λόγοι δὲ παντοδαποὶ περὶ τοῦ Πομπηΐου προκατέπιπτον εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην, καὶ θόρυβος ἦν πολύς, ὡς εὐθὺς ἄξοντος ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν τὸ στράτευμα καὶ μοναρχίας βεβαίας ἐσομένης. Κράσσος δὲ τοὺς παῖδας καὶ τὰ χρήματα λαβὼν ὑπεξῆλθεν, εἴτε δείσας ἀληθῶς, εἴτε μᾶλλον, ὡς ἐδόκει, πίστιν ἀπολείπων τῇ διαβολῇ καὶ τὸν φθόνον ποιῶν τραχύτερον.
All sorts of stories about Pompey kept travelling to Rome before him, and there was much commotion there, where it was thought that he would straightway lead his army against the city, and that a monarchy would be securely established. Crassus took his children and his money and secretly withdrew, whether it was that he was really afraid, or rather, as seemed likely, because he wished to give credibility to the calumny and make the envious hatred of Pompey more severe.
εὐθὺς οὖν ἐπιβὰς Ἰταλίας ὁ Πομπήϊος καὶ συναγαγὼν εἰς ἐκκλησίαν τοὺς στρατιώτας καὶ τὰ πρέποντα διαλεχθεὶς καὶ φιλοφρονησάμενος, ἐκέλευσε διαλύεσθαι κατὰ πόλιν ἑκάστους καὶ τρέπεσθαι πρὸς τὰ οἰκεῖα, μεμνημένους αὖθις ἐπὶ τὸν θρίαμβον αὐτῷ συνελθεῖν. οὕτω δὲ τῆς στρατιᾶς σκεδασθείσης καὶ πυνθανομένων ἁπάντων πρᾶγμα συνέβη θαυμαστόν.
Pompey, accordingly, as soon as he set foot in Italy, held an assembly of his soldiers, and after he had said what fitted the occasion, and had expressed his gratitude and affection for them, he bade them disperse to their several cities and seek their homes, remembering to come together again for the celebration of his triumph. When the army had been thus disbanded and all the world had learned about it, a wonderful thing happened.
ὁρῶσαι γὰρ αἱ πόλεις Πομπήϊον Μάγνον ἄνοπλον καὶ μετʼ ὀλίγων τῶν συνήθων ὥσπερ ἐξ ἄλλης ἀποδημίας διαπορευόμενον, ἐκχεόμεναι διʼ εὔνοιαν καὶ προπέμπουσαι μετὰ μείζονος δυνάμεως συγκατῆγον εἰς τὴν Ῥώμην, εἴ τι κινεῖν διενοεῖτο καὶ νεωτερίζειν τότε, μηδὲν ἐκείνου δεόμενον τοῦ στρατεύματος.
When the cities saw Pompey the Great journeying along unarmed and with only a few intimate friends, as though returning from an ordinary sojourn abroad, the people streamed forth to show their good will, and escorting him on his way with a larger force, brought him with them back to Rome, where, had he purposed any revolutionary changes at that time, he had no need of the army that he had disbanded.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ νόμος οὐκ εἴα πρὸ τοῦ θριάμβου παρελθεῖν εἰς τὴν πόλιν, ἔπεμψεν ἀξιῶν εἰς τὴν βουλὴν ἀναβαλέσθαι τὰς τῶν ὑπάτων ἀρχαιρεσίας, καὶ δοῦναι ταύτην αὐτῷ τὴν χάριν ὅπως παρὼν Πείσωνι συναρχαιρεσιάσῃ.
Now, since the law did not permit a commander to enter the city before his triumph, Pompey sent a request to the senate that they should put off the consular elections, asking them to grant him this favour in order that he might personally assist Piso in his candidacy.
Κάτωνος δὲ πρὸς τὴν ἀξίωσιν ἐνστάντος οὐκ ἔτυχε τοῦ βουλεύματος, θαυμάσας δὲ τὴν παρρησίαν αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸν τόνον ᾧ μόνος ἐχρῆτο φανερῶς ὑπὲρ τῶν δικαίων, ἐπεθύμησεν ἁμῶς γέ πως κτήσασθαι τὸν ἄνδρα· καὶ δυεῖν οὐσῶν ἀδελφιδῶν τῷ Κάτωνι τὴν μὲν αὐτὸς ἐβούλετο λαβεῖν γυναῖκα, τὴν δὲ τῷ παιδὶ συνοικίσαι.
But Cato opposed the request, and Pompey did not get what he wished. However, Pompey admired Cato’s boldness of speech and the firmness which he alone publicly displayed in defence of law and justice, and therefore set his heart on winning him over in some way or other; and since Cato had two nieces, Pompey wished to take one of them to wife himself, and to marry the other to his son.
τοῦ δὲ Κάτωνος ὑπιδομένου τὴν πεῖραν, ὡς διαφθορὰν οὖσαν αὐτοῦ τρόπον τινὰ δεκαζομένου διὰ τῆς οἰκειότητος, ἥ τε ἀδελφὴ καὶ ἡ γυνὴ χαλεπῶς ἔφερον εἰ Πομπήϊον Μάγνον ἀποτρίψεται κηδεστήν. ἐν τούτῳ δὲ βουλόμενος ὕπατον ἀποδεῖξαι Πομπήϊος Ἀφράνιον ἀργύριον εἰς τὰς φυλὰς ἀνήλισκεν ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῦτο κατιόντες εἰς τοὺς Πομπηΐου κήπους ἐλάμβανον,
But Cato saw through the design, which he thought aimed at corrupting him and in a manner bribing him by means of marriage alliance, although his sister and his wife were displeased that he should reject Pompey the Great as a family connection. In the meantime, however, wishing to have Afranius made consul, Pompey spent money lavishly on his behalf among the tribes, and the people went down to Pompey’s gardens to get it.
ὥστε τὸ πρᾶγμα περιβόητον εἶναι καὶ τὸν Πομπήϊον ἀκούειν κακῶς, ἧς αὐτὸς ἀρχῆς ἐφʼ οἷς κατώρθωσεν ὡς μεγίστης ἔτυχε, ταύτην ὤνιον ποιοῦντα τοῖς διʼ ἀρετῆς κτήσασθαι μὴ δυναμένοις. τούτων μέντοι, πρὸς τὰς γυναῖκας ὁ Κάτων ἔφησε, τῶν ὀνειδῶν κοινωνητέον οἰκείοις Πομπηΐου γενομένοις. αἱ δὲ ἀκούσασαι συνέγνωσαν βέλτιον αὐτῶν ἐκεῖνον λογίζεσθαι περὶ τοῦ πρέποντος.
As a consequence, the matter became notorious and Pompey was in ill repute; the office of consul was highest of all, and he himself had therefore received it as a reward for his successes, and yet he was making this office a thing to be bought by those who were unable to win it by merit. In these reproaches, however, said Cato to the women, we must have taken our share, if we had become allied to Pompey. And when they heard this, they agreed that his estimate of the fit and proper was better than theirs.
τοῦ δὲ θριάμβου τῷ μεγέθει, καίπερ εἰς ἡμέρας δύο μερισθέντος, ὁ χρόνος οὐκ ἐξήρκεσεν, ἀλλὰ τῶν παρεσκευασμένων πολλὰ τῆς θέας ἐξέπεσεν, ἑτέρας ἀποχρῶντα πομπῆς ἀξίωμα καὶ κόσμος εἶναι, γράμμασι δὲ προηγουμένοις ἐδηλοῦτο τὰ γένη καθʼ ὧν ἐθριάμβευεν.
His triumph had such a magnitude that, although it was distributed over two days, still the time would not suffice, but much of what had been prepared could not find a place in the spectacle, enough to dignify and adorn another triumphal procession. Inscriptions borne in advance of the procession indicated the nations over which he triumphed.
ἦν δὲ τάδε· πόντος, Ἀρμενία, Καππαδοκία, Παφλαγονία, Μηδία, Κολχίς, Ἴβηρες, Ἀλβανοί, Συρία, Κιλικία, Μεσοποταμία, τὰ περὶ Φοινίκην καὶ Παλαιστίνην. Ἰουδαία, Ἀραβία, τὸ πειρατικὸν ἅπαν ἐν γῇ καὶ θαλάσσῃ καταπεπολεμημένον. ἐν δὲ τούτοις φρούρια μὲν ἡλωκότα χιλίων οὐκ ἐλάττονα, πόλεις δὲ οὐ πολὺ τῶν ἐνακοσίων ἀποδέουσαι, πειρατικαὶ δὲ νῆες ὀκτακόσιαι, κατοικίαι δὲ πόλεων μιᾶς δέουσαι τετταράκοντα.
These were: Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Paphlagonia, Media, Colchis, Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Palestine, Judaea, Arabia, and all the power of the pirates by sea and land which had been overthrown. Among these peoples no less than a thousand strongholds had been captured, according to the inscriptions, and cities not much under nine hundred in number, besides eight hundred piratical ships, while thirty-nine cities had been founded.
πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἔφραζε διὰ τῶν γραμμάτων ὅτι πεντακισχίλιαι μὲν μυριάδες ἐκ τῶν τελῶν ὑπῆρχον, ἐκ δὲ ὧν αὐτὸς προσεκτήσατο τῇ πόλει μυριάδας ὀκτακισχιλίας πεντακοσίας λαμβάνουσιν, ἀναφέρεται δὲ εἰς τὸ δημόσιον ταμιεῖον ἐν νομίσματι καὶ κατασκευαῖς ἀργυρίου καὶ χρυσίου δισμύρια τάλαντα, πάρεξ τῶν εἰς τοὺς στρατιώτας δεδομένων, ὧν ὁ τοὐλάχιστον αἴρων κατὰ λόγον δραχμὰς εἴληφε χιλίας πεντακοσίας.
In addition to all this the inscriptions set forth that whereas the public revenues from taxes had been fifty million drachmas, they were receiving from the additions which Pompey had made to the city’s power eighty-five million, and that he was bringing into the public treasury in coined money and vessels of gold and silver twenty thousand talents, apart from the money which had been given to his soldiers, of whom the one whose share was the smallest had received fifteen hundred drachmas.
αἰχμάλωτοι δʼ ἐπομπεύθησαν, ἄνευ τῶν ἀρχιπειρατῶν, υἱὸς Τιγράνου τοῦ Ἀρμενίου μετὰ γυναικὸς καὶ θυγατρός, αὐτοῦ τε Τιγράνου τοῦ βασιλέως γυνὴ Ζωσίμη, καὶ βασιλεὺς Ἰουδαίων Ἀριστόβουλος, Μιθριδάτου δὲ ἀδελφὴ καὶ πέντε τέκνα, καὶ Σκυθίδες γυναῖκες, Ἀλβανῶν δὲ καὶ Ἰβήρων ὅμηροι καὶ τοῦ Κομμαγηνῶν βασιλέως, καὶ τρόπαια πάμπολλα καὶ ταῖς μάχαις ἰσάριθμα πάσαις ἃς ἢ αὐτὸς ἢ διὰ τῶν στρατηγῶν ἐνίκησε.
The captives led in triumph, besides the chief pirates, were the son of Tigranes the Armenian with his wife and daughter, Zosime, a wife of King Tigranes himself, Aristobulus, king of the Jews, a sister and five children of Mithridates, Scythian women, and hostages given by the Iberians, by the Albanians, and by the king of Commagene; there were also very many trophies, equal in number to all the battles in which Pompey had been victorious either in person or in the persons of his lieutenants.
μέγιστον δὲ ὑπῆρχε πρὸς δόξαν καὶ μηδενὶ τῶν πώποτε Ῥωμαίων γεγονός, ὅτι τὸν τρίτον θρίαμβον ἀπὸ τῆς τρίτης ἠπείρου κατήγαγεν. ἐπεὶ τρίς γε καὶ πρότερον ἦσαν ἕτεροι τεθριαμβευκότες· ἐκεῖνος δὲ τὸν μὲν πρῶτον ἐκ Λιβύης, τὸν δὲ δεύτερον ἐξ Εὐρώπης, τοῦτον δὲ τὸν τελευταῖον ἀπὸ τῆς Ἀσίας εἰσαγαγὼν τρόπον τινὰ τὴν οἰκουμένην ἐδόκει τοῖς τρισὶν ὑπῆχθαι θριάμβοις.
But that which most enhanced his glory and had never been the lot of any Roman before, was that he celebrated his third triumph over the third continent. For others before him had celebrated three triumphs; but he celebrated his first over Libya, his second over Europe, and this his last over Asia, so that he seemed in a way to have included the whole world in his three triumphs.
ἡλικίᾳ δὲ τότε ἦν, ὡς μὲν οἱ κατὰ πάντα τῷ Ἀλεξάνδρῳ παραβάλλοντες αὐτὸν καὶ προσβιβάζοντες ἀξιοῦσι, νεώτερος τῶν τριάκοντα καὶ τεττάρων ἐτῶν, ἀληθείᾳ δὲ τοῖς τετταράκοντα προσῆγεν. ὡς ὤνητό γʼ ἂν ἐνταῦθα τοῦ βίου παυσάμενος, ἄχρι οὗ τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρου τύχην ἔσχεν· ὁ δὲ ἐπέκεινα χρόνος αὐτῷ τὰς μὲν εὐτυχίας ἤνεγκεν ἐπιφθόνους, ἀνηκέστους δὲ τὰς δυστυχίας.
His age at this time, as those insist who compare him in all points to Alexander and force the parallel, was less than thirty-four years, though in fact he was nearly forty. How happy would it have been for him if he had ended his life at this point, up to which he enjoyed the good fortune of Alexander! For succeeding time brought him only success that made him odious, and failure that was irreparable.
ἣν γὰρ ἐκ προσηκόντων αὐτὸς ἐκτήσατο δύναμιν ἐν τῇ πόλει, ταύτῃ χρώμενος ὑπὲρ ἄλλων οὐ δικαίως, ὅσον ἐκείνοις ἰσχύος προσετίθει τῆς ἑαυτοῦ δόξης ἀφαιρῶν, ἔλαθε ῥώμῃ καὶ μεγέθει τῆς αὐτοῦ δυνάμεως καταλυθείς, καὶ καθάπερ τὰ καρτερώτατα μέρη καὶ χωρία τῶν πόλεων, ὅταν δέξηται πολεμίους, ἐκείνοις προστίθησι τὴν αὑτῶν ἰσχύν, οὕτως διὰ τῆς Πομπηΐου δυνάμεως Καῖσαρ ἐξαρθεὶς ἐπὶ τὴν πόλιν κατὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἴσχυσε, τοῦτον ἀνέτρεψε καὶ κατέβαλεν. ἐπράχθη δὲ οὕτως.
That political power which he had won by his own legitimate efforts, this he used in the interests of others illegally, thus weakening his own reputation in proportion as he strengthened them, so that before he was aware of it he was ruined by the very vigour and magnitude of his own power. And just as the strongest parts of a city’s defences, when they are captured by an enemy, impart to him their own inherent strength, so it was by Pompey’s power and influence that Caesar was raised up against the city, and Caesar overthrew and cast down the very man by whose aid he had waxed strong against the rest. And this was the way it came about.
Λεύκολλον, ὡς ἐπανῆλθεν ἐξ Ἀσίας ὑπὸ Πομπηΐου περιϋβρισμένος, αὐτίκα τε λαμπρῶς ἡ σύγκλητος ἐδέξατο, καὶ μᾶλλον ἔτι Πομπηΐου παραγενομένου κολούουσα τὴν δόξαν ἤγειρεν ἐπὶ τὴν πολιτείαν. ὁ δὲ τἆλλα μὲν ἀμβλὺς ἦν ἤδη καὶ κατέψυκτο τὸ πρακτικόν, ἡδονῇ σχολῆς καὶ ταῖς περί τὸν πλοῦτον διατριβαῖς ἑαυτὸν ἐνδεδωκώς, ἐπὶ δὲ Πομπήϊον εὐθὺς ἀΐξας καὶ λαβόμενος ἐντόνως αὐτοῦ περί τε τῶν διατάξεων ἃς ἔλυσεν ἐκράτει, καὶ πλέον εἶχεν ἐν τῇ βουλῇ συναγωνιζομένου Κάτωνος.
When Lucullus came back from Asia, where he had been outrageously treated by Pompey, the senate at once gave him a splendid reception, and after Pompey’s arrival, wishing to obstruct that leader’s reputation, it urged Lucullus all the more to take part in public life. In other matters Lucullus was already dulled and chilled past all efficiency, having given himself over to the pleasures of ease and the enjoyment of his wealth; but he sprang at once upon Pompey and by a vigorous attack won a victory over him in the matter of those ordinances of his own which Pompey had annulled, and carried the day in the senate with the support of Cato.
ἐκπίπτων δὲ καὶ περιωθούμενος ὁ Πομπήϊος ἠναγκάζετο δημαρχοῦσι προσφεύγειν καὶ προσαρτᾶσθαι μειρακίοις· ὧν ὁ βδελυρώτατος καὶ θρασύτατος Κλώδιος ἀναλαβὼν αὐτὸν ὑπέρριψε τῷ δήμῳ, καὶ παρʼ ἀξίαν κυλινδούμενον ἐν ἀγορᾷ ἔχων καὶ περιφέρων ἐχρῆτο τῶν πρὸς χάριν ὄχλου καὶ κολακείαν γραφομένων καὶ λεγομένων βεβαιωτῇ,
Thus worsted and hard pressed, Pompey was forced to fly for refuge to popular tribunes and attach himself to young adventurers. Among these the boldest and vilest was Clodius, who took him up and threw him down under the feet of the people, and keeping him ignobly rolled about in the dust of the forum, and dragging him to and fro there, he used him for the confirmation of what was said and proposed to gratify and flatter the people.
καὶ προσέτι μισθὸν ᾔτει, ὥσπερ οὐ καταισχύνων, ἀλλὰ εὐεργετῶν, ὃν ὕστερον ἔλαβε παρὰ Πομπηΐου, προέσθαι Κικέρωνα, φίλον ὄντα καὶ πλεῖστα δὴ πεπολιτευμένον ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ. κινδυνεύοντι γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ δεομένῳ βοηθείας οὐδὲ εἰς ὄψιν προῆλθεν, ἀλλὰ τοῖς ἥκουσιν ἀποκλείσας τὴν αὔλειον ἑτέραις θύραις ᾤχετο ἀπιών. Κικέρων δὲ φοβηθεὶς τὴν κρίσιν ὑπεξῆλθε τῆς Ῥώμης.
He even went so far as to ask a reward for his services from Pompey, as if he were helping him instead of disgracing him, and this reward he subsequently got in the betrayal of Cicero, who was Pompey’s friend and had done him more political favours than any one else. For when Cicero was in danger of condemnation and begged his aid, Pompey would not even see him, but shut his front door upon those who came in Cicero’s behalf, and slipped away by another. Cicero, therefore, fearing the result of his trial, withdrew secretly from Rome.
Cite This Text