XXVII. In Rome the consul Piso, through passion and envy, was damaging the preparations for the war, and disbanding the seamen who were to man the ships, but Pompeius sent round his navy to Brundisium and himself advanced through Tyrrhenia to Rome. On hearing this all the people poured forth out of the city upon the road, just as if they had not only a few days before conducted him out of the city. And the rejoicing was caused by the speediness of the change, which was contrary to expectation, for the Forum had a superabundance of provisions. The consequence was that Piso ran the risk of being deprived of the consulship, for Gabinius had already a law drawn up. But Pompeius prevented this, and having managed everything else with moderation and got what he wanted, he went down to Brundisium and set sail. But though he was pressed by the urgency of the business and sailed past the cities in his haste, still he did not pass by Athens but he went up to it. After sacrifices to the gods and addressing the people, just as he was quitting the place he read two inscriptions, each of a single verse, addressed to him, the one within the gate,
"As thou own'st thyself a mortal, so thou art in truth a God."
and that on the outside:
"Expected, welcomed, seen, we now conduct thee forth."
Now as he treated mercifully some of the piratical crews which still held together and were cruising about the seas upon their preferring entreaties to him, and after receiving a surrender of their vessels and persons did them no harm, the rest entertaining good hopes attempted to get out of the way of the other officers, and coming to Pompeius they put themselves into his hands with their children and wives. But he spared all, and it was chiefly through their assistance that he tracked out and caught[241] those who still lurked in concealment, as being conscious that they had committed unpardonable crimes.
XXVIII. The greater part and the most powerful of the pirates had deposited their families and wealth, and their useless people, in garrisons and strong forts among the heights of the Taurus; but manning their ships the pirates themselves awaited the approach of Pompeius near Coracesium[242] in Cilicia, and a battle was fought in which they were defeated and afterwards blockaded. At last sending a suppliant message they surrendered themselves and their cities and the islands of which they had possession and in which they had built forts that were difficult to force and hard to approach. Accordingly the war was ended, and all the pirates were driven from the sea in no more than three months. Pompeius received by surrender many ships, and among them ninety with brazen beaks. The pirates, who amounted to more than twenty thousand, he never thought of putting to death, but he considered that it would not be prudent to let them go and to allow them to be dispersed or to unite again, being poor, and warlike and many in number. Reflecting then that by nature man neither is made nor is a wild animal nor unsocial, and that he changes his character by the practice of vice which is contrary to his nature, but that he is tamed by habits and change of place and life, and that wild beasts by being accustomed to a gentler mode of living put off their wildness and savageness, he determined to transfer the men to the land from the sea and to let them taste a quiet life by being accustomed to live in cities and to cultivate the ground. The small and somewhat depopulated cities of Cilicia received some of the pirates whom they associated with themselves, and the cities received some additional tracts of land; and the city of Soli,[243] which had lately been deprived of its inhabitants by Tigranes[244] the Armenian king, he restored and settled many of them in it. To the greater part he gave as their residence Dyme[245] in Achæa, which was then without inhabitants and had much good land.
XXIX. Now those who envied Pompeius found fault with these measures; but as to his conduct towards Metellus[246] in Crete, even his best friends were not pleased with it. Metellus, who was a kinsman of the Metellus who had the command in Iberia jointly with Pompeius, was sent as commander to Crete before Pompeius was chosen. For Crete was a kind of second source of pirates and next to Cilicia; and Metellus having caught many of them in the island took them prisoners and put them to death. Those who still survived and were blockaded, sent a suppliant message and invited Pompeius to the island, as being a part of his government and falling entirely within the limits reckoned from the coast. Pompeius accepted the invitation and wrote to Metellus to forbid him continuing the war. He also wrote to the cities not to pay any attention to Metellus, and he sent as commander one of his own officers, Lucius Octavius, who entering into the forts of the besieged pirates and fighting on their side made Pompeius not only odious and intolerable, but ridiculous also, inasmuch as he lent his name to accursed and godless men and threw around them his reputation as a kind of amulet, through envy and jealousy of Metellus. Neither did Achilles,[247] it was argued, act like a man, but like a youth all full of violence and passionately pursuing glory, when he made a sign to the rest of the Greeks and would not let them strike Hector,
"For fear another gave the blow and won The fame, and he should second only come;"
but Pompeius even protected and fought in behalf of the common enemy, that he might deprive of a triumph a general who had endured so much toil. Metellus however did not give in, but he took and punished the pirates, and after insulting and abusing Octavius in his camp he let him go.
XXX. When news reached Rome that the Pirates' war was at an end and that Pompeius being now at leisure was visiting the cities, Manlius,[248] one of the tribunes, proposed a law, that Pompeius should take all the country and force which Lucullus commanded, with the addition of Bithynia, which Glabrio[249] had, and should carry on the war against the kings Mithridates and Tigranes, with both the naval force and the dominion of the sea on the terms on which he received it originally. This was in short for the Roman dominion to be placed at the disposal of one man. For the provinces which alone he could not touch under the former law, Phrygia, Lycaonia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Cilicia, the upper Colchis, Armenia, these he now had together with the armies and resources with which Lucullus defeated Mithridates and Tigranes. But though Lucullus was thus deprived of the glory of his achievements and was receiving a successor in a triumph rather than in a war, the aristocratical party thought less of this, though they considered that the man was treated unjustly and ungratefully, but they were much dissatisfied with the power of Pompeius which they viewed as the setting up of a tyranny, and they severally exhorted and encouraged one another to oppose the law and not to give up their freedom. But when the time came, the rest kept back through fear of the people and were silent, except Catulus, who after finding much fault with the law and the tribune, yet without persuading any one, urged the Senate from the Rostra, repeating it many times, to seek for a mountain,[250] like their ancestors, and a rock, to which they might fly for refuge and preserve their liberty. Accordingly the law was ratified, as they say, by all the tribes[251] and Pompeius in his absence was put in possession of nearly everything which Sulla got after he had made himself master of the city by arms and war. On receiving the letters and reading the decrees in the presence of his friends who were congratulating him, Pompeius is said to have contracted his eyebrows and to have struck his thigh, and to have spoken like a man who was already tired and averse to command, "Oh, the endless toils, how much better it were to have been one unknown to fame, if there shall never be an end to my military service and I shall never elude this envy and live quietly in the country with my wife."[252] On hearing these expressions not even his intimate friends could endure his hypocritical pretences, as they knew that he was the more delighted, inasmuch as his difference with Lucullus gave additional fire to his innate ambition and love of command.
XXXI. And in truth his acts soon discovered his real temper: for he issued counter-edicts in all directions by which he required the presence of the soldiers and summoned to him the subject rulers and kings. And as he traversed the country, he let nothing that Lucullus had done remain undisturbed, but he both remitted the punishments of many, and took away what had been given, and in short he left nothing undone in his eagerness to prove to the admirers of Lucullus[253] that he was entirely without power. Lucullus through his friends complained to Pompeius, and it was agreed that they should have a meeting. They met in Galatia: and as they were most distinguished generals and had won the greatest victories, their lictors met with the fasces wreathed with bay; but Lucullus advanced from green and shady parts, and Pompeius happened to have crossed an extensive tract without trees and parched. Accordingly the lictors of Lucullus seeing that the bays of Pompeius were faded and completely withered, gave them some of their own which were fresh, and so decorated and wreathed the fasces of Pompeius with them. This was considered a sign that Pompeius was coming to carry off the prizes of victory and the glory that was due to Lucullus. As to the order of his consulship and in age also Lucullus had the priority, but the reputation of Pompeius was more exalted on account of his two triumphs. However they managed their first interview with as much civility and friendliness as they could, magnifying the exploits of each other, and congratulating one another on their victories: in their conferences however they came to no reasonable or fair settlement, but even fell to mutual abuse, Pompeius charging Lucullus with avarice, and Lucullus charging Pompeius with love of power; and they were with difficulty separated by their friends. Lucullus being in Galatia assigned portions of the captured land and gave other presents to whom he chose; while Pompeius, who was encamped at a short distance, prevented any attention being paid to the orders of Lucullus, and took from him all his soldiers except sixteen hundred, whose mutinous disposition he thought would make them useless to himself, but hostile to Lucullus. Besides this, Pompeius disparaged the exploits of Lucullus and openly said that Lucullus had warred against tragedies and mere shadows of kings, while to himself was reserved the contest against a genuine power and one that had grown wiser by losses, for Mithridates was now having recourse to shields, and swords and horses. Lucullus retorting said, that Pompeius was going to fight with a phantom and a shadow of war, being accustomed, like a lazy bird, to descend upon the bodies that others had slaughtered and to tear the remnants of wars; for so had he appropriated to himself the victories over Sertorius, Lepidus and Spartacus, though Crassus, Metellus and Catulus had respectively gained these victories: it was no wonder then, if Pompeius was surreptitiously trying to get the credit of the Armenian and Pontic wars, he who had in some way or other contrived to intrude himself into a triumph over runaway slaves.