Iam vero virtuti Cn. Pompei quae potest oratio par inveniri? Quid est
quod quisquam aut illo dignum, aut vobis novum aut cuiquam inauditum
possit adferre? Neque enim illae sunt solae virtutes imperatoriae, quae
vulgo esistimantur, labor in {5} negotiis, fortitudo in periculis,
industria in agendo, celeritas in conficiendo, consilium in providendo,
quae tanta sunt in hoc uno, quanta in omnibus reliquis imperatoribus,
quos aut vidimus aut audivimus, non fuerunt. Testis est Italia, quam
ille ipse {10} victor L. Sulla huius virtute et subsidio confessus est
liberatam: testis est Sicilia, quam multis undique cinctam periculis non
terrore belli, sed consilii celeritate explicavit: testis est Africa,
quae magnis oppressa hostium copiis eorum ipsorum sanguine {15}
redundavit: testis est Gallia, per quam legionibus nostris iter in
Hispaniam Gallorum internecione patefactum est: testis est Hispania,
quae saepissime plurimos hostes ab hoc superatos prostratosque
conspexit: testis est iterum et saepius Italia, quae {20} cum servili
bello taetro periculosoque premeretur, ab hoc auxilium absente
expetivit, quod bellum exspectatione eius attenuatum atque imminutum
est, adventu sublatum ac sepultum: testes nunc vero iam omnes orae atque
omnes exterae gentes ac nationes. {25}
CICERO, _pro Lege Manilia_, 29-31.
[Linenotes:
10-12. +Testis est Italia ... liberatam.+ In 83 B.C. Pompeius, aged
twenty-four, raised three legions in Picenum, gained several
advantages over the Marian generals, and was saluted by Sulla as
Imperator.
12-14. +testis est Sicilia ... explicavit.+ In 82 B.C. Pompeius,
sent as propraetor to Sicily, quickly took possession of the island
for Sulla.
14-16. +testis est Africa ... redundavit.+ In 81 B.C. Pompeius
defeated at Utica the Marian Ahenobarbus (allied with Hiarbas of
Numidia), and was, though _a simple Roman eques_, granted a triumph
by Sulla and saluted as +Magnus+.
16-18. +testis est Gallia ... patefactum est.+ In 77 B.C., on his
way to Spain as proconsul against Sertorius, he had to cut his way
through the Transalpine Gauls, and laid out a new and shorter road
over the Cottian Alps.
21. +servili bello.+ On his return from Spain he cut to pieces the
scattered remnants of the army of Spartacus.
21-23. +ab hoc ... imminutum est.+ Cic. assumes that the enemy was
crippled even by the mere notion of sending for Pompeius.]
+References.+ Plutarch, _Pompeius_; Vell. Paterc. ii. 29.
B27
GAIUS IULIUS CAESAR (1)
_The Man Caesar._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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