Plutarch's Lives Volume III Part 40

Courage and wisdom are less objects of envy than good character or wealth, and perhaps, because most men feel that they are not capable of having the one or the other. The notion of envy implies that the person has, or thinks he has, the same capability as another who has something which he has not. A man who is not a painter does not envy a great painter; a man who is a painter may envy a great painter. The ma.s.s may admire the honest man who is of higher rank than themselves, even if they have no regard for honesty; but they do not envy; they wonder as at something which is above them. But if the honest man is of their own station in life, and has a character of integrity, they may envy him for his superiority. It appears that if there is a number of people who are generally on a footing of equality, any superiority which one may acquire over the rest, makes him an object of envy. If high character for integrity brings power and credit with it, there must be some persons with whom the power and the credit prevail, but these are the persons who are farthest removed from rivalry with him who has the credit. Those who are nearer to him are the persons who envy, who feel that the superiority of one man makes their inferiority. Plutarch a.s.sumes the existence of a cla.s.s who love the just and give them credit, and of a cla.s.s who envy them; but the two cla.s.ses of persons are not the same.]

[Footnote 728: This name recurs in the Symposium and Phaedon of Plato.

The second sentence in this chapter is very corrupt in the original, and the translation is merely a guess at the meaning. Favonius was aedile in B.C. 53 (Dion Ca.s.sius, 40. c. 45).]

[Footnote 729: Some apology is necessary for translating "pears "

([Greek: apious] ?p????, in the original said to mean "pears") into "parsley." The context shows clearly enough that pears are not meant.

Kaltwa.s.ser has made the "pears" into "celery," and there is just as good reason for making "parsley" of them. Plutarch may have misunderstood the Roman word "apium" or confounded it with the Greek.]

[Footnote 730: Scipio was the father-in-law of Cornelia, the last wife of Pompeius (Life of Pompeius, c. 55). As to P. Plautus Hypsaeus, see the Life of Pompeius, c. 55. t.i.tus Annius Milo afterwards killed Clodius, and Cicero defended him on his trial (Life of Cicero, c.

35).]

[Footnote 731: Pompeius was sole consul B.C. 53, for seven months, after which he had his father-in-law Scipio as his colleague.]

[Footnote 732: T. Munatius Plancus Bursa was a tribune in B.C. 52.

When Clodius was killed by Milo, the populace, who loved Clodius, took the dead body into the Curia Hostilia, at the instigation of Bursa and his colleague Rufus, and making a pile of the benches, burnt the body and the Curia with it (Dion Ca.s.sius, 40. c. 49, 55). Bursa was tried for his share in this matter and convicted, to the great joy of Cicero, who was his accuser. Cicero speaks of this affair in a letter to Marius (_Ad Diversos_, vii. 2).]

[Footnote 733: Servius Sulpicius Rufus, a friend of Cicero, who has recorded his great talents, and a distinguished Jurist. He was consul in B.C. 51 with M. Claudius Marcellus.]

[Footnote 734: Kaltwa.s.ser refers to the Life of Caesar, c. 22, for an explanation of the first part of this chapter; and to the Life of Caesar, c. 29, and to that of Pompeius, c. 58, for the transactions which are mentioned in the latter part of this chapter.]

[Footnote 735: Caesar took Ariminum (Rimini) in B.C. 49. See the Life of Caesar, c. 33, and the Life of Pompeius, c. 60.]

[Footnote 736: In South Italy, now Calabria Ultra. This Munatius was probably Munatius Rufus.]

[Footnote 737: In Caesar's Anticato, which has often been mentioned. It seems that Caesar raked up all that he could in Cato's life that was against him, and this affair of Marcia furnished him with plausible matter. Hortensius died B.C. 50. Drumann remarks (_Porcii_, p. 198), "that she lived, after the year 56, in which she reconciled Cato with Munatius Rufus, with the consent of Cato, with Hortensius, after whose death in the year 50 she returned into her former relation," that is, she became again the wife of Cato. If so, Cato must have married her again (see note, c. 25), as Plutarch says that he did. Drumann speaks as if Cato had a reversion of her, which became an estate in possession after the estate of Hortensius was determined by her death.]

[Footnote 738: The quotation is from the Hercules [Greek: Herakles mainomenos] ??a???? a???e??? of Euripides (v. 173), one of the extant plays.]

[Footnote 739: See Life of Caesar, c. 72.]

[Footnote 740: Another allusion to the Anticato. It is difficult to see what probable charge Caesar could make of this circ.u.mstance. The meaning of Plutarch may easily be conjectured (Drumann, _Porcii_, p.

192).]

[Footnote 741: See the Life of Pompeius, c. 65; and the Life of Caesar, c. 39.]

[Footnote 742: Cn. Pompeius, the elder son of Pompeius Magnus is meant. It is conjectured that the word "young" ([Greek: neon] ????) has fallen out of the text (compare c. 58). He had been sent by his father to get s.h.i.+ps, and he arrived with an Egyptian fleet on the coast of Epirus shortly before the battle of Pharsalus. On the news of the defeat of Pompeius Magnus, the Egyptians left him (Dion Ca.s.sius, 42. c. 12).]

[Footnote 743: He must also have seen Cornelia, for s.e.xtus was with her. Life of Pompeius, c. 78.]

[Footnote 744: These people are described by Herodotus (iv. 173) as having been all destroyed by the sands of the deserts, and their country, which was on the Syrtis, being occupied by the Nasamones.

Lucan (_Pharsalia_, ix. 891) has made the Psylli occupy a conspicuous place in the march of Cato.

"Gens unica terras Incolit a saevo serpentum innoxia morsu, Marmaridae Psylli: par lingua potentibus herbis, Ipse cruor tutus, nullumque admittere virus Vel cantu cessante potest."

Seven days is much too little for the march from Cyrene to the Carthaginian territory, and there is either an error in Plutarch's text or a great error in his geography.]

[Footnote 745: The name Libya occurs four times in this chapter. Libya was the general name for the continent, but the term did not include Egypt. In the first two instances in which the name occurs in this chapter, the word is used in the general sense. In the other two instances it means the Roman province of Africa. Kaltwa.s.ser has used the term Africa in all the four instances. It is immaterial which is used, if rightly understood in both cases.]

[Footnote 746: See the Life of Caesar, c. 53, 54, 55, and the references in the notes.]

[Footnote 747: See the Life of Antonius, c. 81.]

[Footnote 748: See the Life of Caesar, c. 52, and Dion Ca.s.sius, 42, c.

57. This Scipio was unworthy of the name and unequal to the times.]

[Footnote 749: The Greek writers represent the name in different ways.

Plutarch writes [Greek: Ituke] ?t???. Dion Ca.s.sius writes it [Greek: Outike] ??t???. This old Phnician city was on the coast near the mouth of the river Bagradas; but its supposed remains are some distance inland. (Shaw's _Travels in Barbary_, &c., p. 79, 4to.

edition.)]

[Footnote 750: See the Life of Caesar, c. 53, and Dion Ca.s.sius, 43, c.

7. The battle was fought in B.C. 46.]

[Footnote 751: The son of Cn. Octavius, who was consul B.C. 76. Marcus was Curule aedile B.C. 50. (Drumann, _Octavii_, p. 225.)]

[Footnote 752: He was the son of L. Julius Caesar, consul B.C. 64. The son was pardoned by Caesar (_Bell. Afric._ c. 88, 89). Dion Ca.s.sius (43, c. 12) says that Caesar first brought him to trial, but as he was unwilling to condemn him by his own authority, he privately got him put to death. The statement of Dion is deficient in precision, incredible by reason of Caesar's well-known clemency, and the insignificance of Lucius as an enemy, and not altogether reconcilable with other authorities. (Drumann, _Julii_, p. 125.)]

[Footnote 753: The Phaedon which contains the last conversation of Socrates, and his death. The incident of the reading of the Dialogue, and the reflections which it suggested, have been used by Addison in his frigid and bombastic tragedy of Cato.]

[Footnote 754: Kaltwa.s.ser quotes a note of Dacier who cannot conceive how Cato could read so long a Dialogue through twice in so short a time. It is equally a matter of wonder how any body could know that he read it through once. The fact that he had the book and was reading it is all that could be known. Another difficulty that is suggested by Dacier is, that the Dialogue contains the strongest arguments against suicide; but perhaps this difficulty is removed by the suggestion that in one pa.s.sage it is said that a man should not kill himself till the deity has sent a kind of necessity; and Cato might conceive, as he did conceive, that the necessity had come to him.

The suicide of Cato was a peculiar case and hardly belongs to the more general cases of suicide. His position, if he had lived under the domination of Caesar, would have been intolerable to a man of his principles; for that he might have lived by Caesar's grace, if he had chosen, can hardly be doubted notwithstanding Caesar wrote his Anticatones.]

[Footnote 755: This was P. Licinius Cra.s.sus Junia.n.u.s, a Junius who had been adopted by a Cra.s.sus, as the name shows.]

[Footnote 756: [Greek: ede d' ornithes edon] ?d? d' ?????e? ?d??. The translators do not agree about these words. Dacier and others translate them literally, as I have done. Kaltwa.s.ser translated them, "and already the c.o.c.ks crowed." He adds that the other translation is wrong, because it is said immediately after, that it was still night.

But what follows as to the night does not prove that it was dark; it rather implies that there was not much sleeping time that remained before morning. c.o.c.ks sometimes crow in the night, it is true, but Plutarch evidently means to show by the expression that the morning was dawning, and so the birds might be singing, if there were any birds in Utica. The matter is appropriate for a dissertation, which would be as instructive as many other dissertations on matters of antiquity.]

[Footnote 757: Appian (_Civil Wars_, ii. 98, &c.) tells the story of his death differently. He says that the wound was sewed up, and that being left alone, he tore his bowels out. But it is improbable that, if the wound had been sewed up, he would have been left alone. The story of Dion Ca.s.sius (43, c. 11) is the same. See Florus, iv. 2, 71, who says that he killed himself "circa primam vigiliam."]

[Footnote 758: As he died in B.C. 46, he was in the forty-ninth year of his age. His chatacter requires no comment; it has been fully delineated by Plutarch. A single letter of Cato to Cicero is extant (_Ad Diversos_, xv. 5); and a letter of such a man is worth reading, though it be short. His speech against the conspirators, which Sall.u.s.t has given, may contain the matter, but not the words of Cato.]

[Footnote 759: He had his father's property. After Caesar's death he joined M. Brutus, the husband of his sister Portia, and fell at Philippi B.C. 42. This son of Cato had a younger brother (c. 52), whose mother was Marcia, but nothing more is known of him. The death of the wife of Brutus is told in the Life of Brutus, c. 13, 53.]

END OF VOL. III.