Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
he had taken upon him to issue decrees, and distribute rewards
and honors, as conquerors usually do only when the war is
brought to an end, yet now was he himself, while Mithridates
was paramount in the kingdom of Bosporus, and at the head of a
powerful army, as if all were ended, just doing the same thing,
regulating the provinces, and distributing rewards, many great
commanders and princes having flocked to him, together with no
less than twelve barbarian kings; insomuch that to gratify
these other kings, when he wrote to the king of Parthia, he
would not condescend, as others used to do, in the
superscription of his letter, to give him his title of king of
kings.
Moreover, he had a great desire and emulation to occupy Syria,
and to march through Arabia to the Red Sea, that he might thus
extend his conquests every way to the great ocean that
encompasses the habitable earth; as in Africa he was the first
Roman that advanced his victories to the ocean; and again in
Spain he made the Atlantic Sea the limit of the empire; and
then thirdly, in his late pursuit of the Albanians, he had
wanted but little of reaching the Hyrcanian Sea. Accordingly
he raised his camp, designing to bring the Red Sea within the
circuit of his expedition, especially as he saw how difficult
it was to hunt after Mithridates with an army, and that he
would prove a worse enemy flying than fighting. But yet he
declared, that he would leave a sharper enemy behind him than
himself, namely, famine; and therefore he appointed a guard
of ships to lie in wait for the merchants that sailed to
Bosporus, death being the penalty for any who should attempt to
carry provisions thither.
Then he set forward with the greatest part of his army, and in
his march casually fell in with several dead bodies still
uninterred, of those soldiers who were slain with Triarius in
his unfortunate engagement with Mithridates; these he buried
splendidly and honorably. The neglect of whom, it is thought,
caused, as much as anything, the hatred that was felt against
Lucullus, and alienated the affections of the soldiers from
him. Pompey having now by his forces under the command of
Afranius, subdued the Arabians about the mountain Amanus,
himself entered Syria, and finding it destitute of any natural
and lawful prince, reduced it into the form of a province, as a
possession of the people of Rome. He conquered also Judaea,
and took its king, Aristobulus, captive. Some cities he built
anew, and to others he gave their liberty, chastising their
tyrants. Most part of the time that he spent there was
employed in the administration of justice, In deciding
controversies of kings and States; and where he himself could
not be present in person, he gave commissions to his friends,
and sent them. Thus when there arose a difference betwixt the
Armenians and Parthians about some territory, and the judgment
was referred to him, he gave a power by commission to three
judges and arbiters to hear and determine the controversy. For
the reputation of his power was great; nor was the fame of his
justice and clemency inferior to that of his power, and served
indeed as a veil for a multitude of faults committed by his
friends and familiars. For although it was not in his nature
to check or chastise wrongdoers, yet he himself always treated
those that had to do with him in such a manner, that they
submitted to endure with patience the acts of covetousness and
oppression done by others.
Among these friends of his, there was one Demetrius who had the
greatest influence with him of all; he was a freed slave, a
youth of good understanding, but somewhat too insolent in his
good fortune, of whom there goes this story. Cato, the
philosopher, being as yet a very young man, but of great repute
and a noble mind, took a journey of pleasure to Antioch, at a
time when Pompey was not there, having a great desire to see
the city. He, as his custom was, walked on foot, and his
friends accompanied him on horseback; and seeing before the
gates of the city a multitude dressed in white, the young men
on one side of the road, and the boys on the other, he was
somewhat offended at it, imagining that it was officiously done
in honor of him, which was more than he had any wish for.
However, he desired his companions to alight and walk with him;
but when they drew near, the master of the ceremonies in this
procession came out with a garland and a rod in his hand, and
met them, inquiring, where they had left Demetrius, and when he
would come? Upon which Cato's companions burst out into
laughter, but Cato said only, "Alas, poor city!" and passed by
without any other answer. However, Pompey rendered Demetrius
less odious to others by enduring his presumption and
impertinence to himself. For it is reported how that Pompey,
when he had invited his friends to an entertainment, would be
very ceremonious in waiting, till they all came and were
placed, while Demetrius would be already stretched upon the
couch as if he cared for no one, with his dress over his ears,
hanging down from his head. Before his return into Italy, he
had purchased the pleasantest country-seat about Rome, with the
finest walks and places for exercise, and there were sumptuous
gardens, called by the name of Demetrius, while Pompey his
master, up to his third triumph, was contented with an ordinary
and simple habitation. Afterwards, it is true, when he had
erected his famous and stately theater for the people of Rome,
he built as a sort of appendix to it, a house for himself, much
more splendid than his former, and yet no object even this to
excite men's envy, since he who came to be master of it after
Pompey could not but express wonder and inquire where Pompey
the Great used to sup. Such is the story told us.
The king of the Arabs near Petra, who had hitherto despised the
power of the Romans, now began to be in great alarm at it, and
sent letters to him promising to be at his commands, and to do
whatever he should see fit to order. However, Pompey having a
desire to confirm and keep him in the same mind, marched
forwards for Petra, an expedition not altogether
irreprehensible in the opinion of many; who thought it a mere
running away from their proper duty, the pursuit of
Mithridates, Rome's ancient and inveterate enemy, who was now
rekindling the war once more, and making preparations, it was
reported, to lead his army through Scythia and Paeonia, into
Italy. Pompey, on the other side, judging it easier to destroy
his forces in battle, than to seize his person in flight,
resolved not to tire himself out in a vain pursuit, but rather
to spend his leisure upon another enemy, as a sort of
digression in the meanwhile. But fortune resolved the doubt;
for when he was now not far from Petra, and had pitched his
tents and encamped for that day, as he was talking exercise
with his horse outside the camp, couriers came riding up from
Pontus, bringing good news, as was known at once by the heads
of their javelins, which it is the custom to carry crowned with
branches of laurel. The soldiers, as soon as they saw them,
flocked immediately to Pompey, who notwithstanding was minded to
finish his exercise; but when they began to be clamorous and
importunate, he alighted from his horse, and taking the letters
went before them into the camp. Now there being no tribunal
erected there, not even that military substitute for one which
they make by cutting up thick turfs of earth and piling them
one upon another, they, through eagerness and impatience,
heaped up a pile of pack-saddles, and Pompey standing upon
that, told them the news of Mithridates's death, how that he
had himself put an end to his life upon the revolt of his son
Pharnaces, and that Pharnaces had taken all things there into
his hands and possession, which he did, his letters said, in
right of himself and the Romans. Upon this news, the whole
army expressing their joy, as was to be expected, fell to
sacrificing to the gods, and feasting, as if in the person of
Mithridates alone there had died many thousands of their
enemies.
Pompey by this event having brought this war to its completion,
with much more ease than was expected, departed forthwith out
of Arabia, and passing rapidly through the intermediate
provinces, he came at length to the city Amisus. There he
received many presents brought from Pharnaces, with several
dead bodies of the royal blood, and the corpse of Mithridates
himself, which was not easy to be known by the face, for the
physicians that embalmed him had not dried up his brain, but
those who were curious to see him knew him by the scars there.
Pompey himself would not endure to see him, but to deprecate
the divine jealousy, sent it away to the city of Sinope. He
admired the richness of his robes, no less than the size and
splendor of his armor. His swordbelt, however, which had cost
four hundred talents, was stolen by Publius, and sold to
Ariarathes; his tiara also, a piece of admirable workmanship,
Gaius, the roster brother of Mithridates, gave secretly to
Faustus, the son of Sylla, at his request. All which Pompey
was ignorant of, but afterwards, when Pharnaces came to
understand it, he severely punished those that embezzled them.
Pompey now having ordered all things, and established that
province, took his journey homewards in greater pomp and with
more festivity. For when he came to Mitylene, he gave the city
their freedom upon the intercession of Theophanes, and was
present at the contest, there periodically held, of the poets,
who took at that time no other theme or subject than the
actions of Pompey. He was extremely pleased with the theater
itself, and had a model of it taken, intending to erect one in
Rome on the same design, but larger and more magnificent. When
he came to Rhodes, he attended the lectures of all the
philosophers there, and gave to every one of them a talent.
Posidonius has published the disputation which he held before
him against Hermagoras the rhetorician, upon the subject of
Invention in general. At Athens, also, he showed similar,
munificence to the philosophers, and gave fifty talents towards
the repairing and beautifying the city. So that now by all
these acts he well hoped to return into Italy in the greatest
splendor and glory possible to man, and find his family as
desirous to see him, as he felt himself to come home to them.
But that supernatural agency, whose province and charge it is
always to mix some ingredient of evil with the greatest and
most glorious goods of fortune, had for some time back been
busy in his household, preparing him a sad welcome. For Mucia
during his absence had dishonored his bed. Whilst he was
abroad at a distance, he had refused all credence to the
report; but when he drew nearer to Italy, where his thoughts
were more at leisure to give consideration to the charge, he
sent her a bill of divorce; but neither then in writing, nor
afterwards by word of mouth, did he ever give a reason why he
discharged her; the cause of it is mentioned in Cicero's
epistles.
Rumors of every kind were scattered abroad about Pompey, and
were carried to Rome before him, so that there was a great
tumult and stir, as if he designed forthwith to march with his
army into the city, and establish himself securely as sole
ruler. Crassus withdrew himself, together with his children
and property, out of the city, either that he was really
afraid, or that he counterfeited rather, as is most probable,
to give credit to the calumny and exasperate the jealousy of
the people. Pompey, therefore, as soon as he entered Italy,
called a general muster of the army; and having made a suitable
address and exchanged a kind farewell with his soldiers, he