Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 17

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

[Footnote 269: This is the Faz, or Reone, which enters the south-east angle of the Euxine in the country of the Colchi.]

[Footnote 270: The Abas river is conjectured by some writers to be the Alazonius, which was the boundary between Iberia and Albania, The Abas is mentioned by Dion Ca.s.sius, 37. c. 3.]

[Footnote 271: [Greek: epi ten tou thorakos epiptuchen] ?p? t?? t??

???a??? ?p?pt???? Apparently some part of the coat of mail where there was a fold to allow of the motion of the body. As to the battle see Dion Ca.s.sius, 37. c. 3, &c.]

[Footnote 272: Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 103) says "Among the hostages and the captives were found many women, who were wounded as much as the men; and they were supposed to be Amazons, whether it is that some nation called Amazons borders on them, and they were then invited to give aid, or that the barbarians in those parts call any warlike women by the name of Amazons." The explanation of Appia.n.u.s is probably the true explanation. Instances of women serving as soldiers are not uncommon even in modern warfare. The story of a race of fighting women occurs in many ancient writers. The Amazons are first mentioned by Herodotus (iv. 110-116). There is a story of a hundred armed women being presented to Alexander (Arrian, vii. 13, &c., who gives his opinion about them). Strabo (p. 503) says that Theophanes, who accompanied Pompeius in this campaign, places the Gelae and Legae between the Albanians and the Amazons. It is probable that the women of the mountain tribes of the Caucasus sometimes served in the field, and this at least may explain the story here told by Plutarch. The chief residence of the Amazons is placed in the plains of Themiscyra on the Thermodon in Cappadocia. Plutarch in his confused notions of geography appears to consider the Thermodon as a Caucasian river. He also places them near the Leges, a name which resembles that of the Lesghians, one of the present warlike tribes of the Caucasus. On antient medals the Amazons are represented with a short vest reaching to the knee, and one breast bare. Their arms were a crescent s.h.i.+eld, the bow and arrow, and the double axe, whence the name Amazonia was used as a distinctive appellation for that weapon (Amazonia securis, Horat. _Od._ iv. 4).]

[Footnote 273: The Caspian sea or lake was also called the Hyrkanian, from the province of Hyrkania which bordered on the south-east coast.

The first notice of this great lake is in Herodotus (i. 203).]

[Footnote 274: The Elymaei were mountaineers who occupied the mountainous region between Susiana and Media. Gordyene was in the most south-eastern part of Armenia. Tigranocerta was in Gordyene. Appia.n.u.s says that in his time Sophene and Gordyene composed the Less Armenia (_Mithridatic War_, c. 105). In the territory of Arbela, where the town of Arbil now is, Alexander had defeated Darius, the last king of Persia.]

[Footnote 275: Another Greek woman, as we may infer from the name. The story of the surrender of the fort by Stratonike is told by Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 107) with some additional particulars. Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 7) names this fort Symphorium.

The narrative of Plutarch omits many circ.u.mstances in the campaigns of Pompeius, which Appia.n.u.s has described (c. 105, 106) a happening between the arrangement with Tigranes and the surrender of the fort by Stratonike. Among these events was the war in Judaea and the capture of Jerusalem. Pompeius entered the Holy of Holies in the Temple, into which only the high priest could enter, and that on certain occasions.

Jerusalem was taken B.C. 63 in the consuls.h.i.+p of Cicero. The events of this campaign are too confused to be reduced into chronological order.

Drumann has attempted it (_Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 451, &c.)]

[Footnote 276: Plutarch means the fort which he has mentioned in the preceding chapter without there giving it a name; the Symphorium of Dion. It was on the river Lycus, not quite 200 stadia from Cabira (Strabo, 556), and was an impregnable place.]

[Footnote 277: [Greek: Hupomnemata] ?p???ata: probably written in Greek, with which Mithridates was well acquainted. These valuable memoirs were used by Theophanes in his history of the campaigns of Pompeius. Theophanes was a native of Mitylene in Lesbos and accompanied Pompeius in several of his campaigns. He is often mentioned by Cicero (Cicero, _Ad Attic._, ii. 4, and the notes in the Variorum edition).]

[Footnote 278: The character of Mithridates is only known to us from his enemies. But his own memoirs, if the truth is here stated, prove his cruel and vindictive character. He spared neither his friends nor his own children. Among others he put to death his son Xiphares by Stratonike to revenge himself on the mother for giving up the fort Kaenum.]

[Footnote 279: See the Life of Sulla, c. 6. The registration of dreams and their interpretation, that is the events which followed and were supposed to explain them, were usual among the Greeks. There is still extant one of these curious collections by Artemidorus Daldia.n.u.s in five books, ent.i.tled Oneirocritica, or The Interpretation of Dreams.

The fifth book of 'Results' contains ninety-five dreams of individuals and the events which happened.]

[Footnote 280: See the Life of Lucullus, c. 18.]

[Footnote 281: Publius Rutilius Rufus was consul B.C. 105. He was exiled in consequence of being unjustly convicted B.C. 92 at the time when the Judices were chosen from the body of the Equites. He was accused of Repetundae and convicted and exiled. He retired to Smyrna, where he wrote the history of his own times in Greek. All the authorities state that he was an honest man and was unjustly condemned. (Velleius Paterculus, ii. 13; Tacitus, _Agricola_, c. 1: and the various pa.s.sages in Orelli, _Onomasticon_, P. Rutilius Rufus.)]

[Footnote 282: See the Life of Lucullus, c. 14.]

[Footnote 283: The strait that unites the Euxine to the Maeotis or Sea of Azoff, was called the Bosporus, which name was also given to the country on the European side of the strait, which is included in the peninsula of the Crimea.]

[Footnote 284: See Dion Ca.s.sius, 37. c. 5.]

[Footnote 285: This is the Indian Ocean. The name first occurs in Herodotus. It is generally translated the Red Sea, and so it is translated by Kaltwa.s.ser. But the Red Sea was called the Arabian Gulf by Herodotus. However, the term Erythraean Sea was sometimes used with no great accuracy, and appears to have comprehended the Red Sea, which is a translation of the term Erythraean, as the Greeks understood that word ([Greek: erythros] ???????, Red).]

[Footnote 286: Triarius, the legatus of Lucullus, had been defeated three years before by Mithridates. See the Life of Lucullus, c. 35; and Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 89).]

[Footnote 287: This mountain range is connected with the Taurus and runs down to the coast of the Mediterranean, which it reaches at the angle formed by the Gulf of Scanderoon.]

[Footnote 288: This campaign, as already observed in the notes to c.

36, is placed earlier by Appia.n.u.s, but his chronology is confused and incorrect. The siege of Jerusalem, which was accompanied with great difficulty, is described by Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 15, &c.), and by Josephus (_Jewish Wars_, xiv. 4). There was a great slaughter of the Jews when the city was stormed.]

[Footnote 289: This country was Gordyene. (Dion Ca.s.sius, 37. c. 5.)]

[Footnote 290: This city, the capital of Syria, was built by Seleucus Nicator and called Antiocheia after his father Antiochus. It is situated in 36 12' N. lat. on the south bank of the Orontes, a river which enters the sea south of the Gulf of Scanderoon.]

[Footnote 291: The meaning of the original is obscure. The word is [Greek: to imation] t? ??t???, which ought to signify his vest or toga. Some critics take it to mean a kind of handkerchief used by sick persons and those of effeminate habits; and they say it was also used by persons when travelling, as a cover for the head, which the Greeks called Theristerium. The same word is used in the pa.s.sage (c. 7), where it is said that "Sulla used to rise from his seat as Pompeius approached and take his vest from his head." Whatever may be the meaning of the word here, Plutarch seems to say that this impudent fellow would take his seat at the table before the guests had arrived and leave his master to receive them.]

[Footnote 292: Drumann (_Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 53) observes that "Plutarch does not say that Pompeius built his house near his theatre, but that he built it in addition to his theatre and at the same time, as Donatus had perceived, De Urbe Roma, 3, 8, in Graev.

Thes. T. 3, p. 695." But Drumann is probably mistaken. There is no great propriety in the word [Greek: epholkion] ?f?????? unless the house was near the theatre, and the word [Greek: paretektenato]

pa?ete?t??at? rather implies 'proximity,' than 'in addition to.'

This was the first permanent theatre that Rome had. It was built partly on the model of that of Mitylene and it was opened in the year B.C. 55. This magnificent theatre, which would accommodate 40,000 people, stood in the Campus Martius. It was built of stone with the exception of the scena, and ornamented with statues, which were placed there under the direction of Atticus, who was a man of taste. Augustus embellished the theatre, and he removed thither the statue of Pompeius, which up to that time had stood in the Curia where Caesar was murdered. The scena was burnt down in the time of Tiberius, who began to rebuild it; but it was not finished till the reign of Claudius.

Nero gilded the interior. The scena was again burnt in the beginning of the reign of t.i.tus, who restored it again. The scena was again burnt in the reign of Philippus and a third time restored. (Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 521; Dion Ca.s.sius 39. c. 88, and the notes of Reimarus.)]

[Footnote 293: Petra, the capital of the Nabathaei, is about half way between the southern extremity of the Dead Sea and the northern extremity of the aelanitic Gulf, the more eastern of the two northern branches of the Red Sea. The ruins of Petra exist in the Wady Musa, and have been visited by Burckhardt, Irby and Mangles, and last by Laborde, who has given the most complete description of them in his 'Voyage de l'Arabie Petree,' Paris, 1830. The place is in the midst of a desert, but has abundance of water. Its position made it an important place of commerce in the caravan trade of the East; and it was such in the time of Strabo, who states on the authority of his friend Athonodorus that many Romans were settled there (p. 779). It contains numerous tombs and a magnificent temple cut in the rock, a theatre and the remains of houses.

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

[Footnote 294: The Paeonians were a Thracian people on the Strymon.

(Herodotus, v. 1.) It appears from Dion Ca.s.sius (49. c. 36) that the Greeks often called the Pannonians by the name of Paeonians, which Sintenis considers a reason for not altering the reading here into Pannonians. Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 102) uses the name Paeonians, though he means Pannonians.]

[Footnote 295: This is the Roman word. Compare Tacitus (_Annal._ i.

18): "congerunt cespites, exstruunt tribunal."]

[Footnote 296: The circ.u.mstances of the rebellion of Pharnakes and the death of Mithridates are told by Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 110) and Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 11). Mithridates died B.C. 63, in the year in which Cicero was consul.

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

[Footnote 297: [Greek: to nemeseton] t? ?e?s?t??.]

[Footnote 298: The body of Mithridates was interred at Sinope.

Appia.n.u.s (_Mithridatic War_, c. 113) says that Pharnakes sent the dead body of his father in a galley to Pompeius to Sinope, and also those who had killed Manius Aquilius, and many hostages Greeks and barbarians. There might be some doubt about the meaning of the words 'many corpses of members of the royal family' [Greek: polla somata ton basilikon] p???a s?ata t?? as?????? but Plutarch appears from the context to mean dead bodies. Two of the daughters of Mithridates who were with him when he died, are mentioned by Appia.n.u.s (c. 111) as having taken poison at the same time with their father. The poison worked on them, but had no effect on the old man, who therefore prevailed on a Gallic officer who was in his service to kill him.

(Compare Dion Ca.s.sius, 39. c. 13, 14.)]

[Footnote 299: He made it what the Romans called Libera Civitas, a city which had its own jurisdiction and was free from taxes. Compare the Life of Caesar, c. 48.]

[Footnote 300: He was a native of Apamea in Syria, a Stoic, and a pupil of Panaetius. He was one of the masters of Cicero, who often speaks of him and occasionally corresponded with him (Cicero, _Ad Attic._ ii. 1). Cicero also mentions Hermagoras in his treatise De Inventione (i. 6, and 9), and in the Brutus (c. 79).]

[Footnote 301: See the Life of Sulla, c. 6.]

[Footnote 302: She was the daughter of Q. Mucius Scaevola, consul B.C.

95, and the third wife of Pompeius, who had three children by her. She was not the sister of Q. Metellus Nepos and Q. Metellus Celer, as Kaltwa.s.ser says, but a kinswoman. Cn. Pompeius and s.e.xtus Pompeius were the sons of Mucia. Cicero (_Ad Attic._ i. 12) speaks of the divorce of Mucia and says that it was approved of; but he does not a.s.sign the reason. C. Julius Caesar (Suetonius, _Caesar_, c. 50) is named as the adulterer or one of them, and Pompeius called him his aegisthus. After her divorce in the year B.C. 62 Mucia married M.

aemilius Scaurus, the brother of the second wife of Pompeius. Mucia survived the battle of Actium (B.C. 31), and she was treated with respect by Octavia.n.u.s Caesar (Dion Ca.s.sius, 51. c. 2; Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, Pompeii, p. 557).]

[Footnote 303: Here and elsewhere I have used Plutarch's word [Greek: monarchia] ??a???a, 'The government of one man,' by which he means the Dictators.h.i.+p, in some pa.s.sages at least.]

[Footnote 304: He landed in Italy B.C. 62, during the consuls.h.i.+p of D.

Junius Sila.n.u.s and L. Licinius Murena. The request mentioned at the beginning of c. 44 is also noticed in Plutarch's Life of Cato (c. 30).

M. Pupius Piso was one of the consuls for B.C. 61.]