[250] Plutarch. To which, however, G. M. adds the following note. “It is generally believed that Sulla died through bursting a blood-vessel in a fit of temper. The story of abominable vices seems to be only the regular slander of the Roman mob against anyone who did not live in public.”
[251] Plutarch.
[252] The bow was probably the composite bow, so called because it is made of several plates (five or so) of horn, like the springs of a carriage: it discharges a high-speed arrow with a twang. This was the bow the Mongols used. This short composite bow (it was not a long bow) was quite old in human experience. It was the bow of Odysseus; the Assyrians had it in a modified form. It went out in Greece, but it survived as the Mongol bow. It was quite short, very stiff to pull, with a flat trajectory, a remarkable range, and a great noise (cp. Homer’s reference to the twang of the bow). It went out in the Mediterranean because the climate was not good for it, and because there were insufficient animals to supply the horn.—J. L. M.
[253] For a good compact account of Cæsar, much more appreciative of him than our text, see Warde Fowler’s Julius Cæsar.
[254] See Strachan Davidson’s Cicero, or, better, his own letters to Atticus.
[255] H. S. Jones, in The Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Rome.” His contribution is admirably verified and exact, and we are greatly indebted to it.
[256] The best book in a compact compass for expanding this chapter is H. Stuart Jones’s The Roman Empire.
[257] Gibbon.
[258] Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Rome.”
[259] See Encyclopædia Britannica, article “Longinus.” The Syrian queen referred to by Gibbon is Zenobia. Longinus was put to death by Aurelian. See ch. xxxii., § 2.