Download File - 12 Ancient History

Roman Historiography
Pompey
 Cicero:
o “Gnaeus Pompeius stands alone as one of whose merit has surpassed in glory not only his
contemporaries but even the annals of the past”
o “A commander whose remarkable military knowledge is only equalled by his extraordinary personal
gifts, outstanding prestige and pre-eminent good fortune”
o “In knowledge of military affairs Pompey has never been surpassed...”
o “The power and glory he enjoyed had been earned by state services of the highest importance and by the
most signal military achievements.”
o “If you count up every departure from precedent since the very beginning of Roman history, they had up
to a smaller total that those which have been lavished on the career of this single man”
o “Was willing to violate the spirit of the constitution if he could observe the letter of it and was ready to
profit by illegality if someone else would take responsibility”
o “I already know him to be the most incompetent of statesmen, now I know he is the most incompetent of
generals also” (During the Civil War)
o “Awkward, tortuous, politically paltry, shabby, timid, disingenuous” (61BC)
o “My beloved Pompey, to my great sorrow, has been the author of his own downfall”
 Plutarch:
o “...he found himself ruined by the...force and greatness of his own power”
o “[in command against the pirates]...not an admiral, but a monarch”
o “made Pompey once again virtually the master of all Roman possessions by sea and land” (grain supply)
o As Caesar himself said, ‘Today the enemy would have won, if they had a Commander who was a winner’”
o “Crassus, the richest statesman of the time, the best orator and the greatest man...had not ventured to
put himself forward as a candidate for the consulship until he had first asked Pompey to support him”
 Appian:
o “...all these powers together had never been given to any one general before; and this is perhaps the
reason why they call him Pompey the Great”
o “(At Pharsulus)...forced to act in every respect against his better judgement”
 Paterculus:
o “He should be indignant that anyone should be seen to be an equal to him in dignity”
 Sallust:
o “[his] pursuit of glory, as they say, always took an unlikely or unusual course”
 Caesar:
o “...the trouble with Pompey was that he didn’t want anyone to be his equal in dignity”
 Marsh:
o “From the day the [lex Gabinia] was passed in 67 BC, till Pompey disbanded his army in 61 BC, he was the
Emperor of Rome in all but name”
o “Pompey seems to have shown himself a competent organiser and administrator”
 Bradley:
o “Pompey accepted the demands of the hard-core optimates to raise the troops and save the State
because he believed that this would force Caesar to make a peaceful settlement; back down from Caesar
would have maintained Pompey’s supremacy over him”
o “Pompey’s main aim in the late 50s seems to have been to make sure that Caesar did not become his
equal, but to do this without resorting to civil war”
o “What Pompey’s settlement of the East once again revealed was his outstanding ability as an organiser,
administrator and diplomat”
o “He was a catalyst in the breakdown of the republic”
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Seager:
o “[Cato and the Senate] drove Pompeius into Caesar’s arms”
Catulus:
o “It is not proper to entrust to any one man so many positions of command one after another. This has
not only been forbidden by the laws, but has been found by experience to be most perilious.”
Army
 Taylor:
o “The most important group under oath to individuals was the personal army”
o “The soldiers were turned into clients of the general; while they were in his army that looked to him for
rewards...as veterans (they continued) to regard him as their patron...to respond to his call in time of
need”
 Last:
o “[The army was given] a place of unprecedented power in the political life of Rome”
 Glezer:
o “For Caesar publicly decided that only two things were needed to rule, soldiers and money, and armies
could be held together with money”
 Bradley:
o “Marius carried out a major reorganisation of the army...the new-style army could in the future be used
to destroy the established order just as easily as maintain it”
Crassus
 Paterculus:
o “his lust for money and his ambition for glory, knew no limits and accepted no bounds”
 Dio Cassius:
o “he possessed the greatest influence”
 Plutarch:
o “in the Senate Crassus was the more influential of the two, but Pompey had greater power with the
people”
o “Crassus, the richest statesman of the time, the best orator and the greatest man...had not ventured to
put himself forward as a candidate for the consulship until he had first asked Pompey to support him”
o “renouncing, therefore, all effects to equal Pompey in military achievements, he plunged into politics”
o “Crassus was continually ready with his services, was ever at hand and easy of access, and always took
an active part in the enterprises of the hour”
o “Crassus now went back to the way of life which he had adopted from the beginning of his career” (after
consulship of 70BC)
 Bradley:
o “Crassus was extremely influential with both politicians and businessmen owing to the skilful use of his
incredible wealth...realised that despite the number of influential people in his debt, it would take more
than wealth to achieve his aims”
 Marsh:
o “...through his political loans, Crassus could pull many wives”
Caesar
 Sulla:
o “There are many Mariuses in this fellow Caesar” (recorded by Suetonius)
 Plutarch:
o “Caesar was born to do great things and to constantly seek for distinction”
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Suetonius:
o “It has been suggested that constant exercise of power gave Caesar a love of it; and that, after weighing
his enemies’ strength against his own, he took his chance of fulfilling his youthful dreams of making a bid
for the monarchy”
o “Not only did he accept excessive honours, such as life-consulship, a life-dictatorship, a perpetual
Censorship, the title ‘Imperator’ put before his name and the title of ‘Father of the Country’...but took
other honours, which as a mere mortal, he should have refused”
Caesar:
o “...they would have condemned me regardless of all my victories – me, Gaius Caesar – had I not
appealed to my army for help”
o “Prestige had always been of prime importance to me, even outweighing life itself; it pained me to see
the privilege conferred on me by the Roman people being insultingly wrested from me by my enemies”
o “I alone have been denied the right always accorded to all commanders – that is, the right of coming
home, after successful campaigns, with some honour, or at least without disgrace, and disbanding one’s
army”
Bradley:
o “Caesar returned to Rome to be acclaimed and honoured as no other Roman had ever been, and as
dictator he carried out a huge amount of administrative and legislative reform and initiated vast building
programs”
o “He was an outstanding soldier and military leader.”
Gelzer:
o “Caesar had only one unshakeable principle – he would not let go of the power he had won.”
Cowell:
o “Never before had a Roman citizen allowed himself to receive the honours and marks of distinction
normally reserved for the gods”
Cicero
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Plutarch:
o “...it was considered that he, more than anyone was dissatisfied with the present state of affairs and
longed for the past”
o “Voted him the greatest honours that had ever been conferred and called him father of the fatherland.
Cicero was the first to receive this title”
o “Cicero’s public actions did much to establish Pompey’s authority and reputation in the state.”
o “Cicero, it may be said, was the one man, above all others who made the Romans feel how great a
charm eloquence lends to what is good, and how invincible justice is, if it be well spoken.”
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Cicero:
o “I am eager to remove your bad reputation – which is as much mine as yours” [Senatorial jury – Trial of
Verres]
o “I swear...in very truth that I have saved my country and maintained her supremacy”
o If this harmony, brought about in my consulship, can survive for ever in the Republic, then we shall never
again see the state torn by Civil War and strife”
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Bradley:
o “He genuinely believed that the stability of the state was bound up with its judicial decisions”
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Robinson:
o "[Cicero had] an unswerving fidelity to the Republican tradition."
o “...courteous, considerate, dignified and witty.”
Scullard:
o “Thus perished one of Rome’s greatest sons.”
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Antony
 Cicero:
o “Antony is a madman; corrupt and much worse that Caesar whom you declared the worst of evil men”
o “Instead of protecting Caesar’s acts, as he should have, he annulled them: those relating to national and
private affairs alike”
o “Twas a fine deed but half done”
 Robinson:
o “Caesar’s right-hand”
 Scullard:
o “The consul Antony was not a new dictator, but he had skilfully gathered into his hands great power”
o “...in love with an exceptionally able, ruthless and ambitious woman”
 Bradley:
o “Antony’s behaviours in the east between 36-34 BC can perhaps be explained by the fact that he fell
totally under the spell of Cleopatra, whose main aim was to restore the old Ptolemaic kingdom”
(Cleopatra)
 Plutarch:
o “they were more fortunate in what they did by their lieutenants than in their own persons” (Antony and
Octavian)
Octavian
 Cicero:
o “Look at young Gaius Caesar – he’s scarcely more than a lad but he has raised a devoted army of
veterans of Caesar’s who have never known defeat...”
o “His is an astonishing, I might say superhuman, quality of mind and spirit”
 Octavian:
o “On that account the Senate passed decrees in my honour enrolling me in its order...giving me
imperium...that the republic should come to no harm”
 Appian:
o Directly multitudes of men from all sides flocked to him as Caesar’s son, some from friendship to Caesar,
others his freedmen and slaves, and with them soldiers besides”
 Octavian:
o “[The senate] ordered me proprietor to provide in concert with the consuls that the Republic should come
to no harm”
 Plutarch:
o “they were more fortunate in what they did by their lieutenants than in their own persons” (Antony and
Octavian)
Lepidus:
 Jones:
o allowed himself to be ordered about because although he had all the attributes and material
possessions of a great noble, “He lacked the ruthless qualities needed for success, or indeed survival, in
these troublous times”
 Tacitus:
o “When Lepidus grew old and lazy...”
Optimates and Populares
 Bradley:
o “It was Pompey’s ambition to reach a position of pre-eminence within the state...whether it meant siding
with the optimates or the populares.”
o “[Caesar] was also a committed popularis and did not veer from that position during his career”
Sulla
 Brunt:
o “Sulla achieved little besided adding to the sum of human misery. His system aggrieved the equites, the
urban populace, the dispossessed peasants and the new citizens and made no provisions for veterans in
the future. Social discontents continued, as the senate remained indifferent to the distress of the poor.”
o “It was the memory of Sulla’s example and methods that proved most enduring.”
 Plutarch:
o “he laid down his dictatorship and gave back to the people the right of electing consuls”
 Appian:
o “he was weary of war, weary of power, weary of Rome”
 Catulus:
o “Sulla became what he was because he held command of the armies so many years in succession and
later was appointed dictator...”
First Triumvirate
 Cicero:
o “O Pompey, I wish you had either never formed an alliance with Caesar or never broken it”
 Plutarch:
o “That fortune had, as it were, removed from the ring, the third competitor”
o “Crassus’ death did not mean that civil war between Pompey and Caesar was now inevitable...but the
danger of the split was more likely”
o “The first disaster and the worst had been, not the quarrel and the split between Caesar and Pompey,
but the friendship and harmony that had existed between them”
 Paterculus:
o “It’s results were to bring ruin to the city, the world, and even, at different times, to each of the three
men”
 Scullard:
o “It’s formation was a turning point in the history of the Free State, and it was, as both Cicero and Cato
recognised, the ultimate origin of the civil war of 49BC”
 Bradley:
o “Pompey’s main aim in the late 50s seems to have been to make sure that Caesar did not become his
equal, but to do this without resorting to civil war”
o “Created a great deal of fear and anger among the optimates, since these three men between them had
power, wealth, status, and support from the people and equites”
 Seager:
o “[Cato and the Senate] drove Pompeius into Caesar’s arms”
Civil War
 Caesar:
o “He was going to attack an army which had no leader and would then return to deal with a leader who
had no army”
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Cicero:
o “After the fall of Corfinium, Caesar made another attempt...Pompey refused to meet him”
o “What a disgrace....Pompey...refused all peace terms, failed to prepare for war, evacuated Rome,
culpably lost Picenum, got himself tied up in Apulia, and then went off it Greece...
Plutarch
o “This led Caesar to say to his friends: ‘To-day victory would have been with the enemy if they had had a
victor in command.’”
o “Caesar...in sixty days had become master of all Italy without bloodshed”
Scullard:
o “It’s formation was a turning point in the history of the Free State, and it was, as both Cicero and Cato
recognised, the ultimate origin of the civil war of 49BC”
o “The struggle was for personal power, prestige and honour without regard for the libertas of others”
Marsh:
o “Caesar and Pompey had realised for some time that a war between them was inevitable, yet when it
came neither was ready for it”
Suetonius:
o “...he was resigned to invade Italy if force was used against the Tribunate of the people...Caesar’s pretext
for launching the Civil War”
o “...he said in these very words: ‘they would have condemned me regardless of all my victories – me,
Gaius Caesar – had I not appealed to my army for help’”
Bradley:
o “Pompey accepted the demands of the hard-core optimates to raise the troops and save the State
because he believed that this would force Caesar to make a peaceful settlement; back down from Caesar
would have maintained Pompey’s supremacy over him”
o “Pompey’s main aim in the late 50s seems to have been to make sure that Caesar did not become his
equal, but to do this without resorting to civil war”
o “When his (Caesar’s) final attempts at negotiation were ignored, he appealed to his troops to defend his
reputation”
o “By crossing the Rubicon...Caesar committed treason and was legally responsible for the civil war”
Syme:
o “Upon Caesar they had thrust the choice between Civil War and political extinction”
Second Triumvirate
 Dio Cassius:
o “For although they hated one another bitterly, yet since they had forces about equal and desired to have
one another’s assistance in taking vengeance on their other enemies first, they reached a pretended
agreement”
 Plutarch:
o “The eastern provinces falling to Antony, to Caesar the western and Africa being left to Lepidus”
 Cicero:
o “The recovery of freedom did not mean the revival of free of free government” (After Caesar’s death,
more about Antony)
 Scullard:
o “In place of the dictator Caesar, there were now three dictators”
o “Antony proclaimed that Caesarion...was the legitimate son of Julius Caesar (thus by implication the
adopted son, Octavian, was a usurper)”
o “Octavian was undisputed master of the Roman World”
Senate
 Cicero:
o “I am eager to remove your bad reputation – which is as much mine as yours” [Senatorial jury – Trial of
Verres]
o “And all these remarkable and revolutionary innovations...were brought about as a result of enactments
by distinguished national leaders...” [About Pompey’s extraordinary commands, response to Catalus]
 Bradley:
o “[Pompey’s] extraordinary career embodied everything that the oligarchy opposed and yet they were
responsible him many of his exceptional appointments”
o “...public and private debts had never been greater in Rome and Italy at this time, creating widespread
poverty and misery...Sallust maintains that greed and ambition among the upper classes also
contributed to the situation."
o “The most exceptional feature of this appointment, however, was that it was proposed by the
conservatives and yet was a most unconstitutional position” (sole consulship of Pompey)
o “Most of the senators were eager to prevent a conflictbetween the two men [Caesar and Pompey], but
the small group of optimates, long-time enemies of Caesar, were not interested in any appeasement or
compromise.”
 Catulus:
o “To what end, indeed, do you elect the annual officials, if you are going to make no use of them for such
occasions?...”
 Scullard:
o "The Senate had failed to rise to the opportunity that Sulla had given it"
 Robinson:
o "With every year that passed the Senate was losing its grip upon affairs"
 Octavian:
o “...the senate passed decrees in my honour enrolling me in its order...assigning me the right to give my
opinion among the consulars and giving me imperium...” (Octavian less than twenty, wholly illegal)
 Decimus Brutus:
o “[Cicero and the senate]...to encourage, not check, the ambition and desire for power of this youth”