Chap. 27.] 
HEROIC 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. While 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 how, 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 Magnus : the splendour 
of his exploits having equalled not only that of those of Alex- 
ander the Great, but even of Hercules, and perhaps of Pather 
Libe/'^ even. After havmg 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 
This fact is mentioned by Seneca, de Ira, B. ii. c. 26. Plutarch 
mentions a similar circumstance with respect to Pompey. — B. 
6^ Or Bacchus. — Father Liber " is the name always given to him by 
Pliny. 
69 Magnus." Plutarch states, that, on his return from Africa, Sylia 
saluted him with the name of " Magnus," which surname he ever after- 
wards retained. — B. 
"^^ Plutarch says, that the law did not allow a triumph to he granted to 
any one who was not either consul or praetor. — B. 
