the most remarkable instance, i think, of vigor of mind in any man ever born, was that of c?sar, the dictator. i am not at present alluding to his valor and courage, nor yet his 52 exalted genius, which was capable of embracing everything under the face of heaven, but i am speaking of that innate vigor 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 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.
with much more justice we may award credit to pompey the great for having taken from the pirates 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 c?sar the peculiar credit of a remarkable degree of clemency, a quality, in the exercise 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 53 carefulness the papers of pompey, which were taken in his desk at the battle of pharsalia, and those of scipio, taken at thapsus, without so much as reading them.
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 pompey: the splendor of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of alexander the great, but even of hercules, and perhaps of father liber[73] even. after having recovered sicily, where he first commenced his career as a partisan 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,”[74] he was decreed the honors 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. 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 thus often proved himself a general before having been a common soldier. after this, he was despatched to the shores of all the various seas, and then to the east, whence he brought back to his country many titles of honor, resembling therein those who conquer at the sacred games—for, be it remembered, it is not they that are crowned, but their respective 54 countries. upon the shrine in the temple of minerva, which he consecrated from the spoils that he had gained, are these words:—“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 m?otis 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 celebrated on the 29th and 30th of september, in the consulship of m. piso and m. messala (b.c. 61): “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, jud?a, 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 minor, which he received as the boundary of the empire, he left as its centre. if any one should wish, on the other hand, in a similar manner, to pass in review the exploits of c?sar, who has shown himself greater still than pompey, why then, he must enumerate all the countries in the world, a task, i may say, without an end!
a minute inquiry by whom the greatest valor has ever been exhibited, would lead to an endless discussion, especially if all the fables of the poets are to be taken for granted. lucius siccius dentatus, who was tribune of the people in the consulship of spurius tarpeius and aulus aterius (b.c. 55 454), not long after the expulsion of the kings, has very numerous testimonies in his favor. this hero fought one hundred and twenty battles, was eight times victorious in single combat, and was graced with forty-five wounds in the front of the body, without one on the back. the same man also carried off thirty-four spoils, was eighteen times presented with the victor’s spear,[75] and received twenty-five pendants, eighty-three torcs, or golden ornaments, one hundred and sixty bracelets, twenty-six crowns, a fisc or chest of money, ten prisoners, and twenty oxen. he followed in the triumphal processions of nine generals, who mainly owed their victories to his exertions; besides all which, a thing that i look upon as the most important of all his services, he denounced to the people titus romilius, one of the generals of the army, at the end of his consulship, and had him convicted of having made an improper use of his authority.
the military honors of manlius capitolinus would have been no less splendid than his, if they had not been all effaced at the close of his life. before his seventeenth year, he had gained two spoils, and was the first of equestrian rank who received a mural crown; he also gained six civic crowns, thirty-seven donations, and had twenty-three scars on the fore-part of his body. he saved the life of p. servilius, the master of the horse, receiving wounds on the same occasion in the shoulders and the thigh. besides all this, unaided, he saved the capitol, when it was attacked by the gauls, and through that, the state itself; a thing that would have been the most glorious act of all, if he had not so saved it, in order that he might, as its king, become its master. but in all 56 matters of this nature, although valor may effect much, fortune does still more.
no person living, in my opinion at least, ever excelled marcus sergius, although his great-grandson, catiline, tarnished the honors of his name. in his second campaign he lost his right hand; and in two campaigns he was wounded three and twenty times—so severely that he could scarcely use either his hands or his feet; still, attended by a single slave, he afterwards served in many campaigns, though but an invalided soldier. he was twice taken prisoner by hannibal, (for it was with no ordinary enemy that he would engage,) and twice did he escape from his captivity, after having been kept, without a single day’s intermission, in chains and fetters for twenty months. on four occasions he fought with his left hand alone, two horses being slain under him. he had a right hand made of iron, and attached to the stump, after which he fought a battle, and raised the siege of cremona, defended placentia, and took twelve of the enemy’s camps in gaul. all this we learn from an oration of his, which he delivered when, in his pr?torship, his colleagues attempted to exclude him from the sacred rites, on the ground of his infirmities.[76] what heaps upon heaps of crowns would he have piled up, if he had only had other enemies! for, in matters of this nature, it is of the first importance to consider in what times the valor of each man has fallen. what civic crowns did trebia, what did the ticinus, what did lake thrasymenus afford? what crown was there to be gained at cann?, where it was deemed the greatest effort of valor to have escaped from the enemy? other persons have been conquerors of men, no doubt, but sergius conquered even fortune herself.
