Plutarch's Lives Volume II Part 13

[Footnote 81: Plutarch calls her a Syrian. Martha may have been a Syrian name, as well as a Jewish name. Syrians and Jews flocked to Rome in great numbers under the later Republic and the Empire, and got their living in various ways not always reputable. The Jews at Rome used to cause disturbances in the popular a.s.semblies in Cicero's time.

(Cic. _Pro Flacco_, c. 28.) Jews and Syrians are often mentioned together by the Roman writers. The Jews at Rome were greatly troubled at the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Dictator Caesar, and they crowded round the place where the body was burnt for nights in succession. Caesar had rather favoured the nation for their services in the Alexandrine War.

(Suetonius, _Caesar_, c. 84, and Casaubon's note.)]

[Footnote 82: He wrote on Natural History; among other things, a History of Birds, from which this story is probably taken. There is evidently an error in the text [Greek: espazonto tous stratiotas]

?sp????t? t??? st?at??t??. I have adopted Reiske's emendation.]

[Footnote 83: Pessinus was in Galatia, properly a part of Phrygia, and the seat of the temple of Cybele, the Mother of the G.o.ds or the Great Mother. In the second Punic War the Romans sent amba.s.sadors to Pessinus, and got permission to convey to Rome the Great Mother of the G.o.ds, who was a sacred stone. The Sibylline Books had declared that when a foreign enemy was in Italy, he could be driven out, if the Idaean mother, for Cybele was so called also, was brought to Rome. The G.o.ddess was received at Rome (B.C. 203) with great respect, and placed in the temple of Victory. (Livius, 29, c. 10, &c.) Plutarch does not explain how the G.o.ddess now happened to be in Asia and Rome at the same time, for there is no account of her leaving Rome after she was taken there. The annual celebration called Megalesia, that is, the festival of the Great Mother, was inst.i.tuted at Rome in honour of the G.o.ddess, and celebrated in the spring. (Herodia.n.u.s, i. 32, &c.) It was a tradition that the stone fell from the skies at Pessinus. There was another great stone in Syria (Herodia.n.u.s, v. 5), in the temple of the Sun, which was wors.h.i.+pped: the stone was round in the lower part, and gradually tapered upwards; the colour was black, and the people Aida that it fell from heaven. It is probable that these stones were aerolites, the falling of which is often recorded in ancient writers, and now established beyond all doubt by repeated observation in modern times. (See _Penny Cyclopaedia_, "aerolites.") There is a large specimen in the British Museum. The immediate cause of the Romans sending for the Great Mother was a heavy shower of stones at Rome, an occurrence which in those days was very common. One might have supposed that one of the Roman aerolites would have answered as well as the stone of Pessinus, but the stone of Pessinus had the advantage of being consecrated by time and coming from a distance, and it was probably a large stone. Cf. Plut. Lys. ch. 12.]

[Footnote 84: This is Aix, about eighteen Roman miles north of Ma.r.s.eilles. Places which were noted for warm springs or medicinal springs were called by the Romans Aquae, Waters, with some addition to the name. The colony of Aquae s.e.xtiae was founded by C. s.e.xtius Calvinus B.C. 120, after defeating the Salyes or Saluvii, in whose country it was. The springs of Aix fell off in repute even in ancient times, and they have no great name now; the water is of a moderate temperature.

Other modern towns have derived their name from the same word Aquae, which is probably the same as the Celtic word Ac or Acq. There is an Aix in Savoy, and Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in the Rhine Province of Prussia. Sometimes the Aquae took a name from a deity. In France there were the Aquae Bormonis, the waters of the G.o.d Bormo (Bourbonnes-les-Bains): in England, Aquae Sulis, the Waters of the G.o.ddess Sulis, which by an error became Solis in our books, as if they were called the waters of the Sun. The inscriptions found at Bath name the G.o.ddess Sulia.]

[Footnote 85: Plutarch means to say that the Ambrones and Ligurians were of one stock, and some writers conclude that they were both Celts. This may be so or it may not, for evidence is wanting. Of all the absurd parade of learning under which ancient history has been buried by modern critics, the weightiest and the most worthless part is that which labours to discover the relations.h.i.+p of people of whom we have only little, and that little often conflicting, evidence.]

[Footnote 86: The Lar according to D'Anville, not the Arc.]

[Footnote 87: Statements of numbers killed are not worth much, even in any modern engagements. Velleius (ii. 12) makes the number of barbarians who fell in both battles above 150,000.]

[Footnote 88: The Romans called it Ma.s.silia; now Ma.r.s.eilles. It was an old Greek colony of the Phokaeans. Strabo (p. 183) says that the people of Ma.s.silia aided the Romans in these battles and that Marius made them a present of the cut which he had formed from the Rhone to the sea, which the Ma.s.silians turned to profit by levying a toll on those who used it.]

[Footnote 89: A Greek lyric poet who lived in the seventh century B.C.

His fragments have often been collected.]

[Footnote 90: This was an old Roman fas.h.i.+on. (Livius, 1, c. 37; 41, c.

16.)]

[Footnote 91: Plutarch often uses the word Fortune [Greek: tuche]

t?c?, the meaning of which may be collected from the pa.s.sages in which it occurs. Nemesis [Greek: Nemesis] ??es?? is a Greek G.o.ddess, first mentioned by Hesiod, and often mentioned by the Greek Tragoedians. She is the enemy of excessive prosperity and its attendant excessive pride and arrogance; she humbles those who have been elevated too high, tames their pride and checks their prosperous career. Nemesis had a temple and statue at Rhamnus in Attica.]

[Footnote 92: The Roman Athesis, the Italian Adige, the German Etsch.

The extravagance of this chapter of Plutarch is remarkable.]

[Footnote 93: The Eagle, Aquila, was the Roman standard in use at this time. Formerly the Romans had five symbols for their standards, the eagle, wolf, minotaur, horse, and wild boar, all of which were appropriated to respective divisions of the army. Marius in this Cimbrian war did away with all of them except the eagle. (Plinius, _N.H_. x. 4.)]

[Footnote 94: The Sequani were a Gallic people who were separated from the Helvetii by the range of the Jura, on the west side of which their territory extended from the Rhine to the Rhone and the Saone. (Florus iii. 3) mentions Teutobocus as the name of a king who was taken by the Romans and appeared in the triumph of Marius; he was a man of such prodigious stature that he towered above his own trophies which were carried in the procession.]

[Footnote 95: The object of this contrivance is explained by Plutarch, and it is clear enough. There is no reason then to imagine another purpose in the design, as some do, which moreover involves an absurdity.]

[Footnote 96: Near Vercelli in Piemont on the Sesia, a branch of the Po, which the Greeks generally call Erida.n.u.s, and the Romans, Padus.

The plain of Vercelli, in which the battle was fought, is called by Velleius (ii. 12) Raudii campi. The situation of the Raudii campi can only be inferred from Plutarch. Some geographers place them north of Milan.]

[Footnote 97: Plutarch pays no attention to the movements of an army, and his battles are confused. He had perhaps no great turn for studying military movements, and their minute details did not come within his plans.]

[Footnote 98: Plutarch alludes to Sulla's memoirs in twenty-two books, which, he frequently refers to. Catulus wrote a history of the war and of his consuls.h.i.+p, which Cicero (_Brutus_, c. 35) compares as to style with Xenophon. It appears from Plutarch's remark that he had not seen the work of Catulus.]

[Footnote 99: [Greek: Dibolia] ?????a is the reading that I have followed. I have given the meaning here and in the first part of the next chapter as well as I can.]

[Footnote 100: This was the Roman expression for dedicating something to a sacred purpose. After the victory Catulus consecrated a temple at Rome "To the Fortune of this Day."]

[Footnote 101: s.e.xtilis, the sixth month of the Roman year when the year began in March, was called Augustus in honour of Augustus Caesar, as Quintilis or the fifth month was called Julius in honour of the Dictator Caesar.]

[Footnote 102: Reiske would make the amba.s.sadors to be from Panormus (Palermo) in Sicily.]

[Footnote 103: Marius was now Consul. Catulus was only Proconsul. He was consul the year before.]

[Footnote 104: The allusion is to Romulus, and M. Furius Camillus, who saved Rome in the Gallic invasion B.C. 300.]

[Footnote 105: L. Appuleius Saturninus was tribune in the year B.C.

100, in the sixth consuls.h.i.+p of Marius. He was put to death in the same year (c. 30), though his death is not mentioned there by Plutarch.

C. Servilius Glaucia was praetor in this year. He lost his life at the same time with Saturninus. This Servilius was a great favourite with the people. He proposed and carried a law De Pecuniis Repetundis, or on mal-administration in a public office, some fragments of which are preserved on a bronze tablet, and have been commented on by Klenze, Berlin, 1825, 4to.]

[Footnote 106: Rutilius Rufus was consul B.C. 105. He was accused of malversation in his proconsuls.h.i.+p of Asia, B.C. 99, convicted by the judices, who at that time were taken from the Equites, and retired to Smyrna, where he spent the rest of his days. He wrote his own Memoirs in Latin, and a history of Rome in Greek. He was an honest man, according to all testimony, and innocent of the offence for which he was convicted. (Compare Tacitus, _Agricola_, 1; and C. Gracchus, notes, c. 5.)]

[Footnote 107: The consuls.h.i.+ps of M. Valerius Corvus were comprised between B.C. 348 and B.C. 299 (See Livius, 8, c. 26.)]

[Footnote 108: He was murdered at the instigation of Saturninus and Glaucia as he was leaving the place of a.s.sembly. He fled into an inn or tavern to escape, but he was followed by the rabble and killed.

(Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 28.)]

[Footnote 109: The law related to the lands which the Cimbri had taken from the Gauls in Cisalpine Gaul, and which the Romans now claimed as theirs because they had taken them from the Cimbri. Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 29, &c.) gives the history of the events in this chapter.]

[Footnote 110: Appian's account is clearer than Plutarch's. He says that Metellus withdrew before the pa.s.sing; of the enactment by which he was banished. This was the usual formula by which a person was put under a ban, and it was called the Interdiction of "fire and water,"

to which sometimes "house" is added, as in this case. The complete expression was probably fire, water, and house. Cicero had the same penalty imposed on him, but he withdrew from Rome, like Metellus, before the enactment was carried. There is no extant Life of Metellus Numidicus by Plutarch.]

[Footnote 111: The story of the death of Saturninus and Glaucia is told by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 32). These men committed another murder before they were taken off. They set men upon Memmius, who was the compet.i.tor of Glaucia for the consuls.h.i.+p, and Memmius was killed with clubs in the open day while the voting was going on. The Senate made a decree that Marius should put down these disturbers, but he acted unwillingly and slowly. The supply of water, according to Appian, was cut off by others, before Marius began to move. These turbulent times are spoken of by Cicero in his oration for C.

Rabirius, c. 11. Marius put the men who surrendered into the Senate-house, but the people pulled the tiles off the roof and pelted the prisoners with the tiles till they died.]

[Footnote 112: The return of Metellus was mainly due to the exertions of his son, who thence obtained the name of Pius. He was restored B.C.

99 by an enactment (lex) which was necessary in order to do away with the effect of the Interdict. Cicero was restored in like manner. One Publius Furius, a tribune, the son of a man who had once been a slave, successfully opposed the return of Metellus during his year of office.

In the next year Furius was out of office, and Caius Canuleius, a tribune, prosecuted him for his conduct before the people (populi judicium), who had not patience enough to listen to his defence; they tore him in pieces in the Forum. Metellus was detained a whole day at the gates of Rome with receiving the congratulations of his friends on his return. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 33.)]

[Footnote 113: See the Life of Sulla.]

[Footnote 114: The Social, called also the Marsic, war, from the warlike nation of the Marsi who were active in it, commenced B.C. 91 and was not completely ended till B.C. 88. The immediate cause of the Social war, or the war of the Italian Allies (Socii) of the Romans, was the rejection of a measure proposed by the tribune M. Livius Drusus, which was to give to the Italian allies the rights of Roman citizens. The Allies were subject States of Rome, which supplied the Romans with men and money for their wars and contributed to their victories. They claimed to have the political rights of Romans as a compensation for their burdens; and they succeeded in the end. The war was at first unfavourable to the Romans. In the consuls.h.i.+p of L.

Julius Caesar, B.C. 90, a Lex Julia was proposed which gave the Roman citizens.h.i.+p to all the Italians who had continued faithful to Rome, if they chose to accept it. A Lex Plautia Papiria of the following year extended the Lex Julia and gave the Roman citizens.h.i.+p to all the allies except the Samnites and Lucanians. Sulla finished the war. (See Life of Sulla.)]

[Footnote 115: The MSS. of Plutarch vary in this name. His true name was Pompaedius Silo: he was the leader of the Marsi. He fell in battle against Metellus Pius.]

[Footnote 116: Publius Sulpicius Rufus was tribune B.C. 88 in the first consuls.h.i.+p of Sulla. Cicero had heard many of the speeches of Sulpicius. "He was," says Cicero, "of all the orators that ever I heard, the most dignified, and if one may use the expression, the most tragic: his voice was powerful, sweet, and clear; his gesture and every movement graceful; and yet he seemed as if he were trained for the Forum and not for the stage; his language was rapid and flowery, and yet not redundant or diffuse." (Brutus, c. 55.) Yet this great orator was no writer, and Cicero had heard him say that he was not accustomed to write and could not write. The fact of his inability to write is sufficiently explained by the fact that he did not try.

Cicero has made Sulpicius one of the speakers in his Book on the Orator, where (iii. 3) he admits that he was a rash man. (See _Penny Cyclopaedia_, "P. Sulpicius Rufus," by the author of this note; and as to his end, see Sulla, c. 10.)]

[Footnote 117: Baiae on the north side of the Bay of Naples, and near Puteoli (Pozzuoli), was a favourite residence of the wealthy Romans, who came for pleasure and to use the warm baths. The promontory of Misenum is near Baiae.]

[Footnote 118: Plutarch means drachmae. (See Tiberius Gracchus, c. 2.)]

[Footnote 119: The history of this affair is given somewhat more clearly by Appian (_Civil Wars_, i. 55). Marius gave the Italians who had lately obtained the franchise, hopes that they would be distributed among the other tribes, and thus they would have a preponderance, for they were more numerous than the old citizens.

Sulpicius accordingly proposed a law to this effect, which was followed by a great disturbance, upon which the consuls Pompeius and Sulla proclaimed a Just.i.tium such as was usual on festivals. A Just.i.tium signifies a stopping of all legal proceedings: during a Just.i.tium nothing could be done; and the consuls adopted this measure to prevent the proposed law of Sulpicius from being carried. Appian says that Sulpicius carried this law, and the tribes in which the new citizens now had the majority appointed Marius to the command in the war against Mithridates. But Sulla and Pompeius afterwards got all the laws of Sulpicius repealed on the ground of being earned by unconst.i.tutional means. (Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 59).]