Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"Plutarch
Philosophy
Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b Comprising all his works collected under the title of "Morals"
Plutarch
Classical literature; Essays; Ethics; Philosophy
and triumphed a second time, he had a controversy with C. Gracchus
concerning the senate and the allies; and the abusive people made a
tumult about him as he spake from the pulpit; The outcry of the army,
said he, when they charge, never disturbed me, much less the clamor
of a rabble of new-comers, to whom Italy is a step-mother (I am well
assured) and not a mother. And when they of Gracchus’s party cried out,
Kill the Tyrant,—No wonder, said he, that they who make war upon their
country would kill me first; for Rome cannot fall while Scipio stands,
nor can Scipio live when Rome is fallen.
CAECILIUS METELLUS. Caecilius Metellus designing to reduce a strong
fort, a captain told him he would undertake to take it with the loss
only of ten men; and he asked him, whether he himself would be one of
those ten. A young colonel asked him what design he had in the wheel.
If I thought my shirt knew, said he, I would pluck it off and burn it.
He was at variance with Scipio in his lifetime, but he lamented at his
death, and commanded his sons to assist at the hearse; and said, he
gave the Gods thanks in the behalf of Rome, that Scipio was born in no
other country.
C. MARIUS. C. Marius was of obscure parentage, pursuing offices by his
valor. He pretended to the chief aedileship, and perceiving he could
not reach it, the same day he stood for the lesser, and missing of that
also, yet for all that he did not despair of being consul. Having a wen
on each leg, he suffered one to be cut, and endured the surgeon without
binding, not so much as sighing or once contracting his eyebrows; but
when the surgeon would cut the other, he did not suffer him, saying
the cure was not worth the pain. In his second consulship, Lucius his
sister’s son offered unchaste force to Trebonius, a soldier, who slew
him; when many pleaded against him, he did not deny but confessed he
killed the colonel, and told the reason why. Hereupon Marius called for
a crown, the reward of extraordinary valor, and put it upon Trebonius’s
head. He had pitched his camp, when he fought against the Teutons, in
a place where water was wanting; when the soldiers told him they were
thirsty, he showed them a river running by the enemy’s trench. Look
you, said he, there is water for you, to be bought for blood; and they
desired him to conduct them to fight, while their blood was fluent and
not all dried up with thirst. In the Cimbrian war, he gave a thousand
valiant Camertines the freedom of Rome, which no law did allow; and
to such as blamed him for it he said, I could not hear the laws for
the clash of arrows. In the civil war, he lay patiently entrenched and
besieged, waiting for a fit opportunity; when Popedius Silon called to
him, Marius, if you are so great a general come down and fight. And
do you, said he, if you are so great a commander, force me to fight
against my will, if you can.
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