Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When he arrived at the camp, and found there much disorder, licentiousness, superstition, and luxury, he straightway drove out the soothsayers, diviners, and panders, and issued orders to send

He detected in the baggage carried by the pack-animals of Memmius, a military tribune, wine coolers set with precious stones, the work of Thericles, [*](A famous Corinthian potter.) and said to him, By such conduct you have made yourself useless to me and your country for thirty days, [*](Presumably the period of his disgrace and punishment.) but useless to yourself for your whole lifetime. [*](Cf. Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 1. 1.)

When another man showed him a shield beautifully ornamented, he said, A fine shield, young sir; but it is more fitting that a Roman rest his hopes in his right hand rather than in his left. [*](So in Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9. Slightly variant versions are to be found in Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 4; Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 1. 5; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Another carrying a timber for the palisade said that it was awfully heavy. Very likely, said Scipio, for you put more trust in this wood than in your sword. [*](Cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 3; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Observing the recklessness of the enemy, he said that he himself was buying security with time; for a good general, like a physician, needed to operate with steel only as a last resort. [*](Cf. Aulus Gellius, xiii. 3. 6, where Scipio quotes a similar aphorism of his father’s.) Nevertheless he attacked at the proper time and routed the Numantians. [*](Appian relates that Numantia was reduced by systematic siege (Wars in Spain, 89 ff.).)

When the older men asked the defeated soldiers why they were such cowards as to flee from the men they had so often pursued, one of the Numantians is said to have replied that the sheep were still the same sheep, but another man was their shepherd.

After he had captured Numantia and celebrated his second triumph, he had a falling out with Gaius Gracchus in regard to the Senate and the allies; and the people, feeling much aggrieved, set out to shout him down on the rostra. But he said, The battle-cry of armed hosts has never discomfited me, and much less can that of a rabble of whom I know full well that Italy is not their real mother, but their stepmother. [*](Cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 5; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 4; Valerius Maximus, vi. 2. 3.)

When the men about Gracchus cried out, Kill the tyrant, he said, Very naturally those who feel hostile towards our country wish to make away with me first; for it is not possible for Rome to fall while Scipio stands, nor for Scipio to live when Rome has fallen.

When Caecilius Metellvs was desirous of leading his men against a strongly fortified place, a centurion

A certain centurion among the younger men inquired what he was going to do. If I thought, said he, that the shirt on my back knew what is in my mind, I would strip it off and put it in the fire. [*](Cf. Moralia, 506 D; Valerius Maximus, vii. 4. 5. Frontinus, Strategemata, i. 1. 12, attributes the remark to Metellus Pius (consul 52 B.C. with Pompey.))

He was bitterly opposed to Scipio while Scipio lived, [*](Cicero, De amicitia, 21 (77), and De officiis, i. 25 (87).) but felt very sad when he died, and commanded his sons to take part in carrying the bier. He said that he felt grateful to the gods, for Rome’s sake, that Scipio had not been born among another people. [*](Cf. Pliny, Natural History, vii. 45 (144), and Valerius Maximus, iv. 1. 12.)

Gaius Marius carne from an obscure family and advanced into political life through his military services. He announced himself a candidate for the greater [*](The office of curule aedile.) aedileship, but, perceiving that he was running behind, on the very same day he went after the lesser. [*](That of plebeian aedile.) Failing also to obtain that, he nevertheless did not give up the idea that he should some day be the first among the Romans. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. v. (408 A); Cicero, Pro Plancio, 21 (51).)

He had large varicose veins on both legs, and, refusing to be fastened down, he submitted these to his physician for excision; and without a groan or even a contraction of his eyebrows he underwent the operation with fortitude. But as the physician

In his second consulship Lusius, his nephew, attempted an indecent assault on one of the youths in the army, by the name of Trebonius, and the youth killed Lusius. When many accused him of the crime, he did not deny that he had killed the officer, and disclosed the circumstances; whereupon Marius ordered the crown which is given for deeds of supreme valour to be brought, and this he placed upon Trebonius. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xiv. (413 B); Cicero, Oration for Milo, 4 (9); Valerius Maximus, vi. 1. 12.)