[319] A Greek historian of the time of Augustus. He was originally a captive slave, but he was manumitted and admitted to the intimacy of Augustus Cæsar. He was very free with his tongue, which at last caused him to be forbidden the house of Augustus. (Seneca, De Ira, iii. 23.) He burnt some of his historical writings, but not all of them, for Plutarch here refers to his authority. Horatius (1 Ep. 19. v. 15) alludes to Timagenes. (See Suidas, Τιμαγένης.)
[320] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 15, and as to the conference at Luca, c. 21. The conference took place B.C. 56, when Marcellinus (c. 48, notes) was one of the consuls. Compare also the Life of Crassus (c. 14, 15), and Dion Cassius, 39. c. 30, as to the trouble at Rome at this time, and Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 17).
[321] This is the meaning of the word πολιτικώτερον, which is generally mistranslated here and in other parts of Plutarch. It is the translation of the Roman term 'civiliter.' (Tacitus, Annal. i 33, iii 76.)
[322] Life of Crassus, c. 15, notes.
[323] P. Vatinius, often mentioned by Cicero. (See Orelli, Onomasticon, Vatinius.) Cicero's extant oration In Vatinium was delivered B.C. 56.
[324] C. Trebonius, a friend of Cicero, several of whose letters to him are extant. (Cicero, Ad Divers. x. 28; xii. 16; xv. 20, 21.) He was one of the conspirators against Cæsar; and Cicero tells him (x. 28) that he was somewhat vexed with him that he saved Antonius from the same fate. Trebonius was treacherously put to death at Smyrna by Dolabella with circumstances of great cruelty B.C. 43. (Dion Cassius, 47. c. 29.) In the notes to the life of Crassus, c. 16, I have incorrectly called this Tribune Titus.
[325] Plutarch must mean that Crassus left Rome before the expiration of his consulship B.C. 55; but the words ἀπαλλαγεὶς τῆς ὑπατείας are in themselves doubtful. (Life of Crassus, c. 16.)
[326] Drumann (Geschichte Roms, Pompeii, p. 524) has diligently collected all the circumstances of this magnificent exhibition. (See also Dion Cassius, 39. c. 38, and the references in the notes of Reimarus.) The elephant-fight (ἐλφαντομαχία) was a fight between the elephants and armed Gætulians. There were eighteen elephants. The cries of the animals when they were wounded moved the pity of the spectators. The elephants would not enter the vessels when they were leaving Africa, till they received a promise from their leaders that they should not he injured; the treacherous treatment of them at the games was the cause of their loud lamentations, in which they appealed to the deity against the violation of the solemn promise. (Dion Cassius.) Cicero, who was not fond of exhibitions of the kind, speaks with disgust of the whole affair (Ad Diversos, vii. 1). The letter of Cicero, written at the time, is valuable contemporary evidence. Various facts on the exhibition of elephants at Rome are collected in the Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Menageries, Elephant.
A rhinoceros was also exhibited at the games of Pompeius; and an actress was brought on the stage, who had made her first appearance in the consulship of C. Marius the younger, and Cn. Carbo B.C. 82, but she made her appearance again in the time of Augustus, A.D. 9, in the consulship of Poppæus, when she was 103 years old, 91 years after her first appearance. (Plinius, H.N. vii. 49.) Drumann says, when speaking of the games of Pompeius, "a woman of unusually advanced age was brought forward;" but the words of Plinius "anus pro miraculo reducta," apply to her last appearance. A woman of one-and-forty was no uncommon thing then, nor is it now. The pointing in the common texts is simply the cause of the blunder.
[327] See the Life of Crassus, c. 16, notes, Julia died B.C. 54, in the consulship of L. Domitius Ahenobarbus and Ap. Claudius Pulcher (See the Life of Cæsar. c. 23.) Crassus lost his life B.C. 53.