made for yourself only." Lucullus began to make some difficulty, and to ask them to allow him to name another day; but they said they would not, nor would they let him speak to his servants, that he might not have the opportunity of ordering anything more than what was preparing for himself. However, at his request, they allowed him just to tell one of his slaves in their presence, that he would sup on that day in the Apollo; for this was the name of one of his costly apartments.
This trick of Lucullus was not understood by his guests; for it is said that to every banqueting-room there was assigned the cost of the feast there, and every room had its peculiar style of preparation and entertainment, so that when the slaves heard in which room their master intended to sup, they also knew what was to be the cost of the supper and the kind of decoration and arrangement. Now, Lucullus was accustomed to sup in the Apollo at the cost of fifty thousand drachmas, and this being the cost of the entertainment on the present occasion, Pompeius and Cicero were surprised at the rapidity with which the banquet had been got ready and the costliness of the entertainment. In this way, then, Lucullus used his wealth, capriciously, just as if it were a captive slave and a barbarian.
XLII. What he did as to his collection of books is worth notice and mention. He got together a great number of books which were well transcribed, and the mode in which they were used was more honourable to him than the acquisition of them; for the libraries were open to all, and the walking-places which surrounded them, and the reading rooms were accessible to the Greeks without any restriction, and they went there as to an abode of the Muses, and spent the day there in company with one another, gladly betaking themselves to the libraries from their other occupations. Lucullus himself often spent some time there with the visitors, walking about in the ambulatories, and he used to talk there with men engaged in public affairs on such matters as they might choose; and altogether his house was a home and a Greek prytaneum[435] to those who came to Rome. He was fond of philosophy generally, and well disposed to every sect, and friendly to them all; but from the first he particularly admired and loved the Academy,[436] not that which is called the New Academy, though the sect was then flourishing by the propagation of the doctrines of Karneades by Philo, but Old Academy, which at that time had for its head a persuasive man and a powerful speaker, Antiochus of Askalon, whom Lucullus eagerly sought for his friend and companion, and opposed to the followers of Philo, of whom Cicero also was one. Cicero wrote an excellent treatise upon the doctrines of this sect, in which he made Lucullus[437] the speaker in favour of the doctrine of comprehension[438] and himself the speaker on the opposite side. The book is entitled 'Lucullus.'
Lucullus and Cicero were, as I have said, great friends, and associated in their political views, for Lucullus had not entirely withdrawn from public affairs, though he had immediately on his return to Rome surrendered to Crassus and Cato the ambition and the struggle to be the first man in the state and have the greatest power, considering that the struggle was not free from danger and great mortification; for those who looked with jealousy on the power of Pompeius put Crassus and Cato at the head of their party in the Senate, when Lucullus declined to take the lead, but Lucullus used to go to the Forum to support his friends, and to the Senate whenever it was necessary to put a check on any attempt or ambitious design of Pompeius. The arrangements which Pompeius made after his conquest of the kings, Lucullus contrived to nullify, and when Pompeius proposed a distribution of lands[439] Lucullus with the assistance of Cato prevented it from being made, which drew Pompeius to seek the friendship of Crassus and Cæsar, or rather to enter into a combination with them, and by filling the city with arms and soldiers he got his measures ratified after driving out of the Forum the partisans of Cato and Lucullus. The nobles being indignant at these proceedings, the party of Pompeius produced one Vettius,[440] whom, as they said, they had detected in a design on the life of Pompeius. When Vettius was examined before the Senate, he accused others, and before the popular assembly he named Lucullus as the person by whom he had been suborned to murder Pompeius. But nobody believed him, and it soon became clear that the man had been brought forward by the partisans of Pompeius to fabricate a false charge, and to criminate others, and the fraud was made still more apparent, when a few days after the dead body of Vettius was thrown out of the prison; for, though it was given out that he died a natural death[441] there were marks of strangulation and violence on the body, and it was the opinion that he had been put to death by those who suborned him.
XLIII. This induced Lucullus still more to withdraw from public affairs; and when Cicero was banished from Rome, and Cato[442] was sent to Cyprus, he retired altogether. Before he died, it is said that his understanding was disordered and gradually failed. Cornelius Nepos says that Lucullus did not die of old age nor of disease, but that his health was destroyed by potions given him by Callisthenes, one of his freedmen, and that the potions were given him by Callisthenes with the view of increasing his master's affection for him, a power which the potions were supposed to have, but they so far disturbed and destroyed his reason, that during his lifetime his brother managed his affairs. However, when Lucullus died, the people grieved just as much as if he had died at the height of his military distinction and his political career, and they flocked together and had his body carried to the Forum by the young men of the highest rank and were proceeding forcibly to have it interred in the Campus Martius where Sulla was interred; but, as nobody had expected this, and it was not easy to make the requisite preparations, the brother of Lucullus prayed and prevailed on the people to allow the funeral ceremony to take place on the estate at Tusculum, where preparations for it had been made. Nor did he long survive; but as in age and reputation he came a little after Lucullus, so he died shortly after him, a most affectionate brother.
FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 315: The complete name of Lucullus was L. Licinius Lucullus.
The Licinii were a Plebeian Gens, to which belonged the Luculli, Crassi, Murænæ, and others. Lucius Licinius Lucullus, the grandfather of Plutarch's Lucullus, was the son of L. Licinius Lucullus, who was curule ædile B.C. 202, and the first who gave nobility to his family.
This grandfather of Lucullus was consul B.C. 151 with P. Postumius Albinus. He conquered the Vaccæi, Cantabri, and other nations of Spain, hitherto unknown to the Romans. Appian (_Iberica_, c. 52) gives an instance of his cruelty and perfidy in his Spanish wars. L.
Licinius Lucullus, the father, was prætor B.C. 103. In B.C. 102 he went to take the command against the slaves who were in rebellion in Sicily under Athenion. He conducted the war ill, and on his return he was prosecuted for peculation and convicted. His punishment was exile.
It is not known what the offence was that Servilius was charged with.]
[Footnote 316: This Metellus was the conqueror of Jugurtha; he was consul B.C. 109. See the Life of Marius, c. 7. His sister Cæcilia was the wife of L. Licinius Lucullus, the father of Plutarch's Lucullus; she was also the mother of Marcus the brother of Lucius Lucullus.]
[Footnote 317: See Life of Sulla, c. 6.]
[Footnote 318: This line is also quoted by Plutarch in his Treatise 'De Sera Numinis Vindicta,' c. 10.]
[Footnote 319: I should have translated the Greek word ([Greek: dikologos] δικολόγος) "orator." Jurist in Plutarch is [Greek: nomodeiktês] νομοδείκτης (Plutarch, _Tib. Gracchus_, c. 9) or [Greek: nomikos] νομικός. Quintus Hortensius Ortalus, the orator, was a friend and rival of Cicero, who often speaks of him. He began his career as a pleader in the courts at the age of nineteen, and continued his practice for forty-four years. (_Brutus_, c. 64, and the note in H.
Meyer's edition.)]
[Footnote 320: L. Cornelius Sisenna, a man of patrician family, was prætor, B.C. 119, and in the next year he was governor of Sicily. He and Hortensius defended C. Verres against Cicero. He wrote the history of the Marsic war and of the war of Sulla in Italy, which he continued to the death of Sulla. The historical work of Sallustius began where that of Sisenna ended. Cicero (_De Legg_. i. 2) says that Sisenna was the best historical writer that had then appeared at Rome. He wrote other works also, and he translated into Latin the lewd stories of Aristides the Milesian (Plutarch, _Crassus_, c. 32; Ovidius, See Cicero, _Brutus_, c. 64, and the notes in Meyer's edition; Krause, _Vitæ et Frag. Vet. Histor. Roman._ p. 299.]
[Footnote 321: It appears from this that the History of the Marsic war by Lucullus was extant in the time of Plutarch. Cicero (_Ad Attic_. i.
19) mentions this Greek history of Lucullus.]
[Footnote 322: This Marcus was adopted by M. Terentius Varro, whence after his adoption he was called M. Terentius Varro Lucullus. The curule ædileship of the two brothers belongs to the year B.C. 79, and the event is here placed, after Plutarch's fashion, not in the proper place in his biography, but the story is told incidentally as a characteristic of Lucullus. I have expressed myself ambiguously at the end of this chapter. It should be "that Lucullus in his absence was elected ædile with his brother." (Cicero, _Academ. Prior_. ii. 1.)]
[Footnote 323: See Life of Sulla, c. 13, &c.]
80) observes that this winter expedition of Lucullus was "not after the capture of Athens, as Plutarch, Lucullus, c. 2," states, and he refers to Appian (_Mithridat._ c. 33). But Plutarch's account is not what Drumann represents it to be. This expedition was in the winter of B.C. 87 and 86. Ælian (_Var. Hist._ ii. 42) tells a similar story of Plato and the Arcadians, and Diogenes Lærtius (iii. 17) has a like story about Plato and the Arcadians and Thebans.]
[Footnote 325: This can only be Ptolemæus VIII., sometimes called Soter II. and Lathyrus, who was restored to his kingdom B.C. 89-8. The difficulty that Kaltwasser raises about Lathyrus being in Cyprus at this time is removed by the fact that he had returned from Cyprus. As to Plutarch calling him a "young man," that is a mistake; or Plutarch may have confounded him with his younger brother Alexander.]
[Footnote 326: Plutarch is alluding to the Pyramids, and to the great temples of Memphis.]
[Footnote 327: Pitane was one of the old Greek towns of Æolis, situated on the coast at the mouth of the Evenus, and opposite to the island of Lesbos, now Mytilene.]
[Footnote 328: See Life of Sulla, c. 12.]
[Footnote 329: See Life of Sulla, c. 21.]
[Footnote 330: This was the consul L. Valerius Flaccus. See the Life of Sulla, c. 20.]
[Footnote 331: Lektum is a promontory of the Troad, which is that district of Asia Minor that took its name from the old town of Troja or Troia, and lay in the angle between the Hellespont (the Dardanelles), and the Ægean or Archipelago. It is fully described by Strabo, lib. xiii.]
[Footnote 332: Kaltwasser has translated this passage differently from his predecessors: "turned his ship aside by a quick movement and made all his men crowd to the stern." But his version is probably wrong.
The expression [Greek: epi prumnan ôsasthai] ἐπὶ πρύμναν ώασθαι is perhaps equivalent to [Greek: prumnon krouesthai] πρύμνον κρούεσθαι.
[Footnote 333: See Life of Sulla, c. 24, 25.]
[Footnote 334: It is conjectured by Leopoldus that there is an error here, and that the name should be Manius, and that Manius Aquilius is meant, whom, together with others, the Mitylenæans gave up in chains to Mithridates. (Vell. Paterc. ii. 18.)]
[Footnote 335: This is a place on the coast of the mainland, and east of Pitane.]
[Footnote 336: Lucullus was consul B.C. 74, with M. Aurelius Cotta for his colleague.]
[Footnote 337: See the Life of Pompeius, c. 20, and the Life of Sertorius, c. 21.]
[Footnote 338: P. Cornelius Cethegus originally belonged to the party of Marius, and he accompanied the younger Marius in his flight to Africa B.C. 88 (Life of Marius, c. 40). He returned to Rome B.C. 87, and in the year B.C. 83 he attached himself to Sulla after his return from Asia and was pardoned. After Sulla's death he had great influence at Rome, though he never was consul. Cicero (_Brutus_, c. 48), speaks of him as thoroughly acquainted with all the public business and as having great weight in the Senate.]
[Footnote 339: He is commemorated by Cicero (_Brutus_, c. 62) as a man well fitted for speaking in noisy assemblies. He was a tribune in the year of the consulship of Lucullus.]
[Footnote 340: This was L. Octavius, who was consul with C. Aurelius Cotta B.C. 75.]
[Footnote 341: Q. Cæcilius Metellus Pius. See the Life of Sertorius.]
[Footnote 342: This is the closed sea that lies between the two channels, by one of which, the Thracian Bosporus or the channel of Constantinople, it is connected with the Euxine or Black Sea, and by the other, the Hellespontus or Dardanelles, it is connected with the Ægean Sea or the Archipelago. This is now the Sea of Marmora. Part of the southern and eastern coast belonged to Bithynia. The city of Kyzikus was within the Propontis.]
[Footnote 343: See the Life of Sulla, c. 25.]
[Footnote 344: The sophists of Plutarch's time were rhetoricians, who affected to declaim on any subject, which they set off with words and phrases and little more. One of the noted masters of this art, Aristides of Bithynia, might have been known to Plutarch, though he was younger than Plutarch. Many of his unsubstantial declamations are extant. Plutarch in his Life of Lucullus, c. 22, has mentioned another of this class.]
[Footnote 345: The Romans carried on a thriving trade in this way in the provinces. In Cicero's period we find that many men of rank did not scruple to enrich themselves in this manner; and they were unsparing creditors.]
[Footnote 346: The word ([Greek: telônai] τελώναι) which I have elsewhere translated by the Roman word Publicani, means the men who farmed the taxes in the provences. The Publicani at this period belonged to the order of the Equites. A number of them associated themselves in a partnership (societas) for the farming of the taxes of some particular province. These associations had their agents in the provinces and a chief manager (magister) at Rome. The collection of the taxes gave employment to a great number of persons; and thus the Publicani had at their disposal numerous places in the provinces, which gave them great influence at Rome. (Cicero, _Pro Cn. Plancio_, c. 19.) The taxes were taken at some sum that was agreed upon; and we find an instance mentioned by Cicero (_Ad Attic._ i. 17) in which their competition or their greediness led them to give too much and to call on the Senate to cancel the bargain. The Romans at this time derived little revenue from Italy, and the large expenditure had to be supplied out of the revenue raised in the provinces and collected by the Publicani. The Publicani thus represented the monied interest of modern times, and the state sometimes required their assistance to provide the necessary supplies.
It seems probable that the Publicani who farmed the taxes of a province, underlet them to others; which would be one cause of oppression. These Collectors ([Greek: telônai] τελώναι) are called Publicans in the English version of the New Testament, where they are no doubt very justly coupled with sinners.]
Mithridates invaded Bithynia, for King Nikomedes had just died childless and left his kingdom to the Romans. Cotta fled before him and took refuge in Chalkedon, a city situated on the Asiatic side of the Thracian Bosporus opposite to the site of Constantinople. The consul would not go out to meet the enemy, but his admiral Nudus with some troops occupied the strongest position in the plain. However, he was defeated by Mithridates and with difficulty got again into the city. In the confusion about the gates the Romans lost three thousand men. Mithridates also broke through the chain that was thrown across the harbour and burnt four ships and towed the other sixty off. His whole loss was only twenty men.]
[Footnote 348: See the Life of Sulla, c. 11. Mithridates was much dissatisfied with the terms of the peace that had been brought about by Archelaus, who fearing for his life went over to Murena, who was left by Sulla in the command in Asia. At the instigation of Archelaus, Murena attacked and plundered Comana in Cappadocia, which belonged to Mithridates, and contained a temple of great sanctity and wealth.
Mithridates in vain complained to Murena, and then sent an embassy to Rome. Appian considers this conduct of Murena as the commencement of the Second Mithridatic War, B.C. 83. The Third commenced B.C. 74 with the league of Mithridates and Sertorius. (Appian, _Mithridat_. 64-68; Life of Sertorius, c. 24.)]
[Footnote 349: Kyzikus. The ruins of this ancient city, now Bal Kiz, that is Palæa Kyzikus, lie near to the east of the sandy isthmus which now connects the peninsula of Kyzikus with the mainland. Hamilton (_Researches in Asia Minor_, &c., London, 1842, ii. 102), says that "the loose and rubbly character of the buildings of Kyzikus little accords with the celebrity of its architects; and although some appear to have been cased with marble, none of them give an idea of the solid grandeur of the genuine Greek style." Yet Strabo (p. 575) describes this city as among the first of Asia. In his time the present peninsula was an island, which was connected with the mainland by two bridges: the city was near the bridges, and had two harbours that could be closed. Under the Romans in Strabo's time, Kyzikus was a Free [Footnote 350: This range is described by Strabo as opposite to Kyzikus, on the mainland. Kaltwasser states that Strabo called the Adrasteia of Plutarch by the name Dindymus; but this is a mistake, in which he is not singular. Dindymus was a solitary hill, and on the peninsula near the town of Kyzikus.]
[Footnote 351: This is a small lake near the coast of the Propontis, at the back of which and more inland are two larger lakes, called respectively by ancient geographers, Miletopolitis (now Moniyas) and Apollonias (now Abullionte). The lake Daskylitis is not marked in the map which accompanies Hamilton's work.]
[Footnote 352: Persephassa, or Persephone, whom the Romans call Proserpina, was the patron goddess of Kyzikus. Compare Appian [Footnote 353: What he was I don't know. Kaltwasser translates the word ([Greek: grammatistê] γραμματιστῇ) "the public schoolmaster;" but he is inclined to take Reiske's conjecture [Greek: grammatei] γραμματεῖ because the grammateus was an important functionary in the Greek towns, and a "public schoolmaster" is not mentioned as an ordinary personage at this period. But Kaltwasser has not observed that [Greek: grammatistês] γραμματιστής signifies a clerk or secretary in various passages (Herodotus, iii. 123, 128; vii. 100). If [Greek: grammatistês] γραμματιστής could only signify a schoolmaster, it would be necessary to alter the reading. One cannot suppose that the goddess would reveal herself to a schoolmaster; or that a schoolmaster could venture to announce that he had received the honour of such a communication. When Romulus after his sudden disappearance again appeared to assure the anxious citizens, Julius Proculus was selected by him as the person to whom he showed himself; or Julius Proculus was one of the few who could claim to have the story of such an appearance believed. (Liv. i. 16.)]
[Footnote 354: I have kept the Greek word ([Greek: stêlê] στήλη), for no English word exactly expresses the thing. It was a stone placed upright, with an inscription on a flat surface, the summit of which sometimes ended with an ornamental finish. There are several in the British Museum.]
[Footnote 355: This river enters Lake Apollonias on the south side of the lake, and issues from the north side of the lake, whence it flows in a general north direction into the Propontis. Apollonia, now commonly called Abullionte, though the Greeks still call it by its ancient name, is situated on a small island which is on the east side of Lake Apollonias and is now connected with the mainland by a wooden bridge. If the battle was fought on the river, the women must have gone a considerable distance for their plunder. (Hamilton, [Footnote 356: Kaltwasser remarks that Livius (37, c. 40) mentions camels as being in the army of Antiochus. The passage of Sallustius must have been in his Roman History.]
[Footnote 357: This river is to the west of Kyzikus and enters the Propontis by a general north course. On the banks of this river Alexander won his first victory in his Persian Campaign. (Arrian, _Anab._ i. 14.) Appian, in his account of the defeat of the army of Mithridates (_Mithridat. War_, c. 76) places it on the Æsepus, a river which lies between Kyzikus and the Granikus, and also flows into the Propontis. He also adds that the Æsepus was then at its greatest flood, which contributed to the loss of Mithridutes. But it appears from Appian that the remnant of the army of Mithridates crossed the Granikus also, for they reached Lampsakus.]
[Footnote 358: The Troad is a district, but Plutarch expresses himself as if he meant a town. It appears that Lucullus was near Ilium. The Achæan harbour, or harbour of the Achæans, is near the promontory Sigeium.]
[Footnote 359: Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 77) simply says that Lucullus ordered Varius (the Marius of Plutarch) to be put to death.]
[Footnote 360: This town was at the eastern extremity of the long inlet of the Propontis, called the Gulf of Astakus. Mithridates according to Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 76) fled in his ships from Kyzikus to Parium, which is near the western extremity of the Propontis and west of the Granikus. From Parium he sailed to Nikomedia, a fact omitted by Plutarch, which explains the other fact, which he does mention, of Voconius being ordered to Nikomedia to look after the king.]
[Footnote 361: This island lies in the Archipelago off the coast of Thrace. It was noted for certain religious rites in honour of the gods called Kabeiri. (Strabo, p. 472.)]
[Footnote 362: This place was on the coast of Bithynia. Appian (c. 78) says that Mithridates landed at Sinope (Sinab), a large town considerably east of Heraklea, on the coast of the Black Sea; and that from Sinope he went along the coast to Amisus. See c. 23.]
[Footnote 363: This notion is common in the Greek writers; the gods brought misfortune on those whose prosperity was excessive, and visited them with punishment for arrogant speaking and boasting. Among instances of those whose prosperity at last brought calamity on them was Polykrates, tyrant of Samos (Herodotus, iii. 125); a notorious instance of the danger of prosperity. See vol. i. Life of Camillus, ch. 37, note.]
[Footnote 364: Artemis was so called from a town Priapus, which is on the south coast of the Propontis, and is placed in the maps a little west of the outlet of the Granikus. Strabo (p. 587) says that the Granikus flows between the Æsepus and Priapus; and that some say that Priapus was a Milesian colony, others a colony of Kyzikus. It derived its name from the god Priapus, who was in great repute here and in Lampsakus. The soldiers of Mithridates seem to have committed the excesses spoken of by Plutarch in their march through Priapus to Lampsakus.
The word for wooden statue is [Greek: xoanon] ξόανον which is sometimes simply translated statue. I am not aware that it is ever used by Pausanias, who often uses the word, in any other sense than that of a statue of wood.]
[Footnote 365: The Thermodon is a river of Asia Minor which flows through the plain of Themiskyra into the Black Sea. There is now a small town, Thermeh, on the left bank of the river. Plutarch might be supposed to be speaking of a town Themiskyra, and so some persons have understood him; but perhaps incorrectly, for no town Themiskyra is mentioned by any other writer.]
[Footnote 366: Amisus, now Samsun, is on the coast of the Black Sea, between the Halys, Kizil Ermak, and the Iris, Yechil Ermak. The ruins of the old town are about a mile and a half N.N.W. of the modern town.
"The pier which defended the ancient harbour may be distinctly traced, running out about 300 yards to the S.E., but chiefly under water. It consists of large blocks of a volcanic conglomerate, some of which measure nineteen feet by six or eight, and ten feet in thickness; whilst a little farther north another wall extends E.N.E. to a natural reef of rocks." (Hamilton, _Researches in Asia Minor_, &c. i. 290.)]
[Footnote 367: These tribes were in the neighbourhood of the Thermodon. They were encountered by the Ten Thousand in their retreat (_Anab._ v. 5). The Chaldæans, whom Xenophon names Chalybes, were neighbours of the Tibareni: but he also speaks of another tribe of the same name (iv. 5, &c.) who lived on the borders of Armenia.]
[Footnote 368: The great mountain region between the Black Sea and the Caspian.]
[Footnote 369: The position of Kabeira is uncertain. Strabo (p. 556) says that it is about 150 stadia south of the Paryadres range; but he does not say that it is on the Lykus. It may be collected from the following chapter of Plutarch that it was near the Lykus. Pompeius made Kabeira a city and named it Diopolis. A woman named Pythodoris added to it and called it Sebaste, that is, in Latin, Augusta, and it was her royal residence at the time when Strabo wrote.]
[Footnote 370: The reign of Tigranes in Armenia began about B.C. 96.
Little is known of his early history. He become King of Syria about B.C. 83, and thus he supplanted the kings, the descendants of Seleukus. He lost Syria after his defeat by Lucullus, B.C. 69; and he was finally reduced to the limits of his native kingdom by Pompeius, B.C. 66. (See the Life of Pompeius, c. 23.)]
[Footnote 371: Some writers read Dardarii. The Dandarii are mentioned by Strabo (p. 495) as one of the tribes on the Mæotis or Sea of Azoff.
Mithridates held the parts on the Bosporus. Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 79) has this story of Olthakus, whom he names Olkades, but he calls him a Scythian.]
[Footnote 372: The strange panic that seized Mithridates is also described by Appian (_Mithridat. War_, c. 81). He fled to Comana and thence to Tigranes.]
[Footnote 373: _Phernakia_ or Pharnakia, as it is generally read, is a town in Pontus on the coast of the Black Sea. It is generally assumed that Pharnakia was the same as Kerasus mentioned by Xenophon in the Retreat of the Ten Thousand, and the place being now called Kerasunt seems to establish this. Arrian in his Periplus of the Euxine states that it was originally named Kerasus. A difficulty is raised on this point because Xenophon says that the Greeks reached Kerasus in three days from Trebizond, and the country is difficult. Hamilton observes (i. 250): "Considering the distance and the difficult nature of the ground, over a great part of which the army must have marched in single file, Xenophon and his 10,000 men would hardly have arrived there in ten days." But it is more probable that there is an error in the "three" days, either an error of Xenophon or of the MSS., than that the site of Phernakia should have got the name of Kerasunt though Kerasus was not there. "The town of Kerasunt, which represents the Pharnakia of antiquity, is situated on the extremity of a rocky promontory connected with the main by a low wooded isthmus of a pleasing and picturesque appearance.--The Hellenic walls are constructed in the best isodomous style. Commencing near the beach on the west, they continue in an easterly direction over the hill, forming the limits of the present town. Near the gateway they are upwards of twenty feet high, and form the foundation of the Agha's konak; a small mosque has also been raised upon the ruins of a square tower; the blocks of stone, a dark green volcanic breccia, are of [Footnote 374: Appian (c. 82) calls him Bacchus; he tells the same story. These Greek women of western Asia were much in request among the Asiatic kings. (Compare Life of Crassus, c. 32). Cyrus the younger had two Greek women with him when he fell at Cunaxa, and one of them [Footnote 375: I have kept the Greek word. The description shows what it was. The diadem was a mark of royal rank among the Asiatic nations.
Aurelian is said to have been the first Roman Emperor who adopted the diadem, which appears on some of his coins. (Rasche, _Lex. Rei Numariæ_.)]
[Footnote 376: The site of this place is unknown. Mithridates (Appian, _Mithridat. War_, c. 115) kept his valuables here.]
[Footnote 377: See the Life of Sulla, c. 14. L. Mummius after defeating the army of the Achæan confederation totally destroyed Corinth B.C. 146.]
[Footnote 378: Strabo (p. 547) quotes Theopompus, who says that the Milesians were the original founders of Amisus, and that after the Athenian colonization it was called Peiræus. King Mithridates Eupator (the opponent of Lucullus) added to the city. It was a flourishing place when Strabo was writing his Geography.]
[Footnote 379: See the Life of Sulla, c. 14.]
[Footnote 380: See the Life of Sulla, c. 26. Tyrannio is often mentioned by Cicero. He arranged Cicero's library (_Ad Attic._ iv. 4 and 8), and he was employed as a teacher in Cicero's house (_Ad Quint.
Frat._ ii. 4).
In alluding to Tyrannio being manumitted, Plutarch means to say that by the act of manumission it was declared that Tyrannio had been made a slave, and the act of manumission gave Murena the patronal rights over him. This Murena was the son of the Murena who is mentioned in Plutarch's Life of Sulla (c. 17). Cicero defended him against a charge of Ambitus or bribery at his election for the consulship, and in his oration, which is extant, he speaks highly of him. This Murena was Consul B.C. 62, the year after Cicero was Consul.]
[Footnote 381: This passage is very obscure. Some critics think that Plutarch is speaking of torture. But it is more likely that he is speaking of the debtors being in attendance at the courts and waiting under the open sky at all seasons till the suits about the debts were settled.]
[Footnote 382: This is the Centesimæ usuræ of the Romans, which was at this time the usual rate. It was one per cent. per month, or twelve per cent. per annum. Cæsar (Life of Cæsar, c. 12) made a like settlement between debtor and creditor in Spain.]
[Footnote 383: P. Appius Clodius or Claudius belonged to the Patrician Gens of the Claudii. He was a clever, unprincipled fellow, and the bitter enemy of Cicero, whom during his tribunate he caused to be banished. There is more about him in the Life of Cæsar, c. 10. He was killed by T. Annius Milo.
This wife of Lucullus, named Clodia, had several sisters of the same name, as usual among the Romans. (Life of Marius, c. 1.) The sister who married Q. Metellus Celer, is accused of poisoning him.]
[Footnote 384: A name formed like Alexandreia from Antiochus, the name by which most of the Greek kings of Syria were designated. Antiocheia, now Antakia, was on the Orontes, the chief river of Syria, and near the small place Daphne, which was much resorted to as a place of pleasure by the people of Antiocheia. (Strabo, p. 749.)]
[Footnote 385: This was a country on the upper part of the Tigris. It probably contains the same element as the modern Kurdistan.]
[Footnote 386: The Skenite Arabians are the nomadic Arabs who live in tents. Strabo (p. 747) speaks of them thus: "The parts of Mesopotamia which are towards the south and at some distance from the mountains, and are waterless and sterile, are occupied by the Skenite Arabs, who are robbers and shepherds, and readily remove to other parts when the pastures fail and booty is scarce," &c.]
[Footnote 387: The embassy of Appius to Tigranes was in B.C. 71. See c. 14, notes.]
[Footnote 389: He is often mentioned by Cicero, _De Orat._ ii. 88, 90; and elsewhere. He was celebrated for his powerful memory, and he is said to have perfected a certain artificial system which was began by Simonides.]
[Footnote 390: Though Amphikrates intended to say that Seleukeia was small, it was in fact a large city. This Seleukeia on the Tigris was built by Seleukus Nikator. It was about 300 stadia or 36 miles from Babylon, which declined after the foundation of Seleukeia. In Strabo's time, Babylon was nearly deserted and Seleukeia was a large city.]
[Footnote 391: Bacchides, according to Strabo, commanded in the city.
Sinope is described by Strabo (p. 545) as one of the chief towns of Asia in his day. It was a Milesian colony. It was the birth-place of this Mithridates, surnamed Eupator, who made it his capital. It was situated on an isthmus which joined the mainland to the Chersonesus (peninsula) which is mentioned by Plutarch in this chapter. There were harbours and stations for ships on each side of the isthmus. The present condition of the town is described by Hamilton (_Researches_, i. 306, &c.): "The population and prosperity of Sinope are not such as might be expected in a place affording such a safe harbour between Constantinople and Trebizond. I observed also a general appearance of poverty and privation throughout the peninsula."
In Strabo's time Sinope had received a Roman colony, and the colonists had part of the city and of the territory. The word Colonia in Greek ([Greek: koloneia] κολονεια) appears on a sarcophagus which was seen by Hamilton in a small village near Sinope.]
[Footnote 392: Sthenis was a native of Olynthus and a contemporary of Alexander the Great. He is mentioned by Plinius (34, c. 19) and by Pausanias (vi. 17). Strabo says that Lucullus left everything to the Sinopians except the statue of Autolykus and a sphere, the work of Billarus, which he carried to Rome.]
[Footnote 393: This is the word which the Greeks use for a peninsula.
Plutarch here means the Chersonesus, on the isthmus of which Sinope was built. Hamilton says that "the peninsula extends about five miles from east to west and strictly coincides with the description given of it by Polybius (iv. 50)."]
[Footnote 394: Socius et Amicus: this was the title which the Romans condescended to give to a king who behaved towards them with due respect and submission. (Livius, 31, c. 11.)]
[Footnote 395: Lucullus appears to have crossed the Euphrates at a