Plutarch's Lives Volume II Part 27

Plutarch means the soldiers of the Roman legion.]

[Footnote 398: This termination Certa or Cirta is common to many Asiatic towns (See chapter 21). It is probably the same termination as in the Persian Parsagarda; and signified town or inclosure. The site of Tigranocerta is not certain. There appears to be no reason for identifying it with Sert except the resemblance of name. St. Martin contends that Amida on the east bank of the Tigris, occupied the site of Tigranocerta. The modern Diyarbeker is on the west bank of the Tigris opposite to Amida. (_London Geog. Journal_, viii. 77). Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 84) speaks of the foundation of Tigranocerta.]

[Footnote 399: The Adiabeni occupied a tract that was apparently a part of the old a.s.syria on the east side of the Tigris. The element _diab_ perhaps exists in the Zab, one of the rivers which flow in the Tigris.]

[Footnote 400: The same name occurs in the Life of Sulla, c. 15. See Life of Alexander, c. 59, note.]

[Footnote 401: This is the river now generally called the Aras, which flows into the Caspian on the south-west side. Before it enters the sea, it is joined by the Cyrus, now the Cur.]

[Footnote 402: See the Life of Sertorius, c. 3. The rout of this large army of Tigranes is described by Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 85). The day was the 6th of October, and the year B.C. 69. The loss that is reported in some of these ancient battles seems hardly credible; but it is explained here. There was in fact no battle: the enemy were struck with a panic and fled. An immense mult.i.tude if seized with alarm requires no enemy to kill them. The loss of life that may occur in a frightened crowd is enormous.]

[Footnote 403: See chapter 42.]

[Footnote 404: See Life of Sulla, c. 26, Notes.]

[Footnote 405: This part of Livius is lost; but it belonged to the ninety-eighth book, as we see from the Epitome.]

[Footnote 406: The capture is described by Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c, 86), and by Dion Ca.s.sius (35, c. 2).]

[Footnote 407: Compare Appian, c. 87, and Dion Ca.s.sius (35, c. 3).

Sall.u.s.tius in the fourth book of his History has given a long letter, which we may presume to be his own composition, from Mithridates to Arsakes, this Parthian king, in which he urges him to fight against the Romans. (_Fragmenta Hist._ ed. Corte.)]

[Footnote 408: Lucullus was marching northward, and he had to ascend from the lower country to the high lands of Armenia, where the seasons are much later than in the lower country. He expected to find the corn ripe. Nothing precise as to his route can be collected from Plutarch.

He states that Lucullus came to the Arsanias, a river which he must cross before he could reach Artaxata. Strabo (p. 528) describes Artaxata as situated on a peninsula formed by the Araxes (Aras) and surrounded by the stream, except at the isthmus which joined it to the mainland; the isthmus was defended by a ditch and rampart. The ruins called Takt Tiridate, the Throne of Tiridates, which have been supposed to represent Artaxata, are twenty miles from the river, and the place where they stand owed its strength solely to the fortifications. Below the junction of the Zengue and Aras, which unite near Erivan, "the river (Aras) winds very much, and at least twenty positions nearly surrounded by the river presented themselves."

Colonel Monteith, who makes this remark (_London Geog. Journal_, iii.

47), found no ruins on the banks of the river which answered to the description of Artaxata; for what he describes as near the remains of a Greek or Roman bridge over the Aras do not correspond to the description of Strabo. The remains of Artaxata, if they exist, must be looked for on some of the numerous positions which are nearly surrounded by the river.

The Arsanias is described by Plinius (_Hist. Nat_. v. 24) as flowing into the Euphrates, and, it appears, into the Murad or eastern branch which rises at no great distance S.W. of Ararat. It is probable that Lucullus entered Armenia by some of the pa.s.ses west of Lake Van; but his route can hardly be conjectured.]

[Footnote 409: The Mardi were a nation that lived south of the Caspian and bordered on the Hyrkani. As to the Iberians of Asia, see the Life of Tiberius Gracchus, c. 7, Notes. It is incorrectly stated there that Lucullus invaded the country of the Iberians.]

[Footnote 410: This word is probably corrupted. See the note of Sintenis. The simplest correction is "Atropateni."]

[Footnote 411: Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 87) gives a very confused account of this campaign. It is briefly described by Dion Ca.s.sius (35, c. 5).]

[Footnote 412: This is the modern Nisibin in 37 N. lat. on the Jakhjakhah, the ancient Mygdonius. The Mygdonius is a branch of the Chaborras, which flows into the Euphrates. Nisibin is now a small place with "about a hundred well-built houses, and a dozen shops kept by Christians" (Forbes, _London Geog. Journal_, ix. 241). Two tall columns of marble and the church of St. James, which is built from fragments of Nisibis, are the only remains of a city which is often mentioned in the ancient history of the East.

The town is mentioned by Tacitus (_Annal._ xv. 35) under the name of Nisibis, and he places it thirty-nine Roman miles from Tigranocerta.

Nisibis is also the name in Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus. Dion Ca.s.sius (36, c.

6, 7) describes the siege and capture of Nisibis. This event belongs to the year B.C. 68.]

[Footnote 413: Compare Dion Ca.s.sius (36, c. 16) as to the behaviour of Lucullus. He was too strict a disciplinarian for soldiers who were accustomed to licence; and he did not even attempt to win the love of his men by kindness. The mutinous army that he could not control was quiet and obedient to Pompeius.]

[Footnote 414: This is the same person who is mentioned in c. 5. The Roman name is Quinctius, which is corrupted in the MSS. of Plutarch.

This Lucius was tribune of the Plebs B.C. 74, the year of the consuls.h.i.+p of Lucullus. In this chapter Plutarch calls him one of the Praetors ([Greek: hena ton strategon] ??a t?? st?at????), which Kaltwa.s.ser has translated "one of the tribunes of the people."]

[Footnote 415: This, I think, is the sense of the pa.s.sage, to which Reiske gives a very different meaning. I have given the same meaning that Kaltwa.s.ser and Coraes have. See the note in Schaefer's edition.]

[Footnote 416: Manius Acilius Glabrio, consul B.C. 67, was first appointed to succeed Lucullus; but Pompeius contrived to get the command given to himself B.C. 66. "Plutarch, who refers elsewhere to the appointment of Glabrio (_Pomp._ c. 30) has not here (c. 33, 34) sufficiently distinguished it from that of Pompey, which he has antic.i.p.ated. For Pompey was not appointed till the following year"

(Clinton, _Fasti h.e.l.len._).]

[Footnote 417: Compare Dion Ca.s.sius, 35, c. 10, &c.; and Appian, c.

88, &c.]

[Footnote 418: When a country was conquered and it was intended to make of it a Roman province, commissioners were sent out, usually Senators, to a.s.sist the general in organizing the provincial government. Compare Livius, 45, c. 17.]

[Footnote 419: Pompeius was appointed by a Lex Manilia, in favour of which Cicero spoke in an oration, which is still extant, Pro Lege Manilia. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 30.]

[Footnote 420: This is the Greek [Greek: daphne] d?f??, and the Roman Laurus, which is incorrectly translated "laurel."]

[Footnote 421: Compare Life of Pompeius, c. 31, Dion Ca.s.sius, 36, c.

29. and Velleius Patercules, ii. 33.]

[Footnote 422: The Caspian Lake was sometimes so called from the Hyrkani, who occupied the country on the south-east side of this great lake.]

[Footnote 423: See the Life of Cra.s.sus.]

[Footnote 424: This Caius Memmius was tribune of the Plebs in the year B.C. 66, in which year Lucullus returned to Rome. Memmius was not satisfied with prosecuting M. Lucullus; he revenged himself for his failure by debauching his wife, to which Cicero alludes in the following pa.s.sage (_Ad Attic._ i. 18): "C. Memmius has initiated the wife of M. Lucullus in his own sacred rites. Menelaus (M. Lucullus) did not like this, and has divorced his wife. Though that shepherd of Ida insulted Menelaus only; this Paris of ours has not considered either that Menelaus or Agamemnon should be free." Cicero is here alluding to the opposition which Memmius made to the triumph of L.

Lucullus. Memmius was a man of ability, but of dissolute habits. He was accused of bribery at the consular election, and being convicted, retired to Athens. Several letters of Cicero to him are still extant.

Lucretius dedicated his poem to Memmius. See the Note of Manutius on Cicero, _Ad Familiares_, xiii. 1.

Orelli (_Onomastic._ C. Memmius Gemillus) refers to Cicero, _Pro Balbo_, c. 2, to show that this Memmius was quaestor under Pompeius in his Spanish campaign. But according to Plutarch, a Memmius fell in battle in this war (Life of Sertorius, c. 21).]

[Footnote 425: Lucullus triumphed B.C. 63, in the consuls.h.i.+p of Cicero. (Cicero, _Academ. Prior_, ii. 1.)]

[Footnote 426: Servilia was the half sister of M. Porcius Cato the younger. Livia, the daughter of M. Livius Drusus, who was consul B.C.

112 and the sister of the tribune M. Livius Drusus B.C. 91, was married to M. Porcius Cato, by whom she became the mother of M.

Porcius Cato the younger, or of Utica. She was divorced from Cato, and then married Q. Servilius Caepio, the brother of the Caepio who was defeated by the Cimbri. Some critics made Caepio her first husband. She had by Caepio a daughter Servilia, who married L. Lucullus, and another Servilia, who married M. Junius Brutus and was the mother of M. Junius Brutus, one of the a.s.sa.s.sins of C. Julius Caesar. Plutarch in various pa.s.sages clearly distinguishes these two women, though some critics think there was only one Servilia. Caesar was a lover of the mother of Brutus, and he gave her an estate at Naples. (Cicero, _Ad Attic_, xiv.

21.)]

[Footnote 427: This is the word of Plutarch ([Greek: tes aristokratias] t?? ???st???at???), which he seems to use here like the Roman "n.o.bilitas" to express the body of the n.o.biles or Optimates, as they were called by a term which resembled the Greek [Greek: aristoi]

???st??. (See Tiberius Gracchus, c. 10, notes.)]

[Footnote 428: The original is made somewhat obscure by the words [Greek: hosper ou] ?spe? ??, which introduce the concluding sentence; it is not always easy to see in such cases whose is the opinion that is expressed. Plutarch means to say that Lucullus thought that luxury was more suitable to his years than war or affairs of state, and that Pompeius and Cra.s.sus differed from him on this point. Compare the Life of Pompeius, c. 48.]

[Footnote 429: These gardens in the reign of Claudius belonged to Valerius Asiaticus. Messalina the wife of Claudius, coveted the gardens, and Valerius, after being charged with various offences was graciously allowed by the emperor to choose his own way of dying. In these same gardens Messalina was put to death. (Tacitus, _Ann._ xi. 1.

37.)]

[Footnote 430: There is the tunnel near Naples, called Posilipo, which is a Roman work, and is described by Strabo (p. 246); but its date is unknown.]

[Footnote 431: Tubero the Stoic was Q. aelius Tubero, who was Tribune of the Plebs B.C. 133 and opposed Tiberius Gracchus. He was also an opponent of Caius (Cicero, _Brutus_, c. 31, and Meyer's notes). But this cannot be the contemporary of Lucullus, and Plutarch either means Q. aelius Tubero the historian, or he has mistaken the period of Tubero the Stoic. Ruhnken proposes to read in the text of Plutarch "historian" for "stoic," but it is better to suppose that Plutarch was mistaken, about the age of the Stoic. The owners.h.i.+p of good sayings is seldom undisputed. Velleius Paterculus (ii. 83) attributes this to Pompeius Magnus. The allusion is to Xerxes the Persian, who dug a ca.n.a.l through the flat isthmus which connects the rocky peninsula of Athos with the mainland (Herodotus, vii. 22), which still exists.]

[Footnote 432: There is some corruption in the text; but the general meaning is clear enough.]

[Footnote 433: This is the story which Q. Horatius Flaccus tells in his Epistolae, Lib. i. Ep. 6.]

[Footnote 434: This is one of many like indications in Plutarch of his good opinion of his countrymen. Compare the life of Cra.s.sus, c. 8, where he is speaking of Spartacus.]

[Footnote 435: Plutarch's allusion would be intelligible to a Greek, but hardly so to a Roman, unless he was an educated man. A prytaneum in a Greek city was a building belonging to the community, on the altar of which was kept the ever-burning fire. In the prytaneum of Athens, entertainments were given both to foreign amba.s.sadors and to citizens who had merited the distinction of dining in the prytaneum, a privilege that was given sometimes for life, and sometimes for a limited period. As the town-hall of any community is in a manner the common home of the citizens, so Plutarch compares the house of Lucullus, which was open to all strangers, with the public hall of a man's own city.]