Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 4

[Footnote 36: This lake, which Plutarch spells Leukanis, is placed by Kaltwa.s.ser in the vicinity of Paestum or Poseidonia, but on what grounds I do not know. Strabo indeed (p. 251) states that the river makes marshes there, but that will not enable us to identify them.

Cramer (_Ancient Italy_, ii. 366) places here the Stagnum Lucanum, where Plutarch "mentions that Cra.s.sus defeated a considerable body of rebels under the command of Spartacus (Plut. Vit. Cra.s.s.)": but nothing is given to prove the a.s.sertion. He adds, "In this district we must also place the Mons Calamatius and Mons Cathena of which Frontinus speaks in reference to the same event (_Stratagem_, ii. 4); they are the mountains of Capaccio." This is founded on Cluverius, but Cluverius concludes that the Calamatius of Frontinus (ii. 4, 7), or Calamarcus as the MSS. seem to have it, is the same as the Cathena of Frontinus (ii. 5, 34); for in fact Frontinus tells the same story twice, as he sometimes does. It is a mistake to say that Frontinus is speaking "of the same event," that is, the defeat of the gladiators on the lake. He is speaking of another event, which is described farther on in this chapter, when Cra.s.sus attacks Cannicius and Crixus, and "sent," as Frontinus says (ii. 4, 7), " twelve cohorts round behind a mountain."]

[Footnote 37: This was Marcus Lucullus, the brother of Lucius.]

[Footnote 38: 'To the Peteline mountains' in the original. Strabo speaks of a Petelia in Lucania (p. 254), which some critics suppose that he has confounded with the Petilia in the country of the Bruttii.

The reasons for this opinion are stated by Cramer (_Ancient Italy_, ii. 367, 390).]

[Footnote 39: 'Quintus' in the text of Plutarch, which is a common error. 'L. Quintius' in Frontinus (ii. 5, 34).]

[Footnote 40: The same thing is told in the Life of Pompeius, c. 21.]

[Footnote 41: In the Life of Marcellus, c. 22, Plutarch describes the minor triumph, called the Ovatio, which name is from the word 'ovis' a sheep; for a sheep only was sacrificed by the general who had the minor triumph; he who had the greater triumph, sacrificed an ox. In an ovatio the general walked in the procession, instead of riding in a chariot drawn by four horses, as in the Triumphus Curulis; and he wore a crown of myrtle, instead of a crown of bay which was worn on the occasion of the greater triumph. But Plinius (_Hist. Nat._ xv. 29) says that Cra.s.sus wore a crown of bay on the occasion of this ovation.]

[Footnote 42: The first consuls.h.i.+p of M. Licinius Cra.s.sus and Cn.

Pompeius Magnus belongs to B.C. 70.]

[Footnote 43: The story is told again in the Life of Pompeius, c. 23, where Aurelius is called Caius Aurelius, which is probably the true name.]

[Footnote 44: Cra.s.sus was censor with Lutatius Catulus in B.C. 65. The duties of the censors are here briefly alluded to by Plutarch. One of the most important was the numbering of the people and the registration of property for the purposes of taxation. This quarrel of the censors is mentioned by Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 9).]

[Footnote 45: The conspiracy of Catiline was in B.C. 63, the year when Cicero was consul. See the Life of Cicero.

There seems to be no evidence that Cra.s.sus was implicated in the affair of Catiline. Dion Ca.s.sius (37. c. 31) speaks of anonymous letters about the conspiracy being brought to Cra.s.sus and other n.o.bles; and Plutarch states on the authority of Cicero that Cra.s.sus communicated the letters to Cicero. Dion Ca.s.sius in another pa.s.sage (37. c. 35) mentions the suspicion against Cra.s.sus, and that one of the prisoners informed against him, "but there were not many to believe it." If Dion did not believe it, we need not; for he generally believes anything that is to a man's discredit. Sall.u.s.tius (_Bellum Catilin._ c. 48) has given us a statement of the affair, but his own opinion can scarcely be collected from it. He says, however, that he had heard Cra.s.sus declare that Cicero was the instigator of this charge. The orations of Cicero which Plutarch refers to are not extant.]

[Footnote 46: The text is corrupt, though the general meaning is plain. See the note of Sintonis.]

[Footnote 47: The son of Cra.s.sus, who is introduced abruptly in Plutarch's fas.h.i.+on.]

[Footnote 48: After Caesar had been praetor in Spain he was elected consul B.C. 59, with M. Calpurnius Bibulus (see the Life of Caesar, c.

14). After his consuls.h.i.+p Caesar had the Gauls as his province. The meeting at Luca (Lucca), which was on the southern limits of Caesar's province, took place B.C. 56; and here was formed the coalition which is sometimes, though improperly, called the first Triumvirate.]

[Footnote 49: The second consuls.h.i.+p of Pompeius and Cra.s.sus was B.C.

55. Cn. Cornelius Lentulus Marcellinus was one of the consuls of the year B.C. 56, during which the elections for the year 55 took place.

This Domitius, L. Domitius Ahen.o.barbus, was consul B.C. 54. In the quarrel between Pompeius and Caesar, he joined Pompeius, and after various adventures finally he lost his life in the battle of Pharsalus B.C. 48.]

[Footnote 50: The first 'house' ([Greek: oikia] ????a) is evidently the house of Domitius. The second house ([Greek: oikema] ????a), which may be more properly rendered 'chamber,' may, as Sintenis says, mean the Senate-house, if the reading is right. Kaltwa.s.ser takes the second house to be the same as the first house; and he refers to the Life of Pompeius, c. 51, 52, where the same story is told.

In place of [Greek: oikema] ????a some critics have read [Greek: bema] ?a the Rostra.]

[Footnote 51: Appian (_Civil Wars_, ii. 18) says that Pompeius received Iberia and Libya. The Romans had now two provinces in the Spanish peninsula, Hispania Citerior or Tarraconensis, and Ulterior or Baetica. This arrangement, by which the whole power of the state was distributed among Pompeius, Cra.s.sus and Caesar, was in effect a revolution, and the immediate cause of the wars which followed.

Appian (_Civil Wars_, ii. 18) after speaking of Cra.s.sus going on his Parthian expedition in which he lost his life, adds, "but the Parthian History will show forth the calamity of Cra.s.sus." Appian wrote a Parthian History; but that which is now extant under the name is merely an extract from Plutarch's Life of Cra.s.sus, beginning with the sixteenth chapter: which extract is followed by another from Plutarch's Life of Antonius. The compiler of this Parthian History has put at the head of it a few words of introduction. The extract from Cra.s.sus is sometimes useful for the various readings which it offers.]

[Footnote 52: This wife was Caesar's daughter Julia, whom Pompeius married in Caesar's consuls.h.i.+p (Vell. Paterc. ii. 44). She was nearly twenty-three years younger than Pompeius. Julia died B.C. 54, after giving birth to a son, who died soon after her. She possessed beauty and a good disposition. The people, with whom she was a favourite, had her buried in the Field of Mars. See the Lives of Pompeius and Caesar.]

[Footnote 53: That is the Lex which prolonged Caesar's government for five years and gave Iberia (Spain) and Syria to Pompeius and Cra.s.sus for the same period. The Lex was proposed by the Tribune t.i.tus Trebonius (Livius, _Epitome_, 105; Dion Ca.s.sius, 39. c. 33).]

[Footnote 54: C. Ateius Capito Gallus and his brother tribune P.

Aquillius Gallius were strong opponents of Pompeius and Cra.s.sus at this critical time. Cra.s.sus left Rome for his Parthian campaign at the close of B.C. 55, before the expiration of his consuls.h.i.+p (Clinton, _Fasti_, B.C. 54).]

[Footnote 55: We learn that Cra.s.sus sailed from Brundisium (Brindisi), the usual place of embarkation for Asia, but we are told nothing more of his course till we find him in Galatia, talking to old Deiotarus.]

[Footnote 56: Zenodotia or Zenodotium, a city of the district Osrhoene, and near the town of Nikephorium. These were Greek cities founded by the Macedonians. I have mistranslated the first part of this pa.s.sage of Plutarch from not referring at the time to Dion Ca.s.sius (40. c. 13) who tells the story thus:--"The inhabitants of Zenodotium sent for some of the Romans, pretending that they intended to join them like the rest; but when the men were within the city, they cut off their retreat and killed them; and this was the reason why their city was destroyed." The literal version of Plutarch's text will be the true one. "But in one of them, of which Apollonius was tyrant, a hundred of his soldiers were put to death, upon," &c.]

[Footnote 57: This was his son Publius, who is often mentioned in Caesar's Gallic War.]

[Footnote 58: See Life of Lucullus, c. 22.]

[Footnote 59: Hierapolis or the 'Holy City' was also called Bambyke and Edessa. Strabo places it four schoeni from the west bank of the Euphrates. The G.o.ddess who was wors.h.i.+pped here was called Atargatis or Astarte. Lucian speaks of the G.o.ddess and her temple and ceremonial in his treatise 'On the Syrian G.o.ddess' (iii. p. 451, ed. Hemsterhuis).

Lucian had visited the place. Josephus adds (_Jewish Antiq._ xiv. 7) that Cra.s.sus stripped the temple of Jerusalem of all its valuables to the amount of ten thousand talents. The winter occupation of the Roman general was more profitable than his campaign the following year turned out.]

[Footnote 60: This was a general name of the Parthian kings, and probably was used as a kind of t.i.tle. The dynasty was called the Arsakidae. The name Arsakes occurs among the Persian names in the Persae of Aeschylus. Pott (_Etymologische Forschungen_, ii. 272) conjectures that the word means 'King of the Arii,' or 'the n.o.ble King.' The prefix _Ar_ or _Ari_ is very common in Persian names, as Ariamnes, Ariomardus, and others.

Plutarch in other pa.s.sages of the Life of Cra.s.sus calls this Arsakes, Hyrodes, and other authorities call him Orodes. He is cla.s.sed as Arsakes XIV. Orodes I. of Parthia, by those who have attempted to form a regular series of the Parthian kings.

Cra.s.sus replied that he would give his answer in Seleukeia, the large city on the Tigris, which was nearly pure Greek. The later Parthian capital was Ktesiphon, in the neighbourhood of Seleukeia, on the east bank of the Tigris and about twenty miles from Bagdad. The foundation of Ktesiphon is attributed by Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus (xxiii. 6, ed.

Gronov.) to Bardanes, who was a contemporary of the Roman emperor Nero, if he is the Arsakes Bardanes who appears in the list of Parthian kings. But Ktesiphon is mentioned by Polybius in his fifth book, in the wars of Antiochus and Molon, and consequently it existed in the time of Cra.s.sus, though it is not mentioned in his Life.

Ktesiphon is mentioned by Dion Ca.s.sius (40. c. 14) in his history of the campaign of Cra.s.sus, but this alone would not prove that Ktesiphon existed at that time.]

[Footnote 61: The Greek word here and at the beginning of ch. xix., translated 'mailed' by Mr. Long, always refers to cuira.s.sed cavalry soldiers.]

[Footnote 62: C. Ca.s.sius Longinus, the friend of M. Junius Brutus, and afterwards one of the a.s.sa.s.sins of the Dictator Caesar.]

[Footnote 63: He is afterwards called Artavasdes. He was a son of the Tigranes whom Lucullus defeated, and is called Artavasdes I. by Saint-Martin. He is mentioned again in Plutarch's Life of M. Antonius.

c. 39, 50.]

[Footnote 64: Zeugma means the Bridge. Seleukus Nikator is said to have established a bridge of boats here, in order to connect the opposite bank with Apameia, a city which he built on the east side of the Euphrates (Plinius, _Hist. Nat._ v. 24). Zeugma afterwards was a usual place for crossing the river; but a bridge of boats could hardly be permanently kept there, and it appears that Cra.s.sus had to construct a raft. Zeugma is either upon or near the site of Bir, which is in about 37 N. Lat.]

[Footnote 65: Probably these great hurricanes are not uncommon on the Euphrates. In the year 1831 a gale sent Colonel Chesney's "little vessel to the bottom of the river;" but a still greater calamity befel the Tigris steamer in the Euphrates expedition which was under the command of Colonel Chesney, in May 1836. A little after one P.M. a storm appeared bringing with it clouds of sand from the west-north-west. The two steam-boats the Tigris and the Euphrates were then pa.s.sing over the rocks of Es-Geria, which were deeply covered with water. The Euphrates was safely secured; but the Tigris, being directed against the bank, struck with great violence; the wind suddenly veered round and drove her bow off; "this rendered it quite impossible to secure the vessel to the bank, along which she was blown rapidly by the heavy gusts; her head falling off into the stream as she pa.s.sed close to the Euphrates, which vessel had been backed opportunely to avoid the concussion." The Tigris perished in this violent hurricane and twenty men were lost in her. The storm lasted about eight minutes. Colonel Chesney escaped by swimming to the sh.o.r.e just before the vessel went down: he was fortunate "to take a direction which brought him to the land, without having seen anything whatever to guide him through the darkness worse than that of night."--"For an instant," says Colonel Chesney after getting to land, "I saw the keel of the Tigris uppermost (near the stern); she went down bow foremost, and having struck the bottom in that position, she probably turned round on the bow as a pivot, and thus showed part of her keel for an instant at the other extremity; but her paddle beams, floats, and parts of the sides were already broken up, and actually floated ash.o.r.e, so speedy and terrific had been the work of destruction." (Letter from Colonel Chesney to Sir J. Hobhouse, 28th May, 1836; Euphrates Expedition Papers printed by order of the House of Commons, 17th July, 1837.)

Ammia.n.u.s Marcellinus (xxiv. 1) speaks of a violent storm at Anatha (Annah) on the Euphrates, during the expedition of the Emperor Julian.

It blew down the tents and stretched the soldiers on the ground.]

[Footnote 66: A place struck with lightning was considered religious (religiosus), that is, it could no longer be used for common purposes.

"The deity," says Festus (v. _Fulguritum_), "was supposed to have appropriated it to himself."

Dion Ca.s.sius (40. c. 17, &c.) gives the story of the pa.s.sage of the river. The eagle, according to him, was very obstinate. It stuck fast in the ground, as if it was planted there; and when it was forced up by the soldiers, it went along very unwillingly.

The Roman eagle was fixed at one end of a long shaft of wood, which had a sharp point at the other end for the purpose of fixing it in the ground. The eagle was gold, or gilded metal; and, according to Dion Ca.s.sius, it was kept in a small moveable case or consecrated chapel.

The eagle was not moved from the winter encampment, unless the whole army was put in motion. The Vexilla ([Greek: semeia] s?e?a of the Greek writers) were what we call the colours.

(See the note of Reimarus on Dion Ca.s.sius, 40. c. 18.)]

[Footnote 67: Dion Ca.s.sius (40. c. 20), who tells the story, names the man Augarus. See the note of Reimarus.]

[Footnote 68: This is the translation of Plutarch's word [Greek: pelates] pe??t??, which word [Greek: pelates] pe??t?? is used by the Greek writers on Roman history to express the Latin Cliens. It is not here supposed that Parthian clients were the same as Roman clients; but as Plutarch uses the word to express a certain condition among the Parthians, which was not that of slavery, it is proper to retain his word in the translation.]

[Footnote 69: This "very Hyrodes" and his brother Mithridates are said to have murdered their father Arsakes XII. Phraates III., who is spoken of in the Life of Lucullus. The two brothers quarrelled.