Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

Plutarch

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

Following upon the flight of Scipio and his followers in Africa Cato took his own life; whereat Caesar said, I begrudge you your death, Cato, for you begrudged me the saving of your life. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Caesar, chap. liv. (733 B); Life of Cato Minor, chap. lxxii. (794 C); Appian, The Civil Wars, ii. 99; Dio Cassius, xlii. 12.)

Some looked with suspicion upon Antony and Dolabella and urged Caesar to be on his guard, but he said that he did not fear these fat and sleek tradesmen and craftsmen but those lean and pale fellows, indicating Brutus and Cassius. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Caesar, chap. lxii. (737 C); Life of Antony, chap. xii. (921 B); Life of Brutus, chap. viii. (987 C). Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, i. 2: Let me have men about me that are fat: Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o’ nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous. seems to incorporate all the terms used in the Lives, but to ignore βαναύσους in this passage.)

When the conversation at dinner once digressed to the subject of death, regarding what kind of death is the best, he said, Sudden death. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Caesar, chap. lxiii. (737 F); Appian, The Civil Wars, ii. 115; Suetonius, Divus Iulius, 87.)

Caesar, who was the first to bear the title of Augustus, was only a youth when he made formal demand upon Antony for the million pounds [*](Plutarch in his Life of Antony, chap. xv. (922 C), says 4000 talents, which would be the same as 24,000,000 drachmae (or denarii), a little less than the amount given here. Velleius Paterculus, ii. 60, says sestertium septiens miliens (= 700,000,000 sesterces), or about 6,000,000 pounds!) which

had belonged to the first Caesar, who had been assassinated, and which Antony had transferred from Caesar’s house to his own keeping; for Augustus wished to pay to the citizens of Rome the sum which had been left to them by Caesar, three pounds [*](Suetonius, Divus Iulius, 83, says 300 sesterces, which is in agreement with the amount stated by Plutarch. ) to each man. But when Antony held fast to the money, and also suggested to Augustus that, if he had any sense, he had better forget about his demand, Augustus announced an auction of his ancestral property and sold it; and by paying the bequest he fostered popularity for himself and hatred for Antony on the part of the citizens. [*](Cf.Plutarch’s Life of Cicero, chap. xliii. (883 A); Life of Antony, chap. xvi. (922 D); Life of Brutus, chap. xxii. (994 B); Appian, The Civil Wars, iii. 28; Dio Cassius, xlv. 3-5; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 60.)

Rhoemetalces, king of the Thracians, who had changed his alliance from Antony to Augustus, could not practise moderation when there was any drinking going on, and gave much offence by his disparaging remarks about his new alliance, whereat Augustus, as he drank to one of the other kings, said, I like treachery, but I cannot say anything good of traitors. [*](Plutarch repeats this aphorism in his Life of Romulus, chap. xvii. (28 A). Stobaeus, liv. 63, quotes Philip of Macedon as the author of a similar remark.)

After the capture of Alexandria, the people of the city were expecting to be treated with the most frightful severity, but when he had mounted the tribune and had directed Areius of Alexandria to take a place beside him, he declared that he spared the city, first because of its greatness and beauty, secondly because of its founder, Alexander, and thirdly because of Areius his own friend.[*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Antony, chap. lxxx. (953 A); Dio Cassius, li. 16; Julian, Letters, No. 51 (ad Alexandrinos); Suetonius, Augustus, 89.)