[338] C. Scribonius Curio. Compare the Life of M. Antonius, c. 2. He was a man of ability, but extravagant in his habits (Dion Cassius, 40. c. 60):—
"Momentumque fuit mutatus Curio rerum,
Gallorum captus spoliis et Cæsaris auro."—
Lucanus, Pharsalia, iv. 819
As to the vote on the proposition of Curio, Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 30) agrees with Plutarch. Dion Cassius (40. c. 64: and 41. c. 2) gives a different account of this transaction.
[339] C. Claudius Marcellus and L. Cornelius Lentulus Crus were consuls for the year B.C. 49, in which the war broke out, This Marcellus was the cousin of the consul Marcellus of the year B.C. 50, who (Appianus, Civil Wars, ii. 30) presented Pompeius with a sword when he commissioned him to fight against Cæsar. Plutarch appears (c. 58, 59) to mean the same Marcellus; but he has confounded them. The Marcellus of c. 58 is the consul of B.C. 49; and the Marcellus of c. 59 is the consul of B.C. 50, according to Dion Cassius (40. c. 66 41. c. 1, &c.) and Appianus.
[340] Cicero returned from his government of Cilicia B.C. 50.
[341] See the Life of Cæsar, c. 32.
[342] L. Volcatius Tullus who had been consul B.C. 66 ('Consule Tullo'), Horatius (Od. iii. 8).
[343] The reply of Pompeius is given by Appianus (Civil Wars, ii. 37). As to the confusion in Rome see Dion Cassius (42. c. 6-9); and the references in Clinton, Fasti, B.C. 49.
[344] Plutarch here omits the capture of Corfinium, which took place before Cæsar entered Rome. See Dion Cassius (41. c. 10), and the Life of Cæsar, c. 34.
[345] L. Metullus, of whom little is known. Kaltwasser makes Cæsar say to Metellus, "It was not harder for him to say it than to do it;" which has no sense in it. What Cæsar did say appears from the Life of Cæsar, c. 35. Cæsar did not mean to say that it was as easy for him to do it as to say it. He meant that it was hard for him to be reduced to say such a thing; as to doing it, when he had said it, that would be a light matter. Sintenis suspects that the text is not quite right here. See the various readings and his proposed alteration; also Cicero, Ad Attic. x. 4.