The History of Rome, Book V - Theodor Mommsen
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28. According to the rectified calendar on the 5th Nov. 705.
29. V. X. Result of the Campaign as a Whole
30. The exact determination of the field of battle is difficult.
Appian (ii. 75) expressly places it between (New) Pharsalus (now
Fersala) and the Enipeus. Of the two streams, which alone are of
any importance in the question, and are undoubtedly the Apidanus
and Enipeus of the ancients--the Sofadhitiko and the Fersaliti--the
former has its sources in the mountains of Thaumaci (Dhomoko) and
the Dolopian heights, the latter in mount Othrys, and the Fersaliti
alone flows past Pharsalus; now as the Enipeus according to Strabo
(ix. p. 432) springs from mount Othrys and flows past Pharsalus,
the Fersaliti has been most justly pronounced by Leake (Northern
Greece, iv. 320) to be the Enipeus, and the hypothesis followed by
Goler that the Fersaliti is the Apidanus is untenable. With this
all the other statements of the ancients as to the two rivers
agree. Only we must doubtless assume with Leake, that the river of
Vlokho formed by the union of the Fersaliti and the Sofadhitiko and
going to the Peneius was called by the ancients Apidanus as well as
the Sofadhitiko; which, however, is the more natural, as while
the Sofadhitiko probably has, the Fersaliti has not, constantly water
(Leake, iv. 321). Old Pharsalus, from which the battle takes its
name, must therefore have been situated between Fersala and
the Fersaliti. Accordingly the battle was fought on the left bank of
the Fersaliti, and in such a way that the Pompeians, standing with
their faces towards Pharsalus, leaned their right wing on the river
(Caesar, B. C. iii. 83; Frontinus, Strat. ii. 3, 22). The camp of
the Pompeians, however, cannot have stood here, but only on
the slope of the heights of Cynoscephalae, on the right bank of
the Enipeus, partly because they barred the route of Caesar to
Scotussa, partly because their line of retreat evidently went over
the mountains that were to be found above the camp towards Larisa;
if they had, according to Leake's hypothesis (iv. 482), encamped to
the east of Pharsalus on the left bank of the Enipeus, they could
never have got to the northward through this stream, which at this
very point has a deeply cut bed (Leake, iv. 469), and Pompeius must
have fled to Lamia instead of Larisa. Probably therefore
the Pompeians pitched their camp on the right bank of the Fersaliti,
and passed the river both in order to fight and in order, after
the battle, to regain their camp, whence they then moved up the slopes
of Crannon and Scotussa, which culminate above the latter place in
the heights of Cynoscephalae. This was not impossible.
the Enipeus is a narrow slow-flowing rivulet, which Leake found two
feet deep in November, and which in the hot season often lies quite
dry (Leake, i. 448, and iv. 472; comp. Lucan, vi. 373), and
the battle was fought in the height of summer. Further the armies
before the battle lay three miles and a half from each other
(Appian, B. C. ii. 65), so that the Pompeians could make all
preparations and also properly secure the communication with their
camp by bridges. Had the battle terminated in a complete rout, no
doubt the retreat to and over the river could not have been
executed, and doubtless for this reason Pompeius only reluctantly
agreed to fight here. The left wing of the Pompeians which was
the most remote from the base of retreat felt this; but the retreat at
least of their centre and their right wing was not accomplished in
such haste as to be impracticable under the given conditions.
Caesar and his copyists are silent as to the crossing of the river,
because this would place in too clear a light the eagerness
for battle of the Pompeians apparent otherwise from the whole
narrative, and they are also silent as to the conditions of
retreat favourable for these.
31. III. VIII. Battle of Cynoscephalae
32. With this is connected the well-known direction of Caesar to
his soldiers to strike at the faces of the enemy's horsemen.
the infantry--which here in an altogether irregular way acted on
the offensive against cavalry, who were not to be reached with
the sabres--were not to throw their -pila-, but to use them as hand-
spears against the cavalry and, in order to defend themselves
better against these, to thrust at their faces (Plutarch, Pomp. 69,
71; Caes. 45; Appian, ii. 76, 78; Flor. ii. 12; Oros. vi. 15;
erroneously Frontinus, iv. 7, 32). The anecdotical turn given to
this instruction, that the Pompeian horsemen were to be brought to
run away by the fear of receiving scars in their faces, and that
they actually galloped off "holding their hands before their eyes"
(Plutarch), collapses of itself; for it has point only on
the supposition that the Pompeian cavalry had consisted principally of
the young nobility of Rome, the "graceful dancers"; and this was
not the case (p. 224). At the most it may be, that the wit of
the camp gave to that simple and judicious military order this very
irrational but certainly comic turn.
33. V. I. Indefinite and Perilous Character of the Sertorian War
34. [I may here state once for all that in this and other
passages, where Dr. Mommsen appears incidentally to express views
of religion or philosophy with which I can scarcely be supposed to
agree, I have not thought it right--as is, I believe, sometimes
done in similar cases--to omit or modify any portion of what he has
written. The reader must judge for himself as to the truth or
value of such assertions as those given in the text.--Tr.]
35. V. IX. Passive Resistance of Caesar
36. V. X. The Armies at Pharsalus
37. V. IV. And Brought Back by Gabinius
38. V. X. Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed
39. V. IV. Aggregate Results
40. V. IV. Ptolemaeus in Egypt Recognized, but Expelled
by His Subjects
41. V. IV. Cyprus Annexed
42. The loss of the lighthouse-island must have fallen out, where
there is now a chasm (B. A. 12), for the island was in fact at
first in Caesar's power (B. C. iii. 12; B. A. 8). The mole, must
have been constantly in the power of the enemy, for Caesar held
intercourse with the island only by ships.
43. V. IV. Robber-Chiefs
44. V. IV. Robber-Chiefs
45. V. X. Caesar's Fleet and Army in Illyricum Destroyed
46. V. VIII. And in the Courts
47. Much obscurity rests on the shape assumed by the states in
northwestern Africa during this period. After the Jugurthine war
Bocchus king of Mauretania ruled probably from the western sea
to the port of Saldae, in what is now Morocco and Algiers
(IV. IV. Reorganization of Numidia); the princes of Tingis
(Tangiers)--probably from the outset different from the Mauretanian
sovereigns--who occur even earlier (Plut. Serf. 9), and to whom it may
be conjectured that Sallust's Leptasta (Hist. ii. 31 Kritz) and Cicero's
Mastanesosus (In Vat. 5, 12) belong, may have been independent
within certain limits or may have held from him as feudatories;
just as Syphax already ruled over many chieftains of tribes
(Appian, Pun. 10), and about this time in the neighbouring Numidia
Cirta was possessed, probably however under Juba's supremacy,
by the prince Massinissa (Appian, B. C. iv. 54). About 672 we find
in Bocchus' stead a king called Bocut or Bogud (iv. 92; Orosius,
v. 21, 14), the son of Bocchus. From 705 the kingdom appears divided
between king Bogud who possesses the western, and king Bocchus
who possesses the eastern half, and to this the later partition
of Mauretania into Bogud's kingdom or the state of Tingis and Bocchus'
kingdom or the state of Iol (Caesarea) refers (Plin. H. N. v. 2, 19;
comp. Bell. Afric. 23).
48. IV. IX. Fresh Difficulties with Mithradates
49. V. V. Resumption of the Conspiracy
50. V. X. Reorganization of the Coalition In Africa
51. IV. IV. Reorganization of Numidia
52. The inscriptions of the region referred to preserve numerous
traces of this colonization. The name of the Sittii is there
unusually frequent; the African township Milev bears as Roman
the name -colonia Sarnensis-(C. I. L. viii. p. 1094) evidently from
the Nucerian river-god Sarnus (Sueton. Rhet. 4).
Notes for Chapter XI
1. V. X. Insurrection in Alexandria
2. The affair with Laberius, told in the well-known prologue, has
been quoted as an instance of Caesar's tyrannical caprices, but
those who have done so have thoroughly misunderstood the irony of
the situation as well as of the poet; to say nothing of
the -naivete- of lamenting as a martyr the poet who readily
pockets his honorarium.
3. The triumph after the battle of Munda subsequently to be
mentioned probably had reference only to the Lusitanians who served
in great numbers in the conquered army.
4. Any one who desires to compare the old and new hardships of
authors will find opportunity of doing so in the letter of Caecina
(Cicero, Aa. Fam. vi. 7).
5. V. VI. Second Coalition of Pompeius, Crassus, and Caesar
6. When this was written--in the year 1857--no one could foresee
how soon the mightiest struggle and most glorious victory as yet
recorded in human annals would save the United States from this
fearful trial, and secure the future existence of an absolute
self-governing freedom not to be permanently kept in check by
any local Caesarism.
7. V. IX. Preparation for Attacks on Caesar
8. On the 26th January 710 Caesar is still called dictator IIII
(triumphal table); on the 18th February of this year he was already
-dictator perpetuus- (Cicero, Philip, ii. 34, 87). Comp.
Staatsrecht, ii. 3 716.
9. IV. X. Executions
10. The formulation of that dictatorship appears to have expressly
brought into prominence among other things the "improvement of
morals"; but Caesar did not hold on his own part an office of this
sort (Staatsrecht, ii. 3 705).
11. Caesar bears the designation of -imperator- always without any
number indicative of iteration, and always in the first place after
his name (Staatsrecht, ii. 3 767, note 1).
12. V. V. Rehabilitation of Saturninus and Marius
13. During the republican period the name Imperator, which denotes
the victorious general, was laid aside with the end of the campaign;
as a permanent title it first appears in the case of Caesar.
14. That in Caesar's lifetime the -imperium- as well as
the supreme pontificate was rendered by a formal legislative act
hereditary for his agnate descendants--of his own body or through
the medium of adoption--was asserted by Caesar the Younger as his
legal title to rule. As our traditional accounts stand,
the existence of such a law or resolution of the senate must be
decidedly called in question; but doubtless it remains possible
that Caesar intended the issue of such a decree. (Comp,
Staatsrecht, ii. 3 787, 1106.)
15. The widely-spread opinion, which sees in the imperial office
of Imperator nothing but the dignity of general of the empire
tenable for life, is not warranted either by the signification of
the word or by the view taken by the old authorities. -Imperium-
is the power of command, -Imperator- is the possessor of that
power; in these words as in the corresponding Greek terms --kratos--,
--autokrator-- so little is there implied a specific military
reference, that it is on the contrary the very characteristic of
the Roman official power, where it appears purely and completely,
to embrace in it war and process--that is, the military and
the civil power of command--as one inseparable whole. Dio says quite
correctly (liii. 17; comp, xliii. 44; lii. 41) that the name
Imperator was assumed by the emperors "to indicate their full power
instead of the title of king and dictator (--pros deilosin teis
autotelous sphon exousias, anti teis basileos tou te diktatoros
epikleiseos--); for these other older titles disappeared in name,
but in reality the title of Imperator gives the same prerogatives
(--to de dei ergon auton tei tou autokratoros proseigoria
bebaiountai--), for instance the right of levying soldiers,
imposing taxes, declaring war and concluding peace, exercising
the supreme authority over burgess and non-burgess in and out of
the city and punishing any one at any place capitally or otherwise, and
in general of assuming the prerogatives connected in the earliest
times with the supreme imperium." It could not well be said in
plainer terms, that Imperator is nothing at all but a synonym for
rex, just as imperare coincides with regere.
16. When Augustus in constituting the principate resumed
the Caesarian imperium, this was done with the restriction that it
should be limited as to space and in a certain sense also as to
time; the proconsular power of the emperors, which was nothing but
just this imperium, was not to come into application as regards
Rome and Italy (Staatsrecht, ii. 8 854). On this element rests
the essential distinction between the Caesarian imperium and
the Augustan principate, just as on the other hand the real equality of
the two institutions rests on the imperfection with which even in
principle and still more in practice that limit was realized.
17. II. I. Collegiate Arrangements
18. On this question there may be difference of opinion, whereas
the hypothesis that it was Caesar's intention to rule the Romans as
Imperator, the non-Romans as Rex, must be simply dismissed. It is
based solely on the story that in the sitting of the senate in
which Caesar was assassinated a Sibylline utterance was brought
forward by one of the priests in charge of the oracles, Lucius
Cotta, to the effect that the Parthians could only be vanquished by
a "king," and in consequence of this the resolution was adopted to
commit to Caesar regal power over the Roman provinces. This story
was certainly in circulation immediately after Caesar's death. But
not only does it nowhere find any sort of even indirect
confirmation, but it is even expressly pronounced false by
the contemporary Cicero (De Div. ii. 54, 119) and reported by the later
historians, especially by Suetonius (79) and Dio (xliv. 15) merely
as a rumour which they are far from wishing to guarantee; and it is
under such circumstances no better accredited by the fact of
Plutarch (Caes. 60, 64; Brut. 10) and Appian (B. C. ii. 110)
repeating it after their wont, the former by way of anecdote,
the latter by way of causal explanation. But the story is not merely
unattested; it is also intrinsically impossible. Even leaving out
of account that Caesar had too much intellect and too much
political tact to decide important questions of state after
the oligarchic fashion by a stroke of the oracle-machinery, he could
never think of thus formally and legally splitting up the state
which he wished to reduce to a level.
19. II. III. Union of the Plebeians
20. II. I. The New Community
21. IV. X. Abolition of the Censorial Supervision of the Senate
22. According to the probable calculation formerly assumed (iv.
113), this would yield an average aggregate number of from 1000
to 1200 senators.
23. This certainly had reference merely to the elections for
the years 711 and 712 (Staatsrecht, ii. a 730); but the arrangement was
doubtless meant to become permanent.
24. I. V. The Senate as State-Council, II. I. Senate
25. V. X. Pacification of Alexandria
26. V. VIII. Changes in the Arrangement of Magistracies
and the Jury-System
27. I. V. The King
28. Hence accordingly the cautious turns of expression on
the mention of these magistracies in Caesar's laws; -cum censor aliusve
quis magistratus Romae populi censum aget (L. Jul. mun. l. 144);
praetor isve quei Romae iure deicundo praerit (L. Rubr. often);
quaestor urbanus queive aerario praerit- (L. Jul. mun. l. 37 et al.).
29. V. III. New Arrangement as to Jurymen
30. V. VIII. And in the Courts
31. -Plura enim multo-, says Cicero in his treatise De Oratore
(ii. 42, 178), primarily with reference to criminal trials,
-homines iudicant odio aut amore aut cupiditate aut iracundia aut
dolore aut laetitia aut spe aut timore aut errore aut aliqua
permotione mentis, quam veritate aut praescripto aut iuris norma
aliqua aut iudicii formula aut legibus-. On this accordingly are
founded the further instructions which he gives for advocates
entering, on their profession.
32. V. VIII. And in the Courts
33. V. VII. Macedonia ff.
34. V. VII. The Gallic Plan of War
35. V. III. Overthrow of the Senatorial Rule, and New Power of Pompeius
36. With the nomination of a part of the military tribunes by
the burgesses (III. XI. Election of Officers in the Comitia) Caesar--
in this also a democrat--did not meddle.
37. V. VII. The New Dacian Kingdom
38. IV. VI. Political Significance of the Marian Military Reform
39. IV. VI. Political Significance of the Marian Military Reform
40. V. V. Total Defeat of the Democratic Party
41. Varro attests the discontinuance of the Sicilian -decumae-
in a treatise published after Cicero's death (De R. R. 2 praef.)
where he names--as the corn--provinces whence Rome derives her
subsistence--only Africa and Sardinia, no longer Sicily.
The -Latinitas-, which Sicily obtained, must thus doubtless have
included this immunity (comp. Staatsrecht, iii. 684).
42. V. X. Field of Caesar's Power
43. III. XI. Italian Subjects
44. V. VIII. Clodius
45. III. XIII. Increase of Amusements
46. In Sicily, the country of production, the -modius- was sold
within a few years at two and at twenty sesterces; from this we may
guess what must have been the fluctuations of price in Rome, which
subsisted on transmarine corn and was the seat of speculators.
47. IV. XII. The Finances and Public Buildings
48. It is a fact not without interest that a political writer of
later date but much judgment, the author of the letters addressed
in the name of Sallust to Caesar, advises the latter to transfer
the corn-distribution of the capital to the several -municipia-.
There is good sense in the admonition; as indeed similar ideas
obviously prevailed in the noble municipal provision for
orphans under Trajan.
49. V. XI. The State-Hierarchy
50. III. XII. The Management of the Land and Its Capital
51. The following exposition in Cicero's treatise De officiis
(i. 42) is characteristic: -Iam de artificiis et quaestibus, qui
liberales habendi, qui sordidi sint, kaec fere accepimus. Primum
improbantur ii quaestus, qui in odia hominum incurrunt, ut
portitorum, ut feneratorum. Illiberales autem et sordidi quaestus
mercenariorum omnium, quorum operae, nonaries emuntur. Est autem
in illis ipsa merces auctoramentum servitutis. Sordidi etiam
putandi, qui mercantur a mercatoribus quod statim vendant, nihil
enim proficiant, nisi admodum mentiantur. Nec vero est quidquam
turpius vanitate. Opificesque omnes in sordida arte versantur; nec
enim quidquam ingenuum habere potest officina. Minimeque artes eae
probandae, quae ministrae sunt voluptatum,
"Cetarii, lanii, coqui, fartores, piscatores,"
ut ait Terentius. Adde huc, si placet, unguentarios, saltatores,
totumque ludum talarium. Quibus autem artibus aut prudentia maior
inest, aut non mediocris utilitas quaeritur, ut medicina, ut
architectura, ut doctrina rerum honestarum, eae sunt iis, quorum
ordini conveniunt, honestae. Mercatura autem, si tenuis est,
sordida putanda est; sin magna et copiosa, multa undique apportans,
multaque sine vanitate impertiens, non est admodum vituperanda;
atque etiam, si satiata quaestu, vel contenta potius; ut saepe ex
alto in portum, ex ipso portu in agros se possessionesque
contulerit, videtur optimo iure posse laudari. Omnium autem rerum,
ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agricultura melius, nihil
uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homine libero dignius-. According to
this the respectable man must, in strictness, be a landowner;
the trade of a merchant becomes him only so far as it is a means to
this ultimate end; science as a profession is suitable only for
the Greeks and for Romans not belonging to the ruling classes, who by
this means may purchase at all events a certain toleration of their
personal presence in genteel circles. It is a thoroughly developed
aristocracy of planters, with a strong infusion of mercantile
speculation and a slight shading of general culture.
52. IV. IV. Administration under the Restoration
53. We have still (Macrobius, Hi, 13) the bill of fare of
the banquet which Mucius Lentulus Niger gave before 691 on entering on
his pontificate, and of which the pontifices--Caesar included--the
Vestal Virgins, and some other priests and ladies nearly related to
them partook. Before the dinner proper came sea-hedgehogs; fresh
oysters as many as the guests wished; large mussels; sphondyli;
fieldfares with asparagus; fattened fowls; oyster and mussel
pasties; black and white sea-acorns; sphondyli again; glycimarides;
sea-nettles; becaficoes; roe-ribs; boar's-ribs; fowls dressed with
flour; becaficoes; purple shell-fish of two sorts. The dinner
itself consisted of sow's udder; boar's-head; fish-pasties; boar-
pasties; ducks; boiled teals; hares; roasted fowls; starch-pastry;
Pontic pastry.
These are the college-banquets regarding which Varro (De R. R. iii.
2, 16) says that they forced up the prices of all delicacies.
Varro in one of his satires enumerates the following as the most
notable foreign delicacies: peacocks from Samos; grouse from
Phrygia; cranes from Melos; kids from Ambracia; tunny fishes from
Chalcedon; muraenas from the Straits of Gades; bleak-fishes
(? -aselli-) from Pessinus; oysters and scallops from Tarentum;
sturgeons (?) from Rhodes; -scarus--fishes (?) from Cilicia; nuts
from Thasos; dates from Egypt; acorns from Spain.
54. IV. VII. Economic Crisis, IV. IX. Death of Cinna
55. III. X. Greek National Party
56. IV. XI. Capitalist Oligarchy
57. III. XIII. Luxury
58. IV. XII. Practical Use Made of Religion
59. III. XIII. Cato's Family Life, iv. 186 f.
60. IV. I. Achaean War
61. IV. XII. Mixture of Peoples
62. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law
63. V. XI. Dolabella
64. This is not stated by our authorities, but it necessarily
follows from the permission to deduct the interest paid by cash or
assignation (-si quid usurae nomine numeratum aut perscriptum
fuisset-; Sueton. Caes. 42), as paid contrary to law, from the capital.
65. II. III. Laws Imposing Taxes
66. V. V. Preparations of the Anarchists in Etruria
67. IV. VII. Economic Crisis
68. The Egyptian royal laws (Diodorus, i. 79) and likewise
the legislation of Solon (Plutarch, Sol. 13, 15) forbade bonds in which
the loss of the personal liberty of the debtor was made the penalty
of non-payment; and at least the latter imposed on the debtor in
the event of bankruptcy no more than the cession of his whole assets.
69. I. XI. Manumission
70. II. III. Continued Distress
71. At least the latter rule occurs in the old Egyptian royal laws
(Diodorus, i. 79). On the other hand the Solonian legislation
knows no restrictions on interest, but on the contrary expressly
allows interest to be fixed of any amount at pleasure.
72. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law
73. V. VI. Caesar's Agrarian Law
74. IV. II. Tribunate of Gracchus, IV. II. The Domain Question Viewed
in Itself, IV. IV. The Domain Question under the Restoration
75. IV. XII. Carneades at Rome, V. III. Continued Subsistence
of the Sullan Constitution
76. IV. X. The Roman Municipal System
77. Of both laws considerable fragments still exist.
78. V. XI. Diminution of the Proletariate
79. V. VII. Gaul Subdued
80. As according to Caesar's ordinance annually sixteen
propraetors and two proconsuls divided the governorships among
them, and the latter remained two years in office (p. 344), we
might conclude that he intended to bring the number of provinces in
all up to twenty. Certainty is, however, the less attainable as to
this, seeing that Caesar perhaps designedly instituted fewer
offices than candidatures.
81. This is the so-called "free embassy" (-libera legatio-), namely
an embassy without any proper public commission entrusted to it.
82. V. II. Piracy
83. V. XI. In The Administration of the Capital
84. V. XI. Foreign Mercenaries
85. V. IX. In the Governorships
86. V. XI. Financial Reforms of Caesar
87. V. I. Organizations of Sertorius
88. V. XI. Robberies and Damage by War
89. V. XI. The Roman Capitalists in the Provinces
90. V. I. Transpadanes, V. VIII. Settlement of the New Monarchial Rule
91. Narbo was called the colony of the Decimani, Baeterrae of
the Septimani, Forum Julii of the Octavani, Arelate of the Sextani,
Arausio of the Secundani. The ninth legion is wanting, because it
had disgraced its number by the mutiny of Placentia (p. 246). That
the colonists of these colonies belonged to the legions from which
they took their names, is not stated and is not credible;
the veterans themselves were, at least the great majority of them,
settled in Italy (p. 358). Cicero's complaint, that Caesar "had
confiscated whole provinces and districts at a blow" (De Off. ii.
7, 27; comp. Philipp. xiii. 15, 31, 32) relates beyond doubt, as
its close connection with the censure of the triumph over
the Massiliots proves, to the confiscations of land made on account of
these colonies in the Narbonese province and primarily to
the losses of territory imposed on Massilia.