Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

On gaining possession of the papers of Sertorius in Spain, among which were letters from many leading men inviting Sertorius to come to Rome with a view to fomenting a revolution and changing the government, he burned them all, thus offering an opportunity for the miscreants to repent and become better men. [*](Ibid. chap. xx. (p. 629); similar stories are told of others, as, for example, of William III. of England.)

When Phraates, king of the Parthians, sent to him, claiming the right to set his boundary at the river Euphrates, he said that the Romans set justice as their boundary towards the Parthians. [*](Ibid. chap. xxxiii. (637 C).)

Lucius Lucullus, after his campaigns, gave himself up to pleasures and lived very expensively, and strongly disapproved of Pompey’s yearning for the strenuous life as something out of keeping with his years. But Pompey said that for an old man it was more out of keeping with his years to be a voluptuary than to hold office. [*](Ibid. chap. xlviii. (644 E); Life of Lucullus, chap. xxxviii. (518 B); Moralia, 785 E.)

When he was ill his physician prescribed a thrush as diet, but those who tried to get one did not find any, for thrushes were out of season; however, somebody said that they would be found at the house of Lucullus, where they were kept the year round. So then, said Pompey, if Lucullus were not a voluptuary, Pompey could not live ! and letting his physician go, he made his diet of things not so hard to procure. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. ii. (620 B); Life of Lucullus, chap. xl. (518 F); Moralia, 786 A. Stobaeus, Florilegium, xvii. 43, quotes from Musonius a similar story about Zeno the philosopher.)

At a time when there was a serious scarcity of grain in Rome [*](In 57 B.C.) he was appointed nominally overseer of the market, [*](He was appointed praefectus annonae, for five years.) but actually supreme master on land and sea, and sailed to Africa, Sardinia, and Sicily. Having got together a great quantity of grain, he was eager to get to Rome. A great storm arose and the pilots were hesitating, when he, going on board first himself, gave orders to weigh anchor, crying out, To sail is a necessity; to live is not a necessity. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. xlix. and l. (645 C-676 A); Dio Cassius, xxxix. 9; Zonaras, x. 5; Cicero, Letters to Atticus, iv. 1. 7.)

When his falling-out with Caesar came to light, one Mareellinus, who was among those reputed to have been advanced by Pompey but had gone over to Caesar, inveighed against him at great length in the Senate. Mareellinus, said Pompey, are you not ashamed to revile me, when it is all owing to me that you, from being inarticulate, have become so fluent, and from being a starveling, are now able to eat and disgorge and eat again ? [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. li. (646 E).)

Cato assailed him bitterly, because when he himself had often foretold that Caesar’s power and his

Speaking frankly about himself, he said that he had attained every office sooner than he had expected, and laid it down sooner than had been expected. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. liv. (647 F).) 15. After the battle of Pharsalus [*](In 48 B.C.) he fled to Egypt, and as he was about to transfer from the trireme to a fishing-boat which the king had sent for him, he turned to his wife and son, and said never a word except the lines of Sophocles:

Whoever comes to traffic with a king Is slave to him, however free he come.[*](Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag., Sophocles, no. 789; quoted by Plutarch also in Moralia, 33 D and the Life of Pompey, chap. lxxviii. (661 A). Appian, Civil Wars, ii. 84, and Dio Cassius, xlii. 4, also state that Pompey quoted these verses shortly before his death when he was slain by order of the king’s counselors.)

Cicero, the orator, was often twitted about his name, and his friends urged him to have it changed, but he said that he would make Cicero to be held in higher esteem than the Catos, the Catuli, and the Scauri. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. i. (861 C).)

When he dedicated a silver goblet to the gods,

He used to say that those of the orators who are given to violent vociferation rely on noise to carry them through because of weakness, just as lame men mount horses. [*](Ibid. chap. v. (863 C).)

Verres, who had a son that had been anything but virtuous when a boy, rebuked Cicero for effeminacy and called him a corrupter of youth. Don’t you know, said Cicero, that it is proper for children to be scolded behind the doors of their own home ? [*](Ibid. chap. vii. (864 C).)

Metellus Nepos said to him, You have caused the death of more men by your testimony than you have saved by your advocacy. Yes, said Cicero, the reason is that I am endowed with more credibility than eloquence ! [*](Ibid. chap. xxvi. (873 F); Moralia, 541 F.)

When Metellus kept asking him who his father was, Cicero said, The answer to that same question your mother has made the more difficult for you ! For Metellus’s mother was far from virtuous, and Metellus himself was light-minded, vacillating, and carried away by his impulses. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xxvi. (874 B).)