61

Mithridates, who was king of twenty-two nations, admini. tered their laws in as many languages, and could harangu each of them, without employing an interpreter. There was in Greece a man named Charmidas, who, when a persor asked him for any book in a library, could repeat it by heart just as though he were reading. Memory, in fine, has been made an art; which was first invented by the lyric poet, Si monides, and perfected by Metrodorus of Scepsis, so as to enable persons to repeat word for word exactly what they have heard. Nothing whatever, in man, is of so frail a nature as the memory; for it is affected by disease, by injuries, and even by fright; being sometimes partially lost, and at other times. entirely so. A man, who received a blow from a stone, forgot the names of the letters only;62 while, on the other hand, another person, who fell from a very high roof, could not so much as recollect his mother, or his relations and neighbours. Another person, in consequence of some disease, forgot his own servants even; and Messala Corvinus, the orator, lost ali recollection of his own name. And so it is, that very often the memory appears to attempt, as it were, to make its escape from us, even while the body is at rest and in perfect health. When sleep, too, comes over us, it is cut off altogether; so much so, that the mind, in its vacancy, is at a loss to know where we are.63

This account is similar to that given by Val. Maximus, B. viii. c. 7, and by Aulus Gellius, B. xvii. c. 7. We have a learned dissertation by Ajasson, in which he discusses the possibility of one individual understanding so great a number of languages, as well as the question, whether it is possible that so great a number of languages were spoken by the subjects of Mithridates. His conclusions greatly tend to prove both these points; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 295.—B.

60 This invention is referred to by Cicero, De Nat. Deor., B. ii. c. 86. Cicero also speaks of the remarkable powers of memory possessed by Charmidas and Metrodorus, De Oratore, B. ii. c. 88, and Tusc. Quæst. B. i. c. 24.-B.

61 Ajasson gives an account of some of the principal writers in what has been termed the science of Mnemonics, or artificial memory: he particularly commends the lectures of Aimé of Paris on the subject; Lemaire, vol. iii. p. 310, et seq.-B.

6 This circumstance is related by Val. Maximus, B. i. c. 8.-B.

63 This is not always the case. In dreams we often recollect past events and localities; we know in what part of the world we are, and even remember the substance of former dreams, and the fact that we have dreamt of a similar subject before.

CHAP. 25. (25.)-VIGOUR OF MIND.

The most remarkable instance, I think, of vigour of mind in any man ever born, was that of Cæsar, the Dictator. I am not at present alluding to his valour and courage, nor yet his exalted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under the face of heaven, but I am speaking of that innate vigour of mind, which was so peculiar to him, and that promptness which seemed to act like a flash of lightning. We find it stated that he was able to write or read, and, at the same time, to dictate and listen. He could dictate to his secretaries four letters at once, and those on the most important business; and, indeed, if he was busy about nothing else, as many as seven. He fought as many as fifty pitched battles, being the only commander who exceeded M. Marcellus, in this respect, he having fought only thirty-nine. In addition, too, to the victories gained by him in the civil wars, one million one hundred and ninety-two thousand men were slain by him in his battles. For my own part, however, I am not going to set it down as a subject for high renown, what was really an outrage committed upon mankind, even though he may have been acting under the strong influence of necessity; and, indeed, he himself confesses as much, in his omission to state the number of persons who perished by the sword in the civil wars.

65

CHAP. 26.-CLEMENCY AND GREATNESS OF MIND.

With much more justice we may award credit to Pompeius Magnus, for having taken from the pirates 66 no less than eight hundred and forty-six vessels: though at the same time, over and above the great qualities previously mentioned, we must with equal justice give Cæsar the peculiar credit of a remark

6 The conqueror of Syracuse, and five times consul at Rome. He was born B.C. 268, and was slain in an engagement with Hannibal, B.C. 208, in the vicinity of Venusia.

65 Ajasson remarks concerning the number of battles in which Cæsar is said to have been engaged, that it has probably been much exceeded by some of the great warriors of later times. He says that an individual, "who was raised over our heads and over all Europe, and so reigned much too long," was personally engaged in nearly 300 battles.-B.

66 Who infested the coasts of Cilicia, and whom he dislodged from their strongholds, and almost utterly extirpated.

able degree of clemency, a quality, in the excrcise of which, even to repentance, he excelled all other individuals whatsoever. The same person has left us one instance of magnanimity, to which there is nothing that can be at all compared. While one, who was an admirer of luxury, might perhaps on this occasion have enumerated the spectacles which he exhibited, the treasures which he lavished away, and the magnificence of his public works, I maintain that it was the great proof, and an incomparable one, of an elevated mind, for him to have burnt with the most scrupulous carefulness the papers of Pompeius, which were taken in his desk at the battle of Pharsalia, and those of Scipio, taken at Thapsus, without so much as reading them.67

CHAP. 27. (26.)-HEROIC EXPLOITS.

But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown of the Roman Empire, as to the victorious career of a single individual, I shall proceed on this occasion to make mention of all the triumphs and titles of Pompeius Magnus: the splendour of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alexander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father Libers even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partizan of Sylla, but in behalf of the republic, after having conquered the whole of Africa, and reduced it to subjection, and after having received for his share of the spoil the title of " Great," he was decreed the honours of a triumph; and he, though only of equestrian rank," a thing that had never occurred before, re-entered the city in the triumphal chariot: immediately after which, he hastened to the west, where he left it inscribed on the trophy which he raised upon the Pyrenees, that he had, by his victories, reduced to subjection eight hundred and seventy-six cities, from the Alps to the borders of Farther Spain; at the same time he most 67 This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch mentions a similar circumstance with respect to Pompey.-B. 68 Or Bacchus." Father Liber" is the name always given to him by Pliny.

69" Magnus." Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylla saluted him with the name of "Magnus," which surname he ever afterwards retained.-B.

70 Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to any one who was not either consul or prætor.-B.

magnanimously said not a word about Sertorius."1 After having put an end to the civil war, which indeed was the primary cause of all the foreign ones, he, though still of only equestrian rank, again entered Rome in the triumphal chariot, having proved himself a general thus often before having been a soldier."2 After this, he was dispatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the East, whence he brought back to his country the following titles of honour, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred games-for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective countries.73 These honours then did he award to the City, in the temple of Minerva," which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained: "Cneius Pompeius Magnus, Imperator, having brought to an end a war of thirty years' duration, and having defeated, routed, put to the sword, or received the submission of, twelve millions two hundred and seventy-eight thousand men, having sunk or captured eight hundred and forty-six vessels, having received as allies one thousand five hundred and thirty-eight cities and fortresses, and having conquered all the country from the Mæotis to the Red Sea, dedicates this shrine as a votive offering due to Minerva." Such, in few words, is the sum of his exploits in the East. The following are the introductory words descriptive of the triumph which he obtained, the third day before the calends of October,76 in the consulship of M. Piso and

71 Sertorius had joined the party of Marius and Cinna, in opposition to that of Sylla. He fled into Spain, and maintained the war successfully in that country, until he was treacherously assassinated by one of his supposed partisans. This may appear a sufficient reason for his not being mentioned by Pompey.-B.

72 "Toties imperator antequam miles." He had been raised to the highest rank without passing through the various gradations of military

life.-B.

73 Speaking of this honorary crown, Pliny says, B. xvi. c. 4, "At the present day it is not given to the victor himself, but proclamation is made that he confers the crown upon his country."

74 It is noticed by the commentators, that Aulus Gellius, speaking of this building, calls it the Temple of Victory, B. x. c. 1; the error, it is supposed, may have arisen from Pompey having placed a statue of Victory in the Temple.--B.

75 29th of September.

76 Pliny, referring to these events, in a subsequent place, B. xxvii. c. 6, says that it took place "pridie Kalend. Octob. die natalis sui." Plutarch informs us, that the triumph lasted two days, a circumstance which may

169 M. Messala;" "After having delivered the sea-coast from the pirates, and restored the seas to the people of Rome, he enjoyed a triumph over Asia, Pontus, Armenia, Paphlagonia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, Syria, the Scythians, Judæa, the Albanians, Iberia, the island of Crete, the Basterni, and, in addition to all these, the kings Mithridates and Tigranes."

The most glorious, however, of all glories, resulting from these exploits, was, as he himself says, in the speech which he made in public relative to his previous career, that Asia, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left its centre." 78 If any one should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of Cæsar, who has shown himself greater still than Pompeius, why then he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, I may say, without an end.

CHAP. 28. (27.) -UNION IN THE SAME PERSON OF THREE OF THE

HIGHEST QUALITIES WITH THE GREATEST PURITY.

80

Many other men have excelled in different kinds of virtues. Cato, however, who was the first of the Porcian family,79 is generally thought to have been an example of the three greatest of human endowments, for he was the most talented orator, the most talented general, and the most talented politician;& all which merits, if they were not perceptible before him, still shone forth, more refulgently even, in my opinion, in Scipio Emilianus, who besides was exempted from that hatred on the part of many others under which Cato laboured:81 in conseassist us in reconciling these dates. The same author gives a very minute detail of all the transactions here referred to.-B.

77 According to the chronology ordinarily adopted, this would be in the year of the City 692.-B.

78 By Asia, as we see from the geographical portion of this work, the ancients often designated not the large tract to which we now apply the name, but a comparatively small district lying on the east of the Egean sea.-B.

79 See B. xiv. c. 5.

80 Val. Maximus adds, that he was the best lawyer of his time.-B.

81 We meet with a passage in Livy, B. xxxix. c. 44, illustrative of this view of Cato's character. In Cicero's treatise, De Senectute, where Cato bears a prominent part, frequent allusion is made to the strictness and even severity of his principles, although the general impression which we receive of his character and manners is highly interesting, and, upon the whole, not unamiable.-B.