Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

When the older men asked the defeated soldiers why they were such cowards as to flee from the men they had so often pursued, one of the Numantians is said to have replied that the sheep were still the same sheep, but another man was their shepherd.

After he had captured Numantia and celebrated his second triumph, he had a falling out with Gaius Gracchus in regard to the Senate and the allies; and the people, feeling much aggrieved, set out to shout him down on the rostra. But he said, The battle-cry of armed hosts has never discomfited me, and much less can that of a rabble of whom I know full well that Italy is not their real mother, but their stepmother. [*](Cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 5; Velleius Paterculus, ii. 4; Valerius Maximus, vi. 2. 3.)

When the men about Gracchus cried out, Kill the tyrant, he said, Very naturally those who feel hostile towards our country wish to make away with me first; for it is not possible for Rome to fall while Scipio stands, nor for Scipio to live when Rome has fallen.

When Caecilius Metellvs was desirous of leading his men against a strongly fortified place, a centurion

A certain centurion among the younger men inquired what he was going to do. If I thought, said he, that the shirt on my back knew what is in my mind, I would strip it off and put it in the fire. [*](Cf. Moralia, 506 D; Valerius Maximus, vii. 4. 5. Frontinus, Strategemata, i. 1. 12, attributes the remark to Metellus Pius (consul 52 B.C. with Pompey.))

He was bitterly opposed to Scipio while Scipio lived, [*](Cicero, De amicitia, 21 (77), and De officiis, i. 25 (87).) but felt very sad when he died, and commanded his sons to take part in carrying the bier. He said that he felt grateful to the gods, for Rome’s sake, that Scipio had not been born among another people. [*](Cf. Pliny, Natural History, vii. 45 (144), and Valerius Maximus, iv. 1. 12.)

Gaius Marius carne from an obscure family and advanced into political life through his military services. He announced himself a candidate for the greater [*](The office of curule aedile.) aedileship, but, perceiving that he was running behind, on the very same day he went after the lesser. [*](That of plebeian aedile.) Failing also to obtain that, he nevertheless did not give up the idea that he should some day be the first among the Romans. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. v. (408 A); Cicero, Pro Plancio, 21 (51).)

He had large varicose veins on both legs, and, refusing to be fastened down, he submitted these to his physician for excision; and without a groan or even a contraction of his eyebrows he underwent the operation with fortitude. But as the physician

In his second consulship Lusius, his nephew, attempted an indecent assault on one of the youths in the army, by the name of Trebonius, and the youth killed Lusius. When many accused him of the crime, he did not deny that he had killed the officer, and disclosed the circumstances; whereupon Marius ordered the crown which is given for deeds of supreme valour to be brought, and this he placed upon Trebonius. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xiv. (413 B); Cicero, Oration for Milo, 4 (9); Valerius Maximus, vi. 1. 12.)

Encamped against the Teutons in a place which had little water, when the soldiers said they were thirsty, he pointed out to them a river flowing close by the enemy’s palisade, saying, There is drink for you which can be bought with blood. And they called upon him to lead them on while the blood within them was fluid and not all dried up by their thirst. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xviii. (416 A); Frontinus, Strategemata, ii. 7. 12; Florus, Epitome of Roman History, i. 38. 8 ff.)

In the Cimbrian wars a thousand men of Camerinum who had acquitted themselves bravely he made Roman citizens, in accord with no law. To those who complained he said that he did not hear the laws because of the clash of arms. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxviii. (421 E); Cicero, Oration for Corn. Balbus, 20 (46); Valerius Maximus, v. 2. 8. Cf. also Cicero, Pro Milone, 4 (10), silent enim leges inter arma. )

In the Civil War, [*](Usually called the Social War (ὁ συμμαχιὸς πόλεμος), 90-88 B.C.) when he found himself

Catulus Lutatius, in the Cimbrian War, was encamped beside the Atiso [*](Presumably the same river which the Roman writers call the Athesis.) River. The Romans, seeing the barbarians crossing to attack, retreated, and he, not being able to check them, made haste to put himself in the front rank of those who were running away so that they might not seem to flee from the enemy, but to be following their commander. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of C. Marius, chap. xxiii. (418 F).)

Sulla, who was called the Fortunate, counted two things among his greatest pieces of fortune: the friendship of Pius Metellus, and the fact that he had not razed Athens, but had spared the city. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Sulla, chap. vi. (454 D), chap. xiv. (460 E), and the Comparison of Lysander and Sulla, chap. v. (478 B).)

Gaius Popillius was sent [*](In 18 B.C. to Antiochus IV. (Epiphanes).)

Lucullus in Armenia with ten thousand menat-arms and a thousand horsemen was proceeding against Tigranes, who had an army of an hundred and fifty thousand men, on the sixth day of October, the day on which, some years before, [*](In 105 B.C.) the force with Caepio had been annihilated by the Cimbrians. When somebody remarked that the Romans set that day aside as a dread day of expiation, he said, Then let us on this day strive with might and main to make this, instead of an ill-omened and gloomy day, a glad and welcome day to the Romans. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, chap. xxviii. (510 C).)

His soldiers feared most the men in full armour,

Gnaeus Pompey was loved by the Romans as much as his father was hated. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. i. (619 B).) In his youth he was heart and soul for Sulla’s party, and without holding public office or being in the Senate, he enlisted many men in Italy for the army. [*](Ibid. chap. vi. (621 D).) When Sulla summoned him, he refused to present his troops before the commander-in-chief without spoils and without their having been through bloodshed. And he did not come until after he had vanquished the generals of the enemy in many battles. [*](Ibid. 621 F.)

When he was sent by Sulla to Sicily [*](In 82 B.C.) in the capacity of general, he perceived that the soldiers on the marches kept dropping out of the ranks to do violence and to plunder, and so he punished those who were straggling and running about, and placed seals upon the swords of those who were officially sent by him. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Pompey, chap. x. (624 A).)

The Mamertines, who had joined the other party, he was like to put to death to a man. But Sthennius, their popular leader, said that Pompey