SigPhi · Plutarch

Plutarch's Lives, Volume 3 (of 4)

Page 38 of 38

meaning of Plutarch is perhaps not quite clear. See the note in Schaefer's edition.]

[Footnote 656: These were the Roman Socii, or Italian states, which were in a kind of alliance with and subordination to Rome. They had to furnish troops for the wars, and to share the burdens of the Roman State in return for which they claimed the citizenship (Life of Marius, c. 32).]

[Footnote 657: Or Silo (Life of Marius, c. 33).]

[Footnote 658: There is obviously an error here in Plutarch's text, as Sintenis observes. The real meaning of what Pompædius said appears from the context, and from a passage of Valerius Maximus (3. 1, 2), who tells the same story.]

[Footnote 659: This sham fight was according to an old tradition established by Æneas. It is described by Virgil, _Æneid_, v. 553, &c.

See Tacitus, _Annal._ xi. 11; and Dion Cassius, 43. c. 23, and 49. c.

43. These games (ludi) were also celebrated under the early Emperors.]

[Footnote 660: The text is literally "a place for the impious," not _the_ place. But Plutarch may allude to the tortures of the wicked in the regions below, according to the popular notions.]

[Footnote 661: The possession of a priestly office by a person who also discharged the functions of civil life was common among the Romans. The effect of this political institution was more extensive than at first sight may appear, but the examination of such a question belongs, as Plutarch sometimes observes, to another place.]

[Footnote 662: He is mentioned by Cicero (_De Offic._ ii. 24), but some suppose that there were two Tyrian philosophers of that name.]

[Footnote 663: See Plutarch's Life of Cato the Censor, c. 19. This, the first Roman Basilica, was erected B.C. 182 (Livy, 39. c. 44). A basilica was a place for law business and the meeting of traders and the like.]

[Footnote 664: The highest cast with four dice of six sides was twenty-four points, and it was called Venus. The lowest cast was four points, and it was called Canis. This is one explanation. But the Venus is also explained to be the throw which resulted in all the dice turning up with different faces. See the notes in Burmann's edition of Suetonius, _Octav. Augustus_, c. 71. It is said that sometimes they played with four-sided dice, sometimes with six-sided. The subject is somewhat obscure, and the investigation not suited to all people.]

[Footnote 665: Probably C. Memmius Gemellus, tribune of the Plebs, B.C. 66. See the Life of Lucullus, c. 37.]

[Footnote 666: This was Q. Cæcilius Metellus Pius Scipio, the son of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica, prætor B.C. 94. He was the adopted son of Q. Metellus Pius, consul B.C. 80, who is mentioned in the Life of Sulla, c. 28. This rival of Cato was the Metellus who was defeated by Cæsar at the battle of Thapsus, and is often mentioned in this Life.

It is not said what legal process Cato could have instituted for the loss of his promised marriage.]

[Footnote 667: This Greek poet, who was probably born about the close of the eighth century B.C. at Paros, was noted for his biting Iambics, which became proverbial.

"Archilochum proprio rabies armavit iambo."

[Footnote 668: This was of course a gentile name. The name Soranus should be Seranus or Serranus.]

[Footnote 669: C. Lælius, the friend of the elder Scipio Africanus, is probably meant.]

[Footnote 670: The history of this insurrection of Spartacus is told in the Life of Crassus, c. 8, &c. As to Gellius, see the Life of Crassus, c. 9.]

[Footnote 671: Nomenclators, literally, "persons who called or addressed others by name," were slaves and sometimes perhaps other persons, whose business it was to know every man's name, to attend a candidate in his canvass, and to inform him of the names of those whom he was going to address, in order that he might appear to be acquainted with them; for in accordance with a feeling, which all men have in some degree, a desire to be known, a voter was pleased to find himself addressed by a candidate as if his face and name were familiar. This kind of notice from people who are above another in rank and station is peculiarly gratifying to those who are conscious that they have no real merit, and the pleasure which such attention gives to those who receive it is the exact measure of their own real opinion of their insignificance. I say their real opinion, for such persons have a true opinion of themselves, though they attempt to conceal it from themselves, and also to conceal it from others, in neither of which attempts are they quite successful. It makes no difference if a man knows that the great man who affects to know him really does not know him, for he knows that the great man does not know everybody and cares for very few; but the mere pretence of knowing, the mere show of knowing and recognising, which the great man assumes, he is willing to take for what he knows that it is not, a mark of respect; and mainly, that others, as he hopes, may be deceived by the false appearance, and take him to be what he knows that he is not.

Cato's tribuneship was a military tribuneship (tribunus militum).]

[Footnote 672: He was a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, and at the time of Cato's visit to him he had the care of the library at Pergamus.

Strabo (p. 674, ed. Casaub.) says that he died in Cato's house at Rome.]

[Footnote 673: Ænus was a small town at the mouth of the river Hebrus, now the Maritza. The island of Thasos, now Thaso, contains marble. The monument was a costly memorial, if the Attic talent was meant, which we must presume. Talents of silver are of course intended.]

[Footnote 674: The allusion is to the Anticato of Cæsar (Life of Cæsar, c. 54). How the matter really was, no one can tell; but such a story is not likely to be a pure invention.]

[Footnote 675: He is mentioned as being an old man in B.C. 54 (Life of Crassus c. 17). Deiotarus was a friend of the Romans in their Asiatic wars against Mithridates, and the senate conferred on him the title of king. He knew what kind of people he had to deal with when he showed such attention to Cato's train (c. 15). His history is closely connected with that of Cæsar, and of Cicero, who made a speech in his defence before Cæsar at Rome B.C. 45 (Pro Rege Deiotaro).]

[Footnote 676: The story about Demetrius, the contemptible favourite of Pompeius, is told by Plutarch in his Life of Pompeius, c. 40.

Plutarch makes the visit to Asia precede Cato's quæstorship, upon which see the remarks of Drumann, _Geschichte Roms_, v. 157. The narration of Plutarch is evidently confused as will appear from the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters.]

[Footnote 677: Either C. Scribonius Curio who was consul B.C. 76, or his son the tribune, an adherent of Cæsar; but probably the father is meant.]

[Footnote 678: See the Life of Marius, c. 17.]

[Footnote 679: Cato's quæstorship was in the year B.C. 65.]

[Footnote 680: Lutatius Catulus, censor B.C. 65, was the son of Catulus who with Marius defeated the Cimbri at Vercellæ B.C. 101.

(Life of Marius, c. 25.)]

[Footnote 681: This pasange, which has been supposed by some translators to mean that Catulus ran the risk of being degraded from his office, is correctly translated and explained by Kaltwasser. Cato hinted that the officers of the Court would turn Catulus out, if he continued to act as he did. Plutarch has told the same story in his treatise [Greek: peri dusopias] περὶ δυσοπίας, _De Vitioso Pudore_ c.

13, to which Kaltwasser refers.]

[Footnote 682: He may be C. Claudius Marcellus afterwards consul B.C.

50, or his cousin of the same name who was consul B.C. 49.]

[Footnote 683: The parentage of Terentia, Cicero's wife, is unknown.

The mother of Terentia must have married a Fabius, by whom she had this Fabia, the half sister of Terentia. Fabia was a woman of rank.

Though a vestal virgin, she did not escape scandal, for she was tried B.C. 73 for sexual intercourse with Catilina: Fabia was acquitted There is a mistake in the text: "charges" (p. 25) is a misprint, and should be "changes;" in place of "Cicero's wide, he was in great danger, but he involved Clodius," it should be "Cicero's wife, and she was in great danger, he involved Clodius."

Therefore in place of "he was," line 10 from bottom, read "and she was;" and in the same line omit "but." In line 13 from the bottom read "changes" for "charges."]

[Footnote 684: Probably the name is corrupted. The expression is attributed to Cato, in the Life of Lucullus, c. 40.]

[Footnote 685: Q. Metellus Nepos was serving under Pompeius in Asia in B.C. 64. He came to Rome in B.C. 63 to be a candidate for the tribuneship.]

[Footnote 686: D. Junius Silanus, who was consul with Licinius Murena, B.C. 62, was now the husbaud of Servilia, who had been the wife of D.

Junius Brutus.]

[Footnote 687: He was the son of L. Licinius Murena, who served under Sulla in Greece. The son served under his father in B.C. 83 against Mithridates. After the consular election in B.C. 63 he was prosecuted for bribery (ambitus). Cicero's speech in defence of Murena is extant.]

[Footnote 688: The affair of Catiline is spoken of in the Life of Cæsar, c. 17, and in the Life of Cicero, c. 10, &c.]

[Footnote 689: This Servilia was now the wife of Silanus the consul.

Lucullus the husband of the other Servilia had his triumph in the year of Cicero's consulship B.C. 63 (Life of Lucullus, c. 37). He was probably the husband of Servilia at this time.]

[Footnote 690: Short-hand writers were called by the Romans "actuarii" and "notarii," of which last word Plutarch's word ([Greek: sêmeiographoi] σημειόγραφοι) is a translation. It is not likely that short-hand writing was invented for the occasion, as Plutarch says.

Under the empire short-hand writers are often mentioned.]

[Footnote 691: L. Marcius Philippus, consul in B.C. 56 with Cn.

Cornelius Lentulus.]

[Footnote 692: L. Thrasea Pætus, a Latin writer, a native of Padua, who was put to death by Nero (Tacitus, _Annal._ xvi. 34, 25). His authority for the Life of Cato was, as it appears, Munatius Rufus, who accompanied Cato to Cyprus (c. 37).]

[Footnote 693: Quintus Hortensius was consul B.C. 69, a distinguished orator and a man of refined and luxurious habits. Bibulus is M.

Calpurnius Bibulus, the colleague of Cæsar in his consulship B.C. 59.

He had three sons by Porcia, Cato's daughter by Atilia.

This transfer of Marcia is oddly told by Plutarch. It was not a mere case of lending the woman for the purpose of procreation, for the child of Hortensius could not be his legal child, unless Marcia became his legal wife. Cato must accordingly have divorced his wife, which was done at Rome without any trouble. The only thing then that is peculiar in the affair is, that Cato did not divorce his wife because he was dissatisfied with her on good grounds, nor for such grounds as Cicero divorced his wife, but for the reason mentioned in the text.

Marcia continued to be the wife of Hortensius till his death. The marriage with Hortensius probably took place about B.C. 56.

This affair has caused the critics much difficulty. But as we may assume that Hortensius wished to have a child that would be his own, which is in fact Plutarch's statement, and one that would be in his paternal power, he must have married Marcia, and Cato must have divorced her in proper form. The fact of Philippus giving his daughter away shows that she was then at his disposal. Cato married her again, and his conduct proved that he trusted her. The notion of Cato lending his wife would have been as inconsistent with legal principle and morality in Rome as such a transaction would be in England.]

[Footnote 694: Compare the Life of Cæsar, c. 8.]

[Footnote 695: Pompeius was now in Asia. See the Life of Pompeius, c.

42, 43.]

[Footnote 696: Castor and Pollux. See the Life of Tiberius Gracchus, c. 2. The temple was on the south side of the Forum Romanum. The steps are those which led to the Rostra.]

[Footnote 697: This is the translation of the reading [Greek: oikothen] οίκοθεν, which is probably incorrect. Solanus proposes [Greek: autothen] αὐτόθεν, and Kaltwasser proposes [Greek: apothen] ἀπόθεν, "from a distance," which he has adopted in his version, "und liess die bewaffneten, die _von fern_ standen, mit furchbarem Geschre* anrücken."]

[Footnote 698: Lucullus returned B.C. 66. He triumphed B.C. 63. See the Life of Lucullus, c. 37. Plutarch has here confused the order of events. Kaltwasser translates this passage as if Lucullus had returned to Rome after Metellus left it in B.C. 62.]

[Footnote 699: He returned B.C. 62. The consuls who were elected for the year B.C. 61, were M. Pupius Piso, who had been a legatus of Pompeius in Asia, and M. Valerius Messalla. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 44.]

[Footnote 700: Probably Munatius Rufus, who is mentioned again in c.

36. Drumann (_Porcii_, p. 162) says it was Munatius Plancus.]

[Footnote 701: This was in B.C. 61, at the election of the consuls L.

Afranius and Q. Cæcilius Metellus Celer, the consuls of B.C. 60. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 44.]

[Footnote 702: Cæsar returned B.C. 60, and was consul B.C. 59. See the Life of Cæsar, c. 13, 14, for the events alluded to in this 31st chapter; and the Life of Pompeius, c. 47.]

[Footnote 703: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 14.]

[Footnote 704: Numidicus. The story is told in the Life of Marius, c.

29. The matters referred to in this and the following chapter are told circumstantially by Dion Cassius (38, c. 1-7). See Life of Cæsar, c.

14.]

[Footnote 705: L. Calpurnius Piso, the father of Calpurnia the wife of Cæsar, and Aulus Gabinius were consuls B.C. 58. Aulus Gabinius, when Tribunus Plebis B.C. 67, proposed the law which gave Pompeius the command against the pirates. The meaning of the obscure allusion at the end of the chapter, which is literally rendered, may be collected from the context; and still more plainly from the abuse which Cicero heaps on Gabinius for his dissolute life after he had been banished in the consulship of Gabinius (Drumann, _Gabinii_, p. 60).]

[Footnote 706: This Ptolemæus, the brother of Ptolemæus Auletes, King of Egypt, was now in possession of Cyprus, and the mission of Cato, which could not be to his taste, was to take possession of the island for the Romans. When Clodius had been made prisoner by the pirates nine years before, Ptolemæus was asked to contribute to his ransom but he only sent two talents, for which ill-timed saving he was mulcted in his whole kingdom by this unprincipled tribune (Drumann, _Claudii_, p.

263).]

[Footnote 707: He is called Caninius in the Life of Brutus, c. 3.]

[Footnote 708: The feeble king had not spirit to attempt a resistance, which indeed would have been useless. He put an end to himself by poison (c. 36), and the Romans took the island. A more unjustifiable act of aggression than the occupation of Cyprus, hardly occurs even in the history of Rome.]

[Footnote 709: The priesthood of such temples as Paphos was a valuable thing. These temples had lands and slaves.]

[Footnote 710: This was Auletes, the father of Cleopatra. He was restored to his kingdom by A. Gabinius B.C. 55, while he was governor of Syria.]

[Footnote 711: This is the meaning of the passage. The interview was ludicrous enough, but Dacier makes it still more so, by seating Cato on a close-stool; and Kind and Schirach, two German translators, make him receive the king in the same way (Kaltwasser's note).]

[Footnote 712: This was M. Junius Brutus, afterwards Cæsar's friend and assassin. Cato could not have found a better man for his purpose; at least for laying his hands on all that came in his way. Brutus took the opportunity of helping himself to some of the plunder in his uncle's absence. At a later time he had large sums out at interest in Cyprus and partly in other persons' names. He was a merciless usurer.

(Cicero, _Ad Attic._, v. 18 and 21; vi. 21; and the Life of Cicero, c.

36, notes.)]

[Footnote 713: Plutarch explains in a general way what is meant. The Roman word "pignus," which Plutarch translates by [Greek: enechyra] ἐνέχυρα, means a thing pawned and delivered as a security to the pawnee. To take pledges, "pignora capere," was to seize something that belonged to a man in order to compel the discharge of a duty. It was like a distress for a service. Instances occur in Livy (3. c. 38, 37.

[Footnote 714: The Greek nominative would be Barcas. The name does not appear to be Roman and is probably corrupted. Bursa is a Roman name.

See c. 48.]

[Footnote 715: There is no suspicion that Cato got anything for himself. He was above that. He honestly discharged his dishonest mission.]

[Footnote 716: This was a port of Corinth on the east side of the Isthmus.]

[Footnote 717: The amazement of the people at the quantity of the plunder, and the thanks of the Senate for the faithful discharge of their order to pillage, might seem regular enough if it had been booty gotten in war. But the robbery was not gilded with this false show. It was pure, simple robbery without the accessories of war.]

[Footnote 718: This means a prætorship before the age at which a man could regularly hold the office. Cato returned from Cyprus in B.C. 56.

He was now thirty-eight years of age, for he died B.C. 46, when he was forty-eight.]

[Footnote 719: The order of the words in the original makes the meaning appear somewhat ambiguous. The passage might be translated, as it is by Dacier, "for the colleague of Philippus paid no less respect to Cato on account of his merit, than Philippus did on account of his relationship."]

[Footnote 720: Cicero returned from exile B.C. 57, in the month of September of the unreformed calendar.]

[Footnote 721: This was the meeting at Luca in B.C. 56. See the Life of Pompeius, c. 51; and the Life of Cæsar, c. 21.]

[Footnote 722: This was the second consulship of each, and was in B.C.

55. Cato lost the prætorship, and Vatinius was elected instead of him [Footnote 723: As to Caius Trebonius, see the Life of Pompeius, c.

52.]

[Footnote 724: One would suppose that a less time would have been more than enough, though not for Cato. Dion Cassius (39. c. 31) says that Favonius spoke for an hour before Cato did, and took up all the time in complaining of the shortness of his allowance. It would be a fair inference that he had little to say against the measure itself.]

[Footnote 725: Dion Cassius (39. c. 35) tells us more particularly how it happened that P. Aquilius Gallus was in the senate house. Gallus was afraid that he should be excluded from the Forum the next day, and accordingly he passed the night in the senate house, both for safety's sake and to be ready on the spot in the morning. But Trebonius, who found it out, kept him shut up for that night and the greater part of the following day.]

[Footnote 726: Cato was prætor in B.C. 54. It does not appear that he ever was prætor before, and it is not therefore clear what is meant by the "extraordinary prætorship" (c. 39). In place of the word "Rostra," in the fifth line of this chapter, read "tribunal." Plutarch uses the same word ([Greek: bêma] βῆμα) for both, which circumstance is calculated occasionally to cause a translator to make a slip, even when he knows better. The "tribunal" was the seat of the prætor, when he was doing justice. But lower down (line 8 from the bottom) Rostra is the proper translation of Plutarch's word ([Greek: epilabesthai tôn embolon] ἐπιλαβέσθαι τῶν ἐμβόλον) and it was the place from which Cato spoke, after he had got up. In c. 43, when Cato gets up to speak, Plutarch makes him mount the Bema ([Greek: bêma] βῆμα), by which he means the place when the orators stood at the Rostra. The Rostra were the beaks of the Antiate galleys, with which, it is said, this place was ornamented at the close of the Latin war (Livy, 8, c. 14).]

[Footnote 727: The reason according to Plutarch why people envy the man who has a high reputation for integrity, is because of the power and credit which it gives. Whatever then gives power and credit should be also an object of envy, as wealth; and so it is. The notion of envy implies a desire to see the person who is the object of it humbled and cast down. The Greeks attributed this feeling to their gods, who looked with an evil eye on great prosperity, and loved to humble it.

But the feeling of envy, if that is the right term, towards him who has power and credit by reason of his high character for integrity, is not the same feeling as envy of the wealthy man. The envious of wealth desire to have the wealth both for itself and for its uses. The envious of character desire to have the opinion of the character, because of the profit that is from it, but they may not desire to have that which is the foundation of the character. If they did, their desire would be for virtue, and the envious feeling would not exist.

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 mass 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 assumes the existence of a class who love the just and give them credit, and of a class who envy them; but the two classes of persons are not the same.]

[Footnote 728: This name recurs in the Symposium and Phædon 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 [Footnote 729: Some apology is necessary for translating "pears " ([Greek: apious] ἀπίους, in the original said to mean "pears") into "parsley." The context shows clearly enough that pears are not meant.

Kaltwasser 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 Hypsæus, see the Life of Pompeius, c. 55. Titus 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 Cassius, 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: Kaltwasser refers to the Life of Cæsar, c. 22, for an explanation of the first part of this chapter; and to the Life of Cæsar, c. 29, and to that of Pompeius, c. 58, for the transactions which are mentioned in the latter part of this chapter.]

[Footnote 735: Cæsar took Ariminum (Rimini) in B.C. 49. See the Life of Cæsar, 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 Cæsar's Anticato, which has often been mentioned. It seems that Cæsar 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: Heraklês mainomenos] Ἡρακλῆς μαινόμενος of Euripides (v. 173), one of the extant plays.]

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

[Footnote 740: Another allusion to the Anticato. It is difficult to see what probable charge Cæsar could make of this circumstance. 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 Cæsar, c. 39.]

[Footnote 742: Cn. Pompeius, the elder son of Pompeius Magnus is meant. It is conjectured that the word "young" ([Greek: neon] νέον) has fallen out of the text (compare c. 58). He had been sent by his father to get ships, 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 Cassius, 42. c. 12).]

[Footnote 743: He must also have seen Cornelia, for Sextus 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 sævo serpentum innoxia morsu, Marmaridæ 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. Kaltwasser 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 Cæsar, 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 Cæsar, c. 52, and Dion Cassius, 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: Itukê] Ἰτύκη. Dion Cassius writes it [Greek: Outikê] Οὐτική. This old Phœnician city was on the coast near the mouth of the river Bagradas; but its supposed remains are some edition.)]

[Footnote 750: See the Life of Cæsar, c. 53, and Dion Cassius, 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 [Footnote 752: He was the son of L. Julius Cæsar, consul B.C. 64. The son was pardoned by Cæsar (_Bell. Afric._ c. 88, 89). Dion Cassius (43, c. 12) says that Cæsar 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 Cæsar'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 Phædon 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: Kaltwasser 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 passage 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 Cæsar, would have been intolerable to a man of his principles; for that he might have lived by Cæsar's grace, if he had chosen, can hardly be doubted notwithstanding Cæsar wrote his Anticatones.]

[Footnote 755: This was P. Licinius Crassus Junianus, a Junius who had been adopted by a Crassus, as the name shows.]

[Footnote 756: [Greek: êdê d' ornithes êdon] ήδη δ' ὄρνιθες ηδον. The translators do not agree about these words. Dacier and others translate them literally, as I have done. Kaltwasser translated them, "and already the cocks 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. Cocks 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 Cassius (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 Sallust has given, may contain the matter, but not the words of Cato.]

[Footnote 759: He had his father's property. After Cæsar'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.

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