=42. CLIENTIS OPEM.= After the final defeat at Pharsalus, Pompey fled to
Egypt and sought the protection of Ptolemy XIII (Caesar _BC_ III 103,
Plutarch _Pomp_ 77).
Pompey similarly treated as the victim of Fortune at Cic _Tusc_ I 86 and
through much of Lucan VII-VIII; compare as well _Anth Lat_ Riese 401
'Quam late uestros duxit Fortuna triumphos, / tam late sparsit funera,
Magne, tua'.
Compare as well _Anth Lat_ 415 39-40 'spes Magnum profugum toto
discurrere in orbe / iusserat et pueri regis adire pedes'; the distich
follows a description of the hardships undergone by Marius.
=44.= The line is omitted by _B1_ and _C_; other manuscripts offer (with
minor variations) INDIGVS EFFECTVS OMNIBVS IPSE MAGIS or ACHILLAS
PHARIVS ABSTVLIT ENSE CAPVT, a line apparently devised with the aid of
Juvenal X 285-86 'Fortuna ... uicto _caput abstulit_' and Lucan VIII
545-46 'ullusne in cladibus istis / est locus Aegypto _Phariusque_
admittitur _ensis_?', both passages concerned with Pompey's murder by
Achillas. Clearly a line of the poem was lost in transmission.
Heinsius and Bentley felt that the entire distich should be deleted; but
43 seems acceptable enough, and it is appropriate that the description
of Pompey's downfall be balanced with the four-line mention of Marius
that follows. It would be strange if Pompey's sensational murder were
overlooked, as this was regarded by the poets as the ultimate reversal
of his fortunes: compare Manilius IV 50-55, Juvenal X 283-86 (which is
joined to a mention of Marius' reversal) and _Anth Lat_ 401-3 Riese.
=45. ILLE= goes with Marius two lines on--'the famous Marius'.
=45. IVGVRTHINO ... CIMBROQVE TRIVMPHO.= Marius rose to prominence in the
Jugurthine war, celebrating his triumph in 104; in 101 his defeat in the
Po valley of the Cimbri, a Germanic tribe originally from Jutland, ended
a twelve-year military threat to Rome.
=47. IN CAENO LATVIT MARIVS.= In 88 Sulla, whose command against
Mithridates had been transferred to Marius by a special law, marched on
Rome and induced the Senate to name Marius an outlaw; Marius was forced
to escape to Africa, at one point on the route hiding in the marshes of
Minturnae. This ordeal is mentioned by the poets who deal with Marius,
but they consider that he reached the low point of his fortunes when he
arrived at Carthage. Compare Manilius IV 47-49, Juvenal X 276-77
'exilium et carcer Minturnarumque paludes / et mendicatus uicta
Carthagine panis' and _Anth Lat_ 415 33-38 Riese.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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