Plutarch's Lives, trans by A. H. Clough
by Plutarch
Hypertext Meanings and Commentaries
from the Encyclopedia of the Self
by Mark Zimmerman
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Impelled by thoughts of this kind, they went in a body into the room,
and taking him amongst them, conducted him towards the sea-side; on
his way to which, though everyone was very officious to him, and all
made what haste they could, yet a considerable time was likely to be
lost. For the grove of Marica, (as she is called,) which the people
hold sacred, and make it a point of religion not to let anything
that is once carried into it be taken out, lay just in their road to
the sea, and if they should go round about, they must needs come very
late thither. At length one of the old men cried out and said, there
was no place so sacred, but they might pass through it for Marius's
preservation; and thereupon, first of all, he himself, taking up some
of the baggage that was carried for his accommodation to the ship,
passed through the grove, all the rest immediately, with the same
readiness, accompanying him. And one Belaeus, (who afterwards had a
picture of these things drawn, and put it in a temple at the place of
embarkation,) having by this time provided him a ship, Marius went on
board, and, hoisting sail, was by fortune thrown upon the island
Aenaria, where meeting with Granius, and his other friends, he sailed
with them for Africa. But their water failing them in the way, they
were forced to put in near Eryx, in Sicily, where was a Roman
quaestor on the watch, who all but captured Marius himself on his
landing, and did kill sixteen of his retinue that went to fetch
water. Marius, with all expedition loosing thence, crossed the sea
to the isle of Meninx, where he first heard the news of his son's
escape with Cethegus, and of his going to implore the assistance of
Hiempsal, king of Numidia.

With this news, being somewhat comforted, he ventured to pass from
that isle towards Carthage. Sextilius, a Roman, was then governor in
Africa; one that had never received either any injury or any
kindness from Marius; but who from compassion, it was hoped, might
lend him some help. But he was scarce got ashore with a small
retinue, when an officer met him, and said, "Sextilius, the governor,
forbids you, Marius, to set foot in Africa; if you do, he says, he
will put the decree of the senate in execution, and treat you as an
enemy to the Romans."  When Marius heard this, he wanted words to
express his grief and resentment, and for a good while held his
peace, looking sternly upon the messenger, who asked him what he
should say, or what answer he should return to the governor? Marius
answered him with a deep sigh: "Go tell him that you have seen Caius
Marius sitting in exile among the ruins of Carthage;" appositely
applying the example of the fortune of that city to the change of his
own condition.

In the interim, Hiempsal, king of Numidia, dubious of what he should
determine to do, treated young Marius and those that were with him
very honorably; but when they had a mind to depart, he still had some
presence or other to detain them, and it was manifest he made these
delays upon no good design. However, there happened an accident that
made well for their preservation. The hard fortune which attended
young Marius, who was of a comely aspect, touched one of the king's
concubines, and this pity of hers, was the beginning and occasion of
love for him. At first he declined the woman's solicitations, but
when he perceived that there was no other way of escaping, and that
her offers were more serious than for the gratification of
intemperate passion, he accepted her kindness, and she finding means
to convey them away, he escaped with his friends and fled to his
father. As soon as they had saluted each other, and were going by
the sea-side, they saw some scorpions fighting, which Marius took
for an ill omen, whereupon they immediately went on board a little
fisher-boat, and made toward Cercina, an island not far distant from
the continent. They had scarce put off from shore when they espied
some horse, sent after them by the king, with all speed making toward
that very place from which they were just retired. And Marius thus
escaped a danger, it might be said, as great as any he ever incurred.

At Rome news came that Sylla was engaged with Mithridates's generals
in Boeotia; the consuls, from factious opposition, were fallen to
downright fighting, wherein Octavius prevailing, drove Cinna out of
the city for attempting despotic government, and made Cornelius
Merula consul in his stead; while Cinna, raising forces in other
parts of Italy, carried the war against them. As soon as Marius
heard of this, he resolved, with all expedition, to put to sea again,
and taking with him from Africa some Mauritanian horse, and a few of
the refugees out of Italy, all together not above one thousand, he,
with this handful, began his voyage. Arriving at Telamon, in
Etruria, and coming ashore, he proclaimed freedom for the slaves; and
many of the countrymen, also, and shepherds thereabouts, who were
already freemen, at the hearing his name flocked to him to the
sea-side. He persuaded the youngest and strongest to join him, and
in a small time got together a competent force with which he filled
forty ships. Knowing Octavius to be a good man and willing to
execute his office with the greatest justice imaginable, and Cinna to
be suspected by Sylla, and in actual warfare against the established
government, he determined to join himself and his forces with the
latter. He, therefore, sent a message to him, to let him know that
he was ready to obey him as consul.

When Cinna had joyfully received his offer, naming him proconsul, and
sending him the fasces and other ensigns of authority, he said, that
grandeur did not become his present fortune; but wearing an ordinary
habit, and still letting his hair grow as it had done, from that very
day he first went into banishment, and being now above threescore and
ten years old, he came slowly on foot, designing to move people's
compassion; which did not prevent, however, his natural fierceness of
expression from still predominating, and his humiliation still let it
appear that he was not so much dejected as exasperated, by the change
of his condition. Having saluted Cinna and the soldiers, he
immediately prepared for action, and soon made a considerable
alteration in the posture of affairs. He first cut off the provision
ships, and plundering all the merchants, made himself master of the
supplies of corn; then bringing his navy to the seaport towns, he
took them, and at last, becoming master of Ostia by treachery, he
pillaged that town, and slew a multitude of the inhabitants, and,
blocking up the river, took from the enemy all hopes of supply by the
sea; then marched with his army toward the city, and posted himself
upon the hill called Janiculum.

The public interest did not receive so great damage from Octavius's
unskillfulness in his management of affairs, as from his omitting
needful measures, through too strict observance of the law. As when
several advised him to make the slaves free, he said that he would
not give slaves the privilege of the country from which he then, in
defense of the laws, was driving away Marius. When Metellus, son to
that Metellus who was general in the war in Africa, and afterwards
banished through Marius's means, came to Rome, being thought a much
better commander than Octavius, the soldiers, deserting the consul,
came to him and desired him to take the command of them and preserve
the city; that they, when they had got an experienced valiant
commander, should fight courageously, and come off conquerors. But
when Metellus, offended at it, commanded them angrily to return to
the consul, they revolted to the enemy. Metellus, too, seeing the
city in a desperate condition, left it; but a company of Chaldaeans,
sacrificers, and interpreters of the Sibyl's books, persuaded
Octavius that things would turn out happily, and kept him at Rome.
He was, indeed, of all the Romans the most upright and just, and
maintained the honor of the consulate, without cringing or
compliance, as strictly in accordance with ancient laws and usages,
as though they had been immutable mathematical truths; and yet fell,
I know not how, into some weaknesses, giving more observance to
fortune-tellers and diviners, than to men skilled in civil and
military affairs. He therefore, before Marius entered the city, was
pulled down from the rostra, and murdered by those that were sent
before by Marius; and it is reported there was a Chaldaean writing
found in his gown, when he was slain. And it seemed a thing very
unaccountable, that of two famous generals, Marius should be often
successful by the observing divinations, and Octavius ruined by the
same means.

When affairs were in this posture, the senate assembled, and sent a
deputation to Cinna and Marius, desiring them to come into the city
peaceably and spare the citizens. Cinna, as consul, received the
embassy, sitting in the curule chair, and returned a kind answer to
the messengers; Marius stood by him and said nothing, but gave
sufficient testimony by the gloominess of his countenance, and the
sternness of his looks, that he would in a short time fill the city
with blood. As soon as the council arose, they went toward the city,
where Cinna entered with his guards, but Marius stayed at the gates,
and, dissembling his rage, professed that he was then an exile and
banished his country by course of law; that if his presence were
necessary, they must, by a new decree, repeal the former act by which
he was banished; as though he were, indeed, a religious observer of
the laws, and as if he were returning to a city free from fear or
oppression. Hereupon the people were assembled, but before three or
four tribes had given their votes, throwing up his pretenses and his
legal scruples about his banishment, he came into the city with a
select guard of the slaves who had joined him, whom he called
Bardyaei. These proceeded to murder a number of citizens, as he gave
command, partly by word of mouth, partly by the signal of his nod.
At length Ancharius, a senator, and one that had been praetor, coming
to Marius, and not being resaluted by him, they with their drawn
swords slew him before Marius's face; and henceforth this was their
token, immediately to kill all those who met Marius and saluting him
were taken no notice of, nor answered with the like courtesy; so that
his very friends were not without dreadful apprehensions and horror,
whensoever they came to speak with him.

When they had now butchered a great number, Cinna grew more remiss
and cloyed with murders; but Marius's rage continued still fresh and
unsatisfied, and he daily sought for all that were any way suspected
by him. Now was every road and every town filled with those that
pursued and hunted them that fled and hid themselves; and it was
remarkable that there was no more confidence to be placed, as things
stood, either in hospitality or friendship; for there were found but
a very few that did not betray those that fled to them for shelter.
And thus the servants of Cornutus deserve the greater praise and
admiration, who, having concealed their master in the house, took the
body of one of the slain, cut off the head, put a gold ring on the
finger, and showed it to Marius's guards, and buried it with the same
solemnity as if it had been their own master. This trick was
perceived by nobody, and so Cornutus escaped, and was conveyed by his
domestics into Gaul.

Marcus Antonius, the orator, though he, too, found a true friend, had
ill-fortune. The man was but poor and a plebeian, and as he was
entertaining a man of the greatest rank in Rome, trying to provide
for him with the best he could, he sent his servant to get some wine
of neighboring vintner. The servant carefully tasting it and bidding
him draw better, the fellow asked him what was the matter, that he
did not buy new and ordinary wine as he used to do, but richer and of
a greater price; he, without any design, told him as his old friend
and acquaintance, that his master entertained Marcus Antonius, who
was concealed with him. The villainous vintner, as soon as the
servant was gone, went himself to Marius, then at supper, and being
brought into his presence, told him, he would deliver Antonius into
his hands. As soon as he heard it, it is said he gave a great shout,
and clapped his hands for joy, and had very nearly risen up and gone
to the place himself; but being detained by his friends, he sent
Annius, and some soldiers with him, and commanded him to bring
Antonius's head to him with all speed. When they came to the house,
Annius stayed at the door, and the soldiers went up stairs into the
chamber; where, seeing Antonius, they endeavored to shuffle off the
murder from one to another; for so great it seems were the graces and
charms of his oratory, that as soon as he began to speak and beg his
life, none of them durst touch or so much as look upon him; but
hanging down their heads, every one fell a weeping. When their stay
seemed something tedious, Annius came up himself and found Antonius
discoursing, and the soldiers astonished and quite softened by it,
and calling them cowards, went himself and cut off his head.

Catulus Lutatius, who was colleague with Marius, and his partner in
the triumph over the Cimbri, when Marius replied to those that
interceded for him and begged his life, merely with the words, "he
must die," shut himself up in a room, and making a great fire,
smothered himself. When maimed and headless carcasses were now
frequently thrown about and trampled upon in the streets, people were
not so much moved with compassion at the sight, as struck into a kind
of horror and consternation. The outrages of those that were called
Bardyaei, was the greatest grievance. These murdered the masters of
families in their own houses, abused their children, and ravished
their wives, and were uncontrollable in their rapine and murders,
till those of Cinna's and Sertorius's party, taking counsel together,
fell upon them in the camp and killed them every man.

In the interim, as if a change of wind was coming on, there came news
from all parts that Sylla, having put an end to the war with
Mithridates, and taken possession of the provinces, was returning
into Italy with a great army. This gave some small respite and
intermission to these unspeakable calamities. Marius and his friends
believing war to be close at hand, Marius was chosen consul the
seventh time, and appearing on the very calends of January, the
beginning of the year, threw one Sextus Lucinus, from the Tarpeian
precipice; an omen, as it seemed, portending the renewed misfortunes
both of their party and of the city. Marius, himself now worn out
with labor and sinking under the burden of anxieties, could not
sustain his spirits, which shook within him with the apprehension of
a new war and fresh encounters and dangers, the formidable character
of which he knew by his own experience. He was not now to hazard the
war with Octavius or Merula, commanding an inexperienced multitude or
seditious rabble; but Sylla himself was approaching, the same who had
formerly banished him, and since that, had driven Mithridates as far
as the Euxine Sea.

Perplexed with such thoughts as these, and calling to mind his
banishment, and the tedious wanderings and dangers he underwent, both
by sea and land, he fell into despondency, nocturnal frights, and
unquiet sleep, still fancying that he heard some one telling him,
that

-- the lion's lair
Is dangerous, though the lion be not there.

Above all things fearing to lie awake, he gave himself up to drinking
deep and besotting himself at night in a way most unsuitable to his
age; by all means provoking sleep, as a diversion to his thoughts.
At length, on the arrival of a messenger from the sea, he was seized
with new alarms, and so what with his fear for the future, and what
with the burden and satiety of the present, on some slight
predisposing cause, he fell into a pleurisy, as Posidonius the
philosopher relates, who says he visited and conversed with him when
he was sick, about some business relating to his embassy. Caius
Piso, an historian, tells us, that Marius, walking after supper with
his friends, fell into a conversation with them about his past life,
and after reckoning up the several changes of his condition, that
from the beginning had happened to him, said, that it did not become
a prudent man to trust himself any longer with fortune; and,
thereupon, taking leave of those that were with him, he kept his bed
seven days, and then died.

Some say his ambition betrayed itself openly in his sickness. and
that he ran into an extravagant frenzy, fancying himself to be
general in the war against Mithridates, throwing himself into such
postures and motions of his body as he had formerly used when he was
in battle, with frequent shouts and loud cries. With so strong and
invincible a desire of being employed in that business had he been
possessed through his pride and emulation. Though he had now lived
seventy years, and was the first man that ever was chosen seven times
consul, and had an establishment and riches sufficient for many
kings, he yet complained of his ill fortune, that he must now die
before he had attained what he desired. Plato, when he saw his death
approaching, thanked the guiding providence and fortune of his life,
first, that he was born a man and a Grecian, not a barbarian or a
brute, and next, that he happened to live in Socrates's age. And so,
indeed, they say Antipater of Tarsus, in like manner, at his death,
calling to mind the happiness that he had enjoyed, did not so much as
omit his prosperous voyage to Athens; thus recognizing every favor of
his indulgent fortune with the greatest acknowledgments, and
carefully saving all to the last in that safest of human treasure
chambers, the memory. Unmindful and thoughtless persons, on the
contrary, let all that occurs to them slip away from them as time
passes on. Retaining and preserving nothing, they lose the enjoyment
of their present prosperity by fancying something better to come;
whereas by fortune we may be prevented of this, but that cannot be
taken from us. Yet they reject their present success, as though it
did not concern them, and do nothing but dream of future
uncertainties; not indeed unnaturally; as till men have by reason and
education laid good foundation for external superstructures, in the
seeking after and gathering them they can never satisfy the unlimited
desires of their mind.

Thus died Marius on the seventeenth day of his seventh consulship, to
the great joy and content of Rome, which thereby was in good hopes to
be delivered from the calamity of a cruel tyranny; but in a small
time they found, that they had only changed their old and worn-out
master for another young and vigorous; so much cruelty and savageness
did his son Marius show in murdering the noblest and most approved
citizens. At first, being esteemed resolute and daring against his
enemies, he was named the son of Mars, but afterwards, his actions
betraying his contrary disposition, he was called the son of Venus.
At last, besieged by Sylla in Praeneste, where he endeavored in many
ways, but in vain, to save his life, when on the capture of the city
there was no hope of escape, he killed himself with his own hand.

LYSANDER

The treasure-chamber of the Acanthians at Delphi has this
inscription: "The spoils which Brasidas and the Acanthians took from
the Athenians."  And, accordingly, many take the marble statue, which
stands within the building by the gates, to be Brasidas's; but,
indeed, it is Lysander's, representing him with his hair at full
length, after the old fashion, and with an ample beard. Neither is
it true, as some give out, that because the Argives, after their
great defeat, shaved themselves for sorrow, that the Spartans
contrariwise triumphing in their achievements, suffered their hair to
grow; neither did the Spartans come to be ambitious of wearing long
hair, because the Bacchiadae, who fled from Corinth to Lacedaemon,
looked mean and unsightly, having their heads all close cut. But
this, also, is indeed one of the ordinances of Lycurgus, who, as it
is reported, was used to say, that long hair made good-looking men
more beautiful, and ill-looking men more terrible.

Lysander's father is said to have been Aristoclitus, who was not
indeed of the royal family, but yet of the stock of the Heraclidae.
He was brought up in poverty, and showed himself obedient and
conformable, as ever anyone did, to the customs of his country; of a
manly spirit, also, and superior to all pleasures, excepting only
that which their good actions bring to those who are honored and
successful; and it is accounted no base thing in Sparta for their
young men to be overcome with this kind of pleasure. For they are
desirous, from the very first, to have their youth susceptible to
good and bad repute, to feel pain at disgrace, and exultation at
being commended; and anyone who is insensible and unaffected in
these respects is thought poor spirited and of no capacity for
virtue. Ambition and the passion for distinction were thus implanted
in his character by his Laconian education, nor, if they continued
there, must we blame his natural disposition much for this. But he
was submissive to great men, beyond what seems agreeable to the
Spartan temper, and could easily bear the haughtiness of those who
were in power, when it was any way for his advantage, which some are
of opinion is no small part of political discretion. Aristotle, who
says all great characters are more or less atrabilious, as Socrates
and Plato and Hercules were, writes, that Lysander, not indeed early
in life, but when he was old, became thus affected. What is singular
in his character is that he endured poverty very well, and that he
was not at all enslaved or corrupted by wealth, and yet he filled his
country with riches and the love of them, and took away from them the
glory of not admiring money; importing amongst them an abundance of
gold and silver after the Athenian war, though keeping not one
drachma for himself. When Dionysius, the tyrant, sent his daughters
some costly gowns of Sicilian manufacture, he would not receive them,
saying he was afraid they would make them look more unhandsome. But
a while after, being sent ambassador from the same city to the same
tyrant, when he had sent him a couple of robes, and bade him choose
which of them he would, and carry to his daughter: "She," said he,
"will be able to choose best for herself," and taking both of them,
went his way.

The Peloponnesian war having now been carried on a long time, and it
being expected, after the disaster of the Athenians in Sicily, that
they would at once lose the mastery of the sea, and erelong be routed
everywhere, Alcibiades, returning from banishment, and taking the
command, produced a great change, and made the Athenians again a
match for their opponents by sea; and the Lacedaemonians, in great
alarm at this, and calling up fresh courage and zeal for the
conflict, feeling the want of an able commander and of a powerful
armament, sent out Lysander to be admiral of the seas. Being at
Ephesus, and finding the city well affected towards him, and
favorable to the Lacedaemonian party, but in ill condition, and in
danger to become barbarized by adopting the manners of the Persians,
who were much mingled among them, the country of Lydia bordering upon
them, and the king's generals being quartered there a long time, he
pitched his camp there, and commanded the merchant ships all about to
put in thither, and proceeded to build ships of war there; and thus
restored their ports by the traffic he created, and their market by
the employment he gave, and filled their private houses and their
workshops with wealth, so that from that time, the city began, first
of all, by Lysander's means, to have some hopes of growing to that
stateliness and grandeur which now it is at.

Understanding that Cyrus, the king's son, was come to Sardis, he went
up to talk with him, and to accuse Tisaphernes, who, receiving a
command to help the Lacedaemonians, and to drive the Athenians from
the sea, was thought, on account of Alcibiades, to have become remiss
and unwilling, and by paying the seamen slenderly to be ruining the
fleet. Now Cyrus was willing that Tisaphernes might be found in
blame, and be ill reported of, as being, indeed, a dishonest man, and
privately at feud with himself. By these means, and by their daily
intercourse together, Lysander, especially by the submissiveness
of his conversation, won the affections of the young prince, and
greatly roused him to carry on the war; and when he would depart,
Cyrus gave him a banquet, and desired him not to refuse his
good-will, but to speak and ask whatever he had a mind to, and that
he should not be refused anything whatsoever: "Since you are so
very kind," replied Lysander, "I earnestly request you to add one
penny to the seamen's pay, that instead of three pence, they may now
receive four pence."  Cyrus, delighted with his public spirit, gave
him ten thousand darics, out of which he added the penny to the
seamen's pay, and by the renown of this in a short time emptied the
ships of the enemies, as many would come over to that side which gave
the most pay, and those who remained, being disheartened and
mutinous, daily created trouble to the captains. Yet for all
Lysander had so distracted and weakened his enemies, he was afraid to
engage by sea, Alcibiades being an energetic commander, and having
the superior number of ships, and having been hitherto, in all
battles, unconquered both by sea and land.

But afterwards, when Alcibiades sailed from Samos to Phocaea, leaving
Antiochus, the pilot, in command of all his forces, this Antiochus,
to insult Lysander, sailed with two galleys into the port of the
Ephesians, and with mocking and laughter proudly rowed along before
the place where the ships lay drawn up. Lysander, in indignation,
launched at first a few ships only and pursued him, but as soon as he
saw the Athenians come to his help, he added some other ships, and,
at last, they fell to a set battle together; and Lysander won the
victory, and taking fifteen of their ships, erected a trophy. For
this, the people in the city being angry, put Alcibiades out of
command, and finding himself despised by the soldiers in Samos, and
ill spoken of, he sailed from the army into the Chersonese. And this
battle, although not important in itself, was made remarkable by its
consequences to Alcibiades.

Lysander, meanwhile, inviting to Ephesus such persons in the various
cities as he saw to be bolder and haughtier-spirited than the rest,
proceeded to lay the foundations of that government by bodies of ten,
and those revolutions which afterwards came to pass, stirring up and
urging them to unite in clubs, and apply themselves to public
affairs, since as soon as ever the Athenians should be put down, the
popular governments, he said, should be suppressed, and they should
become supreme in their several countries. And he made them believe
these things by present deeds, promoting those who were his friends
already to great employments, honors, and offices, and, to gratify
their covetousness, making himself a partner in injustice and
wickedness. So much so, that all flocked to him, and courted and
desired him, hoping, if he remained in power, that the highest wishes
they could form would all be gratified. And therefore, from the very
beginning, they could not look pleasantly upon Callicratidas, when he
came to succeed Lysander as admiral; nor, afterwards, when he had
given them experience that he was a most noble and just person, were
they pleased with the manner of his government, and its
straightforward, Dorian, honest character. They did, indeed, admire
his virtue, as they might the beauty of some hero's image; but their
wishes were for Lysander's zealous and profitable support of the
interests of his friends and partisans, and they shed tears, and were
much disheartened when he sailed from them. He himself made them yet
more disaffected to Callicratidas; for what remained of the money
which had been given him to pay the navy, he sent back again to
Sardis, bidding them, if they would, apply to Callicratidas himself,
and see how he was able to maintain the soldiers. And, at the last,
sailing away, he declared to him that he delivered up the fleet in
possession and command of the sea. But Callicratidas, to expose the
emptiness of these high pretensions, said, "In that case, leave Samos
on the left hand, and, sailing to Miletus, there deliver up the ships
to me; for if we are masters of the sea, we need not fear sailing by
our enemies in Samos."  To which Lysander answering, that not
himself, but he, commanded the ships, sailed to Peloponnesus, leaving
Callicratidas in great perplexity. For neither had he brought any
money from home with him, nor could he endure to tax the towns or
force them, being in hardship enough. Therefore, the only course
that was to be taken was to go and beg at the doors of the king's
commanders, as Lysander had done; for which he was most unfit of any
man, being of a generous and great spirit, and one who thought it
more becoming for the Greeks to suffer any damage from one another,
than to flatter and wait at the gates of barbarians, who, indeed, had
gold enough, but nothing else that was commendable. But being
compelled by necessity, he proceeded to Lydia, and went at once to
Cyrus's house, and sent in word, that Callicratidas, the admiral, was
there to speak with him; one of those who kept the gates replied,
"Cyrus, O stranger, is not now at leisure, for he is drinking."  To
which Callicratidas answered, most innocently, "Very well, I will
wait till he has done his draught."  This time, therefore, they took
him for some clownish fellow, and he withdrew, merely laughed at by
the barbarians; but when, afterwards, he came a second time to the
gate, and was not admitted, he took it hardly and set off for
Ephesus, wishing a great many evils to those who first let themselves
be insulted over by these barbarians, and taught them to be insolent
because of their riches; and added vows to those who were present,
that as soon as ever he came back to Sparta, he would do all he could
to reconcile the Greeks, that they might be formidable to barbarians,
and that they should cease henceforth to need their aid against one
another. But Callicratidas, who entertained purposes worthy a
Lacedaemonian, and showed himself worthy to compete with the very
best of Greece, for his justice, his greatness of mind and courage,
not long after, having been beaten in a sea-fight at Arginusae, died.

And now affairs going backwards, the associates in the war sent an
embassy to Sparta, requiring Lysander to be their admiral, professing
themselves ready to undertake the business much more zealously, if he
was commander; and Cyrus, also, sent to request the same thing. But
because they had a law which would not suffer any one to be admiral
twice, and wished, nevertheless, to gratify their allies, they gave
the title of admiral to one Aracus, and sent Lysander nominally as
vice-admiral, but, indeed, with full powers. So he came out, long
wished for by the greatest part of the chief persons and leaders in
the towns, who hoped to grow to greater power still by his means,
when the popular governments should be everywhere destroyed.

But to those who loved honest and noble behavior in their commanders,
Lysander, compared with Callicratidas, seemed cunning and subtle,
managing most things in the war by deceit, extolling what was just
when it was profitable, and when it was not, using that which was
convenient, instead of that which was good; and not judging truth to
be in nature better than falsehood, but setting a value upon both
according to interest. He would laugh at those who thought that
Hercules's posterity ought not to use deceit in war: "For where the
lion's skin will not reach, you must patch it out with the fox's."
Such is the conduct recorded of him in the business about Miletus;
for when his friends and connections, whom he had promised to assist
in suppressing popular government and expelling their political
opponents, had altered their minds, and were reconciled to their
enemies, he pretended openly as if he was pleased with it, and was
desirous to further the reconciliation, but privately he railed at
and abused them, and provoked them to set upon the multitude. And as
soon as ever he perceived a new attempt to be commencing, he at once
came up and entered into the city, and the first of the conspirators
he lit upon, he pretended to rebuke, and spoke roughly, as if he
would punish them; but the others, meantime, he bade be courageous,
and to fear nothing now he was with them. And all this acting and
dissembling was with the object that the most considerable men of the
popular party might not fly away, but might stay in the city and be
killed; which so fell out, for all who believed him were put to
death.

There is a saying, also, recorded by Androclides, which makes him
guilty of great indifference to the obligations of an oath. His
recommendation, according to this account, was to "cheat boys with
dice, and men with oaths," an imitation of Polycrates of Samos, not
very honorable to a lawful commander, to take example, namely, from a
tyrant; nor in character with Laconian usages, to treat gods as ill
as enemies, or, indeed, even more injuriously; since he who
overreaches by an oath admits that he fears his enemy, while he
despises his God.

Cyrus now sent for Lysander to Sardis, and gave him some money, and
promised him some more, youthfully protesting in favor to him, that
if his father gave him nothing, he would supply him of his own; and
if he himself should be destitute of all, he would cut up, he said,
to make money, the very throne upon which he sat to do justice, it
being made of gold and silver; and, at last, on going up into Media
to his father, he ordered that he should receive the tribute of the
towns, and committed his government to him, and so taking his leave,
and desiring him not to fight by sea before he returned, for he would
come back with a great many ships out of Phoenicia and Cilicia,
departed to visit the king.

Lysander's ships were too few for him to venture to fight, and yet
too many to allow of his remaining idle; he set out, therefore, and
reduced some of the islands, and wasted Aegina and Salamis; and from
thence landing in Attica, and saluting Agis, who came from Decelea to
meet him, he made a display to the land-forces of the strength of the
fleet, as though he could sail where he pleased, and were absolute
master by sea. But hearing the Athenians pursued him, he fled
another way through the islands into Asia. And finding the
Hellespont without any defense, he attacked Lampsacus with his ships
by sea; while Thorax, acting in concert with him with the land army,
made an assault on the walls; and so, having taken the city by storm,
he gave it up to his soldiers to plunder. The fleet of the
Athenians, a hundred and eighty ships, had just arrived at Elaeus in
the Chersonese; and hearing the news, that Lampsacus was destroyed,
they presently sailed to Sestos; where, taking in victuals, they
advanced to Aegos Potami, over against their enemies, who were still
stationed about Lampsacus. Amongst other Athenian captains who were
now in command was Philocles, he who persuaded the people to pass a
decree to cut off the right thumb of the captives in the war, that
they should not be able to hold the spear, though they might the oar.

Then they all rested themselves, hoping they should have battle the
next morning. But Lysander had other things in his head; he
commanded the mariners and pilots to go on board at dawn, as if there
should be a battle as soon as it was day, and to sit there in order,
and without any noise, expecting what should be commanded, and in
like manner that the land army should remain quietly in their ranks
by the sea. But the sun rising, and the Athenians sailing up with
their whole fleet in line, and challenging them to battle, he, though
he had had his ships all drawn up and manned before daybreak,
nevertheless did not stir. He merely sent some small boats to those
who lay foremost, and bade them keep still and stay in their order;
not to be disturbed, and none of them to sail out and offer battle.
So about evening, the Athenians sailing back, he would not let the
seamen go out of the ships before two or three, which he had sent to
espy, were returned, after seeing the enemies disembark. And thus
they did the next day, and the third, and so to the fourth. So that
the Athenians grew extremely confident, and disdained their enemies,
as if they had been afraid and daunted. At this time, Alcibiades,
who was in his castle in the Chersonese, came on horseback to the
Athenian army, and found fault with their captains, first of all that
they had pitched their camp neither well nor safely, on an exposed
and open beach, a very bad landing for the ships, and, secondly, that
where they were, they had to fetch all they wanted from Sestos, some
considerable way off; whereas if they sailed round a little way to
the town and harbor of Sestos, they would be at a safer distance from
an enemy, who lay watching their movements, at the command of a
single general, terror of whom made every order rapidly executed.
This advice, however, they would not listen to; and Tydeus angered
disdainfully, that not he, but others, were in office now. So
Alcibiades, who even suspected there must be treachery, departed.

But on the fifth day, the Athenians having sailed towards them, and
gone back again as they were used to do, very proudly and full of
contempt, Lysander sending some ships, as usual, to look out,
commanded the masters of them that when they saw the Athenians go to
land, they should row back again with all their speed, and that when
they were about half-way across, they should lift up a brazen shield
from the foredeck, as the sign of battle. And he himself sailing
round, encouraged the pilots and masters of the ships, and exhorted
them to keep all their men to their places, seamen and soldiers
alike, and as soon as ever the sign should be given, to row up boldly
to their enemies. Accordingly when the shield had been lifted up
from the ships, and the trumpet from the admiral's vessel had sounded
for battle, the ships rowed up, and the foot soldiers strove to get
along by the shore to the promontory. The distance there between the
two continents is fifteen furlongs, which, by the zeal and eagerness
of the rowers, was quickly traversed. Conon, one of the Athenian
commanders, was the first who saw from the land the fleet advancing,
and shouted out to embark, and in the greatest distress bade some and
entreated others, and some he forced to man the ships. But all his
diligence signified nothing, because the men were scattered about;
for as soon as they came out of the ships, expecting no such matter,
some went to market, others walked about the country, or went to
sleep in their tents, or got their dinners ready, being, through
their commanders' want of skill, as far as possible from any thought
of what was to happen; and the enemy now coming up with shouts and
noise, Conon, with eight ships, sailed out, and making his escape,
passed from thence to Cyprus, to Evagores. The Peloponnesians
falling upon the rest, some they took quite empty, and some they
destroyed while they were filling; the men, meantime, coming unarmed
and scattered to help, died at their ships, or, flying by land, were
slain, their enemies disembarking and pursuing them. Lysander took
three thousand prisoners, with the generals, and the whole fleet,
excepting the sacred ship Paralus, and those which fled with Conon.
So taking their ships in tow, and having plundered their tents, with
pipe and songs of victory, he sailed back to Lampsacus, having
accomplished a great work with small pains, and having finished in
one hour, a war which had been protracted in its continuance, and
diversified in its incidents and its fortunes to a degree exceeding
belief, compared with all before it. After altering its shape and
character a thousand times, and after having been the destruction of
more commanders than all the previous wars of Greece put together, it
was now put an end to by the good counsel and ready conduct of one
man.

Some, therefore, looked upon the result as a divine intervention, and
there were certain who affirmed that the stars of Castor and Pollux
were seen on each side of Lysander's ship, when he first set sail
from the haven toward his enemies, shining about the helm; and some
say the stone which fell down was a sign of this slaughter. For a
stone of a great size did fall, according to the common belief, from
heaven, at Aegos Potami, which is shown to this day, and had in great
esteem by the Chersonites. And it is said that Anaxagoras foretold,
that the occurrence of a slip or shake among the bodies fixed in the
heavens, dislodging any one of them, would be followed by the fall of
the whole of them. For no one of the stars is now in the same place
in which it was at first; for they, being, according to him, like
stones and heavy, shine by the refraction of the upper air round
about them, and are carried along forcibly by the violence of the
circular motion by which they were originally withheld from
falling, when cold and heavy bodies were first separated from the
general universe. But there is a more probable opinion than this
maintained by some, who say that falling stars are no effluxes, nor
discharges of ethereal fire, extinguished almost at the instant of
its igniting by the lower air; neither are they the sudden combustion
and blazing up of a quantity of the lower air let loose in great
abundance into the upper region; but the heavenly bodies, by a
relaxation of the force of their circular movement, are carried by an
irregular course, not in general into the inhabited part of the
earth, but for the most part into the wide sea; which is the cause of
their not being observed. Daimachus, in his treatise on Religion.
supports the view of Anaxagoras. He says, that before this stone
fell, for seventy-five days continually, there was seen in the
heavens a vast fiery body, as if it had been a flaming cloud, not
resting, but carried about with several intricate and broken
movements, so that the flaming pieces, which were broken off by this
commotion and running about, were carried in all directions, shining
as falling stars do. But when it afterwards came down to the ground
in this district, and the people of the place recovering from their
fear and astonishment came together, there was no fire to be seen,
neither any sign of it; there was only a stone lying, big indeed, but
which bore no proportion, to speak of, to that fiery compass. It is
manifest that Daimachus needs to have indulgent hearers; but if what
he says be true, he altogether proves those to be wrong who say that
a rock broken off from the top of some mountain, by winds and
tempests, and caught and whirled about like a top, as soon as this
impetus began to slacken and cease, was precipitated and fell to the
ground. Unless, indeed, we choose to say that the phenomenon which
was observed for so many days was really fire, and that the change in
the atmosphere ensuing on its extinction was attended with violent
winds and agitations, which might be the cause of this stone being
carried off. The exacter treatment of this subject belongs, however,
to a different kind of writing.

Lysander, after the three thousand Athenians whom he had taken
prisoners were condemned by the commissioners to die, called
Philocles the general, and asked him what punishment he considered
himself to deserve, for having advised the citizens as he had done,
against the Greeks; but he, being nothing cast down at his calamity,
bade him not accuse him of matters of which nobody was a judge, but
to do to him, now he was a conqueror, as he would have suffered, had
he been overcome. Then washing himself, and putting on a fine cloak,
he led the citizens the way to the slaughter, as Theophrastus writes
in his history. After this Lysander, sailing about to the various
cities, bade all the Athenians he met go into Athens, declaring that
he would spare none, but kill every man whom he found out of the
city, intending thus to cause immediate famine and scarcity there,
that they might not make the siege laborious to him, having
provisions sufficient to endure it. And suppressing the popular
governments and all other constitutions, he left one Lacedaemonian
chief officer in every city, with ten rulers to act with him,
selected out of the societies which he had previously formed in the
different towns. And doing thus as well in the cities of his
enemies, as of his associates, he sailed leisurely on, establishing,
in a manner, for himself supremacy over the whole of Greece. Neither
did he make choice of rulers by birth or by wealth, but bestowed the
offices on his own friends and partisans, doing everything to please
them, and putting absolute power of reward and punishment into their
hands. And thus, personally appearing on many occasions of bloodshed
and massacre, and aiding his friends to expel their opponents, he did
not give the Greeks a favorable specimen of the Lacedaemonian
government; and the expression of Theopompus, the comic poet, seemed
but poor, when he compared the Lacedaemonians to tavern women,
because when the Greeks had first tasted the sweet wine of liberty,
they then poured vinegar into the cup; for from the very first it had
a rough and bitter taste, all government by the people being
suppressed by Lysander, and the boldest and least scrupulous of the
oligarchical party selected to rule the cities.

Having spent some little time about these things, and sent some
before to Lacedaemon to tell them he was arriving with two hundred
ships, he united his forces in Attica with those of the two kings
Agis and Pausanias, hoping to take the city without delay. But when
the Athenians defended themselves, he with his fleet passed again to
Asia, and in like manner destroyed the forms of government in all the
other cities, and placed them under the rule of ten chief persons,
many in every one being killed, and many driven into exile; and in
Samos, he expelled the whole people, and gave their cities to the
exiles whom he brought back. And the Athenians still possessing
Sestos, he took it from them, and suffered not the Sestians
themselves to dwell in it, but gave the city and country to be
divided out among the pilots and masters of the ships under him;
which was his first act that was disallowed by the Lacedaemonians,
who brought the Sestians back again into their country. All Greece,
however, rejoiced to see the Aeginetans, by Lysander's aid, now
again, after a long time, receiving back their cities, and the
Melians and Scionaeans restored, while the Athenians were driven out,
and delivered up the cities.

But when he now understood they were in a bad case in the city
because of the famine, he sailed to Piraeus, and reduced the city,
which was compelled to surrender on what conditions he demanded. One
hears it said by Lacedaemonians that Lysander wrote to the Ephors
thus: "Athens is taken;" and that these magistrates wrote back to
Lysander, "Taken is enough."  But this saying was invented for its
neatness' sake; for the true decree of the magistrates was on this
manner: "The government of the Lacedaemonians has made these orders;
pull down the Piraeus and the long walls; quit all the towns, and
keep to your own land; if you do these things, you shall have peace,
if you wish it, restoring also your exiles. As concerning the number
of the ships, whatsoever there be judged necessary to appoint, that
do."  This scroll of conditions the Athenians accepted, Theramenes,
son of Hagnon, supporting it. At which time, too, they say that when
Cleomenes, one of the young orators, asked him how he durst act and
speak contrary to Themistocles, delivering up the walls to the
Lacedaemonians, which he had built against the will of the
Lacedaemonians, he said, "O young man, I do nothing contrary to
Themistocles; for he raised these walls for the safety of the
citizens, and we pull them down for their safety; and if walls make a
city happy, then Sparta must be the most wretched of all, as it has
none."

Lysander, as soon as he had taken all the ships except twelve, and
the walls of the Athenians, on the sixteenth day of the month
Munychion, the same on which they had overcome the barbarians at
Salamis, then proceeded to take measures for altering the government.
But the Athenians taking that very unwillingly, and resisting, he
sent to the people and informed them, that he found that the city had
broken the terms, for the walls were standing when the days were past
within which they should have been pulled down. He should,
therefore, consider their case anew, they having broken their first
articles. And some state, in fact, the proposal was made in the
congress of the allies, that the Athenians should all be sold as
slaves; on which occasion, Erianthus, the Theban, gave his vote to
pull down the city, and turn the country into sheep-pasture; yet
afterwards, when there was a meeting of the captains together, a man
of Phocis, singing the first chorus in Euripides's Electra, which
begins,

Electra, Agamemnon's child, I come
Unto thy desert home,

they were all melted with compassion, and it seemed to be a cruel
deed to destroy and pull down a city which had been so famous, and
produced such men.

Accordingly Lysander, the Athenians yielding up everything, sent for
a number of flute-women out of the city, and collected together all
that were in the camp, and pulled down the walls, and burnt the ships
to the sound of the flute, the allies being crowned with garlands,
and making merry together, as counting that day the beginning of
their liberty. He proceeded also at once to alter the government,
placing thirty rulers in the city, and ten in the Piraeus: he put,
also, a garrison into the Acropolis, and made Callibius, a Spartan,
the governor of it; who afterwards taking up his staff to strike
Autolycus, the athlete, about whom Xenophon wrote his "Banquet," on
his tripping up his heels and throwing him to the ground, Lysander
was not vexed at it, but chid Callibius, telling him he did not know
how to govern freemen. The thirty rulers, however, to gain
Callibius's favor, a little after killed Autolycus.

Lysander, after this, sails out to Thrace, and what remained of the
public money, and the gifts and crowns which he had himself received,
numbers of people, as might be expected, being anxious to make
presents to a man of such great power, who was, in a manner, the lord
of Greece, he sends to Lacedaemon by Gylippus, who had commanded
formerly in Sicily. But he, it is reported, unsewed the sacks at the
bottom, took a considerable amount of silver out of every one of
them, and sewed them up again, not knowing there was a writing in
every one stating how much there was. And coming into Sparta, what
he had thus stolen away he hid under the tiles of his house, and
delivered up the sacks to the magistrates, and showed the seals were
upon them. But afterwards, on their opening the sacks and counting
it, the quantity of the silver differed from what the writing
expressed; and the matter causing some perplexity to the magistrates,
Gylippus's servant tells them in a riddle, that under the tiles lay
many owls; for, as it seems, the greatest part of the money then
current, bore the Athenian stamp of the owl. Gylippus having
committed so foul and base a deed, after such great and distinguished
exploits before, removed himself from Lacedaemon.

But the wisest of the Spartans, very much on account of this
occurrence, dreading the influence of money, as being what had
corrupted the greatest citizens, exclaimed against Lysander's
conduct, and declared to the Ephors, that all the silver and gold
should be sent away, as mere "alien mischiefs."  These consulted
about it; and Theopompus says, it was Sciraphidas, but Ephorus, that
it was Phlogidas, who declared they ought not to receive any gold or
silver into the city; but to use their own country coin which was
iron, and was first of all dipped in vinegar when it was red hot,
that it might not be worked up anew, but because of the dipping might
be hard and unpliable. It was also, of course, very heavy and
troublesome to carry, and a great deal of it in quantity and
weight was but a little in value. And perhaps all the old money was
so, coin consisting of iron, or in some countries, copper skewers,
whence it comes that we still find a great number of small pieces of
money retain the name of obolus, and the drachma is six of these,
because so much may be grasped in one's hand. But Lysander's friends
being against it, and endeavoring to keep the money in the city, it
was resolved to bring in this sort of money to be used publicly,
enacting, at the same time, that if anyone was found in possession
of any privately, he should be put to death, as if Lycurgus had
feared the coin, and not the covetousness resulting from it, which
they did not repress by letting no private man keep any, so much as
they encouraged it, by allowing the state to possess it; attaching
thereby a sort of dignity to it, over and above its ordinary utility.
Neither was it possible, that what they saw was so much esteemed
publicly, they should privately despise as unprofitable; and that
everyone should think that thing could be nothing worth for his own
personal use, which was so extremely valued and desired for the use
of the state. And moral habits, induced by public practices, are far
quicker in making their way into men's private lives, than the
failings and faults of individuals are in infecting the city at
large. For it is probable that the parts will be rather corrupted by
the whole if that grows bad; while the vices which flow from a part
into the whole, find many correctives and remedies from that which
remains sound. Terror and the law were now to keep guard over the
citizens' houses, to prevent any money entering into them; but their
minds could no longer be expected to remain superior to the desire of
it, when wealth in general was thus set up to be striven after, as a
high and noble object. On this point, however, we have given our
censure of the Lacedaemonians in one of our other writings.

Lysander erected out of the spoils brazen statues at Delphi of
himself, and of every one of the masters of the ships, as also
figures of the golden stars of Castor and Pollux, which vanished
before the battle at Leuctra. In the treasury of Brasidas and the
Acanthians, there was a trireme made of gold and ivory, of two
cubits, which Cyrus sent Lysander in honor of his victory. But
Alexandrides of Delphi writes in his history, that there was also a
deposit of Lysander's, a talent of silver, and fifty-two minas,
besides eleven staters; a statement not consistent with the generally
received account of his poverty. And at that time, Lysander, being
in fact of greater power than any Greek before, was yet thought to
show a pride, and to affect a superiority greater even than his power
warranted. He was the first, as Duris says in his history, among the
Greeks, to whom the cities reared altars as to a god, and sacrificed;
to him were songs of triumph first sung, the beginning of one of
which still remains recorded: --

Great Greece's general from spacious Sparta we
Will celebrate with songs of victory.

And the Samians decreed that their solemnities of Juno should be
called the Lysandria; and out of the poets he had Choerilus always
with him, to extol his achievements in verse; and to Antilochus, who
had made some verses in his commendation, being pleased with them, he
gave a hat full of silver; and when Antimachus of Colophon, and one
Niceratus of Heraclea, competed with each other in a poem on the
deeds of Lysander, he gave the garland to Niceratus; at which
Antimachus, in vexation, suppressed his poem; but Plato, being then a
young man, and admiring Antimachus for his poetry, consoled him for
his defeat by telling him that it is the ignorant who are the
sufferers by ignorance, as truly as the blind by want of sight.
Afterwards, when Aristonus, the musician, who had been a conqueror
six times at the Pythian games, told him as a piece of flattery, that
if he were successful again, he would proclaim himself in the name of
Lysander, "that is," he answered, "as his slave?"

This ambitious temper was indeed only burdensome to the highest
personages and to his equals, but through having so many people
devoted to serve him, an extreme haughtiness and contemptuousness
grew up, together with ambition, in his character. He observed no
sort of moderation, such as befitted a private man, either in
rewarding or in punishing; the recompense of his friends and guests
was absolute power over cities, and irresponsible authority, and the
only satisfaction of his wrath was the destruction of his enemy;
banishment would not suffice. As for example, at a later period,
fearing lest the popular leaders of the Milesians should fly, and
desiring also to discover those who lay hid, he swore he would do
them no harm, and on their believing him and coming forth, he
delivered them up to the oligarchical leaders to be slain, being in
all no less than eight hundred. And, indeed, the slaughter in
general of those of the popular party in the towns exceeded all
computation; as he did not kill only for offenses against himself,
but granted these favors without sparing, and joined in the execution
of them, to gratify the many hatreds, and the much cupidity of his
friends everywhere round about him. From whence the saying of
Eteocles, the Lacedaemonian, came to be famous, that "Greece could
not have borne two Lysanders."  Theophrastus says, that Archestratus
said the same thing concerning Alcibiades. But in his case what had
given most offense was a certain licentious and wanton self-will;
Lysander's power was feared and hated because of his unmerciful
disposition. The Lacedaemonians did not at all concern themselves
for any other accusers; but afterwards, when Pharnabazus, having been
injured by him, he having pillaged and wasted his country, sent some
to Sparta to inform against him, the Ephors taking it very ill, put
one of his friends and fellow-captains, Thorax, to death, taking him
with some silver privately in his possession; and they sent him a
scroll, commanding him to return home. This scroll is made up thus;
when the Ephors send an admiral or general on his way, they take two
round pieces of wood, both exactly of a length and thickness, and cut
even to one another; they keep one themselves, and the other they
give to the person they send forth; and these pieces of wood they
call Scytales. When, therefore, they have occasion to communicate
any secret or important matter, making a scroll of parchment long and
narrow like a leathern thong, they roll it about their own staff of
wood, leaving no space void between, but covering the surface of the
staff with the scroll all over. When they have done this, they write
what they please on the scroll, as it is wrapped about the staff; and
when they have written, they take off the scroll, and send it to the
general without the wood. He, when he has received it, can read
nothing of the writing, because the words and letters are not
connected, but all broken up; but taking his own staff, he winds the
slip of the scroll about it, so that this folding, restoring all the
parts into the same order that they were in before, and putting what
comes first into connection with what follows, brings the whole
consecutive contents to view round the outside. And this scroll is
called a staff, after the name of the wood, as a thing measured is by
the name of the measure.

But Lysander, when the staff came to him to the Hellespont, was
troubled, and fearing Pharnabazus's accusations most, made haste to
confer with him, hoping to end the difference by a meeting together.
When they met, he desired him to write another letter to the
magistrates, stating that he had not been wronged, and had no
complaint to prefer. But he was ignorant that Pharnabazus, as it is
in the proverb, played Cretan against Cretan; for pretending to do
all that was desired, openly he wrote such a letter as Lysander
wanted, but kept by him another, written privately; and when they
came to put on the seals, changed the tablets, which differed not at
all to look upon, and gave him the letter which had been written
privately. Lysander, accordingly, coming to Lacedaemon, and going,
as the custom is, to the magistrates' office, gave Pharnabazus's
letter to the Ephors, being persuaded that the greatest accusation
against him was now withdrawn; for Pharnabazus was beloved by the
Lacedaemonians, having been the most zealous on their side in the war
of all the king's captains. But after the magistrates had read the
letter they showed it him, and he understanding now that

Others beside Ulysses deep can be,
Not the one wise man of the world is he,

in extreme confusion, left them at the time. But a few days after,
meeting the Ephors, he said he must go to the temple of Ammon, and
offer the god the sacrifices which he had vowed in war. For some
state it as a truth, that when he was besieging the city of Aphytae
in Thrace, Ammon stood by him in his sleep; whereupon raising the
siege, supposing the god had commanded it, he bade the Aphytaeans
sacrifice to Ammon, and resolved to make a journey into Libya to
propitiate the god. But most were of opinion that the god was but
the presence, and that in reality he was afraid of the Ephors, and
that impatience of the yoke at home, and dislike of living under
authority, made him long for some travel and wandering, like a horse
just brought in from open feeding and pasture to the stable, and put
again to his ordinary work. For that which Ephorus states to have
been the cause of this traveling about, I shall relate by and by.

And having hardly and with difficulty obtained leave of the
magistrates to depart, he set sail. But the kings, while he was on
his voyage, considering that keeping, as he did, the cities in
possession by his own friends and partisans, he was in fact their
sovereign and the lord of Greece, took measures for restoring the
power to the people, and for throwing his friends out. Disturbances
commencing again about these things, and, first of all, the Athenians
from Phyle setting upon their thirty rulers and overpowering them,
Lysander, coming home in haste, persuaded the Lacedaemonians to
support the oligarchies and to put down the popular governments, and
to the thirty in Athens, first of all, they sent a hundred talents
for the war, and Lysander himself, as general, to assist them. But
the kings envying him, and fearing lest he should take Athens again,
resolved that one of themselves should take the command. Accordingly
Pausanias went, and in words, indeed, professed as if he had been for
the tyrants against the people, but in reality exerted himself for
peace, that Lysander might not by the means of his friends become
lord of Athens again. This he brought easily to pass; for,
reconciling the Athenians, and quieting the tumults, he defeated the
ambitious hopes of Lysander, though shortly after, on the Athenians
rebelling again, he was censured for having thus taken, as it were,
the bit out of the mouth of the people, which, being freed from the
oligarchy, would now break out again into affronts and insolence; and
Lysander regained the reputation of a person who employed his command
not in gratification of others, nor for applause, but strictly for
the good of Sparta.

His speech, also, was bold and daunting to such as opposed him. The
Argives, for example, contended about the bounds of their land, and
thought they brought juster pleas than the Lacedaemonians; holding
out his sword, "He," said Lysander, "that is master of this, brings
the best argument about the bounds of territory."  A man of Megara,
at some conference, taking freedom with him, "This language, my
friend," said he, "should come from a city."  To the Boeotians, who
were acting a doubtful part, he put the question, whether he should
pass through their country with spears upright, or leveled. After
the revolt of the Corinthians, when, on coming to their walls, he
perceived the Lacedaemonians hesitating to make the assault, and a
hare was seen to leap through the ditch: "Are you not ashamed," he
said, "to fear an enemy, for whose laziness, the very hares sleep
upon their walls?"

When king Agis died, leaving a brother Agesilaus, and Leotychides,
who was supposed his son, Lysander, being attached to Agesilaus,
persuaded him to lay claim to the kingdom, as being a true descendant
of Hercules; Leotychides lying under the suspicion of being the son
of Alcibiades, who lived privately in familiarity with Timaea, the
wife of Agis, at the time he was a fugitive in Sparta. Agis, they
say, computing the time, satisfied himself that she could not have
conceived by him, and had hitherto always neglected and manifestly
disowned Leotychides; but now when he was carried sick to Heraea,
being ready to die, what by the importunities of the young man
himself, and of his friends, in the presence of many he declared
Leotychides to be his; and desiring those who were present to bear
witness of this to the Lacedaemonians, died. They accordingly did so
testify in favor of Leotychides. And Agesilaus, being otherwise
highly reputed of, and strong in the support of Lysander, was, on the
other hand, prejudiced by Diopithes, a man famous for his knowledge
of oracles, who adduced this prophecy in reference to Agesilaus's
lameness:

Beware, great Sparta, lest there come of thee,
Though sound thyself, an halting sovereignty;
Troubles, both long and unexpected too,
And storms of deadly warfare shall ensue.

When many, therefore, yielded to the oracle, and inclined to
Leotychides, Lysander said that Diopithes did not take the prophecy
rightly; for it was not that the god would be offended if any lame
person ruled over the Lacedaemonians, but that the kingdom would be a
lame one, if bastards and false-born should govern with the posterity
of Hercules. By this argument, and by his great influence among
them, he prevailed, and Agesilaus was made king.

Immediately, therefore, Lysander spurred him on to make an expedition
into Asia, putting him in hopes that he might destroy the Persians,
and attain the height of greatness. And he wrote to his friends in
Asia, bidding them request to have Agesilaus appointed to command
them in the war against the barbarians; which they were persuaded to,
and sent ambassadors to Lacedaemon to entreat it. And this would
seem to be a second favor done Agesilaus by Lysander, not inferior to
his first in obtaining him the kingdom. But with ambitious natures,
otherwise not ill qualified for command, the feeling of jealousy of
those near them in reputation continually stands in the way of the
performance of noble actions; they make those their rivals in virtue,
whom they ought to use as their helpers to it. Agesilaus took
Lysander, among the thirty counselors that accompanied him, with
intentions of using him as his especial friend; but when they were
come into Asia, the inhabitants there, to whom he was but little
known, addressed themselves to him but little and seldom; whereas
Lysander, because of their frequent previous intercourse, was visited
and attended by large numbers, by his friends out of observance, and
by others out of fear; and just as in tragedies it not uncommonly is
the case with the actors, the person who represents a messenger or
servant is much taken notice of, and plays the chief part, while he
who wears the crown and scepter is hardly heard to speak, even so was
it about the counselor, he had all the real honors of the government,
and to the king was left the empty name of power. This
disproportionate ambition ought very likely to have been in some way
softened down, and Lysander should have been reduced to his proper
second place, but wholly to cast off and to insult and affront for
glory's sake, one who was his benefactor and friend, was not worthy
Agesilaus to allow in himself. For, first of all, he gave him no
opportunity for any action, and never set him in any place of
command; then, for whomsoever he perceived him exerting his interest,
these persons he always sent away with a refusal, and with less
attention than any ordinary suitors, thus silently undoing and
weakening his influence.

Lysander, miscarrying in everything, and perceiving that his
diligence for his friends was but a hindrance to them, forbore to
help them, entreating them that they would not address themselves to,
nor observe him, but that they would speak to the king, and to those
who could be of more service to friends than at present he could
most, on hearing this, forbore to trouble him about their concerns;
but continued their observances to him, waiting upon him in the walks
and places of exercise; at which Agesilaus was more annoyed than
ever, envying him the honor; and, finally, when he gave many of the
officers places of command and the governments of cities, he
appointed Lysander carver at his table, adding, by way of insult to
the Ionians, "Let them go now, and pay their court to my carver."
Upon this, Lysander thought fit to come and speak with him; and a
brief laconic dialogue passed between them as follows: "Truly, you
know very well, O Agesilaus, how to depress your friends;" "Those
friends," replied he, "who would be greater than myself; but those
who increase my power, it is just should share in it."  "Possibly, O
Agesilaus," answered Lysander, "in all this there may be more said on
your part than done on mine, but I request you, for the sake of
observers from without, to place me in any command under you where
you may judge I shall be the least offensive, and most useful."

Upon this he was sent ambassador to the Hellespont; and though angry
with Agesilaus, yet did not neglect to perform his duty, and having
induced Spithridates the Persian, being offended with Pharnabazus, a
gallant man, and in command of some forces, to revolt, he brought him
to Agesilaus. He was not, however, employed in any other service,
but having completed his time, returned to Sparta, without honor,
angry with Agesilaus, and hating more than ever the whole Spartan
government, and resolved to delay no longer, but while there was yet
time, to put into execution the plans which he appears some time
before to have concerted for a revolution and change in the
constitution. These were as follows. The Heraclidae who joined with
the Dorians, and came into Peloponnesus, became a numerous and
glorious race in Sparta, but not every family belonging to it had the
right of succession in the kingdom, but the kings were chosen out of
two only, called the Eurypontidae and the Agiadae; the rest had no
privilege in the government by their nobility of birth, and the
honors which followed from merit lay open to all who could obtain
them. Lysander, who was born of one of these families, when he had
risen into great renown for his exploits, and had gained great
friends and power, was vexed to see the city which had increased to
what it was by him, ruled by others not at all better descended than
himself, and formed a design to remove the government from the two
families, and to give it in common to all the Heraclidae; or as some
say, not to the Heraclidae only, but to all the Spartans; that the
reward might not belong to the posterity of Hercules, but to those
who were like Hercules, judging by that personal merit which raised
even him to the honor of the Godhead; and he hoped that when the
kingdom was thus to be competed for, no Spartan would be chosen
before himself.

Accordingly he first attempted and prepared to persuade the citizens
privately, and studied an oration composed to this purpose by Cleon,
the Halicarnassian. Afterwards perceiving so unexpected and great an
innovation required bolder means of support, he proceeded as it might
be on the stage, to avail himself of machinery, and to try the
effects of divine agency upon his countrymen. He collected and
arranged for his purpose, answers and oracles from Apollo, not
expecting to get any benefit from Cleon's rhetoric, unless he should
first alarm and overpower the minds of his fellow-citizens by
religious and superstitious terrors, before bringing them to the
consideration of his arguments. Ephorus relates, after he had
endeavored to corrupt the oracle of Apollo, and had again failed to
persuade the priestesses of Dodona by means of Pherecles, that he
went to Ammon, and discoursed with the guardians of the oracle there,
proffering them a great deal of gold, and that they, taking this ill,
sent some to Sparta to accuse Lysander; and on his acquittal the
Libyans, going away, said, "You will find us, O Spartans, better
judges, when you come to dwell with us in Libya," there being a
certain ancient oracle, that the Lacedaemonians should dwell in
Libya. But as the whole intrigue and the course of the contrivance
was no ordinary one, nor lightly- undertaken, but depended as it went
on, like some mathematical proposition, on a variety of important
admissions, and proceeded through a series of intricate and difficult
steps to its conclusion, we will go into it at length, following the
account of one who was at once an historian and a philosopher.

There was a woman in Pontus, who professed to be pregnant by Apollo,
which many, as was natural, disbelieved, and many also gave credit
to, and when she had brought forth a man-child, several, not
unimportant persons, took an interest in its rearing and bringing up.
The name given the boy was Silenus, for some reason or other.
Lysander, taking this for the groundwork, frames and devises the rest
himself, making use of not a few, nor these insignificant champions
of his story, who brought the report of the child's birth into credit
without any suspicion. Another report, also, was procured from
Delphi and circulated in Sparta, that there were some very old
oracles which were kept by the priests in private writings; and they
were not to be meddled with neither was it lawful to read them, till
one in after times should come, descended from Apollo, and, on giving
some known token to the keepers, should take the books in which the
oracles were. Things being thus ordered beforehand, Silenus, it was
intended, should come and ask for the oracles, as being the child of
Apollo and those priests who were privy to the design, were to
profess to search narrowly into all particulars, and to question him
concerning his birth; and, finally, were to be convinced, and, as to
Apollo's son, to deliver up to him the writings. Then he, in the
presence of many witnesses, should read amongst other prophecies,
that which was the object of the whole contrivance, relating to the
office of the kings, that it would be better and more desirable to
the Spartans to choose their kings out of the best citizens. And
now, Silenus being grown up to a youth, and being ready for the
action, Lysander miscarried in his drama through the timidity of one
of his actors, or assistants, who just as he came to the point lost
heart and drew back. Yet nothing was found out while Lysander lived,
but only after his death.

He died before Agesilaus came back from Asia, being involved, or
perhaps more truly having himself involved Greece, in the Boeotian
war. For it is stated both ways; and the cause of it some make to be
himself, others the Thebans, and some both together; the Thebans, on
the one hand, being charged with casting away the sacrifices at
Aulis, and that being bribed with the king's money brought by
Androclides and Amphitheus, they had with the object of entangling
the Lacedaemonians in a Grecian war, set upon the Phocians, and
wasted their country; it being said, on the other hand, that Lysander
was angry that the Thebans had preferred a claim to the tenth part of
the spoils of the war, while the rest of the confederates submitted
without complaint; and because they expressed indignation about the
money which Lysander sent to Sparta, but most especially, because
from them the Athenians had obtained the first opportunity of freeing
themselves from the thirty tyrants, whom Lysander had made, and to
support whom the Lacedaemonians issued a decree that political
refugees from Athens might be arrested in whatever country they were
found, and that those who impeded their arrest should be excluded
from the confederacy. In reply to this the Thebans issued counter
decrees of their own, truly in the spirit and temper of the actions
of Hercules and Bacchus, that every house and city in Boeotia should
be opened to the Athenians who required it, and that he who did not
help a fugitive who was seized, should be fined a talent for damages,
and if any one should bear arms through Boeotia to Attica against the
tyrants, that none of the Thebans should either see or hear of it.
Nor did they pass these humane and truly Greek decrees, without at
the same time making their acts conformable to their words. For
Thrasybulus and those who with him occupied Phyle, set out upon that
enterprise from Thebes, with arms and money, and secrecy and a point
to start from, provided for them by the Thebans. Such were the
causes of complaint Lysander had against Thebes. And being now grown
violent in his temper through the atrabilious tendency which
increased upon him in his old age, he urged the Ephors and persuaded
them to place a garrison in Thebes, and taking the commander's place,
he marched forth with a body of troops. Pausanias, also, the king,
was sent shortly after with an army. Now Pausanias, going round by
Cithaeron, was to invade Boeotia; Lysander, meantime, advanced
through Phocis to meet him,
with a numerous body of soldiers. He took the city of the
Orchomenians, who came over to him of their own accord, and plundered
Lebadea. He dispatched also letters to Pausanias, ordering him to
move from Plataea to meet him at Haliartus, and that himself would be
at the walls of Haliartus by break of day. These letters were
brought to the Thebans, the carrier of them falling into the hands of
some Theban scouts. They, having received aid from Athens, committed
their city to the charge of the Athenian troops, and sallying out
about the first sleep, succeeded in reaching Haliartus a little before
Lysander, and part of them entered into the city. He, upon this,
first of all resolved, posting his army upon a hill, to stay for
Pausanias; then as the day advanced, not being able to rest, he bade
his men take up their arms, and encouraging the allies, led them in a
column along the road to the walls. but those Thebans who had
remained outside, taking the city on the left hand, advanced against
the rear of their enemies, by the fountain which is called Cissusa;
here they tell the story that the nurses washed the infant Bacchus
after his birth; the water of it is of a bright wine color, clear,
and most pleasant to drink; and not far off the Cretan storax grows
all about, which the Haliartians adduce in token of Rhadamanthus
having dwelt there, and they show his sepulchre, calling it Alea.
And the monument also of Alcmena is hard by; for there, as they say,
she was buried, having married Rhadamanthus after Amphitryon's death.
But the Thebans inside the city forming in order of battle with the
Haliartians stood still for some time, but on seeing Lysander with a
party of those who were foremost approaching, on a sudden opening the
gates and falling on, they killed him with the soothsayer at his
side, and a few others; for the greater part immediately fled back to
the main force. But the Thebans not slackening, but closely pursuing
them, the whole body turned to fly towards the hills. There were one
thousand of them slain; there died, also, of the Thebans three
hundred, who were killed with their enemies, while chasing them into
craggy and difficult places. These had been under suspicion of
favoring the Lacedaemonians, and in their eagerness to clear
themselves in the eyes of their fellow-citizens, exposed themselves
in the pursuit, and so met their death. News of the disaster reached
Pausanias as he was on the way from Plataea to Thespiae, and having
set his army in order he came to Haliartus; Thrasybulus, also, came
from Thebes, leading the Athenians.

Pausanias proposing to request the bodies of the dead under truce,
the elders of the Spartans took it ill, and were angry among
themselves, and coming to the king, declared that Lysander should not
be taken away upon any conditions; if they fought it out by arms
about his body, and conquered, then they might bury him; if they were
overcome, it was glorious to die upon the spot with their commander.
When the elders had spoken these things, Pausanias saw it would be a
difficult business to vanquish the Thebans, who had but just been
conquerors; that Lysander's body also lay near the walls, so that it
would be hard for them, though they overcame, to take it away without
a truce; he therefore sent a herald, obtained a truce, and withdrew
his forces, and carrying away the body of Lysander, they buried it in
the first friendly soil they reached on crossing the Boeotian
frontier, in the country of the Panopaeans; where the monument still
stands as you go on the road from Delphi to Chaeronea. Now the army
quartering there, it is said that a person of Phocis, relating the
battle to one who was not in it, said, the enemies fell upon them
just after Lysander had passed over the Hoplites; surprised at which
a Spartan, a friend of Lysander, asked what Hoplites he meant, for he
did not know the name. "It was there," answered the Phocian, "that
the enemy killed the first of us; the rivulet by the city is called
Hoplites."  On hearing which the Spartan shed tears and observed, how
impossible it is for any man to avoid his appointed lot; Lysander, it
appears, having received an oracle, as follows: --

Sounding Hoplites see thou bear in mind,
And the earthborn dragon following behind.

Some, however, say that Hoplites does not run by Haliartus, but is a
watercourse near Coronea, falling into the river Philarus, not far
from the town in former times called Hoplias, and now Isomantus.

The man of Haliartus who killed Lysander, by name Neochorus, bore on
his shield the device of a dragon; and this, it was supposed, the
oracle signified. It is said, also, that at the time of the
Peloponnesian war, the Thebans received an oracle from the sanctuary
of Ismenus, referring at once to the battle at Delium, and to this
which thirty years after took place at Haliartus. It ran thus: --

Hunting the wolf, observe the utmost bound,
And the hill Orchalides where foxes most are found.

By the words, "the utmost bound," Delium being intended, where
Boeotia touches Attica, and by Orchalides, the hill now called
Alopecus, which lies in the parts of Haliartus towards Helicon.

But such a death befalling Lysander, the Spartans took it so
grievously at the time, that they put the king to a trial for his
life, which he not daring to await, fled to Tegea, and there lived
out his life in the sanctuary of Minerva. The poverty also of
Lysander being discovered by his death, made his merit more manifest,
since from so much wealth and power, from all the homage of the
cities, and of the Persian kingdom, he had not in the least degree,
so far as money goes, sought any private aggrandizement, as
Theopompus in his history relates, whom anyone may rather give
credit to when he commends, than when he finds fault, as it is more
agreeable to him to blame than to praise. But subsequently, Ephorus
says, some controversy arising among the allies at Sparta, which made
it necessary to consult the writings which Lysander had kept by him,
Agesilaus came to his house, and finding the book in which the
oration on the Spartan constitution was written at length, to the
effect that the kingdom ought to be taken from the Eurypontidae and
Agiadae, and to be offered in common, and a choice made out of the
best citizens, at first he was eager to make it public, and to show
his countrymen the real character of Lysander. But Lacratidas, a
wise man, and at that time chief of the Ephors, hindered Agesilaus,
and said, they ought not to dig up Lysander again, but rather to bury
with him a discourse, composed so plausibly and subtlety. Other
honors, also, were paid him after his death; and amongst these they
imposed a fine upon those who had engaged themselves to marry his
daughters, and then when Lysander was found to be poor, after his
decease, refused them; because when they thought him rich they had
been observant of him, but now his poverty had proved him just and
good, they forsook him. For there was, it seems, in Sparta, a
punishment for not marrying, for a late, and for a bad marriage; and
to the last penalty those were most especially liable, who sought
alliances with the rich instead of with the good and with their
friends. Such is the account we have found given of Lysander.

SYLLA

Lucius Cornelius Sylla was descended of a patrician or noble family.
Of his ancestors, Rufinus, it is said, had been consul, and incurred
a disgrace more signal than his distinction. For being found
possessed of more than ten pounds of silver plate, contrary to the
law, he was for this reason put out of the senate. His posterity
continued ever after in obscurity, nor had Sylla himself any opulent
parentage. In his younger days he lived in hired lodgings, at a low
rate, which in after-times was adduced against him as proof that he
had been fortunate above his quality. When he was boasting and
magnifying himself for his exploits in Libya, a person of noble
station made answer, "And how can you be an honest man, who, since
the death of a father who left you nothing, have become so rich?"
The time in which he lived was no longer an age of pure and upright
manners, but had already declined, and yielded to the appetite for
riches and luxury; yet still, in the general opinion, they who
deserted the hereditary poverty of their family, were as much blamed
as those who had run out a fair patrimonial estate. And afterwards,
when he had seized the power into his hands, and was putting many to
death, a freedman suspected of having concealed one of the
proscribed, and for that reason sentenced to be thrown down the
Tarpeian rock, in a reproachful way recounted, how they had lived
long together under the same roof, himself for the upper rooms paying
two thousand sesterces, and Sylla for the lower three thousand; so
that the difference between their fortunes then was no more than one
thousand sesterces, equivalent in Attic coin to two hundred and fifty
drachmas. And thus much of his early fortune.

His general personal appearance may be known by his statues; only his
blue eyes, of themselves extremely keen and glaring, were rendered
all the more forbidding and terrible by the complexion of his face,
in which white was mixed with rough blotches of fiery red. Hence, it
is said, he was surnamed Sylla, and in allusion to it one of the
scurrilous jesters at Athens made the verse upon him,

Sylla is a mulberry sprinkled o'er with meal.

Nor is it out of place to make use of marks of character like these,
in the case of one who was by nature so addicted to raillery, that in
his youthful obscurer years he would converse freely with players and
professed jesters, and join them in all their low pleasures. And
when supreme master of all, he was often wont to muster together the
most impudent players and stage-followers of the town, and to drink
and bandy jests with them without regard to his age or the dignity of
his place, and to the prejudice of important affairs that required
his attention. When he was once at table, it was not in Sylla's
nature to admit of anything that was serious, and whereas at other
times he was a man of business, and austere of countenance, he
underwent all of a sudden, at his first entrance upon wine and
good-fellowship, a total revolution, and was gentle and tractable
with common singers and dancers, and ready to oblige anyone that
spoke with him. It seems to have been a sort of diseased result of
this laxity, that he was so prone to amorous pleasures, and yielded
without resistance to any temptations of voluptuousness, from which
even ill his old age he could not refrain. He had a long attachment
for Metrobius, a player. In his first amours it happened, that he
made court to a common but rich lady, Nicopolis by name, and, what by
the air of his youth, and what by long intimacy, won so far on her
affections, that she rather than he was the lover, and at her death
she bequeathed him her whole property. He likewise inherited the
estate of a step-mother who loved him as her own son. By these means
he had pretty well advanced his fortunes.

He was chosen quaestor to Marius in his first consulship, and set
sail with him for Libya, to war upon Jugurtha. Here, in general, he
gained approbation; and more especially, by closing in dexterously
with an accidental occasion, made a friend of Bocchus, king of
Numidia. He hospitably entertained the king's ambassadors, on their
escape from some Numidian robbers, and after showing them much
kindness, sent them on their journey with presents, and an escort to
protect them. Bocchus had long hated and dreaded his son-in-law,
Jugurtha, who had now been worsted in the field and had fled to him
for shelter; and it so happened, he was at this time entertaining a
design to betray him. He accordingly invited Sylla to come to him,
wishing the seizure and surrender of Jugurtha to be effected rather
through him, than directly by himself. Sylla, when he had
communicated the business to Marius, and received from him a small
detachment, voluntarily put himself into this imminent danger; and
confiding in a barbarian, who had been unfaithful to his own
relations, to apprehend another man's person, made surrender of his
own. Bocchus, having both of them now in his power, was necessitated
to betray one or other, and after long debate with himself, at last
resolved on his first design, and gave up Jugurtha into the hands of
Sylla.

For this Marius triumphed, but the glory of the enterprise, which
through people's envy of Marius was ascribed to Sylla, secretly
grieved him. And the truth is, Sylla himself was by nature
vainglorious, and this being the first time that from a low and
private condition he had risen to esteem amongst the citizens and
tasted of honor, his appetite for distinction carried him to such a
pitch of ostentation, that he had a representation of this action
engraved on a signet ring; which he carried about with him, and made
use of ever after. The impress was, Bocchus delivering, and Sylla
receiving, Jugurtha. This touched Marius to the quick; however,
judging Sylla to be beneath his rivalry, he made use of him as
lieutenant, in his second consulship, and in his third, as tribune;
and many considerable services were effected by his means. When
acting as lieutenant he took Copillus, chief of the Tectosages,
prisoner, and compelled the Marsians, a great and populous nation,
to become friends and confederates of the Romans.

Henceforward, however, Sylla perceiving that Marius bore a jealous
eye over him, and would no longer afford him opportunities of action,
but rather opposed his advance, attached himself to Catulus, Marius's
colleague, a worthy man, but not energetic enough as a general. And
under this commander, who entrusted him with the highest and most
important commissions, he rose at once to reputation and to power.
He subdued by arms most part of the Alpine barbarians; and when there
was a scarcity in the armies, he took that care upon himself, and
brought in such a store of provisions, as not only to furnish the
soldiers of Catulus with abundance, but likewise to supply Marius.
This, as he writes himself, wounded Marius to the very heart. So
slight and childish were the first occasions and motives of that
enmity between them, which, passing afterwards through a long course
of civil bloodshed and incurable divisions to find its end in
tyranny, and the confusion of the whole State proved Euripides to
have been truly wise and thoroughly acquainted with the causes of
disorders in the body politic, when he forewarned all men to beware
of Ambition, as of all the higher Powers, the most destructive and
pernicious to her votaries.

Sylla, by this time thinking that the reputation of his arms abroad
was sufficient to entitle him to a part in the civil administration,
he took himself immediately from the camp to the assembly, and
offered himself as a candidate for a praetorship, but failed. The
fault of this disappointment he wholly ascribes to the populace, who,
knowing his intimacy with king Bocchus, and for that reason
expecting, that if he was made aedile before his praetorship, he
would then show them magnificent hunting-shows and combats between
Libyan wild beasts, chose other praetors, on purpose to force him
into the aedileship. The vanity of this pretext is sufficiently
disproved by matter-of-fact. For the year following, partly by
flatteries to the people, and partly by money, he got himself elected
praetor. Accordingly, once while he was in office, on his angrily
telling Caesar that he should make use of his authority against him,
Caesar answered him with a smile, "You do well to call it your own,
as you bought it."  At the end of his praetorship he was sent over
into Cappadocia, under the presence of reestablishing Ariobarzanes in
his kingdom, but in reality to keep in check the restless movements
of Mithridates, who was gradually procuring himself as vast a new
acquired power and dominion, as was that of his ancient inheritance.
He carried over with him no great forces of his own, but making use
of the cheerful aid of the confederates, succeeded, with considerable
slaughter of the Cappadocians, and yet greater of the Armenian
succors, in expelling Gordius and establishing Ariobarzanes as king.

During his stay on the banks of the Euphrates, there came to him
Orobazus, a Parthian, ambassador from king Arsaces, as yet there
having been no correspondence between the two nations. And this also
we may lay to the account of Sylla's felicity, that he should be the
first Roman, to whom the Parthians made address for alliance and
friendship. At the time of which reception, the story is, that
having ordered three chairs of state to be set, one for Ariobarzanes,
one for Orobazus, and a third for himself, he placed himself in the
middle, and so gave audience. For this the king of Parthia
afterwards put Orobazus to death. Some people commended Sylla for
his lofty carriage towards the barbarians; others again accused him
of arrogance and unseasonable display. It is reported, that a
certain Chaldaean, of Orobazus's retinue, looking Sylla wistfully in
the face, and observing carefully the motions of his mind and body,
and forming a judgment of his nature, according to the rules of his
art, said that it was impossible for him not to become the greatest
of men; it was rather a wonder how he could even then abstain from
being head of all.

At his return, Censorinus impeached him of extortion, for having
exacted a vast sum of money from a well-affected and associate
kingdom. However, Censorinus did not appear at the trial, but
dropped his accusation. His quarrel, meantime, with Marius began to
break out afresh, receiving new material from the ambition of
Bocchus, who, to please the people of Rome, and gratify Sylla, set up
in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus images bearing trophies, and a
representation in gold of the surrender of Jugurtha to Sylla. When
Marius, in great anger, attempted to pull them down, and others aided
Sylla, the whole city would have been in tumult and commotion with
this dispute, had not the Social War, which had long lain smoldering
blazed forth at last, and for the present put an end to the quarrel.

In the course of this war, which had many great changes of fortune,
and which, more than any, afflicted the Romans, and, indeed,
endangered the very being of the Commonwealth, Marius was not able to
signalize his valor in any action, but left behind him a clear proof,
that warlike excellence requires a strong and still vigorous body.
Sylla, on the other hand, by his many achievements, gained himself,
with his fellow-citizens, the name of a great commander, while his
friends thought him the greatest of all commanders, and his enemies
called him the most fortunate. Nor did this make the same sort of
impression on him, as it made on Timotheus the son of Conon, the
Athenian; who, when his adversaries ascribed his successes to his
good luck, and had a painting made, representing him asleep, and
Fortune by his side, casting her nets over the cities, was rough and
violent in his indignation at those who did it, as if by attributing
all to Fortune, they had robbed him of his just honors; and said to
the people on one occasion at his return from war, "In this, ye men
of Athens, Fortune had no part."  A piece of boyish petulance, which
the deity, we are told, played back upon Timotheus; who from that
time was never able to achieve anything that was great, but proving
altogether unfortunate in his attempts, and falling into discredit
with the people, was at last banished the city. Sylla, on the
contrary, not only accepted with pleasure the credit of such divine
felicities and favors, but joining himself in extolling and
glorifying what was done, gave the honor of all to Fortune, whether
it were out of boastfulness, or a real feeling of divine agency. He
remarks, in his Memoirs, that of all his well advised actions, none
proved so lucky in the execution, as what he had boldly enterprised,
not by calculation, but upon the moment. And in the character which
he gives of himself, that he was born for fortune rather than war, he
seems to give Fortune a higher place than merit, and in short, makes
himself entirely the creature of a superior power, accounting even
his concord with Metellus, his equal in office, and his connection by
marriage, a piece of preternatural felicity. For expecting to have
met in him a most troublesome, he found him a most accommodating
colleague. Moreover, in the Memoirs which he dedicated to Lucullus,
he admonishes him to esteem nothing more trustworthy, than what the
divine powers advise him by night. And when he was leaving the city
with an army, to fight in the Social War, he relates, that the earth
near the Laverna opened, and a quantity of fire came rushing out of
it, shooting up with a bright flame into the heavens. The
soothsayers upon this foretold, that a person of great qualities, and
of a rare and singular aspect, should take the government in hand,
and quiet the present troubles of the city. Sylla affirms he was the
man, for his golden head of hair made him an extraordinary-looking
man, nor had he any shame, after the great actions he had done, in
testifying to his own great qualities. And thus much of his opinion
as to divine agency.

In general he would seem to have been of a very irregular character,
full of inconsistencies with himself; much given to rapine, to
prodigality yet more; in promoting or disgracing whom he pleased,
alike unaccountable; cringing to those he stood in need of, and
domineering over others who stood in need of him, so that it was hard
to tell, whether his nature had more in it of pride or of servility.
As to his unequal distribution of punishments, as, for example, that
upon slight grounds he would put to the torture, and again would bear
patiently with the greatest wrongs; would readily forgive and be
reconciled after the most heinous acts of enmity, and yet would visit
small and inconsiderable offenses with death, and confiscation of
goods; one might judge, that in himself he was really of a violent
and revengeful nature, which however he could qualify, upon
reflection, for his interest. In this very Social War, when the
soldiers with stones and clubs had killed an officer of praetorian
rank, his own lieutenant, Albinus by name, he passed by this flagrant
crime without any inquiry, giving it out moreover in a boast, that
the soldiers would behave all the better now, to make amends, by some
special bravery, for their breach of discipline. He took no notice
of the clamors of those that cried for justice, but designing already
to supplant Marius, now that he saw the Social War near its end, he
made much of his army, in hopes to get himself declared general of
the forces against Mithridates.

At his return to Rome, he was chosen Consul with Quintus Pompeius, in
the fiftieth year of his age, and made a most distinguished marriage
with Caecilia, daughter of Metellus, the chief priest. The common
people made a variety of verses in ridicule of the marriage, and many
of the nobility also were disgusted at it, esteeming him, as Livy
writes, unworthy of this connection, whom before they thought worthy
of a consulship. This was not his only wife, for first, in his
younger days, he was married to Ilia, by whom he had a daughter;
after her to Aelia; and thirdly to Cloelia, whom he dismissed as
barren, but honorably, and with professions of respect, adding,
moreover, presents. But the match between him and Metella, falling
out a few days after, occasioned suspicions that he had complained of
Cloelia without due cause. To Metella he always showed great
deference, so much so that the people, when anxious for the recall of
the exiles of Marius's party, upon his refusal, entreated the
intercession of Metella. And the Athenians, it is thought, had
harder measure, at the capture of their town, because they used
insulting language to Metella in their jests from the walls during
the siege. But of this hereafter.

At present esteeming the consulship but a small matter in comparison
of things to come, he was impatiently carried away in thought to the
Mithridatic War. Here he was withstood by Marius; who out of mad
affectation of glory and thirst for distinction, those never dying
passions, though he were now unwieldy in body, and had given up
service, on account of his age, during the late campaigns, still
coveted after command in a distant war beyond the seas. And whilst
Sylla was departed for the camp, to order the rest of his affairs
there, he sat brooding at home, and at last hatched that execrable
sedition, which wrought Rome more mischief than all her enemies
together had done, as was indeed foreshown by the gods. For a flame
broke forth of its own accord, from under the staves of the ensigns,
and was with difficulty extinguished. Three ravens brought their
young into the open road, and ate them, carrying the relics into the
nest again. Mice having gnawed the consecrated gold in one of the
temples, the keepers caught one of them, a female, in a trap; and she
bringing forth five young ones in the very trap, devoured three of
them. But what was greatest of all, in a calm and clear sky there
was heard the sound of a trumpet, with such a loud and dismal blast,
as struck terror and amazement into the hearts of the people. The
Etruscan sages affirmed, that this prodigy betokened the mutation of
the age, and a general revolution in the world. For according to
them there are in all eight ages, differing one from another in the
lives and the characters of men, and to each of these God has
allotted a certain measure of time, determined by the circuit of the
great year. And when one age is run out, at the approach of another,
there appears some wonderful sign from earth or heaven, such as makes
it manifest at once to those who have made it their business to study
such things, that there has succeeded in the world a new race of men,
differing in customs and institutes of life, and more or less
regarded by the gods, than the preceding. Amongst other great
changes that happen, as they say, at the turn of ages, the art of
divination, also, at one time rises in esteem, and is more successful
in its predictions, clearer and surer tokens being sent from God, and
then again, in another generation declines as low, becoming mere
guesswork for the most part, and discerning future events by dim and
uncertain intimations. This was the mythology of the wisest of the
Tuscan sages, who were thought to possess a knowledge beyond other
men. Whilst the Senate sat in consultation with the soothsayers,
concerning these prodigies, in the temple of Bellona, a sparrow came
flying in, before them all, with a grasshopper in its mouth, and
letting fall one part of it, flew away with the remainder. The
diviners foreboded commotions and dissension between the great landed
proprietors and the common city populace; the latter, like the
grasshopper, being loud and talkative; while the sparrow might
represent the "dwellers in the field."

Marius had taken into alliance Sulpicius, the tribune, a man second
to none in any villanies, so that it was less the question what
others he surpassed, but rather in what respects he most surpassed
himself in wickedness. He was cruel, bold, rapacious, and in all
these points utterly shameless and unscrupulous; not hesitating to
offer Roman citizenship by public sale to freed slaves and aliens,
and to count out the price on public money-tables in the forum. He
maintained three thousand swordsmen, and had always about him a
company of young men of the equestrian class ready for all occasions,
whom he styled his Anti-Senate. Having had a law enacted, that no
senator should contract a debt of above two thousand drachmas, he
himself, after death, was found indebted three millions. This was
the man whom Marius let in upon the Commonwealth, and who,
confounding all things by force and the sword, made several
ordinances of dangerous consequence, and amongst the rest, one giving
Marius the conduct of the Mithridatic war. Upon this the consuls
proclaimed a public cessation of business, but as they were holding
an assembly near the temple of Castor and Pollux, he let loose the
rabble upon them, and amongst many others slew the consul Pompeius's
young son in the forum, Pompeius himself hardly escaping in the
crowd. Sylla being closely pursued into the house of Marius, was
forced to come forth and dissolve the cessation; and for his doing
this, Sulpicius, having deposed Pompeius, allowed Sylla to continue
his consulship, only transferring the Mithridatic expedition to
Marius.

There were immediately dispatched to Nola tribunes, to receive the
army, and bring it to Marius; but Sylla having got first to the camp,
and the soldiers, upon hearing of the news, having stoned the
tribunes, Marius, in requital, proceeded to put the friends of Sylla
in the city to the sword, and rifled their goods. Every kind of
removal and flight went on, some hastening from the camp to the city,
others from the city to the camp. The senate, no more in its own
power, but wholly governed by the dictates of Marius and Sulpicius,
alarmed at the report of Sylla's advancing with his troops towards
the city, sent forth two of the praetors, Brutus and Servilius, to
forbid his nearer approach. The soldiers would have slain these
praetors in a fury, for their bold language to Sylla; contenting
themselves, however, with breaking their rods, and tearing off their
purple-edged robes, after much contumelious usage they sent them
back, to the sad dejection of the citizens, who beheld their
magistrates despoiled of their badges of office, and announcing to
them, that things were now manifestly come to a rupture past all
cure. Marius put himself in readiness, and Sylla with his colleague
moved from Nola, at the head of six complete legions, all of them
willing to march up directly against the city, though he himself as
yet was doubtful in thought, and apprehensive of the danger. As he
was sacrificing, Postumius the soothsayer, having inspected the
entrails, stretching forth both hands to Sylla, required to be bound
and kept in custody till the battle was over, as willing, if they had
not speedy and complete success, to suffer the utmost punishment. It
is said, also, that there appeared to Sylla himself in a dream, a
certain goddess, whom the Romans learnt to worship from the
Cappadocians, whether it be the Moon, or Pallas, or Bellona. This
same goddess, to his thinking, stood by him, and put into his hand
thunder and lightning, then naming his enemies one by one, bade him
strike them, who, all of them, fell on the discharge and disappeared.
Encouraged by this vision, and relating it to his colleague, next day
he led on towards Rome. About Picinae being met by a deputation,
beseeching him not to attack at once, in the heat of a march, for
that the senate had decreed to do him all the right imaginable, he
consented to halt on the spot, and sent his officers to measure out
the ground, as is usual, for a camp; so that the deputation,
believing it, returned. They were no sooner gone, but he sent a
party on under the command of Lucius Basillus and Caius Mummius, to
secure the city gate, and the walls on the side of the Esquiline
hill, and then close at their heels followed himself with all speed.
Basillus made his way successfully into the city, but the unarmed
multitude, pelting him with stones and tiles from off the houses,
stopped his further progress, and beat him back to the wall. Sylla
by this time was come up, and seeing what was going on, called aloud
to his men to set fire to the houses, and taking a flaming torch, he
himself led the way, and commanded the archers to make use of their
fire-darts, letting fly at the tops of houses; all which he did, not
upon any plan, but simply in his fury, yielding the conduct of that
day's work to passion, and as if all he saw were enemies, without
respect or pity either to friend, relations, or acquaintance, made
his entry by fire, which knows no distinction betwixt friend or foe.

In this conflict, Marius being driven into the temple of
Mother-Earth, thence invited the slaves by proclamation of freedom,
but the enemy coming on he was overpowered and fled the city.

Sylla having called a senate, had sentence of death passed on Marius,
and some few others, amongst whom was Sulpicius, tribune of the
people. Sulpicius was killed, being betrayed by his servant, whom
Sylla first made free, and then threw him headlong down the Tarpeian
rock. As for Marius, he set a price on his life, by proclamation,
neither gratefully nor politicly, if we consider into whose house,
not long before he put himself at mercy, and was safely dismissed.
Had Marius at that time not let Sylla go, but suffered him to be
slain by the hands of Sulpicius, he might have been lord of all;
nevertheless he spared his life, and a few days after, when in a
similar position himself, received a different measure.

By these proceedings, Sylla excited the secret distaste of the
senate; but the displeasure and free indignation of the commonalty
showed itself plainly by their actions. For they ignominiously
rejected Nonius, his nephew, and Servius, who stood for offices of
state by his interest, and elected others as magistrates, by honoring
whom they thought they should most annoy him. He made semblance of
extreme satisfaction at all this, as if the people by his means had
again enjoyed the liberty of doing what seemed best to them. And to
pacify the public hostility, he created Lucius Cinna consul, one of
the adverse party, having first bound him under oaths and
imprecations to be favorable to his interest. For Cinna, ascending
the capitol with a stone in his hand, swore solemnly, and prayed with
direful curses, that he himself, if he were not true to his
friendship with Sylla, might be cast out of the city, as that stone
out of his hand; and thereupon cast the stone to the ground, in the
presence of many people. Nevertheless Cinna had no sooner entered on
his charge, but he took measures to disturb the present settlement,
and having prepared an impeachment against Sylla, got Virginius, one
of the tribunes of the people, to be his accuser; but Sylla, leaving
him and the court of judicature to themselves, set forth against
Mithridates.

About the time that Sylla was making ready to put oft with his forces
from Italy, besides many other omens which befell Mithridates, then
staying at Pergamus, there goes a story that a figure of Victory,
with a crown in her hand, which the Pergamenians by machinery from
above let down on him, when it had almost reached his head, fell to
pieces, and the crown tumbling down into the midst of the theater,
there broke against the ground, occasioning a general alarm among the
populace, and considerably disquieting Mithridates himself, although
his affairs at that time were succeeding beyond expectation. For
having wrested Asia from the Romans, and Bithynia and Cappadocia
from their kings, he made Pergamus his royal seat, distributing among
his friends riches, principalities, and kingdoms. Of his sons, one
residing in Pontus and Bosporus held his ancient realm as far as the
deserts beyond the lake Maeotis, without molestation; while
Ariarathes, another, was reducing Thrace and Macedon, with a great
army, to obedience. His generals, with forces under them, were
establishing his supremacy in other quarters. Archelaus, in
particular, with his fleet, held absolute mastery of the sea, and was
bringing into subjection the Cyclades, and all the other islands as
far as Malea, and had taken Euboea itself. Making Athens his
head-quarters, from thence as far as Thessaly he was withdrawing the
States of Greece from the Roman allegiance, without the least ill
success, except at Chaeronea. For here Bruttius Sura, lieutenant to
Sentius, governor of Macedon, a man of singular valor and prudence,
met him, and, though he came like a torrent pouring over Boeotia,
made stout resistance, and thrice giving him battle near Chaeronea,
repulsed and forced him back to the sea. But being commanded by
Lucius Lucullus to give place to his successor, Sylla, and resign the
war to whom it was decreed, he presently left Boeotia, and retired
back to Sentius, although his success had outgone all hopes, and
Greece was well disposed to a new revolution, upon account of his
gallant behavior. These were the glorious actions of Bruttius.

Sylla, on his arrival, received by their deputations the compliments
of all the cities of Greece, except Athens, against which, as it was
compelled by the tyrant Aristion to hold for the king, he advanced
with all his forces, and investing the Piraeus, laid formal siege to
it, employing every variety of engines, and trying every manner of
assault; whereas, had he forbore but a little while, he might without
hazard have taken the Upper City by famine, it being already reduced
to the last extremity, through want of necessaries. But eager to
return to Rome, and fearing innovation there, at great risk, with
continual fighting and vast expense, he pushed on the war. Besides
other equipage, the very work about the engines of battery was
supplied with no less than ten thousand yoke of mules, employed daily
in that service. And when timber grew scarce, for many of the works
failed, some crushed to pieces by their own weight, others taking
fire by the continual play of the enemy, he had recourse to the
sacred groves, and cut down the trees of the Academy, the shadiest of
all the suburbs, and the Lyceum. And a vast sum of money being
wanted to carry on the war, he broke into the sanctuaries of Greece,
that of Epidaurus and that of Olympia, sending for the most beautiful
and precious offerings deposited there. He wrote, likewise, to the
Amphictyons, at Delphi, that it were better to remit the wealth of
the god to him, for that he would keep it more securely, or in case
he made use of it, restore as much. He sent Caphis, the Phocian, one
of his friends, with this message, commanding him to receive each
item by weight. Caphis came to Delphi, but was loath to touch the
holy things, and with many tears, in the presence of the Amphyctyons,
bewailed the necessity. And on some of them declaring they heard the
sound of a harp from the inner shrine, he, whether he himself
believed it, or was willing to try the effect of religious fear upon
Sylla, sent back an express. To which Sylla replied in a scoffing
way, that it was surprising to him that Caphis did not know that
music was a sign of joy, not anger; he should, therefore, go on
boldly, and accept what a gracious and bountiful god offered.

Other things were sent away without much notice on the part of the
Greeks in general, but in the case of the silver tun, that only relic
of the regal donations, which its weight and bulk made it impossible
for any carriage to receive, the Amphictyons were forced to cut it
into pieces, and called to mind in so doing, how Titus Flamininus,
and Manius Acilius, and again Paulus Aemilius, one of whom drove
Antiochus out of Greece, and the others subdued the Macedonian kings,
had not only abstained from violating the Greek temples, but had even
given them new gifts and honors, and increased the general veneration
for them. They, indeed, the lawful commanders of temperate and
obedient soldiers, and themselves great in soul, and simple in
expenses, lived within the bounds of the ordinary established
charges, accounting it a greater disgrace to seek popularity with
their men, than to feel fear of their enemy. Whereas the commanders
of these times, attaining to superiority by force, not worth, and
having need of arms one against another, rather than against the
public enemy, were constrained to temporize in authority, and in
order to pay for the gratifications with which they purchased the
labor of their soldiers, were driven, before they knew it, to sell
the commonwealth itself, and, to gain the mastery over men better
than themselves, were content to become slaves to the vilest of
wretches. These practices drove Marius into exile, and again brought
him in against Sylla. These made Cinna the assassin of Octavius, and
Fimbria of Flaccus. To which courses Sylla contributed not the
least; for to corrupt and win over those who were under the command
of others, he would be munificent and profuse towards those who were
under his own; and so, while tempting the soldiers of other generals
to treachery, and his own to dissolute living, he was naturally in
want of a large treasury, and especially during that siege.

Sylla had a vehement and an implacable desire to conquer Athens,
whether out of emulation, fighting as it were against the shadow of
the once famous city, or out of anger, at the foul words and
scurrilous jests with which the tyrant Aristion, showing himself
daily, with unseemly gesticulations, upon the walls, had provoked him
and Metella.

The tyrant Aristion had his very being compounded of wantonness and
cruelty, having gathered into himself all the worst of Mithridates's
diseased and vicious qualities, like some fatal malady which the
city, after its deliverance from innumerable wars, many tyrannies and
seditions, was in its last days destined to endure. At the time when
a medimnus of wheat was sold in the city for one thousand drachmas,
and men were forced to live on the feverfew growing round the
citadel, and to boil down shoes and oil-bags for their food, he,
carousing and feasting in the open face of day, then dancing in
armor, and making jokes at the enemy, suffered the holy lamp of the
goddess to expire for want of oil, and to the chief priestess, who
demanded of him the twelfth part of a medimnus of wheat, he sent the
like quantity of pepper. The senators and priests, who came as
suppliants to beg of him to take compassion on the city, and treat
for peace with Sylla, he drove away and dispersed with a flight of
arrows. At last, with much ado, he sent forth two or three of his
reveling companions to parley, to whom Sylla, perceiving that they
made no serious overtures towards an accommodation, but went on
haranguing in praise of Theseus, Eumolpus, and the Median trophies,
replied, "My good friends, you may put up your speeches and be gone.
I was sent by the Romans to Athens, not to take lessons, but to
reduce rebels to obedience."

In the meantime news came to Sylla that some old men, talking in the
Ceramicus, had been overheard to blame the tyrant for not securing
the passages and approaches near the Heptachalcum, the one point
where the enemy might easily get over. Sylla neglected not the
report, but going in the night, and discovering the place to be
assailable, set instantly to work. Sylla himself makes mention in
his Memoirs, that Marcus Teius, the first man who scaled the wall,
meeting with an adversary, and striking him on the headpiece a home
stroke, broke his own sword, but, notwithstanding, did not give
ground, but stood and held him fast. The city was certainly taken
from that quarter, according to the tradition of the oldest of the
Athenians.

When they had thrown down the wall, and made all level betwixt the
Piraic and Sacred Gate, about midnight Sylla entered the breach, with
all the terrors of trumpets and cornets sounding, with the triumphant
shout and cry of an army let loose to spoil and slaughter, and
scouring through the streets with swords drawn. There was no
numbering the slain; the amount is to this day conjectured only from
the space of ground overflowed with blood. For without mentioning
the execution done in other quarters of the city, the blood that was
shed about the marketplace spread over the whole Ceramicus within the
Double-gate, and, according to most writers, passed through the gate
and overflowed the suburb. Nor did the multitudes which fell thus
exceed the number of those, who, out of pity and love for their
country, which they believed was now finally to perish, slew
themselves; the best of them, through despair of their country's
surviving, dreading themselves to survive, expecting neither humanity
nor moderation in Sylla. At length, partly at the instance of Midias
and Calliphon, two exiled men, beseeching and casting themselves at
his feet, partly by the intercession of those senators who followed
the camp, having had his fill of revenge, and making some honorable
mention of the ancient Athenians, "I forgive," said he, "the many for
the sake of the few, the living for the dead."  He took Athens,
according to his own Memoirs, on the calends of March, coinciding
pretty nearly with the new moon of Anthesterion, on which day it is
the Athenian usage to perform various acts in commemoration of the
ruins and devastations occasioned by the deluge, that being supposed
to be the time of its occurrence.

At the taking of the town, the tyrant fled into the citadel, and was
there besieged by Curio, who had that charge given him. He held out
a considerable time, but at last yielded himself up for want of
water, and divine power immediately intimated its agency in the
matter. For on the same day and hour that Curio conducted him down,
the clouds gathered in a clear sky, and there came down a great
quantity of rain and filled the citadel with water.

Not long after, Sylla won the Piraeus, and burnt most of it; amongst
the rest, Philo's arsenal, a work very greatly admired.

In the mean time Taxiles, Mithridates's general, coming down from
Thrace and Macedon, with an army of one hundred thousand foot, ten
thousand horse, and ninety chariots, armed with scythes at the
wheels, would have joined Archelaus, who lay with a navy on the coast
near Munychia, reluctant to quit the sea, and yet unwilling to engage
the Romans in battle, but desiring to protract the war and cut off
the enemy's supplies. Which Sylla perceiving much better than
himself, passed with his forces into Boeotia, quitting a barren
district which was inadequate to maintain an army even in time of
peace. He was thought by some to have taken false measures in thus
leaving Attica, a rugged country, and ill suited for cavalry to move
in, and entering the plain and open fields of Boeotia, knowing as he
did the barbarian strength to consist most in horses and chariots.
But as was said before, to avoid famine and scarcity, he was forced
to run the risk of a battle. Moreover he was in anxiety for
Hortensius, a bold and active officer, whom on his way to Sylla with
forces from Thessaly, the barbarians awaited in the straits. For
these reasons Sylla drew off into Boeotia. Hortensius, meantime, was
conducted by Caphis, our countryman, another way unknown to the
barbarians, by Parnassus, just under Tithora, which was then not so
large a town as it is now, but a mere fort, surrounded by steep
precipices, whither the Phocians also, in old time, when flying from
the invasion of Xerxes, carried themselves and their goods and were
saved. Hortensius, encamping here, kept off the enemy by day, and at
night descending by difficult passages to Patronis, joined the forces
of Sylla, who came to meet him. Thus united they posted themselves
on a fertile hill in the middle of the plain of Elatea, shaded with
trees and watered at the foot. It is called Philoboeotus, and its
situation and natural advantages are spoken of with great admiration
by Sylla.

As they lay thus encamped, they seemed to the enemy a contemptible
number, for they were not above fifteen hundred horse, and less than
fifteen thousand foot. Therefore the rest of the commanders,
overpersuading Archelaus, and drawing up the army, covered the plain
with horses, chariots, bucklers, targets. The clamor and cries of so
many nations forming for battle rent the air, nor was the pomp and
ostentation of their costly array altogether idle and unserviceable
for terror; for the brightness of their armor, embellished
magnificently with gold and silver, and the rich colors of their
Median and Scythian coats, intermixed with brass and shining steel,
presented a flaming and terrible sight as they swayed about and moved
in their ranks, so much so that the Romans shrunk within their
trenches, and Sylla, unable by any arguments to remove their fear,
and unwilling to force them to fight against their wills, was fain to
sit down in quiet, ill-brooking to become the subject of barbarian
insolence and laughter. This, however, above all advantaged him, for
the enemy, from contemning of him, fell into disorder amongst
themselves, being already less thoroughly under command, on account
of the number of their leaders. Some few of them remained within the
encampment, but others, the major part, lured out with hopes of prey
and rapine, strayed about the country many days journey from the
camp, and are related to have destroyed the city of Panope, to have
plundered Lebadea, and robbed the oracle without any orders from
their commanders.

Sylla, all this while, chafing and fretting to see the cities all
around destroyed, suffered not the soldiery to remain idle, but
leading them out, compelled them to divert the Cephisus from its
ancient channel by casting up ditches, and giving respite to none,
showed himself rigorous in punishing the remiss, that growing weary
of labor, they might be induced by hardship to embrace danger. Which
fell out accordingly, for on the third day, being hard at work as
Sylla passed by, they begged and clamored to be led against the
enemy. Sylla replied, that this demand of war proceeded rather from
a backwardness to labor than any forwardness to fight, but if they
were in good earnest martially inclined, he bade them take their arms
and get up thither, pointing to the ancient citadel of the
Parapotamians, of which at present, the city being laid waste, there
remained only the rocky hill itself, steep and craggy on all sides,
and severed from Mount Hedylium by the breadth of the river Assus,
which running between, and at the bottom of the same hill falling
into the Cephisus with an impetuous confluence, makes this eminence a
strong position for soldiers to occupy. Observing that the enemy's
division, called the Brazen Shields, were making their way up
thither, Sylla was willing to take first possession, and by the
vigorous efforts of the soldiers, succeeded. Archelaus, driven from
hence, bent his forces upon Chaeronea. The Chaeroneans who bore arms
in the Roman camp beseeching Sylla not to abandon the city, he
dispatched Gabinius, a tribune, with one legion, and sent out also
the Chaeroneans, who endeavored, but were not able to get in before
Gabinius; so active was he, and more zealous to bring relief than
those who had entreated it. Juba writes that Ericius was the man
sent, not Gabinius. Thus narrowly did our native city escape.

From Lebadea and the cave of Trophonius there came favorable rumors
and prophecies of victory to the Romans, of which the inhabitants of
those places give a fuller account, but as Sylla himself affirms in
the tenth book of his Memoirs, Quintus Titius, a man of some repute
among the Romans who were engaged in mercantile business in Greece,
came to him after the battle won at Chaeronea, and declared that
Trophonius had foretold another fight and victory on the same place,
within a short time. After him a soldier, by name Salvenius, brought
an account from the god of the future issue of affairs in Italy. As
to the vision, they both agreed in this, that they had seen one who
in stature and in majesty was similar to Jupiter Olympius.

Sylla, when he had passed over the Assus, marching under the Mount
Hedylium, encamped close to Archelaus, who had entrenched himself
strongly between the mountains Acontium and Hedylium, close to what
are called the Assia. The place of his entrenchment is to this day
named from him, Archelaus. Sylla, after one day's respite, having
left Murena behind him with one legion and two cohorts to amuse the
enemy with continual alarms, himself went and sacrificed on the banks
of Cephisus, and the holy rites ended, held on towards Chaeronea to
receive the forces there and view Mount Thurium, where a party of the
enemy had posted themselves. This is a craggy height running up in a
conical form to a point, called by us Orthopagus; at the foot of it
is the river Morius and the temple of Apollo Thurius. The god had
his surname from Thuro, mother of Chaeron, whom ancient record makes
founder of Chaeronea. Others assert that the cow which Apollo gave to
Cadmus for a guide appeared there, and that the place took its name
from the beast, Thor being the Phoenician word for a cow.

At Sylla's approach to Chaeronea, the tribune who had been appointed
to guard the city led out his men in arms, and met him with a garland
of laurel in his hand; which Sylla accepting, and at the same time
saluting the soldiers and animating them to the encounter, two men of
Chaeronea, Homoloichus and Anaxidamus, presented themselves before
him, and offered, with a small party, to dislodge those who were
posted on Thurium. For there lay a path out of sight of the
barbarians, from what is called Petrochus along by the Museum,
leading right down from above upon Thurium. By this way it was easy
to fall upon them and either stone them from above, or force them
down into the plain. Sylla, assured of their faith and courage by
Gabinius, bade them proceed with the enterprise, and meantime drew up
the army, and disposing the cavalry on both wings, himself took
command of the right; the left being committed to the direction of
Murena. In the rear of all, Galba and Hortensius, his lieutenants,
planted themselves on the upper grounds with the cohorts of reserve,
to watch the motions of the enemy, who with numbers of horse and
swift-footed, light-armed infantry, were noticed to have so formed
their wing as to allow it readily to change about and alter its
position, and thus gave reason for suspecting that they intended to
carry it far out and so to enclose the Romans.

In the meanwhile, the Chaeroneans, who had Ericius for commander by
appointment of Sylla, covertly making their way around Thurium, and
then discovering themselves, occasioned a great confusion and rout
amongst the barbarians, and slaughter, for the most part, by their
own hands. For they kept not their place, but making down the steep
descent, ran themselves on their own spears, and violently sent each
other over the cliffs, the enemy from above pressing on and wounding
them where they exposed their bodies; insomuch that there fell three
thousand about Thurium. Some of those who escaped, being met by
Murena as he stood in array, were cut off and destroyed. Others
breaking through to their friends and falling pell-mell into the
ranks, filled most part of the army with fear and tumult, and caused
a hesitation and delay among the generals, which was no small
disadvantage. For immediately upon the discomposure, Sylla coming
full speed to the charge, and quickly crossing the interval between
the armies, lost them the service of their armed chariots, which
require a consider able space of ground to gather strength and
impetuosity in their career, a short course being weak and
ineffectual, like that of missiles without a full swing. Thus it
fared with the barbarians at present, whose first chariots came
feebly on and made but a faint impression; the Romans repulsing them
with shouts and laughter, called out as they do at the races in the
circus, for more to come. By this time the mass of both armies met;
the barbarians on one side fixed their long pikes, and with their
shields locked close together, strove so far as in them lay to
preserve their line of battle entire. The Romans, on the other side,
having discharged their javelins, rushed on with their drawn swords,
and struggled to put by the pikes to get at them the sooner, in the
fury that possessed them at seeing in the front of the enemy fifteen
thousand slaves, whom the royal commanders had set free by
proclamation, and ranged amongst the men of arms. And a Roman
centurion is reported to have said at this sight, that he never knew
servants allowed to play the masters, unless at the Saturnalia.
These men by their deep and solid array, as well as by their daring
courage, yielded but slowly to the legions, till at last by slinging
engines, and darts, which the Romans poured in upon them behind, they
were forced to give way and scatter.

As Archelaus was extending the right wing to encompass the enemy,
Hortensius with his cohorts came down in force, with intention to
charge him in the flank. But Archelaus wheeling about suddenly with
two thousand horse, Hortensius, outnumbered and hard pressed, fell
back towards the higher grounds, and found himself gradually getting
separated from the main body and likely to be surrounded by the
enemy. When Sylla heard this, he came rapidly up to his succor from
the right wing, which as yet had not engaged. But Archelaus,
guessing the matter by the dust of his troops, turned to the right
wing, from whence Sylla came, in hopes to surprise it without a
commander. At the same instant, likewise, Taxiles, with his Brazen
Shields, assailed Murena, so that a cry coming from both places, and
the hills repeating it around, Sylla stood in suspense which way to
move. Deciding to resume his own station, he sent in aid to Murena
four cohorts under Hortensius, and commanding the fifth to follow
him, returned hastily to the right wing, which of itself held its
ground on equal terms against Archelaus; and, at his appearance, with
one bold effort forced them back, and, obtaining the mastery,
followed them, flying in disorder to the river and Mount Acontium.
Sylla, however, did not forget the danger Murena was in; but hasting
thither and finding him victorious also, then joined in the pursuit.
Many barbarians were slain in the field, many more were cut in pieces
as they were making into the camp. Of all the vast multitude, ten
thousand only got safe into Chalcis. Sylla writes that there were
but fourteen of his soldiers missing, and that two of these returned
towards evening; he, therefore, inscribed on the trophies the names
of Mars, Victory, and Venus, as having won the day no less by good
fortune than by management and force of arms. This trophy of the
battle in the plain stands on the place where Archelaus first gave
way, near the stream of the Molus; another is erected high on the top
of Thurium, where the barbarians were environed, with an inscription
in Greek, recording that the glory of the day belonged to Homoloichus
and Anaxidamus. Sylla celebrated his victory at Thebes with
spectacles, for which he erected a stage, near Oedipus's well. The
judges of the performances were Greeks chosen out of other cities;
his hostility to the Thebans being implacable, half of whose
territory he took away and consecrated to Apollo and Jupiter,
ordering that out of the revenue compensation should be made to the
gods for the riches himself had taken from them.

After this, hearing that Flaccus, a man of the contrary faction, had
been chosen consul, and was crossing the Ionian Sea with an army,
professedly to act against Mithridates, but in reality against
himself, he hastened towards Thessaly, designing to meet him, but in
his march, when near Melitea, received advices from all parts that
the countries behind him were overrun and ravaged by no less a royal
army than the former. For Dorylaus, arriving at Chalcis with a large
fleet, on board of which he brought over with him eighty thousand of
the best appointed and best disciplined soldiers of Mithridates's
army, at once invaded Boeotia, and occupied the country in hopes to
bring Sylla to a battle, making no account of the dissuasions of
Archelaus, but giving it out as to the last fight, that without
treachery so many thousand men could never have perished. Sylla,
however, facing about expeditiously, made it clear to him that
Archelaus was a wise man, and had good skill in the Roman valor;
insomuch that he himself, after some small skirmishes with Sylla near
Tilphossium, was the first of those who thought it not advisable to
put things to the decision of the sword, but rather to wear out the
war by expense of time and treasure. The ground, however, near
Orchomenus, where they then lay encamped, gave some encouragement to
Archelaus, being a battle field admirably suited for an army superior
in cavalry. Of all the plains in Boeotia that are renowned for their
beauty and extent, this alone, which commences from the city of
Orchomenus, spreads out unbroken and clear of trees to the edge of
the fens in which the Melas, rising close under Orchomenus, loses
itself, the only Greek river which is a deep and navigable water from
the very head, increasing also about the summer solstice like the
Nile, and producing plants similar to those that grow there, only
small and without fruit. It does not run far before the main stream
disappears among the blind and woody marsh-grounds; a small branch.
however, joins the Cephisus, about the place where the lake is
thought to produce the best flute-reeds.

Now that both armies were posted near each other, Archelaus lay
still, but Sylla employed himself in cutting ditches from either
side; that if possible, by driving the enemies from the firm and open
champain, he might force them into the fens. They, on the other
hand, not enduring this, as soon as their leaders allowed them the
word of command, issued out furiously in large bodies; when not only
the men at work were dispersed, but most part of those who stood in
arms to protect the work fled in disorder. Upon this, Sylla leaped
from his horse, and snatching hold of an ensign, rushed through the
midst of the rout upon the enemy, crying out aloud, "To me, O Romans,
it will be glorious to fall here. As for you, when they ask you
where you betrayed your general, remember and say, at Orchomenus."
His men rallying again at these words, and two cohorts coming to his
succor from the right wing, he led them to the charge and turned the
day. Then retiring some short distance and refreshing his men, he
proceeded again with his works to block up the enemy's camp. They
again sallied out in better order than before. Here Diogenes,
step-son to Archelaus, fighting on the right wing with much
gallantry, made an honorable end. And the archers, being hard
pressed by the Romans, and wanting space for a retreat, took their
arrows by handfuls, and striking with these as with swords, beat them
back. In the end, however, they were all driven into the
entrenchment and had a sorrowful night of it with their slain and
wounded. The next day again, Sylla, leading forth his men up to
their quarters, went on finishing the lines of entrenchment, and when
they issued out again with larger numbers to give him battle, fell on
them and put them to the rout, and in the consternation ensuing, none
daring to abide, he took the camp by storm. The marshes were filled
with blood, and the lake with dead bodies, insomuch that to this day
many bows, helmets, fragments of iron, breastplates, and swords of
barbarian make, continue to be found buried deep in mud, two hundred
years after the fight. Thus much of the actions of Chaeronea and
Orchomenus.

At Rome, Cinna and Carbo were now using injustice and violence
towards persons of the greatest eminence, and many of them to avoid
this tyranny repaired, as to a safe harbor, to Sylla's camp, where,
in a short space, he had about him the aspect of a senate. Metella,
likewise, having with difficulty conveyed herself and children away
by stealth, brought him word that his houses, both in town and
country, had been burnt by his enemies, and entreated his help at
home. Whilst he was in doubt what to do, being impatient to hear of
his country being thus outraged, and yet not knowing how to leave so
great a work as the Mithridatic war unfinished, there comes to him
Archelaus, a merchant of Delos, with hopes of an accommodation, and
private instructions from Archelaus, the king's general. Sylla liked
the business so well as to desire a speedy conference with Archelaus
in person, and a meeting took place on the sea-coast near Delium,
where the temple of Apollo stands. When Archelaus opened the
conversation, and began to urge Sylla to abandon his pretensions to
Asia and Pontus, and to set sail for the war in Rome, receiving money
and shipping, and such forces as he should think fitting from the
king, Sylla, interposing, bade Archelaus take no further care for
Mithridates, but assume the crown to himself, and become a
confederate of Rome, delivering up the navy. Archelaus professing
his abhorrence of such treason, Sylla proceeded: "So you, Archelaus,
a Cappadocian, and slave, or if it so please you, friend, to a
barbarian king, would not, upon such vast considerations, be guilty
of what is dishonorable, and yet dare to talk to me, Roman general
and Sylla, of treason? as if you were not the selfsame Archelaus who
ran away at Chaeronea, with few remaining out of one hundred and
twenty thousand men; who lay for two days in the fens of Orchomenus,
and left Boeotia impassable for heaps of dead carcasses."  Archelaus,
changing his tone at this, humbly besought him to lay aside the
thoughts of war, and make peace with Mithridates. Sylla consenting
to this request, articles of agreement were concluded on. That
Mithridates should quit Asia and Paphlagonia, restore Bithynia to
Nicomedes, Cappadocia to Ariobarzanes, and pay the Romans two
thousand talents, and give him seventy ships of war with all their
furniture. On the other hand, that Sylla should confirm to him his
other dominions, and declare him a Roman confederate. On these terms
he proceeded by the way of Thessaly and Macedon towards the
Hellespont, having Archelaus with him, and treating him with great
attention. For Archelaus being taken dangerously ill at Larissa, he
stopped the march of the army, and took care of him, as if he had
been one of his own captains, or his colleague in command. This gave
suspicion of foul play in the battle of Chaeronea; as it was also
observed that Sylla had released all the friends of Mithridates taken
prisoners in war, except only Aristion the tyrant, who was at enmity
with Archelaus, and was put to death by poison; and, above all, ten
thousand acres of land in Euboea had been given to the Cappadocian,
and he had received from Sylla the style of friend and ally of the
Romans. On all which points Sylla defends himself in his Memoirs.

The ambassadors of Mithridates arriving and declaring that they
accepted of the conditions, only Paphlagonia they could not part
with; and as for the ships, professing not to know of any such
capitulation, Sylla in a rage exclaimed, "What say you? Does
Mithridates then withhold Paphlagonia? and as to the ships, deny that
article? I thought to have seen him prostrate at my feet to thank me
for leaving him so much as that right hand of his, which has cut off
so many Romans. He will shortly, at my coming over into Asia, speak
another language; in the mean time, let him at his ease in Pergamus
sit managing a war which he never saw."  The ambassadors in terror
stood silent by, but Archelaus endeavored with humble supplications
to assuage his wrath, laying hold on his right hand and weeping. In
conclusion he obtained permission to go himself in person to
Mithridates; for that he would either mediate a peace to the
satisfaction of Sylla, or if not, slay himself. Sylla having thus
dispatched him away, made an inroad into Maedica, and after wide
depopulations returned back again into Macedon, where he received
Archelaus about Philippi, bringing word that all was well, and that
Mithridates earnestly requested an interview. The chief cause of
this meeting was Fimbria; for he having assassinated Flaccus, the
consul of the contrary faction, and worsted the Mithridatic
commanders, was advancing against Mithridates himself, who, fearing
this, chose rather to seek the friendship of Sylla.

And so met at Dardanus in the Troad, on one side Mithridates,
attended with two hundred ships, and land forces consisting of twenty
thousand men at arms, six thousand horse, and a large train of
scythed chariots; on the other, Sylla with only four cohorts, and two
hundred horse. As Mithridates drew near and put out his hand, Sylla
demanded whether he was willing or no to end the war on the terms
Archelaus had agreed to, but seeing the king made no answer, "How is
this?"  he continued, "ought not the petitioner to speak first, and
the conqueror to listen in silence?"  And when Mithridates, entering
upon his plea, began to shift off the war, partly on the gods, and
partly to blame the Romans themselves, he took him up, saying that he
had heard, indeed, long since from others, and now he knew it himself
for truth, that Mithridates was a powerful speaker, who in defense of
the most foul and unjust proceedings, had not wanted for specious
presences. Then charging him with and inveighing bitterly against
the outrages he had committed, he asked again whether he was willing
or no to ratify the treaty of Archelaus? Mithridates answering in
the affirmative, Sylla came forward, embraced and kissed him. Not
long after he introduced Ariobarzanes and Nicomedes, the two kings,
and made them friends Mithridates, when he had handed over to Sylla
seventy ships and five hundred archers, set sail for Pontus.

Sylla, perceiving the soldiers to be dissatisfied with the peace, (as
it seemed indeed a monstrous thing that they should see the king who
was then bitterest enemy, and who had caused one hundred and fifty
thousand Romans to be massacred in one day in Asia, now sailing off
with the riches and spoils of Asia, which he had pillaged, and put
under contribution for the space of four years,) in his defense to
them alleged, that he could not have made head against Fimbria and
Mithridates, had they both withstood him in conjunction. Thence he
set out and went in search of Fimbria, who lay with the army about
Thyatira, and pitching his camp not far off, proceeded to fortify it
with a trench. The soldiers of Fimbria came out in their single
coats, and, saluting his men, lent ready assistance to the work;
which change Fimbria beholding, and apprehending Sylla as
irreconcilable, laid violent hands on himself in the camp.

Sylla imposed on Asia in general a tax of twenty thousand talents,
and despoiled individually each family by the licentious behavior and
long residence of the soldiery in private quarters. For he ordained
that every host should allow his guest four tetradrachms each day,
and moreover entertain him, and as many friends as he should invite,
with a supper; that a centurion should receive fifty drachmas a day,
together with one suit of clothes to wear within doors, and another
when he went abroad.

Having set out from Ephesus with the whole navy, he came the third
day to anchor in the Piraeus. Here he was initiated in the
mysteries, and seized for his use the library of Apellicon the Teian,
in which were most of the works of Theophrastus and Aristotle, then
not in general circulation. When the whole was afterwards conveyed
to Rome, there, it is said, the greater part of the collection passed
through the hands of Tyrannion the grammarian, and that Andronicus
the Rhodian, having through his means the command of numerous copies,
made the treatises public, and drew up the catalogues that are now
current. The elder Peripatetics appear themselves, indeed, to have
been accomplished and learned men, but of the writings of Aristotle
and Theophrastus they had no large or exact knowledge, because
Theophrastus bequeathing his books to the heir of Neleus of Scepsis,
they came into careless and illiterate hands.

During Sylla's stay about Athens, his feet were attacked by a heavy
benumbing pain, which Strabo calls the first inarticulate sounds of
the gout. Taking, therefore, a voyage to Aedepsus, he made use of
the hot waters there, allowing himself at the same time to forget all
anxieties, and passing away his time with actors. As he was walking
along the sea-shore, certain fishermen brought him some magnificent
fish. Being much delighted with the gift, and understanding, on
inquiry, that they were men of Halaeae, "What," said he, "are there
any men of Halaeae surviving?"  For after his victory at Orchomenus,
in the heat of a pursuit, he had destroyed three cities of Boeotia,
Anthedon, Larymna, and Halaeae. The men not knowing what to say for
fear, Sylla with a smile bade them cheer up and return in peace, as
they had brought with them no insignificant intercessors. The
Halaeans say that this first gave them courage to reunite and return
to their city.

Sylla, having marched through Thessaly and Macedon to the sea-coast,
prepared, with twelve hundred vessels, to cross over from Dyrrhachium
to Brundisium. Not far from hence is Apollonia, and near it the
Nymphaeum, a spot of ground where, from among green trees and
meadows, there are found at various points springs of fire
continually streaming out. Here, they say, a satyr, such as
statuaries and painters represent, was caught asleep, and brought
before Sylla, where he was asked by several interpreters who he was,
and, after much trouble, at last uttered nothing intelligible, but a
harsh noise, something between the neighing of a horse and crying of
a goat. Sylla, in dismay, and deprecating such an omen, bade it be
removed.

At the point of transportation, Sylla being in alarm, lest at their
first setting foot upon Italy, the soldiers should disband and
disperse one by one among the cities, they of their own accord first
took an oath to stand firm by him, and not of their good-will to
injure Italy; then seeing him in distress for money, they made, so to
say, a freewill offering, and contributed each man according to his
ability. However Sylla would not accept of their offering, but
praising their good-will, and arousing up their courage, put over (as
he himself writes) against fifteen hostile generals in command of
four hundred and fifty cohorts; but not without the most unmistakable
divine intimations of his approaching happy successes. For when he
was sacrificing at his first landing near Tarentum, the victim's
liver showed the figure of a crown of laurel with two fillets hanging
from it. And a little while before his arrival in Campania, near the
mountain Hephaeus, two stately goats were seen in the daytime,
fighting together, and performing all the motions of men in battle.
It proved to be an apparition, and rising up gradually from the
ground, dispersed in the air, like fancied representations in the
clouds, and so vanished out of sight. Not long after, in the
selfsame place, when Marius the younger, and Norbanus the consul,
attacked him with two great armies, without prescribing the order of
battle, or arranging his men according to their divisions, by the
sway only of one common alacrity and transport of courage, he
overthrew the enemy, and shut up Norbanus into the city of Capua,
with the loss of seven thousand of his men. And this was the reason,
he says, that the soldiers did not leave him and disperse into the
different towns, but held fast to him, and despised the enemy, though
infinitely more in number.

At Silvium, (as he himself relates it,) there met him a servant of
Pontius, in a state of divine possession, saying that he brought him
the power of the sword and victory from Bellona, the goddess of war,
and if he did not make haste, that the capitol would be burnt, which
fell out on the same day the man foretold it, namely, on the sixth
day of the month Quintilis, which we now call July.

At Fidentia, also, Marcus Lucullus, one of Sylla's commanders,
reposed such confidence in the forwardness of the soldiers, as to
dare to face fifty cohorts of the enemy, with only sixteen of his
own; but because many of them were unarmed, delayed the onset. As he
stood thus waiting, and considering with himself, a gentle gale of
wind, bearing along with it from the neighboring meadows a quantity
of flowers, scattered them down upon the army, on whose shields and
helmets they settled, and arranged themselves spontaneously, so as to
give the soldiers, in the eyes of the enemy, the appearance of being
crowned with chaplets. Upon this, being yet further animated, they
joined battle, and victoriously slaying eight thousand men, took the
camp. This Lucullus was brother to that Lucullus who in after-times
conquered Mithridates and Tigranes.

Sylla, seeing himself still surrounded by so many armies, and such
mighty hostile powers, had recourse to art, inviting Scipio, the
other consul, to a treaty of peace. The motion was willingly
embraced, and several meetings and consultations ensued, in all which
Sylla, still interposing matter of delay and new pretences, in the
meanwhile debauched Scipio's men by means of his own, who were as
well practiced as the general himself, in all the artifices of
inveigling. For entering into the enemy's quarters and joining in
conversation, they gained some by present money, some by promises,
others by fair words and persuasions; so that in the end, when Sylla
with twenty cohorts drew near, on his men saluting Scipio's soldiers,
they returned the greeting and came over, leaving Scipio behind them
in his tent, where he was found all alone and dismissed. And having
used his twenty cohorts as decoys to ensnare the forty of the enemy,
he led them all back into the camp. On this occasion, Carbo was
heard to say, that he had both a fox and a lion in the breast of
Sylla to deal with, and was most troubled with the fox.

Some time after, at Signia, Marius the younger, with eighty-five
cohorts, offered battle to Sylla, who was extremely desirous to have
it decided on that very day; for the night before he had seen a
vision in his sleep, of Marius the elder, who had been some time
dead, advising his son to beware of the following day, as of fatal
consequence to him. For this reason, Sylla, longing to come to a
battle, sent off for Dolabella, who lay encamped at some distance.
But because the enemy had beset and blocked up the passes, his
soldiers got tired with skirmishing and marching at once. To these
difficulties was added, moreover, tempestuous rainy weather, which
distressed them most of all. The principal officers therefore came
to Sylla, and besought him to defer the battle that day, showing him
how the soldiers lay stretched on the ground, where they had thrown
themselves down in their weariness, resting their heads upon their
shields to gain some repose. When, with much reluctance, he had
yielded, and given order for pitching the camp, they had no sooner
begun to cast up the rampart and draw the ditch, but Marius came
riding up furiously at the head of his troops, in hopes to scatter
them in that disorder and confusion. Here the gods fulfilled Sylla's
dream. For the soldiers, stirred up with anger, left off their work,
and sticking their javelins into the bank, with drawn swords and a
courageous shout, came to blows with the enemy, who made but small
resistance, and lost great numbers in the flight. Marius fled to
Praeneste, but finding the gates shut, tied himself round by a rope
that was thrown down to him, and was taken up on the walls. Some
there are (as Fenestella for one) who affirm that Marius knew nothing
of the fight, but, overwatched and spent with hard duty, had reposed
himself, when the signal was given, beneath some shade, and was
hardly to be awakened at the flight of his men. Sylla, according to
his own account, lost only twenty-three men in this fight, having
killed of the enemy twenty thousand, and taken alive eight thousand.

The like success attended his lieutenants, Pompey, Crassus, Metellus,
Servilius, who with little or no loss cut off vast numbers of the
enemy, insomuch that Carbo, the prime supporter of the cause, fled by
night from his charge of the army, and sailed over into Libya.

In the last struggle, however, the Samnite Telesinus, like some
champion, whose lot it is to enter last of all into the lists and
take up the wearied conqueror, came nigh to have foiled and
overthrown Sylla before the gates of Rome. For Telesinus with his
second, Lamponius the Lucanian, having collected a large force, had
been hastening towards Praeneste, to relieve Marius from the siege;
but perceiving Sylla ahead of him, and Pompey behind, both hurrying
up against him, straightened thus before and behind, as a valiant and
experienced soldier, he arose by night, and marching directly with
his whole army, was within a little of making his way unexpectedly
into Rome itself. He lay that night before the city, at ten furlongs
distance from the Colline gate, elated and full of hope, at having
thus out-generalled so many eminent commanders. At break of day,
being charged by the noble youth of the city, among many others he
overthrew Appius Claudius, renowned for high birth and character.
The city, as is easy to imagine, was all in an uproar, the women
shrieking and running about, as if it had already been entered
forcibly by assault, till at last Balbus, sent forward by Sylla, was
seen riding up with seven hundred horse at full speed. Halting only
long enough to wipe the sweat from the horses, and then hastily
bridling again, he at once attacked the enemy. Presently Sylla
himself appeared, and commanding those who were foremost to take
immediate refreshment, proceeded to form in order for battle.
Dolabella and Torquatus were extremely earnest with him to desist
awhile, and not with spent forces to hazard the last hope, having
before them in the field, not Carbo or Marius, but two warlike
nations bearing immortal hatred to Rome, the Samnites and Lucanians,
to grapple with. But he put them by, and commanded the trumpets to
sound a charge, when it was now about four o'clock in the afternoon.
In the conflict which followed, as sharp a one as ever was, the
right wing where Crassus was posted had clearly the advantage; the
left suffered and was in distress, when Sylla came to its succor,
mounted on a white courser, full of mettle and exceedingly swift,
which two of the enemy knowing him by, had their lances ready to
throw at him; he himself observed nothing, but his attendant behind
him giving the horse a touch, he was, unknown to himself, just so far
carried forward, that the points, falling beside the horse's tail,
stuck in the ground. There is a story that he had a small golden
image of Apollo from Delphi, which he was always wont in battle to
carry about him in his bosom, and that he then kissed it with these
words, "O Apollo Pythius, who in so many battles hast raised to honor
and greatness the Fortunate Cornelius Sylla, wilt thou now cast him
down, bringing him before the gate of his country, to perish
shamefully with his fellow-citizens?"  Thus, they say, addressing
himself to the god, he entreated some of his men, threatened some,
and seized others with his hand, till at length the left wing being
wholly shattered, he was forced, in the general rout, to betake
himself to the camp, having lost many of his friends and
acquaintance. Many, likewise, of the city spectators who had come
out, were killed or trodden underfoot. So that it was generally
believed in the city that all was lost, and the siege of Praeneste
was all but raised; many fugitives from the battle making their way
thither, and urging Lucretius Ofella, who was appointed to keep on
the siege, to rise in all haste, for that Sylla had perished, and
Rome fallen into the hands of the enemy.

About midnight there came into Sylla's camp messengers from Crassus,
to fetch provision for him and his soldiers; for having vanquished
the enemy, they had pursued him to the walls of Antemna, and had sat
down there. Sylla, hearing this, and that most of the enemy were
destroyed, came to Antemna by break of day, where three thousand of
the besieged having sent forth a herald, he promised to receive them
to mercy, on condition they did the enemy some mischief in their
coming over. Trusting to his word, they fell foul on the rest of
their companions, and made a great slaughter one of another.
Nevertheless, Sylla gathered together in the circus, as well these as
other survivors of the party, to the number of six thousand, and just
as he commenced speaking to the senate, in the temple of Bellona,
proceeded to cut them down, by men appointed for that service. The
cry of so vast a multitude put to the sword, in so narrow a space,
was naturally heard some distance, and startled the senators. He,
however, continuing his speech with a calm and unconcerned
countenance, bade them listen to what he had to say, and not busy
themselves with what was doing out of doors; he had given directions
for the chastisement of some offenders. This gave the most stupid of
the Romans to understand, that they had merely exchanged, not
escaped, tyranny. And Marius, being of a naturally harsh temper, had
not altered, but merely continued what he had been, in authority;
whereas Sylla, using his fortune moderately and unambitiously at
first, and giving good hopes of a true patriot, firm to the interests
both of the nobility and commonalty, being, moreover, of a gay and
cheerful temper from his youth, and so easily moved to pity as to
shed tears readily, has, perhaps deservedly, cast a blemish upon
offices of great authority, as if they deranged men's former habits
and character, and gave rise to violence, pride, and inhumanity.
Whether this be a real change and revolution in the mind, caused by
fortune, or rather a lurking viciousness of nature, discovering
itself in authority, it were matter of another sort of disquisition
to decide.

Sylla being thus wholly bent upon slaughter, and filling the city
with executions without number or limit, many wholly uninterested
persons falling a sacrifice to private enmity, through his permission
and indulgence to his friends, Caius Metellus, one of the younger
men, made bold in the senate to ask him what end there was of these
evils, and at what point he might be expected to stop? "We do not
ask you," said he, "to pardon any whom you have resolved to destroy,
but to free from doubt those whom you are pleased to save."  Sylla
answering, that he knew not as yet whom to spare. "Why then," said
he, "tell us whom you will punish."  This Sylla said he would do.
These last words, some authors say, were spoken not by Metellus, but
by Afidius, one of Sylla's fawning companions. Immediately upon
this, without communicating with any of the magistrates, Sylla
proscribed eighty persons, and notwithstanding the general
indignation, after one day's respite, he posted two hundred and
twenty more, and on the third again, as many. In an address to the
people on this occasion, he told them he had put up as many names as
he could think of; those which had escaped his memory, he would
publish at a future time. He issued an edict likewise, making death
the punishment of humanity, proscribing any who should dare to
receive and cherish a proscribed person, without exception to
brother, son, or parents. And to him who should slay any one
proscribed person, he ordained two talents reward, even were it a
slave who had killed his master, or a son his father. And what was
thought most unjust of all, he caused the attainder to pass upon
their sons, and son's sons, and made open sale of all their property.
Nor did the proscription prevail only at Rome, but throughout all the
cities of Italy the effusion of blood was such, that neither
sanctuary of the gods, nor hearth of hospitality, nor ancestral home
escaped. Men were butchered in the embraces of their wives, children
in the arms of their mothers. Those who perished through public
animosity, or private enmity, were nothing in comparison of the
numbers of those who suffered for their riches. Even the murderers
began to say, that "his fine house killed this man, a garden that, a
third, his hot baths."  Quintus Aurelius, a quiet, peaceable man, and
one who thought all his part in the common calamity consisted in
condoling with the misfortunes of others, coming into the forum to
read the list, and finding himself among the proscribed, cried out,
"Woe is me, my Alban farm has informed against me."  He had not gone
far, before he was dispatched by a ruffian, sent on that errand.

In the meantime, Marius, on the point of being taken, killed himself;
and Sylla, coming to Praeneste, at first proceeded judicially against
each particular person, till at last, finding it a work of too much
time, he cooped them up together in one place, to the number of
twelve thousand men, and gave order for the execution of them all,
his own host alone excepted. But he, brave man, telling him he
could not accept the obligation of life from the hands of one who had
been the ruin of his country, went in among the rest, and submitted
willingly to the stroke. What Lucius Catilina did was thought to
exceed all other acts. For having, before matters came to an issue,
made away with his brother, he besought Sylla to place him in the
list of proscription, as though he had been alive, which was done;
and Catiline, to return the kind office, assassinated a certain
Marcus Marius, one of the adverse party, and brought the head to
Sylla, as he was sitting in the forum, and then going to the holy
water of Apollo, which was nigh, washed his hands.

There were other things, besides this bloodshed, which gave offense.
For Sylla had declared himself dictator, an office which had then
been laid aside for the space of one hundred and twenty years. There
was, likewise, an act of grace passed on his behalf, granting
indemnity for what was passed, and for the future entrusting him with
the power of life and death, confiscation, division of lands,
erecting and demolishing of cities, taking away of kingdoms, and
bestowing them at pleasure. He conducted the sale of confiscated
property after such an arbitrary, imperious way, from the tribunal,
that his gifts excited greater odium even than his usurpations;
women, mimes, and musicians, and the lowest of the freed slaves had
presents made them of the territories of nations, and the revenues of
cities; and women of rank were married against their will to some of
them. Wishing to insure the fidelity of Pompey the Great, by a
nearer tie of blood, he bade him divorce his present wife, and
forcing Aemilia, the daughter of Scaurus and Metella, his own wife,
to leave her husband, Manius Glabrio, he bestowed her, though then
with child, on Pompey, and she died in childbirth at his house.

When Lucretius Ofella, the same who reduced Marius by siege, offered
himself for the consulship, he first forbade him; then, seeing he
could not restrain him, on his coming down into the forum with a
numerous train of followers, he sent one of the centurions who were
immediately about him, and slew him, himself sitting on the tribunal
in the temple of Castor, and beholding the murder from above. The
citizens apprehending the centurion, and dragging him to the
tribunal, he bade them cease their clamoring and let the centurion
go, for he had commanded it.

His triumph was, in itself, exceedingly splendid, and distinguished
by the rarity and magnificence of the royal spoils; but its yet
greatest glory was the noble spectacle of the exiles. For in the
rear followed the most eminent and most potent of the citizens,
crowned with garlands, and calling Sylla savior and father, by whose
means they were restored to their own country, and again enjoyed
their wives and children. When the solemnity was over, and the time
come to render an account of his actions, addressing the public
assembly, he was as profuse in enumerating the lucky chances of war,
as any of his own military merits. And, finally, from this felicity,
he requested to receive the surname of Felix. In writing and
transacting business with the Greeks, he styled himself
Epaphroditus, and on his trophies which are still extant with us,
the name is given Lucius Cornelius Sylla Epaphroditus. Moreover,
when his wife had brought him forth twins, he named the male Faustus,
and the female Fausta, the Roman words for what is auspicious and of
happy omen. The confidence which he reposed in his good genius,
rather than in any abilities of his own, emboldened him, though
deeply involved in bloodshed, and though he had been the author of
such great changes and revolutions of State, to lay down his
authority, and place the right of consular elections once more in the
hands of the people. And when they were held, he not only declined
to seek that office, but in the forum exposed his person publicly to
the people, walking up and down as a private man. And contrary to
his will, certain bold man and his enemy, Marcus Lepidus, was
expected to become consul, not so much by his own interest, as by the
power and solicitation of Pompey, whom the people were willing to
oblige. When the business was over, seeing Pompey going home
overjoyed with the success, he called him to him and said, "What a
politic act, young man, to pass by Catulus, the best of men, and
choose Lepidus, the worst! It will be well for you to be vigilant,
now that you have strengthened your opponent against yourself."
Sylla spoke this, it may seem, by a prophetic instinct, for, not long
after, Lepidus grew insolent, and broke into open hostility to Pompey
and his friends.

Sylla, consecrating the tenth of his whole substance to Hercules,
entertained the people with sumptuous feastings. The provision was
so much above what was necessary, that they were forced daily to
throw great quantities of meat into the river, and they drank wine
forty years old and upwards. In the midst of the banqueting, which
lasted many days, Metella died of disease. And because that the
priest forbade him to visit the sick, or suffer his house to be
polluted with mourning, he drew up an act of divorce, and caused her
to be removed into another house whilst alive. Thus far, out of
religious apprehension, he observed the strict rule to the very
letter, but in the funeral expenses he transgressed the law he
himself had made, limiting the amount, and spared no cost. He
transgressed, likewise, his own sumptuary laws respecting expenditure
in banquets, thinking to allay his grief by luxurious drinking
parties and revelings with common buffoons.

Some few months after, at a show of gladiators, when men and women
sat promiscuously in the theater, no distinct places being as yet
appointed, there sat down by Sylla a beautiful woman of high birth,
by name Valeria, daughter of Messala, and sister to Hortensius the
orator. Now it happened that she had been lately divorced from her
husband. Passing along behind Sylla, she leaned on him with her
hand, and plucking a bit of wool from his garment, so proceeded to
her seat. And on Sylla looking up and wondering what it meant, "What
harm, mighty Sir," said she, "if I also was desirous to partake a
little in your felicity?"  It appeared at once that Sylla was not
displeased, but even tickled in his fancy, for he sent out to inquire
her name, her birth, and past life. From this time there passed
between them many side glances, each continually turning round to
look at the other, and frequently interchanging smiles. In the end,
overtures were made, and a marriage concluded on. All which was
innocent, perhaps, on the lady's side, but, though she had been never
so modest and virtuous, it was scarcely a temperate and worthy
occasion of marriage on the part of Sylla, to take fire, as a boy
might, at a face and a bold look, incentives not seldom to the most
disorderly and shameless passions.

Notwithstanding this marriage, he kept company with actresses,
musicians, and dancers, drinking with them on couches night and day.
His chief favorites were Roscius the comedian, Sorex the arch mime,
and Metrobius the player, for whom, though past his prime, he still
professed a passionate fondness. By these courses he encouraged a
disease which had begun from some unimportant cause; and for a long
time he failed to observe that his bowels were ulcerated, till at
length the corrupted flesh broke out into lice. Many, were employed
day and night in destroying them, but the work so multiplied under
their hands, that not only his clothes, baths, basins, but his very
meat was polluted with that flux and contagion, they came swarming
out in such numbers. He went frequently by day into the bath to
scour and cleanse his body, but all in vain; the evil generated too
rapidly and too abundantly for any ablutions to overcome it. There
died of this disease, amongst those of the most ancient times,
Acastus, the son of Pelias; of later date, Alcman the poet,
Pherecydes the theologian, Callisthenes the Olynthian, in the time of
his imprisonment, as also Mucius the lawyer; and if we may mention
ignoble, but notorious names, Eunus the fugitive, who stirred up the
slaves of Sicily to rebel against their masters, after he was brought
captive to Rome, died of this creeping sickness.

Sylla not only foresaw his end, but may be also said to have written
of it. For in the two and twentieth book of his Memoirs, which he
finished two days before his death, he writes that the Chaldeans
foretold him, that after he had led a life of honor, he should
conclude it in fullness of prosperity. He declares, moreover, that
in vision he had seen his son, who had died not long before Metella,
stand by in mourning attire, and beseech his father to cast off
further care, and come along with him to his mother Metella, there to
live at ease and quietness with her. However, he could not refrain
from intermeddling in public affairs. For, ten days before his
decease, he composed the differences of the people of Dicaearchia,
and prescribed laws for their better government. And the very day
before his end, it being told him that the magistrate Granius
deferred the payment of a public debt, in expectation of his death,
he sent for him to his house, and placing his attendants about him,
caused him to be strangled; but through the straining of his voice
and body, the imposthume breaking, he lost a great quantity of blood.
Upon this, his strength failing him, after spending a troublesome
night, he died, leaving behind him two young children by Metella.
Valeria was afterwards delivered of a daughter, named Posthuma; for
so the Romans call those who are born after the father's death.

Many ran tumultuously together, and joined with Lepidus, to deprive
the corpse of the accustomed solemnities; but Pompey, though offended
at Sylla, (for he alone of all his friends, was not mentioned in his
will,) having kept off some by his interest and entreaty, others by
menaces, conveyed the body to Rome, and gave it a secure and
honorable burial. It is said that the Roman ladies contributed such
vast heaps of spices, that besides what was carried on two hundred
and ten litters, there was sufficient to form a large figure of Sylla
himself, and another, representing a lictor, out of the costly
frankincense and cinnamon. The day being cloudy in the morning, they
deferred carrying forth the corpse till about three in the afternoon,
expecting it would rain. But a strong wind blowing full upon the
funeral pile, and setting it all in a bright flame, the body was
consumed so exactly in good time, that the pyre had begun to smolder,
and the fire was upon the point of expiring, when a violent rain came
down, which continued till night. So that his good fortune was firm
even to the last, and did as it were officiate at his funeral. His
monument stands in the Campus Martius, with an epitaph of his own
writing; the substance of it being, that he had not been outdone by
any of his friends in doing good turns, nor by any of his foes in
doing bad.

COMPARISON OF LYSANDER WITH SYLLA

Having completed this Life also, come we now to the comparison. That
which was common to them both, was that they were founders of their
own greatness, with this difference, that Lysander had the consent of
his fellow-citizens, in times of sober judgment, for the honors he
received; nor did he force anything from them against their
good-will, nor hold any power contrary to the laws.

In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame.

And so then at Rome, when the people were distempered, and the
government out of order, one or other was still raised to despotic
power; no wonder, then, if Sylla reigned, when the Glauciae and
Saturnini drove out the Metelli, when sons of consuls were slain in
the assemblies, when silver and gold purchased men and arms, and fire
and sword enacted new laws, and put down lawful opposition. Nor do I
blame anyone, in such circumstances, for working himself into
supreme power, only I would not have it thought a sign of great
goodness, to be head of a State so wretchedly discomposed. Lysander,
being employed in the greatest commands and affairs of State, by a
sober and well-governed city, may be said to have had repute as the
best and most virtuous man, in the best and most virtuous
commonwealth. And thus, often returning the government into the
hands of the citizens, he received it again as often, the superiority
of his merit still awarding him the first place. Sylla, on the other
hand, when he had once made himself general of an army, kept his
command for ten years together, creating himself sometimes consul,
sometimes proconsul, and sometimes dictator, but always remaining a
tyrant.

It is true Lysander, as was said, designed to introduce a new form of
government; by milder methods, however, and more agreeably to law
than Sylla, not by force of arms, but persuasion, nor by subverting
the whole State at once, but simply by amending the succession of the
kings; in a way, moreover, which seemed the naturally just one, that
the most deserving should rule, especially in a city which itself
exercised command in Greece, upon account of virtue, not nobility.
For as the hunter considers the whelp itself, not the bitch, and the
horse-dealer the foal, not the mare, (for what if the foal should
prove a mule?) so likewise were that politician extremely out, who,
in the choice of a chief magistrate, should inquire, not what the man
is, but how descended. The very Spartans themselves have deposed
several of their kings for want of kingly virtues, as degenerated and
good for nothing. As a vicious nature, though of an ancient stock,
is dishonorable, it must be virtue itself, and not birth, that makes
virtue honorable. Furthermore, the one committed his acts of
injustice for the sake of his friends; the other extended his to his
friends themselves. It is confessed on all hands, that Lysander
offended most commonly for the sake of his companions, committing
several slaughters to uphold their power and dominion; but as for
Sylla, he, out of envy, reduced Pompey's command by land, and
Dolabella's by sea, although he himself had given them those places;
and ordered Lucretius Ofella, who sued for the consulship as the
reward of many great services, to be slain before his eyes, exciting
horror and alarm in the minds of all men, by his cruelty to his
dearest friends.

As regards the pursuit of riches and pleasures, we yet further
discover in one a princely, in the other a tyrannical disposition.
Lysander did nothing that was intemperate or licentious, in that full
command of means and opportunity, but kept clear, as much as ever man
did, of that trite saying,

Lions at home, but foxes out of doors;

and ever maintained a sober, truly Spartan, and well disciplined
course of conduct. Whereas Sylla could never moderate his unruly
affections, either by poverty when young, or by years when grown old,
but would be still prescribing laws to the citizens concerning
chastity and sobriety, himself living all that time, as Sallust
affirms, in lewdness and adultery. By these ways he so impoverished
and drained the city of her treasures, as to be forced to sell
privileges and immunities to allied and friendly cities for money,
although he daily gave up the wealthiest and greatest families to
public sale and confiscation. There was no end of his favors vainly
spent and thrown away on flatterers; for what hope could there be, or
what likelihood of forethought or economy, in his more private
moments over wine, when, in the open face of the people, upon the
auction of a large estate, which he would have passed over to one of
his friends at a small price, because another bid higher, and the
officer announced the advance, he broke out into a passion, saying,
"What a strange and unjust thing is this, O citizens, that I cannot
dispose of my own booty as I please!"  But Lysander, on the contrary,
with the rest of the spoil, sent home for public use even the
presents which were made him. Nor do I commend him for it, for he
perhaps, by excessive liberality, did Sparta more harm, than ever the
other did Rome by rapine; I only use it as an argument of his
indifference to riches. They exercised a strange influence on their
respective cities. Sylla, a profuse debauchee, endeavored to restore
sober living amongst the citizens; Lysander, temperate himself,
filled Sparta with the luxury he disregarded. So that both were
blameworthy, the one for raising himself above his own laws, the
other for causing his fellow citizens to fall beneath his own
example. He taught Sparta to want the very things which he himself
had learned to do without. And thus much of their civil
administration.

As for feats of arms, wise conduct in war, innumerable victories,
perilous adventures, Sylla was beyond compare. Lysander, indeed,
came off twice victorious in two battles by sea; I shall add to that
the siege of Athens, a work of greater fame, than difficulty. What
occurred in Boeotia, and at Haliartus, was the result, perhaps, of
ill fortune; yet it certainly looks like ill counsel, not to wait for
the king's forces, which had all but arrived from Plataea, but out of
ambition and eagerness to fight, to approach the walls at
disadvantage, and so to be cut off by a sally of inconsiderable men.
He received his death-wound, not as Cleombrotus at Leuctra, resisting
manfully the assault of an enemy in the field; not as Cyrus or
Epaminondas, sustaining the declining battle, or making sure the
victory; all these died the death of kings and generals; but he, as
it had been some common skirmisher or scout, cast away his life
ingloriously, giving testimony to the wisdom of the ancient Spartan
maxim, to avoid attacks on walled cities, in which the stoutest
warrior may chance to fall by the hand, not only of a man utterly his
inferior, but by that of a boy or woman, as Achilles, they say, was
slain by Paris in the gates. As for Sylla, it were hard to reckon up
how many set battles he won, or how many thousands he slew; he took
Rome itself twice, as also the Athenian Piraeus, not by famine, as
Lysander did, but by a series of great battles, driving Archelaus
into the sea. And what is most important, there was a vast
difference between the commanders they had to deal with. For I look
upon it as an easy task, or rather sport, to beat Antiochus,
Alcibiades's pilot, or to circumvent Philocles, the Athenian
demagogue,

Sharp only at the inglorious point of tongue,

whom Mithridates would have scorned to compare with his groom, or
Marius with his lictor. But of the potentates, consuls, commanders,
and demagogues, to pass by all the rest who opposed themselves to
Sylla, who amongst the Romans so formidable as Marius? what king more
powerful than Mithridates? who of the Italians more warlike than
Lamponius and Telesinus? yet of these, one he drove into banishment,
one he quelled, and the others he slew.

And what is more important, in my judgment, than anything yet
adduced, is that Lysander had the assistance of the State in all his
achievements; whereas Sylla, besides that he was a banished person,
and overpowered by a faction, at a time when his wife was driven from
home, his houses demolished, and adherents slain, himself then in
Boeotia, stood embattled against countless numbers of the public
enemy, and endangering himself for the sake of his country, raised a
trophy of victory; and not even when Mithridates came with proposals
of alliance and aid against his enemies, would he show any sort of
compliance, or even clemency; did not so much as address him, or
vouchsafe him his hand, until he had it from the king's own mouth,
that he was willing to quit Asia, surrender the navy, and restore
Bithynia and Cappadocia to the two kings. Than which action, Sylla
never performed a braver, or with a nobler spirit, when, preferring
the public good to the private, and like good hounds, where he had
once fixed, never letting go his hold, till the enemy yielded, then,
and not until then, he set himself to revenge his own private
quarrels. We may perhaps let ourselves be influenced, moreover, in
our comparison of their characters, by considering their treatment of
Athens. Sylla, when he had made himself master of the city, which
then upheld the dominion and power of Mithridates in opposition to
him, restored her to liberty and the free exercise of her own laws;
Lysander, on the contrary, when she had fallen from a vast height of
dignity and rule, showed her no compassion, but abolishing her
democratic government, imposed on her the most cruel and lawless
tyrants. We are now qualified to consider, whether we should go far
from the truth or no, in pronouncing that Sylla performed the more
glorious deeds, but Lysander committed the fewer faults, as,
likewise, by giving to one the preeminence for moderation and
self-control, to the other, for conduct and valor.

CIMON

Peripoltas, the prophet, having brought the king Opheltas, and those
under his command, from Thessaly into Boeotia, left there a family,
which flourished a long time after; the greatest part of them
inhabiting Chaeronea, the first city out of which they expelled the
barbarians. The descendants of this race, being men of bold attempts
and warlike habits, exposed themselves to so many dangers, in the
invasions of the Mede, and in battles against the Gauls, that at last
they were almost wholly consumed.

There was left one orphan of this house, called Damon, surnamed
Peripoltas, in beauty and greatness of spirit surpassing all of his
age, but rude and undisciplined in temper. A Roman captain of a
company that wintered in Chaeronea became passionately fond of this
youth, who was now pretty nearly grown a man. And finding all his
approaches, his gifts, and his entreaties alike repulsed, he showed
violent inclinations to assault Damon. Our native Chaeronea was then
in a distressed condition, too small and too poor to meet with
anything but neglect. Damon, being sensible of this, and looking
upon himself as injured already, resolved to inflict punishment.
Accordingly, he and sixteen of his companions conspired against the
captain; but that the design might be managed without any danger of
being discovered, they all daubed their faces at night with soot.
Thus disguised and inflamed with wine, they set upon him by break of
day, as he was sacrificing in the marketplace; and having killed him,
and several others that were with him, they fled out of the city,
which was extremely alarmed and troubled at the murder. The council
assembled immediately, and pronounced sentence of death against Damon
and his accomplices. This they did to justify the city to the
Romans. But that evening, as the magistrates were at supper
together, according to the custom, Damon and his confederates
breaking into the hall, killed them, and then again fled out of the
town. About this time, Lucius Lucullus chanced to be passing that
way with a body of troops, upon some expedition, and this disaster
having but recently happened, he stayed to examine the matter. Upon
inquiry, he found the city was in nowise faulty, but rather that they
themselves had suffered; therefore he drew out the soldiers, and
carried them away with him. Yet Damon continuing to ravage the
country all about, the citizens, by messages and decrees, in
appearance favorable, enticed him into the city, and upon his return,
made him Gymnasiarch; but afterwards as he was anointing himself in
the vapor baths, they set upon him and killed him. For a long while
after apparitions continuing to be seen, and groans to be heard in
that place, so our fathers have told us, they ordered the gates of
the baths to be built up; and even to this day those who live in the
neighborhood believe that they sometimes see specters, and hear
alarming sounds. The posterity of Damon, of whom some still remain,
mostly in Phocis, near the town of Stiris, are called Asbolomeni,
that is, in the Aeolian idiom, men daubed with soot; because Damon
was thus besmeared when he committed this murder.

But there being a quarrel between the people of Chaeronea and the
Orchomenians, their neighbors, these latter hired an informer, a
Roman, to accuse the community of Chaeronea, as if it had been a
single person, of the murder of the Romans, of which only Damon and
his companions were guilty; accordingly, the process wee commenced,
and the cause pleaded before the Praetor of Macedon, since the Romans
as yet had not sent governors into Greece.
The advocates who defended the inhabitants appealed to the testimony
of Lucullus, who, in answer to a letter the Praetor wrote to him,
returned a true account of the matter-of-fact. By this means the
town obtained its acquittal, and escaped a most serious danger. The
citizens thus preserved erected a statue to Lucullus in the
market-place, near that of the god Bacchus.

We also have the same impressions of gratitude; and though removed
from the events by the distance of several generations, we yet feel
the obligation to extend to ourselves; and as we think an image of
the character and habits, to be a greater honor than one merely
representing the face and the person, we will put Lucullus's life
amongst our parallels of illustrious men, and without swerving from
the truth, will record his actions. The commemoration will be itself
a sufficient proof of our grateful feeling, and he himself would not
thank us, if in recompense for a service, which consisted in speaking
the truth, we should abuse his memory with a false and counterfeit
narration. For as we would wish that a painter who is to draw a
beautiful face in which there is yet some imperfection, should
neither wholly leave out, nor yet too pointedly express what is
defective, because this would deform it, and that spoil the
resemblance; so, since it is hard, or indeed perhaps impossible, to
show the life of a man wholly free from blemish, in all that is
excellent we must follow truth exactly, and give it fully; any lapses
or faults that occur, through human passions or political
necessities, we may regard rather as the shortcomings of some
particular virtue, than as the natural effects of vice; and may be
content without introducing them, curiously and officiously, into our
narrative, if it be but out of tenderness to the weakness of nature,
which has never succeeded in producing any human character so perfect
in virtue, as to be pure from all admixture, and open to no
criticism. On considering; with myself to whom I should compare
Lucullus, I find none so exactly his parallel as Cimon.

They were both valiant in war, and successful against the barbarians;
both gentle in political life, and more than any others gave their
countrymen a respite from civil troubles at home, while abroad, each
of them raised trophies and gained famous victories. No Greek before
Cimon, nor Roman before Lucullus, ever carried the scene of war so
far from their own country; putting out of the question the acts of
Bacchus and Hercules, and any exploit of Perseus against the
Ethiopians, Medes, and Armenians, or again of Jason, of which any
record that deserves credit can be said to have come down to our
days. Moreover in this they were alike, that they did not finish the
enterprises they undertook. They brought their enemies near their
ruin, but never entirely conquered them. There was yet a greater
conformity in the free good-will and lavish abundance of their
entertainments and general hospitalities, and in the youthful laxity
of their habits. Other points of resemblance, which we have failed
to notice, may be easily collected from our narrative itself.

Cimon was the son of Miltiades and Hegesipyle, who was by birth a
Thracian, and daughter to the king Olorus, as appears from the poems
of Melanthius and Archelaus, written in praise of Cimon. By this
means the historian Thucydides was his kinsman by the mother's side;
for his father's name also, in remembrance of this common ancestor,
was Olorus, and he was the owner of the gold mines in Thrace, and met
his death, it is said, by violence, in Scapte Hyle, a district of
Thrace; and his remains having afterwards been brought into Attica, a
monument is shown as his among those of the family of Cimon, near the
tomb of Elpinice, Cimon's sister. But Thucydides was of the township
of Halimus, and Miltiades and his family were Laciadae. Miltiades,
being condemned in a fine of fifty talents to the State, and unable
to pay it, was cast into prison, and there died. Thus Cimon was left
an orphan very young, with his sister Elpinice, who was also young
and unmarried. And at first he had but an indifferent reputation,
being looked upon as disorderly in his habits, fond of drinking, and
resembling his grandfather, also called Cimon, in character, whose
simplicity got him the surname of Coalemus. Stesimbrotus of Thasos,
who lived near about the same time with Cimon, reports of him that he
had little acquaintance either with music, or any of the other
liberal studies and accomplishments, then common among the Greeks;
that he had nothing whatever of the quickness and the ready speech of
his countrymen in Attica; that he had great nobleness and candor in
his disposition, and in his character in general, resembled rather a
native of Peloponnesus, than of Athens; as Euripides describes
Hercules,

-- Rude
And unrefined, for great things well-endued;

for this may fairly be added to the character which Stesimbrotus has
given of him.

They accused him, in his younger years, of cohabiting with his own
sister Elpinice, who, indeed, otherwise had no very clear reputation,
but was reported to have been over intimate with Polygnotus, the
painter; and hence, when he painted the Trojan women in the porch,
then called the Plesianactium, and now the Poecile, he made Laodice a
portrait of her. Polygnotus was not an ordinary mechanic, nor was he
paid for this work, but out of a desire to please the Athenians,
painted the portico for nothing. So it is stated by the historians,
and in the following verses by the poet Melanthius: --

Wrought by his hand the deeds of heroes grace
At his own charge our temples and our Place.

Some affirm that Elpinice lived with her brother, not secretly, but
as his married wife, her poverty excluding her from any suitable
match. But afterward, when Callias, one of the richest men of
Athens, fell in love with her, and proffered to pay the fine the
father was condemned in, if he could obtain the daughter in marriage,
with Elpinice's own consent, Cimon betrothed her to Callias. There
is no doubt but that Cimon was, in general, of an amorous temper.
For Melanthius, in his elegies, rallies him on his attachment for
Asteria of Salamis, and again for a certain Mnestra. And there can
be no doubt of his unusually passionate affection for his lawful wife
Isodice, the daughter of Euryptolemus, the son of Megacles; nor of
his regret, even to impatience, at her death, if any conclusion may
be drawn from those elegies of condolence, addressed to him upon his
loss of her. The philosopher Panaetius is of opinion, that
Archelaus, the writer on physics, was the author of them, and indeed
the time seems to favor that conjecture. All the other points of
Cimon's character were noble and good. He was as daring as
Miltiades, and not inferior to Themistocles in judgment, and was
incomparably more just and honest than either of them. Fully their
equal in all military virtues, in the ordinary duties of a citizen at
home he was immeasurably their superior. And this, too, when he was
very young, his years not yet strengthened by any experience. For
when Themistocles, upon the Median invasion, advised the Athenians to
forsake their city and their country, and to carry all their arms on
shipboard, and fight the enemy by sea, in the straits of Salamis;
when all the people stood amazed at the confidence and rashness of
this advice, Cimon was seen, the first of all men, passing with a
cheerful countenance through the Ceramicus, on his way with his
companions to the citadel, carrying a bridle in his hand to offer to
the goddess, intimating that there was no more need of horsemen now,
but of mariners. There, after he had paid his devotions to the
goddess, and offered up the bridle, he took down one of the bucklers
that hung upon the walls of the temple, and went down to the port; by
this example giving confidence to many of the citizens. He was also
of a fairly handsome person, according to the poet Ion, tall and
large, and let his thick and curly hair grow long. After he had
acquitted himself gallantly in this battle of Salamis, he obtained
great repute among the Athenians, and was regarded with affection, as
well as admiration. He had many who followed after him and bade him
aspire to actions not less famous than his father's battle of
Marathon. And when he came forward in political life, the people
welcomed him gladly, being now weary of Themistocles; in opposition
to whom, and because of the frankness and easiness of his temper,
which was agreeable to everyone, they advanced Cimon to the highest
employments in the government. The man that contributed most to his
promotion was Aristides, who early discerned in his character his
natural capacity, and purposely raised him, that he might be a
counterpoise to the craft and boldness of Themistocles.

After the Medes had been driven out of Greece, Cimon was sent out as
admiral, when the Athenians had not yet attained their dominion by
sea, but still followed Pausanias and the Lacedaemonians; and his
fellow-citizens under his command were highly distinguished, both for
the excellence of their discipline, and for their extraordinary zeal
and readiness. And further, perceiving that Pausanias was carrying
on secret communications with the barbarians, and writing letters to
the king of Persia to betray Greece, and, puffed up with authority
and success, was treating the allies haughtily, and committing many
wanton injustices, Cimon, taking this advantage, by acts of kindness
to those who were suffering wrong, and by his general humane bearing,
robbed him of the command of the Greeks, before he was aware, not by
arms, but by his mere language and character. The greatest part of
the allies, no longer able to endure the harshness and pride of
Pausanias, revolted from him to Cimon and Aristides, who accepted the
duty, and wrote to the Ephors of Sparta, desiring them to recall a
man who was causing dishonor to Sparta, and trouble to Greece. They
tell of Pausanias, that when he was in Byzantium, he solicited a
young lady of a noble family in the city, whose name was Cleonice, to
debauch her. Her parents, dreading his cruelty, were forced to
consent, and so abandoned their daughter to his wishes. The daughter
asked the servants outside the chamber to put out all the lights; so
that approaching silently and in the dark toward his bed, she
stumbled upon the lamp, which she overturned. Pausanias, who was
fallen asleep, awakened and startled with the noise, thought an
assassin had taken that dead time of night to murder him, so that
hastily snatching up his poniard that lay by him, he struck the girl,
who fell with the blow, and died. After this, he never had rest, but
was continually haunted by her, and saw an apparition visiting him in
his sleep, and addressing him with these angry words: --

Go on thy way, unto the evil end,
That doth on lust and violence attend.

This was one of the chief occasions of indignation against him among
the confederates, who now joining their resentments and forces with
Cimon's, besieged him in Byzantium. He escaped out of their hands,
and, continuing, as it is said, to be disturbed by the apparition,
fled to the oracle of the dead at Heraclea, raised the ghost of
Cleonice, and entreated her to be reconciled. Accordingly she
appeared to him, and answered, that as soon as he came to Sparta, he
should speedily be freed from all evils; obscurely foretelling, it
would seem, his imminent death. This story is related by many
authors.

Cimon, strengthened with the accession of the allies, went as general
into Thrace. For he was told that some great men among the Persians,
of the king's kindred, being in possession of Eion, a city situated
upon the river Strymon, infested the neighboring Greeks. First he
defeated these Persians in battle, and shut them up within the walls
of their town. Then he fell upon the Thracians of the country beyond
the Strymon, because they supplied Eion with victuals, and driving
them entirely out of the country, took possession of it as conqueror,
by which means he reduced the besieged to such straits, that Butes,
who commanded there for the king, in desperation set fire to the
town, and burned himself, his goods, and all his relations, in one
common flame. By this means, Cimon got the town, but no great booty;
as the barbarians had not only consumed themselves in the fire, but
the richest of their effects. However, he put the country about into
the hands of the Athenians, a most advantageous and desirable
situation for a settlement. For this action, the people permitted
him to erect the stone Mercuries, upon the first of which was this
inscription: --

Of bold and patient spirit, too, were those,
Who, where the Strymon under Eion flows,
With famine and the sword, to utmost need
Reduced at last the children of the Mede.

Upon the second stood this: --

The Athenians to their leaders this reward
For great and useful service did accord;
Others hereafter, shall, from their applause,
Learn to be valiant in their country's cause

and upon the third, the following:

With Atreus' sons, this city sent of yore
Divine Menestheus to the Trojan shore;
Of all the Greeks, so Homer's verses say,
The ablest man an army to array:
So old the title of her sons the name
Of chiefs and champions in the field to claim.

Though the name of Cimon is not mentioned in these inscriptions, yet
his contemporaries considered them to be the very highest honors to
him; as neither Miltiades nor Themistocles ever received the like.
When Miltiades claimed a garland, Sochares of Decelea stood up in the
midst of the assembly and opposed it, using words which, though
ungracious, were received with applause by the people. "When you
have gained a victory by yourself, Miltiades, then you may ask to
triumph so too."  What then induced them so particularly to honor
Cimon? Was it that under other commanders they stood upon the
defensive? but by his conduct, they not only attacked their enemies,
but invaded them in their own country, and acquired new territory,
becoming masters of Eion and Amphipolis, where they planted colonies,
as also they did in the isle of Scyros, which Cimon had taken on the
following occasion. The Dolopians were the inhabitants of this isle,
a people who neglected all husbandry, and had, for many generations,
been devoted to piracy; this they practiced to that degree, that at
last they began to plunder foreigners that brought merchandise into
their ports. Some merchants of Thessaly, who had come to shore near
Ctesium, were not only spoiled of their goods, but themselves put
into confinement. These men afterwards escaping from their prison,
went and obtained sentence against the Scyrians in a court of
Amphictyons, and when the Scyrian people declined to make public
restitution, and called upon the individuals who had got the plunder
to give it up, these persons, in alarm, wrote to Cimon to succor them
with his fleet, and declared themselves ready to deliver the town
into his hands. Cimon, by these means, got the town, expelled the
Dolopian pirates, and so opened the traffic of the Aegean sea. And,
understanding that the ancient Theseus, the son of Aegeus, when he
fled from Athens and took refuge in this isle, was here treacherously
slain by king Lycomedes, who feared him, Cimon endeavored to find out
where he was buried. For an oracle had commanded the Athenians to
bring home his ashes, and pay him all due honors as a hero; but
hitherto they had not been able to learn where he was interred, as
the people of Scyros dissembled the knowledge of it, and were not
willing to allow a search. But now, great inquiry being made, with
some difficulty he found out the tomb, and carried the relics into
his own galley, and with great pomp and show brought them to Athens,
four hundred years, or thereabouts, after his expulsion. This act
got Cimon great favor with the people, one mark of which was the
judgment, afterwards so famous, upon the tragic poets. Sophocles,
still a young man, had just brought forward his first plays; opinions
were much divided, and the spectators had taken sides with some heat.
So, to determine the case, Apsephion, who was at that time archon,
would not cast lots who should be judges; but when Cimon, and his
brother commanders with him, came into the theater, after they had
performed the usual rites to the god of the festival, he would not
allow them to retire, but came forward and made them swear, (being
ten in all, one from each tribe,) the usual oath; and so being sworn
judges, he made them sit down to give sentence. The eagerness for
victory grew all the warmer, from the ambition to get the suffrages
of such honorable judges. And the victory was at last adjudged to
Sophocles, which Aeschylus is said to have taken so ill, that he left
Athens shortly after, and went in anger to Sicily, where he died, and
was buried near the city of Gela.

Ion relates that when he was a young man, and recently come from
Chios to Athens, he chanced to sup with Cimon, at Laomedon's house.
After supper, when they had, according to custom, poured out wine to
the honor of the gods, Cimon was desired by the company to give them
a song, which he did with sufficient success, and received the
commendations of the company, who remarked on his superiority to
Themistocles, who, on a like occasion, had declared he had never
learnt to sing, nor to play, and only knew how to make a city rich
and powerful. After talking of things incident to such
entertainments, they entered upon the particulars of the several
actions for which Cimon had been famous. And when they were
mentioning the most signal, he told them they had omitted one, upon
which he valued himself most for address and good contrivance. He
gave this account of it. When the allies had taken a great number of
the barbarians prisoners in Sestos and Byzantium, they gave him the
preference to divide the booty; he accordingly put the prisoners in
one lot, and the spoils of their rich attire and jewels in the other.
This the allies complained of as an unequal division, but he gave
them their choice to take which lot they would, for that the
Athenians should be content with that which they refused. Herophytus
of Samos advised them to take the ornaments for their share, and
leave the slaves to the Athenians; and Cimon went away, and was much
laughed at for his ridiculous division. For the allies carried away
the golden bracelets, and armlets, and collars, and purple robes, and
the Athenians had only the naked bodies of the captives, which they
could make no advantage of, being unused to labor. But a little
while after, the friends and kinsmen of the prisoners coming from
Lydia and Phrygia, redeemed every one his relations at a high ransom;
so that by this means Cimon got so much treasure that he maintained
his whole fleet of galleys with the money for four months; and yet
there was some left to lay up in the treasury at Athens.

Cimon now grew rich, and what he gained from the barbarians with
honor, he spent yet more honorably upon the citizens. For he pulled
down all the enclosures of his gardens and grounds, that strangers,
and the needy of his fellow-citizens, might gather of his fruits
freely. At home, he kept a table, plain, but sufficient for a
considerable number; to which any poor townsman had free access, and
so might support himself without labor, with his whole time left free
for public duties. Aristotle states, however, that this reception
did not extend to all the Athenians, but only to his own fellow
townsmen, the Laciadae. Besides this, he always went attended by two
or three young companions, very well clad; and if he met with an
elderly citizen in a poor habit, one of these would change clothes
with the decayed citizen, which was looked upon as very nobly done.
He enjoined them, likewise, to carry a considerable quantity of coin
about them, which they were to convey silently into the hands of the
better class of poor men, as they stood by them in the marketplace.
This, Cratinus the poet speaks of in one of his comedies, the
Archilochi: --

For I, Metrobius too, the scrivener poor,
Of ease and comfort in my age secure,
By Greece's noblest son in life's decline,
Cimon, the generous-hearted, the divine,
Well-fed and feasted hoped till death to be,
Death which, alas! has taken him ere me.

Gorgias the Leontine gives him this character, that he got riches
that he might use them, and used them that he might get honor by
them. And Critias, one of the thirty tyrants, makes it, in his
elegies, his wish to have

The Scopads' wealth, and Cimon's nobleness,
And king Agesilaus's success.

Lichas, we know, became famous in Greece, only because on the days of
the sports, when the young boys run naked, he used to entertain the
strangers that came to see these diversions. But Cimon's generosity
outdid all the old Athenian hospitality and good-nature. For though
it is the city's just boast that their forefathers taught the rest of
Greece to sow corn, and how to use springs of water, and to kindle
fire, yet Cimon, by keeping open house for his fellow-citizens, and
giving travelers liberty to eat the fruits which the several seasons
produced in his land, seemed to restore to the world that community
of goods, which mythology says existed in the reign of Saturn. Those
who object to him that he did this to be popular, and gain the
applause of the vulgar, are confuted by the constant tenor of the
rest of his actions, which all tended to uphold the interests of the
nobility and the Spartan policy, of which he gave instances, when
together with Aristides, he opposed Themistocles, who was advancing
the authority of the people beyond its just limits, and resisted
Ephialtes, who to please the multitude, was for abolishing the
jurisdiction of the court of Areopagus. And when all of his time,
except Aristides and Ephialtes, enriched themselves out of the public
money, he still kept his hands clean and untainted, and to his last
day never acted or spoke for his own private gain or emolument. They
tell us that Rhoesaces, a Persian, who had traitorously revolted from
the king his master, fled to Athens, and there, being harassed by
sycophants, who were still accusing him to the people, he applied
himself to Cimon for redress, and to gain his favor, laid down in his
doorway two cups, the one full of gold, and the other of silver
Darics. Cimon smiled and asked him whether he wished to have Cimon's
hired service or his friendship. He replied, his friendship. "If
so," said he, "take away these pieces, for being your friend, when I
shall have occasion for them, I will send and ask for them."

The allies of the Athenians began now to be weary of war and military
service, willing to have repose, and to look after their husbandry
and traffic. For they saw and did not fear any new vexations from
them. They still paid the tax they were assessed at, but did not
send men and galleys, as they had done before. This the other
Athenian generals wished to constrain them to, and by judicial
proceedings against defaulters, and penalties which they inflicted on
them, made the government uneasy, and even odious. But Cimon
practiced a contrary method; he forced no man to go that was not
willing, but of those that desired to be excused from service he took
money and vessels unmanned, and let them yield to the temptation of
staying at home, to attend to their private business. Thus they lost
their military habits, and luxury and their own folly quickly
changed them into unwarlike husbandmen and traders, while Cimon,
continually embarking large numbers of Athenians on board his
galleys, thoroughly disciplined them in his expeditions, their
enemies driven out of the country, and ere long made them the lords
of their own paymasters. The allies, whose indolence maintained
them, while they thus went sailing about everywhere, and incessantly
bearing arms and acquiring skill, began to fear and flatter then, and
found themselves after a while allies no longer, but unwittingly
become tributaries and slaves.

Nor did any man ever do more than Cimon did to humble the pride of
the Persian king. He was not content with getting rid of him out of
Greece; but following close at his heels, before the barbarians could
take breath and recover themselves, he was already at work, and what
with his devastations, and his forcible reduction of some places, and
the revolts and voluntary accession of others, in the end, from Ionia
to Pamphylia, all Asia was clear of Persian soldiers. Word being
brought him that the royal commanders were lying in wait upon the
coast of Pamphylia, with a numerous land army, and a large fleet, he
determined to make the whole sea on this side the Chelidonian islands
so formidable to them that they should never dare to show themselves
in it; and setting off from Cnidos and the Triopian headland, with
two hundred galleys, which had been originally built with particular
care by Themistocles, for speed and rapid evolutions, and to which he
now gave greater width and roomier decks along the sides to move to
and fro upon, so as to allow a great number of full-armed soldiers to
take part in the engagements and fight from them, he shaped his
course first of all against the town of Phaselis, which, though
inhabited by Greeks, yet would not quit the interests of Persia, but
denied his galleys entrance into their port. Upon this he wasted the
country, and drew up his army to their very walls; but the soldiers
of Chios, who were then serving under him, being ancient friends to
the Phaselites, endeavoring to propitiate the general in their
behalf, at the same time shot arrows into the town, to which were
fastened letters conveying intelligence. At length he concluded
peace with them, upon the conditions that they should pay down ten
talents, and follow him against the barbarians. Ephorus says the
admiral of the Persian fleet was Tithraustes, and the general of the
land army Pherendates; but Callisthenes is positive that Ariomandes,
the son of Gobryas, had the supreme command of all the forces. He
lay waiting with the whole fleet at the mouth of the river Eurymedon,
with no design to fight, but expecting a reinforcement of eighty
Phoenician ships on their way from Cyprus. Cimon, aware of this, put
out to sea, resolved, if they would not fight a battle willingly, to
force them to it. The barbarians, seeing this, retired within the
mouth of the river to avoid being attacked; but when they saw the
Athenians come upon them, notwithstanding their retreat, they met
them with six hundred ships, as Phanodemus relates but according to
Ephorus, only with three hundred and fifty. However, they did
nothing worthy such mighty forces, but immediately turned the prows
of their galleys toward the shore, where those that came first threw
themselves upon the land, and fled to their army drawn up thereabout,
while the rest perished with their vessels, or were taken. By this,
one may guess at their number, for though a great many escaped out of
the fight, and a great many others were sunk, yet two hundred galleys
were taken by the Athenians.

When their land army drew toward the seaside, Cimon was in suspense
whether he should venture to try and force his way on shore; as he
should thus expose his Greeks, wearied with slaughter in the first
engagement, to the swords of the barbarians, who were all fresh men,
and many times their number. But seeing his men resolute, and
flushed with victory, he bade them land, though they were not yet
cool from their first battle. As soon as they touched ground, they
set up a shout and ran upon the enemy, who stood firm and sustained
the first shock with great courage, so that the fight was a hard one,
and some principal men of the Athenians in rank and courage were
slain. At length, though with much ado, they routed the barbarians,
and killing some, took others prisoners, and plundered all their
tents and pavilions which were full of rich spoil. Cimon, like a
skilled athlete at the games, having in one day carried off two
victories, wherein he surpassed that of Salamis by sea, and that of
Plataea by land, was encouraged to try for yet another success. News
being brought that the Phoenician succors, in number eighty sail, had
come in sight at Hydrum, he set off with all speed to find them,
while they as yet had not received any certain account of the larger
fleet, and were in doubt what to think; so that thus surprised, they
lost all their vessels, and most of their men with them. This
success of Cimon so daunted the king of Persia, that he presently
made that celebrated peace, by which he engaged that his armies
should come no nearer the Grecian sea than the length of a horse's
course; and that none of his galleys or vessels of war should appear
between the Cyanean and Chelidonian isles. Callisthenes, however,
says that he did not agree to any such articles, but that upon the
fear this victory gave him, he did in reality thus act, and kept off
so far from Greece, that when Pericles with fifty, and Ephialtes with
thirty galleys, cruised beyond the Chelidonian isles, they did not
discover one Persian vessel. But in the collection which Craterus
made of the public acts of the people, there is a draft of this
treaty given. And it is told, also, that at Athens they erected the
altar of Peace upon this occasion, and decreed particular honors to
Callias, who was employed as ambassador to procure the treaty.

The people of Athens raised so much money from the spoils of this
war, which were publicly sold, that, besides other expenses, and
raising the south wall of the citadel, they laid the foundation of
the long walls, not, indeed, finished till at a later time, which
were called the Legs. And the place where they built them being soft
and marshy ground, they were forced to sink great weights of stone
and rubble to secure the foundation, and did all this out of the
money Cimon supplied them with. It was he, likewise, who first
embellished the upper city with those fine and ornamental places of
exercise and resort, which they afterward so much frequented and
delighted in. He set the market-place with plane trees; and the
Academy, which was before a bare, dry, and dirty spot, he converted
into a well-watered grove, with shady alleys to walk in, and open
courses for races.

When the Persians who had made themselves masters of the Chersonese,
so far from quitting it, called in the people of the interior of
Thrace to help them against Cimon, whom they despised for the
smallness of his forces, he set upon them with only four galleys, and
took thirteen of theirs; and having driven out the Persians, and
subdued the Thracians, he made the whole Chersonese the property of
Athens. Next, he attacked the people of Thasos, who had revolted
from the Athenians; and, having defeated them in a fight at sea,
where he took thirty-three of their vessels, he took their town by
siege, and acquired for the Athenians all the mines of gold on the
opposite coast, and the territory dependent on Thasos. This opened
him a fair passage into Macedon, so that he might, it was thought,
have acquired a good portion of that country; and because he
neglected the opportunity, he was suspected of corruption, and of
having been bribed off by king Alexander. So, by the combination of
his adversaries, he was accused of being false to his country. In
his defense he told the judges, that he had always shown himself in
his public life the friend, not, like other men, of rich Ionians and
Thessalians, to be courted, and to receive presents, but of the
Lacedaemonians; for as he admired, so he wished to imitate the
plainness of their habits, their temperance, and simplicity of
living, which he preferred to any sort of riches; but that he always
had been, and still was proud to enrich his country with the spoils
of her enemies. Stesimbrotus, making mention of this trial, states
that Elpinice, in behalf of her brother, addressed herself to
Pericles, the most vehement of his accusers, to whom Pericles
answered, with a smile, "You are old, Elpinice, to meddle with
affairs of this nature."  However, he proved the mildest of his
prosecutors, and rose up but once all the while, almost as a matter
of form, to plead against him. Cimon was acquitted.

In his public life after this, he continued, whilst at home, to
control and restrain the common people, who would have trampled upon
the nobility, and drawn all the power and sovereignty to themselves.
But when he afterwards was sent out to war, the multitude broke
loose, as it were, and overthrew all the ancient laws and customs
they had hitherto observed, and, chiefly at the instigation of
Ephialtes, withdrew the cognizance of almost all causes from the
Areopagus; so that all jurisdiction now being transferred to them,
the government was reduced to a perfect democracy, and this by the
help of Pericles, who was already powerful, and had pronounced in
favor of the common people. Cimon, when he returned, seeing the
authority of this great council so upset, was exceedingly troubled,
and endeavored to remedy these disorders by bringing the courts of
law to their former state, and restoring the old aristocracy of the
time of Clisthenes. This the others declaimed against with all the
vehemence possible, and began to revive those stories concerning him
and his sister, and cried out against him as the partisan of the
Lacedaemonians. To these calumnies the famous verses of Eupolis, the
poet upon Cimon refer: --

He was as good as others that one sees,
But he was fond of drinking and of ease;
And would at nights to Sparta often roam,
Leaving his sister desolate at home.

But if, though slothful and a drunkard, he could capture so many
towns, and gain so many victories, certainly if he had been sober and
minded his business, there had been no Grecian commander, either
before or after him, that could have surpassed him for exploits of
war.

He was, indeed, a favorer of the Lacedaemonians even from his youth,
and he gave the names of Lacedaemonius and Eleus to two sons, twins,
whom he had, as Stesimbrotus says, by a woman of Clitorium, whence
Pericles often upbraided them with their mother's blood. But
Diodorus, the geographer, asserts that both these, and another son of
Cimon's, whose name was Thessalus, were born of Isodice, the daughter
of Euryptolemus, the son of Megacles.

However, this is certain, that Cimon was countenanced by the
Lacedaemonians in opposition to Themistocles, whom they disliked; and
while he was yet very young, they endeavored to raise and increase
his credit in Athens. This the Athenians perceived at first with
pleasure, and the favor the Lacedaemonians showed him was in various
ways advantageous to them and their affairs; as at that time they
were just rising to power, and were occupied in winning the allies to
their side. So they seemed not at all offended with the honor and
kindness showed to Cimon, who then had the chief management of all
the affairs of Greece, and was acceptable to the Lacedaemonians, and
courteous to the allies. But afterwards the Athenians, grown more
powerful, when they saw Cimon so entirely devoted to the
Lacedaemonians, began to be angry, for he would always in his
speeches prefer them to the Athenians, and upon every occasion, when
he would reprimand them for a fault, or incite them to emulation, he
would exclaim, "The Lacedaemonians would not do thus."  This raised
the discontent, and got him in some degree the hatred of the
citizens; but that which ministered chiefly to the accusation against
him fell out upon the following occasion.

In the fourth year of the reign of Archidamus, the son of Zeuxidamus,
king of Sparta, there happened in the country of Lacedaemon, the
greatest earthquake that was known in the memory of man; the earth
opened into chasms, and the mountain Taygetus was so shaken, that
some of the rocky points of it fell down, and except five houses, all
the town of Sparta was shattered to pieces. They say, that a little
before any motion was perceived, as the young men and the boys just
grown up were exercising themselves together in the middle of the
portico, a hare, of a sudden, started out just by them, which the
young men, though all naked and daubed with oil, ran after for sport.
No sooner were they gone from the place, than the gymnasium fell down
upon the boys who had stayed behind, and killed them all. Their tomb
is to this day called Sismatias. Archidamus, by the present danger
made apprehensive of what might follow, and seeing the citizens
intent upon removing the most valuable of their goods out of their
houses, commanded an alarm to be sounded, as if an enemy were coming
upon them, in order that they should collect about him in a body,
with arms. It was this alone that saved Sparta at that time, for the
Helots were got together from the country about, with design to
surprise the Spartans, and overpower those whom the earthquake had
spared. But finding them armed and well prepared, they retired into
the towns and openly made war with them, gaining over a number of the
Laconians of the country districts; while at the same time the
Messenians, also, made an attack upon the Spartans, who therefore
dispatched Periclidas to Athens to solicit succors, of whom
Aristophanes says in mockery that he came and

In a red jacket, at the altars seated,
With a white face, for men and arms entreated.

This Ephialtes opposed, protesting that they ought not to raise up or
assist a city that was a rival to Athens; but that being down, it
were best to keep her so, and let the pride and arrogance of Sparta
be trodden under. But Cimon, as Critias says, preferring the safety
of Lacedaemon to the aggrandizement of his own country, so persuaded
the people, that he soon marched out with a large army to their
relief. Ion records, also, the most successful expression which he
used to move the Athenians. "They ought not to suffer Greece to be
lamed, nor their own city to be deprived of her yoke-fellow."

In his return from aiding the Lacedaemonians, he passed with his army
through the territory of Corinth; where upon Lachartus reproached him
for bringing his army into the country, without first asking leave of
the people. For he that knocks at another man's door ought not to
enter the house till the master gives him leave. "But you,
Corinthians, O Lachartus," said Cimon, "did not knock at the gates of
the Cleonaeans and Megarians, but broke them down, and entered by
force, thinking that all places should be open to the stronger."  And
having thus rallied the Corinthian, he passed on with his army. Some
time after this, the Lacedaemonians sent a second time to desire
succors of the Athenians against the Messenians and Helots, who had
seized upon Ithome. But when they came, fearing their boldness and
gallantry, of all that came to their assistance, they sent them only
back, alleging they were designing innovations. The Athenians
returned home, enraged at this usage, and vented their anger upon all
those who were favorers of the Lacedaemonians; and seizing some
slight occasion, they banished Cimon for ten years, which is the time
prescribed to those that are banished by the ostracism. In the mean
time, the Lacedaemonians, on their return after freeing Delphi from
the Phocians, encamped their army at Tanagra, whither the Athenians
presently marched with design to fight them.

Cimon, also, came thither armed, and ranged himself among those of
his own tribe, which was the Oeneis, desirous of fighting with the
rest against the Spartans; but the council of five hundred being
informed of this, and frighted at it, his adversaries crying out he
would disorder the army, and bring the Lacedaemonians to Athens,
commanded the officers not to receive him. Wherefore Cimon left the
army, conjuring Euthippus, the Anaphlystian, and the rest of his
companions, who were most suspected as favoring the Lacedaemonians,
to behave themselves bravely against their enemies, and by their
actions make their innocence evident to their countrymen. These, being
in all a hundred, took the arms of Cimon and followed his advice; and
making a body by themselves, fought so desperately with the enemy,
that they were all cut off, leaving the Athenians deep regret for
the loss of such brave men, and repentance for having so unjustly
suspected them. Accordingly, they did not long retain their severity
toward Cimon, partly upon remembrance of his former services, and
partly, perhaps, induced by the juncture of the times. For being
defeated at Tanagra in a great battle, and fearing the Peloponnesians
would come upon them at the opening of the spring, they recalled
Cimon by a decree, of which Pericles himself was author. So
reasonable were men's resentments in those times, and so moderate
their anger, that it always gave way to the public good. Even
ambition, the least governable of all human passions, could then
yield to the necessities of the State.

Cimon, as soon as he returned, put an end to the war, and reconciled
the two cities. Peace thus established, seeing the Athenians
impatient of being idle, and eager after the honor and aggrandizement
of war, lest they should set upon the Greeks themselves, or with so
many ships cruising about the isles and Peloponnesus, they should
give occasions to intestine wars, or complaints of their allies
against them, he equipped two hundred galleys, with design to make an
attempt upon Egypt and Cyprus; purposing, by this means, to accustom
the Athenians to fight against the barbarians, and enrich themselves
honestly by spoiling those who were the natural enemies to Greece.
But when all things were prepared, and the army ready to embark,
Cimon had this dream. It seemed to him that there was a furious
bitch barking at him, and, mixed with the barking, a kind of human
voice uttered these words: --

Come on, for thou shalt shortly be,
A pleasure to my whelps and me.

This dream was hard to interpret, yet Astyphilus of Posidonia, a man
skilled in divinations, and intimate with Cimon, told him that his
death was presaged by this vision, which he thus explained. A dog is
enemy to him be barks at; and one is always most a pleasure to one's
enemies, when one is dead; the mixture of human voice with barking
signifies the Medes, for the army of the Medes is mixed up of Greeks
and barbarians. After this dream, as he was sacrificing to Bacchus,
and the priest cutting up the victim, a number of ants, taking up the
congealed particles of the blood, laid them about Cimon's great toe.
This was not observed for a good while, but at the very time when
Cimon spied it, the priest came and showed him the liver of the
sacrifice imperfect, wanting that part of it called the head. But he
could not then recede from the enterprise, so he set sail. Sixty of
his ships he sent toward Egypt; with the rest he went and fought the
king of Persia's fleet, composed of Phoenician and Cilician galleys,
recovered all the cities thereabout, and threatened Egypt; designing
no less than the entire ruin of the Persian empire. And the rather,
for that he was informed Themistocles was in great repute among the
barbarians, having promised the king to lead his army, whenever he
should make war upon Greece. But Themistocles, it is said,
abandoning all hopes of compassing his designs, very much out of the
despair of overcoming the valor and good-fortune of Cimon, died a
voluntary death. Cimon, intent on great designs, which he was now to
enter upon, keeping his navy about the isle of Cyprus, sent
messengers to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon upon some secret
matter. For it is not known about what they were sent, and the god
would give them no answer, but commanded them to return again, for
that Cimon was already with him. Hearing this, they returned to sea,
and as soon as they came to the Grecian army, which was then about
Egypt, they understood that Cimon was dead; and computing the time of
the oracle, they found that his death had been signified, he being
then already with the gods.

He died, some say, of sickness, while besieging Citium, in Cyprus;
according to others, of a wound he received in a skirmish with the
barbarians. When he perceived he should die, he commanded those
under his charge to return, and by no means to let the news of his
death be known by the way; this they did with such secrecy that they
all came home safe, and neither their enemies nor the allies knew
what had happened. Thus, as Phanodemus relates, the Grecian army
was, as it were, conducted by Cimon, thirty days after he was dead.
But after his death there was not one commander among the Greeks that
did anything considerable against the barbarians, and instead of
uniting against their common enemies, the popular leaders and
partisans of war animated them against one another to that degree,
that none could interpose their good offices to reconcile them. And
while, by their mutual discord, they ruined the power of Greece, they
gave the Persians time to recover breath, and repair all their
losses. It is true, indeed, Agesilaus carried the arms of Greece
into Asia, but it was a long time after; there were, indeed, some
brief appearances of a war against the king's lieutenants in the
maritime provinces, but they all quickly vanished; before he could
perform anything of moment, he was recalled by fresh civil
dissensions and disturbances at home. So that he was forced to leave
the Persian king's officers to impose what tribute they pleased on
the Greek cities in Asia, the confederates and allies of the
Lacedaemonians. Whereas, in the time of Cimon, not so much as a
letter-carrier, or a single horseman, was ever seen to come within
four hundred furlongs of the sea.

The monuments, called Cimonian to this day, in Athens, show that his
remains were conveyed home, yet the inhabitants of the city Citium
pay particular honor to a certain tomb which they call the tomb of
Cimon, according to Nausicrates the rhetorician, who states that in a
time of famine, when the crops of their land all failed, they sent to
the oracle, which commanded them not to forget Cimon, but give him
the honors of a superior being. Such was the Greek commander.

LUCULLUS

Lucullus's grandfather had been consul; his uncle by the mother's
sister was Metellus, surnamed Numidicus. As for his parents, his
father was convicted of extortion, and his mother Caecilia's
reputation was bad. The first thing that Lucullus did before ever
he stood for any office, or meddled with the affairs of state,
being then but a youth, was, to accuse the accuser of his father,
Servilius the augur, having caught him in an offense against the
state. This thing was much taken notice of among the Romans, who
commended it as an act of high merit. Even without the
provocation, the accusation was esteemed no unbecoming action, for
they delighted to see young men as eagerly attacking injustice, as
good dogs do wild beasts. But when great animosities ensued,
insomuch that some were wounded and killed in the fray, Servilius
escaped. Lucullus followed his studies, and became a competent
speaker, in both Greek and Latin, insomuch that Sylla, when
composing the commentaries of his own life and actions, dedicated
them to him, as one who could have performed the task better
himself. His speech was not only elegant and ready for purposes of
mere business, like the ordinary oratory which will in the public
market-place,

Lash as a wounded tunny does the sea,

but on every other occasion shows itself

Dried up and perished with the want of wit;

but even in his younger days he addicted himself to the study,
simply for its own sake, of the liberal arts; and when advanced in
years, after a life of conflicts, he gave his mind, as it were, its
liberty, to enjoy in full leisure the refreshment of philosophy;
and summoning up his contemplative faculties, administered a timely
check, after his difference with Pompey, to his feelings of
emulation and ambition. Besides what has been said of his love of
learning already, one instance more was, that in his youth, upon a
suggestion of writing the Marsian war in Greek and Latin verse and
prose, arising out of some pleasantry that passed into a serious
proposal, he agreed with Hortensius the lawyer, and Sisenna the
historian, that he would take his lot; and it seems that the lot
directed him to the Greek tongue, for a Greek history of that war
is still extant.

Among the many signs of the great love which he bore to his brother
Marcus, one in particular is commemorated by the Romans. Though he
was elder brother, he would not step into authority without him,
but deferred his own advance until his brother was qualified to
bear a share with him, and so won upon the people, as when absent
to be chosen Aedile with him.

He gave many and early proofs of his valor and conduct, in the
Marsian war, and was admired by Sylla for his constancy and
mildness, and always employed in affairs of importance, especially
in the mint; most of the money for carrying on the Mithridatic war
being coined by him in Peloponnesus, which, by the soldiers' wants,
was brought into rapid circulation, and long continued current
under the name of Lucullean coin. After this, when Sylla conquered
Athens, and was victorious by land, but found the supplies for his
army cut off, the enemy being master at sea, Lucullus was the man
whom he sent into Libya and Egypt, to procure him shipping. It was
the depth of winter when he ventured with but three small Greek
vessels, and as many Rhodian galleys, not only into the main sea,
but also among multitudes of vessels belonging to the enemies, who
were cruising about as absolute masters. Arriving at Crete, he
gained it; and finding the Cyrenians harassed by long tyrannies and
wars, he composed their troubles, and settled their government;
putting the city in mind of that saying which Plato once had
oracularly uttered of them, who, being requested to prescribe laws
to them, and mold them into some sound form of government, made
answer, that it was a hard thing to give laws to the Cyrenians,
abounding, as they did, in wealth and plenty. For nothing is more
intractable than man when in felicity, nor anything more docile,
when he has been reduced and humbled by fortune. This made the
Cyrenians so willingly submit to the laws which Lucullus imposed
upon them. From thence sailing into Egypt, and, pressed by
pirates, he lost most of his vessels; but he himself narrowly
escaping, made a magnificent entry into Alexandria. The whole
fleet, a compliment due only to royalty, met him in full array, and
the young Ptolemy showed wonderful kindness to him, appointing him
lodging and diet in the palace, where no foreign commander before
him had been received. Besides, he gave him gratuities and
presents, not such as were usually given to men of his condition,
but four times as much; of which, however, he took nothing more
than served his necessity, and accepted of no gift, though what was
worth eighty talents was offered him. It is reported he neither
went to see Memphis, nor any of the celebrated wonders of Egypt.
It was for a man of no business and much curiosity to see such
things, not for him who had left his commander in the field,
lodging under the ramparts of his enemies.

Ptolemy, fearing the issue of that war, deserted the confederacy,
but nevertheless sent a convoy with him as far as Cyprus, and at
parting, with much ceremony, wishing him a good voyage, gave him a
very precious emerald set in gold. Lucullus at first refused it,
but when the king showed him his own likeness cut upon it, he
thought he could not persist in a denial, for had he parted with
such open offense, it might have endangered his passage. Drawing a
considerable squadron together, which he summoned, as he sailed by,
out of all the maritime towns, except those suspected of piracy, he
sailed for Cyprus; and there understanding that the enemy lay in
wait under the promontories for him, he laid up his fleet, and sent
to the cities to send in provisions for his wintering among them.
But when time served, he launched his ships suddenly, and went off,
and hoisting all his sails in the night, while he kept them down in
the day, thus came safe to Rhodes. Being furnished with ships at
Rhodes, he also prevailed upon the inhabitants of Cos and Cnidus,
to leave the king's side, and join in an expedition against the
Samians. Out of Chios he himself drove the king's party, and set
the Colophonians at liberty, having seized Epigonus the tyrant, who
oppressed them.

About this time Mithridates left Pergamus, and retired to Pitane,
where being closely besieged by Fimbria on the land, and not daring
to engage with so bold and victorious a commander, he was
concerting means for escape by sea, and sent for all his fleets
from every quarter to attend him. Which when Fimbria perceived,
having no ships of his own, he sent to Lucullus, entreating him to
assist him with his, in subduing the most odious and warlike of
kings, lest the opportunity of humbling Mithridates, the prize
which the Romans had pursued with so much blood and trouble, should
now at last be lost, when he was within the net, and easily to be
taken. And were he caught, no one would be more highly commended
than Lucullus, who stopped his passage and seized him in his
flight. Being driven from the land by the one, and met in the sea
by the other, he would give matter of renown and glory to them
both, and the much applauded actions of Sylla at Orchomenus and
about Chaeronea, would no longer be thought of by the Romans. The
proposal was no unreasonable thing; it being obvious to all men,
that if Lucullus had hearkened to Fimbria, and with his navy, which
was then near at hand, had blocked up the haven, the war soon had
been brought to an end, and infinite numbers of mischiefs prevented
thereby. But he, whether from the sacredness of friendship between
himself and Sylla, reckoning all other considerations of public or
of private advantage inferior to it, or out of detestation of the
wickedness of Fimbria, whom he abhorred for advancing himself by
the late death of his friend and the general of the army, or by a
divine fortune sparing Mithridates then, that he might have him an
adversary for a time to come, for whatever reason, refused to
comply, and suffered Mithridates to escape and laugh at the
attempts of Fimbria. He himself alone first, near Lectum in Troas,
in a sea-fight, overcame the king's ships; and afterwards,
discovering Neoptolemus lying in wait for him near Tenedos, with a
greater fleet, he went aboard a Rhodian quinquereme galley,
commended by Damagoras, a man of great experience at sea, and
friendly to the Romans, and sailed before the rest. Neoptolemus
made up furiously at him, and commanded the master, with all
imaginable might, to charge; but Damagoras, fearing the bulk and
massy stem of the admiral, thought it dangerous to meet him prow to
prow, and, rapidly wheeling round, bid his men back water, and so
received him astern; in which place, though violently borne upon,
he received no manner of harm, the blow being defeated by falling
on those parts of the ship which lay under water. By which time,
the rest of the fleet coming up to him, Lucullus gave order to turn
again, and vigorously falling, upon the enemy, put them to flight,
and pursued Neoptolemus. After this he came to Sylla, in
Chersonesus, as he was preparing to pass the strait, and brought
timely assistance for the safe transportation of the army.

Peace being presently made, Mithridates sailed off to the Euxine
sea, but Sylla taxed the inhabitants of Asia twenty thousand
talents, and ordered Lucullus to gather and coin the money. And it
was no small comfort to the cities under Sylla's severity, that a
man of not only incorrupt and just behavior, but also of
moderation, should be employed in so heavy and odious an office.
The Mitylenaeans, who absolutely revolted, he was willing should
return to their duty, and submit to a moderate penalty for the
offense they had given in the case of Marius. But, finding them
bent upon their own destruction, he came up to them, defeated them
at sea, blocked them up in their city and besieged them; then
sailing off from them openly in the day to Elaea, he returned
privately, and posting an ambush near the city, lay quiet himself:
And on the Mitylenaeans coming out eagerly and in disorder to
plunder the deserted camp, he fell upon them, took many of them,
and slew five hundred, who stood upon their defense. He gained six
thousand slaves, and a very rich booty.

He was no way engaged in the great and general troubles of Italy
which Sylla and Marius created, a happy providence at that time
detaining him in Asia upon business. He was as much in Sylla's
favor, however, as any of his other friends; Sylla, as was said
before, dedicated his Memoirs to him as a token of kindness, and at
his death, passing by Pompey, made him guardian to his son; which
seems, indeed, to have been the rise of the quarrel and jealousy
between them two being both young men, and passionate for honor.

A little after Sylla's death, he was made consul with Marcus Cotta,
about the one hundred and seventy-sixth Olympiad. The Mithridatic
war being then under debate, Marcus declared that it was not
finished, but only respited for a time, and therefore, upon choice
of provinces, the lot falling to Lucullus to have Gaul within the
Alps, a province where no great action was to be done, he was
ill-pleased. But chiefly, the success of Pompey in Spain fretted
him, as, with the renown he got there, if the Spanish war were
finished in time, he was likely to be chosen general before anyone
else against Mithridates. So that when Pompey sent for money, and
signified by letter that, unless it were sent him, he would leave
the country and Sertorius, and bring his forces home to Italy,
Lucullus most zealously supported his request, to prevent any
pretence of his returning home during his own consulship; for all
things would have been at his disposal, at the head of so great an
army. For Cethegus, the most influential popular leader at that
time, owing to his always both acting and speaking to please the
people, had, as it happened, a hatred to Lucullus, who had not
concealed his disgust at his debauched, insolent, and lawless life.
Lucullus, therefore, was at open warfare with him. And Lucius
Quintius, also, another demagogue, who was taking steps against
Sylla's constitution, and endeavoring to put things out of order,
by private exhortations and public admonitions he checked in his
designs, and repressed his ambition, wisely and safely remedying a
great evil at the very outset.

At this time news came that Octavius, the governor of Cilicia, was
dead, and many were eager for the place, courting Cethegus, as the
man best able to serve them. Lucullus set little value upon
Cilicia itself, no otherwise than as he thought, by his acceptance
of it, no other man besides himself might be employed in the war
against Mithridates, by reason of its nearness to Cappadocia. This
made him strain every effort that that province might be allotted
to himself, and to none other; which led him at last into an
expedient not so honest or commendable, as it was serviceable for
compassing his design, submitting to necessity against his own
inclination. There was one Praecia, a celebrated wit and beauty,
but in other respects nothing better than an ordinary harlot; who,
however, to the charms of her person adding the reputation of one
that loved and served her friends, by making use of those who
visited her to assist their designs and promote their interests,
had thus gained great power. She had seduced Cethegus, the first
man at that time in reputation and authority of all the city, and
enticed him to her love, and so had made all authority follow her.
For nothing of moment was done in which Cethegus was not concerned,
and nothing by Cethegus without Praecia. This woman Lucullus
gained to his side by gifts and flattery, (and a great price it was
in itself to so stately and magnificent a dame, to be seen engaged
in the same cause with Lucullus,) and thus he presently found
Cethegus his friend, using his utmost interest to procure Cilicia
for him; which when once obtained, there was no more need of
applying himself either to Praecia, or Cethegus; for all
unanimously voted him to the Mithridatic war, by no hands likely to
be so successfully managed as his. Pompey was still contending
with Sertorius, and Metellus by age unfit for service; which two
alone were the competitors who could prefer any claim with Lucullus
for that command. Cotta, his colleague, after much ado in the
senate, was sent away with a fleet to guard the Propontis, and
defend Bithynia.

Lucullus carried with him a legion under his own orders, and
crossed over into Asia and took the command of the forces there,
composed of men who were all thoroughly disabled by dissoluteness
and rapine, and the Fimbrians, as they were called, utterly
unmanageable by long want of any sort of discipline. For these
were they who under Fimbria had slain Flaccus, the consul and
general, and afterwards betrayed Fimbria to Sylla; a willful and
lawless set of men, but warlike, expert, and hardy in the field.
Lucullus in a short time took down the courage of these, and
disciplined the others, who then first, in all probability, knew
what a true commander and governor was; whereas in former times
they had been courted to service, and took up arms at nobody's
command, but their own wills.

The enemy's provisions for war stood thus; Mithridates, like the
Sophists, boastful and haughty at first, set upon the Romans, with
a very inefficient army, such, indeed, as made a good show, but was
nothing for use. But being shamefully routed, and taught a lesson
for a second engagement, he reduced his forces to a proper,
serviceable shape. Dispensing with the mixed multitudes, and the
noisy menaces of barbarous tribes of various languages, and with
the ornaments of gold and precious stones, a greater temptation to
the victors than security to the bearers, he gave his men broad
swords like the Romans', and massy shields; chose horses better for
service than show, drew up an hundred and twenty thousand foot in
the figure of the Roman phalanx, and had sixteen thousand horse,
besides chariots armed with scythes, no less than a hundred.
Besides which, he set out a fleet not at all cumbered with gilded
cabins, luxurious baths and women's furniture, but stored with
weapons and darts, and other necessaries, and thus made a descent
upon Bithynia. Not only did these parts willingly receive him
again, but almost all Asia regarded him as their salvation from the
intolerable miseries which they were suffering from the Roman
money-lenders, and revenue farmers. These, afterwards, who like
harpies stole away their very nourishment, Lucullus drove away, and
at this time by reproving them, did what he could to make them more
moderate, and to prevent a general secession, then breaking out in
all parts. While Lucullus was detained in rectifying these
matters, Cotta, finding affairs ripe for action, prepared for
battle with Mithridates; and news coming from all hands that
Lucullus had already entered Phrygia, on his march against the
enemy, he, thinking he had a triumph all but actually in his hands,
lest his colleague should share in the glory of it, hasted to
battle without him. But being routed, both by sea and land, he
lost sixty ships with their men, and four thousand foot, and
himself was forced into and besieged in Chalcedon, there waiting
for relief from Lucullus. There were those about Lucullus who
would have had him leave Cotta and go forward, in hope of
surprising the defenseless kingdom of Mithridates. And this was
the feeling of the soldiers in general, who wore indignant that
Cotta should by his ill-counsel not only lose his own army, but
hinder them also from conquest, which at that time, without the
hazard of a battle, they might have obtained. But Lucullus, in a
public address, declared to them that he would rather save one
citizen from the enemy, than be master of all that they had.

Archelaus, the former commander in Boeotia under Mithridates, who
afterwards deserted him and accompanied the Romans, protested to
Lucullus that, upon his mere coming, he would possess himself of
all Pontus. But he answered, that it did not become him to be more
cowardly than huntsmen, to leave the wild beasts abroad, and seek
after sport in their deserted dens. Having so said, he made
towards Mithridates with thirty thousand foot, and two thousand
five hundred horse. But on being come in sight of his enemies, he
was astonished at their numbers, and thought to forbear fighting,
and wear out time. But Marius, whom Sertorius had sent out of
Spain to Mithridates with forces under him, stepping out and
challenging him, he prepared for battle. In the very instant
before joining battle, without any perceptible alteration
preceding, on a sudden the sky opened, and a large luminous body
fell down in the midst between the armies, in shape like a
hogshead, but in color like melted silver, insomuch that both
armies in alarm withdrew. This wonderful prodigy happened in
Phrygia, near Otryae. Lucullus after this began to think with
himself that no human power and wealth could suffice to sustain
such great numbers as Mithridates had, for any long time in the
face of an enemy, and commanded one of the captives to be brought
before him, and first of all asked him, how many companions had
been quartered with him, and how much provision he had left behind
him, and when he had answered him, commanded him to stand aside;
then asked a second and a third the same question; after which,
comparing the quantity of provision with the men, he found that in
three or four days' time, his enemies would be brought to want.
This all the more determined him to trust to time, and he took
measures to store his camp with all sorts of provision, and thus
living in plenty, trusted to watch the necessities of his hungry
enemy.

This made Mithridates set out against the Cyzicenians, miserably
shattered in the fight at Chalcedon, where they lost no less than
three thousand citizens and ten ships. And that he might the safer
steal away unobserved by Lucullus, immediately after supper, by the
help of a dark and wet night, he went off and by the morning gained
the neighborhood of the city, and sat down with his forces upon the
Adrastean mount. Lucullus, on finding him gone, pursued, but was
well pleased not to overtake him with his own forces in disorder;
and he sat down near what is called the Thracian village, an
admirable position for commanding all the roads and the places
whence, and through which the provisions for Mithridates's camp
must of necessity come. And judging now of the event, he no longer
kept his mind from his soldiers, but when the camp was fortified
and their work finished, called them together, and with great
assurance told them that in a few days, without the expense of
blood, he would give them victory.

Mithridates besieged the Cyzicenians with ten camps by land, and
with his ships occupied the strait that was betwixt their city and
the main land, and so blocked them up on all sides; they, however,
were fully prepared stoutly to receive him, and resolved to endure
the utmost extremity, rather than forsake the Romans. That which
troubled them most was, that they knew not where Lucullus was, and
heard nothing of him, though at that time his army was visible
before them. But they were imposed upon by the Mithridatians, who,
showing them the Romans encamped on the hills, said, "Do ye see
those? those are the auxiliary Armenians and Medes, whom Tigranes
has sent to Mithridates."  They were thus overwhelmed with thinking
of the vast numbers round them, and could not believe any way of
relief was left them, even if Lucullus should come up to their
assistance. Demonax, a messenger sent in by Archelaus, was the
first who told them of Lucullus's arrival; but they disbelieved his
report, and thought he came with a story invented merely to
encourage them. At which time it happened that a boy, a prisoner
who had run away from the enemy, was brought before them; who,
being asked where Lucullus was, laughed at their jesting, as he
thought, but, finding them in earnest, with his finger pointed to
the Roman camp; upon which they took courage. The lake Dascylitis
was navigated with vessels of some little size; one, the biggest of
them, Lucullus drew ashore, and carrying her across in a wagon to
the sea, filled her with soldiers, who, sailing along unseen in the
dead of the night, came safe into the city.

The gods themselves, too, in admiration of the constancy of the
Cyzicenians, seem to have animated them with manifest signs, more
especially now in the festival of Proserpine, where a black heifer
being wanting for sacrifice, they supplied it by a figure made of
dough, which they set before the altar. But the holy heifer set
apart for the goddess, and at that time grazing with the other
herds of the Cyzicenians on the other side of the strait, left the
herd and swam over to the city alone, and offered herself for
sacrifice. By night, also, the goddess appearing to Aristagoras,
the town clerk, "I am come," said she, "and have brought the Libyan
piper against the Pontic trumpeter; bid the citizens, therefore, be
of good courage."  While the Cyzicenians were wondering what the
words could mean, a sudden wind sprung up and caused a considerable
motion on the sea. The king's battering engines, the wonderful
contrivance of Niconides of Thessaly, then under the walls, by
their cracking and rattling, soon demonstrated what would follow;
after which an extraordinarily tempestuous south wind succeeding
shattered in a short space of time all the rest of the works, and
by a violent concussion, threw down the wooden tower a hundred
cubits high. It is said that in Ilium Minerva appeared to many
that night in their sleep, with the sweat running down her person,
and showed them her robe torn in one place, telling them that she
had just arrived from relieving the Cyzicenians; and the
inhabitants to this day show a monument with an inscription,
including a public decree, referring to the fact.

Mithridates, through the knavery of his officers, not knowing for
some time the want of provision in his camp, was troubled in mind
that the Cyzicenians should hold out against him. But his ambition
and anger fell, when he saw his soldiers in the extremity of want,
and feeding on man's flesh; as, in truth, Lucullus was not carrying
on the war as mere matter of show and stage-play, but according to
the proverb, made the seat of war in the belly, and did everything
to cut off their supplies of food. Mithridates, therefore, took
advantage of the time, while Lucullus was storming a fort, and sent
away almost all his horse to Bithynia, with the sumpter cattle, and
as many of the foot as were unfit for service. On intelligence of
which, Lucullus, while it was yet night, came to his camp, and in
the morning, though it was stormy weather, took with him ten
cohorts of foot, and the horse, and pursued them under falling snow
and in cold so severe that many of his soldiers were unable to
proceed; and with the rest coming upon the enemy, near the river
Rhyndacus, he overthrew them with so great a slaughter, that the
very women of Apollonia came out to seize on the booty and strip
the slain. Great numbers, as we may suppose, were slain; six
thousand horses were taken, with an infinite number of beasts of
burden, and no less than fifteen thousand men. All which he led
along by the enemy's camp. I cannot but wonder on this occasion at
Sallust, who says that this was the first time camels were seen by
the Romans, as if he thought those who, long before, under Scipio,
defeated Antiochus, or those who lately had fought against
Archelaus near Orchomenus and Chaeronea, had not known what a camel
was. Mithridates, himself fully determined upon flight, as mere
delays and diversions for Lucullus, sent his admiral Aristonicus to
the Greek sea; who, however, was betrayed in the very instant of
going off, and Lucullus became master of him, and ten thousand
pieces of gold which he was carrying with him to corrupt some of
the Roman army. After which, Mithridates himself made for the sea,
leaving the foot officers to conduct the army, upon whom Lucullus
fell, near the river Granicus, where he took a vast number alive,
and slew twenty thousand. It is reported that the total number
killed, of fighting men and of others who followed the camp,
amounted to something not far short of three hundred thousand.

Lucullus first went to Cyzicus, where he was received with all the
joy and gratitude suiting the occasion, and then collected a navy,
visiting the shores of the Hellespont. And arriving at Troas, he
lodged in the temple of Venus, where, in the night, he thought he
saw the goddess coming to him, and saying,

Sleep'st thou, great lion, when the fawns are nigh?

Rising up hereupon, he called his friends to him, it being yet
night, and told them his vision; at which instant some Ilians came
up and acquainted him that thirteen of the king's quinqueremes were
seen off the Achaean harbor, sailing for Lemnos. He at once put to
sea, took these, and slew their admiral Isidorus. And then he made
after another squadron, who were just come into port, and were
hauling their vessels ashore, but fought from the decks, and sorely
galled Lucullus's men; there being neither room to sail round
them, nor to bear upon them for any damage, his ships being afloat,
while theirs stood secure and fixed on the sand. After much ado,
at the only landing-place of the island, he disembarked the
choicest of his men, who, falling upon the enemy behind, killed
some, and forced others to cut their cables, and thus making from
the shore, they fell foul upon one another, or came within the
reach of Lucullus's fleet. Many were killed in the action. Among
the captives was Marius, the commander sent by Sertorius, who had
but one eye. And it was Lucullus's strict command to his men
before the engagement, that they should kill no man who had but one
eye, that he might rather die under disgrace and reproach.

This being over, he hastened his pursuit after Mithridates, whom he
hoped to find still in Bithynia, intercepted by Voconius, whom he
sent out before to Nicomedia with part of the fleet, to stop his
flight. But Voconius, loitering in Samothrace to get initiated and
celebrate a feast, let slip his opportunity, Mithridates being
passed by with all his fleet. He, hastening into Pontus before
Lucullus should come up to him, was caught in a storm, which
dispersed his fleet and sunk several ships. The wreck floated on
all the neighboring shore for many days after. The merchant ship,
in which he himself was, could not well in that heavy swell be
brought ashore by the masters for its bigness, and it being heavy
with water and ready to sink, he left it and went aboard a pirate
vessel, delivering himself into the hands of pirates, and thus
unexpectedly and wonderfully came safe to Heraclea, in Pontus.

Thus the proud language Lucullus had used to the senate, ended
without any mischance. For they having decreed him three thousand
talents to furnish out a navy, he himself was against it, and sent
them word that without any such great and costly supplies, by the
confederate shipping alone, he did not in the least doubt but to
rout Mithridates from the sea. And so he did, by divine
assistance, for it is said that the wrath of Diana of Priapus
brought the great tempest upon the men of Pontus, because they had
robbed her temple, and removed her image.

Many were persuading Lucullus to defer the war, but he rejected
their counsel, and marched through Bithynia and Galatia into the
king's country, in such great scarcity of provision at first, that
thirty thousand Galatians followed, every man carrying a bushel of
wheat at his back. But subduing all in his progress before him, he
at last found himself in such great plenty, that an ox was sold in
the camp for a single drachma, and a slave for four. The other
booty they made no account of, but left it behind or destroyed it;
there being no disposing of it, where all had such abundance. But
when they had made frequent incursions with their cavalry, and had
advanced as far Themiscyra, and the plains of the Thermodon, merely
laying waste the country before them, they began to find fault with
Lucullus, asking "why he took so many towns by surrender, and never
one by storm, which might enrich them with the plunder? and now,
forsooth, leaving Amisus behind, a rich and wealthy city, of easy
conquest, if closely besieged, he will carry us into the Tibarenian
and Chaldean wilderness, to fight with Mithridates."  Lucullus,
little thinking this would be of such dangerous consequence as it
afterwards proved, took no notice and slighted it; and was rather
anxious to excuse himself to those who blamed his tardiness, in
losing time about small pitiful places not worth the while, and
allowing Mithridates opportunity to recruit. "That is what I
design," said he, "and sit here contriving by my delay, that he may
grow great again, and gather a considerable army, which may induce
him to stand, and not fly away before us. For do you not see the
wide and unknown wilderness behind? Caucasus is not far off, and a
multitude of vast mountains, enough to conceal ten thousand kings
that wished to avoid a battle. Besides this, a journey but of few
days leads from Cabira to Armenia, where Tigranes reigns, king of
kings, and holds in his hands a power that has enabled him to keep
the Parthians in narrow bounds, to remove Greek cities bodily into
Media, to conquer Syria and Palestine, to put to death the kings of
the royal line of Seleucus, and carry away their wives and
daughters by violence. This same is relation and son-in-law to
Mithridates, and cannot but receive him upon entreaty, and enter
into war with us to defend him; so that, while we endeavor to
depose Mithridates, we shall endanger the bringing in of Tigranes
against us, who already has sought occasion to fall out with us,
but can never find one so justifiable as the succor of a friend and
prince in his necessity. Why, therefore, should we put Mithridates
upon this resource, who as yet does not see now he may best fight
with us, and disdains to stoop to Tigranes; and not rather allow
him time to gather a new army and grow confident again, that we may
thus fight with Colchians, and Tibarenians, whom we have often
defeated already, and not with Medes and Armenians."

Upon these motives, Lucullus sat down before Amisus, and slowly
carried on the siege. But the winter being well spent, he left
Murena in charge of it, and went himself against Mithridates, then
rendezvousing at Cabira, and resolving to await the Romans, with
forty thousand foot about him, and fourteen thousand horse, on whom
he chiefly confided. Passing the river Lycus, he challenged the
Romans into the plains, where the cavalry engaged, and the Romans
were beaten. Pomponius, a man of some note, was taken wounded; and
sore, and in pain as he was, was carried before Mithridates, and
asked by the king, if he would become his friend, if he saved his
life. He answered, "yes, if you become reconciled to the Romans;
if not, your enemy."  Mithridates wondered at him, and did him no
hurt. The enemy being with their cavalry master of the plains,
Lucullus was something afraid, and hesitated to enter the
mountains, being very large, woody, and almost inaccessible, when,
by good luck, some Greeks who had fled into a cave were taken, the
eldest of whom, Artemidorus by name, promised to bring Lucullus,
and seat him in a place of safety for his army, where there was a
fort that overlooked Cabira. Lucullus, believing him, lighted his
fires, and marched in the night; and safely passing the defile,
gained the place, and in the morning was seen above the enemy,
pitching his camp in a place advantageous to descend upon them if
he desired to fight, and secure from being forced, if he preferred
to lie still. Neither side was willing to engage at present. But
it is related that some of the king's party were hunting a stag,
and some Romans wanting to cut them off, came out and met them.
Whereupon they skirmished, more still drawing together to each
side, and at last the king's party prevailed, on which the Romans,
from their camp seeing their companions fly, were enraged, and ran
to Lucullus with entreaties to lead them out, demanding that the
sign might be given for battle. But he, that they might know of
what consequence the presence and appearance of a wise commander is
in time of conflict and danger, ordered them to stand still. But
he went down himself into the plains, and meeting with the foremost
that fled, commanded them to stand and turn back with him. These
obeying, the rest also turned and formed again in a body, and thus,
with no great difficulty, drove back the enemies, and pursued them
to their camp. After his return, Lucullus inflicted the customary
punishment upon the fugitives, and made them dig a trench of twelve
foot, working in their frocks unfastened, while the rest stood by
and looked on.

There was in Mithridates's camp, one Olthacus a chief of the
Dandarians, a barbarous people living near the lake Maeotis, a man
remarkable for strength and courage in fight, wise in council, and
pleasant and ingratiating in conversation. He, out of emulation,
and a constant eagerness which possessed him to outdo one of the
other chiefs of his country, promised a great piece of service to
Mithridates, no less than the death of Lucullus. The king
commended his resolution, and, according to agreement,
counterfeited anger, and put some disgrace upon him; whereupon he
took horse, and fled to Lucullus, who kindly received him, being a
man of great name in the army. After some short trial of his
sagacity and perseverance, he found way to Lucullus's board and
council. The Dandarian, thinking he had a fair opportunity,
commanded his servants to lead his horse out of the camp, while he
himself, as the soldiers were refreshing and resting themselves, it
being then high noon, went to the general's tent, not at all
expecting that entrance would be denied to one who was so familiar
with him, and came under pretence of extraordinary business with
him. He had certainly been admitted, had not sleep, which has
destroyed many captains, saved Lucullus. For so it was, and
Menedemus, one of the bedchamber, was standing at the door, who
told Olthacus that it was altogether unseasonable to see the
general, since, after long watching and hard labor, he was but just
before laid down to repose himself. Olthacus would not go away
upon this denial, but still persisted, saying that he must go in to
speak of some necessary affairs, whereupon Menedemus grew angry,
and replied that nothing was more necessary than the safety of
Lucullus, and forced him away with both hands. Upon which, out of
fear, he straightaway left the camp, took horse, and without effect
returned to Mithridates. Thus in action as in physic, it is the
critical moment that gives both the fortunate and the fatal effect.

After this, Sornatius being sent out with ten companies for forage,
and pursued by Menander, one of Mithridates's captains, stood his
ground, and after a sharp engagement, routed and slew a
considerable number of the enemy. Adrianus being sent afterward,
with some forces, to procure food enough and to spare for the camp,
Mithridates did not let the opportunity slip, but dispatched
Menemachus and Myro, with a great force, both horse and foot,
against him, all which except two men, it is stated, were cut off
by the Romans. Mithridates concealed the loss, giving it out that
it was a small defeat, nothing near so great as reported, and
occasioned by the unskillfulness of the leaders. But Adrianus in
great pomp passed by his camp, having many wagons full of corn and
other booty, filling Mithridates with distress, and the army with
confusion and consternation. It was resolved, therefore, to stay
no longer. But when the king's servants sent away their own goods
quietly, and hindered others from doing so too, the soldiers in
great fury thronged and crowded to the gates, seized on the king's
servants and killed them, and plundered the baggage. Dorylaus, the
general, in this confusion, having nothing else besides his purple
cloak, lost his life for that, and Hermaeus, the priest, was trod
underfoot in the gate.

Mithridates, having not one of his guards, nor even a groom
remaining with him, got out of the camp in the throng, but had none
of his horses with him; until Ptolemy, the eunuch, some little time
after, seeing him in the press making his way among the others,
dismounted and gave his horse to the king. The Romans were already
close upon him in their pursuit, nor was it through want of speed
that they failed to catch him, but they were as near as possible
doing so. But greediness and a petty military avarice hindered
them from acquiring that booty, which in so many fights and hazards
they had sought after, and lost Lucullus the prize of his victory.
For the horse which carried the king was within reach, but one of
the mules that carried the treasure either by accident stepping in,
or by order of the king so appointed to go between him and the
pursuers, they seized and pilfered the gold, and falling out among
themselves about the prey, let slip the great prize. Neither was
their greediness prejudicial to Lucullus in this only, but also
they slew Callistratus, the king's confidential attendant, under
suspicion of having five hundred pieces of gold in his girdle;
whereas Lucullus had specially ordered that he should be conveyed
safe into the camp. Notwithstanding all which, he gave them leave
to plunder the camp.

After this, in Cabira, and other strong-holds which he took, he
found great treasures, and private prisons, in which many Greeks
and many of the king's relations had been confined, who, having
long since counted themselves no other than dead men, by the favor
of Lucullus, met not with relief so truly as with a new life and
second birth. Nyssa, also, sister of Mithridates, enjoyed the like
fortunate captivity; while those who seemed to be most out of
danger, his wives and sisters at Phernacia, placed in safety, as
they thought, miserably perished, Mithridates in his flight sending
Bacchides the eunuch to them. Among others there were two sisters
of the king, Roxana and Statira, unmarried women forty years old,
and two Ionian wives, Berenice of Chios, and Monime of Miletus.
This latter was the most celebrated among the Greeks, because she
so long withstood the king in his courtship to her, though he
presented her with fifteen thousand pieces of gold, until a
covenant of marriage was made, and a crown was sent her, and she
was saluted queen. She had been a sorrowful woman before, and
often bewailed her beauty, that had procured her a keeper, instead
of a husband, and a watch of barbarians, instead of the home and
attendance of a wife; and, removed far from Greece, she enjoyed the
pleasure which she proposed to herself, only in a dream, being in
the meantime robbed of that which is real. And when Bacchides
came and bade them prepare for death, as everyone thought most
easy and painless, she took the diadem from her head, and fastening
the string to her neck, suspended herself with it; which soon
breaking, "O wretched headband!" said she, "not able to help me
even in this small thing!"  And throwing it away she spat on it,
and offered her throat to Bacchides. Berenice had prepared a
potion for herself, but at her mother's entreaty, who stood by, she
gave her part of it. Both drank of the potion, which prevailed
over the weaker body. But Berenice, having drunk too little, was
not released by it, but lingering on unable to die, was strangled
by Bacchides for haste. It is said that one of the unmarried
sisters drank the poison, with bitter execrations and curses; but
Statira uttered nothing ungentle or reproachful, but, on the
contrary, commended her brother, who in his own danger neglected
not theirs, but carefully provided that they might go out of the
world without shame or disgrace.

Lucullus, being a good and humane man, was concerned at these
things. However, going on he came to Talaura, from whence four
days before his arrival Mithridates had fled, and was got to
Tigranes in Armenia. He turned off, therefore, and subdued the
Chaldeans and Tibarenians, with the lesser Armenia, and having
reduced all their forts and cities, he sent Appius to Tigranes to
demand Mithridates. He himself went to Amisus, which still held
out under the command of Callimachus, who, by his great engineering
skill, and his dexterity at all the shifts and subtleties of a
siege, had greatly incommoded the Romans. For which afterward he
paid dear enough, and was now out-maneuvered by Lucullus, who,
unexpectedly coming upon him at the time of the day when the
soldiers used to withdraw and rest themselves, gained part of the
wall, and forced him to leave the city, in doing which he fired it;
either envying the Romans the booty, or to secure his own escape
the better. No man looked after those who went off in the ships,
but as soon as the fire had seized on most part of the wall, the
soldiers prepared themselves for plunder; while Lucullus, pitying
the ruin of the city, brought assistance from without, and
encouraged his men to extinguish the flames. But all, being intent
upon the prey, and giving no heed to him, with loud outcries beat
and clashed their arms together, until he was compelled to let them
plunder, that by that means he might at least save the city from
fire. But they did quite the contrary, for in searching the houses
with lights and torches everywhere, they were themselves the cause
of the destruction of most of the buildings, insomuch that when
Lucullus the next day went in, he shed tears, and said to his
friends, that he had often before blessed the fortune of Sylla but
never so much admired it as then, because when he was willing, he
was also able to save Athens, "but my infelicity is such, that
while I endeavor to imitate him, I become like Mummius."
Nevertheless, he endeavored to save as much of the city as he
could, and at the same time, also, by a happy providence, a fall of
rain concurred to extinguish the fire. He himself while present
repaired the ruins as much as he could, receiving back the
inhabitants who had fled, and settling as many other Greeks as were
willing to live there, adding a hundred and twenty furlongs of
ground to the place.

This city was a colony of Athens, built at that time when she
flourished and was powerful at sea, upon which account many who
fled from Aristion's tyranny settled here, and were admitted as
citizens, but had the ill-luck to fly from evils at home, into
greater abroad. As many of these as survived, Lucullus furnished
every one with clothes, and two hundred drachmas, and sent them
away into their own country. On this occasion, Tyrannion the
grammarian was taken. Murena begged him of Lucullus, and took him
and made him a freedman; but in this he abused Lucullus's favor,
who by no means liked that a man of high repute for learning should
be first made a slave, and then freed; for freedom thus speciously
granted again, was a real deprivation of what he had before. But
not in this case alone Murena showed himself far inferior in
generosity to the general. Lucullus was now busy in looking after
the cities of Asia, and having no war to divert his time, spent it
in the administration of law and justice, the want of which had for
a long time left the province a prey to unspeakable and incredible
miseries; so plundered and enslaved by tax-farmers and usurers,
that private people were compelled to sell their sons in the flower
of their youth, and their daughters in their virginity, and the
States publicly to sell their consecrated gifts, pictures, and
statues. In the end their lot was to yield themselves up slaves to
their creditors, but before this, worse troubles befell them,
tortures, inflicted with ropes and by horses, standing abroad to be
scorched when the sun was hot, and being driven into ice and clay
in the cold; insomuch that slavery was no less than a redemption
and joy to them. Lucullus in a short time freed the cities from
all these evils and oppressions; for, first of all, he ordered
there should be no more taken than one percent. Secondly, where
the interest exceeded the principal, he struck it off. The third,
and most considerable order was, that the creditor should receive
the fourth part of the debtor's income; but if any lender had added
the interest to the principal, it was utterly disallowed.
Insomuch, that in the space of four years all debts were paid, and
lands returned to their right owners. The public debt was
contracted when Asia was fined twenty thousand talents by Sylla,
but twice as much was paid to the collectors, who by their usury
had by this time advanced it to a hundred and twenty thousand
talents. And accordingly they inveighed against Lucullus at Rome,
as grossly injured by him, and by their money's help, (as, indeed,
they were very powerful, and had many of the statesmen in their
debt,) they stirred up several leading men against
him. But Lucullus was not only beloved by the cities which he
obliged, but was also wished for by other provinces, who blessed
the good-luck of those who had such a governor over them.

Appius Clodius, who was sent to Tigranes, (the same Clodius was
brother to Lucullus's wife,) being led by the king's guides, a
roundabout way, unnecessarily long and tedious, through the upper
country, being informed by his freedman, a Syrian by nation, of the
direct road, left that lengthy and fallacious one; and bidding the
barbarians, his guides, adieu, in a few days passed over Euphrates,
and came to Antioch upon Daphne. There being commanded to wait for
Tigranes, who at that time was reducing some towns in Phoenicia, he
won over many chiefs to his side, who unwillingly submitted to the
king of Armenia, among whom was Zarbienus, king of the Gordyenians;
also many of the conquered cities corresponded privately with him,
whom he assured of relief from Lucullus, but ordered them to lie
still at present. The Armenian government was an oppressive one,
and intolerable to the Greeks, especially that of the present king,
who, growing insolent and overbearing with his success, imagined
all things valuable and esteemed among men not only were his in
fact, but had been purposely created for him alone. From a small
and inconsiderable beginning, he had gone on to be the conqueror of
many nations, had humbled the Parthian power more than any before
him, and filled Mesopotamia with Greeks, whom he carried in numbers
out of Cilicia and Cappadocia. He transplanted also the Arabs, who
lived in tents, from their country and home, and settled them near
him, that by their means he might carry on the trade.

He had many kings waiting on him, but four he always carried with
him as servants and guards, who, when he rode, ran by his horse's
side in ordinary under-frocks, and attended him, when sitting on
his throne, and publishing his decrees to the people, with their
hands folded together; which posture of all others was that which
most expressed slavery, it being that of men who had bidden adieu
to liberty, and had prepared their bodies more for chastisement,
than the service of their masters. Appius, nothing dismayed or
surprised at this theatrical display, as soon as audience was
granted him, said he came to demand Mithridates for Lucullus's
triumph, otherwise to denounce war against Tigranes, insomuch that
though Tigranes endeavored to receive him with a smooth countenance
and a forced smile, he could not dissemble his discomposure to
those who stood about him, at the bold language of the young man;
for it was the first time, perhaps, in twenty-five years, the
length of his reign, or, more truly, of his tyranny, that any free
speech had been uttered to him. However, he made answer to Appius,
that he would not desert Mithridates, and would defend himself, if
the Romans attacked him. He was angry, also, with Lucullus for
calling him only king in his letter, and not king of kings, and, in
his answer, would not give him his title of imperator. Great gifts
were sent to Appius, which he refused; but on their being sent
again and augmented, that he might not seem to refuse in anger, he
took one goblet and sent the rest back, and without delay went off
to the general.

Tigranes before this neither vouchsafed to see nor speak with
Mithridates, though a near kinsman, and forced out of so
considerable a kingdom, but proudly and scornfully kept him at a
distance, as a sort of prisoner, in a marshy and unhealthy
district; but now, with much profession of respect and kindness, he
sent for him, and at a private conference between them in the
palace, they healed up all private jealousies between them,
punishing their favorites, who bore all the blame; among whom
Metrodorus of Scepsis was one, an eloquent and learned man, and so
close an intimate as commonly to be called the king's father. This
man, as it happened, being employed in an embassy by Mithridates to
solicit help against the Romans, Tigranes asked him, "what would
you, Metrodorus, advise me to in this affair?"  In return to which,
either out of good-will to Tigranes, or a want of solicitude for
Mithridates, he made answer, that as ambassador he counseled him to
it, but as a friend dissuaded him from it. This Tigranes reported,
and affirmed to Mithridates, thinking that no irreparable harm
would come of it to Metrodorus. But upon this he was presently
taken off, and Tigranes was sorry for what he had done, though he
had not, indeed, been absolutely the cause of his death; yet he had
given the fatal turn to the anger of Mithridates, who had privately
hated him before, as appeared from his cabinet papers when taken,
among which there was an order that Metrodorus should die.
Tigranes buried him splendidly, sparing no cost to his dead body,
whom he betrayed when alive. In Tigranes's court died, also,
Amphicrates the orator, (if, for the sake of Athens, we may also
mention him,) of whom it is told that he left his country and fled
to Seleucia, upon the river Tigris, and, being desired to teach
logic among them, arrogantly replied, that the dish was too little
to hold a dolphin. He, therefore, came to Cleopatra, daughter of
Mithridates, and queen to Tigranes, but being accused of
misdemeanors, and prohibited all commerce with his countrymen,
ended his days by starving himself. He, in like manner, received
from Cleopatra an honorable burial, near Sapha, a place so called
in that country.

Lucullus, when he had reestablished law and a lasting peace in
Asia, did not altogether forget pleasure and mirth, but, during his
residence at Ephesus, gratified the cities with sports, festival
triumphs, wrestling games and single combats of gladiators. And
they, in requital, instituted others, called Lucullean games, in
honor to him, thus manifesting their love to him, which was of more
value to him than all the honor. But when Appius came to him, and
told him he must prepare for war with Tigranes, he went again into
Pontus, and, gathering together his army, besieged Sinope, or
rather the Cilicians of the king's side who held it; who thereupon
killed a number of the Sinopians, and set the city on fire, and by
night endeavored to escape. Which when Lucullus perceived, he
entered the city, and killed eight thousand of them who were still
left behind; but restored to the inhabitants what was their own,
and took special care for the welfare of the city. To which he was
chiefly prompted by this vision. One seemed to come to him in his
sleep, and say, "Go on a little further, Lucullus, for Autolycus is
coming to see thee."  When he arose, he could not imagine what the
vision meant. The same day he took the city, and as he was
pursuing the Cilicians, who were flying by sea, he saw a statue
lying on the shore, which the Cilicians carried so far, but had not
time to carry aboard. It was one of the masterpieces of Sthenis.
And one told him, that it was the statue of Autolycus, the founder
of the city. This Autolycus is reported to have been son to
Deimachus, and one of those who, under Hercules, went on the
expedition out of Thessaly against the Amazons; from whence in his
return with Demoleon and Phlogius, he lost his vessel on a point of
the Chersonesus, called Pedalium. He himself, with his companions
and their weapons, being saved, came to Sinope, and dispossessed
the Syrians there. The Syrians held it, descended from Syrus, as
is the story, the son of Apollo, and Sinope the daughter of Asopus.
Which as soon as Lucullus heard, he remembered the admonition of
Sylla, whose advice it is in his Memoirs, to treat nothing as so
certain and so worthy of reliance as an intimation given in dreams.

When it was now told him that Mithridates and Tigranes were just
ready to transport their forces into Lycaonia and Cilicia, with the
object of entering Asia before him, he wondered much why the
Armenian, supposing him to entertain any real intention to fight
with the Romans, did not assist Mithridates in his flourishing
condition, and join forces when he was fit for service, instead of
suffering him to be vanquished and broken in pieces, and now at
last beginning the war, when his hopes were grown cold, and
throwing himself down headlong with them, who were irrecoverably
fallen already. But when Machares, the son of Mithridates, and
governor of Bosporus, sent him a crown valued at a thousand pieces
of gold, and desired to be enrolled as a friend and confederate of
the Romans, he fairly reputed that war at an end, and left
Sornatius, his deputy, with six thousand soldiers, to take care of
Pontus. He himself with twelve thousand foot, and a little less
than three thousand horse, went forth to the second war, advancing,
it seemed very plain, with too great and ill-advised speed, into
the midst of warlike nations, and many thousands upon thousands of
horse, into an unknown extent of country, every way enclosed with
deep rivers and mountains, never free from snow; which made the
soldiers, already far from orderly, follow him with great
unwillingness and opposition. For the same reason, also, the
popular leaders at home publicly inveighed and declaimed against
him, as one that raised up war after war, not so much for the
interest of the republic, as that he himself, being still in
commission, might not lay down arms, but go on enriching himself by
the public dangers. These men, in the end, effected their purpose.
But Lucullus by long journeys came to the Euphrates, where, finding
the waters high and rough from the winter, he was much troubled for
fear of delay and difficulty while he should procure boats and make
a bridge of them. But in the evening the flood beginning to
retire, and decreasing all through the night, the next day they saw
the river far down within his banks, so much so that the
inhabitants, discovering the little islands in the river, and the
water stagnating among them, a thing which had rarely happened
before, made obeisance to Lucullus, before whom the very river was
humble and submissive, and yielded an easy and swift passage.
Making use of the opportunity, he carried over his army, and met
with a lucky sign at landing. Holy heifers are pastured on purpose
for Diana Persia, whom, of all the gods, the barbarians beyond
Euphrates chiefly adore. They use these heifers only for her
sacrifices. At other times they wander up and down undisturbed,
with the mark of the goddess, a torch, branded on them; and it is
no such light or easy thing, when occasion requires, to seize one
of them. But one of these, when the army had passed the Euphrates,
coming to a rock consecrated to the goddess, stood upon it, and
then laying down her neck, like others that are forced down with a
rope, offered herself to Lucullus for sacrifice. Besides which, he
offered also a bull to Euphrates, for his safe passage. That day
he tarried there, but on the next, and those that followed, he
traveled through Sophene, using no manner of violence to the people
who came to him and willingly received his army. And when the
soldiers were desirous to plunder a castle that seemed to be well
stored within, "That is the castle," said he, "that we must storm,"
showing them Taurus, at a distance; "the rest is reserved for those
who conquer there."  Wherefore hastening his march, and passing the
Tigris, he came over into Armenia

The first messenger that gave notice of Lucullus's coming was so
far from pleasing Tigranes, that he had his head cut off for his
pains; and no man daring to bring further information, without any
intelligence at all, Tigranes sat while war was already blazing
around him, giving ear only to those who flattered him, by saying
that Lucullus would show himself a great commander, if he ventured
to wait for Tigranes at Ephesus, and did not at once fly out of
Asia, at the mere sight of the many thousands that were come
against him. He is a man of a strong body that can carry off a
great quantity of wine, and of a powerful constitution of mind that
can sustain felicity. Mithrobarzanes, one of his chief favorites,
first dared to tell him the truth, but had no more thanks for his
freedom of speech, than to be immediately sent out against Lucullus
with three thousand horse, and a great number of foot, with
peremptory commands to bring him alive, and trample down his army.
Some of Lucullus's men were then pitching their camp, and the rest
were coming up to them, when the scouts gave notice that the enemy
was approaching, whereupon he was in fear lest they should fall
upon him, while his men were divided and unarranged; which made him
stay to pitch the camp himself, and send out Sextilius, the legate,
with sixteen hundred horse, and about as many heavy and light arms,
with orders to advance towards the enemy, and wait until
intelligence came to him that the camp was finished. Sextilius
designed to have kept this order; but Mithrobarzanes coming
furiously upon him, he was forced to fight. In the engagement,
Mithrobarzanes himself was slain, fighting, and all his men, except
a few who ran away, were destroyed. After this Tigranes left
Tigranocerta, a great city built by himself, and retired to Taurus,
and called all his forces about him.

But Lucullus, giving him no time to rendezvous, sent out Murena to
harass and cut off those who marched to Tigranes, and Sextilius,
also, to disperse a great company of Arabians then on the way to
the king. Sextilius fell upon the Arabians in their camp, and
destroyed most of them, and also Murena, in his pursuit after
Tigranes through a craggy and narrow pass, opportunely fell upon
him. Upon which Tigranes, abandoning all his baggage, fled; many
of the Armenians were killed, and more taken. After this success,
Lucullus went to Tigranocerta, and sitting down before the city,
besieged it. In it were many Greeks carried away out of Cilicia,
and many barbarians in like circumstances with the Greeks,
Adiabenians, Assyrians, Gordyenians, and Cappadocians, whose native
cities he had destroyed, and forced away the inhabitants to settle
here. It was a rich and beautiful city; every common man, and
every man of rank, in imitation of the king, studied to enlarge and
adorn it. This made Lucullus more vigorously press the siege, in
the belief that Tigranes would not patiently endure it, but even
against his own judgment would come down in anger to force him
away; in which he was not mistaken. Mithridates earnestly
dissuaded him from it, sending messengers and letters to him not to
engage, but rather with his horse to try and cut off the supplies.
Taxiles, also, who came from Mithridates, and who stayed with his
army, very much entreated the king to forbear, and to avoid the
Roman arms, things it was not safe to meddle with. To this he
hearkened at first, but when the Armenians and Gordyenians in a
full body, and the whole forces of Medes and Adiabenians, under
their respective kings, joined him; when many Arabians came up from
the sea beyond Babylon; and from the Caspian sea, the Albanians and
the Iberians their neighbors, and not a few of the free people,
without kings, living about the Araxes, by entreaty and hire also
came together to him; and all the king's feasts and councils rang
of nothing but expectations, boastings, and barbaric threatenings,
Taxiles went in danger of his life, for giving counsel against
fighting, and it was imputed to envy in Mithridates thus to
discourage him from so glorious an enterprise. Therefore Tigranes
would by no means tarry for him, for fear he should share in the
glory, but marched on with all his army, lamenting to his friends,
as it is said, that he should fight with Lucullus alone, and not
with all the Roman generals together. Neither was his boldness to
be accounted wholly frantic or unreasonable, when he had so many
nations and kings attending him, and so many tens of thousands of
well-armed foot and horse about him. He had twenty thousand
archers and slingers, fifty-five thousand horse, of which seventeen
thousand were in complete armor, as Lucullus wrote to the senate, a
hundred and fifty thousand heavy-armed men, drawn up partly into
cohorts, partly into phalanxes, besides various divisions of men
appointed to make roads and lay bridges, to drain off waters and
cut wood, and to perform other necessary services, to the number of
thirty-five thousand, who, being quartered behind the army, added
to its strength, and made it the more formidable to behold.

As soon as he had passed Taurus, and appeared with his forces, and
saw the Romans beleaguering Tigranocerta, the barbarous people
within with shoutings and acclamations received the sight, and
threatening the Romans from the wall, pointed to the Armenians. In
a council of war, some advised Lucullus to leave the siege, and
march up to Tigranes, others that it would not be safe to leave the
siege, and so many enemies behind. He answered that neither side
by itself was right, but together both gave sound advice; and
accordingly he divided his army, and left Murena with six thousand
foot in charge of the siege, and himself went out with twenty-four
cohorts, in which were no more than ten thousand men at arms, and
with all the horse, and about a thousand slingers and archers; and
sitting down by the river in a large plain, he appeared, indeed,
very inconsiderable to Tigranes, and a fit subject for the
flattering wits about him. Some of whom jeered, others cast lots
for the spoil, and every one of the kings and commanders came and
desired to undertake the engagement alone, and that he would be
pleased to sit still and behold. Tigranes himself, wishing to be
witty and pleasant upon the occasion, made use of the well-known
saying, that they were too many for ambassadors, and too few for
soldiers. Thus they continued sneering and scoffing. As soon as
day came, Lucullus brought out his forces under arms. The
barbarian army stood on the eastern side of the river, and there
being a bend of the river westward in that part of it, where it was
easiest forded, Lucullus, while he led his army on in haste, seemed
to Tigranes to be flying; who thereupon called Taxiles, and in
derision said, "Do you not see these invincible Romans flying?"
But Taxiles replied, "Would, indeed, O king, that some such
unlikely piece of fortune might be destined you; but the Romans do
not, when going on a march, put on their best clothes, nor use
bright shields, and naked headpieces, as now you see them, with the
leathern coverings all taken off, but this is a preparation for war
of men just ready to engage with their enemies."  While Taxiles was
thus speaking, as Lucullus wheeled about, the first eagle appeared,
and the cohorts, according to their divisions and companies, formed
in order to pass over, when with much ado, and like a man that is
just recovering from a drunken fit, Tigranes cried out twice or
thrice, "What, are they upon us?"  In great confusion, therefore,
the army got in array, the king keeping the main body to himself,
while the left wing was given in charge to the Adiabenian, and the
right to the Mede, in the front of which latter were posted most of
the heavy-armed cavalry. Some officers advised Lucullus, just as
he was going to cross the river, to lie still, that day being one
of the unfortunate ones which they call black days, for on it the
army under Caepio, engaging with the Cimbrians, was destroyed. But
he returned the famous answer, "I will make it a happy day to the
Romans."  It was the day before the nones of October.

Having so said, he bade them take courage, passed over the river,
and himself first of all led them against the enemy, clad in a coat
of mail, with shining steel scales and a fringed mantle; and his
sword might already be seen out of the scabbard, as if to signify
that they must without delay come to a hand-to-hand combat with an
enemy whose skill was in distant fighting, and by the speed of
their advance curtail the space that exposed them to the archery.
But when he saw the heavy-armed horse, the flower of the army,
drawn up under a hill, on the top of which was a broad and open
plain about four furlongs distant, and of no very difficult or
troublesome access, he commanded his Thracian and Galatian horse to
fall upon their flank, and beat down their lances with their
swords. The only defense of these horsemen-at-arms are their
lances; they have nothing else that they can use to protect
themselves, or annoy their enemy, on account of the weight and
stiffness of their armor, with which they are, as it were, built
up. He himself, with two cohorts, made to the mountain, the
soldiers briskly following, when they saw him in arms afoot first
toiling and climbing up. Being on the top and standing in an open
place, with a loud voice he cried out, "We have overcome, we have
overcome, fellow-soldiers!"  And having so said, he marched against
the armed horsemen, commanding his men not to throw their javelins,
but coming up hand to hand with the enemy, to hack their shins and
thighs, which parts alone were unguarded in these heavy-armed
horsemen. But there was no need of this way of fighting, for they
stood not to receive the Romans, but with great clamor and worse
flight they and their heavy horses threw themselves upon the ranks
of the foot, before ever these could so much as begin the fight,
insomuch that without a wound or bloodshed, so many thousands were
overthrown. The greatest slaughter was made in the flight, or
rather in the endeavoring to fly away, which they could not well do
by reason of the depth and closeness of their own ranks, which
hindered them. Tigranes at first fled with a few, but seeing his
son in the same misfortune, he took the diadem from his head, and
with tears gave it him, bidding him save himself by some other road
if he could. But the young man, not daring to put it on, gave it
to one of his trustiest servants to keep for him. This man, as it
happened, being taken, was brought to Lucullus, and so, among the
captives, the crown, also, of Tigranes was taken. It is stated
that above a hundred thousand foot were lost, and that of the horse
but very few escaped at all. Of the Romans, a hundred were
wounded, and five killed. Antiochus the philosopher, making
mention of this fight in his book about the gods, says that the sun
never saw the like. Strabo, a second philosopher, in his
historical collection says, that the Romans could not but blush and
deride themselves, for putting on armor against such pitiful
slaves. Livy also says, that the Romans never fought an enemy with
such unequal forces, for the conquerors were not so much as one
twentieth part of the number of the conquered. The most sagacious
and experienced Roman commanders made it a chief commendation of
Lucullus, that he had conquered two great and potent kings by two
most opposite ways, haste and delay. For he wore out the
flourishing power of Mithridates by delay and time, and crushed
that of Tigranes by haste; being one of the rare examples of
generals who made use of delay for active achievement, and speed
for security.

On this account it was that Mithridates had made no haste to come
up to fight, imagining Lucullus would, as he had done before, use
caution and delay, which made him march at his leisure to join
Tigranes. And first, as he began to meet some straggling Armenians
in the way, making off in great fear and consternation, he
suspected the worst, and when greater numbers of stripped and
wounded men met him and assured him of the defeat, he set out to
seek for Tigranes. And finding him destitute and humiliated, he by
no means requited him with insolence, but alighting from his horse,
and condoling with him on their common loss, he gave him his own
royal guard to attend him, and animated him for the future. And
they together gathered fresh forces about them. In the city
Tigranocerta, the Greeks meantime, dividing from the barbarians,
sought to deliver it up to Lucullus, and he attacked and took it.
He seized on the treasure himself, but gave the city to be
plundered by the soldiers, in which were found, amongst other
property, eight thousand talents of coined money. Besides this,
also, he distributed eight hundred drachmas to each man, out of the
spoils. When he understood that many players were taken in the
city, whom Tigranes had invited from all parts for opening the
theater which he had built, he made use of them for celebrating his
triumphal games and spectacles. The Greeks he sent home, allowing
them money for their journey, and the barbarians also, as many as
had been forced away from their own dwellings. So that by this one
city being dissolved, many, by the restitution of their former
inhabitants, were restored. By all of which Lucullus was beloved
as a benefactor and founder. Other successes, also, attended him,
such as he well deserved, desirous as he was far more of praise for
acts of justice and clemency, than for feats in war, these being
due partly to the soldiers, and very greatly to fortune, while
those are the sure proofs of a gentle and liberal soul; and by such
aids Lucullus, at that time, even without the help of arms,
succeeded in reducing the barbarians. For the kings of the
Arabians came to him, tendering what they had, and with them the
Sophenians also submitted. And he so dealt with the Gordyenians,
that they were willing to leave their own habitations, and to
follow him with their wives and children. Which was for this
cause. Zarbienus, king of the Gordyenians, as has been told, being
impatient under the tyranny of Tigranes, had by Appius secretly
made overtures of confederacy with Lucullus, but, being discovered,
was executed, and his wife and children with him, before the Romans
entered Armenia. Lucullus forgot not this, but coming to the
Gordyenians made a solemn interment in honor of Zarbienus, and
adorning the funeral pile with royal robes, and gold, and the
spoils of Tigranes, he himself in person kindled the fire, and
poured in perfumes with the friends and relations of the deceased,
calling him his companion and the confederate of the Romans. He
ordered, also, a costly monument to be built for him. There was a
large treasure of gold and silver found in Zarbienus's palace, and
no less than three million measures of corn, so that the soldiers
were provided for, and Lucullus had the high commendation of
maintaining the war at its own charge, without receiving one
drachma from the public treasury.

After this came an embassy from the king of Parthia to him,
desiring amity and confederacy; which being readily embraced by
Lucullus, another was sent by him in return to the Parthian, the
members of which discovered him to be a double-minded man, and to
be dealing privately at the same time with Tigranes, offering to
take part with him, upon condition Mesopotamia were delivered up to
him. Which as soon as Lucullus understood, he resolved to pass by
Tigranes and Mithridates as antagonists already overcome, and to
try the power of Parthia, by leading his army against them,
thinking it would be a glorious result, thus in one current of war,
like an athlete in the games, to throw down three kings one after
another, and successively to deal as a conqueror with three of the
greatest powers under heaven. He sent, therefore, into Pontus to
Sornatius and his colleagues, bidding them bring the army thence,
and join with him in his expedition out of Gordyene. The soldiers
there, however, who had been restive and unruly before, now openly
displayed their mutinous temper. No manner of entreaty or force
availed with them, but they protested and cried out that they would
stay no longer even there, but would go away and desert Pontus.
The news of which, when reported to Lucullus, did no small harm to
the soldiers about him, who were already corrupted with wealth and
plenty, and desirous of ease. And on hearing the boldness of the
others, they called them men, and declared they themselves ought to
follow their example, for the actions which they had done did now
well deserve release from service, and repose.

Upon these and worse words, Lucullus gave up the thoughts of
invading Parthia, and in the height of summertime, went against
Tigranes. Passing over Taurus, he was filled with apprehension at
the greenness of the fields before him, so long is the season
deferred in this region by the coldness of the air. But,
nevertheless, he went down, and twice or thrice putting to flight
the Armenians who dared to come out against him, he plundered and
burnt their villages, and seizing on the provision designed for
Tigranes, reduced his enemies to the necessity which he had feared
for himself. But when, after doing all he could to provoke the
enemy to fight, by drawing entrenchments round their camp and by
burning the country before them, he could by no means bring them to
venture out, after their frequent defeats before, he rose up and
marched to Artaxata, the royal city of Tigranes, where his wives
and young children were kept, judging that Tigranes would never
suffer that to go without the hazard of a battle. It is related
that Hannibal, the Carthaginian, after the defeat of Antiochus by
the Romans, coming to Artaxas, king of Armenia, pointed out to him
many other matters to his advantage, and observing the great
natural capacities and the pleasantness of the site, then lying
unoccupied and neglected, drew a model of a city for it, and
bringing Artaxas thither, showed it to him and encouraged him to
build. At which the king being pleased, and desiring him to
oversee the work, erected a large and stately city, which was
called after his own name, and made metropolis of Armenia.

And in fact, when Lucullus proceeded against it, Tigranes no longer
suffered it, but came with his army, and on the fourth day sat down
by the Romans, the river Arsanias lying between them, which of
necessity Lucullus must pass in his march to Artaxata. Lucullus,
after sacrifice to the gods, as if victory were already obtained,
carried over his army, having twelve cohorts in the first division
in front, the rest being disposed in the rear to prevent the
enemy's enclosing them. For there were many choice horse drawn up
against him; in the front stood the Mardian horse-archers, and
Iberians with long spears, in whom, being the most warlike,
Tigranes more confided than in any other of his foreign troops.
But nothing of moment was done by them, for though they skirmished
with the Roman horse at a distance, they were not able to stand
when the foot came up to them; but being broken, and flying on both
sides, drew the horse in pursuit after them. Though these were
routed, yet Lucullus was not without alarm when he saw the cavalry
about Tigranes with great bravery and in large numbers coming upon
him; he recalled his horse from pursuing, and he himself, first of
all, with the best of his men, engaged the Satrapenians who were
opposite him, and before ever they came to close fight, routed them
with the mere terror. Of three kings in battle against him,
Mithridates of Pontus fled away the most shamefully, being not so
much as able to endure the shout of the Romans. The pursuit
reached a long way, and all through the night the Romans slew and
took prisoners, and carried off spoils and treasure, till they were
weary. Livy says there were more taken and destroyed in the first
battle, but in the second, men of greater distinction.

Lucullus, flushed and animated by this victory, determined to march
on into the interior and there complete his conquests over the
barbarians; but winter weather came on, contrary to expectation, as
early as the autumnal equinox, with storms and frequent snows and,
even in the most clear days, hoar frost and ice, which made the
waters scarcely drinkable for the horses by their exceeding
coldness, and scarcely passable through the ice breaking and
cutting the horses' sinews. The country for the most part being
quite uncleared, with difficult passes, and much wood, kept them
continually wet, the snow falling thickly on them as they marched
in the day, and the ground that they lay upon at night being damp
and watery. After the battle they followed Lucullus not many days
before they began to be refractory, first of all entreating and
sending the tribunes to him, but presently they tumultuously
gathered together, and made a shouting all night long in their
tents, a plain sign of a mutinous army. But Lucullus as earnestly
entreated them, desiring them to have patience but till they took
the Armenian Carthage, and overturned the work of their great
enemy, meaning Hannibal. But when he could not prevail, he led
them back, and crossing Taurus by another road, came into the
fruitful and sunny country of Mygdonia, where was a great and
populous city, by the barbarians called Nisibis, by the Greeks
Antioch of Mygdonia. This was defended by Guras, brother of
Tigranes, with the dignity of governor, and by the engineering
skill and dexterity of Callimachus, the same who so much annoyed
the Romans at Amisus. Lucullus, however, brought his army up to
it, and laying close siege in a short time took it by storm. He
used Guras, who surrendered himself, kindly, but gave no attention
to Callimachus, though he offered to make discovery of hidden
treasures, commanding him to be kept in chains, to be punished for
firing the city of Amisus, which had disappointed his ambition of
showing favor and kindness to the Greeks.

Hitherto, one would imagine fortune had attended and fought with
Lucullus, but afterward, as if the wind had failed of a sudden, he
did all things by force, and, as it were, against the grain; and
showed certainly the conduct and patience of a wise captain, but in
the result met with no fresh honor or reputation; and, indeed, by
bad success and vain embarrassments with his soldiers, he came
within a little of losing even what he had before. He himself was
not the least cause of all this, being far from inclined to seek
popularity with the mass of the soldiers, and more ready to think
any indulgence shown to them an invasion of his own authority. But
what was worst of all, he was naturally unsociable to his great
officers in commission with him, despising others and thinking them
worthy of nothing in comparison with himself. These faults, we are
told, he had with all his many excellences; he was of a large and
noble person, an eloquent speaker and a wise counselor, both in the
forum and the camp. Sallust says, the soldiers were ill affected
to him from the beginning of the war, because they were forced to
keep the field two winters at Cyzicus, and afterwards at Amisus.
Their other winters, also, vexed them, for they either spent them
in an enemy's country, or else were confined to their tents in the
open field among their confederates; for Lucullus not so much as
once went into a Greek confederate town with his army. To this ill
affection abroad, the tribunes yet more contributed at home,
invidiously accusing Lucullus, as one who for empire and riches
prolonged the war, holding, it might almost be said, under his sole
power Cilicia, Asia, Bithynia, Paphlagonia, Pontus, Armenia, all as
far as the river Phasis; and now of late had plundered the royal
city of Tigranes, as if he had been commissioned not so much to
subdue, as to strip kings. This is what we are told was said by
Lucius Quintius, one of the praetors, at whose instance, in
particular, the people determined to send one who should succeed
Lucullus in his province, and voted, also, to relieve many of the
soldiers under him from further service.

Besides these evils, that which most of all prejudiced Lucullus,
was Publius Clodius, an insolent man, very vicious and bold,
brother to Lucullus's wife, a woman of bad conduct, with whom
Clodius was himself suspected of criminal intercourse. Being then
in the army under Lucullus, but not in as great authority as he
expected, (for he would fain have been the chief of all, but on
account of his character was postponed to many,) he ingratiated
himself secretly with the Fimbrian troops, and stirred them up
against Lucullus, using fair speeches to them, who of old had been
used to be flattered in such manner. These were those whom Fimbria
before had persuaded to kill the consul Flaccus, and choose him
their leader. And so they listened not unwillingly to Clodius, and
called him the soldiers' friend, for the concern he professed for
them, and the indignation he expressed at the prospect that "there
must be no end of war and toils, but in fighting with all nations,
and wandering throughout all the world they must wear out their
lives, receiving no other reward for their service than to guard
the carriages and camels of Lucullus, laden with gold and precious
goblets; while as for Pompey's soldiers, they were all citizens,
living safe at home with their wives and children, on fertile
lands, or in towns, and that, not after driving Mithridates and
Tigranes into wild deserts, and overturning the royal cities of
Asia, but after having merely reduced exiles in Spain, or fugitive
slaves in Italy. Nay, if indeed we must never have an end of
fighting, should we not rather reserve the remainder of our bodies
and souls for a general who will reckon his chiefest glory to be
the wealth of his soldiers."

By such practices the army of Lucullus being corrupted, neither
followed him against Tigranes, nor against Mithridates, when he now
at once returned into Pontus out of Armenia, and was recovering his
kingdom, but under presence of the winter, sat idle in Gordyene,
every minute expecting either Pompey, or some other general, to
succeed Lucullus. But when news came that Mithridates had defeated
Fabius, and was marching against Sornatius and Triarius, out of
shame they followed Lucullus. Triarius, ambitiously aiming at
victory, before ever Lucullus came to him, though he was then very
near, was defeated in a great battle, in which it is said that
above seven thousand Romans fell, among whom were a hundred and
fifty centurions, and four and twenty tribunes, and that the camp
itself was taken. Lucullus, coming up a few days after, concealed
Triarius from the search of the angry soldiers. But when
Mithridates declined battle, and waited for the coming of Tigranes,
who was then on his march with great forces, he resolved before
they joined their forces to turn once more and engage with
Tigranes. But in the way the mutinous Fimbrians deserted their
ranks, professing themselves released from service by a decree, and
that Lucullus, the provinces being allotted to others, had no
longer any right to command them. There was nothing beneath the
dignity of Lucullus which he did not now submit to bear, entreating
them one by one, from tent to tent, going up and down humbly and in
tears, and even taking some like a suppliant, by the hand. But
they turned away from his salutes, and threw down their empty
purses, bidding him engage alone with the enemy, as he alone made
advantage of it. At length, by the entreaty of the other soldiers,
the Fimbrians, being prevailed upon, consented to tarry that summer
under him, but if during that time no enemy came to fight them, to
be free. Lucullus of necessity was forced to comply with this, or
else to abandon the country to the barbarians. He kept them,
indeed, with him, but without urging his authority upon them; nor
did he lead them out to battle, being contented if they would but
stay with him, though he then saw Cappadocia wasted by Tigranes,
and Mithridates again triumphing, whom not long before he reported
to the senate to be wholly subdued; and commissioners were now
arrived to settle the affairs of Pontus, as if all had been quietly
in his possession. But when they came, they found him not so much
as master of himself, but contemned and derided by the common
soldiers, who arrived at that height of insolence against their
general, that at the end of summer they put on their armor and drew
their swords, and defied their enemies then absent and gone off a
long while before, and with great outcries and waving their swords
in the air, they quitted the camp, proclaiming that the time was
expired which they promised to stay with Lucullus. The rest were
summoned by letters from Pompey to come and join him; he, by the
favor of the people and by flattery of their leaders, having been
chosen general of the army against Mithridates and Tigranes, though
the senate and the nobility all thought that Lucullus was injured,
having those put over his head who succeeded rather to his triumph,
than to his commission, and that he was not so truly deprived of
his command, as of the glory he had deserved in his command, which
he was forced to yield to another.

It was yet more of just matter of pity and indignation to those who
were present; for Lucullus remained no longer master of rewards or
punishments for any actions done in the war; neither would Pompey
suffer any man to go to him, or pay any respect to the orders and
arrangements he made with advice of his ten commissioners, but
expressly issued edicts to the contrary, and could not but be
obeyed by reason of his greater power. Friends, however, on both
sides, thought it desirable to bring them together, and they met in
a village of Galatia and saluted each other in a friendly manner,
with congratulations on each other's successes. Lucullus was the
elder, but Pompey the more distinguished by his more numerous
commands and his two triumphs. Both had rods dressed with laurel
carried before them for their victories. And as Pompey's laurels
were withered with passing through hot and droughty countries,
Lucullus's lictors courteously gave Pompey's some of the fresh and
green ones which they had, which Pompey's friends counted a good
omen, as indeed of a truth, Lucullus's actions furnished the honors
of Pompey's command. The interview, however, did not bring them to
any amicable agreement; they parted even less friends than they
met. Pompey repealed all the acts of Lucullus, drew off his
soldiers, and left him no more than sixteen hundred for his
triumph, and even those unwilling to go with him. So wanting was
Lucullus, either through natural constitution or adverse
circumstances, in that one first and most important requisite of a
general, which had he but added to his other many and remarkable
virtues, his fortitude, vigilance, wisdom, justice, the Roman
empire had not had Euphrates for its boundary, but the utmost ends
of Asia and the Hyrcanian sea; as other nations were then disabled
by the late conquests of Tigranes, and the power of Parthia had not
in Lucullus's time shown itself so formidable as Crassus afterwards
found it, nor had as yet gained that consistency, being crippled by
wars at home, and on its frontiers, and unable even to make head
against the encroachments of the Armenians. And Lucullus, as it
was, seems to me through others' agency to have done Rome greater
harm, than he did her advantage by his own. For the trophies in
Armenia, near the Parthian frontier, and Tigranocerta, and Nisibis,
and the great wealth brought from thence to Rome, with the captive
crown of Tigranes carried in triumph, all helped to puff up
Crassus, as if the barbarians had been nothing else but spoil and
booty, and he, falling among the Parthian archers, soon
demonstrated that Lucullus's triumphs were not beholden to the
inadvertency and effeminacy of his enemies, but to his own courage
and conduct. But of this afterwards.

Lucullus, upon his return to Rome, found his brother Marcus accused
by Caius Memmius, for his acts as quaestor, done by Sylla's orders;
and on his acquittal, Memmius changed the scene, and animated the
people against Lucullus himself, urging them to deny him a triumph
for appropriating the spoils and prolonging the war. In this great
struggle, the nobility and chief men went down and mingling in
person among the tribes, with much entreaty and labor, scarce at
length prevailed upon them to consent to his triumph. The pomp of
which proved not so wonderful or so wearisome with the length of
the procession and the number of things carried in it, but
consisted chiefly in vast quantities of arms and machines of the
king's, with which he adorned the Flaminian circus, a spectacle by
no means despicable. In his progress there passed by a few
horsemen in heavy armor, ten chariots armed with scythes, sixty
friends and officers of the king's, and a hundred and ten
brazen-beaked ships of war, which were conveyed along with them, a
golden image of Mithridates six feet high, a shield set with
precious stones, twenty loads of silver vessels, and thirty-two of
golden cups, armor, and money, all carried by men. Besides which,
eight mules were laden with golden couches, fifty-six with bullion,
and a hundred and seven with coined silver, little less than two
millions seven hundred thousand pieces. There were tablets, also,
with inscriptions, stating what moneys he gave Pompey for
prosecuting the piratic war, what he delivered into the treasury,
and what he gave to every soldier, which was nine hundred and fifty
drachmas each. After all which he nobly feasted the city and
adjoining villages, or vici.

Being divorced from Clodia, a dissolute and wicked woman, he
married Servilia, sister to Cato. This also proved an unfortunate
match, for she only wanted one of all Clodia's vices, the
criminality she was accused of with her brothers. Out of reverence
to Cato, he for a while connived at her impurity and immodesty, but
at length dismissed her. When the senate expected great things
from him, hoping to find in him a check to the usurpations of
Pompey, and that with the greatness of his station and credit he
would come forward as the champion of the nobility, he retired from
business and abandoned public life; either because he saw the State
to be in a difficult and diseased condition, or, as others say,
because he was as great as he could well be, and inclined to a
quiet and easy life, after those many labors and toils which had
ended with him so far from fortunately. There are those who highly
commend his change of life, saying that he thus avoided that rock
on which Marius split. For he, after the great and glorious deeds
of his Cimbrian victories, was not contented to retire upon his
honors, but out of an insatiable desire of glory and power, even in
his old age, headed a political party against young men, and let
himself fall into miserable actions, and yet more miserable
sufferings. Better, in like manner, they say, had it been for
Cicero, after Catiline's conspiracy, to have retired and grown old,
and for Scipio, after his Numantine and Carthaginian conquests, to
have sat down contented. For the administration of public affairs
has, like other things, its proper term, and statesmen as well as
wrestlers will break down, when strength and youth fail. But
Crassus and Pompey, on the other hand, laughed to see Lucullus
abandoning himself to pleasure and expense, as if luxurious living
were not a thing that as little became his years, as government of
affairs at home, or of an army abroad.

And, indeed, Lucullus's life, like the Old Comedy, presents us at
the commencement with acts of policy and of war, at the end
offering nothing but good eating and drinking, feastings and
revellings, and mere play. For I give no higher name to his
sumptuous buildings, porticoes and baths, still less to his
paintings and sculptures, and all his industry about these
curiosities, which he collected with vast expense, lavishly
bestowing all the wealth and treasure which he got in the war upon
them, insomuch that even now, with all the advance of luxury, the
Lucullean gardens are counted the noblest the emperor has. Tubero
the stoic, when he saw his buildings at Naples, where he suspended
the hills upon vast tunnels, brought in the sea for moats and
fish-ponds round his house, and built pleasure-houses in the
waters, called him Xerxes in a gown. He had also fine seats in
Tusculum, belvederes, and large open balconies for men's
apartments, and porticoes to walk in, where Pompey coming to see
him, blamed him for making a house which would be pleasant in
summer but uninhabitable in winter; whom he answered with a smile,
"You think me, then, less provident than cranes and storks, not to
change my home with the season."  When a praetor, with great
expense and pains, was preparing a spectacle for the people, and
asked him to lend him some purple robes for the performers in a
chorus, he told him he would go home and see, and if he had got
any, would let him have them; and the next day asking how many he
wanted, and being told that a hundred would suffice, bade him to
take twice as many: on which the poet Horace observes, that a
house is but a poor one, where the valuables unseen and unthought
of do not exceed all those that meet the eye.

Lucullus's daily entertainments were ostentatiously extravagant,
not only with purple coverlets, and plate adorned with precious
stones, and dancings, and interludes, but with the greatest
diversity of dishes and the most elaborate cookery, for the vulgar
to admire and envy. It was a happy thought of Pompey in his
sickness, when his physician prescribed a thrush for his dinner,
and his servants told him that in summer time thrushes were not to
be found anywhere but in Lucullus's fattening coops, that he would
not suffer them to fetch one thence, but observing to his
physician, "So if Lucullus had not been an epicure, Pompey had not
lived," ordered something else that could easily be got to be
prepared for him. Cato was his friend and connection, but,
nevertheless, so hated his life and habits, that when a young man
in the senate made a long and tedious speech in praise of frugality
and temperance, Cato got up and said, "How long do you mean to go
on making money like Crassus, living like Lucullus, and talking
like Cato?"  There are some, however, who say the words were said,
but not by Cato.

It is plain from the anecdotes on record of him, that Lucullus was
not only pleased with, but even gloried in his way of living. For
he is said to have feasted several Greeks upon their coming to Rome
day after day, who, out of a true Grecian principle, being ashamed,
and declining the invitation, where so great an expense was every
day incurred for them, he with a smile told them, "Some of this,
indeed, my Grecian friends, is for your sakes, but more for that of
Lucullus."  Once when he supped alone, there being only one course,
and that but moderately furnished, he called his steward and
reproved him, who, professing to have supposed that there would be
no need of any great entertainment, when nobody was invited, was
answered, "What, did not you know, then, that to-day Lucullus dines
with Lucullus?"  Which being much spoken of about the city, Cicero
and Pompey one day met him loitering in the forum, the former his
intimate friend and familiar, and, though there had been some
ill-will between Pompey and him about the command in the war, still
they used to see each other and converse on easy terms together.
Cicero accordingly saluted him, and asked him whether to-day were a
good time for asking a favor of him, and on his answering, "Very
much so," and begging to hear what it was, "Then," said Cicero, "we
should like to dine with you today, just on the dinner that is
prepared for yourself."  Lucullus being surprised, and requesting a
day's time, they refused to grant it, neither suffered him to talk
with his servants, for fear he should give order for more than was
appointed before. But thus much they consented to, that before
their faces he might tell his servant, that to-day he would sup in
the Apollo, (for so one of his best dining-rooms was called,) and
by this evasion he outwitted his guests. For every room, as it
seems, had its own assessment of expenditure, dinner at such a
price, and all else in accordance; so that the servants, on knowing
where he would dine, knew also how much was to be expended, and in
what style and form dinner was to be served. The expense for the
Apollo was fifty thousand drachmas, and thus much being that day
laid out, the greatness of the cost did not so much amaze Pompey
and Cicero, as the rapidity of the outlay. One might believe
Lucullus thought his money really captive and barbarian, so
wantonly and contumeliously did he treat it.

His furnishing a library, however, deserves praise and record, for
he collected very many and choice manuscripts; and the use they
were put to was even more magnificent than the purchase, the
library being always open, and the walks and reading-rooms about it
free to all Greeks, whose delight it was to leave their other
occupations and hasten thither as to the habitation of the Muses,
there walking about, and diverting one another. He himself often
passed his hours there, disputing with the learned in the walks,
and giving his advice to statesmen who required it, insomuch
that his house was altogether a home, and in a manner a Greek
prytaneum for those that visited Rome. He was fond of all sorts of
philosophy, and was well-read and expert in them all. But he
always from the first specially favored and valued the Academy; not
the New one which at that time under Philo flourished with the
precepts of Carneades, but the Old one, then sustained and
represented by Antiochus of Ascalon, a learned and eloquent man.
Lucullus with great labor made him his friend and companion, and
set him up against Philo's auditors, among whom Cicero was one, who
wrote an admirable treatise in defense of his sect, in which he
puts the argument in favor of comprehension in the mouth of
Lucullus, and the opposite argument in his own. The book is called
Lucullus. For as has been said, they were great friends, and took
the same side in politics. For Lucullus did not wholly retire from
the republic, but only from ambition, and from the dangerous and
often lawless struggle for political preeminence, which he left to
Crassus and Cato, whom the senators, jealous of Pompey's greatness,
put forward as their champions, when Lucullus refused to head them.
For his friends' sake he came into the forum and into the senate,
when occasion offered to humble the ambition and pride of Pompey,
whose settlement, after his conquests over the kings, he got
canceled, and by the assistance of Cato, hindered a division of
lands to his soldiers, which he proposed. So Pompey went over to
Crassus and Caesar's alliance, or rather conspiracy, and filling
the city with armed men, procured the ratification of his decrees
by force, and drove Cato and Lucullus out of the forum. Which
being resented by the nobility, Pompey's party produced one
Vettius, pretending they apprehended him in a design against
Pompey's life. Who in the senate-house accused others, but before
the people named Lucullus, as if he had been suborned by him to
kill Pompey. Nobody gave heed to what he said, and it soon
appeared that they had put him forward to make false charges and
accusations. And after a few days the whole intrigue became yet
more obvious, when the dead body of Vettius was thrown out of the
prison, he being reported, indeed, to have died a natural death,
but carrying marks of a halter and blows about him, and seeming
rather to have been taken off by those who suborned him. These
things kept Lucullus at a greater distance from the republic.

But when Cicero was banished the city, and Cato sent to Cyprus, he
quitted public affairs altogether. It is said, too, that before
his death, his intellects failed him by degrees. But Cornelius
Nepos denies that either age or sickness impaired his mind, which
was rather affected by a potion, given him by Callisthenes his
freedman. The potion was meant by Callisthenes to strengthen his
affection for him, and was supposed to have that tendency but it
acted quite otherwise, and so disabled and unsettled his mind, that
while he was yet alive, his brother took charge of his affairs. At
his death, as though it had been the death of one taken off in the
very height of military and civil glory, the people were much
concerned, and flocked together, and would have forcibly taken his
corpse, as it was carried into the market-place by young men of the
highest rank, and have buried it in the field of Mars, where they
buried Sylla. Which being altogether unexpected, and necessaries
not easily to be procured on a sudden, his brother, after much
entreaty and solicitation, prevailed upon them to suffer him to be
buried on his Tusculan estate as had been appointed. He himself
survived him but a short time, coming not far behind in death, as
he did in age and renown, in all respects, a most loving brother.

COMPARISON OF LUCULLUS WITH CIMON

One might bless the end of Lucullus, which was so timed as to let
him die before the great revolution, which fate by intestine wars,
was already effecting against the established government, and to
close his life in a free though troubled commonwealth. And in
this, above all other things, Cimon and he are alike. For he died
also when Greece was as yet undisordered, in its highest felicity;
though in the field at the head of his army, not recalled, nor out
of his mind, nor sullying the glory of his wars, engagements, and
conquests, by making feastings and debauches seem the apparent end
and aim of them all; as Plato says scornfully of Orpheus, that he
makes an eternal debauch hereafter, the reward of those who lived
well here. Indeed, ease and quiet, and the study of pleasant and
speculative learning, to an old man retiring from command and
office, is a most suitable and becoming solace; but to misguide
virtuous actions to pleasure as their utmost end, and, as the
conclusion of campaigns and commands, to keep the feast of Venus,
did not become the noble Academy, and the follower of Xenocrates,
but rather one that inclined to Epicurus. And this its one
surprising point of contrast between them; Cimon's youth was ill-
reputed and intemperate Lucullus's well disciplined and sober.
Undoubtedly we must give the preference to the change for good,
for it argues the better nature, where vice declines and virtue
grows. Both had great wealth, but employed it in different ways;
and there is no comparison between the south wall of the acropolis
built by Cimon, and the chambers and galleries, with their sea-
views, built at Naples by Lucullus, out of the spoils of the
barbarians. Neither can we compare Cimon's popular and liberal
table with the sumptuous oriental one of Lucullus, the former
receiving a great many guests every day at small cost, the latter
expensively spread for a few men of pleasure, unless you will say
that different times made the alteration. For who can tell but
that Cimon, if he had retired in his old age from business and war
to quiet and solitude, might have lived a more luxurious and self-
indulgent life, as he was fond of wine and company, and accused,
as has been said, of laxity with women? The better pleasures
gained in successful action and effort leave the baser appetites
no time or place, and make active and heroic men forget them. Had
but Lucullus ended his days in the field, and in command, envy and
detraction itself could never have accused him. So much for their
manner of life.

In war, it is plain they were both soldiers of excellent conduct,
both at land and sea. But as in the games they honor those
champions who on the same day gain the garland, both in wrestling
and in the pancratium, with the name of "Victors and more," so
Cimon, honoring Greece with a sea and land victory on the same
day, may claim a certain preeminence among commanders. Lucullus
received command from his country, whereas Cimon brought it to
his. He annexed the territories of enemies to her, who ruled over
confederates before, but Cimon made his country, which when he
began was a mere follower of others, both rule over confederates,
and conquer enemies too, forcing the Persians to relinquish the
sea, and inducing the Lacedaemonians to surrender their command.
If it be the chiefest thing in a general to obtain the obedience of
his soldiers by good-will, Lucullus was despised by his own army,
but Cimon highly prized even by others. His soldiers deserted the
one, the confederates came over to the other. Lucullus came home
without the forces which he led out; Cimon, sent out at first to
serve as one confederate among others, returned home with
authority even over these also, having successfully effected for
his city three most difficult services, establishing peace with
the enemy, dominion over confederates, and concord with
Lacedaemon. Both aiming to destroy great kingdoms, and subdue all
Asia, failed in their enterprise, Cimon by a simple piece of ill-
fortune, for he died when general, in the height of success; but
Lucullus no man can wholly acquit of being in fault with his
soldiers, whether it were he did not know, or would not comply
with the distastes and complaints of his army, which brought him
at last into such extreme unpopularity among them. But did not
Cimon also suffer like him in this? For the citizens arraigned
him, and did not leave off till they had banished him, that, as
Plato says, they might not hear him for the space of ten years.
For high and noble minds seldom please the vulgar, or are
acceptable to them; for the force they use to straighten their
distorted actions gives the same pain as surgeons' bandages do in
bringing dislocated bones to their natural position. Both of
them, perhaps, come off pretty much with an equal acquittal on
this count.

Lucullus very much outwent him in war being the first Roman who
carried an army over Taurus, passed the Tigris, took and burnt the
royal palaces of Asia in the sight of the kings, Tigranocerta,
Cabira, Sinope, and Nisibis, seizing and overwhelming the northern
parts as far as the Phasis, the east as far as Media, and making
the South and Red Sea his own through the kings of the Arabians.
He shattered the power of the kings, and narrowly missed their
persons, while like wild beasts they fled away into deserts and
thick and impassable woods. In demonstration of this superiority,
we see that the Persians, as if no great harm had befallen them
under Cimon, soon after appeared in arms against the Greeks, and
overcame and destroyed their numerous forces in Egypt. But after
Lucullus, Tigranes and Mithridates were able to do nothing; the
latter, being disabled and broken in the former wars, never dared
to show his army to Pompey outside the camp, but fled away to
Bosporus, and there died. Tigranes threw himself, naked and
unarmed, down before Pompey, and taking his crown from his head,
laid it at his feet, complimenting Pompey with what was not his
own, but, in real truth, the conquest already effected by
Lucullus. And when he received the ensigns of majesty again, he
was well pleased, evidently because he had forfeited them before.
And the commander, as the wrestler, is to be accounted to have
done most who leaves an adversary almost conquered for his
successor. Cimon, moreover, when he took the command, found the
power of the king broken, and the spirits of the Persians humbled
by their great defeats and incessant routs under Themistocles,
Pausanias, and Leotychides, and thus easily overcame the bodies of
men whose souls were quelled and defeated beforehand. But
Tigranes had never yet in many combats been beaten, and was flushed
with success when he engaged with Lucullus. There is no comparison
between the numbers, which came against Lucullus, and those
subdued by Cimon. All which things being rightly considered, it
is a hard matter to give judgment. For supernatural favor also
appears to have attended both of them, directing the one what to
do, the other what to avoid, and thus they have, both of them, so
to say, the vote of the gods, to declare them noble and divine
characters.

NICIAS

Crassus, in my opinion, may most properly be set against Nicias,
and the Parthian disaster compared with that in Sicily. But here
it will be well for me to entreat the reader, in all courtesy, not
to think that I contend with Thucydides in matters so pathetically,
vividly, and eloquently, beyond all imitation, and even beyond
himself, expressed by him; nor to believe me guilty of the like
folly with Timaeus, who, hoping in his history to surpass
Thucydides in art, and to make Philistus appear a trifler and a
novice, pushes on in his descriptions, through all the battles,
sea-fights, and public speeches, in recording which they have been
most successful, without meriting so much as to be compared in
Pindar's phrase, to

One that on his feet
Would with the Lydian cars compete.

He simply shows himself all along a half-lettered, childish writer;
in the words of Diphilus,

-- of wit obese,
O'erlarded with Sicilian grease.

Often he sinks to the very level of Xenarchus, telling us that he
thinks it ominous to the Athenians that their
general, who had victory in his name, was unwilling to take
command in the expedition; and that the defacing of the Hermae was
a divine intimation that they should suffer much in the war by
Hermocrates, the son of Hermon; and, moreover, how it was likely
that Hercules should aid the Syracusans for the sake of Proserpine,
by whose means he took Cerberus, and should be angry with the
Athenians for protecting the Egesteans, descended from Trojan
ancestors, whose city he, for an injury of their king Laomedon, had
overthrown. However, all these may be merely other instances of
the same happy taste that makes him correct the diction of
Philistus, and abuse Plato and Aristotle. This sort of contention
and rivalry with others in matter of style, to my mind, in any
case, seems petty and pedantic, but when its objects are works of
inimitable excellence, it is absolutely senseless. Such actions in
Nicias's life as Thucydides and Philistus have related, since they
cannot be passed by, illustrating as they do most especially his
character and temper, under his many and great troubles, that I may
not seem altogether negligent, I shall briefly run over. And such
things as are not commonly known, and lie scattered here and there
in other men's writings, or are found amongst the old monuments and
archives, I shall endeavor to bring together; not collecting mere
useless pieces of learning, but adducing what may make his
disposition and habit of mind understood.

First of all, I would mention what Aristotle has said of Nicias,
that there had been three good citizens, eminent above the rest for
their hereditary affection and love to the people, Nicias the son
of Niceratus, Thucydides the son of Melesias, and Theramenes the
son of Hagnon, but the last less than the others; for he had his
dubious extraction cast in his teeth, as a foreigner from Ceos, and
his inconstancy, which made him side sometimes with one party,
sometimes with another in public life, and which obtained him the
nickname of the Buskin.

Thucydides came earlier, and, on the behalf of the nobility, was a
great opponent of the measures by which Pericles courted the favor
of the people.

Nicias was a younger man, yet was in some reputation even whilst
Pericles lived; so much so as to have been his colleague in the
office of general, and to have held command by himself more than
once. But on the death of Pericles, he presently rose to the
highest place, chiefly by the favor of the rich and eminent
citizens, who set him up for their bulwark against the presumption
and insolence of Cleon; nevertheless, he did not forfeit the
good-will of the commonalty, who, likewise, contributed to his
advancement. For though Cleon got great influence by his exertions

-- to please
The old men, who trusted him to find them fees.

Yet even those, for whose interest, and to gain whose favor he
acted, nevertheless observing the avarice, the arrogance, and the
presumption of the man, many of them supported Nicias. For his was
not that sort of gravity which is harsh and offensive, but he
tempered it with a certain caution and deference, winning upon the
people, by seeming afraid of them. And being naturally diffident
and unhopeful in war, his good fortune supplied his want of
courage, and kept it from being detected, as in all his commands he
was constantly successful. And his timorousness in civil life, and
his extreme dread of accusers, was thought very suitable in a
citizen of a free State; and from the people's good-will towards
him, got him no small power over them, they being fearful of all
that despised them, but willing to promote one who seemed to be
afraid of them; the greatest compliment their betters could pay
them being not to contemn them.

Pericles, who by solid virtue and the pure force of argument ruled
the commonwealth, had stood in need of no disguises nor persuasions
with the people. Nicias, inferior in these respects, used his
riches, of which he had abundance, to gain popularity. Neither had
he the nimble wit of Cleon, to win the Athenians to his purposes by
amusing them with bold jests; unprovided with such qualities, he
courted them with dramatic exhibitions, gymnastic games, and other
public shows, more sumptuous and more splendid than had been ever
known in his, or in former ages. Amongst his religious offerings,
there was extant, even in our days, the small figure of Minerva in
the citadel, having lost the gold that covered it; and a shrine in
the temple of Bacchus, under the tripods, that were presented by
those who won the prize in the shows of plays. For at these he had
often carried off the prize, and never once failed. We are told
that on one of these occasions, a slave of his appeared in the
character of Bacchus, of a beautiful person and noble stature, and
with as yet no beard upon his chin; and on the Athenians being
pleased with the sight, and applauding a long time, Nicias stood
up, and said he could not in piety keep as a slave, one whose
person had been consecrated to represent a god. And forthwith he
set the young man free. His performances at Delos are, also, on
record, as noble and magnificent works of devotion. For whereas
the choruses which the cities sent to sing hymns to the god were
wont to arrive in no order, as it might happen, and, being there
met by a crowd of people crying out to them to sing, in their hurry
to begin, used to disembark confusedly, putting on their garlands,
and changing their dresses as they left the ships, he, when he had
to convoy the sacred company, disembarked the chorus at Rhenea,
together with the sacrifice, and other holy appurtenances. And
having brought along with him from Athens a bridge fitted by
measurement for the purpose, and magnificently adorned with gilding
and coloring, and with garlands and tapestries; this he laid in the
night over the channel betwixt Rhenea and Delos, being no great
distance. And at break of day he marched forth with all the
procession to the god, and led the chorus, sumptuously ornamented,
and singing their hymns, along over the bridge. The sacrifices,
the games, and the feast being over, he set up a palm-tree of brass
for a present to the god, and bought a parcel of land with ten
thousand drachmas which he consecrated; with the revenue the
inhabitants of Delos were to sacrifice and to feast, and to pray
the gods for many good things to Nicias. This he engraved on a
pillar, which he left in Delos to be a record of his bequest. This
same palm-tree, afterwards broken down by the wind, fell on the
great statue which the men of Naxos presented, and struck it to the
ground.

It is plain that much of this might be vainglory, and the mere
desire of popularity and applause; yet from other qualities and
carriage of the man, one might believe all this cost and public
display to be the effect of devotion. For he was one of those who
dreaded the divine powers extremely, and, as Thucydides tells us,
was much given to arts of divination. In one of Pasiphon's
dialogues, it is stated that he daily sacrificed to the gods, and
keeping a diviner at his house, professed to be consulting always
about the commonwealth, but for the most part, inquired about his
own private affairs, more especially concerning his silver mines;
for he owned many works at Laurium, of great value, but somewhat
hazardous to carry on. He maintained there a multitude of slaves,
and his wealth consisted chiefly in silver. Hence he had many
hangers-on about him, begging and obtaining. For he gave to those
who could do him mischief, no less than to those who deserved well.
In short, his timidity was a revenue to rogues, and his humanity to
honest men. We find testimony in the comic writers, as when
Teleclides, speaking of one of the professed informers, says: --

Charicles gave the man a pound, the matter not to name,
That from inside a money-bag into the world he came;
And Nicias, also, paid him four; I know the reason well,
But Nicias is a worthy man, and so I will not tell.

So, also, the informer whom Eupolis introduces in his Maricas,
attacking a good, simple, poor man: --

How long ago did you and Nicias meet?

I did but see him just now in the street.

The man has seen him and denies it not,
'Tis evident that they are in a plot.

See you, O citizens! 'tis fact,
Nicias is taken in the act.

Taken, Fools! take so good a man
In aught that's wrong none will or can.

Cleon, in Aristophanes, makes it one of his threats: --

I'll outscream all the speakers, and make Nicias stand aghast!

Phrynichus also implies his want of spirit, and his easiness to be
intimidated in the verses,

A noble man he was, I well can say,
Nor walked like Nicias, cowering on his way.

So cautious was he of informers, and so reserved, that he never
would dine out with any citizen, nor allowed himself to indulge in
talk and conversation with his friends, nor gave himself any
leisure for such amusements; but when he was general he used to
stay at the office till night, and was the first that came to the
council-house, and the last that left it. And if no public
business engaged him, it was very hard to have access, or to speak
with him, he being retired at home and locked up. And when any
came to the door, some friend of his gave them good words, and
begged them to excuse him, Nicias was very busy; as if affairs of
State and public duties still kept him occupied. He who
principally acted this part for him, and contributed most to this
state and show, was Hiero, a man educated in Nicias's family, and
instructed by him in letters and music. He professed to be the son
of Dionysius, surnamed Chalcus, whose poems are yet extant, and had
led out the colony to Italy, and founded Thurii. This Hiero
transacted all his secrets for Nicias with the dinners; and gave
out to the people, what a toilsome and miserable life he led, for
the sake of the commonwealth. "He," said Hiero, "can never be
either at the bath, or at his meat, but some public business
interferes. Careless of his own, and zealous for the public good,
he scarcely ever goes to bed till after others have had their first
sleep. So that his health is impaired, and his body out of order,
nor is he cheerful or affable with his friends, but loses them as
well as his money in the service of the State, while other men gain
friends by public speaking, enrich themselves, fare delicately, and
make government their amusement."  And in fact this was Nicias's
manner of life, so that he well might apply to himself the words of
Agamemnon: --

Vain pomp's the ruler of the life we live,
And a slave's service to the crowd we give.

He observed that the people, in the case of men of eloquence, or of
eminent parts, made use of their talents upon occasion, but were
always jealous of their abilities, and held a watchful eye upon
them, taking all opportunities to humble their pride and abate
their reputation; as was manifest in their condemnation of
Pericles, their banishment of Damon, their distrust of Antiphon the
Rhamnusian, but especially in the case of Paches who took Lesbos,
who, having to give an account of his conduct, in the very court of
justice unsheathed his sword and slew himself. Upon such
considerations, Nicias declined all difficult and lengthy
enterprises; if he took a command, he was for doing what was safe;
and if, as thus was likely, he had for the most part success, he
did not attribute it to any wisdom, conduct, or courage of his own,
but, to avoid envy, he thanked fortune for all, and gave the glory
to the divine powers. And the actions themselves bore testimony in
his favor; the city met at that time with several considerable
reverses, but he had not a hand in any of them. The Athenians were
routed in Thrace by the Chalcidians, Calliades and Xenophon
commanding in chief. Demosthenes was the general when they were
unfortunate in Aetolia. At Delium, they lost a thousand citizens
under the conduct of Hippocrates; the plague was principally laid
to the charge of Pericles, he, to carry on the war, having shut up
close together in the town the crowd of people from the country,
who, by the change of place, and of their usual course of living,
bred the pestilence. Nicias stood clear of all this; under his
conduct was taken Cythera, an island most commodious against
Laconia, and occupied by the Lacedaemonian settlers; many places,
likewise, in Thrace, which had revolted, were taken or won over by
him; he, shutting up the Megarians within their town, seized upon
the isle of Minoa; and soon after, advancing from thence to Nisaea,
made himself master there, and then making a descent upon the
Corinthian territory, fought a successful battle, and slew a great
number of the Corinthians with their captain Lycophron. There it
happened that two of his men were left by an oversight, when they
carried off the dead, which when he understood, he stopped the
fleet, and sent a herald to the enemy for leave to carry off the
dead; though by law and custom, he that by a truce craved leave to
carry off the dead, was hereby supposed to give up all claim to the
victory. Nor was it lawful for him that did this to erect a
trophy, for his is the victory who is master of the field, and he
is not master who asks leave, as wanting power to take. But he
chose rather to renounce his victory and his glory, than to let two
citizens lie unburied. He scoured the coast of Laconia all along,
and beat the Lacedaemonians that made head against him. He took
Thyrea, occupied by the Aeginetans, and carried the prisoners to
Athens.

When Demosthenes had fortified Pylos, and the Peloponnesians
brought together both their sea and land forces before it, after
the fight, about the number of four hundred native Spartans were
left ashore in the isle Sphacteria. The Athenians thought it a
great prize, as indeed it was, to take these men prisoners. But
the siege, in places that wanted water, being very difficult and
untoward, and to convey necessaries about by sea in summer tedious
and expensive, in winter doubtful, or plainly impossible, they
began to be annoyed, and to repent their having rejected the
embassy of the Lacedaemonians that had been sent to propose a
treaty of peace, which had been done at the importunity of Cleon,
who opposed it chiefly out of a pique to Nicias; for, being his
enemy, and observing him to be extremely solicitous to support the
offers of the Lacedaemonians, he persuaded the people to refuse
them.

Now, therefore, that the siege was protracted, and they heard of
the difficulties that pressed their army, they grew enraged against
Cleon. But he turned all the blame upon Nicias, charging it on his
softness and cowardice, that the besieged were not yet taken.
"Were I general," said he, "they should not hold out so long."  The
Athenians not unnaturally asked the question, "Why then, as it is,
do not you go with a squadron against them?"  And Nicias standing
up resigned his command at Pylos to him, and bade him take what
forces he pleased along with him, and not be bold in words, out of
harm's way, but go forth and perform some real service for the
commonwealth. Cleon, at the first, tried to draw back,
disconcerted at the proposal, which he had never expected; but the
Athenians insisting, and Nicias loudly upbraiding him, he thus
provoked, and fired with ambition, took upon him the charge, and
said further, that within twenty days after he embarked, he would
either kill the enemy upon the place, or bring them alive to
Athens. This the Athenians were readier to laugh at than to
believe, as on other occasions, also, his bold assertions and
extravagances used to make them sport, and were pleasant enough.
As, for instance, it is reported that once when the people were
assembled, and had waited his coming a long time, at last he
appeared with a garland on his head, and prayed them to adjourn to
the next day. "For," said he, "I am not at leisure to-day; I have
sacrificed to the gods, and am to entertain some strangers."
Whereupon the Athenians laughing rose up, and dissolved the
assembly. However, at this time he had good fortune, and in
conjunction with Demosthenes, conducted the enterprise so well,
that within the time he had limited, he carried captive to Athens
all the Spartans that had not fallen in battle.

This brought great disgrace on Nicias; for this was not to throw
away his shield, but something yet more shameful and ignominious,
to quit his charge voluntarily out of cowardice, and voting
himself, as it were, out of his command of his own accord, to put
into his enemy's hand the opportunity of achieving so brave an
action. Aristophanes has a jest against him on this occasion in
the Birds: --

Indeed, not now the word that must be said
Is, do like Nicias, or retire to bed.

And, again, in his Husbandmen: --

I wish to stay at home and farm.
What then?
Who should prevent you?
You, my countrymen;
Whom I would pay a thousand drachmas down,
To let me give up office and leave town.

Enough; content; the sum two thousand is,
With those that Nicias paid to give up his.

Besides all this, he did great mischief to the city by suffering
the accession of so much reputation and power to Cleon, who now
assumed such lofty airs, and allowed himself in such intolerable
audacity, as led to many unfortunate results, a sufficient part of
which fell to his own share. Amongst other things, he destroyed
all the decorum of public speaking; he was the first who ever broke
out into exclamations, flung open his dress, smote his thigh, and
ran up and down whilst he was speaking, things which soon after
introduced amongst those who managed the affairs of State, such
license and contempt of decency, as brought all into confusion.

Already, too, Alcibiades was beginning to show his strength at
Athens, a popular leader, not, indeed, as utterly violent as Cleon,
but as the land of Egypt, through the richness of its soil, is
said,

-- great plenty to produce,
Both wholesome herbs, and drugs of deadly juice,

so the nature of Alcibiades was strong and luxuriant in both kinds,
and made way for many serious innovations. Thus it fell out that
after Nicias had got his hands clear of Cleon, he had not
opportunity to settle the city perfectly into quietness. For
having brought matters to a pretty hopeful condition, he found
everything carried away and plunged again into confusion by
Alcibiades, through the wildness and vehemence of his ambition, and
all embroiled again in war worse than ever. Which fell out thus.
The persons who had principally hindered the peace were Cleon and
Brasidas. War setting off the virtue of the one, and hiding the
villainy of the other, gave to the one occasions of achieving brave
actions, to the other opportunity of committing equal dishonesties.
Now when these two were in one battle both slain near Amphipolis,
Nicias was aware that the Spartans had long been desirous of a
peace, and that the Athenians had no longer the same confidence in
the war. Both being alike tired, and, as it were by consent,
letting fall their hands, he, therefore, in this nick of time,
employed his efforts to make a friendship betwixt the two cities,
and to deliver the other States of Greece from the evils and
calamities they labored under, and so establish his own good name
for success as a statesman for all future time. He found the men
of substance, the elder men, and the land-owners and farmers pretty
generally, all inclined to peace. And when, in addition to these,
by conversing and reasoning, he had cooled the wishes of a good
many others for war, he now encouraged the hopes of the
Lacedaemonians, and counseled them to seek peace. They confided in
him, as on account of his general character for moderation and
equity, so, also, because of the kindness and care he had shown to
the prisoners taken at Pylos and kept in confinement, making their
misfortune the more easy to them.

The Athenians and the Spartans had before this concluded a truce
for a year, and during this, by associating with one another, they
had tasted again the sweets of peace and security, and unimpeded
intercourse with friends and connections, and thus longed for an
end of that fighting and bloodshed, and heard with delight the
chorus sing such verses as

-- my lance I'll leave
Laid by, for spiders to o'erweave,

and remembered with joy the saying, In peace, they who sleep are
awaked by the cock-crow, not by the trumpet. So shutting their
ears, with loud reproaches, to the forebodings of those who said
that the Fates decreed this to be a war of thrice nine years, the
whole question having been debated, they made a peace. And most
people thought, now, indeed, they had got an end of all their
evils. And Nicias was in every man's mouth, as one especially
beloved of the gods, who, for his piety and devotion, had been
appointed to give a name to the fairest and greatest of all
blessings. For in fact they considered the peace Nicias's work, as
the war the work of Pericles; because he, on light occasions,
seemed to have plunged the Greeks into great calamities, while
Nicias had induced them to forget all the evils they had done each
other and to be friends again; and so to this day it is called the
Peace of Nicias.

The articles being, that the garrisons and towns taken on either
side, and the prisoners should be restored, and they to restore the
first to whom it should fall by lot, Nicias, as Theophrastus tells
us, by a sum of money procured that the lot should fall for the
Lacedaemonians to deliver the first. Afterwards, when the
Corinthians and the Boeotians showed their dislike of what was
done, and by their complaints and accusations were wellnigh
bringing the war back again, Nicias persuaded the Athenians and the
Lacedaemonians, besides the peace, to make a treaty of alliance,
offensive and defensive, as a tie and confirmation of the peace,
which would make them more terrible to those that held out, and the
firmer to each other. Whilst these matters were on foot,
Alcibiades, who was no lover of tranquillity, and who was offended
with the Lacedaemonians because of their applications and
attentions to Nicias, while they overlooked and despised himself,
from first to last, indeed, had opposed the peace, though all in
vain, but now finding that the Lacedaemonians did not altogether
continue to please the Athenians, but were thought to have acted
unfairly in having made a league with the Boeotians, and had not
given up Panactum, as they should have done, with its
fortifications unrazed, nor yet Amphipolis, he laid hold on these
occasions for his purpose, and availed himself of every one of them
to irritate the people. And, at length, sending for ambassadors
from the Argives, he exerted himself to effect a confederacy
between the Athenians and them. And now, when Lacedaemonian
ambassadors were come with full powers, and at their preliminary
audience by the council seemed to come in all points with just
proposals, he, fearing that the general assembly, also, would be
won over to their offers, overreached them with false professions
and oaths of assistance, on the condition that they would not avow
that they came with full powers, this, he said, being the only way
for them to attain their desires. They being overpersuaded and
decoyed from Nicias to follow him, he introduced them to the
assembly, and asked them presently whether or no they came in all
points with full powers, which when they denied, he, contrary to
their expectation, changing his countenance, called the council to
witness their words, and now bade the people beware how they trust,
or transact anything with such manifest liars, who say at one time
one thing, and at another the very opposite upon the same subject.
These plenipotentiaries were, as well they might be, confounded at
this, and Nicias, also, being at a loss what to say, and struck
with amazement and wonder, the assembly resolved to send
immediately for the Argives, to enter into a league with them. An
earthquake, which interrupted the assembly, made for Nicias's
advantage; and the next day the people being again assembled, after
much speaking and soliciting, with great ado he brought it about,
that the treaty with the Argives should be deferred, and he be sent
to the Lacedaemonians, in full expectation that so all would go
well.

When he arrived at Sparta, they received him there as a good man,
and one well inclined towards them; yet he effected nothing, but,
baffled by the party that favored the Boeotians, he returned home,
not only dishonored and hardly spoken of, but likewise in fear of
the Athenians, who were vexed and enraged that through his
persuasions they had released so many and such considerable
persons, their prisoners, for the men who had been brought from
Pylos were of the chiefest families of Sparta, and had those who
were highest there in place and power for their friends and
kindred. Yet did they not in their heat proceed against him,
otherwise than that they chose Alcibiades general, and took the
Mantineans and Eleans, who had thrown up their alliance with the
Lacedaemonians, into the league, together with the Argives, and
sent to Pylos freebooters to infest Laconia, whereby the war began
to break out afresh.

But the enmity betwixt Nicias and Alcibiades running higher and
higher, and the time being at hand for decreeing the ostracism or
banishment, for ten years, which the people, putting the name on a
sherd, were wont to inflict at certain times on some person
suspected or regarded with jealousy for his popularity or wealth,
both were now in alarm and apprehension, one of them, in all
likelihood, being to undergo this ostracism; as the people
abominated the life of Alcibiades, and stood in fear of his
boldness and resolution, as is shown particularly in the history of
him; while as for Nicias, his riches made him envied, and his
habits of living, in particular, his unsociable and exclusive ways,
not like those of a fellow-citizen, or even a fellow-man, went
against him, and having many times opposed their inclinations,
forcing them against their feelings to do what was their interest,
he had got himself disliked.

To speak plainly, it was a contest of the young men who were eager
for war, against the men of years and lovers of peace, they turning
the ostracism upon the one, these upon the other. But

In civil strife e'en villains rise to fame.

And so now it happened that the city, distracted into two factions,
allowed free course to the most impudent and profligate persons,
among whom was Hyperbolus of the Perithoedae, one who could not,
indeed, be said to be presuming upon any power, but rather by his
presumption rose into power, and by the honor he found in the city,
became the scandal of it. He, at this time, thought himself far
enough from the ostracism, as more properly deserving the slave's
gallows, and made account, that one of these men being dispatched
out of the way, he might be able to play a part against the other
that should be left, and openly showed his pleasure at the
dissension, and his desire to inflame the people against both of
them. Nicias and Alcibiades, perceiving his malice, secretly
combined together, and setting both their interests jointly at
work, succeeded in fixing the ostracism not on either of them, but
even on Hyperbolus. This, indeed, at the first, made sport, and
raised laughter among the people; but afterwards it was felt as an
affront, that the thing should be dishonored by being employed upon
so unworthy a subject; punishment, also, having its proper dignity,
and ostracism being one that was appropriate rather for Thucydides,
Aristides, and such like persons; whereas for Hyperbolus it was a
glory, and a fair ground for boasting on his part, when for his
villainy he suffered the same with the best men. As Plato, the
comic poet said of him,

The man deserved the fate, deny who can;
Yes, but the fate did not deserve the man;
Not for the like of him and his slave-brands,
Did Athens put the sherd into our hands.

And, in fact, none ever afterwards suffered this sort of
punishment, but Hyperbolus was the last, as Hipparchus the
Cholargian, who was kin to the tyrant, was the first.

There is no judgment to be made of fortune; nor can any reasoning
bring us to a certainty about it. If Nicias had run the risk with
Alcibiades, whether of the two should undergo the ostracism, he had
either prevailed, and, his rival being expelled the city, he had
remained secure; or, being overcome, he had avoided the utmost
disasters, and preserved the reputation of a most excellent
commander. Meantime I am not ignorant that Theophrastus says, that
when Hyperbolus was banished Phaeax, not Nicias, contested it with
Alcibiades; but most authors differ from him.

It was Alcibiades, at any rate, whom when the Aegestean and
Leontine ambassadors arrived and urged the Athenians to make an
expedition against Sicily, Nicias opposed, and by whose persuasions
and ambition he found himself overborne, who even before the people
could be assembled, had preoccupied and corrupted their judgment
with hopes and with speeches; insomuch that the young men at their
sports, and the old men in their workshops, and sitting together on
the benches, would be drawing maps of Sicily, and making charts
showing the seas, the harbors, and general character of the coast
of the island opposite Africa. For they made not Sicily the end of
the war, but rather its starting point and head-quarters from
whence they might carry it to the Carthaginians, and possess
themselves of Africa, and of the seas as far as the pillars of
Hercules. The bulk of the people, therefore, pressing this way,
Nicias, who opposed them, found but few supporters, nor those of
much influence; for the men of substance, fearing lest they should
seem to shun the public charges and ship-money, were quiet against
their inclination; nevertheless he did not tire nor give it up, but
even after the Athenians decreed a war and chose him in the first
place general, together with Alcibiades and Lamachus, when they
were again assembled, he stood up, dissuaded them, and protested
against the decision, and laid the blame on Alcibiades, charging
him with going about to involve the city in foreign dangers and
difficulties, merely with a view to his own private lucre and
ambition. Yet it came to nothing. Nicias, because of his
experience, was looked upon as the fitter for the employment, and
his wariness with the bravery of Alcibiades, and the easy temper of
Lamachus, all compounded together, promised such security, that he
did but confirm the resolution. Demostratus, who, of the popular
leaders, was the one who chiefly pressed the Athenians to the
expedition, stood up and said he would stop the mouth of Nicias
from urging any more excuses, and moved that the generals should
have absolute power both at home and abroad, to order and to act as
they thought best; and this vote the people passed.

The priests, however, are said to have very earnestly opposed the
enterprise. But Alcibiades had his diviners of another sort, who
from some old prophesies announced that "there shall be great fame
of the Athenians in Sicily," and messengers came back to him from
Jupiter Ammon, with oracles importing that "the Athenians shall
take all the Syracusans."  Those, meanwhile, who knew anything
that boded ill, concealed it, lest they might seem to forespeak
ill-luck. For even prodigies that were obvious and plain would not
deter them; not the defacing of the Hermue, all maimed in one night
except one, called the Hermes of Andocides, erected by the tribe of
Aegeus, placed directly before the house then occupied by
Andocides; nor what was perpetrated on the altar of the twelve
gods, upon which a certain man leaped suddenly up, and then turning
round, mutilated himself with a stone. Likewise at Delphi, there
stood a golden image of Minerva, set on a palm-tree of brass,
erected by the city of Athens from the spoils they won from the
Medes; this was pecked at several days together by crows flying
upon it, who, also, plucked off and knocked down the fruit, made of
gold, upon the palm-tree. But the Athenians said these were all
but inventions of the Delphians, corrupted by the men of Syracuse.
A certain oracle bade them bring from Clazomenae the priestess of
Minerva there; they sent for the woman and found her named
Hesychia, Quietness, this being, it would seem, what the divine
powers advised the city at this time, to be quiet. Whether,
therefore, the astrologer Meton feared these presages, or that from
human reason he doubted its success, (for he was appointed to a
command in it,) feigning himself mad, he set his house on fire.
Others say he did not counterfeit madness, but set his house on
fire in the night, and he next morning came before the assembly in
great distress, and besought the people, in consideration of the
sad disaster, to release his son from the service, who was about to
go captain of a galley for Sicily. The genius, also, of the
philosopher Socrates, on this occasion, too, gave him intimation by
the usual tokens, that the expedition would prove the ruin of the
commonwealth; this he imparted to his friends and familiars, and by
them it was mentioned to a number of people. Not a few were
troubled because the days on which the fleet set sail happened to
be the time when the women celebrated the death of Adonis; there
being everywhere then exposed to view images of dead men, carried
about with mourning and lamentation, and women beating their
breasts. So that such as laid any stress on these matters were
extremely troubled, and feared lest that all this warlike
preparation, so splendid and so glorious, should suddenly, in a
little time, be blasted in its very prime of magnificence, and come
to nothing.

Nicias, in opposing the voting of this expedition, and neither
being puffed up with hopes, nor transported with the honor of his
high command so as to modify his judgment, showed himself a man of
virtue and constancy. But when his endeavors could not divert the
people from the war, nor get leave for himself to be discharged of
the command, but the people, as it were, violently took him up and
carried him, and against his will put him in the office of general,
this was no longer now a time for his excessive caution and his
delays, nor was it for him, like a child, to look back from the
ship, often repeating and reconsidering over and over again how
that his advice had not been overruled by fair arguments, thus
blunting the courage of his fellow commanders and spoiling the
season of action. Whereas, he ought speedily to have closed with
the enemy and brought the matter to an issue, and put fortune
immediately to the test in battle. But, on the contrary, when
Lamachus counseled to sail directly to Syracuse, and fight the
enemy under their city walls, and Alcibiades advised to secure the
friendship of the other towns, and then to march against them,
Nicias dissented from them both, and insisted that they should
cruise quietly around the island and display their armament, and,
having landed a small supply of men for the Egesteans, return to
Athens, weakening at once the resolution and casting down the
spirits of the men. And when, a little while after, the Athenians
called home Alcibiades in order to his trial, he being, though
joined nominally with another in commission, in effect the only
general, made now no end of loitering, of cruising, and
considering, till their hopes were grown stale, and all the
disorder and consternation which the first approach and view of
their forces had cast amongst the enemy was worn off, and had left
them.

Whilst yet Alcibiades was with the fleet, they went before Syracuse
with a squadron of sixty galleys, fifty of them lying in array
without the harbor, while the other ten rowed in to reconnoiter,
and by a herald called upon the citizens of Leontini to return to
their own country. These scouts took a galley of the enemy's, in
which they found certain tablets, on which was set down a list of
all the Syracusans, according to their tribes. These were wont to
be laid up at a distance from the city, in the temple of Jupiter
Olympius, but were now brought forth for examination to furnish a
muster-roll of young men for the war. These being so taken by the
Athenians, and carried to the officers, and the multitude of names
appearing, the diviners thought it unpropitious, and were in
apprehension lest this should be the only destined fullfilment of
the prophecy, that "the Athenians shall take all the Syracusans."
Yet, indeed, this was said to be accomplished by the Athenians at
another time, when Callippus the Athenian, having slain Dion,
became master of Syracuse. But when Alcibiades shortly after
sailed away from Sicily, the command fell wholly to Nicias.
Lamachus was, indeed, a brave and honest man, and ready to fight
fearlessly with his own hand in battle, but so poor and ill off,
that whenever he was appointed general, he used always, in
accounting for his outlay of public money, to bring some little
reckoning or other of money for his very clothes and shoes. On the
contrary, Nicias, as on other accounts, so, also, because of his
wealth and station, was very much thought of. The story is told that
once upon a time the commission of generals being in consultation
together in their public office, he bade Sophocles the poet give
his opinion first, as the senior of the board. "I," replied
Sophocles, "am the older, but you are the senior."  And so now,
also, Lamachus, who better understood military affairs, being quite
his subordinate, he himself, evermore delaying and avoiding risk,
and faintly employing his forces, first by his sailing about Sicily
at the greatest distance aloof from the enemy, gave them
confidence, then by afterwards attacking Hybla, a petty fortress,
and drawing off before he could take it, made himself utterly
despised. At the last he retreated to Catana without having
achieved anything, save that he demolished Hyocara, a humble town
of the barbarians, out of which the story goes that Lais the
courtesan, yet a mere girl, was sold amongst the other prisoners,
and carried thence away to Peloponnesus.

But when the summer was spent, after reports began to reach him
that the Syracusans were grown so confident that they would come
first to attack him, and troopers skirmishing to the very camp
twitted his soldiers, asking whether they came to settle with the
Catanians, or to put the Leontines in possession of their city, at
last, with much ado, Nicias resolved to sail against Syracuse. And
wishing to form his camp safely and without molestation, he
procured a man to carry from Catana intelligence to the Syracusans
that they might seize the camp of the Athenians unprotected, and
all their arms, if on such a day they should march with all their
forces to Catana; and that, the Athenians living mostly in the
town, the friends of the Syracusans had concerted, as soon as they
should perceive them coming, to possess themselves of one of the
gates, and to fire the arsenal; that many now were in the
conspiracy and awaited their arrival. This was the ablest thing
Nicias did in the whole of his conduct of the expedition. For
having drawn out all the strength of the enemy, and made the city
destitute of men, he set out from Catana, entered the harbor, and
chose a fit place for his camp, where the enemy could least
incommode him with the means in which they were superior to him,
while with the means in which he was superior to them, he might
expect to carry on the war without impediment.

When the Syracusans returned from Catana, and stood in battle array
before the city gates, he rapidly led up the Athenians and fell on
them and defeated them, but did not kill many, their horse
hindering the pursuit. And his cutting and breaking down the
bridges that lay over the river gave Hermocrates, when cheering up
the Syracusans, occasion to say, that Nicias was ridiculous, whose
great aim seemed to be to avoid fighting, as if fighting were not
the thing he came for. However, he put the Syracusans into a very
great alarm and consternation, so that instead of fifteen generals
then in service, they chose three others, to whom the people
engaged by oath to allow absolute authority.

There stood near them the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which the
Athenians (there being in it many consecrated things of gold and
silver) were eager to take, but were purposely withheld from it by
Nicias, who let the opportunity slip, and allowed a garrison of the
Syracusans to enter it, judging that if the soldiers should make
booty of that wealth, it would be no advantage to the public, and
he should bear the guilt of the impiety. Not improving in the
least this success, which was everywhere famous, after a few days'
stay, away he goes to Naxos, and there winters, spending largely
for the maintenance of so great an army, and not doing anything
except some matters of little consequence with some native
Sicilians that revolted to him. Insomuch that the Syracusans took
heart again, made excursions to Catana, wasted the country, and
fired the camp of the Athenians. For which everybody blamed
Nicias, who, with his long reflection, his deliberateness, and his
caution, had let slip the time for action. None ever found fault
with the man when once at work, for in the brunt he showed vigor
and activity enough, but was slow and wanted assurance to engage.

When, therefore, he brought again the army to Syracuse, such was
his conduct, and with such celerity, and at the same time security,
he came upon them, that nobody knew of his approach, when already
he had come to shore with his galleys at Thapsus, and had landed
his men; and before any could help it he had surprised Epipolae,
had defeated the body of picked men that came to its succor, took
three hundred prisoners, and routed the cavalry of the enemy, which
had been thought invincible. But what chiefly astonished the
Syracusans, and seemed incredible to the Greeks, was, in so short a
space of time the walling about of Syracuse, a town not less than
Athens, and far more difficult, by the unevenness of the ground,
and the nearness of the sea and the marshes adjacent, to have such
a wall drawn in a circle round it; yet this, all within a very
little, finished by a man that had not even his health for such
weighty cares, but lay ill of the stone, which may justly bear the
blame for what was left undone. I admire the industry of the
general, and the bravery of the soldiers for what they succeeded
in. Euripides, after their ruin and disaster, writing their
funeral elegy, said that

Eight victories over Syracuse they gained,
While equal yet to both the gods remained.

And in truth one shall not find eight, but many more victories, won
by these men against the Syracusans, till the gods, in real truth,
or fortune intervened to check the Athenians in this advance to the
height of power and greatness.

Nicias, therefore, doing violence to his body, was present in most
actions. But once, when his disease was the sharpest upon him, he
lay in the camp with some few servants to attend him. And Lamachus
having the command fought the Syracusans, who were bringing a
cross-wall from the city along to that of the Athenians, to hinder
them from carrying it round; and in the victory, the Athenians
hurrying in some disorder to the pursuit, Lamachus getting
separated from his men, had to resist the Syracusan horse that came
upon him. Before the rest advanced Callicrates, a man of good
courage and skill in war. Lamachus, upon a challenge, engaged with
him in single combat, and receiving the first wound, returned it so
home to Callicrates, that they both fell and died together. The
Syracusans took away his body and arms, and at full speed advanced
to the wall of the Athenians, where Nicias lay without any troops
to oppose to them, yet roused by this necessity, and seeing the
danger, he bade those about him go and set on fire all the wood and
materials that lay provided before the wall for the engines, and
the engines themselves; this put a stop to the Syracusans, saved
Nicias, saved the walls, and all the money of the Athenians. For
when the Syracusans raw such a fire blazing up between them and the
wall, they retired.

Nicias now remained sole general, and with great prospects; for
cities began to come over to alliance with him, and ships laden
with corn from every coast came to the camp, everyone favoring
when matters went well. And some proposals from among the
Syracusans despairing to defend the city, about a capitulation,
were already conveyed to him. And in fact Gylippus, who was on his
way with a squadron to their aid from Lacedaemon, hearing, on his
voyage, of the wall surrounding them, and of their distress, only
continued his enterprise thenceforth, that, giving Sicily up for
lost, he might, if even that should be possible, secure the
Italians their cities. For a strong report was everywhere spread
about that the Athenians carried all before them, and had a general
alike for conduct and for fortune invincible.