¶ Pompey makes good his offer of clemency, settling the
former pirates in villages.
|
As regarded the disposal of these prisoners, he never so much
as entertained the thought of putting them to death; and yet it
might be no less dangerous on the other hand to disperse them,
as they might reunite and make head again, being numerous,
poor, and warlike. Therefore wisely weighing with himself,
that man by nature is not a wild or unsocial creature, neither
was he born so, but makes himself what he naturally is not, by
vicious habit; and that again on the other side, he is
civilized and grows gentle by a change of place, occupation,
and manner of life, as beasts themselves that are wild by
nature, become tame and tractable by housing and gentler usage,
upon this consideration he determined to translate these
pirates from sea to land, and give them a taste of an honest
and innocent course of life, by living in towns, and tilling
the ground. Some therefore were admitted into the small and
half-peopled towns of the Cilicians, who for an enlargement of
their territories, were willing to receive them. Others he
planted in the city of the Solians, which had been lately laid
waste by Tigranes, king of Armenia, and which he now restored.
But the largest number were settled in Dyme, the town of
Achaea, at that time extremely depopulated, and possessing an
abundance of good land.
|
¶ The pirates being reduced to submission, Manilius proposes a law to give Pompey command in the war
against Mithridates, in place of
Lucullus, 66 B.C.
|
[30] When the news came to Rome that the war with the pirates was at
an end, and that Pompey was unoccupied, diverting himself in
visits to the cities for want of employment, one Manlius [read "Manilius"], a
tribune of the people, preferred a law that Pompey should have
all the forces of
Lucullus, and the provinces under his
government, together with Bithynia, which was under the command
of Glabrio; and that he should forthwith conduct the war
against the two kings, Mithridates and Tigranes, retaining
still the same naval forces and the sovereignty of the seas as
before. But this was nothing less than to constitute one
absolute monarch of all the Roman empire. For the provinces
which seemed to be exempt from his commission by the former
decree, such as were Phrygia, Lycaonia, Galatia, Cappadocia,
Cilicia, the upper Colchis, and Armenia, were all added in by
this latter law, together with all the troops and forces with
which
Lucullus had defeated Mithridates and Tigranes. And
though
Lucullus was thus simply robbed of the glory of his
achievements in having a successor assigned him, rather to the
honor of his triumph, than the danger of the war /24/; yet this was
of less moment in the eyes of the aristocratical party, though
they could not but admit the injustice and ingratitude to
Lucullus. But their great grievance was, that the power of
Pompey should be converted into a manifest tyranny; and they
therefore exhorted and encouraged one another privately to bend
all their forces in opposition to this law, and not tamely to
cast away their liberty; yet when the day came on which it was
to pass into a decree, their hearts failed them for fear of the
people, and all were silent except
Catulus, who boldly
inveighed against the law and its proposer, and when he found
that he could do nothing with the people, turned to the
senate,
crying out and bidding them seek out some mountain as their
forefathers had done, and fly to the rocks where they might
preserve their liberty /25/. The law passed into a decree, as it is
said, by the suffrages of all the tribes. And Pompey in his
absence was made lord of almost all that power, which
Sylla only obtained by force of arms, after a conquest of the very
city itself. When Pompey had advice by letters of the decree,
it is said that in the presence of his friends, who came to
give him joy of his honor, he seemed displeased, frowning and
smiting his thigh, and exclaimed as one overburdened, and weary
of government, "Alas, what a series of labors upon labors! If
I am never to end my service as a soldier, nor to escape from
this invidious greatness, and live at home in the country with
my wife, I had better have been an unknown man." But all this
was looked upon as mere trifling, neither indeed could the best
of his friends call it anything else, well knowing that his
enmity with
Lucullus, setting a flame just now to his natural
passion for glory and empire, made him feel more than usually
gratified.
|
¶ The Manilian Law gave Pompey command over the territories subdued by
Lucullus.
¶ Lucullus reproaches Pompey for ambition;
Pompey indicts Lucullus of greed.
|
[31] As indeed appeared not long afterwards by his actions, which
clearly unmasked him; for in the first place, he sent out his
proclamations into all quarters, commanding the soldiers to
join him, and summoned all the tributary kings and princes
within his charge; and in short, as soon as he had entered upon
his province, he left nothing unaltered that had been done and
established by
Lucullus. To some he remitted their penalties,
and deprived others of their rewards, and acted in all respects
as if with the express design that the admirers of
Lucullus
might know that all his authority was at an end.
Lucullus
expostulated by friends, and it was thought fitting that there
should be a meeting betwixt them; and accordingly they met in
the country of Galatia. As they were both great and successful
generals, their officers bore their rods before them all
wreathed with branches of laurel;
Lucullus came through a
country full of green trees and shady woods, but Pompey's march
was through a cold and barren district. Therefore the lictors
of
Lucullus, perceiving that Pompey's laurels were withered and
dry, helped him to some of their own, and adorned and crowned
his rods with fresh laurels. This was thought ominous, and
looked as if Pompey came to take away the reward and honor of
Lucullus's victories.
Lucullus had the priority in the order
of
consulships, and also in age; but Pompey's two triumphs made
him the greater man. Their first addresses in this interview
were dignified and friendly, each magnifying the other's
actions, and offering congratulations upon his success. But
when they came to the matter of their conference or treaty,
they could agree on no fair or equitable terms of any kind, but
even came to harsh words against each other, Pompey upbraiding
Lucullus with avarice, and
Lucullus retorting ambition upon
Pompey, so that their friends could hardly part them.
Lucullus, remaining in Galatia, made a distribution of the
lands within his conquests, and gave presents to whom he
pleased; and Pompey encamping not far distant from him, sent
out his prohibitions, forbidding the execution of any of the
orders of
Lucullus, and commanded away all his soldiers, except
sixteen hundred, whom he thought likely to be unserviceable to
himself, being disorderly and mutinous, and whom he knew to be
hostile to
Lucullus /26/; and to these acts he added satirical
speeches, detracting openly from the glory of his actions, and
giving out, that the battles of
Lucullus had been but with the
mere stage-shows and idle pictures of royal pomp, whereas the
real war against a genuine army, disciplined by defeat, was
reserved to him, Mithridates having now begun to be in earnest,
and having betaken himself to his shields, swords, and horses.
Lucullus, on the other side, to be even with him, replied, that
Pompey came to fight with the mere image and shadow of war, it
being his usual practice, like a lazy bird of prey, to come
upon the carcass, when others had slain the dead, and to tear
in pieces the relics of a war. Thus he had appropriated to
himself the victories over Sertorius, over
Lepidus, and over
the insurgents under Spartacus; whereas this last had been
achieved by
Crassus, that obtained by
Catulus, and the first
won by Metellus. And therefore it was no great wonder, that
the glory of the Pontic and Armenian war should be usurped by a
man who had condescended to any artifices to work himself into
the honor of a triumph over a few runaway slaves.
|
¶ Pompey marches against Mithridates.
|
[32] After this
Lucullus went away, and Pompey having placed his
whole navy in guard upon the seas betwixt Phoenicia and
Bosporus, himself marched against Mithridates, who had a
phalanx of thirty thousand foot, with two thousand horse, yet
durst not bid him battle. He had encamped upon a strong
mountain where it would have been hard to attack him, but
abandoned it in no long time, as destitute of water. No sooner
was he gone but Pompey occupied it, and observing the plants
that were thriving there, together with the hollows which he
found in several places, conjectured that such a plot could not
be without springs, and therefore ordered his men to sink wells
in every corner. After which there was, in a little time,
great plenty of water throughout all the camp, insomuch that he
wondered how it was possible for Mithridates to be ignorant of
this, during all that time of his encampment there. After this
Pompey followed him to his next camp, and there drawing lines
round about him, shut him in. But he, after having endured a
siege of forty-five days, made his escape secretly, and fled
away with all the best part of his army, having first put to
death all the sick and unserviceable. Not long after Pompey
overtook him again near the banks of the river Euphrates, and
encamped close by him; but fearing lest he should pass over the
river and give him the slip there too, he drew up his army to
attack him at midnight. And at that very time Mithridates, it
is said, saw a vision in his dream foreshowing what should come
to pass. For he seemed to be under sail in the Euxine Sea with
a prosperous gale, and just in view of Bosporus, discoursing
pleasantly with the ship's company, as one overjoyed for his
past danger and present security, when on a sudden he found
himself deserted of all, and floating upon a broken plank of
the ship at the mercy of the sea. Whilst he was thus laboring
under these passions and phantasms, his friends came and awaked
him with the news of Pompey's approach; who was now indeed so
near at hand, that the fight must be for the camp itself, and
the commanders accordingly drew up the forces in battle array.
Pompey perceiving how ready they were and well prepared for
defense, began to doubt with himself whether he should put it
to the hazard of a fight in the dark, judging it more prudent
to encompass them only at present, lest they should fly, and to
give them battle with the advantage of numbers the next day.
But his oldest officers were of another opinion, and by
entreaties and encouragements obtained permission that they
might charge them immediately. Neither was the night so very
dark, but that, though the moon was going down, it yet gave
light enough to discern a body. And indeed this was one
especial disadvantage to the king's army. For the Romans
coming upon them with the moon on their backs, the moon, being
very low, and just upon setting, cast the shadows a long way
before their bodies, reaching almost to the enemy, whose eyes
were thus so much deceived that not exactly discerning the
distance, but imagining them to be near at hand, they threw
their darts at the shadows, without the least execution. The
Romans therefore perceiving this, ran in upon them with a great
shout; but the barbarians, all in a panic, unable to endure the
charge, turned and fled, and were put to great slaughter, above
ten thousand being slain; the camp also was taken. As for
Mithridates himself, he at the beginning of the onset, with a
body of eight hundred horse charged through the Roman army, and
made his escape. But before long all the rest dispersed, some
one way, some another, and he was left only with three persons,
among whom was his concubine, Hypsicratia, a girl always of a
manly and daring spirit, and the king called her on that
account Hypsicrates. She being attired and mounted like a
Persian horseman, accompanied the king in all his flight, never
weary even in the longest journey, nor ever failing to attend
the king in person, and look after his horse too, until they
came to Inora, a castle of the king's, well stored with gold
and treasure. From thence Mithridates took his richest
apparel, and gave it among those that had resorted to him in
their flight; and to every one of his friends he gave a deadly
poison, that they might not fall into the power of the enemy
against their wills. From thence he designed to have gone to
Tigranes in Armenia, but being prohibited by Tigranes, who put
out a proclamation with a reward of one hundred talents to any
one that should apprehend him, he passed by the head-waters of
the river Euphrates, and fled through the country of Colchis.
|
¶ The Armenian campaign.
|
[33] Pompey in the meantime made an invasion into Armenia, upon the
invitation of young Tigranes, who was now in rebellion against
his father, and gave Pompey a meeting about the river Araxes,
which rises near the head of Euphrates, but turning its course
and bending towards the east, falls into the Caspian Sea. They
two, therefore, marched together through the country, taking in
all the cities by the way, and receiving their submission. But
king Tigranes, having lately suffered much in the war with
Lucullus, and understanding that Pompey was of a kind and
gentle disposition, admitted Roman troops into his royal
palaces, and taking along with him his friends and relations,
went in person to surrender himself into the hands of Pompey.
He came as far as the trenches on horseback, but there he was
met by two of Pompey's lictors, who commanded him to alight and
walk on foot, for no man ever was seen on horseback within a
Roman camp. Tigranes submitted to this immediately, and not
only so, but loosing his sword, delivered up that too; and last
of all, as soon as he appeared before Pompey, he pulled off his
royal turban, and attempted to have laid it at his feet. Nay,
worst of all, even he himself had fallen prostrate as an humble
suppliant at his knees, had not Pompey prevented it, taking him
by the hand and placing him near him, Tigranes himself on one
side of him and his son upon the other. Pompey now told him
that the rest of his losses were chargeable upon
Lucullus, by
whom he had been dispossessed of Syria, Phoenicia, Cilicia,
Galatia, and Sophene; but all that he had preserved to himself
entire till that time he should peaceably enjoy, paying the sum
of six thousand talents as a fine or penalty for injuries done
to the Romans, and that his son should have the kingdom of
Sophene. Tigranes himself was well pleased with these
conditions of peace, and when the Romans saluted him king,
seemed to be overjoyed, and promised to every common soldier
half a mina of silver, to every centurion ten minas, and to
every
tribune a talent; but the son was displeased, insomuch
that when he was invited to supper, he replied, that he did not
stand in need of Pompey for that sort of honor, for he would
find out some other Roman to sup with. Upon this he was put
into close arrest, and reserved for the triumph.
|