Justin: HISTORIARVM PHILIPPICARVM T. POMPEII TROGI LIBRI XLIV IN EPITOMEN REDACTI

I. Xerxes, rex Persarum, terror antea gentium, bello in Graecia infeliciter gesto etiam suis contemptui esse coepit. Quippe Artabanus, praefectus eius, deficiente cotidie regis maiestate in spem regni adductus cum septem robustissimis filiis regiam vesperi ingreditur (nam amicitiae iure semper illi patebat), trucidatoque rege voto suo obsistentes filios eius dolo adgreditur. Securior de Artaxerxe, puero admodum, fingit regem a Dario, qui erat adulescens, quo maturius regno potiretur, occisum; inpellit Artaxerxen parricidium parricidio vindicare.

1. Xerxes, king of the Persians, formerly the terror of nations, after the war in Greece had been conducted unsuccessfully, began even to be held in contempt by his own. Indeed Artabanus, his prefect, as the king’s majesty was daily failing and brought into hope of the kingship, enters the royal palace in the evening with his seven most robust sons (for by right of friendship it was always open to him), and, the king having been butchered, he attacks by deceit his sons who resisted his design. Feeling safer regarding Artaxerxes, a mere boy, he pretends that the king was slain by Darius, who was a young man, in order that he might the sooner get possession of the throne; he drives Artaxerxes to avenge parricide with parricide.

Cum ventum ad domum Darii esset, dormiens inventus, quasi somnum fingeret, interficitur. Dein cum unum ex regis filiis sceleri suo superesse Artabanus videret metueretque de regno certamina principum, adsumit in societatem consilii Baccabasum, qui praesenti statu contentus rem prodit Artaxerxi: ut pater eius occisus sit, ut frater falsa parricidii suspicione oppressus, ut denique ipsi pararentur insidiae. His cognitis Artaxerxes, verens Artabani numerum filiorum, in posterum diem paratum esse armatum exercitum iubet, recogniturus et numerum militum et in armis industriam singulorum.

When they came to the house of Darius, he was found sleeping; on the pretext that he was feigning sleep, he is killed. Then, when Artabanus saw that one of the king’s sons survived his crime and feared struggles of the chiefs for the kingdom, he takes Baccabasus into partnership of his counsel; but Baccabasus, content with the present state, betrays the matter to Artaxerxes: that his father has been killed, that his brother has been overwhelmed by a false suspicion of parricide, and that finally ambushes are being prepared for himself. With these things learned, Artaxerxes, fearing the number of Artabanus’s sons, orders an armed army to be ready on the following day, intending to review both the number of the soldiers and the prowess of each man in arms.

Itaque cum inter ceteros ipse Artabanus armatus adsisteret, rex simulat se breviorem loricam habere, iubet Artabanum secum commutare, exuentem se ac nudatum gladio traicit; tum et filios eius corripi iubet. Atque ita egregius adulescens et caedem patris et necem fratris et se ab insidiis Artabani vindicavit.

Therefore, when Artabanus himself, armed, was standing by among the others, the king pretends that he has a shorter cuirass, orders Artabanus to exchange with him; as he is stripping it off and laid bare, he runs him through with a sword; then he also orders his sons to be seized. And thus the excellent young man avenged both the slaughter of his father and the death of his brother, and himself from Artabanus’s plots.

II. Dum haec in Persis geruntur, interea Graecia omnis ducibus Lacedaemoniis et Atheniensibus in duas divisa partes ab externis bellis velut in viscera sua arma convertit. Fiunt igitur de uno populo duo corpora, et eorundem castrorum homines in duos hostiles exercitus dividuntur. Hinc Lacedaemonii communia quondam civitatum auxilia ad vires suas trahere, inde Athenienses, et vetustate gentis et gestis rebus inlustres propriis viribus confidebant.

2. While these things are being transacted in Persia, meanwhile all Greece, under the leaders the Lacedaemonians and the Athenians, divided into two parts, turned its arms, as it were, from external wars into its own vitals. Therefore out of one people two bodies are made, and men of the same camps are divided into two hostile armies. On the one hand the Lacedaemonians were drawing the auxiliaries once common to the cities to their own strength; on the other hand the Athenians, illustrious both for the antiquity of their race and for deeds achieved, were confiding in their own forces.

Atque ita duo potentissimi Graeciae populi institutis Solonis et Lycurgi legibus pares ex aemulatione virium in bellum ruebant. Namque Lycurgus cum fratri suo Polydectae, Spartanorum regi, successisset regnumque sibi vindicare potuisset, Charillo, filio eius, qui natus postumus erat, cum ad aetatem adultam pervenisset, regnum summa fide restituit, ut intellegerent omnes, quanto plus apud bonos pietatis iura quam omnes opes valerent. Medio igitur tempore, dum infans convalescit tutelamque eius administrat, non habentibus Spartanis leges instituit, non inventione earum magis, quam exemplo clarior: siquidem nihil lege ulla in alios sanxit, cuius non ipse primus in se documentum daret.

And so the two most powerful peoples of Greece, equal by the institutions of Solon and the laws of Lycurgus, out of emulation of strength were rushing into war. For when Lycurgus, after his brother Polydectes, king of the Spartans, had died, might have claimed the kingship for himself, he restored the kingdom with utmost good faith to Charillus, his son, who had been born posthumous, when he had come to adult age, so that all might understand how much more with good men the rights of piety prevail than all wealth. Therefore in the meantime, while the infant was growing strong and he administered his guardianship, he established laws for the Spartans, who did not have laws, more famous not for the invention of them than for his example: since indeed he sanctioned by no law anything upon others of which he himself did not first give proof in himself.

Populum in obsequia principum, principes ad iustitiam imperiorum firmavit. Parsimoniam omnibus suasit, existimans laborem militiae adsidua frugalitatis consuetudine faciliorem fore. Emi singula non pecunia, sed conpensatione mercium iussit.

He strengthened the people in obedience to the princes, and the princes toward the justice of their rule. He urged parsimony upon all, thinking that the labor of military service would be made easier by an assiduous habit of frugality. He ordered that individual items be bought not with money, but by compensation in merchandise.

Auri argentique usum velut omnium scelerum materiam sustulit.

He removed the use of gold and silver, as if the material of all crimes.

III. Administrationem rei publicae per ordines divisit: regibus potestatem bellorum, magistratibus iudicia et annuos successores, senatui custodiam legum, populo sublegendi senatum vel creandi quos vellet magistratus potestatem permisit. Fundos omnium aequaliter inter omnes divisit, ut aequata patrimonia neminem potentiorem altero redderent.

3. He divided the administration of the commonwealth by orders: to kings the power of wars, to magistrates the judgments and annual successors, to the senate the guardianship of the laws; to the people he permitted the power of co-opting the senate or of creating whatever magistrates it wished. He divided the estates of all equally among all, so that equalized patrimonies might render no one more powerful than another.

Convivari omnes publice iussit, ne cuius divitiae vel luxuria in occulto essent. Iuvenibus non amplius una veste uti toto anno permissum, nec quemquam cultius quam alterum progredi ne epulari opulentius, ne imitatio in luxuriam verteretur. Pueros puberes non in forum, sed in agrum deduci praecepit, ut primos annos non in luxuria, sed in opere et in laboribus agerent.

He ordered all to feast publicly, lest anyone’s riches or luxury be in hiding. For youths it was permitted to use no more than a single garment for the whole year, and that no one go forth more adorned than another, nor dine more opulently, lest imitation turn into luxury. He directed that boys come to puberty be led not into the forum but into the field, so that they might spend their first years not in luxury but in work and labors.

Nihil eos somni causa substernere et vitam sine pulmento degere neque prius in urbem redire, quam viri facti essent, statuit. Virgines sine dote nubere iussit, ut uxores eligerentur, non pecuniae, severiusque matrimonia sua viri coercerent, cum nullis frenis dotis tenerentur. Maximum honorem non divitum et potentium, sed pro gradu aetatis senum esse voluit, nec sane usquam terrarum locum honoratiorem senectus habet.

He decreed that they should put nothing beneath them for the sake of sleep and pass life without a relish, and not return into the city before they had become men. He ordered virgins to marry without a dowry, so that wives might be chosen, not money, and that men should more strictly coerce their matrimonies, since they were held by no reins of dowry. He wished the greatest honor to belong, not to the rich and the powerful, but to elders according to the grade of age; nor indeed anywhere on earth does old age have a more honored place.

Haec quoniam primo solutis antea moribus dura videbat esse, auctorem eorum Apollinem Delphicum fingit et inde se ea ex praecepto numinis detulisse, ut consuescendi taedium metus religionis vincat. Dein ut aeternitatem legibus suis daret, iure iurando obligat civitatem, nihil eos de eius legibus mutaturos, priusque reverteretur, et simulat se ad oraculum Delphicum proficisci, consulturum quid addendum mutandumque legibus videretur.Proficiscitur autem Cretam ibique perpetuum exsilium egit abicique in mare ossa sua moriens iussit, ne relatis Lacedaemonem solutos se Spartani religione iuris iurandi in dissolvendis legibus arbitrarentur.

Since he saw that these measures would at first be hard for those whose morals had previously been loosened, he feigns Delphic Apollo as their author and says that from there he brought them down by the precept of the numen, so that the fear of religion might conquer the tedium of getting accustomed. Then, in order to give eternity to his laws, he binds the city by a sworn oath that they would change nothing of his laws before he should return, and he pretends that he is setting out to the Delphic oracle to consult what seemed should be added and changed to the laws.seemed.He sets out, moreover, to Crete, and there he spent perpetual exile, and as he was dying he ordered his bones to be thrown into the sea, lest, if they were brought back to Lacedaemon, the Spartans should consider themselves released by the religious obligation of the sworn oath for dissolving the laws.

IV. His igitur moribus ita brevi civitas convaluit, ut, cum Messeniis propter stupratas virgines suas in sollemni Messeniorum sacrificio bellum intulissent, gravissima se exsecratione obstrinxerint, non prius quam Messeniam expugnassent reversuros, tantum sibi vel de viribus suis vel de fortuna spondentes. Quae res initium dissensionis Graeciae et intestini belli causa et origo fuit. Itaque cum contra praesumptionem suam annis X in obsidione urbis tenerentur et querelis uxorum post tam longam viduitatem revocarentur, veriti ne hac perseverantia belli gravius sibi quam Messeniis nocerent.

4. Therefore by these mores the commonwealth in a short time grew strong, so that, when they had brought war against the Messenians on account of their maidens having been violated at the solemn Messenian sacrifice, they bound themselves with a most grave execration, that they would not return before they had stormed Messenia—pledging so much either on their own forces or on Fortune. This was the beginning of Greece’s dissension and the cause and origin of intestine war. And so, contrary to their presumption, when they were held for 10 years in the siege of the city and were recalled by the complaints of their wives after so long a widowhood, they feared lest by this perseverance in war they might hurt themselves more seriously than the Messenians.

Quippe illis quantum iuventutis bello intercidat, mulierum fecunditate suppleri, sibi et belli damna adsidua et fecunditatem uxorum abstinentibus viris nullam esse; itaque legunt iuvenes ex eo genere militum, qui post ius iurandum in supplementum venerant, quibus Spartam remissis promiscuos omnium feminarum concubitus permisere, maturiorem futuram conceptionem rati, si eam singulae per plures viros experirentur. Ex his nati ob notam materni pudoris Partheniae vocati. Qui cum ad annos XXX pervenissent, metu inopiae (nulli enim pater existebat, cuius in patrimonium successio speraretur) ducem Phalantum adsumunt, filium Arati, qui auctor Spartanis fuerat iuventutis ad generandam subolem domum remittendae, ut, sicuti dudum patrem eius nascendi auctorem habuissent, sic ipsum spei ac dignitatis suae haberent.

Indeed, for them how much of their youth might perish in war could be replenished by the fecundity of the women; but for themselves there were both the continual losses of war and, with the husbands abstaining, no fecundity of the wives. Therefore they select young men from that class of soldiers who, after the oath, had come as reinforcement; and these, having been sent back to Sparta, they permitted promiscuous intercourse with all the women, thinking conception would be more timely if each woman should try it with several men. Those born from these unions, on account of the blemish upon maternal modesty, were called Partheniae. When they had reached 30 years, out of fear of poverty (for there existed no father for anyone, into whose patrimony succession might be hoped), they take Phalantus as leader, the son of Aratus, who had been the adviser to the Spartans that the youth be sent home to beget offspring, so that, just as long ago they had had his father as the author of their being born, so they might have him as the author of their hope and dignity.

Itaque nec salutatis matribus, e quarum adulterio infamiam collegisse videbantur, ad sedes inquirendas proficiscuntur; diuque et per varios casus iactati tandem in Italiam deferuntur et occupata arce Tarentinorum, expugnatis veteribus incolis, sedes ibi constituunt. Sed post annos plurimos dux eorum Phalantus per seditionem in exsilium proturbatus Brundisium se contulit, quo expulsi sedibus suis veteres Tarentini concesserant. His moriens persuadet, ut ossa sua postremasque reliquias conterant et tacite spargi in foro Tarentinorum curent; hoc enim modo recuperare illos patriam suam posse Apollinem Delphis cecinisse.

And so, not even having saluted their mothers, from whose adultery they seemed to have gathered infamy, they set out to seek settlements; and, long tossed through various chances, at length they are borne to Italy, and, the citadel of the Tarentines having been seized and the old inhabitants taken by storm, they establish their seats there. But after many years their leader Phalantus, through sedition driven forth into exile, betook himself to Brundisium, whither the old Tarentines, expelled from their homes, had withdrawn. As he was dying, he persuaded these men to crush his bones and last remains, and to see that they be silently scattered in the forum of the Tarentines; for Apollo at Delphi had declared that in this way they could recover their fatherland.

Illi arbitrantes eum iin ultionem sui civium fata prodidisse praeceptis paruere. Sed oraculi diversa sententia fuerat. Perpetuitatem enim urbis, non amissionem hoc facto promiserat.

They, thinking that he had betrayed the fates of their fellow-citizens in vengeance, obeyed the precepts. But the sense of the oracle had been different. For by this act it had promised the perpetuity of the city, not its loss.

Ita ducis exsulis consilio et hostium ministerio possessio Tarentina Partheniis in aeternum fundata, ob cuius beneficii memoriam Phalanto divinos honores decrevere.

Thus, by the counsel of the exiled leader and by the ministry of the enemies, the Tarentine possession was founded for the Parthenians in eternity; in memory of which benefaction they decreed divine honors to Phalantus.

V. Interea Messenii, cum virtute non possent, per insidias expugnantur. Dein cum per annos octoginta gravia servitutis verbera, plerumque et vincula ceteraque captae civitatis mala perpessi essent, post longam poenarum patientiam bellum restaurant. Lacedaemonii quoque eo conspiratius ad arma concurrunt, quod adversus servos dimicaturi videbantur.

5. Meanwhile the Messenians, since they could not prevail by valor, are stormed by treachery. Then, after for eighty years they had suffered the grievous lashings of servitude—very often even chains—and the other evils of a captured city, after a long endurance of punishments they restore the war. The Lacedaemonians also, all the more in concert, rally to arms, because they seemed about to fight against slaves.

Itaque cum hinc iniuria, inde indignitas animos acueret, Lacedaemonii de belli eventu oraculo Delphis consulto iubentur ducem belli ab Atheniensibus petere. Porro Athenienses, cum responsum cognovissent, in contemptum Spartanorum Tyrtaeum, poetam claudo pede, misere, qui tribus proeliis fusus eo usque desperationis Spartanos adduxit, ut servos suos ad supplementum exercitus manumitterent hisque interfectorum matrimonia pollicerentur, ut non numero tantum amissorum civium, sede et dignitati succederent. Sed reges Lacedaemoniorum, ne contra fortunam pugnando maiora detrimenta civitati infunderent, reducere exercitum voluerunt, ni intervenisset Tyrtaeus, qui conposita carmina exercitui pro contione recitavit, in quibus hortamenta virtutis, damnorum solacia, belli consilia conscripserat.

And so, since on the one side injustice, on the other indignity, sharpened their spirits, the Lacedaemonians, having consulted the oracle at Delphi about the outcome of the war, were ordered to ask the Athenians for a leader of the war. Moreover, the Athenians, when they learned the response, in contempt of the Spartans sent Tyrtaeus, a poet with a lame foot, who, the Spartans having been routed in three battles, brought them to such a pitch of desperation that they manumitted their slaves to serve as a reinforcement for the army and promised them the marriages of the slain, so that they might succeed not only to the number of the citizens lost, but also to their seat and dignity. But the kings of the Lacedaemonians, lest by fighting against Fortune they should infuse greater detriments upon the state, wished to lead the army back—had not Tyrtaeus intervened, who recited to the army, before the assembly, the verses he had composed, in which he had written exhortations to virtue, solaces for losses, and counsels of war.

Itaque tantum ardorem militibus iniecit, ut non de salute, sed de sepultura solliciti tesseras insculptis suis et patrum nominibus dextro bracchio deligarent, ut, si omnes adversum proelium consumpsissent et temporis spatio confusa corporum liniamenta essent, ex indicio titulorum tradi sepulturae possent. Cum sic animatum reges exercitum viderent, curant rem hostibus nuntiare; Messeniis autem non timorem res, sed aemulationem mutuam dedit. Itaque tantis animis concursum est, ut raro umquam cruentius proelium fuerit.

Therefore he instilled such ardor into the soldiers that, concerned not for safety but for sepulture, they bound tesserae, with their own and their fathers’ names engraved, to the right arm, so that, if all were consumed in an adverse battle and the lineaments of the bodies were confused by the lapse of time, they might be able, from the indication of the inscriptions, to be consigned to sepulture. When the kings saw the army thus animated, they took care to announce the matter to the enemies; but to the Messenians the affair gave not fear, but mutual emulation. Therefore they clashed with such spirits that rarely ever was there a bloodier battle.

Ad postremum tamen victoria Lacedaemoniorum fuit.

In the end, however, the victory belonged to the Lacedaemonians.

VI. Interiecto tempore tertium quoque bellum Messenii reparavere, in cuius auxilium Lacedaemonii inter reliquos socios etiam Athenienses adhibuere; quorum fidem cum suspectam haberent, supervacaneos simulantes a bello eosdem dimiserunt. Hanc rem Athenienses graviter ferentes pecuniam, quae erat in stipendium Persici belli ab universa Graecia conlata, a Delo Athenas transferunt, ne deficientibus a fide societatis Lacedaemoniis praedae ac rapinae esset. Sed nec Lacedaemonii quievere, qui cum Messeniorum bello occupati essent, Peloponnenses inmisere, qui bellum Atheniensibus facerent.

6. After an interval the Messenians also renewed a third war, for aid in which the Lacedaemonians, among their other allies, also called in the Athenians; but, holding their faith suspect, and pretending that they were superfluous, they dismissed those same men from the war. Taking this matter grievously, the Athenians transferred the money—which had been contributed by all Greece for the stipend of the Persian war—from Delos to Athens, lest, with the Lacedaemonians defecting from the faith of the alliance, it should become prey and rapine. But nor did the Lacedaemonians keep quiet: occupied with the Messenian war, they sent in the Peloponnesians to wage war upon the Athenians.

Parvae tunc temporis classe in Aegyptum missa vires Atheniensibus erant. Itaque navali proelio dimicantes facile superantur. Interiecto deinde tempore post reditum suorum aucti et classis et militum robore proelium reparant.

At that time the Athenians’ strength was in a small fleet dispatched to Egypt. Therefore, fighting in a naval battle, they are easily overcome. Then, after an interval, upon the return of their own men, increased in the strength both of their fleet and of their soldiers, they renew the battle.

Iam et Lacedaemonii omissis Messeniis adversus Athenienses arma verterant. Diu varia victoria fuit; ad postremum aequo Marte utrimque discessum. Inde revocati Lacedaemonii ad Messeniorum bellum, ne medium tempus otiosum Atheniensibus relinquerent, cum Thebanis paciscuntur, ut Boeotiorum imperium his restituerent, quod temporibus belli Persici amiserant, ut illi Atheniensium bella susciperent.

Now also the Lacedaemonians, the Messenians being set aside, had turned their arms against the Athenians. For a long time victory was variable; at last they parted on equal terms. Then, recalled to the war of the Messenians, the Lacedaemonians, lest they leave the intervening time idle to the Athenians, make terms with the Thebans, to restore to them the imperium of the Boeotians, which they had lost in the time of the Persian War, so that they might take up the wars against the Athenians.

Tantus furor Spartanorum erat, ut duobus bellis inpliciti suscipere tertium non recusarent, dommodo inimicis suis hostes adquirerent. Igitur Athenienses adversus tantam tempestatem belli duos duces deligunt, Periclen, spectatae virtutis virum, et Sophoclen, scriptorem tragoediarum, qui diviso exercitu et Spartanorum agros vastaverunt et multas Asiae civitates Atheniensium imperio adiecerunt.

So great was the furor of the Spartans that, entangled in two wars, they did not refuse to undertake a third, provided only that they might acquire enemies for their enemies. Therefore the Athenians, against so great a tempest of war, select two leaders: Pericles, a man of proven virtue, and Sophocles, a writer of tragedies, who, with the army divided, both devastated the fields of the Spartans and added many cities of Asia to the imperium of the Athenians.

VII. His malis fracti Lacedaemonii in annos XXX pepigerunt pacem, sed tam longum otium inimicitiae non tulerunt. Itaque extra XV annos rupto foedere cum contemptu deorum hominumque fines Atticos populantur et, ne praedam potius quam pugnam expetisse viderentur, hostes ad proelium provocant.

7. The Lacedaemonians, broken by these evils, made peace for 30 years; but their animosities could not tolerate so long an idleness. And so, with the treaty broken in less than 15 years, with contempt of gods and men, they ravage the Attic borders, and, lest they should seem to have sought booty rather than battle, they challenge the enemy to combat.

Sed Athenienses consilio Periclis ducis populationis iniuriam differunt in tempus ultionis, supervacuam pugnam existimantes, cum ulcisci hostem sine periculo possent. Dein interiectis diebus naves conscendunt et nihil sentientibus Lacedaemoniis totam Spartam depraedantur multoque plura auferunt quam amiserant, prorsus ut in conparatione damnorum longe pluris fuerit ultio quam iniuria. Clara quidem haec Periclis expeditio habita, sed multo clarior privati patrimonii contemptus fuit.

But the Athenians, by the counsel of the leader Pericles, defer the injury of the ravaging to a time of retribution, judging a battle superfluous, since they could avenge the enemy without danger. Then, after some days had intervened, they embark on ships and, the Lacedaemonians perceiving nothing, they plunder all Sparta and carry off much more than they had lost—precisely so that, in the comparison of damages, the vengeance was far more than the injury. This expedition of Pericles was indeed held to be renowned, but far more renowned was his contempt for private patrimony.

Huius agros in populatione ceterorum intactos hostes reliquerant, sperantes adquirere se illi posse aut periculum ex invidia aut ex suspicione proditionis infamiam. Quod ante prospiciens Pericles et futurum populo praedixerat et ad invidiae impetum declinandum agros ipsos dono rei publicae dederat, atque ita, unde periculum quaesitum fuerat, ibi maximam gloriam invenit. Post haec interiectis diebus navali proelio dimicatum est; victi Lacedaemonii fugerunt.

In the ravaging, the enemies had left his fields untouched while they plundered those of the rest, hoping they could fasten upon him either danger arising from envy or, from suspicion of treason, infamy. Foreseeing this beforehand, Pericles both predicted to the people that it would occur and, to sidestep the onrush of envy, gave those very fields as a gift to the commonwealth; and thus, from the very place whence danger had been sought, there he found the greatest glory. After this, with some days interposed, a naval battle was fought; the Lacedaemonians, defeated, fled.

Nec cessatum deinceps est, quin aut terra aut mari varia proeliorum fortuna invicem se trucidarent. Denique fessi tot malis pacem in annos L fecere, quam non nisi sex annis servaverunt. Nam indutias, quas proprio nomine condixerant, ex sociorum persona rumpebant, quippe quasi minus periurii contraherent, si ferentes sociis auxilia potius quam si aperto proelio dimicassent.

Nor was there any ceasing thereafter, but either on land or at sea, with the varied fortune of battles, they slaughtered one another by turns. Finally, wearied by so many evils, they made a peace for 50 years, which they kept for only six years. For the truces, which they had stipulated under their proper name, they would break through the person of their allies—indeed as if they contracted less perjury by bringing aid to their allies than if they had fought in open battle.

Hinc bellum in Siciliam translatum, quod priusquam expono, de Siciliae situ pauca dicenda sunt.

From here the war was transferred to Sicily; before I expound it, a few things must be said about the site of Sicily.