Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
she went in, and brought away the tyrant's sword that hung over his head
and showed it them for a confirmation that he was fast asleep. The young
men appearing fearful, and unwilling to do the murder, she chid them, and
angrily vowed she would wake Alexander, and discover the conspiracy; and
so, with a lamp in her hand, she conducted them in, they being both
ashamed and afraid, and brought them to the bed; when one of them caught
him by the feet, the other pulled him backward by the hair, and the third
ran him through. The death was more speedy, perhaps, than was fit; but,
in that he was the first tyrant that was killed by the contrivance of his
wife, and as his corpse was abused, thrown out, and trodden under foot by
the Pheraeans, he seems to have suffered what his villainies deserved.
MARCELLUS
They say that Marcus Claudius, who was five times consul of the Romans,
was the son of Marcus; and that he was the first of his family called
Marcellus; that is, martial, as Posidonius affirms. He was, indeed, by
long experience skillful in the art of war, of a strong body, valiant of
hand, and by natural inclination addicted to war. This high temper and
heat he showed conspicuously in battle; in other respects he was modest
and obliging, and so far studious of Greek learning and discipline, as to
honor and admire those that excelled in it, though he did not himself
attain a proficiency in them equal to his desire, by reason of his
employments. For if ever there were any men, whom, as Homer says,
Heaven,
From their first youth unto their utmost age
Appointed the laborious wars to wage,
certainly they were the chief Romans of that time; who in their youth had
war with the Carthaginians in Sicily, in their middle age with the Gauls
in the defense of Italy itself; and, at last, when now grown old,
struggled again with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, and wanted in their
latest years what is granted to most men, exemption from military toils;
their rank and their great qualities still making them be called upon to
undertake the command.
Marcellus, ignorant or unskillful of no kind of fighting, in single
combat surpassed himself; he never declined a challenge, and never
accepted without killing his challenger. In Sicily, he protected and
saved his brother Otacilius when surrounded in battle, and slew the
enemies that pressed upon him; for which act he was by the generals,
while he was yet but young, presented with crowns and other honorable
rewards; and, his good qualities more and more displaying themselves, he
was created Curule Aedile by the people, and by the high-priests Augur;
which is that priesthood to which chiefly the law assigns the observation
of auguries. In his aedileship, a certain mischance brought him to the
necessity of bringing an impeachment into the senate. He had a son named
Marcus, of great beauty, in the flower of his age, and no less admired
for the goodness of his character. This youth, Capitolinus, a bold and
ill-mannered man, Marcellus's colleague, sought to abuse. The boy at
first himself repelled him; but when the other again persecuted him, told
his father. Marcellus, highly indignant, accused the man in the senate,
where he, having appealed to the tribunes of the people, endeavored by
various shifts and exceptions to elude the impeachment; and, when the
tribunes refused their protection, by flat denial rejected the charge.
As there was no witness of the fact, the senate thought fit to call the
youth himself before them; on witnessing whose blushes and tears, and
shame mixed with the highest indignation, seeking no further evidence of
the crime, they condemned Capitolinus, and set a fine upon him; of the
money of which, Marcellus caused silver vessels for libation to be made,
which he dedicated to the gods.
After the end of the first Punic war, which lasted one and twenty years,
the seeds of Gallic tumults sprang up, and began again to trouble Rome.
The Insubrians, a people inhabiting the subalpine region of Italy, strong
in their own forces, raised from among the other Gauls aids of mercenary
soldiers, called Gaesatae. And it was a sort of miracle, and special
good fortune for Rome, that the Gallic war was not coincident with the
Punic, but that the Gauls had with fidelity stood quiet as spectators,
while the Punic war continued, as though they had been under engagements
to await and attack the victors, and now only were at liberty to come
forward. Still the position itself, and the ancient renown of the Gauls,
struck no little fear into the minds of the Romans, who were about to
undertake a war so near home and upon their own borders; and regarded the
Gauls, because they had once taken their city, with more apprehension
than any people, as is apparent from the enactment which from that time
forth provided, that the high-priests should enjoy an exemption from all
military duty, except only in Gallic insurrections.
The great preparations, also, made by the Romans for war, (for it is not
reported that the people of Rome ever had at one time so many legions in
arms, either before or since,) and their extraordinary sacrifices, were
plain arguments of their fear. For though they were most averse to
barbarous and cruel rites, and entertained more than any nation the same
pious and reverent sentiments of the gods with the Greeks; yet, when this
war was coming upon them, they then, from some prophecies in the Sibyls'
books, put alive under ground a pair of Greeks, one male, the other
female; and likewise two Gauls, one of each sex, in the market called the
beast-market: continuing even to this day to offer to these Greeks and
Gauls certain secret ceremonial observances in the month of November.
In the beginning of this war, in which the Romans sometimes obtained
remarkable victories, sometimes were shamefully beaten, nothing was done
toward the determination of the contest, until Flaminius and Furius,
being consuls, led large forces against the Insubrians. At the time of
their departure, the river that runs through the country of Picenum was
seen flowing with blood; there was a report, that three moons had been
seen at once at Ariminum; and, in the consular assembly, the augurs
declared, that the consuls had been unduly and inauspiciously created.
The senate, therefore, immediately sent letters to the camp, recalling
the consuls to Rome with all possible speed, and commanding them to
forbear from acting against the enemies, and to abdicate the consulship
on the first opportunity. These letters being brought to Flaminius, he
deferred to open them till, having defeated and put to flight the enemy's
forces, he wasted and ravaged their borders. The people, therefore, did
not go forth to meet him when he returned with huge spoils; nay, because
he had not instantly obeyed the command in the letters, by which he was
recalled, but slighted and contemned them, they were very near denying
him the honor of a triumph. Nor was the triumph sooner passed than they
deposed him, with his colleague, from the magistracy, and reduced them to
the state of private citizens. So much were all things at Rome made to
depend upon religion; they would not allow any contempt of the omens and
the ancient rites, even though attended with the highest success;
thinking it to be of more importance to the public safety, that the
magistrates should reverence the gods, than that they should overcome
their enemies. Thus Tiberius Sempronius, whom for his probity and virtue
the citizens highly esteemed, created Scipio Nasica and Caius Marcius,
consuls to succeed him: and when they were gone into their provinces,
lit upon books concerning the religious observances, where he found
something he had not known before; which was this. When the consul took
his auspices, he sat without the city in a house, or tent, hired for that
occasion; but, if it happened that he, for any urgent cause, returned
into the city, without having yet seen any certain signs, he was obliged
to leave that first building, or tent, and to seek another to repeat the
survey from. Tiberius, it appears, in ignorance of this, had twice used
the same building before announcing the new consuls. Now, understanding
his error, he referred the matter to the senate: nor did the senate
neglect this minute fault, but soon wrote expressly of it to Scipio
Nasica and Caius Marcius; who, leaving their provinces and without delay
returning to Rome, laid down their magistracy. This happened at a later
period. About the same time, too, the priesthood was taken away from two
men of very great honor, Cornelius Cethegus and Quintus Sulpicius: from
the former, because he had not rightly held out the entrails of a beast
slain for sacrifice; from the latter, because, while he was immolating,
the tufted cap which the Flamens wear had fallen from his head.
Minucius, the dictator, who had already named Caius Flaminius master of
the horse, they deposed from his command, because the squeak of a mouse
was heard, and put others into their places. And yet, notwithstanding,
by observing so anxiously these little niceties they did not run into any
superstition, because they never varied from nor exceeded the observances
of their ancestors.
So soon as Flaminius with his colleague had resigned the consulate,
Marcellus was declared consul by the presiding officers called
Interrexes; and, entering into the magistracy, chose Cnaeus Cornelius his
colleague. There was a report that, the Gauls proposing a pacification,
and the senate also inclining to peace, Marcellus inflamed the people to
war; but a peace appears to have been agreed upon, which the Gaesatae
broke; who, passing the Alps, stirred up the Insubrians, (they being
thirty thousand in number, and the Insubrians more numerous by far) and,
proud of their strength, marched directly to Acerrae, a city seated on
the north of the river Po. From thence Britomartus, king of the
Gaesatae, taking with him ten thousand soldiers, harassed the country
round about. News of which being brought to Marcellus, leaving his
colleague at Acerrae with the foot and all the heavy arms and a third
part of the horse, and carrying with him the rest of the horse and six
hundred light armed foot, marching night and day without remission, he
staid not till he came up to these ten thousand near a Gaulish village
called Clastidium, which not long before had been reduced under the Roman
jurisdiction. Nor had he time to refresh his soldiers, or to give them
rest. For the barbarians, that were then present, immediately observed
his approach, and contemned him, because he had very few foot with him.
The Gauls were singularly skillful in horsemanship, and thought to excel
in it; and as at present they also exceeded Marcellus in number, they
made no account of him. They, therefore, with their king at their head,
instantly charged upon him, as if they would trample him under their
horses' feet, threatening all kind of cruelties. Marcellus, because his
men were few, that they might not be encompassed and charged on all sides
by the enemy, extended his wings of horse, and, riding about, drew out
his wings of foot in length, till he came near to the enemy. Just as he
was in the act of turning round to face the enemy, it so happened that
his horse, startled with their fierce look and their cries, gave back,
and carried him forcibly aside. Fearing lest this accident, if converted
into an omen, might discourage his soldiers, he quickly brought his horse
round to confront the enemy, and made a gesture of adoration to the sun,
as if he had wheeled about not by chance, but for a purpose of devotion.
For it was customary to the Romans, when they offered worship to the