Mortis honos.
Lucan, Pharsalia, ix. 190-217.
190-191 multum . . . iuris = far inferior to our ancestors in recognising the due bounds of power.—Haskins.
193 solus (sc. ex proceribus) . . . servire sibi = alone (of the chief men of the State) acting the private citizen when the populace were ready to be his slaves, i.e. acting unlike Sulla or Caesar.—H.
195 sed regnantis. ‘Pompeius came forward as the duly installed general of the Senate against the Imperator of the street, once more to save his country.’—M.
198 Intulit, sc. in aerarium. Cf. Shaksp. Jul. C. III. ii. (Mark Antony of Caesar) ‘He hath brought many captives home to Rome | Whose ransoms did the general coffers fill.’ ‘Caesar devoted the proceeds of the confiscations (the property of defeated opponents) entirely to the benefit of the State.’—M.
208 cui summa dies . . . victo = whom the day of death met when he was vanquished, i.e. without his having to seek it himself.—H.
209 Pharium = Egyptian, lit. of Pharos (= Faro), an island near Alexandria, famous for its lighthouse.
211 One of Lucan’s famous sententiae (γνῶμαι, maxims).
Pompeius. ‘Even in his own age he would have had a clearly defined and respectable position, had he contented himself with being the general of the Senate, for which he was from the outset destined.’—M.