cicero in his Letters to Atticus (xiv. 16, 18, and xv. 16).

[203] Cicero, in the letter to Tiro (xvi. 21) above referred to, says that Gorgias was useful to him in his declamatory exercises, but he had dismissed him in obedience to his father’s positive command.

[204] It does not appear which of the Munatii this was.

[205] Crassus could not well misunderstand the Stoical doctrine, but he appears to have purposely expressed himself as if the Stoics considered “rich” and “good” as convertible terms. Cicero’s repartee implies that “good” is the more comprehensive term: Crassus therefore was not “good,” because he was “rich.”

[206] This is a frigid joke. Axius in Greek (?????) signifies “worthy;” and Cicero’s words literally translated are, he is “worthy of Crassus,” if we take Axius as a Greek word. They can also mean, he is “Axius son of Crassus.” The wit lay in associating the name of Axius and Crassus; but the joke is only made duller by the explanation.

A Roman Senator named Axius is mentioned by Cicero (Ad Attic. iii. 15, and elsewhere).

[207] See the Life of Crassus, c. 16.

[208] L. Gellius Publicola was consul with Cn. Cornelius Lentulus, B.C. 72.

[209] It is uncertain who this man was. The allusion to the hole in his ear signifies that his ears were bored to carry pendants or earrings after the fashion of some nations at that time. Cicero meant to imply that he was not of genuine Italian stock. Juvenal alludes to a man’s foreign origin being shown by his ears being bored, in the following terms:—

[210] Publius Sextius or Sestius was the name of a tribunus plebis who exerted himself to accomplish the recall of Cicero. There is extant an oration of Cicero entitled Pro P. Sestio, in defence of Publius, who was tried in the year after Cicero’s return on a charge of raising a tumult (de vi) at the popular meeting in which Cicero’s recall was proposed. Cicero speaks of the acquittal of Publius in a letter to his brother Quintus (ii. 4).

[211] This obscure man’s name is also incorrectly written.

[212] See the Life of Cato, c. 29.

[213] Kaltwasser conjectures that the name should be Manius Aquilius, who acted as Proconsul in the Servile war in Sicily B.C. 100. In B.C. 88 he conducted the war against Mithridates in Asia. He fell into the hands of Mithridates, who put him to death.

But this cannot be the person meant by Plutarch, who evidently means a person who may be called a contemporary of Cicero. A certain M. Aquinius is mentioned in the Book on the African War (De Bell. Afric. 57).

[214] Adrastus, king of Argos, gave his two daughters in marriage to Tydeus and Polynices, both of whom were exiles from their native country.

[215] L. Aurelius Cotta was consul B.C. 65, and censor B.C. 64, the year in which Cicero was elected consul. In his prÆtorship, B.C. 70, he proposed the Lex Aurelia, which determined that the judices for public trials should be chosen from the Senators, Equites and Tribuni Ærarii. Notwithstanding this joke, Cotta was a friend of Cicero, and Cicero often speaks in high terms of praise of him.

[216] It is uncertain who this Voconius was. The verse, which is apparently from some Greek tragedian, is conjectured to allude to Laius, who begat Œdipus contrary to the advice of the oracle of Apollo.

[217] Cicero means that he had acted as a public crier (prÆco). Such persons were often of servile descent.

[218] See the life of Sulla, c. 34. The Roman word “Proscriptio” means putting up a public notice, as a sale and the like. The term was also applied to the public notices, now commonly called proscriptions, by which Sulla and the Triumviri declared the heads of their enemies and their property to be forfeited. (See the Life of Sulla, c. 31, and the notes.) This saying of Cicero had both truth and point.

[219] This story of the intrigue of Clodius is told in the Life of CÆsar, c. 9.

[220] There is something wanting in the Greek text; but the meaning is not obscure. See the note of Sintenis.

[221] Of course on the day on which Clodius pretended that he was not at Rome. Kaltwasser has inserted the words “on that day;” but they are not in the original.

[222] So it is in the MSS., though it should probably be Tertia. A confusion may easily have arisen between the name Terentia, which has already been mentioned in this chapter, and the name Tertia (third), though the wife of Q. Marcius Rex is said to have been the oldest of the three sisters. Quadranteria is a misprint for Quadrantaria. This lady was the wife of Q. Metellus Celer, and was suspected of poisoning him. Cicero vents unbounded abuse upon her; and he also preserved the name Quadrantaria (Or. Pro CÆlio, c. 26). The Roman word Quadrans, a fourth, signified a fourth part of a Roman as, and was a small copper coin. The way in which one of her lovers is reported to have paid her in copper coin seems to have circulated in Rome as a good practical joke.

[223] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 10, and the notes.

[224] The number twenty-five agrees with the common text in Cicero’s Letter to Atticus (i. 16): the other number in the common text of Cicero is thirty-one. See the note in the Variorum edition.

[225] Clodius was tribunus plebis in B.C. 58. The consuls of the year were L. Calpurnius Piso, the father of Calpurnia, CÆsar’s wife, and Aulus Gabinius, a tool of Pompeius.

[226] Dion Cassius (38, c. 15) says that CÆsar proposed to Cicero to go to Gaul with him; and Cicero, in a letter to Atticus (i. 19), speaks of CÆsar’s proposal to him to go as his legatus. It is difficult to imagine that CÆsar made such a proposal, or at least that he seriously intended to take Cicero with him. He would have been merely an incumbrance.

[227] Read “as in a public calamity.” Cicero speaks of this affair in his oration for Cn. Plancius, c. 35; in the latter part of which oration he speaks at some length of the circumstances that attended his going into exile.

[228] This was C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, the first husband of Tullia. She was his wife at least as early as B.C. 63, and she was his widow before the end of B.C. 57.

[229] Cicero, in the oration which he subsequently spoke against this Piso, gives (c. 6) a strange account of his reception by Piso.

Cato and Hortensius advised Cicero to go (Dion Cassius, 38, c. 17).

[230] Compare Cicero De Legibus, ii. 17, ed. Bakius; and Ad Attic. vii. 3. Cicero left Rome in the month of March, B.C. 58.

[231] Cicero, in a letter to Atticus (iii. 4) says that he was required to move four hundred Roman miles from the city. Compare Dion Cassius, 38, c. 17.

[232] Cicero received the news of his sentence when he was near Vibo, a town in the country of the Brutii, now Bivona, on the gulf of Sta. Eufemia. He had written to Atticus (iii. 3) to meet him at Vibo, but his next letter informed Atticus that he had set out to Brundusium. Cicero names the person, Sica, who had shown him hospitality near Vibo. Plutarch calls him ?????? S??e??? ????, as if he had mistaken the name Sica.

[233] Cicero mentions this circumstance in his oration for Cn. Plancius, c. 40 (ed. Wunder, and the Notes). He was well received by the municipia which lay between Vibo and Brundusium. He did not enter the city of Brundusium, but lodged in the gardens of M. LÆnus Flaccus.

[234] Cicero did not remain at Dyrrachium. His movements are described in his own letters, and in his oration for Cn. Plancius. He went to Thessalonica in Macedonia, where Plancius then was in the capacity of quÆstor to L. Apuleius, PrÆtor of Macedonia. He reached Thessalonica on the 23rd of May (x. Kal. Jun.), and there is a letter extant addressed to Atticus (ii. 8), which is dated from Thessalonica on the 29th of May (Dat. iiii. Kal. Jun. Thessalonicae).

[235] His unmanly lamentations are recorded in his own letters and in his own speech for Cn. Plancius, c. 42.

[236] Cicero was not a practical philosopher. Like most persons who have been much engaged in public life, he lived in the opinion of others. He did not follow the maxim of the Emperor Antoninus, who bids us “Look within; for within is the source of good, and it sends up a continuous stream to those who will always dig there” (vii. 59). Cicero did not reverence his own soul, but he placed his happiness “in the opinion of others” (i. 6). Perhaps however he was not weaker than most active politicians, whose letters would be as dolorous and lachrymose as his, if they were banished to a distant colony.

[237] This is not obscure, if it is properly considered, and it contains a serious truth. A man must view things as they are, and he must not take his notions of them from the affects of the many. “Things touch not the soul, but they are out of it, and passive; perturbations come only from the opinion that is within a man” (M. Antoninus, iv. 3).

The philosophic emperor and the unphilosophic statesman were very different persons. The emperor both preached and practised. The statesman showed his feebleness by his arrogance in prosperity and his abjectness in adversity.

[238] These proceedings are described by Cicero in his oration (Pro Domo, c. 24). The marble columns were removed from his house on the Palatine to the premises of the father-in-law of the consul Piso, in the presence of the people. Gabinius, the other consul, who was Cicero’s neighbour at Tusculum, removed to his own land the stock that was on Cicero’s estate and the ornaments of the house, and even the trees.

[239] In B.C. 57, P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther and Q. CÆcilius Metellus Nepos were consuls. Cicero alludes to the disturbance which preceded his recall in his oration for P. Sextius, c. 35: “Caedem in foro maximam faciunt, universique destrictis gladiis et cruentis in omnibus fori partibus fratrem meum, virum optimum, fortissimum, meique amantissimum oculis quaerebant, voce poscebant.” Cicero adds that his brother being driven from the Rostra lay down in the Comitium, and protected himself “with the bodies of slaves and freedmen;” by which Cicero seems to mean that his slaves and freedmen kept watch over him till he made his escape at night. Plutarch appears to have misunderstood the passage or to have had some other authority. In this dreadful tumult “the Tiber was filled with the dead bodies of the citizens, the drains were choaked, and the blood was wiped up from the Forum with sponges.” This looks somewhat like rhetorical embellishment.

[240] Cicero in a letter to Atticus (iv. 2) gives an account of the compensation which he received. The valuation of his house at Rome (superficies aedium) was fixed at HS. vicies, or two million sesterces. He seems not to have objected to this, but he complains of the valuation of his Tusculanum and Formianum.

[241] In the seventeenth month according to Clinton (Fasti Hellen. B.C. 57). The passage that Plutarch refers to is in the Oration to the Senate after his return (c, 15): “Cum me vestra auctoritas arcessierit, Populus Romanus revocarit, Respublica implorarit, Italia cuncta paene suis humeris reportarit.”

[242] See the Life of Cato, c. 40, and Dion Cassius, 39, c. 21.

[243] Clodius was killed B.C. 52, the year in which Pompeius was chosen sole consul. Cicero’s speech for Milo is extant, or at least a speech which he wrote after the trial. Milo was condemned and went an exile to Massilia. His property was sold and it went cheap. Cicero was under some suspicion of being a purchaser; but the matter is quite unintelligible (Drumann, Annii, p. 49, and the references). There could be no reason why Cicero should write in such obscure terms to Atticus, if his conduct in this matter was fair.

[244] Crassus perished B.C. 54. See the Life of Crassus.

[245] His province also comprehended Pisidia, Pamphylia, and Cyprus. The proconsulship of Cicero was in B.C. 51, though he had been consul in B.C. 63. Cicero went to Cilicia against his will (Ad Diversos, iii. 2). Pompeius had got the Senate (B.C. 52) to pass an order that no person should hold a province within five years after being consul or prÆtor. This was aimed at CÆsar, if he should get a second consulship. Pompeius also wished to have Cicero out of the way, and the provinces were to be supplied with governors from among those who did not come within the terms of the new rule: and Cicero was one of them (Cicero, Ad Diversos, iii. 2; Ad Attic. vi. 6).

[246] He was the third Cappadocian king of this name. This unlucky king was a debtor of Cn. Pompeius and M. Junius Brutus, the most distinguished Roman money-lender of his day (Cicero, Ad Attic. vi. 1-3). Both Pompeius and Brutus were pressing the king for money. Deiotarus also sent to Ariobarzanes to try to get some money out of him for Brutus. The king’s answer was that he had none, and Cicero says that he believed he told the truth, for that no country was in a more impoverished state and nobody more beggared than the king. Cicero dunned the king continually with letters, but he was not particularly well pleased with his commission (Ad Attic. vi. 2). The end was that the king provided for the payment of about one hundred talents to Brutus during Cicero’s year of government. He had promised Pompeius two hundred in six mouths, which, as a judicious commentator remarks, is not worth so much as a security for one hundred. These money doings of the supposed patriot Brutus should be well examined by those who still retain an opinion of the virtues of this Republican hero.

[247] There seems no reason to doubt that Cicero’s administration of his province was just and mild. Plutarch has apparently derived some of the facts here mentioned from Cicero himself (Ad Attic. vi. 2): “Aditus autem ad me minime provinciales; nihil per cubicularium: ante lucem inambulabam domi, ut olim candidatus.”

[248] Cicero’s exploits were such as would not have been recorded, if he had not been his own historian. In a letter to Cato (Ad Diversos, xv. 4), he gives a pretty full account of his operations; and he asks Cato to use his influence to get him the honour of a Supplicatio or Public Thanksgiving. Cato’s short reply, which he says is longer than his letters usually are, is a model in its way.

[249] So it is in Plutarch’s text: it may be the blunder of Plutarch, or the blunder of his copyists. The true name is M. CÆlius (Cic. Ad Diversos, ii. 11), who was curule Ædile B.C. 51. The saying about the panthers is in this letter of Cicero, who had set the panther-hunters to work.

Cicero returned to Rome in B.C. 50. He mentions (Ad Attic. vi. 7) his intention to call at Rhodes.

[250] The events of this chapter, which belong to B.C. 49, are told at length in the Lives of Pompeius and CÆsar. Cicero’s irresolution is well marked in his own letters; in one of which (Ad Attic. viii. 7, referred to by Kaltwasser) he says:—“Ego quem fugiam habeo, quem sequar non habeo.”

There are no letters extant of Trebatius to the purport which Plutarch states, but CÆsar wrote to Cicero and begged him to stay at Rome. Cicero (Ad Attic. ix. 16) has given a copy of CÆsar’s letter; and a copy of another letter from CÆsar (Ad Attic. x. 8), in which he urges Cicero to keep quiet. There seems to be no doubt that Trebatius had been employed by CÆsar to write to Cicero and speak to him about remaining neutral at least. Cicero had an interview with CÆsar at FormiÆ, after CÆsar’s return from Brundusium (Ad Atticum, ix. 18, 19; Ad Diversos, iv. 1). The letter last referred to is addressed to Servius Sulpicius.

[251] L. Domitius Ahenobarbus. See the Life of CÆsar, c. 34.

[252] See the Life of Pompeius, c. 37, notes.

[253] Smart sayings are not generally improved by explanation, and they ought not to require it. Cicero apparently meant to say that it was as absurd to talk of men being dispirited after a victory, as if one were to say that CÆsar’s friends disliked him.

[255] It is difficult to see what was the resemblance between Perikles and Cicero. Theramenes was somewhat more like him, for he tried to be on more sides than one, and met with the usual fate of such people. He was one of the so-called Thirty Tyrants of Athens, and he was sacrificed by his colleagues.

[256] The speech of Cicero is extant. The allusion of Plutarch is particularly to the third chapter.

[257] Cicero in a letter to L. Papirius PÆtus (Ad Diversos, ix. 18) alludes to his occupations at Tusculum. He compares himself to Dionysius, who after being driven from Syracuse is said to have opened a school at Corinth. Cicero’s literary activity after B.C. 47 is the most remarkable passage in his life. He required to be doing something.

[258] The allusion is to the story of Laertes in the Odyssey, i. 190, and xxiv. 226.

[259] She was divorced some time in B.C. 46. The latest extant letter to Terentia is dated on the first of October, B.C. 47, from Venusia. Cicero was then on his road from Brundusium to Tusculanum. He orders his wife to have everything ready for him; some friends would probably be with him, and they might stay some time. The bath was to be got ready, and eatables, and everything else. A gentleman would write a more civil letter to his housekeeper.

In a letter to Cn. Plancius (Ad Diversos, ix. 14), who congratulates Cicero on his new marriage, he says that nothing would have induced him to take such a step at such a time, if he had not found on his return his domestic affairs even worse than public affairs. According to his own account he was hardly safe in his own house, and it was necessary to strengthen himself by new alliances against the perfidy of old ones. Terentia may have been a bad housekeeper, and her temper was not the sweetest. She could not have any feeling for her husband except contempt, and he repaid it by getting rid of her. Cicero had to repay the Dos of Terentia, but she never got it back, so far as we can learn.

It is not known what was the age of Terentia when she was divorced, but she could not be young. Yet there are stories of her marrying Sallustius, the historian, and after him Messala Corvinus, but the authority for these marriages is weak. She is said to have attained the age of one hundred and three. Terentia had a large property of her own. There is no imputation on her character, which, for those times, is much in her favour. She had courage in danger and firmness of purpose, both of which her husband wanted. “Her husband,” says Drumann, “who always looked for and needed some support, must often have acted under her influence: for him it was a fortunate thing to have such a woman by his side, and a scandal that he put her away.”

[260] Her name was Publilia. Cicero was now sixty years of age. Various ladies had been recommended to Cicero. He would not marry the daughter of Pompeius Magnus, the widow of Faustus Sulla, perhaps for fear that it might displease CÆsar; another who was recommended to him was too ugly (Ad Attic. xiv. 11). Publilia was young and rich: her father had left her a large fortune, but in order to evade the Lex Voconia, which limited the amount that a woman could take by testament, the property was given to Cicero in trust to give it to her. The marriage turned out unhappy. In a letter to Atticus (xiv. 32), written when Cicero was alone in the country, he says that Publilia had written to pray that she might come to him with her mother; but he had told her that he preferred being alone, and he begs Atticus to let him know how long he could safely stay in the country without a visit from his young wife. Tullia died in B.C. 45, and Cicero had now no relief except in his studies; his new wife was a burden to him, and he divorced her. He had the Dos of Publilia now to repay, and Terentia was not settled with; thus, in addition to his other troubles, he was troubled about money (Ad Attic., xiv. 34, 47).

Dion Cassius (57. 15) says that Vibius Rufus, who was consul A.D. 22, in the time of Tiberius, married Cicero’s widow, and Middleton supposes that Terentia is meant, but this is very unlikely; Dion must mean Publilia.

[261] Tiro was a freedman of Cicero, and had been brought up in his house. He had a good capacity and his master was strongly attached to him. Cicero’s letters to him are in the sixteenth book of the Miscellaneous Collection. It is said that Tiro collected the letters of Cicero after Cicero’s death, by doing which he has rendered a great service to history, and little to his master.

[262] Tullia’s first husband was C. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, who died probably early in B.C. 57. In B.C. 56 Tullia married Furius Crassipes, from whom she was divorced, but the circumstances are not known. Her third husband was P. Cornelius Dolabella, a patrician. It seems that she was separated from Dolabella before she died. Tullia did not die in Rome, but at her father’s house at Tusculum, in February, B.C. 45. Tullia left one son by Dolabella, who was named Lentulus. His father, Dolabella, is also named Lentulus, whence it is concluded that he had been adopted by a Lentulus. The Lentuli were Cornelii.

[263] CÆsar was murdered on the Ides of March, B.C. 44. The circumstances of CÆsar’s death, and the events which follow, are told in the Lives of CÆsar and Antonius. Cicero saw CÆsar fall (Ad Attic. xiv. 14), and he rejoiced.

[264] An “oblivion” or “non-remembrance” is a declaration of those who have the sovereign power in a state, that certain persons shall be excused for their political acts. It implies that those who grant the amnesty have the power, and that those to whom it is granted are in subjection to them, or have not the political power which the authors of the amnesty assume. After Thrasybulus at Athens had overthrown the Thirty Tyrants as they are called, an amnesty was declared, but the Thirty and some few others were excluded from it (Xenophon, Hellen. ii. 4, 38).

Cicero in his first Philippic (c. 1) alludes to his attempt to bring about a settlement. The senate met on the eighteenth of March in the temple of Tellus: “In quo templo quantum in me fuit jeci fundamenta pacis, Atheniensiumque renovavi vetus exemplum: GrÆcum etiam verbum usurpavi quo tum in sedandis discordiis erat usa civitas illa, atque omnem memoriam discordiarum oblivione sempiterna delendam censui.”

[265] P. Cornelius Dolabella, once the husband of Tullia, Cicero’s daughter. He was consul, after CÆsar’s death, with M. Antonius, and in the next year, B.C. 43, he was in Syria as governor. Cassius, who was also in Syria, attacked Dolabella and took Laodicea, where Dolabella was. To avoid falling into the hands of his enemy, Dolabella ordered a soldier to kill him.

[266] A. Hirtius, or as Plutarch writes the name Irtius, and C. Vibius Pansa were the consuls of B.C. 53. Cicero set out from Rome soon after CÆsar’s death with the intention of going to Greece (Ad Attic. xiv.). He went as far as Syracuse, whence he returned to Rome, which he reached on the last day of August (Ad Diversos, xii. 25; Ad Attic. xvi. 7; Philipp. i. 5; v. 7). Cicero in the passage last referred to speaks of the violent measures of Antonius; “huc etiam nisi venirem Kal. Sept. fabros se missurum et domum meam disturbaturum esse dixit.” On the second of September he delivered his first Philippic in the Senate. It is an evidence of Cicero’s great mental activity that he wrote his Topica, addressed to Trebatius, on shipboard after he had set sail from Velia with the intention of going to Greece. He says that he had no books with him (Topica, c. 1, &c.).

[267] C. Octavius, the grandson of CÆsar’s younger sister Julia, and the son of C. Octavius, prÆtor B.C. 61, by Atia, the daughter of M. Atius Balbus and Julia. C. Octavius, the young CÆsar, was born B.C. 63, in the consulship of Cicero. The dictator by his testament left him a large property and his name. Accordingly he is henceforth called C. Julius CÆsar Octavianus, but he is better known as the future Emperor Augustus. At the time of the Dictator’s assassination he was at Apollonia, a town on the coast of Illyricum. He came to Rome on the news of CÆsar’s death with his friend M. Vipsanius Agrippa. Cicero saw him at his Cuman villa on his way to Rome (Ad. Attic. xiv. 11, 12).

[268] Plutarch probably means Greek drachmÆ, for he states the sum in his Life of Antonius, c. 15, in round numbers at 4000 talents. The Septies Millies which Cicero speaks of (Philipp. ii. 37) is a different sum of money.

[269] CÆsar’s mother had taken for her second husband L. Marcius Philippus. She just lived to see her youthful son consul in B.C. 43.

Octavia, the younger sister of CÆsar, was now the wife of C. Marcellus, who had been consul B.C. 50. After the death of Marcellus, she married M. Antonius (B.C. 40), being then with child by her deceased husband. The Roman law did not allow a woman to marry till ten months after her husband’s death; the object of the rule was to prevent the paternity of a child from being doubtful. Plutarch correctly states the time at ten months (Life of Antonius, c. 31). If Octavia was then with child, as Dion Cassius says (48. c. 3), the reason for the rule did not exist. In later times, at least, the rule was dispensed with when the reason for it ceased, as when a pregnant widow was delivered of a child before the end of the ten months. Ten months was the assumed time of complete gestation (Savigny, System, &c. ii. 181).

[270] Young CÆsar had raised troops in Campania, and chiefly at Capua among the veteran soldiers of the dictator, who had been settled on lands there (Dion Cassius, 45. c. 12; Cicero, Ad Atticum, xvi. 8). He gave the men five hundred denarii apiece, about eighteen pounds sterling, by way of bounty, and led them to Rome. These men were old soldiers, well trained to their work. The youth who did this was nineteen years of age, a boy, as Cicero calls him; but a boy who outwitted him and everybody else, and maintained for more than half a century the power which he now seized.

[271] Dreams were viewed in a sort as manifestations of the will of the gods. This dream happened, as Dion Cassius tells (45. c. 2), to Catulus; and he makes Cicero dream another dream. Cicero dreamed that Octavius was let down from heaven by a chain of gold, and was presented with a whip by Jupiter. Suetonius (Octav. CÆsar, c. 94) agrees with Dion Cassius. The whip was significant. Jupiter meant that somebody required whipping, and he put the whip in the hands of a youth who knew how to use it.

[272] The young man cajoled the old one and made a tool of him. Like all vain men, Cicero was ready to be used by those who knew how to handle him. There is a letter from Brutus to Cicero (Ad Brutum, 16), and one of Brutus to Atticus (Ad Brutum, 17), to the purport here stated by Plutarch. But these letters may be spurious.

[273] He was at Athens in B.C. 44, when Cicero addressed to him his Officia. He had been a year there (De Offic. i. 1) at the time when the first chapter was written. The poet Horatius was there at the same time. When M. Brutus came to Athens in the autumn of B.C. 44, Cicero joined Brutus, who gave him a command in his cavalry (Plutarch, Brutus, c. 24, 26).

[274] The consuls were sent to relieve Mutina (Modena), in which Decimus Brutus, the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, was besieged by Antonius. Cicero had recommended the Senate to give CÆsar the authority of a commander. CÆsar received a command with the insignia of a prÆtor. There were two battles at Mutina, in April, B.C. 43, in which the two consuls fell.

[275] It is stated by various authorities that Cicero was cajoled with the hopes of the consulship (Dion Cassius, 46. c. 42; Appian, Civil Wars, iii. 82). The testimony of the tenth letter to Brutus (Cicero Ad Brutum, 10) is not decisive against other evidence. CÆsar came to Rome in August, B.C. 43, with his army, and through the alarm which he created, was elected consul with Q. Pedius (Dion Cassius, 16. c. 43, &c.; Appian, Civil Wars, iii. 94).

[276] After he was elected consul, CÆsar left the city for North Italy, and was joined by Antonius and Lepidus (Appian, Civil War, iii. 96, &c.). M. Æmilius Lepidus, son of M. Lepidus, consul B.C. 78, was consul in B.C. 46, with C. Julius CÆsar. He was elected Pontifex Maximus after CÆsar’s death: he had been declared an enemy of the State by the Senate, but CÆsar had compelled the Senate to annul their declaration against Antonius and Lepidus, as a preparatory step to the union with them which he meditated. Lepidus is painted to the life by Shakespeare (Julius CÆsar, iv. 2):

[277] Now Bologna. They met in a small island of the Rhenus, or Lavinius, as the name is in Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 2). The meeting is also described by Dion Cassius (46. c. 45), and here they formed a triumvirate for five years. The number of the proscribed, according to Appian, was three hundred senators and two thousand equites. The power of the triumvirate was confirmed at Rome in legal form (Appian, Civil Wars, iv. 7).

[278] L. Æmilius Paulus, consul B.C. 50, who is said to have sold himself to the Dictator CÆsar (Life of CÆsar, c. 29). As to his name Paulus, see Drumann (Æmilii). Paulus was allowed to escape to M. Brutus, by the favour of some soldiers. He was as insignificant as his brother the Triumvir. L. CÆsar, consul B.C. 64, was the brother of Julia, the mother of M. Antonius. Julia saved her brother’s life. Lucius was a man of no mark.

[279] The circumstances of Cicero’s death are told more minutely by Plutarch than by any other writer. He left the city before the arrival of the Triumviri in November, and apparently when the bloody work of the proscription had commenced. He had probably heard of his fate before he reached Tusculum.

[280] Astura was a small place on the coast of Latium, a little south of Antium. Near Astura a small stream, Fiume Astura, flows into the sea. Cicero had a villa here. The country at the back was a forest. (Westphal, Die RÖmische Kampagne, and his maps.)

[281] Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 20) says that the father told his murderers to kill him first, his son did the same, on which they were parted and murdered at the same time. Dion Cassius (47, c. 10) gives a different story. The main fact that they were murdered is not doubtful, but, as is usual, the circumstances are uncertain.

[282] Or Circeii, now Monte Circello, that remarkable mountain promontory which is the only striking feature on the coast of Latium. The agony of Cicero’s mind is powerfully depicted in his irresolution. The times were such as to make even a brave man timid, but a true philosopher would have shown more resolution. His turning his steps towards Rome and his return are not improbable. He had been doing the same kind of thing all his life.

[283] So in the text of Plutarch, but Caieta (Gaeta) is meant. Cicero had a villa at FormiÆ, near Caieta, his Formianum, which he often mentions and which in his prosperous days was a favourite retreat.

The Appian road passed from Terracina through Fundi (Fondi) and Itri, whence there is a view of Gaeta. The next place is FormiÆ, Mola di Gaeta, on the beautiful bay of Gaeta. There are numerous remains about the site of FormiÆ, which of course are taken for Cicero’s villa. The site was doubtless near the Mola and the village Castiglione. The Formian villa was destroyed when Cicero was banished, but he received some compensation, and he rebuilt it.

[284] This Popilius was C. Popilius LÆnas, a military tribune, whom Cicero at the request of M. CÆlius had once defended (Dion Cassius, 47. c. 11).

[285] Plutarch’s narrative leads us to suppose that Cicero saw that his time was come and offered his neck to the murderers. Appian’s narrative (Civil Wars, iv. 20) is that LÆnas drew Cicero’s head out of the litter and struck three blows before he severed it. He was so awkward at the work that the operation was like sawing the neck off.

Cicero was murdered on the 7th of December, B.C. 73, being nearly sixty-four years of age.

[286] The same story is told by Appian, except that he mentions only the right hand. The murderer received for his pains a large sum of money, much more than was promised. It is hardly credible that Antonius placed the head of Cicero on a tablet at a banquet (Appian, Civil Wars, iv. 20). Though he hated Cicero and with good reason, such a brutal act is not credible of him, nor is it consistent with the story of the head being fixed on the Rostra; not to mention other reasons against the story that might be urged. Dion Cassius (47. c. 8) says that Fulvia, the wife of Antonius, pierced the tongue of Cicero with one of the pins which women wore in their hair, and added other insults. To make his story probable, he says that it was done before the head was fixed on the Rostra.

[287] His name was Philogonus. The story about Philogonus is refuted by the silence of Tiro.

Pomponia, the wife of Quintus, was the sister of T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. She and her husband did not live in harmony.

[288] These were Caius and Lucius, the sons of CÆsar’s daughter Julia by M. Vipsanius Agrippa.

[289] CÆsar defeated Antonius at the battle of Actium, B.C. 31. Cicero’s son Marcus was made an augur, and he was consul with CÆsar in B.C. 30. He was afterwards proconsul of Asia. The time of his death is unknown. Cicero’s son had neither ambition nor ability. All that is certainly known of him is that he loved eating and drinking, for neither of which had his father any inclination. There are two letters of the son to Tiro extant (Cicero, Ad Diversos, xvi. 21, 25).

The Life of Cicero is only a sketch of Cicero’s character, but a better sketch than any modern writer has made. It does not affect to be a history of the times, nor does it affect to estimate with any exactness his literary merit. But there is not a single great defect in his moral character that is not touched, nor a virtue that has not been signalized. Those who would do justice to him and have not time to examine for themselves, may trust Plutarch at least as safely as any modern writer.

If in these notes I have occasionally expressed an unfavourable opinion directly or indirectly, I have expressed none that I do not believe true, and none for which abundant evidence cannot be produced, even from Cicero’s own writings. It is a feeble and contemptible criticism that would palliate or excuse that which admits not of excuse. It is a spurious liberality that would gloss over the vices and faults of men because they have had great virtues, and would impute to those who tell the whole truth a malignant pleasure in defaming and vilifying exalted merit. This assumed fair dealing and magnanimity would deprive us of the most instructive lessons that human life teaches—that all men have their weaknesses, their failings and their vices, and that no intellectual greatness is a security against them. “It is not absolutely railing against anything to proclaim its defects, because they are in all things to be found, how beautiful or how much to be coveted soever” (Montaigne). The failings of a great man are more instructive than those of an obscure man. They exhibit the weak points at which any man may be assailed, and in some of which no man is impregnable. Cicero’s writings have made us as familiar with him as with the writers of our own country, and there is hardly a European author of modern times who is more universally read than Cicero in some or other of his numerous compositions. His letters alone, which were never intended for publication, and were written to a great variety of persons as the events of the day prompted, furnish a mass of historical evidence, which, if we consider his position and the times in which he lived, is not surpassed by any similar collection. He is thus mixed up with the events of the most stirring and interesting period of his country’s history; and every person who studies that history must endeavour to form a just estimate of the character of a man who is both a great actor in public events and an important witness.

The Life of Cicero by Middleton is a partial work: the evidence is imperfectly examined and the author’s prejudices in favour of Cicero have given a false colouring to many facts. The most laborious life of Cicero is by Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Tullii), in which all the authorities are collected. In the ‘Penny CyclopÆdia’ (art. ‘Cicero’) there is a good sketch of Cicero’s political career; and in the ‘Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,’ edited by Dr. W. Smith, a very complete account of Cicero’s writings, distributed under their several heads.

[290] “Cedant arma togÆ, concedat laurea linguÆ.”

[291] “Written,” because many of them were never spoken.

[292] Augustus.

[293] For some account of the evil repute of those who dealt in these insurances, see vol. ii., Life of Cato Major, ch. 21.

[294] Plutarch uses the equivalent Greek word for Ædile, but we know that Cicero went to Sicily as quÆstor.

[295] Antigonus, surnamed the one-eyed, King of Asia, was the son of Philip of Elymiotis. He was one of the generals of Alexander the Great.

[296] Hor. Carm. ii. 19.

[297] This was the holy robe of Athena, carried in procession through Athens at the Panathenaic festival. See Smith’s ‘Dict. of Antiq.,’ s.v.

[298] A poisonous plant of the convolvulus kind.

[299] An engine described by Amm. Marcell. 23. 4. 10, and also in Smith’s ‘Dict. of Antiq.’ art. ‘Helepolis.’ See also Athen. v. p. 206. d. for a description of these machines.

[300] A mina weighed 100 drachmÆ, 15·2 oz.

[301] The Attic talent, which is probably meant, weighed about 57 lbs. avoird.

[302] This is the famous picture of Ialysus and his dog, spoken of by Cicero and Pliny, in which the foam on the dog’s mouth was made by a happy throw of the sponge, while the painter in vexation was wiping off his previous unsuccessful attempts. (Clough.)

[303] A nephew of Demosthenes.

[304] Meaning that Stratokles would be mad not to continue his flattery of Demetrius, because it was so profitable to himself.

[305] Hereditary chief minister in the mysteries.

[306] The minor rite. See Smith’s ‘Dict. of Antiq.’ s.v. ‘Eleusinia.’

[307] Lamia in Greek is the name of a fabulous monster, a bugbear to children.

[308] A much more decent version of this story will be found in Rabelais, book iii. ch. 37.

[309] The Thracian Chersonese.

[310] The capital city of Seleukus, now Antioch.

[311] Tyre and Sidon.

[312] The usual Attic corn-measure, containing about 12 gallons.

[313] A dry measure, containing a sixth of a medimnus, or about 2 gallons.

[314] By the entrance commonly assigned to the principal person in a drama.—Thirlwall.

[315] Alexander, Antipater’s younger brother.

[316] Antigonus, surnamed Gonatas, afterwards King of Macedonia.

[317] He laid siege to Thebes, the only important city in Boeotia, which seems to have quickly recovered itself after its destruction by Alexander.

[318] O. Kardia.

[319] See vol. ii., Life of Pyrrhus, ch. 7.

[320] See ch. 10.

[321] Wife of Ptolemy, King of Egypt.

[322] B.C. 284.

[323] His death is told in the Life of Marius, c. 44.

[324] The Antonia Gens contained both Patricians and Plebeians. The cognomen of the Patrician Antonii was Merenda. M. Antonius Creticus, a son of Antonius the orator, belonged to the Patricians. In B.C. 74 he commanded a fleet in the Mediterranean against the pirates. He attacked the Cretans on the ground of their connection with Mithridates; but he lost a large part of his fleet, and his captured men were hung on the ropes of their own vessels. He died shortly after of shame and vexation. The surname Creticus was given him by way of mockery. According to Dion Cassius (xlv. 47) he died deeply in debt. He left three sons, Marcus, Caius and Lucius. His eldest son Marcus was probably born in B.C. 83.

[325] See the Life of Cicero, c. 22.

[326] C. Scribonius Curio, the son of a father of the same name. See the Life of CÆsar, c. 58. The amount of debt is stated by Cicero (Philipp. ii. 18) at the same sum, “sestertium sexagies.”

[327] He joined Aulus Gabinius at the end of B.C. 58. Gabinius and L. Calpurnius Piso were consuls in that year.

[328] He was king and high priest of the Jews. Pompeius had taken him prisoner and sent him to Rome, whence he contrived to make his escape, B.C. 57. Gabinius again sent him prisoner to Rome (Dion Cass. xxxvi. 15; xxxix. 55).

[329] PtolemÆus Auletes was the father of Cleopatra, and now an exile at Ephesus. His visit to Rome is mentioned in the Life of the younger Cato, c. 35, and in the Life of Pompeius, c. 49. During his exile his daughter Berenice reigned, and she was put to death by her father after his restoration.

[330] This Greek word literally signifies “outbreak.” It was the narrow passage by which the Serbonian lake was connected with the Mediterranean. This lake lay on the coast and on the line of march from Syria to Pelusium, the frontier town of Egypt on the east.

[331] Typhon, a brother of Osiris and Isis, was the evil deity of the Egyptians, but his influence in the time of Herodotus must have been small, as he was then buried under the Serbonian lake (Herodotus, iii. 5).

[332] The Greek name is Erythra, which may be translated Red: the Romans called the same sea Rubrum. In Herodotus the Red Sea is called the Arabian Gulf; and the ErythrÆan sea is the Indian Ocean. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 38.

[333] He was the son of Archelaus, the general of Mithridates. See the Life of Sulla, c. 23. He had become the husband of Berenice and shared the regal power with her. Probably Antonius had known Archelaus in his youth, for Archelaus the father went over from Mithridates to the Romans. Dion Cassius (xxxiv. 58) says that Gabinius put Archelaus to death after the capture of Alexandria. This Egyptian campaign belongs to B.C. 55.

[334] This characteristic appears on the coins of Antonius.

[335] Decies is literally “Ten times.” The phrase is “Decies sestertium,” which is a short way of expressing “ten times a hundred thousand sesterces.” When Plutarch says “five-and-twenty thousand,” he means drachmÆ, as observed in previous notes, and he considers drachmÆ as equivalent to Roman Denarii. Now a Denarius is four sesterces, and 25,000 Denarii = 1,000,000 sesterces, Kaltwasser suggests that in the Greek text “sestertium” has been accidentally omitted after “decies;” but “decies” is the reading of all the MSS., and it is sufficient.

[336] Antonius, after returning from Egypt in B.C. 54, went to CÆsar in Gaul, who was then in winter-quarters after his return from the second British expedition. In B.C. 53 Antonius was again at Rome, and in B.C. 52 he was a QuÆstor, and returned to CÆsar in Gaul. In B.C. 50 he was again in Rome, in which year he was made Augur, and was elected Tribunus Plebis for the following year.

Compare with this chapter the Life of Pompeius, c. 58, and the Life of CÆsar, c. 31.

[337] Quintus Cassius Longinus is called by Cicero a brother of C. Cassius; but Drumann conjectures that he may have been a cousin. After the defeat of Afranius and Petreius by CÆsar B.C. 49, he was made ProprÆtor of Spain.

[339] CÆsar returned from Iberia (Spain) before the end of B.C. 49. Early in B.C. 48 he crossed over from Brundusium to the Illyrian coast, where he was joined by Antonius and Fufius Calenus.

[340] Gabinius took his troops by land, and consequently had to march northwards along the Adriatic and round the northern point of it to reach Illyricum. From Plutarch’s narrative it would appear that he set out about the same time as Antonius. Drumann (Cornificii, 3) states that the time of his leaving Italy is incorrectly stated by Plutarch, Appian, and Dion Cassius (xlii. 11), and he places it after the battle of Pharsalus (B.C. 48). Gabinius, after a hard march, reached SalonÆ in Dalmatia, where he was besieged by M. Octavius and died of disease.

[341] L. Scribonius Libo commanded the ships before Brundusium with the view of preventing Antonius from crossing over to Macedonia. He was the father-in-law of Sextus Pompeius, the son of Pompeius Magnus; and CÆsar Octavianus afterwards married Libo’s sister Scribonia, as a matter of policy.

[342] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 44.

[343] P. Cornelius Dolabella, the son-in-law of Cicero, who complains of his measures (Ep. Ad Attic. xi. 12, 14, 15; xiv. 21). Dolabella was in debt himself and wished to be relieved. If he had lived in England, he could easily have got relief. The story is told by Dion Cassius (xlii. 29). The Romans occasionally proposed sweeping measures for the settlement of accounts between debtor and creditor. A modern nation has a permanent court for “the relief of insolvent debtors;” and a few years ago a statute was passed in England (7 & 8 Vict. c. 96), which had the direct effect of cancelling all debts under 20l.; the debtors for whose relief it was passed were well pleased, but the creditors grumbled loudly, and it was amended. Those who blame the Roman system of an occasional settlement of debts, should examine the operation of a permanent law which has the same object; and they will be assisted in comparing English and Roman morality on this point by J.H. Elliott’s ‘Credit the Life of Commerce,’ London, Madden and Malcolm, 1845.

[344] Fadia was the first wife of Antonius. His cousin Antonia was the second. Cicero’s chief testimony against Antonius is contained in his Second Philippic, which is full of vulgar abuse, both true and false.

[345] She was sometimes called Volumnia, because she was a favourite of Volumnius. Cicero (Ad Div. ix. 26) speaks of dining in her company at the house of Volumnius Eutrapolus.

[346] Her first husband was P. Clodius, and she was his second wife. She had two children by Clodius, a son and a daughter. The daughter married CÆsar Octavianus B.C. 43 (c. 20). After the death of Clodius she married C. Scribonius Curio, the friend of Antonius, by whom she had one son, who was put to death by CÆsar after the battle of Actium. Curio perished in Africa B.C. 49. In B.C. 46 Antonius married Fulvia, after divorcing Antonia, and he had two sons by her. Fulvia was very rich.

[347] CÆsar returned from Iberia in the autumn of B.C. 45, after gaining the battle of Munda. He was consul for the fifth time in B.C. 44 with Antonius; and also Dictator with M. Æmilius Lepidus for his Magister Equitum.

[348] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 61.

[349] Compare the Life of CÆsar, c. 67, and of Brutus, c. 16.

[350] Compare the Life of CÆsar, c. 68, and of Brutus, c. 20. Dion Cassius (xliv. 36-49) has given a long oration which Antonius made on the occasion. It is not improbable that Dion may have had before him an oration attributed to Antonius; nor is it at all improbable that the speech of Antonius was published (Cic. Ad Attic. xiv. 11). Meyer (Oratorum Romanorum Frag. p. 455) considers this speech a fiction of Dion and to be pure declamation. He thinks that which Appian has made (Civil Wars, ii. 144, &c.) tolerably well adapted to the character of Antonius. Appian, we know, often followed very closely genuine documents. Shakespere has made a speech for Antonius (Julius CÆsar) which would have suited the occasion well.

[351] Charon was the ferryman over the river in the world below, which the dead had to pass; hence the application of the term is intelligible. The Romans’ expression was Orcini, from Orcus (Sueton. August. c. 35).

[352] See the Life of Cicero, c. 43, and Dion Cassius (xlv. 5) as to the matter of the inheritance. A person who accepted a Roman inheritance (hereditas) took it with all the debts: the heir (heres), so far as concerned the deceased’s property, credits and debts, was the same person as himself. There was no risk in taking the inheritance on account of debts, for CÆsar left enormous sums of money: the risk was in taking the name and with it the wealth and odium of the deceased. CÆsar might have declined the inheritance, for he was not bound by law to take it. CÆsar had three-fourths of the Dictator’s property, and Q. Pedius, also a great-nephew of the Dictator, had the remainder.

[353] See the Life of Cicero, c. 44.

[354] Consuls in B.C. 43. See the Life of Cicero, c. 45. As to the speech of Cicero, see Dion Cassius, xlv. 18, &c.

[355] Lepidus was in Gallia Narbonensis. He advanced towards Antonius as far as Forum Vocontiorum, and posted himself on the Argenteus, now the Argens. (Appian, Civil Wars, iii. 83; Dion. Cass. xlvi. 51, &c.; Letter of Munatius Plancus to Cicero, Ad Div. x. 17; Letter of Lepidus to Cicero, Ad Div. x. 34.) Lepidus and Antonius joined their forces on the 29th of May, and Lepidus informed the Senate of the event in a letter, which is extant (Cic. Ad Div. x. 35).

[356] Cotylon is “cupman,” or any equivalent term that will express a drinker.

[357] See the Life of Cicero, c. 46.

[358] Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 2) states how they divided the empire among them; and Dion Cassius, xlvi. 55.

[359] CÆsar was already betrothed to Servilia, the daughter of P. Servilius Isauricus. When he quarrelled with Fulvia, he sent her back to her mother, still a maid. (Dion Cass. xlvi. 56.)

[360] The number that was put to death was much larger than three hundred. Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 5) states the number of those who were proscribed and whose property was confiscated at about 300 senators and 2000 equites. The object of the proscription was to get rid of troublesome enemies and to raise money. The picture which Appian gives of the massacre is as horrible as the worst events of the French Revolution. He has drawn a striking picture by giving many individual instances. Dion Cassius (xlvii. 3-8) has also described the events of the proscription.

[361] This was a crime which would shock the Romans, for the Three not only seized deposits, which the depositary was legally bound to give to the owner, but they seized them in the hands of the Vestals, where they were protected by the sanctity of religion.

[362] Compare the Life of Brutus, c. 41, &c., as to the events in this chapter.

[363] See the Life of Brutus, c. 26, &c.

[364] Antonius crossed over to Asia in B.C. 41. In the latter part of B.C. 42, CÆsar was ill at Brundusium, and in B.C. 41 he was engaged in a civil war with L. Antonius, the brother of Marcus, and Fulvia the wife of Antonius. These are the civil commotions to which Plutarch alludes. CÆsar besieged L. Antonius in Perusia in B.C. 41, and took him prisoner.

[365] He was a prÆtor in B.C. 43, and consul in B.C. 39.

[366] The great distinctions that he received are recorded by Strabo (xiv. p. 648, ed. Casaub.). It is not in modern times only that dancers and fiddlers have received wealth and honours.

[367] The quotation is from the King Œdipus, v. 4.

[368] Bacchus had many names, as he had various qualities. As Omestes he was the “cruel;” and as Agrionius the “wild and savage.” One of his festivals was called Agrionia.

[369] He was an orator, and also something of a soldier, for he successfully opposed Labienus, B.C. 40, when he invaded Asia (c. 28).

[370] There are many ways of flattery, as there are many ways of doing various things. Plutarch here gives a hint, which persons in high places might find useful. Open flattery can only deceive a fool, and it is seldom addressed to any but a fool, unless the flatterer himself be so great a fool as not to know a wise man from a foolish: which is sometimes the case. But there is flattery, as Plutarch intimates, which addresses itself, not in the guise of flattery, but in the guise of truth, one of the characters of which is plain speaking. It is hard for a man in an exalted station to be always proof against flattery, for it is often not easy to detect it. Nor in the intercourse of daily life is it always easy to distinguish between him who gives you his honest advice and opinion, and him who gives it merely to please you, or, what is often worse, merely to please himself.

[371] Nothing is known of him, unless he be the person mentioned in c. 59. Kaltwasser conjectures that he may be the Dellius or Delius to whom Horace has addressed an ode. (Carm. iii. 2). See c. 1, note.

[372] Plutarch alludes to the passage in Homer (Iliad, xiv. 162) where Juno bedecks herself to captivate Jupiter.

[373] She was now about twenty-eight years of age. Kaltwasser suggests that the words “and CnÆus the son of Pompeius” must be an interpolation, because nothing is known of his amours with Cleopatra. But if this be so, other words which follow in the next sentence must have been altered when the interpolation was made.

[374] Antonius was at Tarsus on the river Cydnus when Cleopatra paid him this visit, B.C. 41. Shakespere has used this passage of Plutarch in his “Antony and Cleopatra,” act ii. sc. 2—

[375] Plutarch has given a long list of languages which this learned queen spoke. With Arabic and all the cognate dialects, it is probable enough that she was familiar, but we can hardly believe that she took pains to learn the barbarous language of the wretched Troglodytes, who lived in holes on the west coast of the Red Sea. Diodorus (iii. 32) describes their habits after the authority of Agatharchides.

Cleopatra’s face on the coins is not handsome. On some of them she is represented on the same coin with Antonius.

[376] He was a son of T. Labienus, who served under CÆsar in Gaul and afterwards went over to Pompeius (Life of CÆsar, c. 34). The father fell in the battle of Munda, B.C. 45.

Labienus, the son, was sent by the party of Brutus and Cassius to Parthia to get assistance from king Orodes. He heard of the battle of Philippi while he was in Parthia and before he had accomplished his mission; and he stayed with the Parthians. In the campaign here alluded to Labienus and the Parthians took Apameia and Antiocheia in Syria. Labienus, after invading the south-western part of Asia Minor (B.C. 40), was forced to fly before Ventidius; and he was seized in Cilicia by a freedman of Julius CÆsar. (Dion Cass. xlviii. 40.)

[377] Amphissa was a town of the Locri OzolÆ.

Philotas studied at Alexandria, which was then a great school of medicine. We have here an anecdote about Antonius which rests on more direct testimony than many well-received stories of modern days.

The bragging physician must have been a stupid fellow to be silenced by such a syllogism. I have translated p?? p???tt??, like Kaltwasser, “Wer einigermassen das Fieber hat,” &c., which is the correct translation.

The text probably means that Philotas was appointed physician to Antyllus.

[378] The passage to which Plutarch alludes is in the Gorgias, p. 464.

[379] A great trade was carried on in those times in dried fish from the Pontic or Black Sea. See Strabo, p. 320, ed. Casaub.

[380] It was near the end of B.C. 40 that Antonius was roused from his “sleep and drunken debauch.” He sailed from Alexandria to Tyrus in Phoenicia, and thence by way of Cyprus and Rhodes to Athens, where he saw Fulvia, who had escaped thither from Brundusium. He left her sick at Sikyon, and crossed from Corcyra (Corfu) to Italy. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 52-55.) Brundusium shut her gates against him, on which he commenced the siege of the city. The war was stopped by the reconciliation that is mentioned in the text, to which the news of the death of Fulvia greatly contributed. Antonius had left her at Sikyon without taking leave of her, and vexation and disease put an end to her turbulent life. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 59.)

[381] See the Life of Cicero, c. 44, note.

[382] The meeting with, Sextus Pompeius was in B.C. 39, at Cape Miseno, which is the northern point of the Gulf of Naples.

Sextus was the second son of Pompeius Magnus. He was now master of a large fleet, and having the command of the sea, he cut off the supplies from Rome. The consequence was a famine and riots in the city. (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 67, &c.) Antonius slaughtered many of the rioters, and their bodies were thrown into the Tiber. This restored order; “but the famine,” says Appian, “was at its height, and the people groaned and were quiet.”

[383] P. Ventidius Bassus was what the Romans call a “novus homo,” the first of his family who distinguished himself at Rome. He had the courage of a soldier and the talents of a true general. When a child he was made prisoner with his mother in the Marsian war (Dion Cass. xliii. 51), and he appeared in the triumphal procession of Pompeius Strabo (Dion Cass. xlix. 21). The captive lived to figure as the principal person in his own triumph, B.C. 38. In his youth he supported himself by a mean occupation. Hoche, when he was a common soldier, used to embroider waistcoats. Julius CÆsar discovered the talents of Bassus, and gave him employment suited to his abilities. In B.C. 43 he was PrÆtor and in the same year Consul Suffectus. (Drumann, Antonii, p. 439; Gell. xv. 4.)

[384] Cockfighting pleased a Roman, as it used to do an Englishman. The Athenians used to fight quails.

[385] The name is written indifferently Hyrodes or Orodes (see the Life of Crassus, c. 18).

Plutarch, on this as on many other occasions, takes no pains to state facts with accuracy. Labienus lost his life and the Parthians were defeated; and that was enough for his purpose. The facts are stated more circumstantially by Dion Cassius (xlviii. 40, 41).

[386] The president of the gymnastic exercises. Dion Cassius (xlviii. 39) tells us something that is characteristic of Antonius. The fulsome flattery of the Athenians gave him on this occasion the title of the young Bacchus, and they betrothed the goddess Minerva to him. Antonius said he was well content with the match; and to show that he was in earnest he demanded of them a contribution of one million drachmÆ as a portion with his new wife. He thus fleeced them of about 2800l. sterling. No doubt Antonius relished the joke as well as the money.

[387] The sacred olive was in the Erektheium on the Acropolis of Athens. Pausanias (i. 28) mentions a fountain on the Acropolis near the PropylÆa; and this is probably what Plutarch calls Clepsydra, or a water-clock. The name Clepsydra is given to a spring in Messenia by Pausanias (iv. 31). Kaltwasser supposes the name Clepsydra to have been given because such a spring was intermittent. Such a spring the younger Pliny describes (Ep. iv. 30).

[388] The defeat of Pacorus (B.C. 38) is told by Dion Cassius (xlix. 19). The ode of Horace (Carm. iii. 6) in which he mentions Pacorus seems to have been written before this victory, and after the defeat of Decidius Saxa (B.C. 40; Dion, xlviii. 25).

[389] Commagene on the west bordered on Cilicia and Cappadocia. The capital was Samosata, on the Euphrates, afterwards the birthplace of Lucian. This Antiochus was attacked by Pompeius B.C. 65, who concluded a peace with him and extended his dominions (Appian Mithrid. 106, &c.).

[390] C. Sossius was made governor of Syria and Cilicia by Antonius. He took the island and town of Aradus on the coast of Phoenice (B.C. 38); and captured Antigonus, the son of Aristobulus, in Jerusalem.

[391] P. Canidius Crassus. His campaign against the Iberi of Asia is described by Dion Cassius (xlix. 24).

[392] Antonius and CÆsar met at Tarentum (Taranto) in the spring of B.C. 37. The events of this meeting are circumstantially detailed by Appian (Civil Wars, v. 93, &c.). Dion Cassius (xlviii. 54) says that the meeting was in the winter.

[393] M. Vipsanius Agrippa, the constant friend of CÆsar, and afterwards the husband of his daughter Julia. MÆcenas, the patron of Virgil and Horace.

[394] ???p????e? are said to be light ships, such as pirates use, adapted for quick sailing.

[395] CÆsar spent this year in making preparation against Sextus Pompeius. In B.C. 36 Pompeius was defeated on the coast of Sicily. He fled into Asia, and was put to death at Miletus by M. Titius, who commanded under Antonius (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 97-121).

[396] The passage to which Plutarch alludes is in the PhÆdrus, p. 556.

[397] That is, the Ocean, as opposed to the Internal Sea or the Mediterranean. Kaltwasser proposes to alter the text to “internal sea,” for no sufficient reason.

[398] This was the Antigonus who fell into the hands of Sossius, when he took Jerusalem on the Sabbath, as Pompeius Magnus had done. (Life of Pompeius, 39; Dion Cassius, xlix. 22, and the notes of Reimarus.) Antigonus was tied to a stake and whipped before he was beheaded. The kingdom of JudÆa was given to Herodes, the son of Antipater.

[399] Plutarch probably alludes to some laws of Solon against bastardy.

[400] A common name of the Parthian kings (see the Life of Crassus, c. 33). This Parthian war of Antonius took place in B.C. 36.

[401] See Plutarch’s Life of Themistocles, c. 29. It was an eastern fashion to grant a man a country, or a town and its district, for his maintenance and to administer. Fidelity to the giver was of course expected. The gift was a kind of fief.

[402] Among the Persians, and as it here appears among the Parthians, “to send a right hand” was an offer of peace and friendship (Xenophon, Anab. ii. 4, who uses the expression “right hands”).

[403] The desert tract in the northern part of Mesopotamia is meant.

[404] There is error as to the number of cavalry of Artavasdes either here or in c. 50. See the notes of Kaltwasser and Sintenis: and as to Artavasdes, Life of Crassus, c. 19, 33, and Dion Cassius, xlix. 25.

[405] No doubt Iberians of Spain are meant.

[406] Was the most south-western part of Media, and it comprehended the chief part of the modern Azerbijan.

[407] Dion Cassius (xlix. 25) names the place Phraaspa or Praaspa, which may be the right name. The position of the place and the direction of the march of Antonius are unknown.

[408] Was a king of Pontus: he was ransomed for a large sum of money. Reimarus says in a note to Dion Cassius (xlix. 25) that Plutarch states that Polemon was killed. The learned editor must have read this chapter carelessly.

[409] See Life of Crassus, c. 10.

[410] ?? ??????tat??, which Kaltwasser translates “those who were most acquainted with the Romans;” and his translation may be right.

[411] Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, which is the Roman mode of writing the word. He was the son of Domitius who was taken by CÆsar in Corfinium (Life of CÆsar, c. 34); and he is the Domitius who deserted Antonius just before the battle of Actium (c. 63).

[412] The Mardi inhabited a tract on the south coast of the Caspian, where there was a river Mardus or Amardus.

Plutarch has derived his narrative of the retreat from some account by an eye-witness, but though it is striking as a picture, it is quite useless as a military history. The route is not designated any further than this, that Antonius had to pass through a plain and desert country. It is certain that he advanced considerably east of the Tigris, and he experienced the same difficulties that Crassus did in the northern part of Mesopotamia. (Strabo, p. 523, ed. Casaub. as to the narrative of Adelphius, and Casaubon’s note.)

[413] These were used by the slingers (funditores) in the Roman army.

[414] ?p’ ?????, Sintenis: but the MS. reading is ?p’ ?????, “from the rear.” See the note of Schaefer, and of Sintenis.

[415] Contrary to Parthian practice. Compare the Life of Crassus, c. 27.

[416] These are the soldiers in full armour. Sintenis refers to the Life of Crassus, c. 25. See life of Antonius, c. 49, ?? d? ?p??ta? ... t??? ???e???.

[417] The Romans called this mode of defence Testudo, or tortoise. It is described by Dion Cassius (xlix. 30). The testudo was also used in assaulting a city or wall. A cut of one from the Antonine column is given in Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities, art. Testudo.

[418] The forty-eighth part of a medimnus. The medimnus is estimated at 11 gal. 7·1456 pints English. The drachma (Attic) is reckoned at about 9-3/4d. (Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities.) But the scarcity is best shown by the fact that barley bread was as dear as silver. Compare Xenophon (Anab. i. 5, 6) as to the prices in the army of Cyrus, when it was marching through the desert.

[419] The allusion is to the retreat of the Greeks in the army of Cyrus from the plain of Cunaxa over the highlands of Armenia to Trapezus (Trebizond); which is the main subject of the Anabasis of Xenophon.

[420] Salt streams occur on the high lands of Asia. Mannert, quoted by Kaltwasser, supposes that the stream here spoken of is one that flows near Tabriz and then joins another river. If this were the only salt stream that Antonius could meet with on his march, the conclusion of the German geographer might be admitted.

[421] The modern Aras. The main branch of the river rises in the same mountain mass in which a branch of the Euphrates rises, about 39° 47’ N. lat., 41° 9’ E. long. It joins the Cyrus or Kur, which comes from the Caucasus, about thirty miles above the entrance of the united stream into the Caspian Sea. Mannert, quoted by Kaltwasser, conjectures that Antonius crossed the river at Julfa (38° 54’ N. lat.). It is well to call it a conjecture. Any body may make another, with as much reason. Twenty-seven days’ march (c. 50) brought the Romans from Phraata to the Araxes, but the point of departure and the point where the army crossed the Araxes are both unknown.

[422] The second expedition of Antonius into Armenia was in B.C. 34, when he advanced to the Araxes. After the triumph, Artavasdes was kept in captivity, and he was put to death by Cleopatra in Egypt after the battle of Actium, B.C. 30 (Dion Cassius xlix. 41, &c).

[423] Compare Dion Cassius, xlix. 51.

[424] The name is written both Phraates and Phrates in the MSS.

[425] She went to Athens in B.C. 35.

[426] In B.C. 34, Antonius invaded Armenia and got Artavasdes the king into his power. The Median king with whom Antonius made this marriage alliance (B.C. 33) was also named Artavasdes. Alexander, the son of Antonius by Cleopatra, was married to Jotape, a daughter of this Median king.

[427] This is Plutarch’s word. Its precise meaning is not clear, but it may be collected from the context. It was something like a piece of theatrical pomp.

[428] Or Cidaris. (See Life of Pompeius, c. 33.) The Cittaris seems to be the higher and upright part of the tiara; and sometimes to be used in the same sense as tiara. The Causia was a Macedonian hat with a broad brim. (See Smith’s Dict. of Antiquities.)

[429] After the defeat of Sextus Pompeius, Lepidus made a claim to Sicily and attempted a campaign there against CÆsar. But this feeble man was compelled to surrender. He was deprived of all power, and sent to live in Italy. He still retained his office of Pontifex Maximus (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 126; Dion Cassius, xlix. 11).

[430] This is an emendation of Amiot in place of the corrupt word Laurians.

[431] The preparation was making in B.C. 32. Antonius spent the winter of this year at PatrÆ in AchÆa.

[432] An account of these exactions is given by Dion Cassius (l. 10). They show to what a condition a people can be reduced by tyranny.

[433] Such is the nature of the people. It is hard to rouse them; and their patience is proved by all the facts of history.

[434] It was usual with the Romans, at least with men of rank, to deposit their wills with the Vestals for safe keeping.

[436] The translators are much puzzled to explain this. Kaltwasser conjectures that Antonius in consequence of losing some wager was required to do this servile act; and accordingly he translates part of the Greek text “in consequence of a wager that had been made.”

[437] The only person of the name who is known as an active partizan at this time was C. Furnius, tribune of the plebs, B.C. 50. He was a legatus under M. Antonius in Asia in B.C. 35. Here Plutarch represents him as a partizan of CÆsar. If Plutarch’s Furnius was the tribune, he must have changed sides already. As to his eloquence, there is no further evidence of it than what we have here.

[438] C. Calvisius Sabinus, who was consul B.C. 39 with L. Marcius Censorinus.

[439] The name occurs in Horace, 1 Sat. 5; but the two may be different persons. As to the Roman DeliciÆ see the note of Coraes; and Suetonius, Augustus, c. 83.

[440] Dion Cassius (1. 4) also states that war was declared only against Cleopatra, but that Antonius was deprived of all the powers that had been given to him.

[441] Now Pesaro in Umbria.

[442] See Pausanias, i. 25. 2.

[443] The text of Bryan has, “and Deiotarus, king of the Galatians:” and Schaefer follows it. But see the note of Sintenis.

[444] Actium is a promontory on the southern side of the entrance of the Ambraciot Gulf, now the gulf of Arta. It is probably the point of land now called La Punta. The width of the entrance of the gulf is about half a mile. Nicopolis, “the city of Victory,” was built by CÆsar on the northern side of the gulf, a few miles from the site of Prevesa. The battle of Actium was fought on the 2nd of September, B.C. 31. It is more minutely described by Dion Cassius (l. 31, &c.; li. 1).

[445] This word means something to stir up a pot with, a ladle or something of the kind. The joke is as dull as it could be.

[446] Sintenis observes that Plutarch has here omitted to mention the place of Arruntius, who had the centre of CÆsar’s line (c. 66). C. Sossius commanded the left of the line of Antonius. Insteius is a Roman name, as appears from inscriptions. Taurus is T. Statilius Taurus.

[447] There is some confusion in the text here, but the general meaning is probably what I have given. See the note of Sintenis.

[448] These were light vessels adapted for quick evolutions. Horace, Epod. i., alludes to them:—

[449] Is the most southern point of the Peloponnesus, in Laconica. The modern name of TÆnarus is Matapan or “head.”

[450] Dion Cassius (li. 2) gives an account of CÆsar’s behaviour after the battle. He exacted money from the cities; but Dion does not mention any particular cities.

[451] By “all the citizens” Plutarch means the citizens of his native town ChÆronea. The people had to carry their burden a considerable distance, for this Antikyra was on the Corinthian gulf, nearly south of Delphi. This anecdote, which is supported by undoubted authority, is a good example of the sufferings of the people during this contest for power between two men.

[452] This was a town on the coast in the country called Marmarica. It had a port and was fortified, and thus served as a frontier post to Egypt against attacks from the west.

[453] See the Life of Brutus, c. 50.

[454] He was L. Pinarius Carpus, who had fought under him at Philippi. Carpus gave up his troops to Cornelius Gallus, who advanced upon him from the province Africa (Dion. Cass. 1. 5, where he is called Scarpus in the text of Reimarus).

[455] Or “Sea that lies off Egypt,” that part of the Mediterranean which borders on Egypt. The width of the Isthmus is much more than 300 stadia: it is about seventy-two miles. Herodotus (ii. 158) states the width more correctly at one thousand stadia.

In this passage Plutarch calls the Red Sea both the Arabian gulf and the Erythra (Red), and in this he agrees with Herodotus. The Arabian Gulf or modern Red Sea was considered a part of the great ErythrÆan Sea or Indian Ocean. Herodotus (ii. 11) says that there is a gulf which runs into the land from the ErythrÆan sea; and this gulf he calls (ii. 11, 158) the Arabian gulf, which is now the Red Sea. See Anton, c. 3.

[456] See the Life of Pompeius, c. 41.

[457] The Pharos was an island opposite to Alexandria, and connected with it by a dike called Heptastadion, the length being seven stadia.

[458] Shakspere has made a play out of the meagre subject of Timon, and Lucian has a dialogue entitled “Timon or the Misanthropist.” (Comp. Strab. 794, ed. Cas.)

[459] This was the second day of the third Dionysiac festival, called the Anthesteria. The first day was Pithoegia (p??????a) or the tapping of the jars of wine; and the second day, as the word Choes seems to import, was the cup day.

[460] This was Herodes I., son of Antipater, sometimes called the Great. He was not at the battle of Actium, but he sent aid to Antonius (c. 61).

[461] This was the toga virilis, or dress which denoted that a male was pubes, fourteen at least, and had attained full legal capacity. The prÆtexta, which was worn up to the time of assuming the toga virilis, had a broad purple border, by which the impubes was at once distinguished from other persons.

Cleopatra’s son, CÆsarion, was registered as an Alexandrine. The son of Antonius was treated as a Roman citizen.

[462] This seems to be the sense of the passage. The Greek for asp is aspis. Some suppose that it is the poisonous snake which the Arabs call El Haje, which measures from three to five feet in length. But this is rather too large to be put in a basket of figs.

[463] Conjectured by M. du Soul to be Alexander the Syrian, who has been mentioned before.

[464] He was a native of Alexandria, and had been carried prisoner to Rome by Gabinius. He obtained his freedom, and acquired celebrity as a rhetorician and historian. He was a favourite of Asinius Pollio and of Augustus; but he was too free-spoken for Augustus, who finally forbade him his house (Horat. 1. Ep. l, 19; and the note of Orelli). Life of Pompeius, c. 49.

Dion Cassius (li. 8), who believed every scandalous story, says that CÆsar made love to Cleopatra through the medium of Thyrsus.

[465] After the battle of Actium, CÆsar crossed over to Samos, where he spent the winter. He was recalled by the news of a mutiny among the soldiers, who had not received their promised reward. He returned to Brundusium, where he stayed twenty-seven days, and he went no further, for his appearance in Italy stopped the disturbance. He returned to Asia and marched through Syria to Egypt (Sueton. Aug. c. 17; Dion Cassius, li. 4).

[466] The shout of Bacchanals at the festivals. See the Ode of Horace (Carm. ii. 19):

[467] The fleet passed over to CÆsar on the 1st of August (Orosius, vi. 19). The treachery of Cleopatra is not improbable (Dion Cass. li. 10).

[468] Compare Dion Cassius, li. 10.

[469] His name was C. Proculeius. He appears to be the person to whom Horace alludes (Carm. ii. 2).

[470] Dion Cassius (li. 11) says that Cleopatra communicated to CÆsar the death of Antonius, which is not so probable as Plutarch’s narrative.

[471] C. Cornelius Gallus, a Roman Eques, who had advanced from the province Africa upon Egypt. He was afterwards governor of Egypt; but he incurred the displeasure of Augustus, and put an end to life B.C. 26. Gallus was a poet, and a friend of Virgil and Ovid. The tenth Eclogue of Virgil is addressed to Gallus.

[472] Said to have been a Stoic, and much admired by Augustus (Dion Cass. li. 16; Sueton. Aug. 89).

[473] Probably the same that is mentioned in the Life of Cato the Younger, c. 57.

[474] The circumstances of the death of Antyllus and CÆsarion are not told in the same way by Dion Cassius (li. 15). Antyllus had been betrothed to CÆsar’s daughter Julia in B.C. 36.

[475] The words are borrowed from Homer (Iliad, ii. 204):—

??? ??a??? p???????a???.

There could be no reason for putting CÆsarion to death as a possible competitor with CÆsar at Rome, for he was not a Roman citizen. As it was CÆsar’s object to keep Egypt, CÆsarion would have been an obstacle there.

[476] There were, as usual in such matters, various versions of this interview: it was a fit subject for embellishment with the writers of spurious history. The account of Plutarch is much simpler and more natural than that of Dion Cassius (li. 12), which savours of the rhetorical.

[477] He was the son of P. Cornelius Dolabella, once the son-in-law of Cicero, and one of CÆsar’s murderers. His son P. Cornelius Dolabella was consul A.D. 10.

[478] The word “companions” represents the Roman “comites,” which has a technical meaning. Young men of rank, who were about the person of a commander, and formed a kind of staff, were his Comites. See Horat. I. Ep. 8.

[479] The story of Dion (li. 14) is that CÆsar, after he had seen the body, sent for the Psylli, serpent charmers, to suck out the poison (compare Lucan, Pharsal. ix. 925). If a person was not dead, it was supposed that the Psylli could extract the poison and save the life.

Dion Cassius also states that the true cause of Cleopatra’s death was unknown. One account was that she punctured her arm with a hair-pin (e????) which was poisoned. But even as to the punctures on the arm, Plutarch does not seem to state positively that there were any. The “hollow comb” is hardly intelligible. Plutarch’s word is ???st??, “a scraping instrument of any kind.” One MS. has ??st??, “a small coffer.” Strabo (p. 795, ed. Casaub.) doubts whether she perished by the bite of a serpent or by puncturing herself with a poisoned instrument. Propertius (iii. 11, 53) alludes to the image of Cleopatra, which was carried in the triumph—

Brachia spectavi sacris admorsa colubris
Et trahere occultum membra soporis iter.

An ancient marble at Rome represents Cleopatra with the asp on her arm. There was also a story of her applying it to the left breast.

Cleopatra was born in B.C. 69, and died in the latter part of B.C. 30. She was seventeen years of age when her father PtolemÆus Auletes died: and upon his death she governed jointly with her brother PtolemÆus, whose wife she was to be. Antonius first saw her when he was in Egypt with Gabinius, and he had not forgotten the impression which the young girl then made on him at the time when she visited him at Tarsus (Appian, Civil Wars, v. 8). Antonius was forty years old when he saw Cleopatra at Tarsus, B.C. 41, and he would therefore be in his fifty-second year at the time of his death (Clinton, Fasti).

[480] Octavia’s care of the children of Antonius is one of the beautiful traits of her character. She is one of those Roman women whose virtues command admiration.

Cleopatra, the daughter of Antonius and twin sister of Alexander, married Juba II., king of Numidia, by whom she had a son PtolemÆus, who succeeded his father, and a daughter Drusilla, who married Antonius Felix, the governor of JudÆa. The two brothers of Cleopatra were Alexander and PtolemÆus.

Antonius, the son of Fulvia, was called Iulus Antonius. He married Marcella, one of the daughters of Octavia. In B.C. 10, Antonius was consul. He formed an adulterous intercourse with Julia, the daughter of Augustus, which cost him his life B.C. 2. Antonius was a poet, as it seems (Horat. Carm. iv. 2, and Orelli’s note).

The elder Antonia, the daughter of Octavia and Antonius, married L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the son of Cneius, who deserted to CÆsar just before the battle of Actium. This Lucius had by Antonia a son, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, who married Agrippina, the daughter of CÆsar Germanicus. Agrippina’s son, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus, was adopted by the emperor Claudius after his marriage with Agrippina, and Lucius then took the name of Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus. As the emperor Nero his infamy is imperishable.

The younger Antonia, the daughter of Octavia and Antonius, married Drusus, the second son of Tiberius Claudius Nero. Tiberius had divorced his wife Livia in order that Caesar Octavianus might become her husband. The virtues of Antonia are recorded by Plutarch and others: her beauty is testified by her handsome face on a medal.

The expression of Plutarch that Caius, by whom he means Caius Caligula, “ruled with distinction,” has caused the commentators some difficulty, and they have proposed to read ?p?a???, “like a madman” in place of ?p?fa???, “with distinction.” Perhaps Plutarch’s meaning may be something like what I have given, and he may allude to the commencement of Caligula’s reign, which gave good hopes, as Suetonius shows. Some would get over the difficulty by giving to ?p?fa??? a different meaning from the common meaning. See Kaltwasser’s note.

A portrait of Antonius (see Notes to Brutus, c. 52) would be an idle impertinence. He is portrayed clear and distinct in this inimitable Life of Plutarch.

Here ends the Tragedy of Antonius and Cleopatra; and after it begins the Monarchy, as Plutarch would call it, or the sole rule of Augustus. See the Preface to the First Volume.

[481] Of Athens.

[482] The various stories about Plato’s slavery are discussed in Grote’s ‘History of Greece,’ part ii. ch. 53.

[483] Aristomache and Arete.

[484] Periodical northerly winds or monsoons.

[485] The ceremony of the libations seems to correspond to our “grace after meat.” See vol. i. Life of Perikles, ch. 7.

[486] Grote paraphrases this passage as follows:—“A little squadron was prepared, of no more than five merchantmen, two of them vessels of thirty oars, &c.” On consulting Liddell and Scott’s Lexicon, s.v. t??a???t????, I find a reference to Thuc. iv. 9; where a Messenian pirate triaconter is spoken of, and for further information the reader is referred to the article “pe?t????t???? (sc. ?a??), ?, a ship of burden with fifty oars,” Pind. P. 4. 436, Eur. I.T. 1124, Thuc. i., 14, &c. But none of these passages bear out the sense of a “vessel of burden.” The passage in Pindar merely states that the snake which Jason slew was as big or bigger than a pe?t????t????. Herod, ii. 163, distinctly says “not ships of burden, but penteconters.” In Eur. I.T. 1124, the chorus merely remark that Iphigenia will be borne home by a penteconter, while Thucydides (i. 14) explicitly states that, many generations after the Trojan war, the chief navies of Greece consisted of but few triremes, and chiefly of “penteconters or of long ships equipped like them.” From these passages I am inclined to think that the true meaning of the passage is the literal one, that the soldiers were placed on board of two transports, that the two triaconters, or thirty-oared galleys, were ships of war and acted as convoy to them, and that the small vessel was intended for Dion and his friends to escape in if necessary. In Dem. Zen. a pe?t????t???? undoubtedly is spoken of as a merchant vessel; but this does not prove that there were no war penteconters in Dion’s time.

[487] Kerkina and Kerkinitis, two low islands off the north coast of Africa, in the mouth of the Lesser Syrtis, united by a bridge and possessing a fine harbour. ‘Dictionary of Antiquities.’

[488] The Greek word is ???t??, which is singularly near in sound to the East Anglian “quant.”

[489] This seems to be the universally accepted emendation of the unmeaning words in the original text. Grote remarks “The statue and sacred ground of Apollo Temenites was the most remarkable feature in this portion of Syracuse, and would naturally be selected to furnish a name for the gate.” ‘Hist. of Greece,’ part ii. ch. lxxxiv. note.

[490] The main street of Achradina is spoken of by Cicero as broad, straight and long; which was unusual in an ancient Greek city. See Grote. ad. loc.

[491] The citadel of Syracuse was built upon the island of Ortygia, and was therefore easily cut off by a ditch and palisade across the narrow isthmus by which it was connected with the mainland.

[492] “He offered them what in modern times would be called a constitution.” Grote.

[493] On this passage Grote has the following note:—“Plutarch states that Herakleides brought only seven triremes. But the force stated by Diodorus (twenty triremes, three transports and 1500 soldiers) appears more probable. It is difficult otherwise to explain the number of ships which the Syracusans presently appear as possessing. Moreover, the great importance which Herakleides steps into, as opposed to Dion, is more easily accounted for.”

[494] The Syracusan cavalry was celebrated, and “the knights” here and elsewhere no doubt means Syracusan citizens, though at first this passage looks as if strangers were meant. See ch. 44, where the knights and leading citizens are mentioned together.

[495] I conceive that the “atrium” or “cavÆdium” of the house, that is, the interior peristyle or court surrounded with columns, is meant, and that Dion, sitting on one side of this room, saw the apparition behind the columns on the other. An outside portico was a very unusual appendage to a Greek house, and Dion’s house is said to have been especially simple and unpretending, whereas nearly all houses were built with an inner court or “patio,” with its roof supported by columns, and into which the other rooms of the house opened.

[496] L. Junius Brutus, consul B.C. 509, was a Patrician, and his race was extinct in his two sons (Liv. ii. 1-4; Drumann, Junii, p. 1; Dion Cassius, xliv. 12; Dionys. Hal. Antiq. Rom. v. 18).

[497] Servilia, the wife of M. Junius Brutus, the father of this Brutus, was the daughter of Livia, who was the sister of M. Livius Drusus, tribunus plebis B.C. 91. Livia married for her first husband M. Cato, by whom she had M. Cato Uticensis; for her second husband she had Q. Servilius CÆpio, by whom she became the mother of Servilia. M. Junius Brutus, the father of this Brutus, was the first husband of Servilia, who had by her second husband, D. Junius Silanus, two daughters. Her son Brutus was born in the autumn of B.C. 85. He was adopted by his uncle Q. Servilius CÆpio, whence he is sometimes called CÆpio, and Q. CÆpio Brutus on coins, public monuments, and in decrees (Drumann, Junii).

[498] Ahala was Magister Equitum to L. Quinctius Cincinnatus. The story belongs to B.C. 439; and it is told by Livius, iv. 13, 14. The true name of Mallius Spurius is Spurius MÆlius.

[499] This passage is obscure in the original. The parentage of M. Junius Brutus, the father of this Brutus, does not appear to be ascertained.

[500] See the Life of Lucullus, c. 42.

[501] See the Life of Cicero, c. 4. Cicero mentions Ariston, which is probably the true name, in his TusculanÆ QuÆstiones, v. 8.

[502] Nothing more is known of him.

[503] The original is obscure. See Sintenis, note; and SchÆfer, note. Kaltwasser follows the reading p??? t?? ???d???, which he translates “fÜr den Kriegsdienst.”

[504] See the Life of the Younger Cato, c. 35, &c.

[505] CorÆs explains the original (s???ast??) to mean “one who is engaged about learning and philosophy.”

[506] The father of this Brutus was of the faction of Marius, and tribunus plebis B.C. 83. After Sulla’s return he lost all power, and after Sulla’s death Pompeius (B.C. 77) marched against Brutus, who shut himself up in Mutina (Modena). A mutiny among his troops compelled him to open the gates, and Pompeius ordered him to be put to death, contrary to the promise which he had given (Life of Pompeius, c. 16).

The allusion at the beginning of this chapter is to the outbreak between Pompeius and CÆsar, B.C. 49.

[507] P. Sextius was governor of Cilicia. In the text of Plutarch Sicilia stands erroneously in place of Cilicia: this is probably an error of the copyists, who often confound these names (see Life of Pompeius, c. 61; Cicero, Ad Attic. viii. 14; ix. 7).

[508] Brutus was a great reader and a busy writer. Drumann (Junii, p. 37) gives a sketch of his literary activity. Such a trifle as an epitome of Polybius was probably only intended as a mere occupation to pass the time. The loss of it is not a matter of regret, any further than so far as it might have supplied some deficiencies in the present text of Polybius. Bacon (Advancement of Learning) describes epitomes thus: “As for the corruptions and moths of history, which are epitomes, the use of them deserveth to be banished, as all men of sound judgment have confessed; as those that have fretted and corroded the sound bodies of many excellent histories, and wrought them into base and unprofitable dregs.”

[509] The story of CÆsar receiving this note is told in the Life of Cato, c. 24. CÆsar was born on the 12th July, B.C. 100, which is a sufficient answer to the scandalous tale of his being the father of Brutus. That he may have had an adulterous commerce with Servilia in and before B.C. 63, the year of Catiline’s conspiracy, is probable enough.

[510] This was C. Cassius Longinus, who accompanied Crassus in his Parthian campaign (Life of Crassus, c. 18, &c.). After Cato had retired to Africa, Cassius made his peace with CÆsar (Dion Cassius, xlii. 13).

[511] Kaltwasser has adopted the correction of Moses du Soul, and has translated the passage “in Nikaea fÜr den KÖnig Deiotarus.” The anecdote appears to refer clearly to king Deiotarus, as appears from Cicero’s Letters to Atticus (xiv. 1). See Drumann’s note, Junii, p. 25, note 83. CorÆs would read Ga?at?? for ?????.

[512] This was the north part of Italy. CÆsar set out for his African campaign in B.C. 47. Brutus held Gallia in the year B.C. 46. See Drumann, Junii, p. 26, note 91, on the administration of Gallia by Brutus.

[513] Plutarch here alludes to the office of PrÆtor Urbanus, who, during the year of his office, was the chief person for the administration of justice. The number of prÆtors at this time was ten (Dion Cassius, xlii. 51), to which number they were increased from eight by CÆsar in B.C. 47. The PrÆtor Urbanus still held the first rank. The motive of CÆsar may have been, as Dion Cassius says, to oblige his dependents by giving them office and rank. Brutus was PrÆtor Urbanus in B.C. 44, the year of CÆsar’s assassination.

[514] This anecdote is told in CÆsar’s Life, c. 62.

[515] Q. Fufius Calenus was sent by CÆsar before the battle of Pharsalus to Greece (Life of CÆsar, c. 43). Megara made strong resistance to Calenus, and was treated with severity. Dion Cassius (xlii. 14) says nothing about the lions.

[516] See the Life of Sulla, c. 34, and note to c. 37; and the Life of CÆsar, c. 53, note.

[517] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 61, and Dion Cassius, xliv. 3, &c.

[518] His name was Quintus. Ligarius fought against CÆsar at the battle of Thapsus B.C. 46. He was taken prisoner and banished. He was prosecuted by Q. Delius Tubero for his conduct in Africa, and defended by Cicero in an extant speech. Ligarius obtained a pardon from CÆsar, and he repaid the dictator, like many others, by aiding in his murder. It seems pretty certain that he lost his life in the proscriptions of the Triumviri (Appian, Civil Wars, iv, 22, 23).

[519] Compare the Life of the Younger Cato, c. 65, 73; and as to Favonius, the same life.

[520] Q. Antistius Labeo was one of the hearers of Servius Sulpicins (Dig. i. tit. 2, s. 2, § 44), and himself a jurist, and the father of a more distinguished jurist, Antistius Labeo, who lived under Augustus. He was at the battle of Philippi, and after the defeat he killed himself, and was buried in a grave in his tent, which he had dug for the purpose (Appian, Civil Wars, iv. 135).

[521] See the Life of CÆsar, c. 64, and the note.

The signs of CÆsar’s death are mentioned in the Life of CÆsar, c. 63.

[522] Brutus was first married to Claudia, a daughter of Appius Claudius, consul B.C. 54. It was probably in B.C. 55, and after Cato’s death, that he put away Claudia, for which he was blamed (Cic. Ad Attic. xiii. 9), and married Porcia, the daughter of Cato, and widow of M. Calpurnius Bibulus, the colleague of CÆsar in the consulship B.C. 59. As to the affair of the wound, compare Dion Cassius (xliv. 13 &c.).

[523] This was the great architectural work of Pompeius (Life of Pompeius, c. 40, note).

[524] The same story is told by Appian (Civil Wars, ii. 115).

[525] The circumstances of CÆsar’s death are told in his Life, c. 66; where it is incorrectly said that Brutus Albinus engaged Antonius in conversation. To the authorities referred to in the note to c. 66 of the Life of CÆsar, add Cicero, Phillip. ii. 14, which is referred to by Kaltwasser.

[526] L. Munatius Plancus, who had received favours from CÆsar, and the province of Transalpine Gaul, with the exception of Narbonensis and Belgica B.C. 44.

As to the arrangement about the provinces after CÆsar’s death, see the Life of Antonius, c. 14.

[527] Compare the Life of CÆsar, c. 68, and the note.

[528] The allusion is to P. Clodius, who fell in a brawl with T. Annius Milo B.C. 52. See the Life of Cicero, c. 52.

[529] Compare the Life of CÆsar, c. 68.

[531] These were the Ludi Apollinares (Dion, xlvii. 20), which Brutus had to superintend as PrÆtor Urbanus. The day of celebration was the fourth of Quintilis or Julius. The games were superintended by L. Antonius, the brother of Marcus, and the colleague of Brutus.

[532] Compare the Life of Cicero, c. 43, and notes; and the Life of Antonius, c. 16.

[533] Complaints like these, of the conduct of Cicero, appear in the sixteenth and seventeenth letters of the book which is entitled ‘M. Tullii Epistolarum ad Brutum Liber Singularis;’ but the genuineness of these letters is very doubtful. Plutarch himself (Brutus, 53) did not fully believe in the genuineness of all the letters attributed to Brutus.

[534] Elea, the Romans called this place Velia. It was on the coast of Lucania, in the modern province of Basilicata in the kingdom of Naples; and the remains are near Castella a mare della Brucca. Velia is often mentioned by Cicero, who set sail from thence when he intended to go to Greece (Life of Cicero, c. 43).

[535] The passages in Homer are, Iliad, vi. 429 and 491, the parting of Hector and Andromache. The old stories of Greece furnished the painter with excellent subjects, and the simplicity with which they treated them may be inferred from Plutarch’s description. The poet was here the real painter. The artist merely gave a sensuous form to the poet’s conception. The parting of Hector and Andromache is the subject of one of Schiller’s early poems.

[536] Dion Cassius (xlvii. 20) describes the reception of Brutus at Athens. The Athenians ordered bronze statues of Brutus and Cassius to be set up by the side of the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, who had liberated Athens from the tyranny of the PeisistratidÆ.

[537] See the Life of Pompeius, c. 75. Cicero’s son Marcus was attending the lectures of Cratippus B.C. 44, and also, as it appears, up to the time when Brutus came to Athens. Horace, who was now at Athens, also joined the side of Brutus, and was present at the battle of Philippi.

[538] A town near the southern point of Euboea. The Roman commander who gave up the money, was the QuÆstor M. Appuleius (Cicero, Philipp. x. 11). Plutarch in the next chapter calls him Antistius.

[539] These are the dying words of Patroclus (Iliad, xvi. 849). Apollo is Leto’s son.

[540] See the Life of Cicero, c. 43, note; and Dion Cassius (xlvii. 29, &c.).

[541] A town in Thessalia.

[542] Q. Hortensius Hortalus, the son of the orator Hortensius, who held the province of Macedonia (B.C. 44), in which Brutus was to succeed him. He was put to death by M. Antonius after the battle of Philippi (c. 28).

[543] This may be an error of Plutarch’s copyists. His name was P. Vatinius (Dion Cassius, xlvii. 21).

[544] The Greek soldiers suffered in this way in their retreat from Babylonia over the table-land of Armenia (Xenophon, Anabasis, iv. 5, 7). This bulimy is a different thing from that which modern writers call by that name, and which they describe as a “canine appetite, insatiable desire for food.” The nature of the appetite is exemplified by the instance of a man eating in one day four pounds of raw cow’s udder, ten pounds of raw beef, two pounds of candles, and drinking five bottles of porter (Penny CyclopÆdia, art. Bulimia). The subject of Bulimia is discussed by Plutarch (Symposiaca, b. vi. Qu. 8).

[545] Now Butrinto, was on the main land in the north part of the channel which divides Corcyra (Corfu) from the continent. It was made a Colonia by the Romans after their occupation of Epirus. Atticus, the friend of Cicero, had land in the neighbourhood of Buthrotum.

As to the events mentioned at the end of this chapter, compare Dion Cassius, xlvii. 21-23.

[546] Compare Dion Cassius, xlvii. 22.

[547] This was Decimus Brutus Albinus, who fell into the hands of the soldiers of M. Antonius in North Italy, and was put to death by order of Antonius B.C. 43. Compare Dion Cassius (xlvi. 53), and the note of Reimarus.

[548] Brutus passed over into Asia probably about the middle of B.C. 43, while the proscriptions were going on at Rome. As to Cyzicus, see the Life of Lucullus, c. 9.

[549] Cassius was now in Syria, whence he designed to march to Egypt to punish Cleopatra for the assistance which she had given to Dolabella.

[550] The Mediterranean, for which the Romans had no name.

[551] Xanthus stood on a river of the same name, about ten miles from the mouth. The river is now called Etchen-Chai. Xanthus is first mentioned by Herodotus (i. 176), who describes its destruction by the Persian general Harpagus, to which Plutarch afterwards (c. 31) alludes. Numerous remains have been recently discovered there by Fellowes, and some of them are now in the British Museum (Penny Cyclop. art. Xanthian Marbles, and the references in that article).

The last sentence of this chapter is very confused in the original.

[552] Compare the Life of Pompeius, c. 77, 80.

[553] Brutus and Cassius met at Sardis in the early part of B.C. 42.

[554] The passage to which Plutarch refers is Iliad, i. 259. The character of Favonius is well known from the Lives of Pompeius and Cato the Younger.

[555] Kaltwasser has a note on the Roman practice of an invited guest taking his shadows (umbrÆ) with him. Horace alludes to the practice (i. Ep. 5, 28),

Plutarch discusses the etiquette as to umbrÆ in his Symposiaca (book vii. Qu. 6).

[556] The Romans reclined at table. They placed couches on three sides of the table and left the fourth open. The central couch or sofa (lectus medius) was the first place. The other sofas at the adjoining two sides were respectively lectus summus and imus.

[557] Nothing further seems to be known of him. The name Pella is probably corrupt. The consequence of his condemnation was Infamia, as to the meaning of which term: see Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, Infamia. This interview between Brutus and Cassius forms one of the finest scenes in Shakespeare’s play of Julius CÆsar.

[558] The reading here is probably corrupt. See the note of Sintenis.

[559] The ghost story is told also in the Life of CÆsar, c. 69.

[560] Cassius was one of the Romans who had embraced the doctrines of Epicurus, modified somewhat by the Roman character. Cicero in a letter to Cassius (Ad Diversos, xv. 16) rallies him about his opinions; and Cassius (xv. 19) in reply defends them. Cicero says to Cassius, that he hopes he will tell him whether it is in his power, as soon as he chooses to think of Cassius, to have his spectrum (e?d????) present, before him, and whether, if he should begin to think of the island Britannia, the image (spectrum) of Britannia will fly to his mind.

Lucretius expounded the Epicurean doctrines in his poem De Rerum Natura. In his fourth book he treats of images (simulacra):

The things on which the mind has been engaged in waking hours, recur as images during sleep:

He has observed in a previous passage, that numerous images of things wander about in all directions, that they are of a subtile nature, and are easily united when they meet; they are of a much more subtile nature than the things which affect the sight, for they penetrate through the pores of bodies, and inwardly move the subtile nature of the mind. He then adds:

The doctrine which Lucretius inculcated as to the deities, admitted their existence, but denied that they concerned themselves about mundane affairs; and they had nothing to do with the creation of the world. It is one of the main purposes of the poem to free men from all religious belief, and to show the misery and absurdities that it breeds.

A belief in dÆmons would be inconsistent with such doctrines; and as to the gods, Cassius means to say, that though he did not believe in their existence, he almost wished that there were gods to aid their righteous cause.

As to the opinions of Cassius, compare the Life of CÆsar, c. 66.

[561] C. Norbanus Flaccus and L. Decidius Saxa, two legates of Antonius, who had been sent forward with eight legions, and had occupied Philippi. The town of Philippi lay near the mountain-range of PangÆus and Symbolum, which was the name of a place at which PangÆus joins another mountain, that stretches up into the interior. Symbolum was between Neapolis (new city) and Philippi. Neapolis was on the coast opposite to Thasus: Philippi was in the mountain region, and was built on a hill; west of it was a plain which extended to the Strymon (Appian, Civil Wars, iv. 1205; Dion Cassius. xlvii. 35). Philippi was originally called Krenides, or the Springs, then Datus, and lastly Philippi by King Philippus, of Macedonia, who fortified it. Appian’s description of the position of Philippi is very clear.

[562] A lustration was a solemn ceremony of purification, which was performed on various occasions, and before a battle: see Livy, xxix. 47.

The omens which preceded the battle are recorded by Dion Cassius, xlvii. 49.

[563] M. Valerius Messala Corvinus, of a distinguished Roman family, was a son of Messala who was consul B.C. 53. After the battle of Philippi he attached himself to M. Antonius, whom he deserted to join Octavianus CÆsar. He fought on CÆsar’s side at the battle of Actium (c. 53). He died somewhere between B.C. 3 and A.D. 3. Messala was a poet and an historian. His history of the Civil Wars, after the death of the Dictator CÆsar, was used by Plutarch.

[564] See the note of Sintenis, who proposes to read ?e??????? for ?e???????, to prevent any ambiguity, such as Kaltwasser discovered in the passage. It was the birthday of Cassius (Appian, Civil Wars, iv, 113).

[565] Plutarch here quotes the Memoirs of CÆsar. It is of no great importance who saw the dream, and perhaps there was no dream at all. CÆsar wished to have an excuse for being out of the way of danger. Dion Cassius (xlvii. 41) says that it was CÆsar’s physician who had the dream, but he does not mention his name. See the notes of Reimarus.

[566] The true name may be Briges. The Briges were a Thracian tribe (Stephan. Byzant., ????e?), who are mentioned by Herodotus (vii. 73). The Macedonian tradition was that they were the same as the Phrygians; that so long as they lived in Europe with the Macedonians they kept the name of Briges, and that when they passed over into Asia they were called Phryges.

[567] Drumann (Geschichte Roms, i. 516, n. 84) assumes that it is P. Volumnius Eutrapelus, a boon companion of Antonius. Several of Cicero’s letters to him are extant (Ad Div. vii. 32, 33).

[568] Plutarch has handled the character of Brutus with partiality. He could not be ignorant of his love of money and of the oppressive manner in which he treated his unlucky creditors. Drumann (Junii, p. 20, &c.) has collected the evidence on this point. Though Brutus was an austere man and affected philosophy, his character is not free from the imputation of ingratitude to CÆsar, love of power, and avarice. He seems to have been one of those who deceive themselves into a belief of their own virtues, because they are free from other people’s vices. The promise of plunder to his soldiers is not excusable because Antonius and CÆsar did worse than he intended to do. Plutarch here alludes to many of the Italians being driven out of their lands, which were given to the soldiers who had fought on the side of CÆsar and Antonius at Philippi. The misery that was occasioned by this measure was one of the chief evils of the Civil Wars. The slaughter in war chiefly affected the soldiers themselves, and if both armies had been destroyed, the people would only have been the better for it. The misery that arose from the ejection of the hard-working husbandmen reached to their wives and children. But a country which had a large army on foot which is no longer wanted, must either pay them out of taxes and plunder, or have a revolution. Necessity was the excuse for CÆsar and Antonius, and the same necessity would have been the excuse of Brutus, if he had been victorious. Defeat saved him from this necessity.

[569] The ships which were bringing aid to CÆsar from Brundusium under the command of Domitius Calvinus. They were met and defeated by L. Statius Marcus.

[570] Nothing seems to be known about him. Of course he is not the Volumnius mentioned in c. 45.

[571] See the Life of Cato the Younger, c. 73.

[572] See the Life of Antonius, c. 70.

[573] The verse is from the Medea of Euripides (v. 332), in which Medea Is cursing her faithless husband Jason. The educated Romans were familiar with the Greek dramatists, whom they often quoted. (Compare the Life of Pompeius, c. 78.) Appian says that Brutus intended to apply this line to Antonius (Civil Wars, iv. 130).

The other verse, which Volumnius forgot, was remembered by somebody else, if it be the verse of which Florus (iv. 7) has recorded the substance, “that virtue is not a reality, but a name.” Dion Cassius (xlvii. 49, and the note of Reimarus) also has recorded two Greek verses which Brutus is said to have uttered; but he does not mention the verse which Plutarch cites. The substance of the two verses cited by Dion is this:

Volumnius might not choose to remember these verses, as Drumann suggests, in order to save the credit of his friend.

[574] See c. 11, and the Life of the younger Cato, c. 65, 73.

[575] Brutus was forty-three years of age when he died. Velleius (ii. 72) says that he was in his thirty-seventh year, which is a mistake.

The character of Brutus requires a special notice. It is easy enough to write a character of a man, but not easy to write a true one. Michelet (Histoire de la Revolution FranÇaise, ii. 545), speaking of the chief actors of the revolution in 1789. ’90, ’91, says: “We have rarely given a judgment entire, indistinct, no portrait properly speaking; all, almost all, are unjust; resulting from a mean which is taken between this and that moment in a person’s life, between the good and the bad, neutralising the one by the other, and making both false. We have judged the acts, as they present themselves, day by day, hour by hour. We have given a date to our judgments; and this has allowed us often to praise men, whom at a later time we shall have to blame. Criticism, forgetful and harsh, too often condemns beginnings which are laudable, having in view the end which it knows, of which it has a view beforehand. But we do not choose to know this end; whatever this man may do to-morrow, we note for his advantage the good which he does to-day: the end will come soon enough.” This is the true method of writing history; this is the true method of judging men. Unfortunately we cannot trace the career of many individuals with that particularity of date and circumstance which would enable us to do justice. Plutarch does not draw characters in the mass in the modern way: he gives us both the good and the bad, in detail: but with little regard sometimes to time and circumstance. He has treated Brutus with partiality: he finds only one act in his life to condemn (chap. 46). The great condemnation of Brutus is, that acting in the name of virtue, he did not know what it was; that fighting for his country, he was fighting for a party; his Roman republic was a republic of aristocrats; his people was a fraction of the Roman citizens; he conceived no scheme for regenerating a whole nation: he engaged in a death struggle in which we can feel no sympathy. His name is an idle abused theme for rhetoric; and his portrait must be drawn, ill or well, that the world may be disabused.

Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Junii, p. 34) has carefully collected the acts of Brutus; and he has judged him severely, and, I think, truly.

Brutus had moderate abilities, with great industry and much learning: he had no merit as a general, but he had the courage of a soldier, he had the reputation of virtue, and he was free from many of the vices of his contemporaries; he was sober and temperate. Of enlarged political views he had none; there is not a sign of his being superior in this respect to the mass of his contemporaries. When the Civil War broke out, he joined Pompeius, though Pompeius had murdered his father. If he gave up his private enmity, as Plutarch says, for what he believed to be the better cause, the sacrifice was honourable: if there were other motives, and I believe there were, his choice of his party does him no credit. His conspiracy against CÆsar can only be justified by those, if there are such, who think that a usurper ought to be got rid of in any way. But if a man is to be murdered, one does not expect those to take a part in the act who, after being enemies have received favours from him, and professed to be friends. The murderers should at least be a man’s declared enemies who have just wrongs to avenge. Though Brutus was dissatisfied with things under CÆsar, he was not the first mover in the conspiracy. He was worked upon by others, who knew that his character and personal relation to CÆsar would in a measure sanctify the deed; and by their persuasion, not his own resolve, he became an assassin in the name of freedom, which meant the triumph of his party, and in the name of virtue, which meant nothing.

The act was bad in Brutus as an act of treachery; and it was bad as an act of policy. It failed in its object—the success of a party, because the death of CÆsar was not enough; other victims were necessary, and Brutus would not have them. He put himself at the head of a plot, in which there was no plan: he dreamed of success and forgot the means. He mistook the circumstances of the times and the character of the men. His conduct after the murder was feeble and uncertain; and it was also as illegal as the usurpation of CÆsar. “He left Rome as prÆtor without the permission of the Senate; he took possession of a province which, even according to Cicero’s testimony, had been assigned to another; he arbitrarily passed beyond the boundaries of his province, and set his effigy on the coins.” (Drumann.) He attacked the Bessi in order to give his soldiers booty, and he plundered Asia to get money for the conflict against CÆsar and Antonius, for the mastery of Rome and Italy. The means that he had at his disposal show that he robbed without measure and without mercy; and never was greater tyranny exercised over helpless people in the name of liberty than the wretched inhabitants of Asia experienced from Brutus the “Liberator” and Cassius “the last of the Romans.” But all these great resources were thrown away in an ill-conceived and worse executed campaign.

Temperance, industry, and unwillingness to shed blood are noble qualities in a citizen and a soldier; and Brutus possessed them. But great wealth gotten by ill means is an eternal reproach; and the trade of money-lending, carried on in the names of others, with unrelenting greediness, is both avarice and hypocrisy. Cicero, the friend of Brutus, is the witness for his wealth, and for his unworthy means to increase it.

Reflecting men in all ages have a philosophy. With the educated Greeks and Romans, philosophy was religion. The vulgar belief, under whatever name it may be, is never the belief of those who have leisure for reflection. The vulgar rich and vulgar poor are immersed in sense: the man of reflection strives to emerge from it. To him the things which are seen are only the shadows of the unseen; forms without substance, but the evidence of the substantial: “for the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Epistle to the Romans, i. 20). Brutus was from his youth up a student of philosophy and well versed in the systems of the Greeks. Untiring industry and a strong memory had stored his mind with the thoughts of others, but he had not capacity enough to draw profit from his intellectual as he did from his golden treasures. His mind was a barren field on which no culture could raise an abundant crop. His wisdom was the thoughts of others, and he had ever ready in his mouth something that others had said. But to utter other men’s wisdom is not enough: a man must make it his own by the labour of independent thought. Philosophy and superstition were blended in his mind, and they formed a chaos in his bewildered brain, as they always will do; and the product is Gorgons and Hydras and Chimeras dire. In the still of night phantoms floated before his wasted strength and wakeful eyes; perhaps the vision of him, the generous and the brave, who had saved the life of an enemy in battle, and fell by his hand in the midst of peace. Conscience was his tormentor, for truth was stronger than the illusions of self-imputed virtue. Though Brutus had condemned Cato’s death, he died by his own hand, not with the stubborn resolve of Cato, who would not yield to a usurper, but merely to escape from his enemies. A Roman might be pardoned for not choosing to become the prisoner of a Roman, but his grave should have been the battlefield, and the instrument should have been the hands of those who were fighting against the cause which he proclaimed to be righteous and just. Cato’s son bettered his father’s example: he died on the plain of Philippi by the sword of the enemy. Brutus died without belief in the existence of that virtue which he had affected to follow: the triumph of a wrongful cause, as he conceived it, was a proof that virtue was an empty name. He forgot the transitory nature of all individual existences, and thought that justice perished with him. But a true philosopher does not make himself a central point, nor his own misfortunes a final catastrophe. He looks both backwards and forwards, to the past and the future, and views himself as a small link in the great chain of events which holds all things together. Brutus died in despair, with the courage, but not with the faith, of a martyr.

When men talk of tyranny and rise against it, the name of Brutus is invoked; a mere name and nothing else. What single act is there in the man’s life which promised the regeneration of his country and the freedom of mankind? Like other Romans, he only thought of maintaining the supremacy of Rome; his ideas were no larger than theirs; he had no sympathy for those whom Rome governed and oppressed. For his country, he had nothing to propose; its worn-out political constitution he would maintain, not amend; indeed, amendment was impossible. Probably he dreaded anarchy and the dissolution of social order, for that would have released his creditors and confiscated his valuable estates. But CÆsar’s usurpation was not an anarchy: it was a monarchy, a sole rule; and Brutus, who was ambitious, could not endure that. It may be said that if the political views of Brutus were narrow, he was only like most of his countrymen. But why then is he exalted, and why is his name invoked? What single title had he to distinction except what CÆsar gave him? A man of unknown family, the son of a woman whom CÆsar had debauched, pardoned after fighting against his mother’s lover, raised by him to the prÆtorship, and honoured with CÆsar’s friendship—he has owed his distinction to nothing else than murdering the man whose genius he could not appreciate, but whose favours he had enjoyed.

His spurious philosophy has helped to save him from the detestation which is his due; but the false garb should be stripped off. A stoic, an ascetic, and nothing more, is a mere negation. The active virtues of Brutus are not recorded. If he sometimes did an act of public justice (c. 35), it was not more than many other Romans have done. To reduce this philosopher to his true level, we ask, what did he say or do that showed a sympathy with all mankind? Where is the evidence that he had the feeling of justice which alone can regenerate a nation? But it may be said, why seek in a Roman of his age what we cannot expect to find? Why then elevate him above the rest of his age and consecrate his name? Why make a hero of him who murdered his benefactor, and then ran away from the city which he was to save—from we know not what? And why make a virtuous man of him who was only austere, and who did not believe in the virtues that he professed? As to statesmanship, nobody has claimed that for him yet.

“The deputy of Arras, poor, and despised even by his own party, won the confidence of the people by their belief in his probity: and he deserved it. Fanatical and narrow-minded, he was still a man of principles. Untiring industry, unshaken faith, and poverty, the guarantee of his probity, raised him slowly to distinction, and enabled him to destroy all who stood between him and the realisation of an unbending theory. Though he had sacrificed the lives of others, he scorned to save his own by doing what would have contradicted his principles: he respected the form of legality, when its substance no longer existed, and refused to sanction force when it would have been used for his own protection” (Lamartine, Histoire des Girondins, liv. 61, ix.). A great and memorable example of crime, of fanaticism, and of virtue; of a career commenced in the cause of justice, in truth, faith and sincerity; of a man who did believe in virtue, and yet spoiled the cause in which he embarked, and left behind him a name for universal execration.

Treachery at home, enmity abroad, and misconduct in its own leaders, made the French Revolution result in anarchy, and then in a tyranny. The Civil Wars of Rome resulted in a monarchy, and there was nothing else in which they could end. The Roman monarchy or the Empire was a natural birth. The French Empire was an abortion. The Roman Empire was the proper growth of the ages that had preceded it: they could produce nothing better. In a few years after the battle of Philippi, CÆsar Octavianus got rid of his partner Antonius; and under the administration of Augustus the world enjoyed comparative peace, and the Roman Empire was established and consolidated. The genius of Augustus, often ill appreciated, is demonstrated by the results of his policy. He restored order to a distracted state and transmitted his power to his successors. The huge fabric of Roman greatness resting on its ancient foundations, only crumbled beneath the assaults that time and new circumstances make against all political institutions.

[576] Velleius (ii. 71, quoted by Kaltwasser) states that some of the partisans of Brutus and Cassius wished Messala to put himself at the head of their party, but he declined to try the fortune of another contest.

[577] Compare the Life of Antonius, c. 22. Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 135) makes the same statement as Plutarch about the body of Brutus. It is not inconsistent with this that his head was cut off in order to be sent to Rome and thrown at the feet of CÆsar’s statue, as Suetonius says (Sueton. August. 13). Dion Cassius adds (xlvii. 49) that in the passage from Dyrrachium a storm came on and the head was thrown into the sea.

[578] Nikolaus of Damascus, a Peripatetic philosopher, and a friend of Augustus, wrote a universal history in Greek, in one hundred and forty-four books, of which a few fragments remain. There is also a fragment of his Life of Augustus. The best edition is that of J.C. Orelli, Leipzig, 1804, 8vo.; to which a supplement was published in 1811.

[579] The work of Valerius Maximus is dedicated to the Emperor Tiberius. The death of Porcia is mentioned in lib. iv. c. 6, 5. Appian (Civil Wars, iv. 136) and Dion Cassius (xlvii. 49) give the same account of Porcia’s death.

[580] Plutarch here evidently doubts the genuineness of the letter attributed to Brutus. The life of Brutus offered good materials for the falsifiers of history, who worked with them after rhetorical fashion. There are a few letters in the collection of Cicero which are genuine, but the single book of letters to Brutus (M. Tullii Ciceronis Epistolorum ad Brutum Liber Singularis) is condemned as a forgery by the best critics. It contains letters of Cicero to Brutus, and of Brutus to Cicero; and a letter of Brutus to Atticus. Genuine letters of Brutus, written day by day, like those of Cicero, would have formed the best materials from which we might judge him.

[581] A despatch rolled in a peculiar manner. See vol. ii. Life of Lysander, ch. 19.

[582] The battle of Kunaxa was fought on the 7th of September 401 B.C.

[583] The title of a great Persian officer of State.

[584] Egypt revolted from Persia B.C. 358. See vol. iii. Life of Agesilaus, ad. fin.

[585] A people of Media on the Caspian Sea.

[586] See Grote on Epameinondas. “The muscularity, purchased by excessive nutriment, of the Boeotian pugilist.” (Hist. of Greece, part ii. ch. lxxvii.)

[587] See vol. iii. Life of Agesilaus, c. 13, note.

[588] Ptolemy, King of Egypt.

[589] The reading Adria is obviously wrong. Droysen suggests Andros; but Thirlwall much more reasonably conjectures that the word should be Hydrea, observing that the geographical position of Andros does not suit the account given in the text. Clough prefers to read Andros, saying that “Aratus would hardly be thought to have gone from Hydrea to Euboea, which is near enough to Andros to make the supposition in this case not unnatural.” But I think that this argument makes just the other way, for the object of Aratus’s slaves was to tell the Macedonian officer that their master was gone to a place so far away that it would be useless to attempt to follow him.

[590] The word which I have here translated “portraits” generally means statues, but not necessarily. Probably most of the despots were commemorated by statues.

[591] Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander, I suppose is meant.

[592] This Alexander was the son of Kraterus, and grandson of Alexander the Great’s general of that name.

[593] A common precaution against surprise. See above, ch. viii.

[594] This was Demetrius II., the son of Antigonus Gonatas, who succeeded his father on the throne of Macedonia, B.C. 239.

[595] Apparently the great seal of the league is meant, which we must suppose was entrusted to the general for the time being.

[596] I., ii. 607.

[597] Philip’s object in this expedition was to make himself master of Apollonia and Oricum.

[598] “He was forced to burn his ships and retreat overland, leaving his baggage, ammunition, and a great part of the arms of his troops in the enemy’s hands.” (Thirlwall’s History, ch. lxiv).

[599] See Merivale’s ‘History of the Romans under the Empire,’ ch. liii. vol. vi. page 142, note.

[601] Nero set a price upon the head of Vindex, whose designs were speedily revealed to him, and though the forces of the Gaulish province were disposed to follow their chief, the more powerful legions of Lower Germany, under Virginius Rufus, were in full march against them. The armies met at Vesontio, and there Virginius and Vindex at a private interview agreed to conspire together, but their troops could come to no such understanding; the Virginians attacked the soldiers of Vindex, and almost cut them to pieces. Vindex thereupon, with the haste and levity of his race, threw himself upon his sword, and the rebellion seemed for a moment to be crushed. Merivale’s ‘History of the Romans under the Empire,’ vol. vi. ch. lv.

[602] Nero died on the 9th of June, A.D. 68.

[603] The gold ring was presented by the Roman emperors in much the same way as the insignia of an order of chivalry is given by modern sovereigns. Under the republic it had been the distinguishing mark of the equestrian order, and its possession still continued to raise its recipients to the rank of ‘eques,’ cf. Plin. H.N. 33, 2, and Paulus i. 5, de jure anul.

[604] Clough well remarks that here we may observe the beginning of a state-post, which still exists on the continent of Europe, by which all government couriers, &c., were forwarded free of expense. The modern terms of “diplomacy,” “diplomatist,” &c., is derived from the “diplomata,” or folded and sealed dispatches carried by such persons.

[605] Narbonne.

[606] Tacitus sums up the characters of these two men after his manner. “Titus Vinius and Cornelius Laco, the one the worst, the other the laziest of men, &c.” Tac. Hist. i. 6.

[607] No doubt Galba’s personal appearance offered a striking contrast to that of “the implacable, beautiful tyrant” Nero. See infra, ch. 15, and Tac. Hist. i. 7

[608] ‘Tanquam innocentes,’ Tac. Hist. i. 6.

[609] More properly “rowers,” men employed to row in ships of war, who regarded it as promotion to become legionary soldiers.

[610] Vinius had engaged to marry the daughter of Tigellinus, who was a widow with a large dower.

[611] ‘Hordeonius Flaccus,’ Tac. Hist. i. 12, 53, etc.

[612] Tigellinus, we have learned from the last chapter but one, was living at Rome. Moreover he was never in command of any legions; and evidently some legions in the provinces are meant. Clough conjectures that we should read Vitellius instead of Tigellinus; and this I think very reasonable.

[613] This seems to be a mistake, as Asiaticus was a freedman of Vitellius. See Tac. (Hist. ii. 57)

[614] Of sesterces.

[615] A.D. 69.

[616] The First Legion, in Lower Germany.

[617] At Cologne.

[618] Tac. (Hist. i. 62).

[619] Suetonius (Otho, 4) calls him Seleukus.

[620] So I have ventured to translate “speculator.” The speculatores under the empire were employed as special adjutants, messengers, and body-guards of a general.

[621] Counting inclusively in the Roman fashion.

[622] The Miliarium Aureum, or Golden Milestone. London Stone was established by the Romans in Britain for the same purpose.

[623] This habit of the ancient Romans, of being carried about Rome in litters, survives to the present day in the Pope’s “sedia gestatoria.”

[624] We learn from Tacitus that this man was the standard-bearer (vexillarius) of a cohort which still accompanied Galba. Tac. (Hist. i. 41).

[625] Galba before leaving the palace had put on a light, quilted tunic. Suet. (Galba, ch. 19).

[626] She was obliged to pay for it. Tac. (Hist. i. 47).

[627] Patrobius was a freedman of Nero who had been punished by Galba. The words “and Vitellius” are probably corrupt.

[628] Argius was Galba’s house-steward. He buried his master’s body in his own private garden. Tac. (Hist. i. 49).

[629] This life must be read as the sequel to that of Galba.

[630] See Life of Galba, ch. viii., note.

[631] Tac. (Hist. i. 80, 82, s. 99).

[632] A body of troops, consisting of two centuriae (Polyb. ii. 23, 1), and consequently commanded by two centurions.

[633] Tacitus (Hist. i. 83, 84) gives Otho’s speech at length.

[634] Almost literally translated by Plutarch from Tacitus (Hist. i. 71)

[635] Tac. (Hist. i. 86).

[636] Caius Julius CÆsar.

[637] Tac. (Hist. i. 86).

[638] These are more particularly described in Tac. (Hist. ii. 21).

[639] I imagine that CÆcina made himself disliked by using signs instead of speaking, not that he had forgotten his language, but because he did not choose to speak to the provincial magistrates. Tacitus (Hist. ii. 20) says that he conducted himself modestly while in Italy.

[640] We learn from Tacitus (Hist. ii. 20) that her name was Salonina. He adds that she did no one any harm, but that people were offended with her because she rode upon a fine horse and dressed in scarlet.

[641] “At every place where he halted his devouring legions, and at every place which he was induced to pass without halting, this rapacious chief required to be gratified with money, under threats of plunder and conflagration.” Merivale (History of the Romans, ch. lvi.)

[642] Tacitus (Hist. i. 87) describes Julius Proculus as active in the discharge of his duties at Rome, but ignorant of real war. He was, Tacitus adds, a knave and a villain, who got himself preferred before honest men by the unscrupulous accusations which he brought against them.

[643] Tac. Hist. ii. 30.

[644] Tacitus, (Hist. ii. 39) says that Otho was not present, but sent letters to the generals urging them to make haste. He adds that it is not so easy to decide what ought to have been done as to condemn what was actually done.

[645] Tac. (Hist. ii. 37).

[646] Tac. (Hist. ii. 43). The legions were the 21st “Rapax,” and the 1st “Adjutrix.”

[647] Their journey was, no doubt, back to Rome.