Chap. 44.] EEMARKABLE EXAMPLES OF HONOURS. 189 



CHAP. 43. (42.) EEMAEZABLE EXAMPLE OF VICISSITUDES. 



As to examples of the vicissitudes of Fortune, they are 

 innumerable. For what great pleasures has she ever given 

 us, which have not taken their rise in misfortunes ? And what 

 extraordinary misfortunes have not taken their first rise in 

 great pleasures,? (43.) It was fortune that preserved the 

 Senator, M. Fidustius, 73 who had been proscribed by Sylla, 

 for a period of thirty-six years. And yet he was proscribed a 

 second time ; for he survived Sylla, even to the days of An- 

 tony, and, as it appears, was proscribed by him, for no other 

 reason but because he had been proscribed before. 



CHAP. 44. EEMAKKABLE EXAMPLES OF HONOURS. 



Fortune has determined that P. Ventidius alone should enjoy 

 the honour of a triumph over the Parthians * and yet the same 

 individual, when he was a child, she led in the triumphal 

 procession of Cneius Pompeius, the conqueror of Asculum. 74 

 Indeed, Masurius says, that he had been twice led in triumph ; 

 and according to Cicero, he used to let out mules for the bakers 

 of the camp. 75 Most writers, indeed, admit that his younger 

 days were passed in the greatest poverty, and that he wore the 

 hob-nailed shoes 76 of the common soldier. Balbus Cornelius, 



Quintus Fabius Rullianus five times, and Q. Fabius Gurges three 

 times. B. 



73 We have a similar account of the fate of Fidustius in Dion Cassius, 

 by whom he is named Filuscius. B. He was at length slain by order of 

 Antony. 



74 We have an account of the vicissitudes in the life of Ventidius Bassus 

 in A. Gellius, B. xv. c. 4, and in Valerius Paterculus, B. ii. c. 65. We 

 learn from these writers, that Ventidius was a native of Picenum, and that, 

 when that city was taken by Cnrius Pompeius, in the Social war, Ventidius, 

 then an infant, was carried in his mother's arms, before the car of the con- 

 queror. B. 



75 The passage of Cicero referred to, occurs in a letter to Plancus, Ep. 

 ad Fam. B. x. Ep. 18, where, speaking of Ventidius, who had united him- 

 self to the party of Antony, he says, " And I look down upon the camp of 

 the mule-driver, Ventidius." 



76 "Caliga." A strong heavy sandal worn by the Roman soldiers and 

 centurions ; but not by the superior officers. The term ** a caliga," there- 

 fore, had the same meaning as our expression, " from the ranks." The 

 Emperor Caligula received that surname when a boy, in consequence of 

 wearing the caliga, and being inured to the life of a common soldier. 



