Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
the two cities. Peace thus established, seeing the Athenians
impatient of being idle, and eager after the honor and aggrandizement
of war, lest they should set upon the Greeks themselves, or with so
many ships cruising about the isles and Peloponnesus, they should
give occasions to intestine wars, or complaints of their allies
against them, he equipped two hundred galleys, with design to make an
attempt upon Egypt and Cyprus; purposing, by this means, to accustom
the Athenians to fight against the barbarians, and enrich themselves
honestly by spoiling those who were the natural enemies to Greece.
But when all things were prepared, and the army ready to embark,
Cimon had this dream. It seemed to him that there was a furious
bitch barking at him, and, mixed with the barking, a kind of human
voice uttered these words: --
Come on, for thou shalt shortly be,
A pleasure to my whelps and me.
This dream was hard to interpret, yet Astyphilus of Posidonia, a man
skilled in divinations, and intimate with Cimon, told him that his
death was presaged by this vision, which he thus explained. A dog is
enemy to him be barks at; and one is always most a pleasure to one's
enemies, when one is dead; the mixture of human voice with barking
signifies the Medes, for the army of the Medes is mixed up of Greeks
and barbarians. After this dream, as he was sacrificing to Bacchus,
and the priest cutting up the victim, a number of ants, taking up the
congealed particles of the blood, laid them about Cimon's great toe.
This was not observed for a good while, but at the very time when
Cimon spied it, the priest came and showed him the liver of the
sacrifice imperfect, wanting that part of it called the head. But he
could not then recede from the enterprise, so he set sail. Sixty of
his ships he sent toward Egypt; with the rest he went and fought the
king of Persia's fleet, composed of Phoenician and Cilician galleys,
recovered all the cities thereabout, and threatened Egypt; designing
no less than the entire ruin of the Persian empire. And the rather,
for that he was informed Themistocles was in great repute among the
barbarians, having promised the king to lead his army, whenever he
should make war upon Greece. But Themistocles, it is said,
abandoning all hopes of compassing his designs, very much out of the
despair of overcoming the valor and good-fortune of Cimon, died a
voluntary death. Cimon, intent on great designs, which he was now to
enter upon, keeping his navy about the isle of Cyprus, sent
messengers to consult the oracle of Jupiter Ammon upon some secret
matter. For it is not known about what they were sent, and the god
would give them no answer, but commanded them to return again, for
that Cimon was already with him. Hearing this, they returned to sea,
and as soon as they came to the Grecian army, which was then about
Egypt, they understood that Cimon was dead; and computing the time of
the oracle, they found that his death had been signified, he being
then already with the gods.
He died, some say, of sickness, while besieging Citium, in Cyprus;
according to others, of a wound he received in a skirmish with the
barbarians. When he perceived he should die, he commanded those
under his charge to return, and by no means to let the news of his
death be known by the way; this they did with such secrecy that they
all came home safe, and neither their enemies nor the allies knew
what had happened. Thus, as Phanodemus relates, the Grecian army
was, as it were, conducted by Cimon, thirty days after he was dead.
But after his death there was not one commander among the Greeks that
did anything considerable against the barbarians, and instead of
uniting against their common enemies, the popular leaders and
partisans of war animated them against one another to that degree,
that none could interpose their good offices to reconcile them. And
while, by their mutual discord, they ruined the power of Greece, they
gave the Persians time to recover breath, and repair all their
losses. It is true, indeed, Agesilaus carried the arms of Greece
into Asia, but it was a long time after; there were, indeed, some
brief appearances of a war against the king's lieutenants in the
maritime provinces, but they all quickly vanished; before he could
perform anything of moment, he was recalled by fresh civil
dissensions and disturbances at home. So that he was forced to leave
the Persian king's officers to impose what tribute they pleased on
the Greek cities in Asia, the confederates and allies of the
Lacedaemonians. Whereas, in the time of Cimon, not so much as a
letter-carrier, or a single horseman, was ever seen to come within
four hundred furlongs of the sea.
The monuments, called Cimonian to this day, in Athens, show that his
remains were conveyed home, yet the inhabitants of the city Citium
pay particular honor to a certain tomb which they call the tomb of
Cimon, according to Nausicrates the rhetorician, who states that in a
time of famine, when the crops of their land all failed, they sent to
the oracle, which commanded them not to forget Cimon, but give him
the honors of a superior being. Such was the Greek commander.
LUCULLUS
Lucullus's grandfather had been consul; his uncle by the mother's
sister was Metellus, surnamed Numidicus. As for his parents, his
father was convicted of extortion, and his mother Caecilia's
reputation was bad. The first thing that Lucullus did before ever
he stood for any office, or meddled with the affairs of state,
being then but a youth, was, to accuse the accuser of his father,
Servilius the augur, having caught him in an offense against the
state. This thing was much taken notice of among the Romans, who
commended it as an act of high merit. Even without the
provocation, the accusation was esteemed no unbecoming action, for
they delighted to see young men as eagerly attacking injustice, as
good dogs do wild beasts. But when great animosities ensued,
insomuch that some were wounded and killed in the fray, Servilius
escaped. Lucullus followed his studies, and became a competent
speaker, in both Greek and Latin, insomuch that Sylla, when
composing the commentaries of his own life and actions, dedicated
them to him, as one who could have performed the task better
himself. His speech was not only elegant and ready for purposes of
mere business, like the ordinary oratory which will in the public
market-place,
Lash as a wounded tunny does the sea,
but on every other occasion shows itself
Dried up and perished with the want of wit;
but even in his younger days he addicted himself to the study,
simply for its own sake, of the liberal arts; and when advanced in
years, after a life of conflicts, he gave his mind, as it were, its
liberty, to enjoy in full leisure the refreshment of philosophy;
and summoning up his contemplative faculties, administered a timely
check, after his difference with Pompey, to his feelings of
emulation and ambition. Besides what has been said of his love of
learning already, one instance more was, that in his youth, upon a
suggestion of writing the Marsian war in Greek and Latin verse and
prose, arising out of some pleasantry that passed into a serious
proposal, he agreed with Hortensius the lawyer, and Sisenna the
historian, that he would take his lot; and it seems that the lot
directed him to the Greek tongue, for a Greek history of that war
is still extant.
Among the many signs of the great love which he bore to his brother
Marcus, one in particular is commemorated by the Romans. Though he
was elder brother, he would not step into authority without him,
but deferred his own advance until his brother was qualified to
bear a share with him, and so won upon the people, as when absent
to be chosen Aedile with him.
He gave many and early proofs of his valor and conduct, in the
Marsian war, and was admired by Sylla for his constancy and
mildness, and always employed in affairs of importance, especially
in the mint; most of the money for carrying on the Mithridatic war
being coined by him in Peloponnesus, which, by the soldiers' wants,
was brought into rapid circulation, and long continued current
under the name of Lucullean coin. After this, when Sylla conquered
Athens, and was victorious by land, but found the supplies for his
army cut off, the enemy being master at sea, Lucullus was the man
whom he sent into Libya and Egypt, to procure him shipping. It was
the depth of winter when he ventured with but three small Greek
vessels, and as many Rhodian galleys, not only into the main sea,
but also among multitudes of vessels belonging to the enemies, who
were cruising about as absolute masters. Arriving at Crete, he
gained it; and finding the Cyrenians harassed by long tyrannies and
wars, he composed their troubles, and settled their government;
putting the city in mind of that saying which Plato once had
oracularly uttered of them, who, being requested to prescribe laws
to them, and mold them into some sound form of government, made
answer, that it was a hard thing to give laws to the Cyrenians,
abounding, as they did, in wealth and plenty. For nothing is more
intractable than man when in felicity, nor anything more docile,
when he has been reduced and humbled by fortune. This made the
Cyrenians so willingly submit to the laws which Lucullus imposed
upon them. From thence sailing into Egypt, and, pressed by
pirates, he lost most of his vessels; but he himself narrowly
escaping, made a magnificent entry into Alexandria. The whole
fleet, a compliment due only to royalty, met him in full array, and
the young Ptolemy showed wonderful kindness to him, appointing him
lodging and diet in the palace, where no foreign commander before
him had been received. Besides, he gave him gratuities and
presents, not such as were usually given to men of his condition,
but four times as much; of which, however, he took nothing more
than served his necessity, and accepted of no gift, though what was
worth eighty talents was offered him. It is reported he neither
went to see Memphis, nor any of the celebrated wonders of Egypt.
It was for a man of no business and much curiosity to see such
things, not for him who had left his commander in the field,
lodging under the ramparts of his enemies.
Ptolemy, fearing the issue of that war, deserted the confederacy,
but nevertheless sent a convoy with him as far as Cyprus, and at
parting, with much ceremony, wishing him a good voyage, gave him a
very precious emerald set in gold. Lucullus at first refused it,
but when the king showed him his own likeness cut upon it, he
thought he could not persist in a denial, for had he parted with
such open offense, it might have endangered his passage. Drawing a
considerable squadron together, which he summoned, as he sailed by,
out of all the maritime towns, except those suspected of piracy, he
sailed for Cyprus; and there understanding that the enemy lay in
wait under the promontories for him, he laid up his fleet, and sent
to the cities to send in provisions for his wintering among them.
But when time served, he launched his ships suddenly, and went off,
and hoisting all his sails in the night, while he kept them down in
the day, thus came safe to Rhodes. Being furnished with ships at
Rhodes, he also prevailed upon the inhabitants of Cos and Cnidus,
to leave the king's side, and join in an expedition against the
Samians. Out of Chios he himself drove the king's party, and set
the Colophonians at liberty, having seized Epigonus the tyrant, who
oppressed them.
About this time Mithridates left Pergamus, and retired to Pitane,
where being closely besieged by Fimbria on the land, and not daring
to engage with so bold and victorious a commander, he was