Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 19

59 is the consul of B.C. 50, according to Dion Ca.s.sius (40. c. 66 41.

c. 1, &c.) and Appia.n.u.s.]

[Footnote 340: Cicero returned from his government of Cilicia B.C.

50.]

[Footnote 341: See the Life of Caesar, c. 32.]

[Footnote 342: L. Volcatius Tullus who had been consul B.C. 66 ('Consule Tullo'), Horatius (_Od._ iii. 8).]

[Footnote 343: The reply of Pompeius is given by Appia.n.u.s (_Civil Wars_, ii. 37). As to the confusion in Rome see Dion Ca.s.sius (42. c.

6-9); and the references in Clinton, _Fasti_, B.C. 49.]

[Footnote 344: Plutarch here omits the capture of Corfinium, which took place before Caesar entered Rome. See Dion Ca.s.sius (41. c. 10), and the Life of Caesar, c. 34.]

[Footnote 345: L. Metullus, of whom little is known. Kaltwa.s.ser makes Caesar say to Metellus, "It was not harder for him to say it than to do it;" which has no sense in it. What Caesar did say appears from the Life of Caesar, c. 35. Caesar did not mean to say that it was as easy for him to do it as to say it. He meant that it was hard for him to be reduced to say such a thing; as to doing it, when he had said it, that would be a light matter. Sintenis suspects that the text is not quite right here. See the various readings and his proposed alteration; also Cicero, _Ad Attic._ x. 4.]

[Footnote 346: Caesar (_Civil War_, i. 25, &c.) describes the operations at Brundisium and the escape ot Pompeius. Compare also Dion Ca.s.sius (41. c. 12); Appia.n.u.s (_Civil Wars_, ii. 39). The usual pa.s.sage from Italy to Greece was from Brundisium to Dyrrachium (Durazzo), which in former times was called Epid.a.m.nus (Thucydides, i.

24; Appia.n.u.s, _Civil Wars_, ii. 39).]

[Footnote 347: This does not appear in Caesar's Civil War.]

[Footnote 348: This opinion of Cicero is contained in a letter to Atticus (vii. 11). When Xerxes invaded Attica (B.C. 480), Themistokles advised the Athenians to quit their city and trust to their s.h.i.+ps. The naval victory of Salamis justified his advice. In the Peloponnesian War (B.C. 431) Perikles advised the Athenians to keep within their walls and wait for the Caesar invaders to retire from Attica for want of supplies; in which also the result justified the advice of Perikles. Cicero in his letters often complains of the want of resolution which Pompeius displayed at this crisis.]

[Footnote 349: Plutarch means that Caesar feared that Pompeius had everything to gain if the war was prolonged.

In his Civil War (i. 24) Numerius is called Cneius Magius, 'Praefectus fabrorum,' or head of the engineer department. Sintenis observes that Oudendorp might have used this pa.s.sage for the purpose of restoring the true praenomen in Caesar's text, 'Numerius' in place of 'Cneius.']

[Footnote 350: These vessels took their name from the Liburni, on the coast of Illyric.u.m. They were generally biremes, and well adapted for sea manuvres.]

[Footnote 351: A town in Macedonia west of the Thermaic Gulf or Bay of Saloniki. It appears from this that Pompeius led his troops from the coast of the Adriatic nearly to the opposite coast of Macedonia (Dion Ca.s.sius, 41. c. 43). His object apparently was to form a junction with the forces that Scipio and his son were sent to raise in the East (c.

62).]

[Footnote 352: The Romans were accustomed to such exercises as these in the Campus Martius.

------"cur apric.u.m Oderit campum patiens pulveris atque solis?

------saepe disco Saepe trans finem jaculo n.o.bilis expedito."--Horatius, _Od_. i. 8.

Compare the Life of Marius (34).

The Romans maintained their bodily vigour by athletic and military exercises to a late period of life. The bath, swimming, riding, and the throwing of the javelin were the means by which they maintained their health and strength. A Roman commander at the age of sixty was a more vigorous man than modern commanders at the like age generally are.]

[Footnote 353: Pompeius pa.s.sed the winter at Thessalonica (Saloniki) on the Thermaic Gulf and on the Via Egnatia, which ran from Dyrrachium to Thessalonica, and thence eastward. He had with him two hundred senators. The consuls, praetors, and quaestors of the year B.C. 49 were continued by the Senate at Thessalonica for the year B.C. 48 under the names of Proconsuls, Propraetors, Proquaestors. Caesar and P. Servillus Isauricus were elected consuls at Rome for the year B.C. 48 (Life of Caesar, c. 37). The party of Pompeius could not appoint new magistrates for want of the ceremony of a Lex Curiata (Dion Ca.s.sius, 41. c. 43).]

[Footnote 354: His name is t.i.tus Labienus (Life of Caesar, c. 34).

'Labeo' is a mere blunder of the copyists. Dion Ca.s.sius (41. c. 4) gives the reasons for Labienus pa.s.sing over to Pompeius. Labienus had served Caesar well in Gaul, and he is often mentioned in Caesar's Book on the Gallic War. He fell at the battle of Munda in Spain B.C. 45.

(See the Life of Caesar, c. 34, 56.)]

[Footnote 355: M. Junius Brutus. See the Life of Brutus.]

[Footnote 356: Cicero was not in the Senate at Thessalonica, though he had come over to Macedonia. (See the Life of Cicero, c. 38.)]

[Footnote 357: Tidius is not a Roman name. It should be Didius.]

[Footnote 358: The defeats of Afranius and Petreius in Iberia, in the summer of B.C. 49, are told by Caesar in his Civil War, i. 41-81.

Caesar reached Brundisium at the close of the year B.C. 49. See the remarks on the time in Clinton, _Fasti_, B.C. 49. Oric.u.m or Oricus was a town on the coast of Epirus, south of Apollonia.]

[Footnote 359: L. Vibillius Rufus appears to be the person intended.

He is often mentioned by Caesar (_Civil War_, i. 15, 23, &c.); but as the readings in Caesar's text are very uncertain (Jubellius, Jubilius, Jubulus) Sintenis has not thought it proper to alter the text of Plutarch here.

'On the third day.' Caesar (_Civil War_, iii. 10) says 'triduo proximo," and the correction of Moses du Soul, [Greek: hemera rhete]

???a ??t?, is therefore unnecessary. Pompeius had moved westward from Thessalonica at the time when Rufus was sent to him, and was in Candavia on his road to Apollonia and Dyrrachium (Caesar, _Civil War_, iii. 11).]

[Footnote 360: Pompeius returned to Dyrrachium, which it had been the object of Caesar to seize. As he had not accomplished this, Caesar posted himself on the River Apsus between Apollonia and Dyrrachium.

The fights in the neighbourhood of Dyrrachium are described by Caesar (_Civil War_, iii. 34, &c.).]

[Footnote 361: The Athamanes were on the borders of Epirus and Thessalia. In place of the Athamanes the MSS. of Caesar (_Civil War_, iii. 78) have Acarnania, which, as Drumann says, must be a mistake in the text of Caesar.]

[Footnote 362: Q. Metellus Scipio, the father-in-law of Pompeius, who had been appointed to the government of Syria by the Senate. Scipio had now come to Thesaalia (Caesar, _Civil War_, iii. 33, and 80).]

[Footnote 363: Cato was left with fifteen cohorts in Dyrrachium. See the Life of Cato, c. 55; Dion Ca.s.sius (12. c. 10).]

[Footnote 364: Or Tusculanum, as Plutarch calls it, now Frascati, about 12 miles S.E. of Rome, where Cicero had a villa.]

[Footnote 365: Lentulus Spinther, consul of B.C. 57, and L. Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, consul B.C. 54. This affair is mentioned by Caesar himself (_Civil War_, iii. 83, &c.). We have the best evidence of the b.l.o.o.d.y use that the party of Pompeius would have made of their victory is the letters of Cicero himself (_Ad Attic.u.m_, xi. 6). There was to be a general proscription, and Rome was to see the times of Sulla revived.

But the courage and wisdom of one man defeated the designs of these senseless n.o.bles. Caesar (c. 83) mentions their schemes with a contemptuous brevity.]

[Footnote 366: The town of Pharsalus was situated near the Enipeus, in one of the great plains of Thessalia, called Pharsalia. Caesar (iii.

88) does not mention the place where the battle was fought. See Appia.n.u.s, _Civil Wars_, ii. 75.]

[Footnote 367: Pompeius had dedicated a temple at Rome to Venus Victrix. The Julia (Iulia) Gens, to which Caesar belonged, traced their deecent from Venus through Iulus, the son of aeneas. (See the Life of Caesar, c. 42.)]

[Footnote 368: Caesar does not mention this meteor in his Civil War.

See Life of Caesar, c. 43, and Dion Ca.s.sius, 41. c. 61.]

[Footnote 369: A place in Thessalia north of Pharsalus where t.i.tus Quinctius Flaminius defeated King Philip of Macedonia, B.C. 197.]

[Footnote 370: [Greek: ton phoinikoun chitona] t?? f???????? ??t??a.

Shakspere has employed this in his Julius Caesar, Act V. Sc. 1:

"Their b.l.o.o.d.y sign of battle is hung out."

Plutarch means the Vexillum. He has expressed by his word ([Greek: protheinai] p???e??a?) the 'propono' of Caesar (_Bell. Gall._ ii. 20; _Bell. Hispan._ c. 28, _Bell. Alexandr._ c. 45). The 'hung out' is a better translation than 'unfurled.']

[Footnote 371: Plutarch in this as in some other instances places the Praenomen last, instead of first which he ought to do; but immediately after he writes Lucius Domitius correctly. The error may be owing to the copyists.