Chap. 27] HEHOIC EXPLOITS. 167 



able degree of clemency, a quality, in the exercise of which, 

 even to repentance, he excelled all other individuals whatso- 

 ever. The same person has left us one instance of magna- 

 nimity, to which there is nothing that can be at all com- 

 pared, ^liile one, who was an admirer of luxury, might per- 

 haps on this occasion have enumerated the spectacles which he 

 exhibited, the treasures which he lavished away, and the mag- 

 nificence 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.^' 



CHAP. 27. (26.) HEEOIC EXPLOITS. 



But now, as it belongs fully as much to the glorious renown 

 of the Eoman 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 Alagnus : the splendour 

 of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alex- 

 ander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Father 

 Liber^ even. After having recovered Sicily, where he first 

 commenced his cai'eer 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 sbai*e 

 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 



^ This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch 

 mentions a similar circumstance v^iih. respect to Pompey. — B. 



^ Or Bacchu5. — '• father Liber" is the name always given to him by 

 Pliny. 



s^'" Magnus." Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylia 

 saluted him with the name of " ;^[agnus," which surname he ever after- 

 wards retained. — B. 



'" Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to be granted to 

 any one who was not tithtr consul or praetor. — B. 



