Sallust: Epistula Mithridatis

1 Rex Mithridates regi Arsaci salutem. Omnes qui secundis rebus suis ad belli societatem orantur considerare debent liceatne tum pacem agere, dein quod quaesitur satisne pium, tutum, gloriosum an indecorum sit.

1 King Mithridates to King Arsaces, greetings. All who, in prosperous circumstances, are solicited to a war-alliance ought to consider whether it is licit then to pursue peace, then, as to what is inquired, whether it be sufficiently pious, safe, glorious, or indecorous.

2 Tibi si perpetua pace frui licet, nisi hostes opportuni et scelestissumi, [ni] egregia fama, si Romanos oppresseris, futura est, neque petere audeam societatem et frustra mala mea cum bonis tuis misceri sperem.

2 If it is permitted for you to enjoy perpetual peace—unless there are enemies both opportune and most criminal, unless outstanding fame, should you crush the Romans, is to be yours—I would neither dare to seek an alliance nor hope in vain that my evils be commixed with your goods.

3 Atque ea, quae te morari posse videntur, ira in Tigranem recentis belli et meae res parum prosperae, si vera existumare voles, maxume hortabuntur.

3 And the very things that seem able to delay you—the anger toward Tigranes from the recent war, and my not very prosperous affairs—if you will judge truly, will most strongly exhort you.

4 Ille enim obnoxius qualem tu voles societatem accipiet, mihi fortuna multis rebus ereptis usum dedit bene suadendi et, quod florentibus optabile est, ego non validissumus praebeo exemplum, quo rectius tua componas.

4 For he, being subject, will accept such an alliance as you will wish; to me, Fortune, with many things snatched away, has given the experience of persuading well; and—what is desirable for those who are flourishing—I, not the most powerful, provide an example, whereby you may more rightly compose your own affairs.

5 Namque Romanis cum nationibus, populis, regibus cunctis una et ea vetus causa bellandi est, cupido profunda imperi et divitiarum; qua primo cum rege Macedonum Philippo bellum sumpsere, dum a Carthaginiensibus premebantur amicitiam simulantes.

5 For indeed, for the Romans, with all nations, peoples, and kings, there is one—and that an old—cause of waging war: a deep cupidity of dominion and of riches; by which they first took up war with Philip, king of the Macedonians, while they were being pressed by the Carthaginians, feigning friendship.

6 Ei subvenientem Antiochum concessione Asiae per dolum avortere, ac mox fracto Philippo Antiochus omni cis Taurum agro et decem milibus talentorum spoliatus est.

6 They turned aside Antiochus, coming to help him, by a concession of Asia through deceit; and soon, Philip having been shattered, Antiochus was despoiled of all territory on this side of the Taurus and of 10,000 talents.

7 Persen deinde, Philippi filium, post multa et varia certamina apud Samothracas deos acceptum in fidem, callidi et repertores perfidiae, quia pacto vitam dederant, insomniis occidere.

7 Then Perseus, the son of Philip, after many and various contests, though received into the faith/protection of the Samothracian gods, was killed by them—cunning and inventors of perfidy—by insomnia, because they had given him life by a pact.

8 Eumenen, cuius amicitiam gloriose ostentant, initio prodidere Antiocho, pacis mercedem: post, habitum custodiae agri captivi, sumptibus et contumeliis ex rege miserrumum servorum effecere, simulatoque impio testamento filium eius Aristonicum, quia patrium regnum petiverat, hostium more per triumphum duxere.

8 Eumenes, whose friendship they gloriously ostent, they at the beginning betrayed to Antiochus, as the price of peace; afterwards, kept under guard on the farm of a captive, by expenses and contumelies they made out of a king the most wretched of slaves; and, with a feigned and impious testament, his son Aristonicus, because he had sought the paternal kingdom, they led, after the fashion of enemies, through a triumph.

9 Asia ab ipsis obsessa est, postremo Bithyniam Nicomede mortuo diripuere, cum filius Nysa, quam reginam appellaverat, genitus haud dubie esset.

9 Asia was besieged by them; at last they plundered Bithynia with Nicomedes dead, although a son by Nysa, whom he had styled queen, had without doubt been begotten.

10 Nam quid ego me appellem? Quem diiunctum undique regnis et tetrarchiis ab imperio eorum, quia fama erat divitem neque serviturum esse, per Nicomedem bello lacessiverunt, sceleris eorum haud ignarum et ea, quae accidere, testatum antea Cretensis, solos omnium liberos ea tempestate, et regem Ptolemaeum.

10 For why should I appeal to myself? Me—whom, disjoined on every side from kingdoms and tetrarchies by their imperium, because there was a rumor that I was wealthy and would not be a servant—they provoked to war through Nicomedes, not unaware of their crime; and, as to the things which were to befall, I had previously called as witnesses the Cretans—the only free people of all at that time—and King Ptolemy.

11 Atque ego ultus iniurias Nicomedem Bithynia expuli Asiamque spolium regis Antiochi recepi et Graeciae dempsi grave servitium.

11 And I, having avenged the injuries, drove out Nicomedes from Bithynia, and I recovered Asia, the spoil of King Antiochus, and I removed from Greece the grievous servitude.

12 Incepta mea postremus servorum Archelaus exercitu prodito impedivit, illique, quos ignavia aut prava calliditas, ut meis laboribus tuti essent, armis abstinuit, acerbissumas poenas solvunt, Ptolemaeus pretio in dies bellum prolatans, Cretenses impugnati semel iam neque finem nisi excidio habituri.

12 My undertakings the lowest of my slaves, Archelaus, by betraying the army, impeded; and those whom cowardice or crooked cleverness kept back from arms, so that by my labors they might be safe, pay the most bitter penalties; Ptolemy, by bribery, from day to day is prolonging the war, and the Cretans, once now attacked, will have no end save destruction.

13 Equidem cum milhi ob ipsorum interna mala dilata proelia magis quam pacem datam intellegerem, abnuente Tigrane, qui mea dicta sero probat, te remoto procul, omnibus aliis obnoxiis, rursus tamen bellum coepi Marcumque Cottam, Romanum ducem, apud Chalcedona terra fudi, mari exui classe pulcherruma.

13 Indeed, since I understood that, on account of their own internal evils, battles were being deferred rather than peace being given, with Tigranes refusing—who approves my sayings late—you removed far away, all others obnoxious, nevertheless I again began war and, near Chalcedon, I routed Marcus Cotta, a Roman leader, on land, and at sea I stripped him of a most beautiful fleet.

14 Apud Cyzicum magno cum exercitu in obsidio moranti frumentum defuit, nullo circum adnitente; simul hiems mari prohibebat. Ita, sine vi hostium regredi conatus in patrium regnum, naufragiis apud Parium et Heracleam militum optumos cum classibus amisi.

14 At Cyzicus, lingering with a great army in a siege, grain failed, with no one around exerting effort; at the same time winter barred the sea. Thus, without the force of the enemy, attempting to return into my ancestral kingdom, by shipwrecks at Parion and Heraclea I lost the best of the soldiers along with the fleets.

15 Restituto deinde apud Cabiram exercitu et variis inter me atque Lucullum proeliis, inopia rursus ambos iucessit; illi suberat regnum Ariobarzanis bello intactum, ego vastis circum omnibus locis, in Armeniam concessi; secutique Romani non me, sed morem suum omnia regna subvortundi, quia multitudinem artis locis pugna prohibuere, imprudentiam Tigranis pro victoria ostentant.

15 Then, the army having been restored at Cabira and with various battles between me and Lucullus, want again assailed us both; to him there lay at hand the kingdom of Ariobarzanes, untouched by war, while I, with all the places around laid waste, withdrew into Armenia; and the Romans, following not me but their own custom of subverting all kingdoms, because the straitness of the places forbade their multitude from battle, parade the imprudence of Tigranes as a victory.

16 Nunc, quaeso, considera nobis oppressis utrum firmiorem te ad resistundum, an finem belli futurum putes? Scio equidem tibi magnas opes virorum armorum et auri esse; et ea re a nobis ad societatem ab illis ad praedam peteris. Ceterum consilium est, Tigranis regno integro, meis militibus belli prudentibus, procul ab domo, parvo labore per nostra corpora bellum conficere, quo neque vincere neque vinci sine tuo periculo possumus.

16 Now, I pray, consider, with us oppressed, whether you think yourself more steadfast for resisting, or that there will be an end of the war? I indeed know that you have great resources of men, arms, and gold; and for that reason you are sought by us for alliance, by those men for plunder. However, the counsel is, with Tigranes’ kingdom intact, with my soldiers prudent in war, far from home, with little labor to finish the war through our bodies—wherein we can neither conquer nor be conquered without your peril.

17 An ignoras Romanos, postquam ad occidentem pergentibus finem Oceanus fecit, arma huc convortisse? Neque quicquam a principio nisi raptum habere, domum, coniuges, agros, imperium? Convenus olim sine patria, parentibus, pestem conditos orbis terrarum, quibus non humana ulla neque divina obstant, quin socios, amicos, procul iuxta sitos, inopes potentisque trahant excindant, omniaque non serva et maxume regna hostilia ducant.

17 Do you not know that the Romans, after the Ocean set an end for those proceeding toward the west, have converted their arms hither? And that from the beginning they have had nothing except what was seized by rapine—home, spouses, fields, dominion? A gathering once without fatherland, without parents, established as the pest of the world, for whom no human nor divine things stand in the way, but that they drag off and extirpate allies and friends, those placed far and near, the needy and the powerful, and they deem everything not subject, and especially kingdoms, hostile.

18 Namque pauci libertatem, pars magna iustos dominos volunt, nos suspecti sumus aemuli et in tempore vindices affuturi.

18 For indeed few want liberty; a great many want just masters; we are suspected as rivals and, in due time, as avengers who will be at hand.

19 Tu vero, cui Seleucea, maxuma urbium, regnumque Persidis inclutis divitiis est, quid ab illis nisi dolum in praesens et postea bellum expectas?

19 But you indeed, who possess Seleucea, greatest of cities, and the kingdom of Persia with illustrious riches, what do you expect from them except deceit for the present and afterward war?

20 Romani arma in omnis habent, acerruma in eos, quibus victis spolia maxuma; audendo et fallundo et bella ex bellis serundo magni facti.

20 The Romans have arms against all, and are most keen against those, by whose being conquered the spoils are greatest; by daring and by deceiving and by sowing wars out of wars they have been made great.

21 Per hunc morem extinguent omnia aut occident . . . quod haud difficile est, si tu Mesopotamia, nos Armenia circumgredimur exercitum sine frumento, sine auxiliis, fortuna aut nostris vitiis adhuc incolumem.

21 By this method they will extinguish everything or they will fall . . . which is not difficult, if you by Mesopotamia, we by Armenia, surround the army without grain, without auxiliaries, up to now unharmed by fortune or by our vices.

22 Teque illa fama sequetur, auxilio profectum magnis regibus latrones gentium oppressisse.

22 And that fame will follow you, that, having set out as aid to great kings, you have suppressed the robbers of the nations.

23 Quod uti facias moneo hortorque, neu malis pernicie nostra tuam prolatare quam societate victor fieri.

23 I advise and exhort you to do this, and do not prefer to extend your own renown by our destruction rather than to become a victor by alliance.