Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

Plutarch. Moralia, Vol. III. Babbitt, Frank Cole, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1931 (printing).

In the Cimbrian wars a thousand men of Camerinum who had acquitted themselves bravely he made Roman citizens, in accord with no law. To those who complained he said that he did not hear the laws because of the clash of arms. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxviii. (421 E); Cicero, Oration for Corn. Balbus, 20 (46); Valerius Maximus, v. 2. 8. Cf. also Cicero, Pro Milone, 4 (10), silent enim leges inter arma. )

In the Civil War, [*](Usually called the Social War (ὁ συμμαχιὸς πόλεμος), 90-88 B.C.) when he found himself

surrounded by a trench and cut off by the enemy, he held out and bided his own time. Pompaedius [*](Or possibly Poppaedius.) Silo said to him, If you are a great general, Marius, come down and fight it out. Marius replied, If you are a great general, make me fight it out when I do not wish to do so ! [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxxiii. (424 D).)

Catulus Lutatius, in the Cimbrian War, was encamped beside the Atiso [*](Presumably the same river which the Roman writers call the Athesis.) River. The Romans, seeing the barbarians crossing to attack, retreated, and he, not being able to check them, made haste to put himself in the front rank of those who were running away so that they might not seem to flee from the enemy, but to be following their commander. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxiii. (418 F).)

Sulla, who was called the Fortunate, counted two things among his greatest pieces of fortune: the friendship of Pius Metellus, and the fact that he had not razed Athens, but had spared the city. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Sulla, chap. vi. (454 D), chap. xiv. (460 E), and the Comparison of Lysander and Sulla, chap. v. (478 B).)

Gaius Popillius was sent [*](In 18 B.C. to Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes).)

draw his army from Egypt, and not to usurp the kingdom of Ptolemy’s children who were bereft of their parents. As he was making his approach through the camp, Antiochus welcomed him graciously while he was still a long way off, but he, without returning the salutation, delivered the document. When the king had read it, he said that he would think about it, and give his answer; whereupon Popillius drew a circle about him with his staff and said, While you stand inside that line, think about it and answer. All were astounded at the man’s lofty spirit, and Antiochus agreed to comply with the Roman decree; which done, Popillius saluted him and embraced him. [*](Cf. Polybuys, xxix. 27; Appian, Roman History, the Syrian Wars, 66; Cicero, Philippics, viii. 8 (23); Livy, xlv. 12; Justin, Historiae Philippicae, xxxiv. 3; Valerius Maximus, vi. 4. 3; Valleius Paterculus, i. 10. In Pliny, Natural History, xxxiv. 11 (24), Cn. Octavian is substituted for C. Popillius.)

Lucullus in Armenia with ten thousand menat-arms and a thousand horsemen was proceeding against Tigranes, who had an army of an hundred and fifty thousand men, on the sixth day of October, the day on which, some years before, [*](In 105 B.C.) the force with Caepio had been annihilated by the Cimbrians. When somebody remarked that the Romans set that day aside as a dread day of expiation, he said, Then let us on this day strive with might and main to make this, instead of an ill-omened and gloomy day, a glad and welcome day to the Romans. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, chap. xxviii. (510 C).)