FOOTNOTES
[105] Cicero (ad Att. ii. 16) highly disapproved of this measure. He however expected that as the land would yield but 6000 lots, the people would be discontented.
[106] Because thunder, etc., would cause the assembly to be put off, and by this means bad measures, and good ones, too, had often been stopped.
[107] [In the year 56, Mithridates of Parthia, the successor of Phraates, declared war against King Artavasdes of Armenia, the son of Tigranes and the client of Rome. Thereupon Gabinius, the able and spirited governor of Syria, led the legions across the Euphrates. Meanwhile Mithridates had been overthrown in Parthia and his brother Orodes placed on the throne. Mithridates now made common cause with Rome and sought the camp of Gabinius. The latter was now ordered to restore the king of Egypt, but before leaving for Alexandria, he induced Mithridates to commence the war.]
[108] The Parthian capital was Ctesiphon, of which Seleucia, built on the opposite side of the Tigris, was a suburb.
[109] [The Surenas was the person next in rank to the king among the Parthians and the Persians.]
[110] One of the tribunes of this year was Sallust the historian. As Milo had some time before caught him in adultery with his wife Fausta, and had cudgelled him and made him pay a sum of money, he now took his revenge.
[111] Pompey was now married to Scipio’s daughter Cornelia, the widow of the younger Crassus, a young lady of the highest mental endowments and of great beauty and virtue.
[112] [As Florus[e] says: “When Asia was subdued by the efforts of Pompey, Fortune conferred what remained to be done in Europe upon Cæsar.”]
[113] [And how great was the haughtiness of Ariovistus! When our ambassadors said to him, “Come to Cæsar,” “And who is Cæsar?” he retorted; “let him come to me, if he will. What is it to him what our Germany does? Do I meddle with the Romans?” In consequence of this reply, so great was the dread of the unknown people in the Roman camp, that wills were publicly made even in the principia. But the greater the vast bodies of the enemy were, the more were they exposed to swords and other weapons. The ardour of the Roman soldiers in the battle cannot be better shown than by the circumstance that when the barbarians, having raised their shields above their heads, protected themselves with a testudo, the Romans leaped upon their very bucklers, and then came down upon their throats with their swords.[e]]
[114] [Florus[e] calls him “that prince so formidable for his stature, martial skill, and courage; his very name, Vercingetorix, being apparently intended to excite terror.”]
