[190] The Gens to which Pompeius belonged was Plebeian. Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompeius Magnus, was consul B.C. 89. Strabo, a name derived like many other Roman names from some personal peculiarity, signifies one who squints, and it was borne by members of other Roman Gentes also, as the Julia, and Fannia. It is said that the father of Pompeius Magnus had a cook Menogenes, who was called Strabo, and that the name was given to Cn. Pompeius because he resembled his cook. However this may be, Cn. Pompeius adopted the name, and it appears on his coins and in the Fasti. He had a bad character and appears to have deserved it. (Drumann, Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 306.) Compare the Life of Sulla, c. 6. Notes.
The latter part of this chapter is somewhat obscure in the original. See the note of Coræs.
[191] L. Marcius Philippus, Consul B.C. 91 with Sextus Julius Cæsar, was a distinguished orator.
[192] Some of the commentators have had strange opinions about the meaning of this passage, which Kaltwasser has mistranslated. It is rightly explained in Schaefer's note, and the learned Lambinus has fully expounded it in a note on Horatius (Od. i. 13): but in place of ἀδήκτος he has a wrong reading ἀδήκτο. Flora was not the only courtesan who received the distinction mentioned in the text. The gilded statue of Phryne, the work of Praxiteles, was placed in the temple at Delphi, presented by the lady herself. (Pausanias, x. 15).
[193] Pompeius Magnus was born B.C. 106. He was younger than Marcus Crassus, of the same age as Cicero, and six years older than the Dictator Cæsar. The event mentioned in the chapter belongs to the year B.C 87, in which his father fought against L. Cinna. Pompeius Strabo died in this year.
[194] This town, now Ascoli on the Tronto, in Picenum, was taken by Pompeius Strabo B.C. 89 in the Marsic war, and burnt. The inhabitants, who had killed the proconsul P. Servilius and other Romans, were severely handled; and Pompeius Strabo had a triumph (December 89) for his success against the Asculani and other inhabitants of Picenum. (Velleius, ii. 21.)
[195] P. Antistius was prætor B.C. 86, the year after the death of Pompeius Strabo.
[196] Compare the Life of Romulus, c. 14.
[197] Cinna was killed in his fourth consulate, B.C. 84. Appianus (Civil Wars, i. 78) states that he was massacred by his soldiers, but his account may be true and that of Plutarch also, which is more particular, (See also Livius, Epit. 83.)
[198] The father of Pompeius had enriched himself during the Social wars.