Pompey

Then he betook himself to Cinna’s camp, but because of some calumnious accusation grew fearful and quickly withdrew unnoticed. On his disappearance, there went a rumour through the camp which said that Cinna had slain the young man, and in consequence of this those who had long hated Cinna and felt oppressed by him made an onslaught upon him. Cinna, as he fled, having been seized by one of the centurions who pursued him with drawn sword, clasped him by the knees and held out his seal-ring, which was of great price.

But the centurion, with great insolence, said: Indeed, I am not come to seal a surety, but to punish a lawless and wicked tyrant, and slew him. When Cinna had come to such an end,[*](In 84 B.C) Carbo, a tyrant more capricious than he, received and exercised the chief authority. But Sulla was approaching, to the great delight of most men, who were led by their present evils to think even a change of masters no slight good. To such a pass had her calamities brought the city that, in despair of freedom, she sought a more tolerable servitude.

At this time, then, Pompey was tarrying in the Italian province of Picenum, partly because he had estates there, but more because he had a liking for its cities, which were dutifully and kindly disposed towards him as his father’s son. And when he saw the best and most prominent citizens forsaking their homes and hastening from all quarters to the camp of Sulla as to a haven of refuge, he himself would not deign to go to him as a fugitive, nor empty-handed, nor with requests for help, but only after conferring some favour first, in a way that would gain him honour, and with an armed force.

Wherefore he tried to rouse up the people of Picenum and made test of their allegiance. They readily listened to him and paid no heed to the emissaries of Carbo. Indeed, when a certain Vedius remarked that Pompey had run away from pedagogues to be a demagogue among them, they were so incensed that they fell upon Vedius at once and killed him.

After this, Pompey, who was only twenty-three years old, and who had not been appointed general by anybody whomsoever, conferred the command upon himself; and setting up a tribunal in the market-place of Auximum, a large city, issued an edict ordering the chief men there, two brothers named Ventidius, who were acting against him in Carbo’s interest, to leave the city. Then he proceeded to levy soldiers, and after appointing centurions and commanders for them all in due form, made a circuit of the other cities, doing the same thing.