Orosius: HISTORIARUM ADVERSUM PAGANOS LIBRI VII

[1] Omnes homines cuiuslibet uel sectae uel uitae uel patriae ita semper ad prospectum prudentiae naturali bono eriguntur, ut oblectamento corporis rationale mentis etsi non actu praeferant, iudicio tamen praeferendum sciant. quae mens, ratione duce inlustrata, in medio uirtutum, quibus genuino fauore, quamuis uitiis inclinetur, adsurgit, scientiam Dei quasi arcem prospicit.² Deum enim quilibet hominum contemnere ad tempus potest, nescire in totum non potest.

[1] All human beings, of whatever sect or life or fatherland, are thus always raised up by a natural good toward the prospect of prudence, so that they prefer the rational faculty of the mind to the delight of the body, even if not in act, yet they know by judgment that it is to be preferred. Which mind, illuminated with reason as leader, in the mean of the virtues—to which, with genuine favor, although it is inclined to vices, it rises—looks out upon the science of God as upon a citadel.² For anyone of humankind can despise God for a time; he cannot be altogether ignorant of him.

unde quidam dum in multis Deum credunt, multos deos indiscreto timore finxerunt. sed hinc iam uel maxime cum auctoritate ueritatis operante tum ipsa etiam ratione discutiente discessum est. ³ quippe cum et philosophi eorum, ut de nostris sanctis sileam, dum intento mentis studio quaerunt scrutanturque omnia, unum Deum auctorem omnium reppererunt, ad quem unum omnia referrentur; unde etiam nunc pagani, quos iam declarata ueritas de contumacia magis quam de ignorantia conuincit, cum a nobis discutiuntur, non se plures deos sequi sed sub uno deo magno plures ministros uenerari fatentur.

whence certain men, while in many matters they believe in God, fashioned many gods by indiscriminate fear. But from this there has now been departure most of all, both with the authority of truth at work and with reason itself also examining. ³ For indeed even their philosophers—to be silent about our saints—while, with an intent study of mind, they seek and scrutinize all things, found one God, the author of all things, to whom alone all things are referred; whence even now the pagans, whom the truth now made manifest convicts more of contumacy than of ignorance, when they are examined by us, confess that they do not follow many gods, but that under one great God they venerate many ministers.

⁴ restat igitur de intellegentia ueri Dei per multas intellegendi suspiciones confusa dissensio, quia de uno deo omnium paene una opinio est. hucusque humana scrutatio, etsi cum labore, potuit. at ubi ratiocinatio deficit, fides subuenit.

⁴ Therefore there remains, concerning the understanding of the true God, a dissension confused by many suspicions of understanding, since about the one God there is almost one opinion among all. Thus far human scrutiny, although with toil, could reach. But where ratiocination fails, faith comes to the aid.

nisi enim crediderimus, non intellegemus: ⁵ ab ipso audias ipsique Deo credas, quod uerum uelis scire de Deo. itaque idem unus et uerus Deus, in quem omnis, ut diximus, etsi ex diuersis opinionibus secta concurrit, mutans regna et disponens tempora, peccata quoque puniens, quae infirma sunt mundi elegit, ut confundat fortia, Romanumque imperium adsumpto pauperrimi status pastore fundauit. ⁶ hoc per reges et consules diu prouectum postquam Asiae Africae atque Europae potitum est, ad unum imperatorem eundemque fortissimum et clementissimum cuncta sui ordinatione congessit.

for unless we have believed, we shall not understand: ⁵ you should hear from him and believe God himself concerning what you wish to know as true about God. And so the same one and true God, toward whom, as we said, though from diverse opinions, every sect converges, changing kingdoms and disposing times, and also punishing sins, chose the things which are weak of the world, that he might confound the strong, and founded the Roman empire by taking up a shepherd of the most poverty‑stricken status. ⁶ this, long carried forward through kings and consuls, after it had gotten possession of Asia, Africa, and Europe, he gathered all things, by his own ordination, to one emperor, the same both most strong and most clement.

⁷ sub hoc imperatore, quem omnes fere gentes amore et timore permixto iuste honorarent, Deus uerus, qui superstitione sollicita ab ignorantibus colebatur, magnum illum intellegentiae suae fontem aperuit promptiusque per hominem docturus homines filium suum misit operantem uirtutes, quae praecellerent hominem, coarguentemque daemonas, quos aliqui deos putauissent, ut qui ipsi tamquam homini non credidissent, operibus tamquam Dei crederent; ⁸ deinde ut in magno silentio ac pace latissima inoffense et celeriter noui nominis gloria et adnuntiatae salutis uelox fama percurreret uel etiam ut discipulis eius per diuersas gentes euntibus ultroque per cunctos salutis dona offerentibus obeundi ac disserendi quippe Romanis ciuibus inter ciues Romanos esset tuta libertas.

⁷ under this emperor, whom almost all nations justly honored with love and fear commingled, the true God, who was being worshiped by the ignorant with solicitous superstition, opened that great fountain of his intelligence and, intending to teach men through a man, sent his Son, working miracles that would excel a man and convicting the daemons whom some would have supposed gods, so that those who had not believed him as a man would believe, by works, as of God; ⁸ then, so that in great silence and in very broad peace the glory of the new name and the swift fame of the announced salvation might run through without offense and quickly, or even so that, as his disciples were going through diverse nations and of their own accord offering the gifts of salvation to all, there would be safe liberty of going about and discoursing, indeed, for Roman citizens among Roman citizens.

⁹ Quod ideo commemorandum putaui, quia hic sextus libellus usque ad Caesarem Augustum, de quo haec dicuntur, extenditur. ¹⁰ quodsi aliqui hanc lucidissimam rationem inritam putant, suisque dis potius adsignant, quos primum prudentia elegerint deinde praecipuo cultu inuitarint, ut sibi per eos amplissimum hoc pulcherrimumque imperium conderetur - ¹¹ sic enim iactitant, quia ipsi optimo genere sacrorum emeruerint praecipuum deorum fauorem, quibus ademptis uel praetermissis discesserint omnes
adytis arisque relictis
Di, quibus imperium hoc steterat -
¹² unde, quamuis reuerentia sanctitatis tuae multa fortissime uerissimeque disseruerit, tamen et mihi locus exigit, ut pauca subiciam. ¹³ si Romani colendo deos emeruerunt fauorem deorum et non colendo amiserunt: ut ipse Romulus, parens Romae, inter tot mala ab ipso ortu suo ingruentia saluus esset, colendo quis meruit?

⁹ Which I thought ought to be commemorated for this reason, because this sixth little book extends down to Caesar Augustus, about whom these things are said. ¹⁰ But if some think this most lucid rationale null and instead assign it to their own gods, whom first by prudence they chose and then by exceptional cult they invited, so that through them for themselves this most ample and most beautiful empire might be founded— ¹¹ for thus they boast, that by the best kind of sacred rites they earned the special favor of the gods, on the removal or neglect of whom all departed,
with sanctuaries and altars left behind,
the gods by whom this empire had stood —
¹² whence, although the reverence of your sanctity has discussed many things most bravely and most truly, yet the place also requires that I subjoin a few. ¹³ If the Romans by worshipping the gods earned the favor of the gods and by not worshipping lost it: that Romulus himself, the parent of Rome, should be safe amid so many evils pressing on from his very birth—by worshipping, who earned it?

¹⁴ an Amulius auus, qui exposuit ad necem? an pater, qui incertus fuit? an Rhea mater stupri rea?

¹⁴ or Amulius the grandfather, who exposed to death? or the father, who was uncertain? or Rhea the mother, accused of unchastity?

an Albani parentes, ipsa quoque ab initio Romani nominis germina persequentes? an tota Italia quae per quadringentos annos, dum audere potuit, excidio eius inhiauit ? ¹⁵ non, inquiunt, sed di ipsi, quia se colendos sciebant, futuros custodiere cultores. ergo praescii sunt.

or the Alban forefathers, likewise persecuting from the beginning the germs of the Roman name? or all Italy, which for four hundred years, so long as it could dare, gaped after its destruction ? ¹⁵ not so, they say, but the gods themselves, because they knew themselves to be to be worshiped, guarded their future worshipers. therefore they are prescient.

¹⁶ si praescii sunt, cur hoc imperium inter tot annorum saecula eo potissimum tempore ad summam potentiae arcem perduxerunt, quo ille nasci inter homines atque adgnosci ut homo uoluit, post cuius nomen et ipsi pro nihilo contempti sunt et cum uniuerso mundo etiam illi, quos ipsi prouexerant, cucurrerunt? ¹⁷ sed humiliter obrepsit, inquiunt, et latenter intrauit. latentis et humilis unde tam celebris fama, tam indubitata fides, tam manifesta potentia ? signis quibusdam et uirtutibus mentes hominum superstitione sollicitas cepit et tenuit.

¹⁶ If they are prescient, why did they bring this imperium, across the ages of so many years, precisely at that time to the summit-citadel of power, when he willed to be born among men and to be acknowledged as a man, after whose name both they themselves were held in contempt as nothing, and, together with the entire world, even those whom they themselves had advanced, ran? ¹⁷ But, they say, he crept in humbly and entered covertly. Of one hidden and humble, whence so celebrated a fame, so indubitable a faith, so manifest a power ? By certain signs and virtues he seized and held the minds of men made anxious by superstition.

at haec si homo potuit, di magis posse debuerunt. ¹⁸ an quia ille hanc potentiam a Patre sibi traditam praedicabat, peruentum est aliquando ad intellegentiam illius noti et ignoti Dei, quam adprehendere, ut dixi, nemo nisi per ipsum potest? nec quisquam potest, nisi qui toto se perspecto ac despecto conuersus ad sapientiam Dei omnem quaerendi ratiocinationem transtulerit ad credendi fidem.

But if a man could do these things, the gods ought all the more to have been able. ¹⁸ Or is it because he was proclaiming that this power had been handed down to himself by the Father, that there was at length an arrival at an understanding of that God known and unknown, which, as I said, no one can apprehend except through him? nor can anyone, unless, with his whole self inspected and despised, turned toward the Wisdom of God, he shall have transferred every ratiocination of seeking to the faith of believing.

¹⁹ uerumtamen breuiter discutio: di isti, quos tantos ferunt, ut Romanam rempublicam et propitii prouexisse et auersi adflixisse uideantur, eo certe tempore, quod palam constat, quo nasci Christus uoluit et adnuntiari gentibus coepit deuotissime atque intentissime colebantur. ²⁰ ita illi consulentes et sibi et cultoribus suis non potuerunt uel reprimere uel repellere superstitionem eius, propter quam spernendos se cultoresque suos destituendos uiderent? quamquam si ab inuitis, danda uenia nec deserendi fuerunt; si a uoluntariis, seruanda praescientia nec prius fuerant adiuuandi.

¹⁹ Nevertheless I briefly discuss: those gods, whom they report to be so great that they seem, when propitious, to have advanced the Roman commonwealth and, when averse, to have afflicted it, at that very time—which is openly agreed—when Christ willed to be born and began to be announced to the nations, were being worshiped most devotedly and most intently. ²⁰ So then, they, looking out both for themselves and for their worshipers, could not either restrain or repel his “superstition,” on account of which they saw that both they themselves would be scorned and their worshipers abandoned? Yet, if by the unwilling, pardon should be given and they ought not to have been deserted; if by the willing, their prescience should have been maintained and they ought not to have been helped earlier.

²¹ hoc factum est, inquiunt; nam excitauimus gentes, accendimus reges, instituimus leges, disposuimus iudices, praeparauimus poenas suppliciis et crucibus, orbem totum scrutati sumus, siquo modo Christianum nomen et cultus uniuerso mundo posset abradi. ²² hoc eatenus factum est, donec fecunda crudelitas eo usque inter tormenta ac per tormenta proficeret, quamdiu ipsum regium culmen, per quod solum prohiberi potuerat, occuparet. ²³ et quid postea consecutum est?

²¹ “This was done,” they say; “for we excited the nations, inflamed kings, instituted laws, appointed judges, prepared penalties with tortures and crosses, we scrutinized the whole orb, to see if in any way the Christian name and cult could be abraded from the entire world. ²² This was done to that extent, until fecund cruelty advanced so far, amid torments and through torments, as to seize the very royal summit, by which alone it could have been prohibited. ²³ And what was achieved thereafter?”

imperatores, inquiunt, Christiani cessare sacra et claudi templa iusserunt atque ideo
Excessere omnes adytis arisque relictis
Di, quibus imperium hoc steterat.
²⁴ O quanta et quam inoffensa lux ueritatis est, si non aduersus eam ultro sese offerentem inbecilli infeliciter oculi clauderentur! si Christiana fides per multa retro tempora saeuientibus undique aduersum se gentibus regibus legibus caedibus crucibus ac mortibus reprimi nullo modo potuit, immo, ut dixi, inter haec et per haec creuit, cultus autem idolorum iam quodammodo ex se deficiens ac sibi erubescens ad unam clementissimam iussionem sine ullo poenali terrore cessauit: ²⁵ cui dubium est hoc per istius intellegentiae demonstrationem de creatore suo tandem innotuisse creaturae, quod illa eatenus per uarias ratiocinationes mentis, intentae quamlibet, aliis offuscata quaesierit ac per hoc statim amori eius, quem etiam ignorans dilexerat, inhaesisse?

the emperors, they say, the Christians, ordered the sacred rites to cease and the temples to be closed, and therefore
The gods, with the inner sanctuaries and the altars left behind, have departed—
the gods by whom this empire had stood.
²⁴ O how great and how unoffending is the light of truth, if only weak eyes were not unhappily closed against it as it of its own accord presents itself! If the Christian faith through many bygone times, with nations, kings, laws raging on every side against it, with slaughters, crosses, and deaths, could in no way be repressed—nay rather, as I said, amid these and through these it grew—whereas the cult of idols, already in a certain way failing from itself and blushing at itself, at a single most clement command ceased without any penal terror: ²⁵ who doubts that by the demonstration of His intelligence this has at last become known to the creature concerning its Creator, which until then it had sought through various ratiocinations of the mind, however intent, being clouded by other things, and that through this it immediately has clung to His love, which even while ignorant it had loved?

²⁶ nec igitur mirum est, si in magna familia inueniuntur aliqui serui, qui consuetudine lasciuiaque seductorum adsuefacti patientia domini sui ad contemptum ipsius abutantur: unde et merito Deus uel ingratos uel incredulos uel etiam contumaces uariis correptionibus arguit; ²⁷ quod semper utique confitendum est, tunc tamen praecipue, quando adhuc per uniuersum mundum nulla erat ecclesia, quae interuentu fidelium precum meritas mundi poenas iustumque iudicium Dei exorata ipsius clementia temeraret: unde etiam haec, quae mala hominibus uidentur, qualiacumque sunt, grauiora sine dubio omnia fuerunt, sicut ipso, quo coepta sunt, ordine probabuntur.

²⁶ nor therefore is it a wonder, if in a great household there are found some slaves who, made accustomed by the habit and wantonness of seducers, abuse the patience of their own master unto contempt of him: whence also, with merit, God reproves the ungrateful, or the incredulous, or even the contumacious by various corrections; ²⁷ which is always indeed to be confessed, yet especially then, when as yet through the whole world there was no Church which, by the intervention of the faithful prayers, his clemency having been entreated, might mitigate the merited penalties of the world and the just judgment of God: whence also these things which seem evils to men, of whatever sort they are, were all without doubt more grievous, as will be proved by the very order in which they were begun.

²⁸ Bellum Mithridaticum uel, ut uerius dicam, belli Mithridatici clades multas simul inuoluens prouincias tracta et protenta per quadraginta annos fuit. ²⁹ nam DCLXII, ut dixi, anno ab urbe condita, quo etiam primum ciuile bellum coeperat, inardescens, consulatu uero Ciceronis et Antonii, ut uerbis poetae optimi loquar,
barbarico uix consummata ueneno est.
³⁰ sed in his temporibus triginta gerendi belli inueniuntur anni.

²⁸ The Mithridatic War—or, to speak more truly, the disaster of the Mithridatic war, enveloping many provinces at once—was drawn out and protracted through forty years. ²⁹ For in the 662nd year from the founding of the City, as I said, in which year also the first civil war had begun, blazing up; and in the consulship of Cicero and Antonius, to speak in the words of the best poet,
was scarcely consummated by barbaric poison.
³⁰ But in these times there are found thirty years of waging war.

qualiter autem quadraginta a plerisque dicti sint non facile discernitur.

However, how forty have been said by most is not easily discerned.

[2] Igitur Mithridates rex Ponti atque Armeniae postquam Nicomedem Bithyniae regem amicum populi Romani regno priuare molitus est atque a senatu monitus, si facere temptaret, bellum sibi a populo Romano inferendum fore, iratus Cappadociam continuo peruasit atque expulso ab ea Ariobarzane rege cunctam prouinciam igni ferroque uastauit.² Bithyniam deinde pari clade corripuit. Paphlagoniam simili exitu adflixit pulsis ex ea Pylaemene et Nicomede regibus.

[2] Therefore Mithridates, king of Pontus and Armenia, after he attempted to deprive Nicomedes, king of Bithynia and an ally of the Roman People, of his kingdom, and was warned by the Senate that, if he should attempt to do this, war would be brought upon him by the Roman People, in anger immediately invaded Cappadocia and, Ariobarzanes the king having been driven out from it, laid waste the whole province by fire and sword.² Then he swept Bithynia with an equal disaster. He afflicted Paphlagonia with a like outcome, with the kings Pylaemenes and Nicomedes driven out from it.

post cum uenisset Ephesum, crudeli praecepit edicto, ut per totam Asiam quicumque inuenti essent ciues Romani sub una die omnes necarentur. ³ et factum est; nec explicari aut conprehendi ullo modo uerbis potest, quae tunc multitudo Romanorum ciuium caesa sit, quis maeror plurimarum prouinciarum, quis gemitus occidendorum pariter atque occidentium fuerit, cum singuli quique aut prodere innocentes hospites et amicos, aut ipsi periclitari poena hospitum cogerentur. ⁴ Archelaus quoque dux Mithridatis cum CXX milibus peditum atque equitum in Achaiam praemissus Athenas cunctamque Graeciam partim ui partim deditione obtinuit.

after he had come to Ephesus, he commanded by a cruel edict that throughout all Asia, whoever Roman citizens were found, all should be slain on a single day. ³ And so it was done; nor can it in any way be explicated or comprehended by words, what multitude of Roman citizens was then cut down, what mourning of very many provinces, what groaning there was of those to be killed and of those killing alike, since each and every person was compelled either to betray innocent guests and friends, or themselves to be imperiled by the penalty for their guests. ⁴ Archelaus too, the general of Mithridates, sent ahead into Achaia with 120 thousand foot and horse, secured Athens and all Greece partly by force and partly by surrender.

⁵ Sylla, cui post consulatum Mithridaticum bellum obuenerat, Archelaum apud Piraeum, Atheniensium portum septemplici muro conmunitum, diu obsedit, ipsam Atheniensium urbem ui cepit. postea iusto proelio cum Archelao conflixit: centum decem milia de exercitu Archelai interfecta, uix decem milia superfuisse referuntur. ⁶ conperta clade Mithridates lectissima septuaginta milia militum Archelao in subsidium misit ex Asia.

⁵ Sulla, to whom after his consulship the Mithridatic war had fallen, long besieged Archelaus at the Piraeus, the port of the Athenians, fortified with a sevenfold wall; he took the city of the Athenians itself by force. Afterwards he clashed with Archelaus in a regular battle: 110,000 of Archelaus’s army were slain, scarcely 10,000 are reported to have survived. ⁶ Once the disaster was learned, Mithridates sent from Asia to Archelaus, as reinforcement, the choicest 70,000 soldiers.

secundo proelio quinquaginta milia ex his interfecta sunt ibique Diogenes Archelai filius trucidatus est. ⁷ tertio bello omnes copiae, quas Archelaus habebat, extinctae sunt. nam uiginti milia militum eius in paludem pulsa cum Syllae fidem inplorarent, insatiabili uictoris ira interfecta sunt totidemque alia in flumen coacta ac necata, reliqui miserorum passim trucidati sunt.

In the second battle, fifty thousand of these were slain, and there Diogenes, the son of Archelaus, was butchered. ⁷ In the third war all the forces which Archelaus had were extinguished. For twenty thousand of his soldiers, driven into a marsh, when they were imploring Sulla’s good faith, were killed by the insatiable wrath of the victor, and just as many others were forced into a river and drowned, the rest of the wretches were slaughtered everywhere.

⁸ porro autem Mithridates in Asia nobilissimarum urbium principes occidere bonaque eorum publicare animo intenderat. cumque iam mille sescentos ita interfecisset, Ephesii exemplum uerentes excluso praesidio eius portas obiecerunt; similiter Smyrnaei Sardi Colophonii Trallianique fecerunt. ⁹ perturbatus Mithridates per Archelaum ducem suum cum Sylla de pace pepigit.

⁸ moreover Mithridates in Asia had intended to kill the leading men of the most noble cities and to confiscate and declare their goods public. and when he had already killed 1,600 thus, the Ephesians, fearing the precedent, with his garrison shut out, shut their gates; similarly the Smyrnaeans, the Sardians, the Colophonians, and the Trallians did. ⁹ disturbed, Mithridates, through Archelaus his commander, made a pact about peace with Sulla.

interea Fimbria Marianorum scelerum satelles, homo omnium audacissimus, Flaccum consulem, cui legatus ierat, apud Nicomediam occidit; ¹⁰ ac mox arrepto exercitu Mithridatis filium ex Asia ad Miletopolin fugat, stationem regis inuadit ipsumque Pergamo pellit fugientemque insecutus apud Pitanam obsedit, et profecto cepisset, si L. Lucullus ciuilibus discordiis curam reipublicae praetulisset eumque mari coartare obiecta classe uoluisset. ¹¹ inde Fimbria Iliensibus iratus, a quibus pro Syllanae partis studio obiectu portarum repulsus uidebatur, ipsam urbem Ilium, antiquam illam Romae parentem, funditus caede incendioque deleuit. sed eam Sylla continuo reformauit.

Meanwhile Fimbria, a satellite of the Marian crimes, a man most audacious of all, killed the consul Flaccus, to whom he had gone as legate, at Nicomedia; ¹⁰ and soon, having seized the army, he drove the son of Mithridates from Asia to Miletopolis, assails the king’s station, and drives him himself from Pergamum; and, pursuing him in flight, he besieged him at Pitane, and he would certainly have taken him, if Lucius Lucullus had preferred the care of the republic to civil discords and had wished to hem him in by sea by an interposed fleet. ¹¹ Then Fimbria, angry with the Ilians, by whom, for zeal toward Sulla’s party, he seemed to have been driven back by the barring of the gates, utterly destroyed the city of Ilium itself, that ancient parent of Rome, with slaughter and conflagration. But Sulla rebuilt it forthwith.

idem Fimbria apud Thyatiram cum ab exercitu Syllae obsideretur, desperatione adactus in templo Aesculapii manu sua interfectus est. ¹² Fannius et Magius de exercitu Fimbriae profugi Mithridati sese adiunxerunt: quorum hortatu Mithridates cum Sertorio per legatos in Hispaniam missos foedus pepigit. Sertorius ad eum M. Marium firmandi foederis causa misit: quem rex apud se retentum breui ducem fecit in locum Archelai, qui se ad Syllam cum uxore liberisque contulerat.

That same Fimbria, at Thyatira, when he was being besieged by Sulla’s army, driven by desperation was slain by his own hand in the temple of Aesculapius. ¹² Fannius and Magius, fugitives from Fimbria’s army, joined themselves to Mithridates; at whose urging Mithridates made a treaty with Sertorius through legates sent into Spain. Sertorius sent to him M. Marius for the purpose of strengthening the treaty; whom the king, having kept with him, soon made general in the place of Archelaus, who had betaken himself to Sulla with his wife and children.

¹³ Marius et Eumachus duces a Mithridate aduersus Lucullum missi, magno exercitu breui congregato cum P. Rutilio apud Chalcedonam congressi sunt eumque cum plurima exercitus ipsius parte ceciderunt. ¹⁴ Lucullus Mithridatem Cyzicenos obsidentem fossa cinxit eumque quod faciebat pati conpulit atque ad ipsos Cyzicenos, ut bono animo essent, nuntium misit unum ex militibus nandi peritum: qui duobus utribus suspensus mediam ipse regulam tenens plantisque subremigans septem milia passuum transmeauit. ¹⁵ Mithridates inopia laborans partem copiarum instructam armis domum abire praecepit: quam Lucullus excipiens uniuersam disperdidit, nam amplius quam quindecim milia hominum tunc interfecisse narratur.

¹³ Marius and Eumachus, commanders sent by Mithridates against Lucullus, having in a short time assembled a great army, engaged with P. Rutilius near Chalcedon and cut him down together with a very great part of his army. ¹⁴ Lucullus, with a trench, encircled Mithridates while he was besieging the Cyzicenes, and compelled him to undergo what he himself was doing, and he sent a message to the Cyzicenes themselves, that they should be of good courage, by one of the soldiers skilled in swimming: suspended by two skins, he himself holding a pole in the middle and sculling with his soles, he crossed seven miles. ¹⁵ Mithridates, laboring under scarcity, ordered part of his forces, equipped with arms, to go home; which Lucullus, intercepting, utterly destroyed, for it is reported that at that time he killed more than fifteen thousand men.

¹⁶ tunc etiam Fannius, qui se Mithridati iunxerat, et Metrophanes regius praetor a Mamerco uicti, cum duobus milibus equitum in Moesiam profugerunt atque inde in Maeoniam digressi in colles camposque Inarimos inciderunt. ¹⁷ ubi non solum montes usti uel saxa quasi quadam fuligine obfuscata cernuntur, uerum etiam campi ambusto solo squalidi per quinquaginta milia passuum sine uno ignis uel fornacis indicio et pendulo in profundum cinere putres iacent; tribus etiam locis torridae uoragines ostenduntur, quas Graeci physas uocant. ¹⁸ in quibus diu oberrantes inopinatis tandem periculis exempti sunt et clam in regis castra uenerunt.

¹⁶ then also Fannius, who had joined himself to Mithridates, and Metrophanes, the royal praetor, defeated by Mamercus, fled with two thousand cavalry into Moesia; and from there, having gone off into Maeonia, they came upon the Inarime hills and plains. ¹⁷ there not only are mountains seen burnt, or rocks darkened as if by a certain soot, but even the fields, with the soil scorched, lie squalid for fifty miles without a single sign of fire or furnace, and, with pendulous ash sinking into the depths, they lie crumbling; in three places as well torrid chasms are shown, which the Greeks call physae. ¹⁸ in which, wandering for a long time, they were at last removed from unexpected dangers and came secretly into the king’s camp.

Deiotarus rex Gallograeciae praefectos regis bello trucidauit.

Deiotarus, king of Gallo-Graecia, slaughtered the king’s prefects in war.

¹⁹ Interea Mithridates apud Cyzicum eadem mora, qua obsidebat, obsessus in magnam penuriam pestilentiamque exercitum suum coartauit. nam plus quam trecenta milia hominum fame et morbo in eadem obsidione amisisse fertur; ipse cum paucis arrepta naui clam fugit e castris. ²⁰ Lucullus, incruento milite spectator cladis alienae, nouum genus uictoriae adeptus est; mox Marium adortus uicit fugauitque: in quo proelio plus quam undecim milia Marianorum militum interfecta referuntur.

¹⁹ Meanwhile Mithridates at Cyzicus, by the same delay with which he was besieging, being himself besieged, constrained his army into great penury and pestilence. For he is said to have lost more than 300,000 men by hunger and disease in that same siege; he himself, with a few, having seized a ship, secretly fled from the camp. ²⁰ Lucullus, with his soldiery unbloodied, a spectator of another’s disaster, obtained a new kind of victory; soon, having assailed Marius, he conquered and routed him: in which battle more than 11,000 soldiers of Marius are reported to have been slain.

²¹ Lucullus postea cum eodem Mario nauali proelio congressus triginta et duas naues regias et conplures onerarias aut demersit aut cepit. multi ibi ex his quos Sulla proscripserat, interempti sunt. ²² Marius postera die de spelunca, ubi latebat, extractus meritas hostilis animi poenas luit.

²¹ Lucullus afterwards, having engaged with that same Marius in a naval battle, either sank or captured thirty-two royal ships and several transport ships. Many there, of those whom Sulla had proscribed, were slain. ²² Marius, on the next day, dragged out of the cave where he was hiding, paid the deserved penalties for his hostile spirit.

²³ eodem uero Lucullus impetu Apamiam uastauit et sub monte Olympo Prusam munitissimam ciuitatem captam expugnatamque diripuit. ²⁴ Mithridates aduersus Byzantium instructa classe nauigans tempestate correptus octoginta rostratas naues perdidit; ipse cum quassa iam naui mergeretur, in myoparonem Seleuci piratae ipso pirata iuuante transiluit. inde Sinopem ac post Amisum cum magna difficultate peruenit.

²³ And with that same impetus Lucullus laid waste Apamea and, beneath Mount Olympus, he captured, stormed, and plundered Prusa, a most strongly fortified city. ²⁴ Mithridates, sailing against Byzantium with a marshaled fleet, being caught by a tempest, lost eighty rostrate ships; he himself, as he was being sunk with his already battered ship, leapt onto the myoparon of the pirate Seleucus, the pirate himself aiding. Thence he reached Sinope, and afterward Amisus, with great difficulty.

[3] Eodem anno apud Romam Catilina incesti accusatus, quod cum Fabia uirgine Vestali commisisse arguebatur, Catuli gratia fultus euasit.

[3] In the same year at Rome, Catiline, accused of incest, because he was alleged to have committed it with Fabia, a Vestal virgin, supported by the favor of Catulus, escaped.

² Lucullus Sinopem expugnaturus obsederat; hanc Seleucus archipirata et Cleochares spado, qui praesidii causa praeerant, expilatam atque incensam reliquerunt. ³ Lucullus miserorum hostium intestina clade permotus celeri occursu inmissum restinxit incendium. ita misera ciuitas uersa uice hostium sociorumque unde defendenda disperdita et unde disperdenda seruata est.

² Lucullus, intending to storm Sinope, had besieged it; Seleucus the arch‑pirate and Cleochares the eunuch, who were in command for the sake of the garrison, left it plundered and set aflame. ³ Lucullus, moved by the internal slaughter of the wretched enemies, by swift succor extinguished the conflagration that had been set. Thus the wretched city, with the roles of enemies and allies reversed, was destroyed by those by whom it ought to have been defended, and was saved by those by whom it ought to have been destroyed.

⁴ at uero M. Lucullus, qui Curioni in Macedonia successerat, totam Bessorum gentem bello adpetitam in deditionem recepit.

⁴ But indeed M. Lucullus, who had succeeded Curio in Macedonia, brought the entire nation of the Bessi, assailed in war, into surrender.

⁵ Eodem tempore Metellus Siciliae praetor cum foedissima illa C. Verris praetura Siciliam adflictam inuenisset, maxime Pyrganione archipirata nefariis praedis et caedibus dilacerante, qui pulsa classe Romana Syracusanum portum obtinuerat - quem mox nauali terrestrique proelio comminutum Sicilia decedere conpulit. ⁶ praeterea Lucullus transgressus Euphraten et Tigrim, apud Tigranocertam urbem cum Mithridate et Tigrane congressus paruissima suorum manu magnum hostium numerum occidit; nam triginta milia hominum in eo bello caesa referuntur. ⁷ Tigranes uix centum quinquaginta equitibus comitatus aufugit diademate et tiara ne agnosceretur abiectis.

⁵ At the same time Metellus, praetor of Sicily, when he had found Sicily afflicted by that most disgraceful praetorship of Gaius Verres, especially with Pyrganion the archipirate rending it with nefarious plunders and slaughters, who, the Roman fleet having been driven back, had occupied the Syracusan harbor - whom soon, shattered in a naval and a terrestrial battle, he compelled to depart from Sicily. ⁶ Moreover, Lucullus, having crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris, near the city Tigranocerta, having engaged with Mithridates and Tigranes, with a very small band of his own slew a great number of the enemy; for thirty thousand men are reported to have been cut down in that war. ⁷ Tigranes fled, accompanied by scarcely 150 horsemen, having cast away his diadem and tiara lest he be recognized.

tunc ad Lucullum totius paene orientis supplices uenere legati; imminente hieme per Armeniam in Mesopotamiam regressus Nisibin urbem illis tunc locis inclitam expugnauit et cepit.

Then to Lucullus there came as suppliant legates from almost the whole Orient; with winter impending, returning through Armenia into Mesopotamia, he stormed and captured the city of Nisibis, then renowned in those regions.

[4] Isdem diebus piratae per omnia sparsi maria et iam non tantum intercipientes nauium commeatus sed etiam insulas prouinciasque uastantes, inpunitate sceleris et auiditate praedae uulgo sese adsociantibus in inmensum augebantur: quos Cn. Pompeius post multam quidem uastationem, quam terra marique diu egerant, mira tamen celeritate conpressit.

[4] In those same days pirates, scattered through all the seas, and now not only intercepting the convoys of ships but even ravaging islands and provinces, were being augmented to an immense degree, as the impunity of crime and the avidity for booty led people in crowds to associate themselves; whom Cn. Pompeius, after indeed much devastation which they had long wrought on land and sea, nevertheless with wondrous celerity suppressed.

² Eodem tempore Cretam insulam per biennium Metellus euertit diuturnoque bello domitam in potestatem redegit legesque Minois Romanis legibus permutauit.

² At the same time Metellus overturned the island of Crete for two years, and, after a long-continued war had tamed it, reduced it to his power, and exchanged the laws of Minos for Roman laws.

³ Pompeius postea, successor Luculli, in minore Armenia iuxta montem Dastracum castra regis obsidione conclusit. rex cum omnibus copiis eruptione per noctem facta, insuper etiam persequentem bello repellere statuit. Pompeius fugientes persequi intendit.

³ Afterwards Pompey, the successor of Lucullus, in Lesser Armenia near Mount Dastracus enclosed the king’s camp with a siege. The king, with all his forces, having made a nocturnal sortie, moreover decided to repel in war the one pursuing. Pompey aimed to pursue the fleeing.

itaque bellum nocte commissum est. ⁴ luna tunc orta a tergo Romanis erat. regii longitudinem umbrarum proximitatem hostium rati cuncta in inritum tela fuderunt.

And so the battle was joined by night. ⁴ The moon then, having risen, was behind the Romans. The king’s men, reckoning the length of the shadows to be the proximity of the enemy, poured all their missiles to no effect.

Romani ueluti inermes postea adgressi sine labore uicerunt. ⁵ namque de exercitu regio XL milia caesa uel capta sunt, Romani uulnerati mille, uix autem quadraginta interfecti. ⁶ rex inter tumultus belli fuga lapsus, adiutus etiam beneficio sublustris noctis euasit, relictusque ab omnibus amicis philosophis scriptoribus rerum uel carminum ac medicis solus per deuia equum manu trahens atque ad omnes nocturnos strepitus trepidans, in quoddam castellum deuertit atque inde in Armeniam perrexit.

The Romans, afterwards, as if attacking unarmed men, conquered without effort. ⁵ For of the royal army 40 thousand were slain or captured; the Romans had a thousand wounded, and scarcely forty killed. ⁶ The king, slipping away in flight amid the tumult of war, aided also by the benefit of a dimly lit night, escaped; and, left by all his friends—philosophers, writers of histories or of poems, and physicians—alone, through byways dragging his horse by the hand and trembling at every nocturnal noise, he turned aside into a certain castle and from there proceeded into Armenia.

⁷ Pompeius regem insecuturus inter duo flumina, quae ab uno monte diuersis specubus exoriuntur, hoc est Euphraten et Araxen, urbem Nicopolim senibus, lixis et aegris uolentibus condidit. ⁸ oranti Tigrani ueniam dedit; exercitum Horodis Albanorum regis praefectosque eius ter proelio uicit; postea epistulas Horodis et munera pro pace cum Albanis instauranda libenter accepit; Artacem regem Hiberiae bello fudit totamque Hiberiam in deditionem accepit. ⁹ inde, cum Armeniam Colchos Cappadociam et Syriam ordinatis rebus conposuisset, promouens de Ponto in Parthiam ad Ecbatanam urbem caput Parthici regni quinquagensimo die uenit.

⁷ Pompey, about to pursue the king, between two rivers, which arise from one mountain from different caverns, that is, the Euphrates and the Araxes, founded the city Nicopolis for old men, camp-followers, and such of the sick as were willing. ⁸ To Tigranes begging, he granted pardon; he defeated in battle three times the army of Orodes, king of the Albanians, and his prefects; afterward he gladly accepted the letters of Orodes and gifts for the sake of peace to be restored with the Albanians; he routed Artaces, king of Iberia, in war and received all Iberia into surrender. ⁹ Thence, when he had settled matters with affairs ordered in Armenia, Colchis, Cappadocia, and Syria, advancing from Pontus into Parthia he came on the 50th day to the city Ecbatana, the capital of the Parthian kingdom.

[5] In Bosforo Mithridate Cerealia sacra celebrante terrae motus adeo grauis repente exortus est, ut magna clades ex ea urbium atque agrorum secuta narretur.² eadem tempore Castor Mithridatis praefectus, qui Phanagorio praeerat, interfectis amicis regiis arcem occupauit et quattuor Mithridatis filios ad praesidia Romana transmisit. ³ Mithridates accensus ira in scelera exarsit.

[5] In the Bosporus, while Mithridates was celebrating the Cerealia sacred rites, an earthquake so grievous suddenly arose that a great disaster of cities and fields is related to have followed from it.² At the same time Castor, Mithridates’ prefect, who presided over Phanagoria, after the royal friends had been slain, seized the citadel and sent four of Mithridates’ sons over to the Roman garrisons. ³ Mithridates, inflamed with anger, blazed forth into crimes.

nam conplures tunc amicos suos et Exipodram filium suum interfecit, cum antea iam alio Macharem parricidio trucidasset; ⁴ Pharnaces alter filius eius exemplo fratrum territus exercitum ad persequendum sese missum sibi conciliauit et mox aduersus patrem duxit. ⁵ Mithridates diu ex altissimo muro filium frustra precatus ubi inexorabilem uidit, moriturus exclamasse fertur: 'Quoniam Pharnaces', inquit, 'mori iubet, uos, si estis, di patrii, precor, ut quandocumque et ipse hanc uocem a liberis suis audiat'. statimque descendens ad uxores, pelices ac filias suas uenenum omnibus dedit. ⁶ quod cum ipse nouissimus hausisset nec tamen propter remedia, quibus uitalia sua aduersus noxios sucos saepe obstruxerat, ueneno confici posset frustraque spatiaretur, siquo tandem modo infusa pestis per uenas uegetatione corporis acta discurreret, Gallum quendam militem iam fracto muro discurrentem inuitauit eique iugulum praebuit.

for at that time he killed several of his friends and his son Exipodras, although earlier he had already butchered Machares by another parricide; ⁴ Pharnaces, his other son, terrified by the example of his brothers, won over to himself the army sent to pursue him and soon led it against his father. ⁵ Mithridates, after long entreating his son in vain from a very high wall, when he saw him inexorable, is said, as he was about to die, to have cried out: 'Since Pharnaces', he says, 'orders me to die, you, if you exist, native gods, I pray that whenever he too may hear this voice from his own children.' And immediately descending to his wives, concubines, and daughters, he gave poison to all. ⁶ and when he himself, last, had drunk it, yet, because of the remedies with which he had often obstructed his vitals against noxious juices, he could not be done to death by the poison; and he paced about in vain, in case somehow the infused pestilence, driven by the body’s vegetation, might run through his veins, he invited a certain Gallic soldier, running about now that the wall had been broken, and offered him his throat.

⁷ hunc exitum uitae Mithridates habuit nobisque sententiae suae fortissimum argumentum reliquit homo omnium, ut ferunt, superstitiosissimus, annos natus septuaginta et duo, habens secum semper philosophos omniumque artium peritissimos.

⁷ Mithridates met this end of life and left to us the strongest proof of his conviction—a man, of all men, as they say, the most superstitious—aged seventy-two, always keeping with him philosophers and those most skilled in all the arts.

⁸ Si estis, inquit, di patrii. ita ille diu colendo ac diu quaerendo persenserat hos non esse certos deos, qui esse putabantur. rex multae experientiae atque aeuo grauis uerum Deum, ad cuius notitiam non nisi auditu per fidem uenitur, non intellegebat.

⁸ “If you exist,” he said, “ancestral gods.” Thus he, by long worshipping and long seeking, had perceived that these, who were thought to be gods, were not certain gods. The king, of much experience and grown heavy with age, did not understand the true God, to whose knowledge one comes only by hearing through faith.

hos autem falsos esse rationis ipsius luce peruiderat, aliud consuetudini aliud menti suae tribuens. ⁹ si estis, inquit, di, hoc est dicere: ego sentiens esse super hominem potentiorem ipso homine potestatem, precandi necessitate motus commendo diligentiam et excuso ignorantiam meam; inuoco qui est, dum conuenio qui non est. ¹⁰ quapropter cum dolore et timore considerandum est: qua poena quoue iudicio digni erunt, qui contra interdictum iam propalatae et publicae ueritatis eos sectantur et colunt deos, de quibus etiam illi iam tunc dubitare poterant, qui adhuc praeter eosdem scire nil poterant.

but he had seen through by the very light of reason that these were false, assigning one thing to custom and another to his own mind. ⁹ “If you are, gods,” he says, that is to say: “I, sensing that above man there is a power more potent than man himself, moved by the necessity of praying, commend diligence and excuse my ignorance; I invoke Him who is, while I address him who is not.” ¹⁰ Wherefore with sorrow and fear it must be considered: with what punishment and by what judgment will they be worthy, who, against the interdict of truth already divulged and public, follow and worship gods about whom even those men could already then have doubted, who up to that time could know nothing besides those same ones.

¹¹ uerumtamen breuiter consulo: qualia tunc toto orienti tempora uidebantur, cum per quadraginta annos miserae nationes alternis tantorum ducum uastationibus terebantur; cum quaeque ciuitas tantis concursibus media ineuitabiliter periclitabatur, inde accensura alterum unde alterum temperasset, hoc mox habitura supplicii quod remedii ad tempus habuisset; ¹² cum trepidae diuersarum prouinciarum legationes inter succedentes Romanorum duces et truculentiorem notitia Mithridaten, alternis ad utrumque, prout quemque sors belli attollebat, et incertis satisfactionibus transferebantur augendo pericula quae sanabant? ¹³ nam quid continuo Pompeius et quidem Pompeius homo Romanorum moderatissimus per plurimas partes orientis finito Mithridatico bello egerit, paucis proferam.

¹¹ however, I briefly set forth: what times then seemed to the whole Orient, when for forty years the miserable nations were worn down by the alternating devastations of such great leaders; when each city, caught in the middle by such great clashes, was inevitably imperiled, thereby destined to kindle the other side whence it had restrained the other, soon to have as punishment that which it had had as a remedy for a time; ¹² when the trembling legations of diverse provinces, between the succeeding generals of the Romans and Mithridates, more truculent in notoriety, were shifted by turns to each, as the lot of war was exalting each one, and with uncertain satisfactions were transferring themselves, augmenting the dangers which they were healing? ¹³ for what Pompey forthwith—and indeed Pompey, a man most moderate of the Romans—did through very many parts of the Orient, the Mithridatic war having been finished, I will bring forward in few words.

[6] Anno ab urbe condita DCLXXXVIIII M. Tullio Cicerone et C. Antonio consulibus Pompeius occisi Mithridatis nuntio accepto Syriam Coelen et Phoenicen bello adgressus, Ituraeos primum Arabasque perdomuit urbemque eorum, quam Petram nominant, cepit;² hinc ad Iudaeos, quibus Aristobulus expulso fratre Hyrcano primus ex sacerdote rex praeerat, atque ad Hierosolymam urbem eorum Gabinium cum exercitu mittit. ipse continuo subsecutus et a patribus urbe susceptus sed a plebe muro templi repulsus expugnationem eius intendit. ³ id non solum natura loci, uerum etiam ingenti muro fossaque maxima munitum, cum alias aliis legiones dies noctesque succedere sine requie cogeret, uix tertio mense expugnauit.

[6] In the year from the founding of the city 689, with M. Tullius Cicero and C. Antonius as consuls, Pompey, upon receiving the message of the slain Mithridates, attacked Coele Syria and Phoenicia in war; first he thoroughly subdued the Ituraeans and the Arabs and took their city, which they call Petra;² thence to the Jews—over whom Aristobulus, with his brother Hyrcanus driven out, was presiding, the first to be king from the priesthood—and he sends Gabinius with an army to their city Jerusalem. He himself, following immediately, and received in the city by the fathers but repulsed by the plebs at the wall of the temple, aimed at its assault. ³ This, fortified not only by the nature of the place but also by a huge wall and a very great ditch, while he compelled legions by turns to relieve one another day and night without rest, he scarcely took by storm in the third month.

tredecim milia ibi Iudaeorum caesa narrantur, cetera multitudo in fidem uenit. ⁴ Pompeius muros ciuitatis euerti aequarique solo imperauit et, cum aliquantos principes Iudaeorum securi percussisset, Hyrcanum sacerdotio restituit, Aristobulum captiuum Romam duxit. hoc bellum orientis cum uiginti et duobus regibus sese gessisse ipse Pompeius pro contione narrauit.

Thirteen thousand of the Jews are reported to have been slain there; the rest of the multitude came into allegiance. ⁴ Pompey ordered the walls of the city to be overthrown and leveled to the ground, and, when he had struck with the axe several leaders of the Jews, he restored Hyrcanus to the priesthood, and led Aristobulus captive to Rome. Pompey himself, before a public assembly, narrated that he had conducted this war of the Orient with twenty-two kings.

⁵ Interea coniuratio Catilinae aduersus patriam per eosdem dies in urbe habita et prodita, in Etruria uero ciuili bello extincta est; Romae conscii coniurationis occisi sunt. ⁶ sed hanc historiam agente Cicerone et describente Sallustio satis omnibus notam nunc a nobis breuiter fuisse perstrictam sat est. ⁷ motus etiam in Paelignis ortus a Marcellis patre et filio per L. Vettium proditus patefacta Catilinae coniuratione quasi succisa radice compressus est, et de utroque per Bibulum in Paelignis, per Ciceronem in Bruttiis uindicatum est.

⁵ Meanwhile, Catiline’s conspiracy against the fatherland in those same days was conducted in the city and betrayed, and in Etruria was extinguished by a civil war; at Rome the accomplices of the conspiracy were slain. ⁶ But since this history—Cicero acting and Sallust describing—it is sufficiently well known to all, it is enough that it has now been briefly touched upon by us. ⁷ A disturbance also among the Paeligni, raised by the Marcelli, father and son, was betrayed by L. Vettius; with Catiline’s conspiracy laid open, it was suppressed as if its root had been cut, and for both matters punishment was exacted—by Bibulus among the Paeligni, by Cicero in the Bruttii.

[7] Anno ab urbe condita DCXCIII C. Caesare et L. Bibulo consulibus lege Vatinia Caesari tres prouinciae cum legionilbus septem in quinquennium datae Gallia Transalpina et Cisalpina et Illyricus; Galliam Comatam postea senatus adiecit.

[7] In the year from the founding of the City 693, with C. Caesar and L. Bibulus as consuls, by the Vatinian law three provinces were given to Caesar with seven legions for a quinquennium: Transalpine Gaul and Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum; later the senate added Long‑haired Gaul (Gallia Comata).

² Hanc historiam Suetonius Tranquillus plenissime explicuit, cuius nos conpetentes portiunculas decerpsimus.

² Suetonius Tranquillus has most fully explained this history, of which we have culled appropriate little portions.

³ Heluetiorum animos, fortissimae Gallorum omnium gentis ea uel maxime causa quod perpetuo paene cum Germanis bello altercabantur a quibus Rheno tantum flumine dirimuntur, Orgetorix quidam princeps gentis spe totas inuadendi Gallias in arma accenderat. ⁴ quo ceteri optimates correpto et ad mortem coacto cohibere tamen semel animatas in praedam plebes nequiuerunt. qui coniuratione facta ac die dicta, exustis uicis ac domibus suis, ne quod desiderium ex spe reuertendi foret, profecti sunt.

³ The spirits of the Helvetii, the bravest nation of all the Gauls, above all for this very cause—that they were almost continually altercating in war with the Germans, from whom they are separated only by the river Rhine—a certain Orgetorix, a prince of the tribe, had enkindled to arms with the hope of invading all the Gauls. ⁴ When he was seized and compelled to death, the other optimates nevertheless were not able to restrain the plebs, once aroused for booty. They, a conjuration having been made and a day declared, with their villages and houses burned, lest there be any longing from the hope of returning, set out.

⁵ quos cum apud Rhodanum flumen obuios Caesar habuisset, magno difficilique bello bis uicit uictosque ad deditionem coegit. horum fuit, cum primum progresaa est, omnis multitudo Heluetiorum Tulingorum Latobogiorum Rauracorum et Boiorum utriusque sexus ad centum quinquaginta et septem milia hominum. ex his quadraginta et septem milia in bello ceciderunt, cetera in terras proprias remissa sunt.

⁵ when Caesar had encountered them at the river Rhone, he twice conquered them in a great and difficult war and forced the vanquished to surrender. Their total, when it first set out, was the whole multitude of Helvetians, Tulingi, Latobogii, Rauraci, and Boii, of both sexes, to 157,000 persons. Of these, 47,000 fell in war; the rest were sent back into their own lands.

⁶ Postea Caesar contra Ariouistum regem excitantem inuehentemque secum incredibiles Germanorum copias, quibus nuper uniuersos Galliarum populos se subegisse iactabat, apud Sequanos uicit, cum diu exercitus Caesaris Germanorum multitudine et uirtute perterritus pugnam detrectasset. ⁷ statim Ariouistus in Germaniam, arrepta nauicula Rhenum transuectus, effugit, uxores eius duae totidemque filiae captae sunt. fuerunt autem in exercitu Ariouisti Arudes Marcomanes Triboci Vangiones Nemetes Eduses et Suebi.

⁶ Afterward Caesar defeated, among the Sequani, King Ariovistus, who was stirring up and bringing with him incredible forces of the Germans, by which he was boasting that he had recently subdued all the peoples of Gaul; although for a long time Caesar’s army, thoroughly terrified by the multitude and valor of the Germans, had shunned battle. ⁷ Immediately Ariovistus fled into Germany, having seized a little boat and, conveyed across the Rhine, escaped; his two wives and just as many daughters (two) were captured. Moreover, in Ariovistus’s army were the Arudes, Marcomanni, Triboci, Vangiones, Nemetes, Eduses, and Suebi.

⁸ pugna maxime grauis ex phalange Germanorum fuit, quam coacto in unum agmine scutisque supra capita contextis ad inrumpendam Romanorum aciem tuti undique praestruxerant. ⁹ sed postquam aliqui Romanorum militum agilitate audaciaque insignes supra obductam saliere testudinem scutisque singillatim uelut squamis reuulsis desuper nudos deprehensorum detectorumque humeros perfoderunt, territi hostes nouo mortis periculo terribilem dissoluere conpagem. ¹⁰ exinde in fugam uersi per quinquaginta milia passuum insatiabiliter caesi sunt neque conici numerus potuit Germanorum uel quantus pugnae adfuerit uel quantus fuerit occisorum.

⁸ the battle was most severe on account of the phalanx of the Germans, which, with the column massed into one and the shields interlaced above their heads, they had prepared in front, safe on every side, to burst into the Roman battle-line. ⁹ but after some of the Roman soldiers, distinguished for agility and audacity, leapt upon the drawn-over testudo, and, the shields torn off one by one like scales, from above pierced the bare shoulders of those caught and exposed, the enemies, terrified by this new peril of death, dissolved the terrible framework. ¹⁰ thereafter, turned to flight, they were insatiably cut down over fifty miles, nor could the number of the Germans be conjectured, either how many had been present at the battle or how many had been slain.

¹¹ Post haec Belgarum gens, quae tertia pars Galliarum est, aduersus Caesarem exarsit: ¹² quorum distributim copia haec fuit. Bellouagui, qui ceteris numero et uirtute praestare uiderentur, habuere lectissima sexaginta milia armatorum; Suessones ex duodecim oppidis quinquaginta milia; ¹³ Neruii, quorum adeo indomita feritas praedicabatur, ut numquam in id temporis mercatores ad se admiserint uina ceteraque uenalia deferre, quibus inducta iucunditas torporem uirtutis adferret, habuerunt similiter quinquaginta milia; ¹⁴ Atrebates etiam et Ambiani decem milia, Morini uiginti quinque milia, Menapii nouem milia, Caleti decem milia, Veliocasses et Veromandi aeque decem milia, Atuatuci decem et octo milia; Condurses Eborones Caerosi Caemani, qui uno nomine Germani uocantur, quadraginta milia. ¹⁵ ita fuisse referuntur CCLXXII milia armatorum lectissima.

¹¹ After these things the nation of the Belgae, which is a third part of the Gauls, flared up against Caesar: ¹² of whom the force, itemized, was as follows. The Bellovaci, who seemed to excel the others in number and in virtue, had the most select sixty thousand armed men; the Suessiones, from twelve towns, fifty thousand; ¹³ the Nervii, whose untamed ferocity was so proclaimed that never up to that time had they admitted merchants to them to bring in wines and the other wares for sale, by the inducement of which pleasantness a torpor of virtue might be brought on, had likewise fifty thousand; ¹⁴ the Atrebates also and the Ambiani ten thousand, the Morini twenty-five thousand, the Menapii nine thousand, the Caleti ten thousand, the Veliocasses and the Veromandui equally ten thousand, the Atuatuci eighteen thousand; the Condurses, Eborones, Caerosi, Caemani, who by one name are called Germans, forty thousand. ¹⁵ thus they are reported to have been 272 thousand of the most select armed men.

¹⁶ his repente silua erumpentibus exercitus Caesaris perturbatus atque in fugam actus, plurimis suorum amissis, tandem hortatu ducis restitit uictoresque adgressus usque ad internecionem paene deleuit.

¹⁶ with these men suddenly bursting from the forest, the army of Caesar was perturbed and driven into flight; after very many of his own had been lost, at last by the exhortation of the leader it stood fast, and, having attacked the victors, it all but annihilated them to internecine destruction.

[8] Igitur Caesar magnis in Gallia rebus gestis cum in Italiam proficisci decreuisset, Galbam cum legione duodecima ad Veragros Sedunosque misit.² qui cum hiemandi causa in uico Veragrorum, cui nomen erat Octodurus, consedisset mediamque oppidi partem, quae torrente distinguebatur, accolis concessisset, quadam die eosdem discessisse per noctem ac proximo insedisse colli uidet. ³ quippe illi paucitatem uix mediae legionis despectui habentes ultroneam sibi praedam nullo cessuram negotio arbitrabantur finitimosque suos in hanc caedis ac praedae societatem uocauerant.

[8] Therefore, Caesar, great things having been achieved in Gaul, when he had decided to set out into Italy, sent Galba with the Twelfth legion to the Veragri and the Seduni.² He, when for the sake of wintering he had taken up position in the village of the Veragri, whose name was Octodurus, and had conceded to the locals the middle part of the town, which was separated by a torrent, on a certain day sees that these same men had departed during the night and had occupied the neighboring hill. ³ For indeed they, holding in contempt the scantiness of scarcely half a legion, supposed that booty would of its own accord not fail them, with no trouble at all, and had called their neighbors into this partnership of slaughter and plunder.

⁴ igitur Galba tam praesentibus periculis circumsaepto ac trepido atque inter uarias consultationes certi consilii incerto, repente Galli descensu montis effusi castra inperfecta circumdant, raros per uallum propugnatores saxis telisque onerant. ⁵ cumque iam castra inrumperentur, Pacuuii primipilaris et Voluseni tribuni consilio cuncti Romani portis eruperunt incautosque subito adgressi hostes primum perturbauerunt, deinde in fugam uersos miserabili strage fuderunt. nam amplius triginta milia barbarorum tunc caesa referuntur.

⁴ therefore Galba, hemmed in by such present perils and alarmed, and amid various consultations uncertain of a sure plan, suddenly the Gauls, poured out in a descent from the mountain, surround the unfinished camp, and they load the scattered defenders along the rampart with stones and missiles. ⁵ and when now the camp was being stormed, by the counsel of Pacuvius the primipilaris and the tribune Volusenus all the Romans burst forth through the gates, and, having suddenly attacked the incautious enemies, first threw them into confusion, then, when they had been turned to flight, routed them with a miserable carnage. for more than 30,000 barbarians are reported then to have been cut down.

⁶ Igitur Caesar cum iam pacatas uniuersas Galliarum gentes putaret, ad nouum et maximum bellum retractus est. ⁷ namque dum P. Crassus adulescens cum legione septima Oceano tenus apud Andicauos hiemat, Veneti ceterique confines repente in arma coniurant, legatos Romanorum uinciunt eosque ita demum se reddituros, si obsides suos recipiant, Romanis indicant. ⁸ socios sibi ad id bellum Osismos Lexouios Namnetes Ambiuaritos Morinos Diablintes et Menapios adsciscunt; auxilia quoque a Britannia arcessunt.

⁶ Therefore Caesar, when he already thought all the nations of Gaul pacified, was drawn back to a new and very great war. ⁷ For while P. Crassus, a youth, with the seventh legion, was wintering up to the Ocean among the Andicavos, the Veneti and the rest of the bordering peoples suddenly conspire to arms, they bind the envoys of the Romans and indicate to the Romans that they will return them only thus, if they receive back their own hostages. ⁸ They adscribe to themselves as allies for that war the Osismi, Lexovii, Namnetes, Ambivariti, Morini, Diablintes, and Menapii; they also summon auxiliaries from Britain.

⁹ Caesar per Crassum de rebellione dediticiarum gentium certior factus, quamuis intellegeret quanta ineundi belli difficultas esset, tamen rem tanti negotii non neglegendam ratus, ne ceteris exemplo eiusmodi audendi licentia laxaretur, ¹⁰ itaque terrestri proelio persequi hostes frustra adgressus - quippe cum hostes per interfusa ex Oceano aestuaria atque inaccessos recessus tutis terrarum sinibus munirentur - naues longas aedificari in Ligeri fluuio iubet: ¹¹ per quem in Oceanum deductae mox ut hostibus uisae sunt, continuo ducentae uiginti naues eorum paratae atque omni genere armorum instructissimae progressae portu ex aduerso constiterunt. ¹² Bruto circumspicienti imparem longe nauium esse conflictum, quia barbarorum naues solido robore intextae cauernisque praeualidis obduratae saxorum modo adactos rostratarum ictus retundebant, ¹³ hoc primum auxilio fuit quod falces acutissimas non pertinaciter contis praefixas funibus autem subnexas parauerat, quibus cum opus esset adprehensos eminus rudentes subductis hastilibus per funem falcem retrahendo succiderent. ¹⁴ his celeriter expeditis disrumpi hostilium antemnarum armamenta praecepit: ita antemnis ruentibus conplures ilico naues uelut captas immobiles reddidit.

⁹ Caesar, made more certain through Crassus about the rebellion of the surrendered peoples, although he understood how great the difficulty of entering upon a war would be, yet judged that the matter of so great an undertaking was not to be neglected, lest by example a license of daring of this sort be loosened to the rest; ¹⁰ and so, having attempted in vain to pursue the enemies with a land battle—for indeed the enemies were fortified by estuaries poured in from the Ocean and by inaccessible recesses, within safe bays of the lands—he orders long ships to be built on the river Liger; ¹¹ by which, led down into the Ocean, as soon as they were seen by the enemies, at once two hundred twenty of their ships, prepared and most fully equipped with every kind of armament, advanced and took their stand opposite from the harbor. ¹² As Brutus looked around, he saw that a sea-fight of ships was by far unequal, because the ships of the barbarians, woven together with solid timber and hardened with very strong hulls, blunted the blows of the beaked ships’ rams driven in like stones; ¹³ his first aid was this: that he had prepared very sharp sickles, not stubbornly fixed to poles but fastened beneath by ropes, with which, when there was need, having seized the rigging at a distance, by drawing back the sickle along the rope with the shafts pulled back, they might cut them. ¹⁴ These being quickly made ready, he ordered the gear of the enemies’ yards to be broken apart: thus, the yards collapsing, he at once rendered several ships motionless, as if captured.

¹⁵ alii hoc periculo territi, suspensis uelis qua uentus intenderet fugere conati, cessante mox uento destituti ludibrio fuere Romanis; ¹⁶ itaque incensis omnibus nauibus interfectisque his qui pugnauerant Gallis, reliqui sese omnes dediderunt. ¹⁷ sed Caesar maxime ob iniuriam legatorum et ut genti ad omnia consilia mobili terribilis exempli notam inureret, cunctis principibus per tormenta interfectis reliquos sub corona uendidit. ¹⁸ isdem diebus Titurius Sabinus Aulercos Eburouices Lixouiosque, qui primates suos, cur auctores belli resuscitandi esse nollent, interfecerant, eruptione facta incredibili caede deleuit.

¹⁵ Others, terrified by this peril, with sails hoisted, tried to flee whither the wind set; but when the wind soon ceased, abandoned, they were a laughingstock to the Romans. ¹⁶ And so, with all the ships set on fire and the Gauls who had fought slain, all the rest surrendered themselves. ¹⁷ But Caesar, chiefly on account of the injury to the legates and in order to brand upon a people mobile to every counsel the mark of a terrible example, after all the chieftains were killed by tortures, sold the rest under the crown (i.e., at auction). ¹⁸ In the same days, Titurius Sabinus annihilated with incredible slaughter the Aulerci Eburovices and the Lexovii, who had killed their leading men because they were unwilling to be authors of rekindling the war, making a sortie.

¹⁹ Publius uero Crassus cum in Aquitaniam peruenisset, bello exceptus est. namque Sontiates magno equitatu pedestribusque copiis praeualidis Romanos adorti diu grauiter turbauerunt; ²⁰ post uicti atque in oppidum Sontiatum coacti obsessique, cum se expugnari uiderent, armis traditis in deditionem recepti sunt. ²¹ Aquitani clade permoti undique exercitum contrahunt; de citeriore quoque Hispania auxilia accersunt; duces bello maxime eos praeficiunt, qui cum Sertorio militauerant.

¹⁹ Publius Crassus, when he had arrived in Aquitania, was received with war. For the Sontiates, with a great cavalry and very powerful infantry forces, having attacked the Romans, for a long time seriously threw them into disorder; ²⁰ afterward, defeated and forced into the town of the Sontiates and besieged, when they saw that they were being stormed, with their arms handed over they were accepted into surrender. ²¹ The Aquitani, moved by the calamity, gather an army from all sides; from Hither Spain as well they summon auxiliaries; they appoint as leaders in the war chiefly those who had served with Sertorius.

²² ii omnes dum obsidionem Crasso parant, in castris suis Crasso obruente deleti sunt. nam ex Aquitanis et Cantabris, quorum quinquaginta milia tunc in auxilium uenerant, triginta et octo milia caesa referuntur. ²³ Caesar Germanos, qui Rhenum cum immensis copiis transmiserant, simul et totas Gallias subicere sibi parabant, bello adortus usque ad internecionem cecidit.

²² all of them, while they were preparing a siege for Crassus, were destroyed, with Crassus overwhelming them in their own camp. For of the Aquitanians and Cantabrians, of whom 50,000 had then come as aid, 38,000 are reported slain. ²³ Caesar, having assailed the Germans—who had crossed the Rhine with immense forces and at the same time were preparing to subject the whole of Gaul to themselves—cut them down in war to extermination.

quorum fuisse numerum ad quadringenta quadraginta milia ferunt.

they say that their number was about 440,000.

[9] Tunc Caesar in Germaniam facto ponte transgreditur, Sugambros et Ubios obsidione liberat; Suebos maximam et ferocissimam gentem, quorum esse centum pagos et populos multi prodidere, totamque Germaniam aduentu suo terret; mox in Galliam rescisso ponte concedit.² inde ad Morinos uenit, unde in Britanniam proximus et breuissimus transitus est. nauibus circiter onerariis atque actuariis octoginta praeparatis in Britanniam transuehitur.

[9] Then Caesar crosses into Germany, after a bridge had been constructed; he frees the Sugambri and the Ubii from siege; the Suebi, the greatest and most ferocious nation—of whom many have reported that there are a hundred cantons and peoples—and he terrifies all Germany by his arrival; soon, with the bridge broken down, he withdraws into Gaul.² thence he comes to the Morini, whence the passage into Britain is the nearest and shortest. With about eighty transport and dispatch ships prepared, he is carried across into Britain.

ubi acerba primum pugna fatigatus, deinde aduersa tempestate correptus plurimam classis partem et non paruum numerum militum, equitum uero paene omnem disperdidit. ³ regressus in Galliam legiones in hiberna dimisit ac sescentas naues utriusque commodi fieri imperauit. ⁴ quibus iterum in Britanniam primo uere transuectus dum ipse in hostem cum exercitu pergit, naues in anchoris stantes tempestate correptae uel conlisae inter se uel harenis inlisae ac dissolutae sunt: ex quibus quadraginta perierunt, ceterae cum magna difficultate reparatae sunt.

where, wearied first by a bitter battle, then seized by an adverse tempest, he scattered a very great part of the fleet and no small number of soldiers, and indeed almost all the cavalry. ³ Having returned into Gaul, he dismissed the legions into winter quarters and ordered six hundred ships of both uses to be made. ⁴ With these, conveyed again into Britain at the beginning of spring, while he himself advances against the enemy with the army, the ships, standing at anchor, caught by a tempest, were either dashed together one against another or driven upon the sands and broken up: of these forty perished, the rest were repaired with great difficulty.

⁵ Caesaris equitatus primo congressu a Britannis uictus ibique Labienus tribunus occisus est. secundo proelio cum magno suorum discrimine uictos Britannos in fugam uertit. ⁶ inde ad flumen Tamesim profectus, quem uno tantum loco uadis transmeabilem ferunt.

⁵ Caesar’s cavalry, in the first encounter, was defeated by the Britons, and there Labienus the tribune was killed. In the second battle, with great peril to his own men, he turned the Britons to flight, having defeated them. ⁶ Thence he set out to the river Thames, which they report to be passable by fords in only one place.

in huius ulteriore ripa Cassouellauno duce immensa hostium multitudo consederat ripamque fluminis ac paene totum sub aqua uadum acutissimis sudibus praestruxerat. ⁷ quod ubi a Romanis deprehensum ac uitatum est, barbari legionum impetum non ferentes siluis sese abdidere, unde crebris eruptionibus Romanos grauiter ac saepe lacerabant. ⁸ interea Trinobantum firmissima ciuitas cum Mandubragio duce datis quadraginta obsidibus Caesari sese dedidit.

on its farther bank Cassovellaunus as leader an immense multitude of enemies had taken position and had barricaded the bank of the river and nearly the whole ford beneath the water with very sharp stakes. ⁷ when this was detected and avoided by the Romans, the barbarians, not bearing the onrush of the legions, hid themselves in the forests, whence by frequent eruptions they grievously and often lacerated the Romans. ⁸ meanwhile, the Trinobantes, the firmest civitas, with Mandubracius as leader, having given forty hostages, surrendered themselves to Caesar.

⁹ quod exemplum secutae urbes aliae conplures in foedus Romanorum uenerunt isdemque demonstrantibus Caesar oppidum Cassouellauni inter duas paludes situm, obtentu insuper siluarum munitum omnibusque rebus confertissimum tandem graui pugna cepit.

⁹ Following this example, many other cities came into the treaty of the Romans; and with these same men pointing the way, Caesar at length, after a severe battle, took the stronghold of Cassouellaunus, set between two marshes, fortified besides by the screen of woods, and crammed with every kind of resource.

[10] Exim Caesar a Britannis reuersus in Galliam postquam legiones in hiberna misit, repentinis bellorum tumultibus undique circumuentus et conflictatus est. namque Ambiorix cum Eburonibus et Atuatucis conspirans, animatus Treuerorum consilio Cottam et Sabinum legatos apud Eburonas cum tota funditus legione insidiis circumuentos interfecit.² Ambiorix hac uictoria elatus Atuatucos et Neruios plurimosque alios raptim ad arma contrahit atque ad Ciceronem legatum, qui similiter tunc legioni in hibernis praeerat, contendit.

[10] Then Caesar, returned from the Britons into Gaul, after he sent the legions into winter quarters, was on all sides encompassed and harried by sudden tumults of wars. For Ambiorix, conspiring with the Eburones and the Atuatuci, animated by the counsel of the Treveri, killed the legates Cotta and Sabinus among the Eburones, they, with their entire legion, having been utterly ensnared by ambush.² Ambiorix, elated by this victory, swiftly draws the Atuatuci and the Nervii and very many others to arms, and hastens against the legate Cicero, who likewise at that time was in command of a legion in winter quarters.

³ multitudo hostium ex hoc colligi potuit, quia cum in obsidione castrorum uallum circumdandum esse a captiuis Romanis docerentur et instrumenta ruralia non haberent, gladiis concidendo terram et sagulis exportando uix tribus horis uallum pedum decem et fossam pedum quindecim per milia passuum quindecim in circuitu perfecerunt. praeterea centum uiginti turres mirae altitudinis extruxerunt. ⁴ et cum iam septem dies noctesque succidui hostium cunei pugnarent ac uentus subito plurimus exortus esset, testas feruentes intorsere fundis flammataque focis tela ac mox concepto igne rutilantia intra castra iecerunt.

³ The multitude of the enemy could be inferred from this: because, when in the siege of the camp they were being taught by Roman captives that a rampart had to be drawn around, and they did not have rural instruments, by cutting the earth with their swords and carrying it out with their little cloaks, they completed in scarcely 3 hours a rampart of 10 feet and a ditch of 15 feet, for 15 miles in circumference. Moreover, they constructed 120 towers of wondrous height. ⁴ And when now for 7 days and nights the wedges of the enemy were fighting in succession, and a very strong wind had suddenly arisen, they hurled red-hot tiles with slings, and missiles kindled at the hearths, and soon, once fire was caught and they were glowing red, they threw them inside the camp.

⁵ quo facto per culmea culmina raptim uentus insistens, sparsum animauit incendium. sed ne sic quidem Romani, cum undique obruerentur, uulneribus laboribus uigiliis ieiuniis incendiisue cesserunt. ⁶ tandem Caesari nuntiatum est unam deletam esse legionem, alteram iam paene confectam.

⁵ With this done, over the thatched rooftops the wind, pressing on swiftly, enlivened the scattered conflagration. But not even thus did the Romans, though they were being overwhelmed on every side, yield to wounds, labors, vigils, fasts, or fires. ⁶ At length it was reported to Caesar that one legion had been obliterated, the other now almost finished off.

⁷ aduentante cum duabus legionibus Caesare, deserunt hostes obsidionem atque in eum cuncti raptis copiis ruunt. Caesar paruissimis se castris consulto condidit equitibusque praemissis, ut fugam fingerent, imperauit, ut ad transitum uallis, quae media erat sibique periculosa uidebatur, hostes contemptu sui inuitaret. ⁸ quibus aduentantibus insuper obstrui portas praecepit.

⁷ with Caesar approaching with two legions, the enemies abandon the siege and all, their forces hastily snatched up, rush upon him. Caesar, by design, established himself in a very small camp, and, the cavalry having been sent ahead to feign flight, he ordered that, at the crossing of the valley, which was in the middle and seemed dangerous to himself, they should invite the enemy out of contempt for him. ⁸ as they were approaching, moreover, he commanded that the gates be blocked up.

quo uiso Galli, quasi iam uicissent, ad obducendum extrinsecus uallum conuersi sunt. Caesar totis repente portis paratum effudit exercitum uersosque in fugam Gallos uastissima caede confecit. ⁹ nam sexaginta milia tune fuisse referuntur, e quibus pauci per paludes inuias euaserunt.

On seeing this, the Gauls, as if they had already won, turned to draw a rampart from the outside. Caesar suddenly, through all the gates, poured forth the army he had prepared and, turning the Gauls to flight, finished them off with the utmost slaughter. ⁹ For 60,000 are reported to have been there then, of whom a few escaped through pathless marshes.

¹⁰ Indutiomarus Treuerorum princeps, magnas armatorum copias habens, postquam de consensu totius Galliae certior redditus est, Labieni castra legionemque cui is praeerat, quod facile factu arbitrabatur, delere statuit ac deinde Eburonibus Neruiisque coniunctus ad opprimendum Caesarem pergere. ¹¹ Labienus quibus potest artibus simulat timorem atque ita Indutiomarum neglegentiorem cum insultantibus copiis pro uallo oberrantem repentina eruptione prostrauit. ¹² hac uictoria Labieni reliqui Gallorum conatus repressi sunt et Caesar paulo quietior reliqua parte hiemis fuit.

¹⁰ Indutiomarus, princeps of the Treveri, having great forces of armed men, after he was made certain about the consensus of all Gaul, decided to destroy Labienus’s camp and the legion which he commanded—which he judged easy to do—and then, conjoined with the Eburones and the Nervii, to proceed to crush Caesar. ¹¹ Labienus, by whatever arts he can, feigns fear, and so, when Indutiomarus, more negligent, was wandering before the rampart with his taunting troops, he laid him low by a sudden sally. ¹² By this victory of Labienus the remaining attempts of the Gauls were repressed, and Caesar was a little quieter for the remaining part of the winter.

¹³ sed intellegens sibi maiora belli superesse negotia, maxime quia plurima parte exercitus amissa aliisque grauiter sauciis ne ad sustinendum quidem sibi idoneus, non dicam ad conprimendum Gallorum impetum uideretur, a Cn. Pompeio proconsule conscribi legiones sibique mitti in auxilium petit: itaque ante exactam hiemem tres ad eum legiones in castra uenerunt. ¹⁴ igitur Caesar, priusquam in unum hostium copiae coirent, ineunte uere adgredi trepidos et opprimere sparsos in suis finibus parat. primum itaque Neruiorum fines diripit, praedam uero, quae copiosissima erat, exercitui permittit.

¹³ but understanding that greater business of war remained for him, especially because, with a very great part of the army lost and others grievously wounded, he seemed not even fit for sustaining, not to say for repressing, the onrush of the Gauls, he requests that legions be conscribed by Cn. Pompeius, proconsul, and sent to him as aid: and so, before the winter was completed, three legions came to him into the camp. ¹⁴ therefore Caesar, before the forces of the enemies could cohere into one, at the opening of spring prepares to aggress upon the alarmed and to overwhelm them, scattered in their own borders. first therefore he despoils the borders of the Nervii, but the booty, which was most copious, he permits to the army.

¹⁵ deinde Menapios, qui sibi propter inmensas paludes atque inpeditissimas siluas munitissimi uidebantur, tribus agminibus inuadit nimiaque caede uulgo agitata residuos supplices in deditionem recepit. ¹⁶ Labienus sequenti proelio omnes Treuerorum copias interfecit arte in bellum prouocatas, priusquam Germanis aduentantibus iungerentur, et continuo ipsam ciuitatem capit. ¹⁷ Caesar ulcisci mortem Sabini et Cottae legatorum uolens, Ambiorigem et Eburones deletae legionis auctores postquam in Arduennam siluam refugisse conperit - ¹⁸ quae silua totius Galliae maxima est atque a ripis Rheni finibusque Treuerorum ad Neruios usque pertingit et in longitudine plus quam quinquaginta milibus passuum patet - ¹⁹ permetiens rem suis maximi periculi fore, si per obstructas spatiosasque siluas ignoti diuiderentur hostemque locis notissimum quaererent, omnem Galliam per nuntios inuitat, ut quique secundum placitum suum reconditas in Arduenna silua praedas quaerant diripiantque.

¹⁵ then he invades the Menapii, who seemed to him most fortified on account of the immense swamps and the most impassable forests, in three columns; and, with excessive slaughter the populace having been thrown into turmoil, he received the remaining as suppliants into surrender. ¹⁶ Labienus, in the following battle, destroyed all the forces of the Treveri, lured into war by artifice, before they could be joined by the approaching Germans, and immediately takes the city itself. ¹⁷ Caesar, wishing to avenge the death of the legates Sabinus and Cotta, after he learned that Ambiorix and the Eburones, the authors of the destroyed legion, had fled into the Arduenna forest — ¹⁸ which forest is the greatest in all Gaul and extends from the banks of the Rhine and the borders of the Treveri as far as the Nervii, and in length stretches more than 50 miles — ¹⁹ weighing that the matter would be of the greatest danger for his men, if through obstructed and spacious forests, being unacquainted, they were scattered and sought an enemy most acquainted with the places, invites all Gaul by messengers, that each, according to his own good pleasure, may seek and plunder the hidden spoils in the Arduenna forest.

²⁰ quo facto Gallis utrimque morientibus maximas Romanorum iniurias sine cuiusquam Romani discrimine uindicauit. ²¹ ita hoc tutissimo uincendi genere securus in Italiam rediit.

²⁰ With this done, as Gauls were dying on both sides, he avenged the greatest wrongs of the Romans without the peril of any Roman. ²¹ Thus, by this safest manner of conquering, untroubled, he returned to Italy.

[11] Igitur Caesare in Italiam reuerso Gallia rursus in arma coniurat multique simul populi coeunt. dux his Vercingetorix fuit, cuius consilio statim omnes Galli ciuitates suas ultro incenderunt: prima a suis incensa Biturigo.² inde ad Caesarem, qui magnis itineribus per Narbonensem prouinciam clam ad exercitum recucurrerat, impetum faciunt.

[11] Therefore, with Caesar returned into Italy, Gaul again conspires into arms and many peoples at once come together. A leader to them was Vercingetorix, at whose counsel immediately all the Gallic civitates burned their own cities of their own accord: first, the Bituriges was set ablaze by its own.² then they make an attack upon Caesar, who by great marches through the Narbonensian province had run back secretly to the army.

³ Caesar tunc oppidum nomine Caenapum obsidione concluserat: quod diu oppugnatum, tandem post multas Romanorum clades pluuio die, cum hostilium machinarum agmenta neruique elanguerant, adplicitis turribus captum atque deletum est. ⁴ quadraginta milia ibi hominum fuisse referuntur: ex quibus uix octoginta per fugam lapsi ad proxima Gallorum castra uenerunt. ⁵ praeterea Aruerni ceterique confines, sollicitatis etiam ad se Aeduis, multis aduersum Caesarem proeliis bellauerunt.

³ Caesar then had enclosed a town by the name Caenapum with a siege: which, long besieged, at length, after many calamities of the Romans, on a rainy day, when the fastenings of the enemy machines and their sinews had gone slack, with the towers applied, was captured and destroyed. ⁴ It is reported that 40,000 people were there: of whom scarcely 80, having slipped away in flight, came to the nearest camp of the Gauls. ⁵ Moreover the Arverni and the other neighbors, having even solicited the Aedui to themselves, waged war against Caesar in many battles.

⁶ qui cum se pugnando fatigati in quoddam castellum recepissent, milites praedae inhiantes ad expugnationem oppidi animum intendunt, frustra Caesare de loci iniquitate causante. itaque ibi Caesar erumpentibus de super hostibus pressus, multa exercitus sui parte perdita, uictus aufugit. ⁷ dum haec ad Alesiam geruntur, Vercingetorix, quem omnes consensu pari regem praeoptauerant, suadet, uti ex tota Gallia omnes, qui arma ferre possint, huic bello praesto sint.

⁶ When they, wearied with fighting, had withdrawn into a certain little castle, the soldiers, gaping for plunder, direct their mind to the storming of the town, Caesar in vain pleading about the disadvantage of the place. And so there Caesar, pressed by the enemies breaking out from above, with a large part of his army lost, defeated fled away. ⁷ While these things are being done at Alesia, Vercingetorix, whom all with equal consensus had preferred as king, urges that from all Gaul all who are able to bear arms be ready at hand for this war.

hoc enim esse unum bellum, quo aut perpetua libertas aut aeterna seruitus aut mors omnium consequatur. ⁸ itaque absque eo numero, quem infinitum ante contraxerat, equitum circiter octo milia, peditum ducenta et quinquaginta milia contracta sunt. ⁹ dehinc duo colles sibi inuicem obuersos Romani Gallique ceperunt.

for this, indeed, to be the one war, by which either perpetual liberty or eternal servitude or the death of all is obtained. ⁸ and so, apart from that number which previously he had gathered as infinite, about 8,000 cavalry and 250,000 infantry were assembled. ⁹ thereafter the Romans and the Gauls seized two hills facing one another.

unde multis saepe eruptionibus et uariis prouentibus proeliantes, tandem Romani praecipua Germanorum equitum, quos sibi iamdudum amicos nunc in auxilium acciuerant, uirtute uicerunt. ¹⁰ Vercingetorix alia die congregatis omnibus, qui fuga euaserant, dixit se auctorem bona fide defendendae libertatis atque inrumpendi foederis fuisse et nunc, siue Romanis sese ad mortem omnes offerant siue se solum pro omnibus dedant, paratum animo fore. ¹¹ itaque Galli uoluntatem, quam pudore aliquamdiu texerant, quasi ex consilio regis adsumerent, ilico sibi ueniam precantes, eum solum uelut auctorem magni sceleris dediderunt.

whence, fighting with many frequent sallies and with various outcomes, at length the Romans conquered by the exceptional virtue of the German horsemen, whom, long since friends to themselves, they had now summoned to their aid. ¹⁰ On another day, with all who had escaped by flight assembled, Vercingetorix said that he had been the author, in good faith, of defending liberty and of breaking the treaty, and that now, whether they all offer themselves to death to the Romans or he surrender himself alone for all, he would be ready in spirit. ¹¹ Therefore the Gauls, the will which they had for some time veiled by shame, as if they were adopting it from the counsel of the king, immediately begging pardon for themselves, surrendered him alone as the author of a great crime.

¹² Bellouagui omnibus Gallorum gentibus ipsorum opinione fortiores habebantur. hi Correo duce bellum instaurant sibique in hanc suscepti belli societatem Ambianos Aulercos Saletos Veliocasses Atrebatasque coniungunt et locum quendam cinctum atque impeditum undique paludibus capiunt, commissoque proelio magnam Remorum manum, quae auxilio Romanis erat, trucidant. ¹³ deinde cum opportunum ipsi locum insidiis prouisum occupauissent atque hoc conperto Romani ad insidiarum locum instructi ordinatique uenissent, commisso proelio Romani Gallos fugientes isdem locorum munitionibus, quibus clausi fuerant, incluserunt cunctosque ad internecionem ceciderunt.

¹² The Bellovaci were considered, by their own opinion, stronger than all the tribes of the Gauls. These, with Correus as leader, renew the war and join to themselves in this fellowship of the undertaken war the Ambiani, Aulerci, Saleti, Veliocasses, and Atrebates, and they seize a certain place girded and impeded on all sides by marshes; and, battle having been joined, they slaughter a great band of the Remi, which was for aid to the Romans. ¹³ Then, when they had occupied for themselves a place suitable for ambushes, provided beforehand, and, this having been learned, the Romans, drawn up and arrayed, had come to the place of the ambushes, with battle joined the Romans shut in the fleeing Gauls by the same defenses of the places by which they had been enclosed, and cut them all down to utter destruction.

¹⁴ ibi Correus uel fugam uel deditionem detractans Romanos, ut uiuus caperetur, instantes occidendo, ut occideretur, coegit.

¹⁴ there Correus, rejecting either flight or surrender, by killing the Romans who were pressing to take him alive, compelled them to kill him.

¹⁵ Igitur cum pacatam esse uniuersam Galliam Caesar neque ausuram fore ad aliquos adspirare motus arbitraretur, legiones in hiberna dimisit, ipse tamen Ambiorigis fines, qui tot bella excitauerat, horrenda hominum strage uastauit. ¹⁶ at uero C. Caninius legatus bellum apud Pictonas inuenit: ubi magna hostium multitudo impeditam itinere legionem circumdedit atque ad extremum discrimen adduxit. ¹⁷ porro autem Fabius legatus acceptis Caninii litteris in Pictonas proficiscitur ibique a captiuis de opportunitate locorum certior factus inopinantes hostes opprimit magnisque stragibus factis plurimas praedas agit.

¹⁵ Therefore, since Caesar judged that all Gaul was pacified and would not dare to aspire to any disturbances, he dismissed the legions into winter quarters; he himself, however, devastated the territories of Ambiorix, who had stirred up so many wars, with a horrendous slaughter of men. ¹⁶ But indeed Gaius Caninius, legate, found war among the Pictones: where a great multitude of enemies surrounded a legion impeded by the march and brought it to the last crisis. ¹⁷ Furthermore, however, the legate Fabius, having received Caninius’s letters, sets out into the Pictones, and there, made more certain by captives about the opportunity of the terrain, surprises the unsuspecting enemies and, great slaughters having been made, carries off very many spoils.

¹⁸ deinde cum Caninio signum aduentus sui dedisset, Caninius totis castris subito exsiluit seseque iniecit hosti. ita Fabio ex alia parte et Caninio ex altera insistente, maximo et diuturno bello innumerae Gallorum copiae trucidatae sunt. ¹⁹ inde Fabius in Carnutes profectus est; sciebat enim Domnacum ducem antiquissimum rebellionis totius incentorem ab hoc bello elapsum, si Aremoricis gentibus adiunctus esset, maximos iterum in Gallia tumultus esse moturum.

¹⁸ then, when he had given to Caninius the signal of his arrival, Caninius with the entire camp suddenly leapt out and hurled himself upon the enemy. thus, with Fabius pressing from one side and Caninius from the other, in a very great and long‑lasting battle the innumerable forces of the Gauls were slaughtered. ¹⁹ from there Fabius set out into the Carnutes; for he knew that Domnacus, a leader most ancient, the inciter of the whole rebellion, having slipped away from this war, if he had been joined to the Armorican peoples, would again be about to set in motion very great tumults in Gaul.

sed eas adhuc ipsa nouitate trepidantes mira uirtute et celeritate perdomuit. ²⁰ interea Draptes unaque Lycterius cum adesse Caninium et legiones in finibus suis uiderent, undique collectis copiis oppidum Uxellodunum occupant. ²¹ hoc oppidum in editissima montis arce pendebat, duabus partibus per abrupta latera non paruo flumine cingebatur, medio deinde descensu largissimo fonte securum plurimaque introrsum copia frumenti tutum inritos procul discursus hostium despiciebat.

but he thoroughly subdued them, still trembling at the very novelty, by marvelous virtue and celerity. ²⁰ Meanwhile the Draptes, and along with them Lycterius, when they saw that Caninius was at hand and the legions were in their borders, with forces gathered from all sides occupied the town Uxellodunum. ²¹ This town hung on the most elevated citadel of a mountain, on two sides was encircled by a not small river along precipitous flanks; then on the mid-slope, with a very copious spring, secure and, within, safe by a very great supply of grain, it looked down from afar upon the futile forays of the enemy.

²² Caninius, quod solum Romana prouisione potuit, ambos duces cum parte copiarum plurima in campum euocatos maximo proelio superauit. nam uno e ducibus interfecto alter cum paucissimis fugit, nullus in oppidum rediit. sed ad id oppugnandum Caesare opus fuit.

²² Caninius, since this alone he could do by Roman provision, defeated both leaders—after they had been called out into the plain with the very greatest part of their forces—in a very great battle. For, with one of the leaders slain, the other fled with a very few; no one returned into the town. But for assailing that, there was need of Caesar.

²³ itaque certior per nuntios factus Caesar accurrit circumspectisque omnibus uidet, si expugnare ui moliatur, ludo et spectaculo hostium delendum esse exercitum suum; unum solum esse praesidii, si quoquo modo hostes aqua arceantur. ²⁴ sed et hoc quoque nisi Caesar non potuisset, siquidem fons, quo ad potum utebantur, medio deuexi montis latere fundebatur. Caesar ad proximum fontis admoueri uineas turrimque exstrui iubet.

²³ therefore, made certain by messengers, Caesar hastens up, and, everything surveyed, sees that, if he should try to storm it by force, his army must be destroyed for the game and spectacle of the enemy; that there is one sole safeguard, if in any way whatsoever the enemies are kept away from water. ²⁴ but even this too could not have been done save by Caesar, since the spring which they used for drinking issued from the middle of the sloping side of the mountain. Caesar orders the vineae to be brought up to the spot nearest the spring and a tower to be built.

fit magnus ilico concursus ex oppido. quibus sine periculo proeliantibus Romani quamuis pertinaciter obsisterent crebriusque succederent, conplures tamen trucidantur. ²⁵ igitur exstruitur agger et turris pedum sexaginta, cuius uertex aequare ad fontis locum possit, ut uel ex aequo tela conici queant uel praecipitata desuper saxorum uolumina non timeri.

immediately a great concourse sallies out from the town. While they, fighting without danger, the Romans, although they resisted pertinaciously and came up more frequently, nevertheless many are slaughtered. ²⁵ therefore a rampart is built and a tower of sixty feet, whose vertex might equal the place of the spring, so that either missiles may be hurled on a level, or the masses of stones, hurled headlong from above, be not feared.

²⁶ oppidani autem, ubi exanimari siti non solum pecora sua uerum etiam infirmiores hominum aetates uident, cupas pice sebo et scindulis repletas ac deinde inmisso igne in prona praecipitant easque ipsi toto oppido effusi subsequuntur. ²⁷ ardentibus machinis cum graue proelium suis Caesar ac periculosum uideret, cohortes in circuitum oppidi ire uelociter per occultum imperat atque undique subito uastum clamorem attollere. quo facto consternati oppidani dum recurrere ad muniendum oppidum uolunt, ab oppugnatione turris uel demolitione aggeris recesserunt.

²⁶ But the townspeople, when they see that not only their herds but even the weaker ages of humankind are being rendered lifeless by thirst, hurl headlong downhill barrels filled with pitch, tallow, and shingles after fire has been set within, and they themselves, poured out through the whole town in a flood, follow after them. ²⁷ As the machines were burning, when Caesar saw the battle to be weighty and perilous for his own men, he orders cohorts to go swiftly by stealth around the circuit of the town and from every side suddenly to raise a vast clamor. This done, the townspeople, thrown into consternation, while they wish to run back to fortify the town, withdrew from the assault on the tower and from the demolition of the rampart.

²⁸ illi tamen, qui ad incidendas fontis uenas sub obtentu aggeris tuti cuniculos perfodiebant, repertos in abstruso aquarum meatus per multa diuidendo tenuari in semet ipsis consumique fecerunt. oppidani fonte siccato ultima desperatione correpti deditionem sui faciunt. ²⁹ Caesar autem omnibus, qui arma tulerant, manus sustulit et uitam reliquit, quo testatior esset etiam posteris poena improborum.

²⁸ However, those who, for cutting the veins of the spring, safely under the cover of the agger were tunneling cuniculi, having found the meatus of the waters in hiding, by dividing them into many caused them to be attenuated and to be consumed in themselves. The townsmen, the fountain having been dried up, seized by utmost desperation, make a surrender of themselves. ²⁹ But Caesar withheld his hand from all who had borne arms and left them life, in order that the punishment of the wicked might be the more attested even to posterity.

³⁰ multum enim ad cohercendam audaciam ualet propositum punitionis exemplum, cum ipsa miseri praesens forma uiuentis et ad recordationem admonet conscios et ad sciscitationem cogit ignaros.

³⁰ for the displayed example of punishment avails much for coercing audacity, since the very present form of the wretch, alive, both admonishes the accomplices to recordation and compels the ignorant to inquiry.

[12] Exhaustis atque edomitis Gallis securus Caesar cum legionibus in Italiam rediit, nullos post se Gallorum motus pertimescens, certo se sciens minime aliquos, qui uel moueri audeant uel si moueantur timendi sint, reliquisse.² constitui nunc ante oculos uelim exsanguem defectamque Galliam, post illas ardentissimas febres internosque aestus uitalium meliora torrentes ut sese habeat, quanta macie quantoque pallore sit, quam demissa ac resoluta iaceat, quam ipsos quoque necessarii officii motus, ne eundem incursum malorum reuocent, pertimescat. ³ inruit enim in eam repentino impetu Romanus exercitus ueluti fortissimo corpori fortior lues, quae tanto grauius accenditur, quanto inpatientius toleratur.

[12] With the Gauls exhausted and subdued, a secure Caesar returned with the legions into Italy, fearing no movements of the Gauls behind him, knowing for certain that he had left behind not at all any who either would dare to be stirred or, if they were stirred, would be to be feared.² I would now like to set before the eyes Gaul, bloodless and spent, after those most ardent fevers and the internal heats scorching the better parts of the vital forces—how she is faring; how great her emaciation and how great her pallor; how she lies downcast and unstrung; how she even dreads the very motions of necessary duty, lest they call back the same inrush of evils. ³ For upon her the Roman army rushed with a sudden impetus, as a stronger plague upon a very strong body, which is inflamed so much the more grievously, the more impatiently it is borne.

⁴ sitiebat misera, cum instante gladio profiteri sponsionem seruitutis aeternae auulsis insuper obsidibus cogeretur; sitiebat, ut dixi, notam illam omnibusque suauissimam uelut aquae gelidae dulcedinem libertatis, quantoque eam magis subtrahi intellegebat; tanto auidius desiderabat. ⁵ hinc illa tam frequens contra uetita praesumptio: inuadebatur pro defendenda libertate inportuna libertas praereptamque insatiabiliter potiundi licentiam, quod male conceptam perniciem restinguere uidebatur, augebat. ⁶ hinc Romanus ante pugnam insidiator argutior, hinc in pugna hostis infestior, hinc post pugnam uictor immitior, hinc omnia ad domandam inpatientiam crudescentia, hinc iam nec remediis credebatur.

⁴ she was thirsting, poor wretch, when, with the sword pressing, she was compelled to profess a sponsion of eternal servitude, with hostages torn away besides; she was thirsting, as I said, for that well-known and to all most sweet sweetness, like cold water, of liberty, and the more she understood it to be withdrawn, the more avidly she desired it. ⁵ hence that so frequent presumption against things forbidden: there was an inrush, for defending liberty, into inopportune liberty, and the license of insatiably getting possession of what had been pre-snatched, which seemed to extinguish a badly-conceived ruin, was increasing it. ⁶ hence the Roman, before battle, a shrewder insidiator; hence in battle the enemy more pestilent; hence after battle the victor more unpitying; hence everything growing more cruel for the taming of impatience; hence now not even remedies were trusted.

⁷ itaque si interrogare possem hanc de qua loquimur nationem, quid tunc, cum haec ipsa sustinebat, de illis temporibus iudicarit, responderet ut arbitror dicens: 'sic me illa tunc febris exsanguem reddidit ac frigidam fecit, ut etiam haec, quae omnes paene perstrinxit, feruefacere uel commouere nequiuerit, atque ita me Romani inclinauerunt, ut nec ad Gothos surgam'. ⁸ sed ne ipsa quidem Roma clades, quas intulit, euitauit. exercitae diu auctaeque sunt per totos mundi cardines potentiae ducum uiresque legionum, quae in sese concurrentes eius damno uincerent, cuius periculo uincerentur. nam uictorem Caesarem de Gallia reuersum ciuilia bella comitata sunt aliaque grauissima mala, interfecti apud Parthos Crassi et trucidati exercitus, praecesserunt.

⁷ therefore, if I could question this nation of which we speak, what then, when she was enduring these very things, she judged about those times, she would answer, as I suppose, saying: 'thus that fever then rendered me exsanguine and made me cold, so that even this one, which almost grazed all, could not heat or move me, and thus the Romans bent me down, so that I do not even rise to the Goths.' ⁸ But not even Rome herself avoided the disasters which she inflicted. Long exercised and augmented through all the quarters of the world were the powers of the leaders and the forces of the legions, which, clashing among themselves, would conquer to her loss, by whose peril they were wont to be victorious. For civil wars accompanied Caesar returning victorious from Gaul, and other most grievous evils—the killing of the Crassi among the Parthians and the slaughter of the army—preceded.

[13] Anno ab urbe condita DCXCVII Crassus in consulatu collega Pompei prouinciam sortitus in Parthos, homo inexplebilis cupiditatis, audita in Hierosolymis templi opulentia, quam Pompeius intactam reliquerat, in Palaestinam deuertit, Hierosolymam adit, templum peruadit, opes diripit.² inde per Mesopotamiam tendens in Parthiam, quacumque iter habuit sociis ciuitatibus auxilia indixit, pretia exegit moxque ut Euphraten transiit, ilico Vagesen, legatum ab Horode rege Parthorum ad se missum, obuium habuit, a quo uehementer increpitus est, cur contra foedus Luculli et Pompei auaritia inductus Euphraten transierit. quamobrem sine mora futurum, ut pro auro Parthico Serico ferro oneraretur.

[13] In the year 697 from the founding of the City, Crassus, in his consulship, colleague of Pompey, obtained by lot the province against the Parthians, a man of insatiable cupidity; hearing at Jerusalem of the opulence of the Temple, which Pompey had left untouched, he turned aside into Palestine, approaches Jerusalem, invades the Temple, plunders its wealth.² Thence, making for Parthia through Mesopotamia, wherever he had a route he imposed auxiliaries upon allied cities, exacted payments, and soon as he crossed the Euphrates, immediately he had Vageses, a legate sent to him by Orodes, king of the Parthians, meet him, by whom he was vehemently rebuked, why, against the treaty of Lucullus and Pompey, induced by avarice, he had crossed the Euphrates; wherefore without delay it would come to pass that, instead of Parthian gold, he would be laden with Seric iron.

³ itaque cum prope Carras uentum esset, Parthi subito ingruentes cum Surena et Silacea praefectis sagittis oppressere Romanos. cecidere ibi plurimi senatores, aliquot etiam consulares et praetorii uiri; Crassus quoque filius Crassi, lectissimus iuuenis, in acie occisus est. praeterea quattuor cohortes cum Vargunteio legato mediis deprehensae campis et interfectae sunt.

³ and so, when it had come near Carrhae, the Parthians, suddenly rushing in with their prefects Surena and Silaces, overwhelmed the Romans with arrows. very many senators fell there, several also men of consular and praetorian rank; Crassus too, the son of Crassus, a most select young man, was slain in the battle-line. moreover, four cohorts with the legate Vargunteius, caught in the middle of the plains, were killed.

⁴ Surenas rapto equitatu Crassum persequi intendit eumque circumuentum ac frustra conloquium eius petentem interfecit, quamuis uiuum auferre maluisset. pauci noctis beneficio liberati Carras confugerunt. ⁵ cognita clade Romanorum multae orientis prouinciae a societate uel fide populi Romani defecissent, ni Cassius collectis ex fuga militibus paucis intumescentem Syriam egregia animi uirtute ac moderatione pressisset; qui et Antiochum copiasque eius ingentes proelio uicit et interfecit, Parthos quoque ab Horode in Syriam missos iamque ingressos Antiochiam bello expulit ducemque eorum Osagen interfecit.

⁴ Surenas, with the cavalry snatched up, intended to pursue Crassus, and, having surrounded him and he in vain seeking a parley, killed him, although he would have preferred to carry him off alive. A few, freed by the benefit of night, took refuge in Carras. ⁵ Once the disaster of the Romans was known, many provinces of the East would have defected from the alliance or the fidelity of the Roman people, had not Cassius, with a few soldiers gathered from the rout, by outstanding courage of spirit and moderation, pressed down a swelling Syria; he both defeated in battle and killed Antiochus and his huge forces, and he also drove out by war the Parthians sent by Horodes into Syria and now already having entered Antioch, and killed their leader Osages.

[14] Igitur Romani status agitur semper alterna mutatio et uelut forma Oceani maris, quae omni die dispar nunc succiduis per VII dies attollitur incrementis nunc insequentibus totidem diebus naturali damno et defectu interiore subducitur.² ut enim de proximis ordiar, Cimbris Tigurinisque uincentibus cum apud Rhodanum flumen Romanus exercitus periit, artissimas Roma sensit angustias; refusa continuo clade Cimbrorum, magnis elata prouectibus priorum oblita defectuum est. ³ hanc deinde recentissimae prosperitatis iactantiam Italicum bellum et dilaceratio Syllana castigat.

[14] Therefore the condition of the Romans is always driven by alternating change, and like the form of the Ocean sea, which every day is different—now is raised for 7 days by succeeding increments, now in the following just as many days is drawn down by natural loss and inner ebb.² For, to begin from the nearest events: when the Cimbri and Tigurini were winning and the Roman army perished by the river Rhone, Rome felt the tightest straits; the disaster of the Cimbri being straightway turned back, exalted by great advances, it forgot the former failures. ³ Then the Italic War and the Sullan laceration chastened this vaunting of most recent prosperity.

rursus post hanc domesticam intestinamque perniciem, qua usque ad medullas paene euiscerata et exesa est, paribus propemodum spatiis temporum non solum reparata, uerum etiam extenta est, cum Lucullus Asiam, Pompeius Hispaniam, Caesar Galliam perdomuit Romanumque imperium usque ad extremos propemodum terrae terminos propagatum est. ⁴ hanc nunc amplissimam dilatationem uastissima ruina consequitur. apud Parthos enim consul Romanus occiditur exercitusque deletur, atrocissimum illud Pompei atque Caesaris bellum ciuile conseritur et inter haec Roma ipsa repentino correpta incendio concrematur.

again, after this domestic and intestine ruin, by which it was almost eviscerated and eaten away to the marrow, in almost equal spans of time it was not only repaired, but even extended, when Lucullus thoroughly subdued Asia, Pompey Spain, Caesar Gaul, and the Roman imperium was propagated almost to the farthest boundaries of the earth. ⁴ now this most ample dilatation is followed by a most vast ruin. for among the Parthians a Roman consul is slain and the army is destroyed, that most atrocious civil war of Pompey and Caesar is engaged, and amid these things Rome herself, seized by a sudden conflagration, is burned up.

⁵ Anno siquidem ab urbe condita DCC incertum unde concretus plurimam urbis partem ignis inuasit, neque umquam antea tanto incendio correptam ac uastatam ciuitatem ferunt. nam quattuordecim uicos cum uico Iugario consumptos fuisse memoriae proditum est. hinc iam bellum ciuile committitur, quod magnis iamdudum dissensionibus ac molitionibus parabatur.

⁵ Indeed, in the year 700 from the founding of the City, a fire, condensed from an uncertain source, invaded a very great part of the city; nor, they say, had the commonwealth ever before been seized and laid waste by so great a conflagration. For it has been handed down that fourteen vici, together with the Vicus Iugarius, were consumed. From this point now a civil war is engaged, which had long since been prepared by great dissensions and machinations.

[15] Nam rediens Caesar uictor ex Gallia decerni sibi absenti alterum consulatum poposcit. contradictum est a Marcello consule adnitente Pompeio, deinde decretum est a senatu, ut in urbem Caesar non nisi dimisso exercitu ueniret, et ex Marcelli consulis auctoritate ad legiones, quae apud Luceriam erant, Pompeius cum imperio missus est.² Caesar Rauennam sese contulit.

[15] For Caesar, returning victorious from Gaul, demanded that another consulship be decreed to himself in his absence. It was opposed by the consul Marcellus, with Pompey striving; then it was decreed by the senate that Caesar should not come into the city unless his army were dismissed, and, by the authority of the consul Marcellus, Pompey was sent with imperium to the legions which were at Luceria.² Caesar betook himself to Ravenna.

M. Antonius et P. Cassius tribuni plebis pro Caesare intercedentes, interdicente Lentulo consule curia foroque prohibiti, ad Caesarem profecti sunt Curione simul Caelioque comitantibus.³ Caesar Rubicone flumine transmeato, mox ut Ariminum uenit, quinque cohortes, quas tunc solas habebat, cum quibus, ut ait Liuius, orbem terrarum adortus est, quid facto opus esset, edocuit. deplorans iniurias suas, causam belli ciuilis, pro restituendis in patriam tribunis, esse testatus est.

M. Antonius and P. Cassius, tribunes of the plebs, interceding on behalf of Caesar, with Lentulus the consul forbidding, having been prohibited from the Curia and the forum, set out to Caesar, Curio and likewise Caelius accompanying.³ Caesar, the Rubicon river having been crossed, soon as he came to Ariminum, instructed the five cohorts, which alone he then had—with which, as Livy says, he assailed the orb of lands—what need there was for action. Lamenting his injuries, he testified that the cause of the civil war was for the restoring of the tribunes to their fatherland.

⁴ inde per Antonium septem cohortes, quae apud Sulmonem morabantur, a Lucretio recepit, tres legiones, quae cum Domitio apud Corfinium morabantur, ad suas partes traduxit. Pompeius atque omnis senatus, crescentibus Caesaris uiribus trepidi, tamquam Italia pulsi in Graeciam transuecti, Dyrrachium gerendi belli sedem delegerunt. ⁵ Caesar Romam uenit negatamque sibi ex aerario pecuniam fractis foribus inuasit protulitque ex eo auri pondo quattuor milia centum triginta et quinque, argenti pondo prope nongenta millia.

⁴ then, through Antony, he received from Lucretius seven cohorts which were lingering at Sulmo, he led over to his own side three legions which were staying with Domitius at Corfinium. Pompey and the whole senate, alarmed as Caesar’s forces were increasing, transported to Greece as though driven from Italy, chose Dyrrhachium as the seat for waging the war. ⁵ Caesar came to Rome, and, money from the treasury having been denied him, with the doors broken he forced his way in, and brought out from it 4,135 pounds of gold, nearly 900,000 pounds of silver.

⁶ inde digressus Ariminum ad legiones, mox Alpes transuectus Massiliam uenit, ad quam oppugnandam, cur receptus non esset, Trebonium cum tribus legionibus relinquens, ad Hispanias contendit, quas L. Afranius et M. Petreius et M. Varro Pompeiani duces cum legionibus obtinebant. ibi multis proeliis Petreium Afraniumque superatos conposita pactione dimisit. ⁷ in ulteriore uero Hispania duas legiones a M. Varrone suscepit.

⁶ thence, having departed to Ariminum to the legions, and soon having crossed the Alps, he came to Massilia; to besiege which, because he had not been received, leaving Trebonius with three legions, he hastened to the Spains, which L. Afranius and M. Petreius and M. Varro, Pompeian leaders, were holding with legions. There, after many battles, Petreius and Afranius, having been overcome, he dismissed once a pact had been arranged. ⁷ in farther Spain he received two legions from M. Varro.

similiter et duces eius, hoc est Curio Catonem Sicilia expulit, Valerius Cottam Sardinia, Tuberonem Africa Varus eiecit. Caesar Massiliam rediens, obsidione domitam uita tantum et libertate concessa ceteris rebus abrasit.

Likewise also his commanders, that is: Curio expelled Cato from Sicily; Valerius expelled Cotta from Sardinia; Varus cast out Tubero from Africa. Caesar, returning to Massilia, the city subdued by siege, with only life and liberty granted, stripped it of the rest.

⁸ At uero Dolabella partium Caesaris in Illyrico per Octauium et Libonem uictus copiisque exutus ad Antonium fugit. Basilus et Sallustius cum singulis legionibus, quibus praeerant, similiter et Antonius, Hortensius quoque ab infimo mari cum classe concurrens, omnesque pariter aduersus Octauium et Libonem profecti et uicti sunt. ⁹ Antonius cum se Octauio cum quindecim cohortibus dedisset, omnes ad Pompeium a Libone deducti sunt.

⁸ But indeed Dolabella, of Caesar's party, in Illyricum, defeated by Octavius and Libo and stripped of his forces, fled to Antony. Basilus and Sallustius, each with the single legion which they commanded, likewise also Antony, and Hortensius as well, from the Lower Sea, engaging with a fleet, and all alike set out against Octavius and Libo and were defeated. ⁹ When Antony had surrendered himself to Octavius with fifteen cohorts, all were conducted to Pompey by Libo.

Curio ex Sicilia in Africam cum exercitu transgressus est: quem Iuba rex continuo exceptum cum omnibus copiis trucidauit. Octauius Salonas oppugnare conatus, omnes paene copias quas duxit amisit. ¹⁰ Caelius desciuit a Caesare ac se Miloni exuli iunxit; cumque ambo seruorum manu Capuam oppugnare molirentur, occisi sunt.

Curio crossed over from Sicily into Africa with an army: whom King Juba, having intercepted him immediately, butchered with all his forces. Octavius, having tried to besiege Salona, lost almost all the forces which he led. ¹⁰ Caelius deserted from Caesar and joined himself to Milo the exile; and when both were attempting to attack Capua with a band of slaves, they were killed.

Bibulus apud Corcyram pudore uictus, quod custodiae eius, quam pelago et oppido praetendebat, hostis inluserat, inedia sese uigiliisque confecit. ¹¹ Appius Claudius Censorinus, qui iussu Pompei Graeciam tuebatur, iam abolitam Pythici oraculi fidem uoluit experiri: quippe ab eo ad acta uates descendere in specum respondisse fertur de bello consulenti: Nihil ad te hoc, Romane, bellum pertinet, Euboeae coela obtinebis. coela autem uocant Euboicum sinum. ita Appius perplexa incertus sorte discessit.

Bibulus at Corcyra, overcome by shame because the enemy had made a mockery of his guard, which he was extending over the sea and the town, wasted himself with fasting and vigils. ¹¹ Appius Claudius Censorinus, who by Pompey’s order was protecting Greece, wished to test the now-abolished faith of the Pythian oracle: indeed, from it the prophet is reported to have given, for the record, to a consultee about the war, the response as he descended into the cave: This war, Roman, pertains nothing to you; you will hold the Coela of Euboea. moreover they call the Euboean bay “Coela.” Thus Appius departed uncertain at the perplexing lot.

¹² Admonet nos aliquid ab obtrectatoribus nostris consultor iste consulere. queruntur utique fide Christianorum sibi sacra interdicta caerimoniasque sublatas et ob hoc ideo maxime, quod extis uaticiniisque cessantibus futurae clades, quia sciri nequeunt, non uitantur. ¹³ cur ergo longe ante imperium Caesaris natiuitatemque Christi, sicut ipsorum auctores adtestantur, abolita fuerat Pythici oraculi fides?

¹² This consulter, by his consulting, reminds us of a certain point from our detractors. They certainly complain that, by the faith of the Christians, sacred rites have been interdicted to them and ceremonies removed; and for this reason most of all: that, with the haruspical entrails and vaticinations ceasing, future calamities, since they cannot be known, are not avoided. ¹³ Why, then, long before the rule of Caesar and the Nativity of Christ, as their own authorities attest, had the credit of the Pythian oracle been abolished?

abolita autem ideo, quia contempta. porro autem quare contempta, nisi quia uel falsa uel uana uel dubia ? unde prudenter poeta praemonuit:
Inconsulti abeunt sedemque odere Sibyllae.
¹⁴ Et ne forte parui id pendant, quod contemptu abolitum atque antiquatum fuit, hoc est aut numen aut sedem: Apollo ille Pythius erat, quem ferunt magno illo Pythone serpente interfecto, totius uaticinationis auctore et principe, heredem et sedis et diuinationis et nominis exstitisse ibique eum reddere elegisse responsa, ubi orta cum auctore ipsa diuinatio uidebatur, ¹⁵ praeterea quem per alias quoque terrarum partes spumantibus buccis rabidoque discursu omnis furiatorum ructat insania, ad quem plurimi terrarum reges quasi ad uiuam uocem consulti numinis cucurrerunt, cui saepissime ipsi quoque Romani opulentissima dona miserunt. ¹⁶ at si Apollo iste Pythius paulatim discernente experientia contemptus relictus atque abolitus est, quid uiuum de mortua pecude, quid uerum de amente muliercula sperari potest?

abolished, however, for this reason, because it was contemned. furthermore, why was it contemned, unless because it was either false or vain or dubious? whence the poet prudently forewarned:
Unconsulted they depart, and come to hate the seat of the Sibyl.
¹⁴ And lest perchance they weigh lightly that which by contempt was abolished and antiquated—namely either the numen or the seat: it was that Apollo the Pythian, whom they report, the great serpent Python having been slain, the author and princeps of all vaticination, to have become heir of the seat and of the divination and of the name, and that he chose to render responses there where divination itself seemed to have arisen with its author; ¹⁵ moreover, him whom through other parts of the earth as well the madness of all the frenzied belches forth with foaming cheeks and rabid running, to whom very many kings of the earth ran as to the living voice of a consulted numen, to whom most often the Romans themselves also sent most opulent gifts. ¹⁶ But if this Pythian Apollo, experience gradually discerning, has been contemned, abandoned, and abolished, what living thing can be hoped for from a dead beast, what truth from a demented little woman?

quid postremo,
Inflauit cum pinguis ebur Tyrrhenus ad aras,
expositis opimae pecudis intestinis, non finget esuriens, si, ut ipsi fatentur, uel obscura uel falsa dicendo ipse Apollo seducit? ¹⁷ quamobrem aequo animo ferant, etsi imitari interim nolunt, nos id ueritatis iudicio etiam prohibere, quod potuerunt maiores eorum uel experiendo contemnere.

what, finally,
When the Tyrrhenian blew the rich ivory at the altars,
with the intestines of a fat victim set out—will not a hungry man fabricate, if, as they themselves confess, Apollo himself seduces by speaking either obscure or false things? ¹⁷ wherefore let them bear it with equanimity, even if for the meantime they are unwilling to imitate, that we, by a judgment of truth, also forbid that which their elders were able, even by experiment, to contemn.

¹⁸ Interea apud Dyrrachium multi orientis reges ad Pompeium cum auxiliis conuenerunt. quo cum Caesar uenisset, Pompeium obsidione frustra cinxit, ipse terram quindecim m. p. fossa praestruens, cum illi maria paterent. ¹⁹ Pompeius castellum quoddam propinquum mari, quod Marcellinus tuebatur, euertit praesidiaque Caesaris, quae ibidem morabantur, occidit.

¹⁸ Meanwhile at Dyrrachium many kings of the East gathered to Pompey with auxiliaries. When Caesar had come there, he surrounded Pompey with a siege in vain, he himself building a ditch across the land for 15 miles, since the seas were open to him. ¹⁹ Pompey overturned a certain fort near the sea, which Marcellinus was defending, and killed Caesar's garrisons that were staying there.

Caesar Torquatum legionemque unam, ut expugnaret, adgressus est. ²⁰ hoc periculo sociorum Pompeius cognito omnes eo copias contraxit: in quem se ilico Caesar omissa obsidione conuertit. Torquatus autem e uestigio prorumpens auersum insecutus est.

Caesar attacked Torquatus and one legion, to take them by storm. ²⁰ Pompey, this danger to the allies having been learned, drew together all his forces there: against whom Caesar forthwith turned himself, the siege being abandoned. But Torquatus, bursting forth on the instant, pursued him from behind.

²¹ ita Caesaris milites ancipiti periculo territi ipso Caesare frustra obsistente fugerunt. Pompeius uero Caesaris quoque testimonio uictor persequentem reuocauit exercitum. quattuor milia militum Caesaris, centuriones uiginti et duo, equites Romani conplures in eo proelio caesi sunt.

²¹ thus Caesar’s soldiers, terrified by a twofold peril, fled with Caesar himself resisting in vain. But Pompey, victor—even by Caesar’s own testimony—recalled the pursuing army. Four thousand of Caesar’s soldiers, twenty-two centurions, and numerous Roman equites were cut down in that battle.

²² Caesar inde citato agmine per Epirum in Thessaliam perrexit; Pompeius cum maximis copiis secutus bellumque commissum est. ²³ itaque instruitur utrimque acies. Pompeius octoginta et octo cohortes triplici ordine locauit: fuerunt autem peditum quadraginta milia, equites in sinistro cornu sescenti, in dextro quingenti, praeterea reges multi, senatores equitesque Romani plurimi, absque leuium armaturarum magna copia.

²² Caesar then with a hastened column proceeded through Epirus into Thessaly; Pompey followed with the greatest forces, and battle was joined. ²³ Accordingly, the battle-line is drawn up on both sides. Pompey stationed eighty-eight cohorts in triple order: there were, moreover, 40,000 infantry; cavalry on the left wing 600, on the right 500; besides, many kings, and very many Roman senators and equestrians, along with a great supply of light-armed troops.

²⁴ Caesar similiter octoginta cohortes triplici ordine disposuit, cui fuerunt minus quam triginta milia peditum, equites mille. ²⁵ uidere ibi et gemere erat contractas Romanorum uires in campis Pharsalicis ad occisionem mutuam constitisse, quas si concordia rexisset, nulli populi, nulli reges ferre potuissent. ²⁶ prima congressione equitatus Pompei pulsus sinistra latera nudauit.

²⁴ Caesar likewise disposed eighty cohorts in triple order; and he had less than thirty thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry. ²⁵ There it was to see—and to groan—that the contracted forces of the Romans on the Pharsalian plains had stood for mutual slaughter, which, if concord had governed them, no peoples, no kings could have withstood. ²⁶ At the first encounter Pompey’s cavalry, driven back, laid bare the left flanks.

deinde cum diu utrimque dubia sorte caederentur atque ex alia parte Pompeius inter hortandum diceret parce ciuibus nec tamen faceret, ex alia uero Caesar hoc faceret, quod urgeret dicens miles, faciem feri, tandem uniuersus Pompei fugit exercitus, castraque direpta sunt. ²⁷ caesa sunt in eo proelio Pompeianorum quindecim milia, centuriones triginta et tres. hic exitus pugnae ad Palaeopharsalum fuit.

then, when for a long time on both sides they were being cut down with the outcome doubtful, and on the one side Pompey, while exhorting, would say “spare citizens” and yet did not do so, whereas on the other Caesar did this, as he pressed them, saying “soldier, strike at the face,” at length the entire army of Pompey fled, and the camp was plundered. ²⁷ fifteen thousand of Pompey’s men were cut down in that battle, and thirty-three centurions. this was the outcome of the fight at Palaeopharsalus.

Pompeius fugiens in ostio Penei amnis onerariam nauem nanctus in Asiam transiit. ²⁸ inde per Cyprum in Aegyptum uenit ibique mox ut litus attigit, iussu Ptolemaei adulescentis in gratiam Caesaris uictoris occisus est. Pompei uxor filiique fugerunt; cetera Pompeiana classis direpta est omnibus qui in ea erant crudelissime trucidatis, ibique et Pompeius Bithynicus occisus est.

Pompey, fleeing, at the mouth of the river Peneus, having found a cargo-ship, crossed over into Asia. ²⁸ Thence through Cyprus he came into Egypt, and there, as soon as he touched the shore, by order of Ptolemy, a youth, to gain the favor of Caesar the victor, he was slain. Pompey’s wife and sons fled; the rest of the Pompeian fleet was plundered, with all who were in it most cruelly butchered, and there too Pompeius the Bithynian was killed.

Lentulus uero uir consularis apud Pelusium interfectus est. ²⁹ Caesar conpositis apud Thessaliam rebus Alexandriam uenit perlatoque ad se ac uiso Pompei capite anuloque fleuit; cumque se in regiam recepisset, eludebatur a tutoribus, quo minus pecuniam acciperet, templa sua astu spoliantibus, ut et regios thesauros uacuos esse ostenderent et in inuidiam Caesaris populum concitarent. ³⁰ praeterea Achillas dux regius, imbutus semel Pompei sanguine, Caesaris quoque necem meditabatur.

Lentulus, indeed, a consular man, was killed at Pelusium. ²⁹ Caesar, with affairs composed in Thessaly, came to Alexandria, and, when Pompey’s head and signet ring had been brought to him and seen, he wept; and when he had withdrawn into the royal palace, he was being trifled with by the tutors, to the end that he might not receive money, as they by craft were plundering their own temples, so that they might both show that the royal treasuries were empty and stir up the people into ill-will against Caesar. ³⁰ Moreover Achillas, a royal commander, once imbued with the blood of Pompey, was meditating the death of Caesar as well.

nam iussus exercitum dimittere, cui praeerat, uiginti milium armatorum, non modo spreuit imperium, uerum et aciem direxit. ³¹ in ipso proelio regia classis forte subducta iubetur incendi. ea flamma cum partem quoque urbis inuasisset, quadringenta milia librorum proximis forte aedibus condita exussit, singulare profecto monumentum studii curaeque maiorum, qui tot tantaque inlustrium ingeniorum opera congesserant.

for, ordered to dismiss the army, over which he was in command, of twenty thousand armed men, he not only spurned the command, but even drew up the battle-line. ³¹ In the very battle the royal fleet, by chance hauled up, is ordered to be set on fire. When that flame had also invaded a part of the city, it burned up four hundred thousand volumes stored, by chance, in the neighboring buildings—a truly singular monument of the study and care of our ancestors, who had amassed so many and so great works of illustrious minds.

³² unde quamlibet hodieque in templis extent, quae et nos uidimus, armaria librorum, quibus direptis exinanita ea a nostris hominibus nostris temporibus memorent - quod quidem uerum est -, tamen honestius creditur alios libros fuisse quaesitos, qui pristinas studiorum curas aemularentur, quam aliam ullam tunc fuisse bibliothecam, quae extra quadringenta milia librorum fuisse ac per hoc euasisse credatur. ³³ Caesar postea insulam, ubi Pharos est, cepit. eo Achillas cum Gabinianis militibus uenit.

³² Hence, although even today in the temples there stand book-cabinets, which we too have seen, and they report that, these having been plundered, they were emptied by our men in our times - which indeed is true -, nevertheless it is more honest to believe that other books were sought, to emulate the former cares of studies, than that there was then any other library which is believed to have been outside the 400,000 books and by this fact to have escaped. ³³ Afterwards Caesar took the island where the Pharos is. Thither Achillas came with the Gabinian soldiers.

ingens pugna commissa est: magna ibi Caesarianorum militum multitudo cecidit, omnes etiam interfectores Pompei interfecti sunt. ³⁴ Caesar ui insistentium hostium pressus scapham escendit: qua mox pondere subsequentium grauata ac mersa, per ducentos passus ad nauem una manu eleuata, qua chartas tenebat, nando peruenit, mox nauali certamine pulsatus, magna felicitate classem regiam aut depressit aut cepit.

an immense battle was joined: a great multitude of Caesar’s soldiers fell there, and all the killers of Pompey were also killed. ³⁴ Caesar, hard pressed by the force of the assailing enemies, boarded a skiff; which, soon weighed down by the weight of those following and sunk, he reached the ship by swimming for 200 paces, with one hand raised, in which he held papers; then, after a naval contest, with great felicity he either sank or captured the royal fleet.

[16] Alexandrinis petentibus regem reddidit monitum, ut magis amicitiam Romanam quam arma experiri studeret; qui tamen ilico ut liber fuit bellum intulit, sed continuo cum toto exercitu suo et ipse deletus est. nam uiginti milia hominum in eo bello caesa referuntur, duodecim milia cum septuaginta longis nauibus dedita, quingenti ex uictoribus cecidisse dicuntur.² rex ipse adulescens scapha exceptus ut fugeret, multis insilientibus mersus necatusque est; corpus eius ad litus deuolutum indicio loricae aureae cognitum fuit: qua Caesar Alexandriam praemissa Alexandrinos omnes ad deditionem desperatione conpulit regnumque Aegypti Cleopatrae dedit.

[16] To the Alexandrians requesting, he restored the king, with the warning that he should strive to experience Roman friendship rather than arms; who, however, immediately when he was free, brought war, but straightway he himself, together with his whole army, was destroyed. For 20,000 men are reported to have been cut down in that war, 12,000, with 70 long ships, surrendered; 500 of the victors are said to have fallen.² The king himself, a youth, taken into a skiff to flee, with many leaping aboard, was sunk and killed; his body, rolled to the shore, was recognized by the token of a golden cuirass: which, sent ahead to Alexandria by Caesar, compelled all the Alexandrians to surrender through despair, and he gave the kingdom of Egypt to Cleopatra.

³ inde Syriam peruagatus Pharnacem in Ponto uicit. postea uero quam Romam uenit, dictator et consul creatus in Africam transiit et apud Thapsum cum Iuba et Scipione pugnauit maximamque ibi hominum multitudinem interfecit. castra utriusque direpta sunt, sexaginta elephanti capti.

³ thence, having ranged through Syria, he defeated Pharnaces in Pontus. afterwards indeed, when he came to Rome, created dictator and consul, he crossed into Africa and at Thapsus fought with Juba and Scipio, and there he killed a very great multitude of men. the camps of both were plundered, sixty elephants captured.

⁴ Cato sese apud Vticam occidit; Iuba percussori iugulum pretio dato praebuit, Petreius eodem se gladio perfodit; Scipio in naui, qua ad Hispaniam fugere contendens uento coactus in Africam redierat, semet ipse iugulauit. ⁵ in eadem naui etiam T. Torquatus occisus est. Caesar Pompei Magni nepotes filiamque Pompeiam simulque cum his Faustum Syllam et Afranium et Petreium filium iussit occidi.

⁴ Cato killed himself at Utica; Juba, a price having been given, offered his throat to the assassin; Petreius ran himself through with the same sword; Scipio, on the ship with which, striving to flee to Spain, he had, forced by the wind, returned to Africa, slit his own throat. ⁵ On the same ship as well, T. Torquatus was killed. Caesar ordered Pompey the Great’s grandsons and his daughter Pompeia, and along with these Faustus Sulla and Afranius and the son of Petreius, to be killed.

⁶ inde quattuor triumphis urbem ingressus, disposito recuperatae reipublicae statu continuo in Hispanias contra Pompeios Pompei filios profectus, septimo decimo quam egressus ab urbe fuerat die Saguntum peruenit statimque aduersus Pompeios duos et Labienum atque Attium Varum multa bella et uaria sorte gessit. ⁷ ultimum bellum apud Mundam flumen gestum est, ubi tantis uiribus dimicatum tantaque caedes acta, ut Caesar quoque, ueteranis etiam suis cedere non erubescentibus, cum caedi cogique aciem suam cerneret, praeuenire morte futurum uicti dedecus cogitarit, cum subito uersus in fugam Pompeiorum cessit exercitus. ⁸ equidem eo die hoc bellum actum est, quo Pompeius pater ab urbe bellum gesturus aufugerat, quattuorque annis hoc bellum ciuile indesinenter toto orbe tonuit.

⁶ thence, having entered the city with four triumphs, the status of the recovered republic having been arranged, he immediately set out into the Spains against the Pompeii, the sons of Pompey; on the seventeenth day from when he had departed from the city he arrived at Saguntum, and straightway against the two Pompeii and Labienus and Attius Varus he waged many wars with a various lot. ⁷ the last war was waged at the Munda River, where such forces engaged and so great a slaughter was done, that Caesar too, with even his veterans not blushing to yield, when he saw his own battle-line being cut down and driven back, is said to have thought to forestall by death the disgrace to come of being conquered, when suddenly the army of the Pompeians, turning to flight, gave way. ⁸ indeed, on that very day this battle was fought on which Pompey the father had fled from the city to wage war, and for four years this civil war thundered unceasingly through the whole world.

T. Labienus et Attius Varus in acie caesi sunt, Gnaeus Pompeius cum centesimo equite aufugit. ⁹ frater eius Sextus Pompeius, contracta celeriter non parua Lusitanorum manu, cum Caesonio congressus et uictus fugiensque interfectus est. Munda ciuitas cum immensa hominum caede Caesare oppugnante uix capta est.

T. Labienus and Attius Varus were cut down in the battle-line; Gnaeus Pompeius fled with one hundred cavalry. ⁹ His brother Sextus Pompeius, having quickly gathered no small band of Lusitanians, after engaging with Caesonius and being defeated, was slain in flight. The city of Munda, with an immense slaughter of men, while Caesar was besieging it, was scarcely taken.

[17] Caesar Romam rediit. ubi dum reipublicae statum contra exempla maiorum clementer instaurat, auctoribus Bruto et Cassio, conscio etiam plurimo senatu, in curia uiginti et tribus uulneribus confossus interiit.² in qua coniuratione fuisse amplius sexaginta conscios ferunt.

[17] Caesar returned to Rome. There, while he was clemently restoring the state of the Republic contrary to the examples of the ancestors, with Brutus and Cassius as authors, and with very many of the Senate also privy, he perished, stabbed in the Curia with 23 wounds.² They say that in that conspiracy there were more than 60 accomplices.

duo Bruti et C. Cassius aliique socii strictis pugionibus in Capitolium secesserunt. diu deliberatum est, utrum Capitolium cum auctoribus caedis oporteret incendi. ³ corpus eius raptum populus dolore instimulatus in foro fragmentis tribunalium ac subselliorum cremauit.

the two Brutuses and Gaius Cassius and other associates, with daggers drawn, withdrew into the Capitol. it was long deliberated whether the Capitol ought to be set on fire together with the authors of the slaughter. ³ his body, snatched up, the people, incited by grief, cremated in the forum with fragments of tribunals and benches.

⁴ Percensuit latitudinem regni sui Roma cladibus suis atque in suam conuersa caedem singulas quasque gentes ibidem, ubi domuit, uindicauit. Asiae Europae atque Africae, non dico tribus mundi partibus sed totis trium partium angulis edidit gladiatores suos feriatisque inimicis spectaculum miserae ultionis ingessit. ⁵ nec tamen sufficit ipsas quoque cum auctoribus causas fuisse consumptas; recidiua semina in eodem agro germinant, magna continuo metentibus malorum incrementa cum magno sudore factura: uictor ciuilis belli a ciuibus Caesar occiditur, in caedem unius trahuntur agmina consciorum.

⁴ Rome, by her own calamities and, turned into her own slaughter, traversed the breadth of her dominion and avenged each and every nation in the very places where she had subdued them. Of Asia, Europe, and Africa—I do not say the three parts of the world, but the entire corners of the three parts—she staged her gladiators and imposed upon enemies at leisure the spectacle of a wretched vengeance. ⁵ Nor yet does it suffice that the causes themselves too, along with their authors, were consumed; recurrent seeds sprout in the same field, immediately to produce great increments of evils for the reapers, with great sweat: Caesar, victor of the civil war, is slain by his fellow citizens; into the slaughter of one the ranks of accomplices are dragged.

⁶ certum enim erat, quia Caesar indigne peremptus plures habere posset ultores; plurimaque nobilitas una simul catena sceleris copulatur, ne forte tanta malorum materia non belli magnitudine suppleatur sed uindictae breuitate tenuetur. ⁷ Medeam illam fabulae ferunt dentes quondam occisi seuisse serpentis, e quibus quasi conpetens semini seges armati homines terra emerserint seseque mox inuicem pugnando prostrauerint. ⁸ equidem hoc poetarum commenta finxerunt; nostra autem Roma Caesare occiso quanta de cineribus eius agmina armata parturiit!

⁶ for it was certain that, since Caesar had been slain indignantly, he could have more avengers; and a great part of the nobility is at once linked together by a single chain of crime, lest by chance so great a mass of evils be not supplied by the magnitude of war but be thinned by the brevity of vengeance. ⁷ The tales report that that Medea once sowed the teeth of a slain serpent, from which, as a crop fitting to the seed, armed men sprang up from the earth and soon laid one another low by fighting. ⁸ Indeed the poets fashioned this fiction; but our Rome, with Caesar slain—how great armed battalions did she bring forth from his ashes!

quanta bella in testimonium miserae fecunditatis non legenda pueris sed spectanda populis excitauit! ⁹ et tamen horum omnium malorum initium superbia est: inde exarserunt bella ciuilia, inde iterum pullularunt. non ergo iniusta caedes est eorum, qui eam iniuste consectantur, si ambitionis aemulatio per ipsos atque in ipsis et agitur et punitur, donec qui detrectauere collegium, discant ferre dominatum, summaque imperii totius ad unum redacta longe aliud omnes homines uiuendi genus subeant, ut omnes humiliter placere studeant, non insolenter offendere.

how many wars, as a testimony of wretched fecundity, she stirred up—not to be read by boys but to be beheld by peoples! ⁹ and yet the beginning of all these evils is pride: from thence the civil wars flared up, from thence they again sprouted. therefore the slaughter of those who unjustly pursue it is not unjust, if the emulation of ambition both is carried on through them and in them is punished, until those who have refused collegiality learn to bear dominion, and, with the supreme power of the whole imperium reduced to one, all men undergo a far different manner of living, so that all strive to please humbly, not to offend insolently.

¹⁰ sed ad tam salubrem humilitatis doctrinam magistro opus est. itaque opportune conpositis rebus Augusti Caesaris natus est Dominus Christus, qui cum in forma Dei esset, formam serui humiliter adsumpsit, ut tunc demum aptior fieret humilitatis institutio, quando iam per totum mundum poena superbiae omnibus esset exemplo.

¹⁰ but for so salutary a doctrine of humility a teacher is needed. and so, with the affairs of Augustus Caesar opportunely settled, the Lord Christ was born, who, though he was in the form of God, humbly assumed the form of a servant, so that then at last the instruction in humility might become more apt, when already through the whole world the punishment of pride served as an example to all.

[18] Anno ab urbe condita DCCX interfecto Iulio Caesare Octauianus, qui testamento Iuli Caesaris auunculi et hereditatem et nomen adsumpserat idemque, qui postea rerum potitus Augustus est dictus, simul ut Romam adulescens admodum uenit, indolem suam bellis ciuilibus uouit.² nam, ut breuiter coaceruationem malorum explicem, bella ciuilia quinque gessit : Mutinense Philippense Perusinum Siculum Actiacum. e quibus duo, hoc est primum ac nouissimum, aduersus M. Antonium, secundum aduersus Brutum et Cassium, tertium aduersus L. Antonium, quartum aduersus Sex.

[18] In the year 710 from the founding of the City, with Julius Caesar slain, Octavian, who by the will of his uncle Julius Caesar had assumed both the inheritance and the name, the same man who afterwards, having gained control of affairs, was called Augustus, as soon as he came to Rome, quite a youth, devoted himself to civil wars.² For, to explain briefly the accumulation of ills, he waged five civil wars: Mutinaean Philippian Perusine Sicilian Actian. Of these two, that is the first and the last, were against M. Antony, the second against Brutus and Cassius, the third against L. Antony, the fourth against Sext.

Pompeium, Cn. Pompei filium, confecit. ³ Antonius a senatu hostis pronuntiatus D. Brutum apud Mutinam obsidione concluserat. consules Hirtius et Pansa et cum his Caesar ad liberandum Brutum expugnandumque Antonium missi.

He brought to an end Pompeius, the son of Cn. Pompeius. ³ Antony, pronounced an enemy by the Senate, had enclosed D. Brutus at Mutina with a siege. The consuls Hirtius and Pansa, and with them Caesar, were sent to liberate Brutus and to storm Antony.

⁴ Pansa primo ueniens exceptus insidiis, inter suorum clades ipse quoque pilo grauiter uulneratus ab eodem uulnere interpositis diebus est mortuus. Hirtius auxilium collegae ferens magnas Antonii copias uasta strage deleuit. Caesar eatenus castra custodiit.

⁴ Pansa, arriving first, was caught in an ambush, and he himself too, grievously wounded by a pilum, after some days died of that same wound. Hirtius, bringing aid to his colleague, destroyed great forces of Antony with vast slaughter. Caesar up to that point kept guard over the camp.

⁵ secunda aduersus Antonium pugna magnae utrimque strages actae sunt. namque tunc ibi Hirtius consul occisus est, uictus fugit Antonius, Caesar uictoria potitus est, cui D. Brutus de coniuratione occisi Iuli Caesaris confessus preces paenitentiae fudit. ⁶ Dolabella Trebonium, unum ex interfectoribus Caesaris, Zmyrnae interfecit.

⁵ In the second battle against Antony, great slaughters were wrought on both sides. For then and there Hirtius the consul was killed; Antony, defeated, fled; Caesar possessed himself of the victory, to whom D. Brutus, confessing about the conspiracy of the slain Julius Caesar, poured out prayers of penitence. ⁶ Dolabella killed Trebonius, one of Caesar’s murderers, at Smyrna.

Dolabellam senatus hostem pronuntiauit. consulum occisorum uterque exercitus Caesari paruit. ⁷ postea D. Brutus in Gallia a Sequanis captus et occisus est.

Dolabella the senate pronounced an enemy. Both armies of the slain consuls obeyed Caesar. ⁷ afterwards D. Brutus in Gaul was captured and killed by the Sequani.

Basilus autem, aeque unus de percussoribus, manu seruorum suorum necatus est. ⁸ Lepido satisagente Caesar Antonium recepit in gratiam atque ob fidem reconciliatae gratiae filiam eius matrimonio sortitus est. ⁹ inde cum ad urbem accessissent ac rumor de futura proscriptione ortus esset, C. Thoranius uir praetorius nihil tale metuens incursu militum domi suae interfectus est aliique conplures trucidati sunt.

Basilus, moreover, likewise one of the assassins, was killed by the hand of his own slaves. ⁸ With Lepidus making sufficient satisfaction, Caesar received Antony back into favor, and, as a pledge of the reconciled favor, obtained his daughter in marriage. ⁹ Then, when they had approached the city and a rumor about a future proscription had arisen, C. Thoranius, a man of praetorian rank, fearing nothing of the sort, was slain in his own house by an onrush of soldiers, and several others were butchered.

¹⁰ itaque, ne latius atque effrenatius incircumscripta caedes ageretur, centum triginta et duum senatorum nomina in tabula proposita sunt, primum Lepidi praecepto et nomine, deinde Antonii, tertio Caesaris. ¹¹ ibi Antonius Tullium Ciceronem inimicum suum, ibi L. Caesarem auunculum suum et - quod exaggerando sceleri accessit - uiua matre proscripserat; ibi Lepidus L. Paulum fratrem suum in eundem proscriptorum gregem coniecerat. ¹² adiecti sunt postea ad numerum proscriptorum triginta equites Romani.

¹⁰ And so, lest the uncircumscribed slaughter be carried on more widely and more unrestrainedly, the names of one hundred thirty-two senators were posted on a tablet, first by Lepidus’s command and in his name, then by Antony’s, third by Caesar’s. ¹¹ There Antony had proscribed Tullius Cicero, his enemy; there he had proscribed L. Caesar, his uncle - and what, in aggravation of the crime, was added - with his mother still alive; there Lepidus had cast L. Paulus, his brother, into the same band of the proscribed. ¹² Afterwards thirty Roman knights were added to the number of the proscribed.

multae diu et uariae caedes actae, domus proscriptorum direptis omnibus dirutae sunt. ¹³ at Dolabella in Syria multa cum Cassio bella gessit, a quo uictus ipse se interfecit. Brutus et Cassius magnis exercitibus conparatis apud Athenas conuenerunt totamque Graeciam depopulati sunt.

many and various slaughters were carried out for a long time; the houses of the proscribed, with everything plundered, were demolished. ¹³ But Dolabella in Syria waged many wars with Cassius, and, defeated by him, killed himself. Brutus and Cassius, great armies having been assembled, convened at Athens and devastated all Greece.

Rhodios Cassius terra marique oppugnatos ad deditionem coegit, quibus praeter uitam nihil reliquit. ¹⁴ igitur Caesar et Antonius eosdem in Macedoniam magnis bellorum apparatibus persecuti, ad mortem conpulerunt; quamuis manifestissime illa tunc pugna non uirtute partis Antoni, sed Caesaris felicitate confecta sit. ¹⁵ Caesar enim tunc aeger, cum se in castris capiendae quietis causa tenere statuisset, hortatu et precibus medici sui, qui per somnium admonitum sese fatebatur, ut ea die castris Caesarem salutis ipsius causa educeret, in campum aegre inter copias egressus est ac mox castra eius ab hostibus capta sunt.

Cassius, having assaulted the Rhodians by land and sea, forced them to surrender, leaving them nothing except life. ¹⁴ Therefore Caesar and Antony, pursuing those same men into Macedonia with great apparatus of war, drove them to death; although it was most manifest that that battle was then brought to completion not by the valor of Antony’s party, but by Caesar’s felicity. ¹⁵ For Caesar, then sick, when he had decided to keep himself in camp for the sake of taking rest, at the exhortation and entreaties of his physician, who confessed himself to have been admonished through a dream to lead Caesar out of the camp on that day for the sake of his very safety, with difficulty went out into the field among the forces, and soon his camp was seized by the enemies.

sed rursus Caesariani milites Cassi castra ceperunt. ¹⁶ quare ad desperationem adacti Brutus et Cassius immaturam sibi mortem ante belli terminum consciuerunt. nam inuitatis percussoribus Cassius caput, Brutus latus praebuit.

but again the Caesarian soldiers seized the camp of Cassius. ¹⁶ wherefore, driven to desperation, Brutus and Cassius brought upon themselves an untimely death before the terminus of the war. For, the assassins having been invited, Cassius offered his head, Brutus his side.

¹⁷ at Romae Fuluia, uxor Antoni, socrus Caesaris, dominatum ut mulier agitabat, incertum in hac mutatione consularis regiique fastigii utrum deficientis potentiae ultima an incipientis prima numeranda, certe etiam in eos insolens, per quos ut insolesceret agebatur. ¹⁸ nam et Caesarem reuersum apud Brundisium contumeliis factionibus insidiisque petiit. a quo propulsata ad Antonium concessit in Graeciam.

¹⁷ But at Rome Fulvia, the wife of Antony, the mother-in-law of Caesar, was hustling after domination as a woman, uncertain in this changeover of consular and regal eminence whether she should be counted among the last of a power that was waning or the first of one beginning; certainly insolent even toward those through whom she was being driven to be insolent. ¹⁸ For she even attacked Caesar, on his return at Brundisium, with insults, factions, and plots. Repelled by him, she withdrew to Antony in Greece.

¹⁹ Sex. Pompeius postquam se in proscriptorum numerum relatum conperit, conuersus in latrocinia omnem oram Italiae caedibus rapinisque uastauit. Sicilia praerepta commeatibusque inpeditis Romam fame adfecit.

¹⁹ After Sextus Pompeius learned that he had been entered into the number of the proscribed, he turned to brigandage and devastated the whole coast of Italy with slaughters and rapine. With Sicily preemptively seized and the supplies impeded, he afflicted Rome with famine.

²⁰ mox cum eo pacem triumuiri, ut non dicam tyranni, id est Lepidus Caesar Antoniusque fecerunt. sed continuo cum contra pactum Pompeius fugitiuos allegeret, ut hostis habitus est. ²¹ Mena libertus Pompei cum sexaginta nauium classe ad Caesarem defecit eidemque classi ipse iussu Caesaris praefuit.

²⁰ Soon with him the triumvirs—not to say tyrants—namely Lepidus, Caesar, and Antonius, made peace. But immediately, when Pompeius, contrary to the pact, was enrolling fugitives, he was held as an enemy. ²¹ Mena, Pompeius’s freedman, with a fleet of sixty ships, defected to Caesar, and he himself, by Caesar’s order, commanded that same fleet.

idemque continuo cum Statilio Tauro aduersus Menecraten Pompeianum ducem nauale bellum gessit. ²² deinde ipse Caesar aduersus eosdem Pompeianos cruentissimum bellum nauale confecit; sed continuo uictricem classem paene uniuersam apud Scylaceum naufragio amisit. ²³ Ventidius Persas et Parthos in Syriam inrumpentes tribus bellis maximis fudit regemque eorum Pacorum in acie interfecit, ea scilicet die, qua Crassus a Parthis fuerat occisus.

and the same man immediately, together with Statilius Taurus, waged a naval war against Menecrates, a Pompeian leader. ²² then Caesar himself brought to completion a most bloodiest naval war against those same Pompeians; but straightway he lost the victorious fleet, almost in its entirety, by shipwreck near Scylaceum. ²³ Ventidius routed the Persians and Parthians breaking into Syria in three very great wars, and killed their king Pacorus in the battle line, on that very day, namely, on which Crassus had been slain by the Parthians.

Antonius, uix uno castello expugnato, pacem cum Antiocho fecit, ut ipse tantam rem consummasse uideretur. ²⁴ Ventidium Syriae praefecit iussitque ut Antigono bellum inferret, qui Iudaeos tum forte debellauerat captisque Hierosolymis templum spoliauerat regnumque Herodi dederat: quem continuo uictum in deditionem recepit. ²⁵ Mena libertus cum sex nauibus ad Pompeium rediit, a quo clementer receptus Caesaris classem incendit, quamuis nuper Caesar alteram secundo naufragio perdidisset.

Antony, with scarcely one little castle taken, made peace with Antiochus, so that he himself might seem to have consummated so great a matter. ²⁴ He appointed Ventidius over Syria and ordered him to bring war against Antigonus, who just then by chance had subdued the Jews utterly and, Jerusalem having been captured, had despoiled the temple and had given the kingdom to Herod: whom, conquered forthwith, he received into surrender. ²⁵ Mena, the freedman, returned to Pompey with six ships; received by him with clemency, he burned Caesar’s fleet, although recently Caesar had lost another by a second shipwreck.

idemque Mena postea ab Agrippa nauali proelio circumuentus cum sex triremibus ad Caesarem transiit. sed hunc Caesar tertio transfugam, indulta tantum uita, segnem reliquit. ²⁶ deinde Agrippa inter Mylas et Liparas aduersus Democham et Pompeium nauale proelium gessit ac uicit ibique tunc naues triginta aut demersit aut cepit reliquis laceratis.

And that same Mena later, surrounded by Agrippa in a naval battle, with six triremes went over to Caesar. But Caesar, seeing him a defector for the third time, with only his life granted, left him inactive. ²⁶ Then Agrippa between Mylae and the Liparae fought a naval battle against Demochas and Pompey and won; and there at that time he either sank or captured 30 ships, the rest having been torn to pieces.

Pompeius Messanam confugit. ²⁷ Caesar interea Tauromenium traiecerat: quem repentino impetu Pompeius adflixit: unde multis demersis nauibus suis ac magna multitudine suorum militum perdita, in Italiam Caesar aufugit; nec interueniente mora in Siciliam rediit; ²⁸ ibique Lepidum ex Africa aduentantem obuium habuit, summas sibi partes terrore minis ac superbia uindicantem. ²⁹ post dies paucos Agrippa iussu Caesaris a litore cum acie instructa prospectantis atrocissimo nauali proelio aduersus Pompeium conflixit et uicit.

Pompey fled to Messana. ²⁷ Caesar meanwhile had crossed over to Tauromenium: whom Pompey by a sudden onset struck: whence, with many of his ships sunk and a great multitude of his own soldiers lost, Caesar fled away into Italy; and with no delay intervening he returned into Sicily; ²⁸ and there he had Lepidus, coming from Africa, encountered, claiming for himself the highest prerogatives with terror, menaces, and arrogance. ²⁹ After a few days Agrippa, by Caesar’s order, from the shore, with the battle-line drawn up watching, clashed in a most atrocious naval battle against Pompey and won.

nam centum sexaginta et tres naues aut demersit aut cepit. Pompeius cum decem et septem nauibus uix elapsus euasit. ³⁰ Lepidus magna uiginti legionum insolentia tumens cum Messanam militibus permissam diripuisset, ipsum Caesarem ad se uenientem semel atque iterum spreuit ac potius telis adpeti iussit.

for he either sank or captured 163 ships. Pompey, with 17 ships, barely slipped away and escaped. ³⁰ Lepidus, swelling with the great insolence of 20 legions, after he had allowed Messana to be plundered by the soldiers, spurned Caesar himself coming to him once and again, and rather ordered him to be assailed with weapons.

³¹ quae ille collecta in laeuum bracchium lacerna repellendo uitauit; mox inmisso equo ad suos reuersus, instructo exercitu aduersus Lepidum ueniens; plurimas legiones Lepidi paucis interfectis transire in suam partem conpulit. ³² Lepidus tandem intellegens, quo uanitas sua tenderet, deposito paludamento assumptaque ueste pulla, supplex Caesari factus uitam et bona impetrauit, perpetuo quidem amendatus exilio. Taurus, Caesaris praefectus, totam paene Siciliam ferro pertemptatam conterritamque in fidem recepit.

³¹ which he avoided by repelling them with his cloak, gathering them onto his left forearm; soon, with his horse sent at full speed, he returned to his own, and, coming against Lepidus with his army drawn up, he compelled very many of Lepidus’s legions, with only a few slain, to cross over to his own side. ³² Lepidus at length, understanding whither his vanity was tending, after laying aside the paludament and taking a dark garment, having made himself a suppliant to Caesar, obtained life and his goods, though consigned to perpetual exile. Taurus, Caesar’s prefect, received almost all Sicily, harrowed by the sword and terrified, back into allegiance.

³³ quadraginta et quattuor legiones sub unius tunc imperio Caesaris erant; milites, multitudine ferociores, quosdam pro accipiendis agris tumultus excitauerunt; sed Caesar, animo ingens, uiginti milia militum exauctorauit, triginta milia seruorum dominis restituit, sex milia, quorum domini non exstabant, in crucem egit. ³⁴ ouans urbem ingressus ut in perpetuum tribuniciae potestatis esset, a senatu decretum est. his diebus trans Tiberim e taberna meritoria fons olei terra exundauit ac per totum diem largissimo riuo fluxit.

³³ forty-four legions were under the sole imperium of Caesar at that time; the soldiers, made more ferocious by their multitude, stirred up certain tumults for the receiving of lands; but Caesar, great in spirit, discharged twenty thousand soldiers, restored thirty thousand slaves to their masters, six thousand, whose masters were not extant, he drove to the cross. ³⁴ entering the city in ovation, it was decreed by the senate that he should possess the tribunician power in perpetuity. In those days, across the Tiber, from a lodging-house for hire a spring of oil gushed up from the ground and flowed for a whole day in a most copious stream.

[19] Antonius uero postquam Araxim transmisit, omnibus undique malis circumuentus, uix tandem Antiochiam cum paucis rediit. nam cum multitudine equitum et sagittarum ab omnibus proeliis, quae plura temptauit, uictus semper effugerit tum praeterea incertis et ignotis regionis locis impeditus grauissima fame ad nefandos cibos coactus est; plurimi militum sese hostibus dediderunt.² inde in Graeciam transiit iussitque Pompeium, qui uictus a Caesare exercitum bellumque reparabat, cum paucis ad se uenire.

[19] But Antony, after he crossed the Araxes, encompassed by evils on all sides, scarcely at last returned to Antioch with a few. For, overwhelmed by a multitude of cavalry and arrows, from all the battles—which he attempted in greater number—he was always defeated and fled; then moreover, hindered in the uncertain and unknown places of the region, by most severe hunger he was compelled to unspeakable foods; very many of the soldiers surrendered themselves to the enemies.² Thence he crossed into Greece and ordered Pompey, who, defeated by Caesar, was repairing the army and the war, to come to him with a few.

Pompeius fugiens a Titio et Furnio Antonianis ducibus saepe terrestri naualique bello uictus et captus ac post paululum interfectus est. ³ Caesar Illyricum Pannoniam partemque Italiae bellis subegit ac domuit; Antonius Artabanen Armeniae regem proditione et dolo cepit: quem argentea catena uinctum ad confessionem thesaurorum regiorum coegit, expugnatoque oppido, in quo conditos esse prodiderat, magnam uim auri argentique abstulit. ⁴ qua elatus pecunia denuntiari bellum Caesari atque Octauiae, sorori Caesaris, uxori suae, repudium indici iussit et Cleopatram sibi ex Alexandria occurrere imperauit.

Pompeius, fleeing from Titius and Furnius, Antony’s generals, was often defeated and captured in land and naval battle, and after a little while was slain. ³ Caesar subjugated and subdued Illyricum, Pannonia, and part of Italy by wars; Antony captured Artabanes, king of Armenia, by treachery and guile: him, bound with a silver chain, he compelled to disclose the royal treasures, and, the town having been stormed in which he had revealed they were stored, he carried off a great quantity of gold and silver. ⁴ Elated by this money he ordered war to be declared upon Caesar and a repudiation to be proclaimed to Octavia, Caesar’s sister, his wife, and he commanded Cleopatra to come to meet him from Alexandria.

⁵ ipse Actium ubi classem constituerat profectus, cum prope tertiam partem remigum fame absumptam offendisset, nihil motus remi, inquit, modo salui sint; nam remiges non deerunt, quoad Graecia homines habuerit. ⁶ Caesar ducentis triginta rostratis nauibus a Brundisio in Epirum profectus est. Agrippa uero praemissus a Caesare, multas onerarias naues frumento atque armis graues ab Aegypto Syria Asiaque ad subsidium Antonio uenientes cepit peragratoque Peloponnensium sinu Mothonam urbem ualidissimo Antoniano praesidio munitam expugnauit.

⁵ He himself, having set out to Actium, where he had stationed the fleet, when he found that nearly a third of the rowers had been consumed by hunger, not at all moved, "only let the oars be safe," he said; "for rowers will not be lacking, as long as Greece shall have men." ⁶ Caesar set out from Brundisium into Epirus with 230 rostrate ships. But Agrippa, sent ahead by Caesar, captured many cargo ships, heavy with grain and arms, coming from Egypt, Syria, and Asia as reinforcement to Antony; and, after traversing the gulf of the Peloponnesians, he took by storm the city of Mothone, fortified with a very strong Antonian garrison.

⁷ inde Corcyram cepit; fugientes nauali proelio persecutus profligauit multisque rebus cruentissime gestis ad Caesarem uenit. Antonius defectu et fame militum suorum permotus bellum maturare instituit ac repente instructis copiis ad Caesaris castra processit et uictus est. ⁸ tertio post pugnam die Antonius castra ad Actium transtulit, nauali proelio decernere paratus.

⁷ thence he took Corcyra; pursuing those fleeing in a naval battle, he routed them, and with many deeds conducted most bloodily he came to Caesar. Antony, moved by the defection and famine of his soldiers, set himself to hasten the war, and suddenly, his forces drawn up, he advanced to Caesar's camp and was defeated. ⁸ on the third day after the battle Antony shifted his camp to Actium, prepared to decide the issue by a naval battle.

ducentae triginta rostratae fuere Caesaris naues et triginta sine rostris, triremes uelocitate Liburnicis pares et octo legiones classi superpositae, absque cohortibus quinque praetoriis. ⁹ classis Antonii centum septuaginta nauium fuit, quantum numero cedens tantum magnitudine praecellens, nam decem pedum altitudine a mari aberant. ¹⁰ famosum et magnum hoc bellum apud Actium fuit.

Two hundred thirty rostrate ships were Caesar’s, and thirty without rostra, triremes equal in speed to the Liburnians, and eight legions embarked upon the fleet, apart from five praetorian cohorts. ⁹ Antony’s fleet was of one hundred seventy ships, yielding as much in number as it excelled in magnitude, for by a height of ten feet they stood above the sea. ¹⁰ This war at Actium was famous and great.

ab hora quinta usque in horam septimam incerta uincendi spe grauissimae utrimque caedes actae; reliquum diei cum subsequente nocte in uictoriam Caesaris declinauit. ¹¹ prior regina Cleopatra cum LX uelocissimis nauibus fugit; Antonius quoque detracto insigni praetoriae nauis fugientem secutus uxorem est. inlucescente iam die uictoriam Caesar consummauit.

from the fifth hour up to the seventh hour, with the hope of conquering uncertain, the most grievous slaughter on both sides was carried out; the remainder of the day with the subsequent night inclined to the victory of Caesar. ¹¹ first, Queen Cleopatra fled with 60 very swift ships; Antony also, with the insignia of the praetorian ship removed, followed his fleeing wife. with day now dawning, Caesar consummated the victory.

¹² ex uictis duodecim milia cecidisse referuntur, sex milia uulnerata sunt, e quibus mille inter curandum defecerunt. ¹³ Antonius et Cleopatra communes liberos cum parte regiae gazae ad Rubrum mare praemittendos censuerunt; ipsi praesidiis circa duo Aegypti cornua, Pelusium Parethoniumque, dispositis classem et copias instaurando bello parauerunt.

¹² from the vanquished, twelve thousand are reported to have fallen, six thousand were wounded, of whom one thousand expired during treatment. ¹³ Antony and Cleopatra judged that their common children, along with part of the royal treasure, should be sent ahead to the Red Sea; they themselves, with garrisons stationed about the two horns of Egypt, Pelusium and Parethonium, prepared the fleet and the forces for renewing the war.

¹⁴ Caesar sexto imperator appellatus et quartum ipse cum M. Licinio Crasso consul Brundisium uenit; ibi orbis terrarum praesidia diuisis legionibus conposuit; inde in Syriam profectus, mox Pelusium adiit, ubi ab Antonianis praesidiis ultro susceptus est. ¹⁵ interea Cornelius Gallus praemissus a Caesare quattuor legiones, quas Antonius apud Cyrenas praesidii loco constituerat, suscepit in fidem atque inde Parethonium, primam Aegypti a Libyae parte ciuitatem, uicto cepit Antonio ipsumque continuo apud Pharum uicit. ¹⁶ Antonius equestre aduersus Caesarem bellum iniit; in eo quoque miserabiliter uictus aufugit.

¹⁴ Caesar, hailed imperator for the 6th time, and himself, consul for the 4th time, together with M. Licinius Crassus, came to Brundisium; there, with the legions divided, he arranged the garrisons of the world; thence he set out into Syria, soon he approached Pelusium, where he was of his own accord received by Antony’s garrisons. ¹⁵ Meanwhile Cornelius Gallus, sent ahead by Caesar, took into allegiance the four legions which Antony had stationed at Cyrene as a presidial force, and from there captured Parethonium, the first city of Egypt on the Libyan side, Antony having been defeated, and immediately he defeated Antony himself by the Pharos. ¹⁶ Antony entered upon a cavalry war against Caesar; in that too, pitiably defeated, he fled.

kalendis Sextilibus prima luce Antonius cum ad instruendam classem in portum descenderet, subito uniuersae naues ad Caesarem transierunt; cumque unico praesidio spoliatus esset, trepidus se cum paucis recepit in regiam. ¹⁷ deinde inminente Caesare turbataque ciuitate idem Antonius sese ferro transuerberauit ac semianimis ad Cleopatram in monumentum, in quod se illa mori certa condiderat, perlatus est. ¹⁸ Cleopatra postquam se ad triumphum seruari intellexit, uoluntariam mortem petens, serpentis, ut putatur, morsu in sinistro tacta bracchio exanimis inuenta est, frustra Caesare etiam Psyllos admouente, qui uenena serpentum e uulneribus hominum haustu reuocare atque exsugere solent.

on the Kalends of August, at first light, Antony, when he was going down into the harbor to fit out the fleet, suddenly all the ships crossed over to Caesar; and when he had been despoiled of his only defense, in alarm he withdrew with a few into the palace. ¹⁷ then, with Caesar impending and the city thrown into turmoil, that same Antony ran himself through with a sword, and half-alive he was borne to Cleopatra into the monument-mausoleum, into which she, resolved to die, had shut herself. ¹⁸ after Cleopatra realized that she was being preserved for a triumph, seeking a voluntary death, she was found lifeless, having been touched on the left arm by the bite of a serpent, as it is thought—Caesar even in vain bringing up the Psylli, who are accustomed to draw back and suck out the poisons of serpents from the wounds of men by suction.

¹⁹ Caesar Alexandria, urbe omnium longe opulentissima et maxima, uictor potitus est. nam et Roma in tantum opibus eius aucta est, ut propter abundantiam pecuniarum duplicia quam usque ad id fuerant possessionum aliarumque rerum uenalium pretia statuerentur. ²⁰ occisi sunt iussu Caesaris maior Antonii filius et P. Canidius, infestissimus quidem semper Caesari sed et Antonio infidus, et Cassius Palmensis, ultima uiolati patris Caesaris uictima, et Q. Ouinius ob eam maxime notam, quod obscenissime lanificio textrinoque reginae senator populi Romani praeesse non erubuerat.

¹⁹ Caesar, victorious, gained possession of Alexandria, the city by far the most opulent and greatest of all. For Rome too was so much augmented by its wealth that, on account of the abundance of monies, prices for estates and other saleable things were fixed at double what they had been up to that time. ²⁰ By Caesar’s order were killed Antony’s elder son and P. Canidius, most hostile indeed always to Caesar but unfaithful also to Antony, and Cassius of Palma, the last victim for Caesar the father who had been violated, and Q. Ovinius, chiefly for this disgrace: that, most obscenely, as a senator of the Roman people he had not blushed to preside over the queen’s wool-working and weaving-shop.

²¹ dehinc Caesar pedestribus copiis in Syriam uenit, deinde in Asiam ad hiberna concessit ac post per Graeciam Brundisium peruectus est.

²¹ thereafter Caesar came into Syria with infantry forces, then into Asia he withdrew to winter-quarters, and afterward, having been conveyed through Greece, he was carried to Brundisium.

[20] Anno ab urbe condita DCCXXV ipso imperatore Caesare Augusto quinquies et L. Apuleio consulibus Caesar uictor ab oriente rediens, VIII idus Ianuarias urbem triplici triumpho ingressus est ac tunc primum ipse Iani portas sopitis finitisque omnibus bellis ciuilibus clausit.² hoc die primum Augustus consalutatus est; quod nomen, cunctis antea [ inuiolatum ] et usque ad nunc ceteris inausum dominis, tantum orbis licite usurpatum apicem declarat imperii, atque ex eodem die summa rerum ac potestatum penes unum esse coepit et mansit, quod Graeci monarchiam uocant.

[20] In the year from the founding of the City 725, with the emperor Caesar Augustus in his 5th consulship and Lucius Apuleius as consuls, Caesar, returning victorious from the East, on the 6th day before the Ides of January, entered the city in a triple triumph, and then for the first time he himself closed the Gates of Janus, all the civil wars lulled and finished.² On this day he was for the first time hailed “Augustus”; which name, previously [ inviolate ] to all and up to now unattempted by other lords, declares the apex of command over the whole world lawfully assumed, and from that same day the supreme control of affairs and of powers began to be and remained in the hands of one, which the Greeks call monarchy.

³ Porro autem hunc esse eundem diem, hoc est VIII idus Ianuarias, quo nos Epiphania, hoc est apparitionem siue manifestationem Dominici sacramenti, obseruamus, nemo credentium siue etiam fidei contradicentium nescit. ⁴ de quo nostrae istius fidelissimae obseruationis sacramento uberius nunc dicere nec ratio nec locus flagitat, ut et quaerentibus reseruasse et neglegentibus non ingessisse uideamur. hoc autem fideliter commemorasse ideo par fuit, ut per omnia uenturi Christi gratia praeparatum Caesaris imperium conprobetur.

³ Moreover, that this is the same day, that is, the 8th day before the Ides of January, on which we observe the Epiphany, that is, the apparition or manifestation of the Lord’s sacrament, no one of the believers, or even of those contradicting the faith, is unaware. ⁴ About the sacrament of this our most faithful observance, to speak more fully now neither reason nor place demands, so that we may seem both to have reserved it for those who inquire and not to have imposed it upon the negligent. But to have faithfully commemorated this was fitting for this reason, in order that in every respect the empire of Caesar may be proved to have been prepared by the grace of the Christ who was to come.

⁵ Nam cum primum, C. Caesare auunculo suo interfecto, ex Apollonia rediens urbem ingrederetur, hora circiter tertia repente liquido ac puro sereno circulus ad speciem caelestis arcus orbem solis ambiit, quasi eum unum ac potissimum in hoc mundo solumque clarissimum in orbe monstraret, cuius tempore uenturus esset, qui ipsum solem solus mundumque totum et fecisset et regeret.

⁵ For when at first, with his uncle Gaius Caesar slain, he was returning from Apollonia and entering the city, at about the 3rd hour, suddenly, in a limpid and pure serenity, a circle in the likeness of a celestial arc encircled the orb of the sun, as if it were pointing him out as the one and most preeminent in this world and the only most brilliant in the world, in whose time there would come one who alone would both have made and would govern the sun itself and the whole world.

⁶ Deinde cum secundo, in Sicilia receptis a Pompeio et Lepido legionibus, XXX milia seruorum dominis restituisset et quadraginta et quattuor legiones solus imperio suo ad tutamen orbis terrarum distribuisset ouansque urbem ingressus omnia superiora populi Romani debita donanda, litterarum etiam monumentis abolitis, censuisset: in diebus ipsis fons olei largissimus, sicut superius expressi, de taberna meritoria per totum diem fluxit. quo signo quid euidentius quam in diebus Caesaris toto orbe regnantis futura Christi natiuitas declarata est? Christus enim lingua gentis eius, in qua et ex qua natus est, unctus interpretatur.

⁶ Then when, a second time, in Sicily, after legions had been received from Pompey and Lepidus, he had restored 30 thousand slaves to their masters and had by his sole command distributed 44 legions for the safeguarding of the orb of the lands, and, entering the city in ovation, had decreed that all the former debts of the Roman people were to be remitted, the documentary records even being abolished: in those very days a most abundant spring of oil, as I have expressed above, flowed for the whole day from a lodging-house for hire. By which sign, what more evident than that in the days of Caesar reigning over the whole orb the future Nativity of Christ was declared? For “Christ,” in the tongue of his nation, in which and from which he was born, is interpreted “Anointed.”

⁷ itaque cum eo tempore, quo Caesari perpetua tribunicia potestas decreta est, Romae fons olei per totum diem fluxit: sub principatu Caesaris Romanoque imperio per totum diem, hoc est per omne Romani tempus imperii, Christum et ex eo Christianos, id est unctum atque ex eo unctos, de meritoria taberna, hoc est de hospita largaque Ecclesia, affluenter atque incessabiliter processuros restituendosque per Caesarem omnes seruos, qui tamen cognoscerent dominum suum, ceterosque, qui sine domino inuenirentur, morti supplicioque dedendos, remittendaque sub Caesare debita peccatorum in ea urbe, in qua spontaneum fluxisset oleum, euidentissima his, qui prophetarum uoces non audiebant, signa in caelo et in terra prodigia prodiderunt.

and so, when at that time, at which for Caesar perpetual tribunician power was decreed, at Rome a spring of oil flowed through the whole day: under the principate of Caesar and the Roman imperium through the whole day, that is, through the whole time of the Roman imperium, that Christ and from him Christians, that is, the Anointed and from him the anointed ones, from the meritoria tavern, that is, from the hospitable and bountiful Church, would go forth affluently and incessantly; and that all slaves would be restored through Caesar—those, however, who would recognize their lord—and the rest, who would be found without a lord, to be handed over to death and punishment; and that under Caesar the debts of sins were to be remitted in that city in which the oil had flowed spontaneously—most evident signs in heaven and portents on earth proclaimed these things to those who were not hearing the voices of the prophets.

⁸ Tertio autem, cum urbem triumphans quintum consul ingressus est, eo scilicet die, quem supra nominauimus, cum et Ianum post ducentos annos primum ipse clausit et clarissimum illud Augusti nomen adsumpsit, quid fidelius ac uerius credi aut cognosci potest, concurrentibus ad tantam manifestationem pace nomine die, quam hunc occulto quidem gestorum ordine ad obsequium praeparationis eius praedestinatum fuisse, qui eo die, quo ille manifestandus mundo post paululum erat, et pacis signum praetulit et potestatis nomen adsumpsit?

⁸ Thirdly, however, when, triumphing, he entered the city as consul for the 5th time—on that very day, namely, which we have named above—since he himself for the first time in 200 years closed Janus and assumed that most illustrious name Augustus, what can be more trustworthy and truer to be believed or known, with the day—Peace by name—converging upon so great a manifestation, than that this man was predestined, by a hidden order of deeds, for the obedience of His preparation, he who on that day, on which He was shortly thereafter to be manifested to the world, both bore the sign of peace and assumed the name of power?

⁹ Quid autem in quarto reditu, cum finito Cantabrico bello pacatisque omnibus gentibus Caesar urbem repetiit, ad contestationem fidei, quam expromimus, actum sit, ipso melius ordine proferetur.

⁹ But what, moreover, on the fourth return—when, the Cantabrian war having been finished and all nations pacified, Caesar revisited the city—was done toward the contestation/testimony of the faith which we set forth will be better brought forward by the order itself.

[21] Anno ab urbe condita DCCXXVI imperatore Augusto Caesare sexies et bis M. Agrippa consulibus Caesar parum in Hispania per ducentos annos actum intellegens, si Cantabros atque Astures, duas fortissimas Hispaniae gentes, suis uti legibus sineret, aperuit Iani portas atque in Hispanias ipse cum exercitu profectus est.² Cantabri et Astures Gallaeciae prouinciae portio sunt, qua extentum Pyrenaei iugum haud procul secundo Oceano sub septentrione deducitur. ³ hi non solum propriam libertatem tueri parati uerum etiam finitimorum praeripere ausi, Vaccaeos et Turmogos et Autrigonas adsiduis eruptionibus populabantur.

[21] In the year from the founding of the City 726, with Emperor Augustus Caesar and M. Agrippa as consuls—Augustus for the 6th time and Agrippa for the 2nd—Caesar, understanding that too little had been effected in Spain over two hundred years, if he should allow the Cantabri and the Astures, two very brave peoples of Spain, to use their own laws, opened the gates of Janus and set out himself with the army into the Spains.² The Cantabri and Astures are a portion of the province of Gallaecia, where the stretched ridge of the Pyrenees is drawn down under the north, not far along the Ocean. ³ These people not only were prepared to guard their own liberty, but even, having dared to snatch that of their neighbors, were ravaging the Vaccaei and the Turmogi and the Autrigones by continual eruptions.

igitur Caesar apud Segisamam castra posuit, tribus agminibus totam paene amplexus Cantabriam. ⁴ diu fatigato frustra atque in periculum saepe deducto exercitu, tandem ab Aquitanico sinu per Oceanum incautis hostibus admoueri classem atque exponi copias iubet. ⁵ tunc demum Cantabri sub moenibus Atticae maximo congressi bello et uicti in Vinnium montem natura tutissimum confugerunt, ubi obsidionis fame ad extremum paene consumpti sunt.

therefore Caesar pitched camp at Segisama, having encompassed nearly all Cantabria with three columns. ⁴ with the army long wearied to no avail and often led into danger, at last he orders the fleet to be brought up from the Aquitanian bay along the Ocean against the incautious enemies and the troops to be disembarked. ⁵ then at length the Cantabri, having engaged in a very great battle beneath the walls of Attica and defeated, fled to Mount Vinnius, safest by nature, where by the hunger of a siege they were almost consumed to the last.

Racilium deinde oppidum magna ui ac diu repugnans, postremo captum ac dirutum est. ⁶ praeterea ulteriores Gallaeciae partes, quae montibus siluisque consitae Oceano terminantur, Antistius et Firmius legati magnis grauibusque bellis perdomuerunt. ⁷ nam et Medullium montem Minio flumini inminentem, in quo se magna multitudo hominum tuebatur, per quindecim milia passuum fossa circumsaeptum obsidione cinxerunt.

Racilium then, a town long resisting with great force, was at last captured and razed. ⁶ Moreover, the farther parts of Gallaecia, which, thick-set with mountains and forests, are bounded by the Ocean, the legates Antistius and Firmius thoroughly subdued by great and grievous wars. ⁷ For they also encircled with a siege Mount Medullium, overhanging the river Minio, on which a great multitude of men were defending themselves, enclosed all around by a ditch for 15 miles.

⁸ itaque ubi se gens hominum trux natura et ferox neque tolerandae obsidioni sufficientem neque suscipiendo bello parem intellegit, ad uoluntariam mortem seruitutis timore concurrit. nam se paene omnes certatim igne ferro ac ueneno necauerunt. ⁹ Astures uero positis castris apud Asturam flumen Romanos, nisi proditi praeuentique essent, magnis consiliis uiribusque oppressissent.

⁸ and so, when the people, savage by nature and ferocious, understood themselves to be neither sufficient for enduring a siege nor equal to undertaking war, they resorted, from fear of servitude, to voluntary death. For almost all of them, vying with one another, killed themselves by fire, iron, and poison. ⁹ But the Astures, having pitched camp by the Astura River, would have overwhelmed the Romans with great counsels and forces, had they not been betrayed and forestalled.

tres legatos cum legionibus suis in tria castra diuisos tribus aeque agminibus obruere repente moliti, suorum proditione detecti sunt. ¹⁰ hos postea Carisius bello exceptos non parua etiam Romanorum clade superauit. pars eorum proelio elapsa Lancham confugit.

they attempted suddenly to overwhelm three legates, with their legions, divided into three camps, by three equally matched columns; but they were exposed by the treachery of their own men. ¹⁰ these men thereafter Carisius, having intercepted them in war, overcame, with no small loss to the Romans as well. a part of them, having slipped from the battle, fled for refuge to Lancham.

cumque milites circumdatam urbem incendio adoriri pararent, dux Carisius et a suis cessationem impetrauit incendii et a barbaris uoluntatem deditionis exegit. studiose enim nitebatur integram atque incolumem ciuitatem uictoriae suae testem relinquere. ¹¹ Cantabricae uictoriae hunc honorem Caesar detulit, ut tunc quoque belli portas claustro cohiberi iuberet.

and when the soldiers were preparing to assault the surrounded city with fire, the commander Carisius both obtained from his own men a cessation of the burning and exacted from the barbarians the will for surrender. For he was zealously striving to leave the city entire and unharmed as a witness of his victory. ¹¹ To the Cantabrian victory Caesar conferred this honor: that then too he ordered the gates of war to be restrained by a bar.

ita tunc secundo per Caesarem, quarto post urbem conditam clausus est Ianus.

Thus then, for the second time through Caesar, Janus was closed for the fourth time after the city was founded.

¹² Post hoc Claudius Drusus, priuignus Caesaris, Galliam Raetiamque sortitus maximas fortissimasque gentes Germaniae armis subegit. ¹³ nam tunc, ueluti ad constitutum pacis diem festinarent, ita omnes ad experientiam belli decisionemue foederis undatim gentes commouebantur aut suscepturae condiciones pacis, si uincerentur, aut usurae quieta libertate, si uincerent. ¹⁴ Norici Illyrii Pannonii Dalmatae Moesi Thraces et Daci Sarmatae plurimique et maximi Germaniae populi per diuersos duces uel superati uel repressi uel etiam obiectu maximorum fluminum, Rheni Danuuiique, seclusi sunt.

¹² After this, Claudius Drusus, the stepson of Caesar, having been allotted Gaul and Rhaetia, subdued by arms the greatest and bravest nations of Germany. ¹³ For then, as if they were hastening to an appointed day of peace, so all the nations were being stirred in waves to the experience of war or the decision of a treaty, either about to accept terms of peace if they were conquered, or to enjoy quiet liberty if they should conquer. ¹⁴ The Noricans, Illyrians, Pannonians, Dalmatians, Moesians, Thracians, and Dacians, the Sarmatians, and very many and the greatest peoples of Germany, under diverse commanders, were either overcome or repressed, or even, by the interposition of the greatest rivers, the Rhine and the Danube, were cut off.

¹⁵ Drusus in Germania primum Usipetes, deinde Tencteros et Chattos perdomuit. Marcomannos paene ad internecionem cecidit. ¹⁶ postea fortissimas nationes et quibus natura uires, consuetudo experientiam uirium dabat, Cheruscos Suebos et Sygambros pariter uno bello sed etiam suis aspero superauit.

¹⁵ Drusus in Germany first thoroughly subdued the Usipetes, then the Tencteri and the Chatti. He struck down the Marcomanni almost to extermination. ¹⁶ Afterwards he likewise overcame in a single war the bravest nations—and to whom nature gave strength and custom the experience of strength—the Cherusci, the Suebi, and the Sygambri, yet in a battle harsh even for his own men.

¹⁷ quorum ex eo considerari uirtus ac feritas potest, quod mulieres quoque eorum, siquando praeuentu Romanorum inter plaustra sua concludebantur, deficientibus telis uel qualibet re, qua uelut telo uti furor possit, paruos filios conlisos humi in hostium ora iaciebant, in singulis filiorum necibus bis parricidae.

¹⁷ of whom from this their valor and ferity can be considered, that even their women, whenever by the preemption of the Romans they were shut in among their wagons, with missiles being deficient, or with any thing which frenzy could use as if a weapon, would hurl their little sons, dashed on the ground, into the faces of the enemies—being, in each single killing of their sons, parricides two times over.

¹⁸ Tunc etiam in Africa Musolanos et Gaetulos latius uagantes Cossus dux Caesaris artatis finibus cohercuit atque a Romanis limitibus abstinere metu conpulit.

¹⁸ Then also in Africa, Cossus, Caesar’s general, coerced the Musolani and the Gaetuli, who were roaming more broadly, within tightened borders, and by fear compelled them to abstain from the Roman limits.

¹⁹ Interea Caesarem apud Tarraconem citerioris Hispaniae urbem legati Indorum et Scytharum toto orbe transmisso tandem ibi inuenerunt, ultra quod iam quaerere non possent, refuderuntque in Caesarem Alexandri Magni gloriam: ²⁰ quem sicut Hispanorum Gallorumque legatio in medio oriente apud Babylonam contemplatione pacis adiit, ita hunc apud Hispaniam in occidentis ultimo supplex cum gentilicio munere eous Indus et Scytha boreus orauit. ²¹ Cantabrico bello per quinque annos acto totaque Hispania in aeternam pacem cum quadam respiratione lassitudinis reclinata ac reposita, Caesar Romam rediit.

¹⁹ Meanwhile, envoys of the Indians and the Scythians, with the whole world traversed, at last found Caesar at Tarraco, a city of Hither Spain—beyond which they now could not seek farther—and they returned upon Caesar the glory of Alexander the Great: ²⁰ just as an embassy of Spaniards and Gauls approached that one in the Middle Orient at Babylon for a contemplation of peace, so this one, in Spain at the furthest of the Occident, was as a suppliant besought by an eastern Indian and a boreal Scythian with a gentilic gift. ²¹ The Cantabrian war having been waged for five years, and all Spain laid back and restored into eternal peace with a certain breathing-space of weariness, Caesar returned to Rome.

²² Quibus etiam diebus multa per se multaque per duces et legatos bella gessit. nam inter ceteros et Piso aduersum Vindelicos missus est; quibus subactis uictor ad Caesarem Lugdunum uenit. ²³ Pannonios nouo motu intumescentes Tiberius priuignus Caesaris cruentissima caede deleuit.

²² In those same days he waged many wars by himself and many through his commanders and legates. For, among others, even Piso was sent against the Vindelici; and they having been subjugated, victorious he came to Caesar at Lugdunum. ²³ The Pannonians, swelling with a new uprising, Tiberius, Caesar’s stepson, obliterated with most bloody slaughter.

²⁴ idemque continuo Germanos bello arripuit, e quibus quadraginta milia captiuorum uictor abduxit. ²⁵ quod reuera bellum maximum et formidulosissimum quindecim legionibus per triennium gestum est, nec fere ullum maius bellum, sicut Suetonius adtestatur, post Punicum fuit.

²⁴ and he likewise immediately took up war against the Germans, from whom, as victor, he led away forty thousand captives. ²⁵ which indeed was a very great and most formidable war, waged with 15 legions for three years, nor was there scarcely any greater war, as Suetonius attests, after the Punic War.

²⁶ Sub eodem uero tempore Quintilius Varus cum tribus legionibus a Germanis rebellantibus, mira superbia atque auaritia in subiectos agens, funditus deletus est. ²⁷ quam reipublicae cladem Caesar Augustus adeo grauiter tulit, ut saepe per uim doloris caput parieti conlidens clamaret Quintili Vare, redde legiones.

²⁶ At this same time Quintilius Varus, with three legions, by the rebelling Germans—acting toward the subjects with astonishing arrogance and avarice—was utterly destroyed. ²⁷ This disaster to the republic Caesar Augustus took so gravely that, often, dashing his head against the wall by the force of grief, he would cry out, “Quintilius Varus, give back the legions.”

²⁸ Bosforanos uero Agrippa superauit et signis Romanis, quae illi quondam sub Mithridate sustulerant, bello recuperatis uictos ad deditionem coegit.

²⁸ But Agrippa overpowered the Bosporans and, with the Roman standards—which they had once carried off under Mithridates—recovered in war, he compelled the vanquished to capitulation.

²⁹ Parthi, quasi toto terrarum orbe uel domito uel pacato omnium oculis signarentur atque in se solos omnis uigor Romani imperii uertendus esset, quippe quos pristina ulciscendae Crassianae caedis conscientia mordebat, ultro signa, quae Crasso interfecto abstulerant, ad Caesarem remiserunt regiisque obsidibus traditis firmum foedus fideli supplicatione meruerunt.

²⁹ The Parthians, as if, with the whole orb of lands either subdued or pacified, they were being marked out before the eyes of all, and as if the whole vigor of the Roman imperium had to be turned upon themselves alone—since their former conscience of avenging the Crassian slaughter was biting them—of their own accord sent back to Caesar the standards which, when Crassus had been slain, they had carried off, and, royal hostages having been handed over, by faithful supplication they earned a firm treaty.

[22] Itaque anno ab urbe condita DCCLII Caesar Augustus ab oriente in occidentem, a septentrione in meridiem ac per totum Oceani circulum cunctis gentibus una pace conpositis, Iani portas tertio ipse tunc clausit.² quas ex eo per duodecim fere annos quietissimo semper obseratas otio ipsa etiam robigo signauit, nec prius umquam nisi sub extrema senectute Augusti pulsatae Atheniensium seditione et Dacorum commotione patuerunt. ³ clausis igitur Iani portis rempublicam, quam bello quaesiuerat, pace enutrire atque amplificare studens leges plurimas statuit, per quas humanum genus libera reuerentia disciplinae morem gereret.

[22] And so, in the year from the founding of the City 752, Caesar Augustus, with all nations composed into a single peace from east to west, from north to south, and around the entire circuit of Ocean, then himself closed the gates of Janus for the 3rd time.² Which from that point for almost twelve years, always kept shut in most tranquil leisure, even rust itself marked; nor earlier ever, except in the extreme old age of Augustus, when stirred by a sedition of the Athenians and a commotion of the Dacians, were they opened. ³ Therefore, with the gates of Janus closed, striving to nourish and amplify by peace the republic which he had sought by war, he established very many laws, through which the human race might conduct itself with free reverence for discipline.

⁴ domini appellationem ut homo declinauit. nam cum eodem spectante ludos pronuntiatum esset in mimo dominum aequum et bonum uniuersique, quasi de ipso dictum esset, exultantes adprobauissent, et statim quidem manu uultuque indecoras adulationes repressit et insequenti die grauissimo corripuit edicto dominumque se posthac appellari ne a liberis quidem aut nepotibus suis uel serio uel ioco passus est.

⁴ the appellation of “lord” he, as a man, declined. For when, with the same man watching the games, there had been pronounced in a mime “a just and good lord,” and everyone, as if it had been said about himself, exultant, had approved, he immediately with hand and countenance repressed the unseemly adulations, and on the following day he rebuked them with a most severe edict; and thereafter he did not allow himself to be called “lord,” not even by his own children or grandchildren, either in earnest or in jest.

⁵ Igitur eo tempore, id est eo anno quo firmissimam uerissimamque pacem ordinatione Dei Caesar conposuit, natus est Christus, cuius aduentui pax ista famulata est, in cuius ortu audientibus hominibus exultantes angeli cecinerunt Gloria in excelsis Deo, et in terra pax hominibus bonae uoluntatis. eodemque tempore hic, ad quem rerum omnium summa concesserat, dominum se hominum appellari non passus est, immo non ausus, quo uerus dominus totius generis humani inter homines natus est. ⁶ eodem quoque anno tunc primum idem Caesar, quem his tantis mysteriis praedestinauerat Deus, censum agi singularum ubique prouinciarum et censeri omnes homines iussit, quando et Deus homo uideri et esse dignatus est.

⁵ Therefore at that time, that is, in that year in which by the ordination of God Caesar composed the most firm and most true peace, Christ was born, for whose advent that peace did service; at whose birth, with men listening, exultant angels sang, “Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace to men of good will.” And at the same time this man, to whom the sum of all affairs had been conceded, did not allow himself to be called lord of men—nay, did not dare to—when the true lord of the whole human race was born among men. ⁶ In the same year then for the first time the same Caesar, whom God had predestined for such great mysteries, ordered a census to be held of the several provinces everywhere and that all men be registered, when God too deigned to appear and to be a man.

tunc igitur natus est Christus, Romano censui statim adscriptus ut natus est. ⁷ haec est prima illa clarissimaque professio, quae Caesarem omnium principem Romanosque rerum dominos singillatim cunctorum hominum edita adscriptione signauit, in qua se et ipse, qui cunctos homines fecit, inueniri hominem adscribique inter homines uoluit: quod penitus numquam ab orbe condito atque ab exordio generis humani in hunc modum ne Babylonio quidem uel Macedonico, ut non dicam minori cuiquam regno concessum fuit.⁸ nec dubium, quin omnium cognitioni fidei inspectionique pateat, quia Dominus noster Iesus Christus hanc urbem nutu suo auctam defensamque in hunc rerum apicem prouexerit, cuius potissime uoluit esse cum uenit, dicendus utique ciuis Romanus census professione Romani.

then therefore Christ was born, immediately upon being born enrolled to the Roman census. ⁷ this is that first and most most-illustrious profession, which, by the promulgation of the adscription of all men individually, marked Caesar as princeps of all and the Romans as lords of affairs, in which even he himself, who made all men, willed to be found a man and to be adscribed among men: a thing which from the founding of the world and from the beginning of the human race was never at all granted in this manner not even to the Babylonian or the Macedonian, not to say to any lesser kingdom. ⁸ nor is it doubtful, but that it lies open to the cognition, faith, and inspection of all, that our Lord Jesus Christ by his nod has increased and defended this city and has advanced it to this apex of affairs, the city to which he especially wished to belong when he came, to be called, assuredly, a Roman citizen by the profession of the Roman census.

⁹ Quamobrem quia ad id temporis peruentum est, quo et Dominus Christus hunc mundum primum aduentu suo inlustrauit regnumque Caesari tranquillissimum dedit, hunc quoque sextum libellum hoc fine concluserim: ¹⁰ ut germinantia tempora Christiana magisque inter reprimentum manus crescentia et quae adhuc in prouectu posita horum ipsorum, quibus haec respondere cogimur, insectatione mordentur, septimo libello, si tamen adiuuante Domino suffecero, conprehendam, ¹¹ ut, quoniam ab initio et peccare homines et puniri propter peccata non tacui, nunc quoque, quae persecutiones Christianorum actae sint et quae ultiones secutae sint, absque eo quod omnes ad peccandum generaliter proni sunt atque ideo singillatim corripiuntur, expediam.

⁹ Wherefore, since it has come to that time at which both the Lord Christ illumined this world by his first Advent and granted to Caesar a most tranquil reign, I will likewise close this sixth little book with this conclusion: ¹⁰ that I may comprehend in the seventh little book—if, however, with the Lord helping I shall suffice—the germinating Christian times, and, more, the things growing amid the hands of the repressors, and those matters which, still set in progress, are bitten by the insectation of these very men to whom we are compelled to respond to these things; ¹¹ so that, since from the beginning I have not kept silence that men both sin and are punished on account of sins, now also I may set forth what persecutions of the Christians were carried out and what vengeances followed, apart from the fact that all are generally prone to sin and therefore are individually corrected.