Part 2

Moreover Pompey during his consulship, with the acquiescence of Crassus, made another great change. He restored the tribuneship to what it had been, so that the tribunes might even again propose laws, it being reserved to the augurs alone to interpose; besides which, the tribunes were to be again allowed to get curule offices when they had served their time, as had been the custom before the days of Sylla. Pompey saw that Sylla had made a blunder, and he wished to root out the evil at once, without being aware that it was only by going too far that the mischief had been done: for it is ever the fault of men of moderate abilities when in power, that they are always for running into extremes, and keeping no bounds. But any essential reform was in fact impossible, the tribuneship being a monstrous nuisance which it was necessary to abate.

This happened during the consulship of Pompey in the year 682; the further changes down to Cicero’s consulship (689), I leave until then.

The war with Mithridates broke out almost instantly after the death of Nicomedes, many provocations having been given on the side of the Romans: its immediate cause was the alliance of Mithridates with Sertorius. He was completely armed for war, as far as could be done by dint of money and great exertions. The rock on which his enterprise was to split, was his having Asiatics under him, he himself also being one; for Mithridates has been overrated in history. Whatever gold in masses could accomplish, he achieved; but it was to little purpose that he was ever sending new armies into the field, a thing which he was enabled to do by spending vast sums: he knew neither how to conduct a campaign nor to fight a battle. He overran Paphlagonia, and burst into Bithynia and Cappadocia, advancing as far as Chalcedon in Bithynia, into which he drove the Roman consul Cotta. His fleet had decided success; for he chased the Roman ships into the harbour, and took them, The Romans had still (it was then the year 678) the old soldiers of Valerius Flaccus, who had now been there for about thirteen years: these men were quite demoralized, their ranks were thinned by death, and their tempers soured by their having been kept as it were in banishment. Mithridates therefore, after taking Chalcedon and Heraclea, had the way before him open to the most wealthy and powerful town of Cyzicus, a place which maintained its fidelity to the Romans with the same determination which it had already displayed in former campaigns. He had posted his troops on the island upon which part of the city is built, being connected with the mainland only by a dyke: from this island and from the sea, he battered the town with all his engines. The people of Cyzicus, alone, and without any help from the Romans, beat off all the attacks of the enemy. In the meanwhile, Lucullus came to Asia. He was a staunch

## partisan of Sylla, and of melancholy importance in Roman history: more

than any other Roman, he transplanted the luxury of Asia to Rome. He was distinguished as a general, and as Cicero thinks so highly of him, he must certainly have had some estimable qualities; but he cannot have gotten his great wealth by fair means. Whilst Mithridates was besieging Cyzicus, Lucullus took a very advantageous position in Phrygia, on the Æsepus; and there, by cutting off his supplies, he put Mithridates to such straits that he was forced to raise the siege, after which he was no longer able to keep his ground any where. Mithridates indeed carried on the siege of Cyzicus too long; yet he ought not to be blamed too harshly for it, since the same thing has happened with generals of higher name. All great generals have made blunders in their turn, with perhaps the solitary exception of the Duke of Wellington. But the king now at once retreats, vanishes entirely from our sight, and is in the heart of Pontus whither Lucullus follows him. Here also Mithridates does not know how to defend himself at all, or to make any sort of stand; nor even how to impede the enemy when it was besieging the towns which, like Amisus, Sinope, and others, bravely held out; nor yet how to relieve a place; but he lets himself be driven out of his country, and throws him self into the arms of Tigranes with whom he was allied by marriage. All his great armaments, his hundreds of thousands of hoplites were dispersed; all the most important towns of Western Pontus, the truly favoured part of the land, were conquered. Lucullus now followed him across the mountains into Armenia, and besieged Tigranocerta in the Arzanene, in the district of Erzerum. The Armenian army was in the first battle scattered like chaff before the wind, and Tigranocerta also was taken after a somewhat better conducted siege, which, however, did not last long. Tigranes fell back before Lucullus. Gibbon very justly remarks, that under circumstances which seem unfavourable, the character of a people will sometimes strikingly change; but that sometimes it will only change in some of its features, and not in others. The Armenians behaved on this occasion, just as cowardly as the troops of Xerxes had done against the Greeks, and they had shown themselves the same at the retreat of the ten thousand; but they afterwards improved so much, that in the times of the Eastern Roman Empire, until late in the middle ages, the Armenian soldiers were among the very bravest, and formed the flower of the Byzantine army. Armenia is a very cold country, so that we can still less account for the former cowardice of the nation, as Gibbon likewise remarks: the Highlands of Armenia are much colder than Germany; in the neighbourhood of Erzerum snow often falls as early as towards the end of September, and quite commonly in October. Yet it seems that other causes exercised their influence. In after days, the Armenians, since the spread of the Christian religion among them, became very important allies to the Christian Emperors against the Magians of Persia; and still later they distinguished themselves by their enthusiasm for the Paulician tenets. Lucullus went on as far as Mesopotamia, and took up his head-quarters at Nisibis, the Zobah of the 2d book of Samuel[2] (in the Vulgate, the 2d book of Kings), the seat of the Syrian kings in that country; which from the times of Diocletian became the border fortress of the Romans against Persia. Here Lucullus seems chiefly to have employed his power as proconsul for the purpose of enriching himself. At Nisibis, a mutiny broke out among his soldiers, headed by his brother-in-law, P. Clodius: (Lucullus had married one of his sisters.) This outbreak originated with the Valerian soldiers, who had obtained a promise at Rome, that those who had served twenty years should have their discharge. The actual period of service was in those days more and more prolonged, whilst in the times of the younger Scipio not more than six years of uninterrupted military service were exacted: the Valerians therefore had a very good right to demand their discharge. Yet Lucullus would not part with them; perhaps because he had not received the necessary reinforcements, and was not able to let them go. Clodius on this occasion played the mutineer, as he did during the whole of his life. Lucullus, thus checked in his progress, was obliged to retreat to Cappadocia: thither Mithridates again broke in, and he routed C. Valerius Triarius, and reconquered the greater part of Pontus. An outcry had already been raised against Lucullus, that he wanted to protract the war for the sake of enriching himself; and now that the campaign was unfavourable, he was compelled to yield the command to Pompey.

Pompey, in the meanwhile, after the conclusion of the war against Sertorius, had conducted that against the pirates. These must have been a nuisance of long standing; for the rough inhabitants of the coasts of Cilicia had been sea-rovers for ages: even as early as the Macedonian time, they are mentioned as such; so that they must already have had their strongholds there. The coast of Cilicia was also very well suited for this; for although there were some important and thriving towns, like Tarsus, there, the people mostly dwelt in small fortified places as at Maina. Formerly this coast land had been subject to the Syrian rule; but when the power of the Seleucidæ was broken up in the year 630, Cilicia became independent, and many robbers by land and by sea settled there, especially in Κιλικία τραχεῖα. In the war of Mithridates, they were encouraged by the latter to make prizes, and their daring was beyond belief: Cicero in his oration _de imperio Cn. Pompeii_ (thus, and not _de lege Manilia_ it is called in all the MSS,) gives an idea of the extent of this pest. From the coast of Syria to the pillars of Hercules, no man was safe anywhere; all the seas were swarming with the ships of the pirates. Those whom they took prisoners they dragged into their fastnesses, obliging them to ransom themselves; or else they sold them, or tortured them to death and threw them into the sea. In Italy itself, they sacked and conquered towns: they once even landed at Ostia whence they carried off Romans of rank who were walking about the shore, even prætors with all the state attached to their office. Rome depended on supplies from Sicily and other agricultural countries, and as these were very often intercepted, the city was in constant dread of a famine. Allied with the pirates were the Cretans, who had, at all times, been robbers like them by sea and land. The naval force of the Romans had much decayed; whereas the pirates had a countless number of boats, which, though small, were too strong for a merchantman. Pompey now received the command against this enemy, and this is the most brilliant period of his life. The fame which he acquired on this occasion is well earned: his plan of operations is quite excellent. He surrounded them as with a net in a battue, and hunted them out of the most distant spots; then, more and more closely contracting his own fleet until he drove them to Cilicia, he overpowered them in a battle, took their ships, and reduced their towns, transferring the inhabitants to other places;

## partly into larger Cilician towns and fruitful districts, where they

might gain their livelihood, and at the same time be well watched;

## partly also into Greece, especially into the neighbourhood of Dyme, into

Achaia and the wasted countries of the Peloponnesus.

This was a benefit to the world itself: for this Pompey deserved the everlasting thanks of all who dwelt on the coasts of the Mediterranean. Standing higher than ever in public opinion, he was in consequence of this popularity intrusted with the war against Mithridates. Nor had the Romans ever reason to rue this decision, though indeed they made victory much more easy for him than it had been for Lucullus, as he received considerable reinforcements. Mithridates lost in one battle all that he had regained, without the Roman arms having any great honour from it: he fled to Colchis, and from thence along the roots of mount Caucasus to the Bosporus. Pompey followed close at his heels, by what is now Erzerum, as far as Georgia and the neighbourhood of Tiflis, and the princes of that country did homage to Rome: one of the sons of Mithridates, named Machares, who held the kingdom of Bosporus as a fief, made a separate peace with the Romans; but when he heard that his father was approaching, he laid hands on his own life. Mithridates, who in his misfortunes, with eastern fury, freely vented his passions upon those around him, now became an object of hatred; his servants and children (of whom he had very many) trembled before him. Moreover, he had formed boundless plans: having still a great deal of money, he now conceived the vast design of going to Italy; and he wanted to stir up the Bastarnæ and other peoples on the banks of the Danube, to league themselves with him. When his soldiers heard of this, they could not but remark, that as yet none of his undertakings had been successful; and so they broke out into a mutiny at Panticapæum, being joined by Pharnaces the king’s son. The outbreak displayed all the dreadful features of an eastern insurrection; and therefore Mithridates put an end to his own life, thinking perhaps that his son would not rest until he knew his father to be dead. Pharnaces now made peace with Pompey, and he was not ashamed to send him his father’s body: Pompey, however, had it buried with kingly pomp. Pharnaces got the kingdom of the Bosporus and the neighbouring lands, as well as the country of the Cubanians; and this he kept until the later times of Cæsar: when, however, he ventured to mix himself up with the civil wars (_se inserere armis Romanis_ as Tacitus expresses it), he met with his ruin. Pompey now turned his arms against Tigranes, who was glad to obtain a shameful peace by paying a large sum of money, and by giving up all his possessions with the exception of Armenia: even of this he had to yield a part to a rebellious son, but it soon came back to him. Syria he had to renounce altogether: it was reduced _in formam provinciæ Romanæ_. Pompey went as far as Egypt, and made himself master of Syria and Phœnicia: one of his generals even reached the country of the Nabathæan Arabs, where he received the homage of the Arab king Haret. In Judæa, Hyrcanus and Aristobulus were contending for the throne: Pompey declared for the former. Aristobulus was made prisoner, and led a captive in his triumph; the town of Jerusalem fell into the power of the Romans; the temple was held against them for nearly three months, and then it was taken and pillaged, but not destroyed.

The death of Mithridates happened in the year of Cicero’s consulship, the conquest of Syria in the following one: it is not certain whether Pompey’s triumph was at the end of the year 690, or in the beginning of 691. Pompey’s behaviour after the conclusion of the war was praiseworthy. He showed an _animus civilis_, and dismissed the whole of his army: he might have tried to do just what Sylla did, and made himself the tyrant of the republic. Of the extravagantly flattering honours bestowed upon him, he only once took advantage, and that was at the Circensian games. Thus far he behaved sensibly enough; but in other respects, his conduct in peace was soon such as to belie the name of Magnus, which had been conferred upon him by Sylla in war. His triumph was magnificent: among the trophies, there was a list of the tributes which the commonwealth had gained from the conquered countries. The numbers of these, however, as given in Plutarch, seem to me rather too small than too great: if we bear in mind the immense land-taxes which in the time of the Maccabees came in from Judæa and other districts in Syria, we cannot believe that these numbers can have been correct. It is true that the amount of the new revenue was larger than the sum total of all that had been levied until then; but it is also to be taken into account, that Syria was one of the finest and richest countries in the world.

CATILINE; CICERO.

We now come to Catiline, who, as an English writer says of Cromwell, is “damned to everlasting fame;” a saying which is far more applicable to him, as even Cromwell was an angel when compared with Catiline. In Italian tales (in Malespini, for instance), he is so much the hero of crime, and become such a popular character, that the vulgar corruption of his name, which indeed is but a slight one (_Catellina_), has found its way into the Latin manuscripts. I refer you for his history to Sallust, who has written it with great truthfulness, giving every one his due, and doing full justice even to Cicero, without heeding the silly gossip of the people. He was himself, at that time, already a young man and capable of observation; and he also became very soon afterwards acquainted with the first men, such as Cæsar and Crassus.

Catiline, according to Cicero and Sallust, was indeed an extraordinary being, endowed with all the qualities of a great man in such times: he was of unequalled bravery and daring, and of giant strength of body and mind; yet so thoroughly Satanic a creature, that his like is hardly to be found in history, even though his oath, in taking which he drank the blood of a child mixed with wine, and caused his conspirators to do the same, may be but an idle tale. He had been a soldier of Sylla, and had greatly distinguished himself in his days: he therefore found himself in the same condition as the _Terroristes_ and the _Septembriseurs_ were under the consulship, after the eighteenth of Brumaire. After terrible civil wars, there remains for many persons who have allowed themselves the greatest excesses, nothing but to return to bloodshed, even though they have nothing particular to gain by it. It is altogether a doubtful question, and one concerning which I have not been able to form any positive opinion, what Catiline had in view. If we suppose that he had a definite purpose, to attain which his crimes were only as means, his object cannot be made out; but if crime itself was his object, then we may understand his character. We have only to represent to ourselves clearly the utter demoralization of that age: the anarchy of Athens which is so much spoken of, was nothing in comparison to that of Rome; it had settled down into forms of its own, and Athens was but a small state. But in Rome there were some hundreds, or at most some thousands of men, who were the masters of the world: these were divided among themselves, recognising no law, no order, and striving by hook or by crook to get their own ends, whilst the republic was a mere name and no one paid any regard to the existing laws. There were, for instance, heavy penalties denounced against bribery at elections, which moreover had often been re-enacted and increased; and yet every body knew that, except in extraordinary cases, as in that of Cicero, no one could be consul at Rome unless he spent huge sums. The _Romani rustici_ had no weight whatever: besides the men of rank, the rabble alone had still some importance left; and it was employed by the leading citizens to fight their battles against each other. In such times, even a man like Catiline might in the eyes of very ambitious people seem to be a useful tool; and the accusation against Crassus, a man of most middling abilities, that he wanted to use him for his own ends, is to me not at all unlikely, although Catiline, had he been successful, would have certainly trampled him under his feet. If Catiline had any object at all, it was perhaps to become a second Sylla, a perpetual dictator with absolute power; and then he would not have troubled himself for anything more. Two years before Cicero’s consulship, he had already intended to murder those who were consuls at that time, and to make himself master of the republic. We know him in his most brilliant light from Cicero himself, the very man whom he hated above all others: for he says of him, that he had a magic power by which he fascinated and enslaved all who came near him; that it was not uncommon for young people, having been attracted by his gigantic qualities, to attach themselves to him; and that whoever had once been within his reach, had never been able to get out of his clutches. Cicero himself had defended Catiline before a court of justice. Catiline had been an officer of high rank under Sylla, and afterwards prætor, and an action (_repetundarum_) was brought against him from which he had a very narrow escape: it may have been on this occasion that Cicero was his advocate. On the whole, people had their eyes upon him, and his designs were dreaded, though no one had the courage to face him: it was believed that he would burn and pillage, if he once got into power. The most opposite characters, even many of Sylla’s partisans, were convinced that they, just as well as any one else, would fall his victims.

Cicero now stood for the consulship. Yet though his integrity and his transcendent talents commanded general esteem, his prospects were but poor. With the people indeed, he was a great favourite; but the men of rank opposed him as a _homo novus_; prætor he had been already. The well-grounded news, however, that Catiline and the conspirators meant to murder the candidates for the consulship, and the belief that there was no preventing the election of C. Antonius, an uncle of the triumvir, who was greatly suspected of a connexion with Catiline, induced the nobles to declare for Cicero. Thus he became consul in the year 698.

Cicero was born on the 3rd of January, in the year 647 according to Cato (649, according to Varro, which is easier to remember, as it reminds one of the year of Goethe’s birth);[3] he was a native of the municipal town of Arpinum, from which Marius also had come. Arpinum was by no means a small place; on the contrary, for a provincial town in the interior of the country, it was very large and important, and it was also one of those which are called the Cyclopian towns: now indeed it is only a poor place. All the men of Arpinum undoubtedly were proud of Marius, an impression which Cicero had shared from a youth, especially as there was some kind of relationship between his family and that of Marius. His own family was very respectable; in a petty feud in his town, his grandfather was on the side of the _optimates_. His father and grandfather were acquainted with the first families in Rome, and indeed with the enemies of Marius, with Scævola and others of the aristocratical party; so that the discord which runs through the whole life of Cicero, takes its beginning even then. To Marius Gratidianus he was also akin.