Civil Wars

Thus was Sextus Pompeius captured. He was the last remaining son of Pompey the Great, and had been deprived of his father when very young and of his brother while still a stripling. After their death he concealed himself for a long time and practised robbery secretly in Spain until he had collected a large following, because he made himself known as Pompey's son. Then he practised more open robbery. After the death of Gaius Cæsar he carried on war vigorously and collected a large army, together with ships and money, took islands, became master of the western sea, brought famine upon Italy, and compelled his enemies to make peace on such terms as he chose. Of most importance was the aid that he rendered to the proscribed in Rome exposed to utter destruction, rescuing many of the nobility who were, at this later time, safe at home by means of him. But stricken with mental aberration, he never pursued an aggressive policy against his foes, although fortune offered him many opportunities; he only defended himself. After such a career Pompeius was taken prisoner.

Titius brought Pompeius' soldiers into Antony's service and put Pompeius himself to death at Miletus in the fortieth year of his age. This he did either on his own account, angry at some former insult, and ungrateful for the subsequent kindness, or in pursuance of Antony's order. Some say that Plancus, not Antony, gave this order. They think that Plancus, while governing Syria, was authorized by letters to sign Antony's name in cases of urgency and to use his seal. Others think that it was written by Plancus with Antony's knowledge, but that the latter was ashamed to write it on account of the name Pompeius, and because Cleopatra was favorable to him on account of Pompey the Great. Still others think that Plancus, being cognizant of these facts, took it upon himself to give the order as a matter of precaution, lest Pompeius, with the coöperation of Cleopatra, should breed dissension between Antony and Octavius.[*](fulaca/menon mh\ th\n ai)ti/an )*antwni/ou kai\ *kai/saros e)s a)llh/lous didw=| *pomph/i+os, kai\ *kleopa/tra *pomphi+/w sunergou=sa, a)naqre/yaien. This sentence has given much trouble to commentators. Schweighäuser rejected the word didw=| altogether.)

After the death of Pompeius Antony made a new expedition to Armenia, and Octavius made one against the Illyrians, who were plundering Italy, some of whom had never been subject to the Romans, while others had revolted during the civil wars. Since these Illyrian affairs are not very well known to me, and are not of sufficient length to make a book by themselves, and have no suitable place to be treated elsewhere, I have recorded them above (beginning with the time when Illyria was acquired by the Romans and bringing them down to the end), and added them to the history of the neighboring Macedonia.

WHEN Troy was captured on the 8th day of the month of December, Æneas fled to Mount Ida, passing through the Achæans, who gave way to him as he was carrying off his household gods and his family. Others say that it was not that pious sight that saved him, but that Æneas had often urged the barbarians to give Helen back to the Achæans. There, having collected a band of Phrygians,[*](Mendelssohn considers the text spurious down to this point.) he departed to Laurentum, and having married Lavinia, the daughter of Latinus, king of the Aborigines, he built a city and named it Lavinium after his wife. Three years later Latinus died, and Æneas succeeded to the kingdom, by virtue of his marriage relationship, and gave the name of Latins to the Aborigines. Three years later still, Mezentius, the king of the Rutuli, engaged in war with him because Lavinia had been previously betrothed to himself, and Æneas was slain.

Ascanius then became king in his stead. Despising Lavinium as a paltry town, Ascanius founded another under the Alban mount and named it Alba, which, after it had held sway 300 years, the Romans destroyed, so that not even a foundation was left. Silvius, the third in descent, succeeded Ascanius. Then another Æneas was the fourth, Latinus was the fifth, Capys the sixth, Capetus the seventh, Tiberinus the eighth, Agrippa the ninth, Romulus the tenth, Aventinus the eleventh, Procas the twelfth, and Numitor and Amulius the thirteenth.

The father of these left the kingdom to Numitor as the elder of the two. His brother Amulius dispossessed him and became king. Amulius, fearing vengeance, slew Egestus, Numitor's son, while hunting, and being apprehensive lest the sister of Egestus should bear children he made her a vestal. She became pregnant, as she said, by Mars, while drawing water from a fountain sacred to him, and gave birth to Remus and Romulus. Amulius accordingly incarcerated her and gave the boys to be thrown into the Tiber, which was at that time called the Thubris. The bearers took the boys to the river. They were shepherds, and they placed the basket on the margin of the water where the river was marshy. After they had gone away the water receded and the babes were left on dry land, and a she-wolf stepped into the basket and suckled them. Laurentia, the wife of the shepherd Faustulus . . . They were reared to manhood in the practice of robbery, and Remus was captured while raiding the estates of Numitor, and was brought before Amulius.

The latter sent him to his brother Numitor, as the one who had suffered the robbery, to be condemned and punished. But Numitor, when he beheld the young man and reckoned up the time when he was exposed and the other circumstances, began to suspect the truth, and examined him closely as to his bringing up. Romulus became alarmed, and learning from Faustulus the facts concerning himself and his brother, and how his mother had been incarcerated, collected a band of shepherds and with them attacked Amulius, and, having killed him, proclaimed Numitor king of the Albans. Then they built a city on the bank of the river by the side of which they had been exposed and nourished, and where they had practised robbery after they had grown up; and they named it Rome. It was previously called the Tetragon, because its perimeter was sixteen stades, having four stades on each side.