The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End / with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books

The Italian states, the Picentians, Vestinians, Marcians, Pelignians, Marrucinians, Samnites, and Lucanians, revolted, the war commencing with the Picentians. Quintus Servilius, the proconsul, was murdered, in the town of Asculum, with all the Roman citizens in the place. The whole body of the Roman people assumed the military dress. Servius Galba, having been taken by the Lucanians, escaped by the assistance of a woman with whom he lodged. [y. r. 662. b. c. 90.] Æsernia and Alba were besieged by the Italians. Aid was sent to the Romans by the Latins, and other foreign nations, and the expeditions, and sieges, on both sides, are recorded.

The consul, Lucius Julius Cæsar, fought against the Samnites unsuccessfully. The colony of Nola fell into the hands of the Samnites, together with Lucius Posthumius, the prætor, whom they killed. Many different states went over to the enemy. After Publius Rutilius had fought unsuccessfully against the Marcians, and had been slain in battle, Caius Marius, his lieutenant-general, encountered them with better success. Servius Sulpicius defeated the Pelignians, in a pitched battle. Quintus Cæpio, Rutilius’s lieutenant-general, made a successful sally against the enemy besieging him; on account of which success he was made equal in command to Marius, and becoming adventurous and rash, was surprised in an ambuscade, and his army being defeated, was slain. Lucius Julius Cæsar, the consul, fought successfully against the Samnites. On account of this victory the inhabitants of Rome laid aside the military habit; the war being carried on with various success, Æsernia, with Marcellus, fell into the hands of the Samnites. Caius Marius vanquished the Marcians, Herius Asinius, the prætor of the Marrucinians, being killed. Caius Cæcilius subdued the rebellious Salvians in Trausalpine Gaul.

Aulus Posthumius Albinus, commander of a fleet, upon a suspicion of treachery, was murdered by the forces under his command. Lucius Cornelius Sylla, lieutenant-general, defeated the Samnites, and took two of their camps. The Vestinians surrendered to Cneius Pompeius. Lucius Porcius, the consul, having been successful in frequent engagements with the Marcians, was slain in an attack upon their camp, which circumstance decided the victory in favour of the enemy. Cosconius and Lucceius overthrew the Samnites in a battle, slew Marius Egnatius, the most distinguished of their generals, and received the surrender of many of their towns. Lucius Sylla subdued the Hirpinians, defeated the Samnites in many battles, and received the submission of several states; in consequence of having performed so many distinguished services, as scarcely any one had ever done under the circumstances, he repaired to Rome to solicit the consulship.

Aulus Gabinius, the lieutenant, having defeated the Lucanians, and taken several of their towns, was slain in an attack on their camp. Sulpicius, a lieutenant-general, committed military execution on the Marrucinians, and reduced their whole country. Cneius Pompeius, the proconsul, forced the Vestinians and Pelignians to submission. Also the Marcians, defeated in several battles, by Lucius Murena and Cæcilius Pius, sued for peace, [y. r. 664. b. c. 88.] Asculum was taken by Cneius Pompeius, and the Italians there were put to death by Mamercus Æmilius. Silo Pompædius, the author of the revolt, was killed in an action. Ariobarzanes, king of Cappadocia, and Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, were driven out of their kingdoms by Mithridates, king of Pontus. Predatory incursions were made by the Thracians into Macedon.

Mithridates possessed himself of Asia; threw into chains Quintus Oppius, the proconsul, and Aquilius, the general; and ordered all the Romans in Asia to be massacred on the same day; he attacked the city of Rhodes, the only one which had retained its fidelity to the Roman state; and being overcome in several actions at sea, he retreated, [y. r. 665. b. c. 87.] Archelaus, one of the king’s governors, invaded Greece and took Athens. Commotions resulted in several states and islands, some endeavouring to draw over their people to the side of the Romans, others to that of Mithridates.

The freedom of the city of Rome was granted to the Italian states. The Samnites, the only people who continued in arms, joined Cinna and Marius, and overthrew Plautius’s army, killing the general. Cinna and Marius, with Carbo and Sertorius, seized the Janiculum; and were repelled by the consul Octavius. Marius plunders Antium, Aricia, and Lanuvium. The principal men in the state having now no hope of resisting, on account of the cowardice and treachery both of the generals and soldiers, who, being bribed, either refused to fight, or deserted to one party or another, received Cinna and Marius into the city, who, as if it had been captured, devastated it by murder and robbery, putting to death the consul, Cneius Octavius, and all the chiefs of the opposite party; among others, Marcus Antonius, a man highly distinguished for his eloquence, with Lucius and Caius Cæsar, whose heads they stuck up on the rostrum. The younger Crassus having been slain by a party of horsemen at Fimbria; his father, to escape suffering insult, killed himself. Cinna and Marius, without even the formality of an election, declared themselves consuls; and on the first day of their entering upon office, Marius ordered Sextus Licinius, a senator, to be cast from the Tarpeian rock, and after having committed very many atrocious acts, died on the ides of January. If we compare his vices with his virtues, it will be difficult to pronounce whether he was greater in war, or more wicked in peace. Having preserved his country by his valour, he ruined it afterwards by every species of artifice and fraud; and finally destroyed it by open force.

Lucius Sylla besieged Athens, [y. r. 666. b. c. 86,] held by Archelaus, under Mithridates, and took it, after an obstinate resistance. The city and such of the inhabitants as remained alive, were restored to liberty. Magnesia, the only city in Asia which continued faithful, was defended against Mithridates with great valour. The Thracians invaded Macedon.

[y. r. 667. b. c. 85.] Caius Fimbria having defeated several of Mithridates’ generals in Asia, took the city of Pergamus, and was very near making the king captive. He took and destroyed the city of Ilion, which adhered to Sylla, and recovered a great part of Asia. Sylla overcame the Thracians in several battles. Lucius Cinna and Cneius Papirius Carbo, having declared themselves consuls, made preparations for war against Sylla; Lucius Valerius Flaccus, the chief of the senate, having made a speech among that body, by their assistance, with that of all who desired tranquillity, effected that ambassadors should be sent to Sylla, concerning a treaty of peace. Cinna, attempting to force his men to embark and go against Sylla, was slain by them. [y. r. 668. b. c. 84.] Carbo alone held the consulship. Sylla made peace in Asia with Mithridates, upon conditions that the king should evacuate Asia, Bithynia, and Cappadocia. Fimbria, deserted by his army, which went over to Sylla, put himself to death, by calling on his slave to cut off his head.

Sylla replied to deputies sent by the senate, that he would yield to the authority of the senate, upon condition that those who, being banished by Cinna, had fled to him, should be restored; which proposition appeared reasonable to the senate, but was opposed and rejected by Carbo and his faction, who conceived that they would derive more advantage from a continuance of the war. Carbo, requiring hostages from all the towns and colonies of Italy, to bind them more firmly in union against Sylla, was overruled by the senate. The right of voting was given to the new citizens by a decree of the senate. Quintus Metellus Pius, who had taken part with the chief men of the state, being prepared for war in Africa, was crushed by Caius Fabius, the prætor, [y. r. 660. b. c. 83.] Carbo’s faction and the Marian party procured a decree of the senate, that the armies should every where be disbanded. The sons of freed-men were distributed among the thirty-five tribes. Preparations were made for war against Sylla.

While Caius Marius, son of Caius Marius, was made consul [y. r. 670. b. c. 82] by force, before he was twenty years old, Caius Fabius was burned alive in his tent, in Africa, for his avarice and extortion. Lucius Philippus, Sylla’s lieutenant-general, having overthrown and killed the prætor, Quintus Antonius, took Sardinia. Sylla made a league with the states of Italy, lest he should be suspected of intending to deprive them of their constitution and the right of suffrage, which had been lately conceded to them. So confident was he of the victory, that he published an order that all persons engaged in lawsuits, bound by sureties, should make their appearance at Rome, although the city was yet in the possession of the opposite party. Lucius Damasippus, the prætor, having called together the senate, at the desire of Marius, murdered such of the nobility as remained in the city; among them Quintus Mucius Scævola, the high priest, who, endeavouring to make his escape, was killed in the vestibule of the temple of Vesta. Besides, it includes an account of the war in Asia against Mithridates, renewed by Lucius Muræna.

Sylla, having conquered and destroyed Caius Marius’s army, at Sacriportus, laid siege to Præneste, where Marius had taken refuge. He recovered Rome out of the hands of his enemies. Marius attempting to break forth from Præneste, was repelled. This book moreover contains an account of the successes of the different commanders under him, every where.

Marcus Brutus being sent in a fishing-boat to Lilybæum, by Cneius Papirius Carbo, who had sailed to Cossura, to discover if Pompeius were there, and being surrounded by the ships, which Pompey had sent, turned the point of his sword against himself, and threw himself on it with all the weight of his body, at one of the ship’s benches. Cneius Pompeius, being sent by the senate to Sicily, with full powers, having taken Carbo prisoner, put him to death; he dies weeping with womanly weakness. Sylla, having been created dictator, marched through the city with twenty-four lictors, which no one had ever done before. He established new regulations in the state; abridged the authority of the plebeian tribunes; took from them the power of proposing laws; increased the college of priests and augurs to fifteen; filled up the senate from the equestrian order; took from the descendants of the proscribed persons all power of reclaiming the property of their ancestors, and sold such of their effects as had not been already confiscated, to the amount of one hundred and fifty millions of sesterces. He ordered Lucretius Ofella to be put to death in the forum, for having declared himself a candidate for the consulship, without having previously obtained his permission; and when the people of Rome were offended, he called a meeting, and told them that Ofella was slain by his orders, [y. r. 671. b. c. 81.] Cneius Pompeius vanquished and killed, in Africa, Cneius Domitius, one of the proscribed persons, and Hiarbas, king of Numidia, who were making preparations for war. He triumphed over Africa, although not more than twenty-four years of age, and only of equestrian rank, which never happened to any man before. Caius Norbanus, of consular rank, being proscribed, when he was taken at Rhodes, committed suicide. Mutilus, one of the proscribed, coming privately and in disguise to the back door of his wife Bastia’s house, was refused admission, and she told him that he was a proscribed man, whereupon he stabbed himself, and sprinkled the door of his wife’s house with his blood. Sylla took Nolla, a city of the Samnites, [y. r. 672. b. c. 80,] and led forth forty-seven legions into the conquered lands, and divided them among them. [y. r. 673. b. c. 79.] He besieged and took the town of Volaterra, which was as yet at war with him. Mitylene, the only town in Asia which continued to adhere to Mithridates, was likewise stormed and demolished.

Cneius Pompeius, while yet only of equestrian rank, was sent with consular authority against Sertorius. Sertorius took several cities, and reduced very many others to submission. The proconsul Appius Claudius, conquered the Thracians in several battles, [y. r. 676. b. c. 76.] Quintus Metellus, the proconsul, cut off Herculeius, the quæstor of Sertorius, with his whole army.

Cneius Pompeius fought an undecided battle with Sertorius, the wings on each side being beaten. Quintus Metellus conquered Sertorius and Peperna, with both their armies; Pompeius, desirous of having a share in this victory, engaged in the action, but without success. Sertorius, besieged in Clunia, made frequent sallies, to the great loss of the besiegers, [y. r. 677. b. c. 75.] This book contains, moreover, an account of the successful expedition of Curio, the proconsul, against the Dardanians, and of the cruelties of Sertorius against his own partisans, many of whom he put to death, upon pretended suspicion of treachery.

Publius Servilius, the proconsul in Cilicia, subdued the Isaurians, and took several cities belonging to the pirates. Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, dying, bequeathed his dominions to the Roman people, who reduced them into the form of a province, [y. r. 678. b. c. 74.] Mithridates, having established a league with Sertorius, declared war against Rome; he made vast preparations, both by land and sea, and seized Bithynia: Marcus Aurelius Cotta was overcome in an action by the king, at Chalcedon. This book contains the history of the actions of Pompey and Metellus against Sertorius, who was equal to them in all the tactics of war and military service, and having driven them from the blockade of the town of Calagurris, he compelled them to retire to different countries—Metellus to Farther Spain, and Pompey to Gaul.

Lucius Licinius Lucullus, consul, defeated Mithridates in an action between their cavalry, and made several successful expeditions, and repressed a mutiny among his soldiers which originated from an eager desire of fighting. Deiotarus, tetrarch of Gallogræcia, killed certain officers of Mithridates who were stirring up war in Phrygia. This book contains, moreover, an account of the successes of Pompeius against Sertorius in Spain.

Caius Curio, the proconsul, [y. r. 679. b. c. 73,] subdued the Dardanians, in Thrace. Seventy-four gladiators, belonging to Lentulus, make their escape from Capua, and having collected a great number of slaves and hired servants, and having put themselves under the command of Crixus and Spartacus, they defeated, in a battle, Claudius Pulcher, a lieutenant-general, and Publius Varenus, the prætor. Lucius Lucullus, the proconsul, destroyed the army of Mithridates, by the sword and famine, at Cyzicus; and obliged that king, when driven from Bithynia, and broken down by various misfortunes arising from war and shipwrecks, to take refuge in Pontus.

Quintus Arrius, the prætor, [y. r. 680. b. c. 72.] slew Crixus, the commander of the fugitive gladiators, with twenty thousand men. Cneius Lentulus, the consul, engaged Spartacus unsuccessfully, who also defeated Lucius Gellius, the consul, and Quintus Arrius, the prætor. Sertorius was slain at a feast, in the eighth year of his command, by Manius Antonius, Marcus Peperna, and other conspirators: he was a great general, and although opposed to two eminent commanders, Pompeius and Metellus, was often equal, and sometimes even superior, to both of them; at last, being deserted and betrayed, the command of his force devolved upon Peperna, whom Pompeius took prisoner and slew, and recovered Spain, towards the close of the tenth year of that war. Caius Crassus, the proconsul, and Cneius Manlius, the prætor, fought Spartacus unsuccessfully; the charge of that war was committed to the prætor, Marcus Crassus.

Marcus Crassus, the prætor, [y. r. 681. b. c. 71,] fought successfully first with that part of the fugitives which was composed of Gauls and Germans, and slew thirty-five thousand of them, with their general, Granicus; afterwards he fought with Spartacus, killing him and forty thousand men. Marcus Antonius, the prætor, ended, by his death, the war against the Cretans, which had been unsuccessfully undertaken. Marcus Lucullus, the proconsul, subdued the Thracians. Lucius Lucullus fought successfully against Mithridates in Pontus, more than sixty thousand of the enemy being slain, [y. r. 682. b. c. 70.] Marcus Crassus and Cneius Pompey, being made consuls, restored the tribunitian power; the latter, being of the equestrian order, had not filled the office of quæstor. The right of trial was transferred to the Roman knights, by the prætor, Lucius Aurelius Cotta. The affairs of Mithridates being reduced to a state of desperation, he flew for refuge to Tigranes, king of Armenia.

A treaty of friendship was made by Machares, son of Mithridates, king of Bosphorus, with Lucius Lucullus. Cneius Lentulus and Caius Gellius, the censors, exercised their office with extreme rigour; expelling sixty-four senators. The lustrum was closed, and the number of citizens amounted to four hundred and fifty thousand. [y. r. 683. b. c. 69.] Lucius Metellus, the prætor, was successful against the pirates in Sicily. The temple of Jupiter in the Capitol, having been consumed by fire, was rebuilt, and dedicated by Quintus Catulus. [y. r. 684. b. c. 68.] Lucius Lucullus defeated Mithridates and Tigranes, with their vast armies, in Armenia, in several battles. The war against the Cretans being committed to the charge of the proconsul, Quintus Metellus, he laid siege to the city of Cydonia. [y. r. 685. b. c. 67.] Lucius Triarius, a lieutenant-general of Lucullus, was defeated in a battle against Mithridates. Lucullus was prevented, by a sedition in his army, from pursuing Mithridates and Tigranes, and completing his victory; the Valerian legions refused to follow Lucullus, alleging that they had served out their time.

The proconsul, Quintus Metellus, took Gnossus, Lyctus, Cydonia, and many other cities. Lucius Roscius, the plebeian tribune, carried a law, that the fourteen lower seats in the theatre shall be allotted to the Roman knights. Cneius Pompeius, being ordered by a law, which had the sanction of the people, to proceed against the pirates, who had interrupted the commerce of corn, in forty days drove them wholly from the sea; and having finished the war against them in Cilicia, and reduced them to submission, assigned them lands and towns. This book contains, moreover, the history of the successes of Metellus against the Cretans, the letters between Metellus and Pompeius. Metellus complained that Pompeius had robbed him of the glory of his actions, in sending a deputy of his own to receive the submission of the Cretans. Pompeius alleged that he had a right to do so.

Caius Manilius, the tribune of the people, [y. r. 686. b. c. 66,] to the great dissatisfaction of the nobility, proposed that the Mithridatic war should be committed to the conduct of Pompeius. He made an admirable speech on the occasion. Quintus Metellus, having subdued Crete, imposed laws upon that hitherto free island. Cneius Pompeius, on setting out for the war against Mithridates, renewed the treaty of friendship with Phraates, king of Parthia; he overcame Mithridates in an engagement between their cavalry. This book contains also the history of the war between Phraates, king of Parthia, and Tigranes, king of Armenia; afterwards, between the father and son Tigranes.

Cneius Pompeius vanquished Mithridates, in a battle fought in the night, and compelled him to fly to Bosphorus; reduced Tigranes to submission, taking from him Syria, Phœnicia, and Cilicia; and restored to him his own kingdom of Armenia. The conspiracy planned by those, who had been found guilty of bribery in seeking the consulship, to murder the consuls, was suppressed. [y. r. 687. b. c. 65.] Pompeius pursued Mithridates into remote, and even unknown regions; he conquered in battle the Iberians and Albanians, who had refused him a passage through their territories. This book contains also the history of the flight of Mithridates through Colchis and the country of the Heinochi, and of his actions at Bosphorus.

Pompeius reduce Pontus to the form of a Roman province. Pharnaces, son of Mithridates, made war upon his father. Mithridates, besieged in his palace, took poison, and, when this did not produce the desired effect, he caused himself to be slain by a Gaul, named Bituitus. Pompeius conquered the Jews, and took their hitherto unviolated temple at Jerusalem. [y. r. 688. b. c. 64.] Catiline, having twice failed in his suit for the consulship, forms a conspiracy, with Lentulus, Cethegus, and others, to destroy the consuls and the senate, to burn the city, and seize the commonwealth: he raised an army in Etruria; [y. r. 689. b. c. 63;] the conspiracy was discovered, and frustrated by the exertions of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the consul. Catiline was driven out of Rome; the other conspirators were punished with death.

This book commences with a description of the situation of Germany, and the manners and customs of the natives. Caius Cæsar, at the request of the Æduans and Sequanians, whose country had been seized upon, leads his army against the Germans, who had invaded Gaul, under the command of Ariovistus, roused by an address the courage of his soldiers, who were alarmed at the unusual appearance of these new enemies, and expelled from Gaul the Germans, defeated in a battle, [y. r. 695. b. c. 57.] Marcus Tullius Cicero, to the great joy of the senate, and of all Italy, was recalled from banishment chiefly by the persuasion of Pompeius, aided by Titus Annius Milo, the plebeian tribune, who also argued in his favour. The charge of providing corn for the city was committed to Cneius Pompeius for five years. Cæsar brought to subjection the Ambians, Suessians, Veromanduans, and Atrebatians, a people of the Belgians, whose numbers were immense, after having subdued them in battle. He afterwards, at great risk, engaged the Nervians, a people belonging to one of the above states, and destroyed that race; this war they continued with such obstinacy, that their army was reduced from sixty thousand men to three hundred, and, of four hundred senators, only three remained alive. A law being made to reduce Cyprus to the form of a province, and to confiscate the royal treasure; the management of that business was committed to Marcus Cato. [y. r. 696. b. c. 56.] Ptolemy, being ill-treated by his subjects, and dethroned, came to Rome. Caius Cæsar defeated the Venetians, a people living on the borders of the sea, in a sea-fight. This book contains also the history of his lieutenants’ equally good fortune.

Julia, the daughter of Cæsar, and wife of Pompeius, died, and by a vote of the people she was honoured with burial in the Campus Martius. Certain tribes of the Gauls revolted under the command of Ambiorix; they insnare and cut off Cotta and Titurius, lieutenants-general under Cæsar, with the armies under their command: having attacked the camps of the other legions, who with difficulty defended them, and among the rest the camp of Quintus Cicero, who commanded in the country of the Nervii, they were defeated by Cæsar in battle. [y. r. 699. b. c. 53.] Marcus Crassus crossed the Euphrates, to make war against the Parthians, and was overthrown in a battle, in which his son was killed, after he had collected the remains of his army upon a rising ground: having been invited to a conference by the enemy, whose leader was Surenas, under the pretence of a treaty of peace, he was insnared, and fell fighting bravely, to prevent his suffering indignity from the enemy while alive.

Caius Cæsar, having subdued the Trevirian Gauls, passed over a second time into Germany; finding no enemy there, he returned to Gaul, and reduced to obedience the Eburones, and other cities, which had revolted. Titus Annius Milo, a candidate for the consulship, killed Publius Clodius on the Appian road, near Bovilla: the people burned the body of the latter in the curia, [y. r. 700. b. c. 52.] The candidates for the consulship, Hypsæus, Scipio, and Milo, carried on their contention with so much rancour, as to come to open violence, which excited a seditious tumult. To repress these enormities, Cneius Pompeius was a third time elected consul, in his absence, and without a colleague,—a circumstance which never occurred before. Milo was tried for the murder of Clodius, and condemned to banishment. A law was made, notwithstanding the strenuous opposition of Marcus Cato, to empower Cæsar to stand for the consulship, though absent. This book contains also the history of Cæsar’s operations against the Gauls, who had almost all revolted, and put themselves under the command of Vercingetorix: he took many towns; amongst others, Avaricum, Biturium, and Gergovia.

In this book are recorded the causes and commencement of the civil war, and [y. r. 702. b. c. 50] disputes about sending a successor to Cæsar, who refused to disband his army, unless Pompeius should also do the same. And it contains an account of the actions of Caius Curio, the plebeian tribune, first against Cæsar, afterwards in his favour. [y. r. 703. b. c. 49.] A decree of the senate being passed, that a successor to Cæsar should be appointed, Marcus Antonius and Quintus Cassius being driven out of the city, for protesting against that measure, orders were sent by the senate to the consuls, and to Cneius Pompeius, to take care that the commonwealth should sustain no injury. Cæsar, determined to make war upon his enemies, arrived in Italy with his army, took Corfinium, and in it Lucius Domitius and Lucius Lentulus, whom he discharged; and drove Cneius Pompeius and his adherents out of Italy.

Cæsar besieged Masilia, the gates of which had been shut against him; leaving his lieutenants-general, Caius Trebonius and Decimus Brutus, to carry on the siege, he set out for Spain, where Lucius Afranius and Caius Petreius, Pompeius’s lieutenants-general, with seven legions, surrendered to him at Ilerda: he dismissed them all in safety. He also reduced to submission Varro, another lieutenant-general of Pompeius, with the army under his command. He granted the privileges of Roman citizens to the Gaditanians. The Massilians were defeated in two engagements at sea; after having sustained a long siege, they yielded to Cæsar. Caius Antonius, a lieutenant-general of Cæsar, having made an unsuccessful attack upon Pompeius’s forces in Illyria, was taken prisoner. In the course of this war, the inhabitants of Opitergium, a district beyond the Po, in alliance with Cæsar, seeing their bridge blocked up by the enemy’s ships, rather than fall into their hands, killed one another. Caius Curio, one of Cæsar’s lieutenants-general in Africa, after a successful engagement with Varus, a general of the Pompeian party, was cut off, together with his army, by Juba, king of Mauritania. Caius Cæsar passed over into Greece.

The consternation and flight of the vanquished parties in various quarters of the world are recorded. Cneius Pompeius, when he had gone to Egypt, before he could land, was slain in his boat by Achilles, who had been sent for that purpose, according to the command of Ptolemy, the young king, who was instigated by Pothinus and Theodotus, his tutor, who had great influence over the king. Cornelia, his wife, and Sextus, his son, fled to Cyprus. Cæsar followed him three days after; and when Theodotus presented to him the head and ring of Pompeius, he was grievously offended, and wept over them. [y. r. 705. b. c. 47.] Cæsar entered Alexandria in safety, though it was in a state of tumult. Cæsar being created dictator, restored Cleopatra to her throne; and defeated with great slaughter Ptolemy, who had made war upon him by the advice of those who had caused him to put Pompeius to death. Ptolemy, in his flight, sunk with his vessel in the Nile. This book contains also an account of the fatiguing march of Marcus Cato, with his legions, through the deserts of Africa; and of the unsuccessful war of Cneius Domitius against Pharnaces.

Cæcilius Bassus, [y. r. 706. b. c. 46,] a Roman knight of the Pompeian party, stirred up war in Syria; the legion left there under the command of Sextus Cæsar, having slain their commander, and revolted to Bassus. Cæsar defeated Scipio the prætor, Afranius, and Juba, at Thapsus, their camps having been stormed. Having heard of this circumstance, Cato stabbed himself at Utica, and by the intervention of his son he might have been saved, but in the middle of the restoratives, having torn open the wound, he expired, in his forty-ninth year. Petreius put Juba and himself to death. Publius Scipio, being surrounded in his ship, to an honourable death added also a remarkable speech, for to the enemies who inquired about the general, he said, “The general is well.” Faustus and Afranius were slain. Cato’s son was pardoned. Brutus, Cæsar’s lieutenant-general, defeated the rebellious Bellovacians in battle.

Cæsar triumphed four times; over Gaul, Egypt, Pontus, and Africa. He gave a feast, and exhibited shows of every description. To Marcus Marcellus, a man of consular rank, he granted leave to return at the request of the senate; which favour Marcellus did not live to enjoy, having been murdered at Athens by Cneius Magius Cilo, his own dependant. Cæsar held a census, when the number of citizens amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand, [y. r. 707. b. c. 45,] and went to Spain against Cneius Pompey; where, after many attacks on both sides, many cities having been stormed, he at length gained a signal victory, after a most desperate engagement, at Munda. Sextus Pompeius effected his escape.

Caius Octavius came to Rome from Epirus, whither Cæsar had sent him to conduct the war in Macedonia; and, having received favourable omens, assumed the name of Cæsar. In the confusion and bustle of affairs, Lepidus procured the office of chief priest. But when Marcus Antonius, the consul, governed with violence, and forcibly caused a law to be passed respecting the change of provinces; and had also given very injurious treatment to Cæsar, when he requested that he would assist him in punishing the murderers of his uncle; Cæsar, to strengthen himself and the commonwealth against him, called out the veteran soldiers, who had been settled in the colonies. The fourth and Martian legions also deserted from Antony to Cæsar. Afterwards also very many revolted to Caasar, on account of the cruelty of Antony, who slaughtered every where in their own camps even those whom he suspected. Decimus Brutus, in order to stop Antonius on his way into Cisalpine Gaul, seized Mutina with his army. This book contains also the history of the attempts of both parties to possess themselves of the provinces, and of the preparations for war.

Marcus Brutus, in Greece, under the pretext of supporting the commonwealth, and the war against Antonius, managed to get the command of Vatinius’ army and province. [y. r. 709. b. c. 43.] To Cæsar, who had first undertaken to defend the commonwealth by arms, was given the authority of proprætor, with consular ornaments by the senate, and it was added that he should be enrolled a senator. Marcus Antonius besieged Brutus at Mutina; and the ambassadors sent to him by the senate, with a treaty of peace, met with little success in effecting it. The people of Rome assumed the military habit. Marcus Brutus reduced under his power Caius Antonius, the prætor, together with the army which he commanded in Epirus.

Cæsar, the consul, introduced a law to hold an inquiry into the case of those by whose instigation his father had been murdered, and Marcus Brutus, Caius Cassius, and Decimus Brutus having been tried by this law, were condemned, though absent. When Asinius Pollio and Munatius Plancus, having also joined their forces to those of Antonius, had increased his strength, and when Decimus Brutus, to whom the senate had given orders to pursue Antony, being deserted by the legions under his command, had fled, he was killed by Capenus Sequanus, by order of Antonius, into whose hands he had fallen. Caius Cæsar became reconciled to Antonius and Lepidus, so that he and Lepidus and Antony formed a triumvirate for the administration of the republic for five years, and that they should proscribe each his particular enemies, in which proscription were included very many of the equestrian order, and one hundred and thirty senators; among whom were Lucius Paulus, the brother of Lepidus, Lucius Cæsar, Antony’s uncle, and Marcus Tullius Cicero, whose head and right hand were placed on the rostrum, when he was murdered in his sixty-third year by Popilius, a legionary soldier. This book also contains an account of the transactions of Brutus in Greece.

Caius Cassius, having received orders from the senate to pursue Dolabella, who had been pronounced a public enemy, acting under the sanction of the state, reduced Syria under his authority by means of the three armies which were in that province, and besieging Dolabella, in Laodicea, put him to death. Caius Antonius, having been taken, was also slain by order of Marcus Brutus.

Marcus Brutus fought unsuccessfully with the Thracians. Afterwards all the provinces beyond sea, together with the armies in them, having been brought into obedience to him and Cassius, they met at Smyrna, to hold a council relative to the war which they were about to engage in. [y. r. 710. b. c. 42.] They agreed in pardoning Publicola, the brother of Marcus Messala, who had been conquered.

Sextus, son of Pompey the Great, having assembled a considerable number of the proscribed Romans, and other fugitives, in Epirus, wandering about for a long time, subsisting chiefly by piracy; at length he seized first on Messana in Sicily, and afterwards on the whole province; and having killed Aulus Pompeius Bithynicus, the prætor, he defeated Quintus Salvidienus, a general of Cæsar’s, in a sea-fight. Cæsar and Antonius, with their armies, passed over into Greece, to make war against Brutus and Cassius. Quintus Cornificius conquered, in a battle in Africa, Titus Sestius, the leader of Cassius’ party.

Caius Cæsar and Antony fought an undecisive battle with Brutus and Cassius at Philippi; in which the right wing of each army was victorious; and on both sides the camps were taken: the death of Cassius turned the scale of fortune; for, being at the head of that wing which was beaten, he supposed his whole army routed, and killed himself. Afterwards, in another battle, Brutus, being overcome, put an end to his life, in his fortieth year, after entreating Strabo, the companion of his flight, to drive a sword through him. Many others slew themselves, among whom was Quintus Hortensius.

Cæsar, [y. r. 711. b. c. 41,] leaving Antonius to take care of the provinces beyond the sea, returned to Italy, and made a distribution of lands among the veterans. He represses, with great risk, a mutiny among his soldiers, who, being bribed by Fulvia, the wife of Marcus Antonius, conspired against their general. Lucius Antonius, the consul, influenced by Fulvia, made war upon Cæsar, having taken to his assistance those whose lands Cæsar had distributed among his veteran soldiers: and having overthrown Lepidus, who, with an army, had charge of the defence of the city, he entered it in a hostile manner.

The Parthians, who had joined the Pompeian party, under the command of Labienus, invaded Syria, and having beaten Decidius Saxa, a lieutenant-general under Antonius, seized that whole province. When Marcus Antonius was excited to dispute with Cæsar by his wife Fulvia, having dismissed her, lest she should mar the concord of the generals, and having concluded a treaty of peace with Cæsar, he married his sister Octavia. He himself informed against Quintus Salvidienus, who was forming a villanous combination against Cæsar, who, having been condemned, committed suicide. [y. r. 713. b. c. 39.] Publius Ventidius, the lieutenant of Antony, drove the Parthians from Syria, having conquered them in battle, their general, Labienus, having been slain. When Sextus Pompey held Sicily, (being hostilely disposed, and near to Italy,) and obstructed the commerce in corn, at his own request Cæsar and Antony entered into a treaty of peace, so that he was made governor of Sicily. This book contains also the history of the commotions and war in Africa.

[y. r. 714. b. c. 38.] When Sextus Pompeius had again infested the sea with his piracies, nor kept the peace which he had solicited, Cæsar, being obliged to make war upon him, fought against him in two indecisive sea-engagements, [y. r. 715. b. c. 37.] Publius Ventidius, the lieutenant of Marcus Antonius, overthrew the Parthians in battle, in Syria, and killed their king. [y. r. 716. b. c. 36.] Antonius’s generals vanquished the Jews also. This book contains also the account of the preparations for war in Sicily.

Several battles were fought at sea, with Sextus Pompeius, with various success; of Cæsar’s two fleets, one under the command of Agrippa gained a victory; the other, led by Cæsar himself, was cut off; and his soldiers, being sent on shore, were exposed to great dangers. Pompeius, being afterwards defeated, fled into Sicily. Marcus Lepidus, who came from Africa, under the pretext of joining Cæsar in the war which he was about to wage against Sextus Pompeius, when he declared war against Cæsar himself, being deserted by his army, and deprived of the honour of the triumvirate, obtained his life. Cæsar conferred a naval crown upon Agrippa, an honour never before bestowed on any commander.

Sextus Pompeius, [y. r. 717. b. c. 35,] notwithstanding his engagements to Marcus Antonius, endeavoured to raise a war against him in Asia, and was slain by one of Antonius’s generals. [y. r. 718. b. c.34.] Cæsar repressed a mutiny of the veterans, which threatened much mischief; he subdued the Japidæ, the Dalmatians, and Pannonians. [y. r. 179. b. c. 33.] Antonius, having, by promises of safety and protection, induced Artavardes, king of Armenia, to come to him, commanded him to be thrown into chains, and gave the kingdom of Armenia to his own son, whom he had by Cleopatra, whom he now treated as his wife, having been long enamoured of her.

Cæsar conquered the Dalmatians in Illyria. [y. r. 720. b. c. 32.] He passed over to Epirus at the head of an army [y. r. 721. b. c. 31] against Antonius, who, fascinated by the love of Cleopatra, by whom he had two sons, Alexander and Philadelphus, would neither come to Rome, nor, the time of his triumvirate being expired, would resign that office; but meditated war, which he should wage against Rome and Italy, and for that purpose was preparing great forces both by sea and land, having also divorced Octavia, Cæsar’s sister. Sea-fights, and battles on land between the cavalry, in which Cæsar was victorious, are recorded.

After his fleet had been vanquished by Cæsar at Actium, Antonius escaped to Alexandria, where, being besieged by Cæsar, in desperation, induced principally by a false rumour of the death of Cleopatra, he committed suicide. Cæsar having reduced Alexandria, [y. r. 722. b. c. 30,] Cleopatra, to avoid falling into his hands, having put herself to death, on his return to Rome triumphs three times: first, over Illyria; secondly, on account of the victory at Actium; and, thirdly, over Cleopatra: the civil wars being thus terminated, after they had lasted one-and-twenty years, [y. r. 723. b. c. 29.] Marcus Lepidus, the son of Lepidus, who was of the triumvirate, forming a conspiracy against Cæsar, was taken and killed.

Cæsar, having settled the affairs of the state, [y. r. 724. b. c. 28,] and reduced all the provinces to exact order, received the surname of Augustus; and the month Sextilis was named, in honour of him, August. [y. r. 725. b. c. 27.] Cæsar having called a meeting of the states at Narbo, a census was made of the three Gauls, which were conquered by his father. The war against the Bastarnians, Mœsians, and other nations, under the conduct of Marcus Crassus, is described in this book.

The war carried on by Marcus Crassus against the Thracians, and by Cæsar against the Spaniards, is recorded in this book. [y. r. 729. b. c. 23.] The Salassians, a people of the Alps, were subdued.

Rhætia was subdued by Tiberius Nero and Drusus, the step-sons of Cæsar. Agrippa, Cæsar’s son-in-law, died. The census was held by Drusus.

The states of Germany, situated on either side of the Rhine, are attacked by Drusus. The insurrections, excited by the taxes levied in Gaul, were suppressed, [y. r. 740. b. c. 12.] An altar was dedicated to Cæsar at the confluence of the Arar and the Rhone, by Caius Julius Vercundaris Dubius, an Æduan, appointed priest for that purpose.

That the Thracians were subdued by Lucius Piso; [y. r. 741. b. c. 11;] also the Cheruscans, Tenetherans, Cattians, and other nations beyond the Rhine, by Drusus, is recorded in this book. Octavia, Augustus’s sister, died, having before lost her son, Marcellus; a theatre and portico, dedicated in his name, form his monument.

[y. r. 742. b. c. 10.] The war against the nations beyond the Rhine, conducted by Drusus, is recorded in this book: the chief actors in it were Senectius and Anectius, military tribunes, belonging to the Nervians. Nero, the brother of Drusus, subdued the Dalmatians and Pannonians. Peace was concluded with Parthia, the standards which were taken from Crassus, and afterwards from Antonius, being restored by their king.