Sextus Pompey is said to have been _sermone barbarus_. He was indeed a rough fellow, and had lived abroad from his earliest youth; but we see in what a corrupt and neglected state the vulgar tongue must at that time already have been. People only who were highly educated spoke well; it was a particular refinement, a perfection of language, which, if not carefully cultivated, was very liable to degenerate before long. Cicero tells us of the _sermo urbanus_ of the time of Lælius, and remarks that the ladies of that period spoke an idiom of uncommon elegance.[23] But now this refined style was already gone off, as is the case at the present day nearly everywhere, even in England and France. Sextus Pompey was a mere _condottiere_ like Antony and others: he thought of nothing beyond maintaining himself in Sicily and those parts, the restoration of the republic being no concern of his. By the peace of Misenum, all the proscribed were allowed to return to Rome. Peace having been thus restored, Antony turned to the east, where Labienus had fled over to the Parthians. The latter was one of those men whose fate does not inspire any sympathy: he was a seditious tribune in Cicero’s consulship, and afterwards a tool of Cæsar’s usurpation. His family also was a seditious one: his uncle had been slain with Saturninus, and he had tried to avenge him upon C. Rabirius, one of the few still living of those who with Marius had stormed the Capitol, thirty-seven years having passed since then. Labienus was an intriguer from inclination, not from need, as he was very rich: he threw himself into the arms of Cæsar, and distinguished himself as an officer in the Gallic wars. Afterwards, it is not known for what reason, he went over to Pompey, to whom he remained faithful. Then, after the battle of Pharsalus, he went to Africa, and from thence to Spain; after which he again makes his appearance in the army of Brutus, takes a part in the battle of Philippi, and at last betakes himself to the Parthians. He now led a Parthian army to Syria, and these barbarians, when commanded by one of Cæsar’s comrades, achieved things such as they had never done before: yet after gaining several victories, they were at length driven back by Ventidius.