Plutarch's Lives, Volume 3 (of 4)

Chapter 14 He Speaks of the Elephants As the King's, or the King's

elephants, as if the elephants that Pompeius took were merely some that belonged to Iarbas or some of the African kings, and had got loose. Plinius (N.H. viii. 1) speaks of elephants in the forests of Mauritania. They are enumerated by Herodotus (iv. 191) among the beasts of North Africa.]

The remarks at the end of the chapter may be useful to some men who would meddle with matters political, when their only training has been in camps. Pompeius was merely a soldier, and had no capacity for civil affairs.]

As to the number of the pirates who surrendered, see Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 96).]

Appianus (Mithridatic War, c. 104) places these transactions with Tigranes after the battle with the Iberians which Plutarch describes in c. 34.]

On the value of the drachma, see Life of Tib. Gracchus, c. 2.]

It is true that Alexander soon quitted Hyrkania, which lies on the south-east coast of the Caspian; but when he was in Hyrkania he was still a considerable distance from the Iberians. (Arrianus, iii. 23, &c.)]

The narrative of Plutarch omits many circumstances in the campaigns of Pompeius, which Appianus has described (c. 105, 106) a happening between the arrangement with Tigranes and the surrender of the fort by Stratonike. Among these events was the war in Judæa and the capture of Jerusalem. Pompeius entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, into which only the high priest could enter, and that on certain occasions. Jerusalem was taken B.C. 63 in the consulship of Cicero. The events of this campaign are too confused to be reduced into chronological order. Drumann has attempted it (Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 451, &c.)]

This was the first permanent theatre that Rome had. It was built partly on the model of that of Mitylene and it was opened in the year B.C. 55. This magnificent theatre, which would accommodate 40,000 people, stood in the Campus Martius. It was built of stone with the exception of the scena, and ornamented with statues, which were placed there under the direction of Atticus, who was a man of taste. Augustus embellished the theatre, and he removed thither the statue of Pompeius, which up to that time had stood in the Curia where Cæsar was murdered. The scena was burnt down in the time of Tiberius, who began to rebuild it; but it was not finished till the reign of Claudius. Nero gilded the interior. The scena was again burnt in the beginning of the reign of Titus, who restored it again. The scena was again burnt in the reign of Philippus and a third time restored. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 521; Dion Cassius 39. c. 88, and the notes of Reimarus.)]

The king against whom Pompeius was marching is named Aretas by Dion Cassius (37. c. 15).]

The text of the last sentence in this chapter is corrupt; and the meaning is uncertain.]

A rhinoceros was also exhibited at the games of Pompeius; and an actress was brought on the stage, who had made her first appearance in the consulship of C. Marius the younger, and Cn. Carbo B.C. 82, but she made her appearance again in the time of Augustus, A.D. 9, in the consulship of Poppæus, when she was 103 years old, 91 years after her first appearance. (Plinius, H.N. vii. 49.) Drumann says, when speaking of the games of Pompeius, "a woman of unusually advanced age was brought forward;" but the words of Plinius "anus pro miraculo reducta," apply to her last appearance. A woman of one-and-forty was no uncommon thing then, nor is it now. The pointing in the common texts is simply the cause of the blunder.]

"Momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum, Gallorum captus spoliis et Cæsaris auro."--

Lucanus, Pharsalia, iv. 819

As to the vote on the proposition of Curio, Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 30) agrees with Plutarch. Dion Cassius (40. c. 64: and 41. c. 2) gives a different account of this transaction.]

In his Civil War (i. 24) Numerius is called Cneius Magius, 'Præfectus fabrorum,' or head of the engineer department. Sintenis observes that Oudendorp might have used this passage for the purpose of restoring the true prænomen in Cæsar's text, 'Numerius' in place of 'Cneius.']

------"cur apricum Oderit campum patiens pulveris atque solis?

* * * * *

------sæpe disco Sæpe trans finem jaculo nobilis expedito."--Horatius, Od. i. 8.

Compare the Life of Marius (34).

The Romans maintained their bodily vigour by athletic and military exercises to a late period of life. The bath, swimming, riding, and the throwing of the javelin were the means by which they maintained their health and strength. A Roman commander at the age of sixty was a more vigorous man than modern commanders at the like age generally are.]

Cæsar reached Brundisium at the close of the year B.C. 49. See the remarks on the time in Clinton, Fasti, B.C. 49. Oricum or Oricus was a town on the coast of Epirus, south of Apollonia.]

'On the third day.' Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 10) says 'triduo proximo," and the correction of Moses du Soul, [Greek: hêmera rhêtê] ἡμέρα ῥητῆ, is therefore unnecessary. Pompeius had moved westward from Thessalonica at the time when Rufus was sent to him, and was in Candavia on his road to Apollonia and Dyrrachium (Cæsar, Civil War, iii. 11).]

"Their bloody sign of battle is hung out."

Plutarch means the Vexillum. He has expressed by his word ([Greek: protheinai] προθεῖναι) the 'propono' of Cæsar (Bell. Gall. ii. 20; Bell. Hispan. c. 28, Bell. Alexandr. c. 45). The 'hung out' is a better translation than 'unfurled.']

The order of the battle is described by Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 89). Plutarch here and in the Life of Cæsar (c. 44) says that Pompeius commanded the right, but Cæsar says that he was on the left. Domitius, that is, L. Domitius Ahenobarbus (Consul B.C. 54), may have commanded under him. Cn. Domitius Calvinus (Consul B.C. 53), whom Plutarch calls Calvinus Lucius, commanded Cæsar's centre. The account of Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 76) does not agree with Cæsar's.]

The last sentence of this chapter is somewhat obscure, and the opinions of the critics vary as to the reading. See the note of Sintenis.]

Lucanus (viii. 251) makes Pompeius first land at Phaselis in Lycia.]

As to the circumstances in this chapter, compare Dion Cassius (42. c. 3), Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 84), and Cæsar (Civil War, iii. 104). Cæsar simply mentions the assassination of Pompeius. He says no more about it.]

COMPARISON OF AGESILAUS AND POMPEIUS.

I. As both these men's lives are now before us, let us briefly recapitulate them, observing as we do so the points in which they differ from one another. These are as follows:--First, Pompeius obtained his power and renown by the most strictly legitimate means, chiefly by his own exertions when assisting Sulla in the liberation of Italy; while Agesilaus obtained the throne in defiance of both human and divine laws, for he declared Leotychides to be a bastard, although his brother had publicly recognised him as his own son, and he also by a quibble evaded the oracle about a lame reign.

Secondly, Pompeius both respected Sulla while he lived, gave his body an honourable burial, in spite of Lepidus, when he died, and married Sulla's daughter to his own son Faustus; while Agesilaus, on a trifling pretext, disgraced and ruined Lysander. Yet Sulla gave Pompeius nothing more than he possessed himself, whereas Lysander made Agesilaus king of Sparta, and leader of the united armies of Greece.

Thirdly, the political wrong-doings of Pompeius were chiefly committed to serve his relatives, Cæsar and Scipio; while Agesilaus saved Sphodrias from the death which he deserved for his outrage upon the Athenians merely to please his son, and vigorously supported Phœbidas when he committed a similar breach of the peace against the Thebans. And generally, we may say that while Pompeius only injured the Romans through inability to refuse the demands of friends, or through ignorance, Agesilaus ruined the Lacedæmonians by plunging them into war with Thebes, to gratify his own angry and quarrelsome temper.

II. If it be right to attribute the disasters which befel either of those men to some special ill-luck which attended them, the Romans had no reason whatever to suspect any such thing of Pompeius; but Agesilaus, although the Lacedæmonians well knew the words of the oracle, yet would not allow them to avoid "a lame reign." Even if Leotychides had been proved a thousand times to be a bastard, the family of Eurypon could have supplied Sparta with a legitimate and sound king, had not Lysander, for the sake of Agesilaus, deceived them as to the true meaning of the oracle. On the other hand, we have no specimen of the political ingenuity of Pompeius which can be compared with that admirable device of Agesilaus, when he readmitted the survivors of the battle of Leuktra to the privileges of Spartan citizens, by permitting the laws to sleep for one day. Pompeius did not even think it his duty to abide by the laws which he had himself enacted, but broke them to prove his great power to his friends. Agesilaus, when forced either to abolish the laws or to ruin his friends, discovered an expedient by which the laws did his friends no hurt, and yet had not to be abolished in order to save them. I also place to the credit of Agesilaus that unparalleled act of obedience, when on receiving a despatch from Sparta he abandoned the whole of his Asian enterprise. For Agesilaus did not, like Pompeius, enrich the state by his own exploits, but looking solely to the interests of his country, he gave up a position of greater glory and power than any Greek before or since ever held, with the single exception of Alexander.

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