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In this condition he entered his tent, where he sat down, and uttered not a word till at last, upon finding that some of the enemy entered the camp with the fugitives, he said, "What! into my camp too!" After this short exclamation, he rose up, and dressing himself in a manner suitable to his fortune, privately withdrew.* All the other legions fled, and a great slaughter was made in the camp, of the servants and others who had the care of the tents. But Asinius Pollio, who then fought on Cæsar's side, assures us, that of the regular troops there were not above six thousand men killed.t

Upon the taking of the camp, there was a spectacle which shewed, in strong colors, the vanity and folly of Pompey's troops. All the tents were crowned with myrtle; the beds were strewed with flowers; the tables covered with cups, and bowls of wine set out. In short, every thing had the appearance of pre

charge was Caius Crastinus, who commanded (O'er his broad back his moony shield he threw, And glaring round by tardy steps withdrew.-Pope. a corps of a hundred and twenty men, and was determined to make good his promise to his general. He was the first man Cæsar saw when he went out of the trenches in the morning; and upon Cæsar's asking him what he thought of the battle, he stretched out his hand, and answered in a cheerful tone, "You will gain a glorious victory, and I shall have your praise this day, either alive or dead." In pursuance of this promise, he advanced the foremost, and many following to support him, he charged into the midst of the enemy. They soon took to their swords, and numbers were slain; but as Crastinus was making his way forward, and cutting down all before him, one of Pompey's men stood to receive him, and pushed his sword in at his mouth with such force, that it went through the nape of his neck. Crastinus thus killed, the fight was unaintained with equal advantage on both sides. Pompey did not immediately lead on his right wing, but often directed his eyes to the left, and lost time in waiting to see what exe-parations for feasts and sacrifices, rather than cution his cavalry would do there. Meanwhile they had extended their squadron to surround Cæsar, and prepared to drive the few horse he had placed in front, back upon the foot. At that instant Cæsar gave the signal: upon When Pompey had got at a little distance which his cavalry retreated a little; and the from the camp, he quitted his horse. He had six cohorts, which consisted of three thousand very few people about him; and, as he saw he men, and had been placed behind the tenth was not pursued, he went softly on, wrapped legion, advanced to surround Pompey's caval-up in such thoughts as we may supose a man ry; and coming close up to them, raised the points of their javelins, as they had been taught, and aimed them at the face. Their adversaries, who were not experienced in any kind of fighting, and had not the least previous idea of this, could not parry or endure the blows upon their faces, but turned their backs, or covered their eyes with their hands, and soon fled with great dishonour. Cæsar's men, took no care to pursue them, but turned their force upon the enemy's infantry, particularly upon that wing, which, now stripped of its horse, lay open to the attack on all sides. The six cohorts, therefore, took them in flank, while the tenth legion charged them in front; and they, who had hoped to surround the enemy, and now, instead of that, saw themselves surrounded, made but a short resistance, and then took to a precipitate flight.

By the great dust that was raised, Pompey conjectured the fate of his cavalry; and it is hard to say what passed in his mind at that moment. He appeared like a man moonstruck and distracted; and without considering that he was Pompey the Great, or speaking to any one, he quitted the ranks, and retired step by step towards his camp. A scene which cannot be better painted than in these verses of Homer:t

for men going out to battle. To such a degree had their vain hopes corrupted them, and with such a senseless confidence they took the field!

to have, who had been used for thirty-four years to couquer and carry all before him, and now in his old age first come to know what it was to be defeated and to fly. We may easily conjecture what his thoughts must be, when in one short hour he had lost the glory and the power which had been growing up amidst so many wars and conflicts, and he who was lately guarded with such armies of horse and foot, and such great and powerful fleets, was reduced to so mean and contemptible an equipage, that his enemies, who were in search of him, could not know him.

He passed by Larissa, and came to Tempe, where, burning with thirst, he threw himself upon his face, and drank out of the river; after

* Cæsar tells us that the cohorts appointed to defend the camp, made a vigorous resistance; but being at length overpowered, fed to a neighbouring mountain, where he resolved to invest them. But before he had finished his lines, want of water obliged them to abandon that post, and retired towards Darissa. Cæsar of the fourth legion, as the authors of the Universal pursued the fugitives, at the head of four legions, (not History erroneously say,) and, after six miles' march, came up with them. But they, not daring to engage troops flushed with victory, fled for refuge to a figh hill, the foot of which was watered by a little river. Though Cæsar's men were quite spent, and ready to faint with the excessive heat and the fatigue of the whole day, yet, by his obliging manner, he prevailed upon them to cut off the convenience of the water from the enemy by a trench. Hereupon, the unfortunate fugitives came to a capitulation, threw down their arms, and implored the clemency of the conqueror. This they all did, except some senators, who, as it was now So Cæsar calls him. His name in Plutarch is night, escaped in the dark. Vide Cesar, Bell. lib. iii. Crassianus, in Appian Crassinus.

But partial Jove, espousing Hector's part,
Shot heaven-bred horror through the Grecian heart;
Confused, unnerv'd in Hector's presence grown,
Amazed he stood with terrors not his own.

In the eleventh book of the Iliad, where he is speaking of the flight of Ajax before Hector

80.

Cæsar says, that in all there were fifteen thousand killed, and twenty-four thousand taken prisoners.

which, he passed through the valley, and went | ble and speechless. At last, coming to herself, down to the sea-coast. There he spent the remainder of the night in a poor fisherman's cabin. Next morning, about break of day, he went on board a small river-boat, taking with him such of his company as were freemen. The slaves he dismissed, bidding them go to Cæsar, and fear nothing.

she perceived there was no time to be lost in tears and lamentations, and therefore hastened through the town to the sea. Pompey ran to meet her, and received her to his arms as she was just going to fall. While she hung upon his neck, she thus addressed him: "I see, my dear husband, your present unhappy condition is the effect of my ill fortune, and not your's. Alas! how are you reduced to one poor vessel, who, before your marriage with Cornelia, traversed this sea with five hundred galleys! Why do you come to see me, and not rather leave me to my evil destiny, who have loaded you too with such a weight of calamities! How happy had it been for me to have died before I heard that Publius, my first husband was killed by the Parthians! How wise, had I followed him to the grave, as I once intended! What have I lived for since, but to bring misfortunes upon Pompey the Great?

Such, we are assured, was the speech of Cornelia; and Pompey answered, "Till this moment, Cornelia, you have experienced nothing but the smiles of fortune; and it was she who deceived you, because she stayed with me longer than she commonly does with her favourites. But, fated as we are, we must bear this reverse, and make another trial of her. For it is no more improbable, that we may emerge from this poor condition, and rise to great things again, than it was that we should fall from great things into this poor

condition."

As he was coasting along, he saw a ship of burden just ready to sail; the master of which | was Peticius, a Roman citizen, who, though not acquainted with Pompey, knew him by sight. It happened, that this man, the night before, dreamed he saw Pompey come and talk to him, not in the figure he had formerly known him, but in mean and melancholy circumstances. He was giving the passengers an account of his dream, as persons, who have a great deal of time upon their hands, love to discourse about such matters; when, on a sudden, one of the mariners told him, he saw a little boat rowing up to him from the land, and the crew making signs, by shaking their garments and stretching out their hands. Upon this, Peticius stood up, and could distinguish Pompey among them, in the same form as he had seen him in his dream. Then beating his head for sorrow, he ordered the seamen to let down the ship's boat, and held out his hand to Pompey to invite him aboard; for by his dress he perceived his change of fortune. Therefore, without waiting for any further application, he took him up, and such of his companions as he thought proper, and then hoisted sail. The persons Pompey took with him, were the two Cornelia then sent to the city for her most Lentuli and Favonius; and a little after, valuable moveables and her servants. The they saw king Deiotarus beckoning to them people of Mitylene came to pay their respect3 with great earnestness from the shore, and to Pompey, and to invite him to their city. took him up likewise. The master of the ship But he refused to go, and bade them surrenprovided them the best supper he could, and der themselves to the conqueror without fear; when it was almost ready, Pompey, for want"For Cæsar," he told them, "had great clemof a servant, was going to wash himself, but ency." After this, he turned to Cratippus Favonius seeing it, stepped up, and both wash- the philosopher, who was come from the town ed and anointed him. All the time he was on to see him, and began to complain a little of board, he continued to wait upon him in all Providence, and express some doubts concernthe offices of a servant, even to the washing of ing it. Cratippus made some concessions, his feet and providing his supper; insomuch, and, turning the discourse, encouraged him to that one who saw the unaffected simplicity and hope better things; that he might not give him sincere attachment with which Favonius per- pain, by an unseasonable opposition to his ar formed these offices, cried out, gument; else he might have answered his objections against Providence, by shewing, -The generous mind adds dignity that the state, and indeed the constitution, was To every act, and nothing misbecomes it. in such disorder, that it was necessary it Pompey, in the course of his voyage, sailed should be changed into a monarchy, Or this by Amphipolis, and from thence steered for one question would have silenced him, "How Mitylene, to take up Cornelia, and his son. As do we know, Pompey, that, if you had consoon as he reached the island, he sent a mes-quered, you would have made a better use of senger to the town with news far different your good fortune than Cæsar?" But we must from what Cornelia expected. For, by the leave the determinations of Heaven to its suflattering accounts which many officious per- perior wisdom. sons had given her, she understood that the dispute was decided at Dyrrhachium, and that nothing but the pursuit of Cæsar remained to be attended to. The messenger, finding her possessed with such hopes, had not power to make the usual salutations, but expressing the greatness of Pompey's misfortunes by his tears rather than words, only told her, "She must make haste, if she had a mind to see Pompey with one ship only, and that not his own.""

As soon as his wife and his friends were

* Cornelia is represented by Lucan, too, as imputing the misfortunes of Pompey to her alliance with him; and it seems, from one part of her speech on this occasion, that she should have been given to Cæsar.

O utinam Thalamos invisi Cæsaris issem! If there were any thing in this, it might have been a material cause of the quarrel between Caesar and Pom

pey, as the latter, by means of this alliance, must have Cornelia was the relict of Publius Crassus, the son of strengthened himself with the Crassian interest; for

At this news Cornelia threw herself upon the ground, where she lay a long time insensi-Marcus Crassus.

it was not rather his fate than his opinion, which directed his steps another way.

When it was determined that they should seek for refuge in Egypt, he set sail from Cyprus with Cornelia, in a Seleucian galley. The rest accompanied him, some in ships of war, and some in merchantmen: and they made a safe voyage. Being informed that Ptolemy was with his army at Pelusium, where he was en

embarked, he set sail, and continued his course | tion only prevented his marching to the Euwithout touching at any port, except for water phrates; but it is some doubt with us, whether and provisions, till he came to Attalia, a city of Pamphylia. There he was joined by some Cilician galleys; and beside picking up a number of soldiers, he found in a little time, sixty senators about him. When he was informed that his fleet was still entire, and that Cato was gone to Africa with a considerable body of men which he had collected after their flight, he lamented to his friends his great error, in suffering himself to be forced into an engage-gaged in war with his sister, he proceeded thithment at land, and making no use of those forces, in which he was confessedly stronger; nor even taking care to fight near his fleet, that, Ptolemy was very young, and Photinus, his in case of his meeting with a check at land, prime minister, called a council of his ablest he might have been supplied from sea with officers; though their advice had no more another army, capable of making head against weight than he was pleased to allow it. He the enemy. Indeed, we find no greater mis-ordered each, however, to give his opinion. take in Pompey's whole conduct, nor a more remarkable instance of Cæsar's generalship, than in removing the scene of action to such a distance from the naval forces.

er, and sent a messenger before him to notify his arrival, and to entreat the king's protection.

tance from the place, waiting the determination of this respectable board; while he thought it beneath him to be indebted to Cæsar for his safety. The council were divided in their opinons; some advising the prince to give him an honourable reception; and others to send him an order to depart. But Theodotus, to display his eloquence, insisted that both were wrong. "If you receive him," said he, "you will have Cæsar for your enemy, and Pompey for your master. If you order him off, Pompey may one day revenge the affront, and Cæsar resent your not having put him in his hands: the best method, therefore, is to send for him, and put him to death. By this means you will do Cæsar a favour, and have nothing to fear from Pompey." He added, with a smile, "Dead men do not bite."

But who can, without indignation, consider, that the fate of Pompey the Great was to be determined by Photinus, an eunuch; by Theodotus, a man of Chios, who was hired to However, as it was necessary to undertake teach the prince rhetoric; and by Achillas, an something with the small means he had left, Egyptian? For among the king's chamberhe sent to some cities, and sailed to others lains and tutors, these had the greatest influhimself, to raise money, and to get a supply ence over him, and were the persons he most of men for his ships. But knowing the extra-consulted. Pompey lay at anchor at some disordinary celerity of the enemy's motions, he was afraid he might be beforehand with him, and seize all that he was preparing. He therefore, began to think of retiring to some asylum, and proposed the matter in council. They could not think of any province in the Roman empire that would afford a safe retreat; and when they cast their eyes on the foreign kingdoms, Pompey mentioned Parthia as the most likely to receive and protect them in their present weak condition, and afterwards to send them back with a force sufficient to retrieve their affairs. Others were of opinion, it was proper to apply to Africa, and to Juba in particular. But Theophanes of Lesbos observed it was madness to leave Egypt, which was distant but three days' sail. Besides, Ptolemy, who was growing towards manhood, had parThis advice being approved of, the executicular obligations to Pompey on his father's account; and should he go then, and put him- tion of it was committed to Achillas. In conself in the hands of the Parthians, the most sequence of which, he took with him Septiperfidious people in the world? He represent-mius, who had formerly been one of Pompey's ed what a wrong measure it would be, if, rather than trust to the clemency of a noble Roman, who was his father-in-law, and be contented with the second place of eminence, he would venture his person with Arsaces,t by whom even Crassus would not be taken alive. He added, that it would be extremely absurd to carry a young woman of the family of Scipio among barbarians, who thought power consisted in the display of insolence and outrage; and where, if she escaped unviolated, it would be believed she did not, after she had been with those who were capable of treating her with indignity. It is said, this last considera

*This was Ptolemy Dionysius, the son of Ptolemy Auletes, who died in the year of Rome 704, which was the year before the battle of Pharsalia. He was in his fourteenth year.

From this passage it appears, that Arsaces was the common name of the kings of Parthia. For it was not the proper name of the king then upon the throne, nor

of him who was at war with Crassus.

officers, and Salvius, who had also acted under him as a centurion, with three or four assistants, and made up to Pompey's ship, where his principal friends and officers had assembled, to see how the affair went on. When they perceived there was nothing magnificent in their reception, nor suitable to the hopes which Theophanes had conceived, but that a few men only, in a fishing-boat, came to wait upon them, such want of respect appeared a suspicious circumstance; and they advised Pompey, while he was out of the reach of missive weapons, to get out to the main sea.

Meantime, the boat approaching, Septimius spoke first, addressing Pompey, in Latin, by the title of Imperator. Then Achillas salu ted him in Greek, and desired him to come into the boat, because the water was very shal low towards the shore, and a galley must strike upon the sands. At the same time they saw several of the king's ships getting ready, and the shore covered with troops, so that if they

While he was collecting the peices of plank and putting them together, an old Roman, who had made some of his first campaigns under Pompey, came up and said to Philip,

would have changed their minds, it was then | fishing-boat; which, Though not large, would too late; besides, their distrust would have make a sufficient pile for a poor naked body furnished the assassins with a pretence for that was not quite entire. their injustice. He, therefore, embraced Cornelia, who lamented his sad exit before it happened; and ordered two centurions, one of his enfranchised slaves named Philip, and a servant called Scenes, to get into the boat before" Who are you that are preparing the funeral him. When Achillas had hold of his hand, and he was going to step in himself, he turned to his wife and son, and repeated that verse of Sophocles,

Seek'st thou a tyrant's door? then farewell freedom? Though free as air before

These were the last words he spoke to them.

of Pompey the Great? Philip answered, “I am his freedman." "But you shall not," said the old Roman, "have this honour entirely to yourself. As a work of piety offers itself, let me have a share in it; that I may not absolutely repent my having passed so many years in a foreign country; but, to compensate many misfortunes, may have the consolation of doing some of the last honours to the greatest gen

was the funeral of Pompey conducted.

As there was a considerable distance between the galley and the shore, and he observeral Rome ever produced." In this manner ed that not a man in the boat shewed him the least civility, or even spoke to him, he looked at Septimius, and said, "Methinks, I remember you to have been my fellow-soldier:" but he answered only with a nod, without testifying any regard or friendship. A profound silence again taking place, Pompey took out a paper, in which he had written a speech in Greek, that he designed to make to Ptolemy, and amused himself with reading it.

When they approached the shore, Cornelia, with her friends in the galley, watched the event with great anxiety. She was a little encouraged, when she saw a number of the king's great officers coming down to the atrand, in all appearance to receive her husband and do him honour. But the moment Pompey was taking hold of Philip's hand, to raise him with more ease, Septimius came behind, and run him through the body; after which Salvius and Achillas also drew their swords. Pompey took his robe in both hands and covered his face; and without saying or doing the least thing unworthy of him, submitted to his fate: only uttering a groan, while they despatched him with many blows. He was then just fifty-nine years old, for he was killed the day after his birth-day.

Cornelia, and her friends in the galleys, upon seeing him murdered, gave a shriek that was heard to the shore, and weighed anchor immediately. Their flight was assisted by a brisk gale, as they got out more to sea; so that the Egyptians gave up their design of pursuing them. The murderers having cut off Pompey's head, threw the body out of the boat naked, and left it exposed to all who were desirous of such a sight. Philip stayed till their curiosity was satisfied, and then washed the body with sea-water, and wrapped it in one of his own garments, because he had nothing else at hand. The next thing was to look out for wood for the funeral-pile; and casting his eyes over the shore, he spied the old remains of a

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Next day Lucius Lentulus, who knew nothing of what had passed, because he was upon his voyage from Cyprus, arrived upon the Egyptian shore, and as he was coasting along, saw the funeral pile, and Philip whom he did not yet know, standing by it. Upon which he said to himself, "Who has finished his days, and is going to leave his remains upon this shore!" adding after a short pause, with a sigh, "Ah! Pompey the Great! perhaps thou mayest be the man." Lentulus soon after went on shore, and was taken and slain.

Such was the end of Pompey the Great. As for Cæsar, he arrived not long after in Egypt, which he found in great disorder. When they came to present the head, he turned from it, and the person that brought it, as a sight of horror. He received the seal, but it was with tears. The device was a lion holding a sword. The two assassins, Achillas and Photinus, he put to death; and the king, being defeated in battle, perished in the river. Theodotus, the rhetorician, escaped the vengeance of Cæsar, by leaving Egypt; but he wandered about, a miserable fugitive, and was hated wherever he went. At last, Marcus Brutus, who killed Cæsar, found the wretch, in his province of Asia, and put him to death, after having made him suffer the most exquisite tortures. The ashes of Pompey were carried to Cornelia, who buried them in his lands near Alba.†

*Of touching and wrapping up the body.

Pompey has, in all appearance, and in all considerations of his character, had less justice done him by historians than any other man of his time. His popular humanity, his military and political skill, his predence, (which he sometimes unfortunately gave up,) his natural bravery and generosity, his conjugal virtues, which (though sometimes impeached) were both naturally and morally great; his cause, which was certainly, in its original interests, the cause of Rome; guished and more respectable character than any of all these circumstances entitled him to a more distinhis historians have thought proper to afford him. One circumstance, indeed, renders the accounts that the writers, who rose after the established monarchy, have given of his opposition, perfectly reconcileable to the prejudice which appears against him; or rather, to the reluctance which they have shewn to that praise which they seemed to have felt that he deserved: When the commonwealth was no more, and the supporters of his interest had fallen with it, then history itself, not to mention poetry, departed from its proper privilege of impartiality, and even Plutarch made a sacrifice to imperial power.

AGESILAUS AND POMPEY COMPARED.

SUCH is the account we had to give of the | who was neither spurious nor maimed, had not lives of these two great men; and, in drawing up the parallel, we shall previously take a short survey of the difference in their characters.

In the first place, Pompey rose to power, and established his reputation, by just and laudable means; partly by the strength of his own genius, and partly by his services to Sylla, in freeing Italy from various attempts of despotism. Whereas Agesilaus came to the throne by methods equally immoral and irreligious; for it was by accusing Leotychidas of bastardy, whom his brother had acknowledged as his legitimate son, and by eluding the oracle relative to a lame king.

In the next place, Pompey paid all due respect to Sylla during his life, and took care to see his remains honourably interred, notwithstanding the opposition it met with from Lepidus; and afterwards he gave his daughter to Faustus, the son of Sylla. On the other hand, Agesilaus shook off Lysander upon a slight pretence, and treated him with great indignity. Yet the services Pompey received from Sylla were not greater than those he had rendered him; whereas Agesilaus was appointed king of Sparta by Lysander's means, and afterwards captain-general of Greece.

In the third place, Pompey's offences against the laws and the constitution were principally owing to his alliances, to his supporting either Cæsar or Scipio (whose daughter he had married) in their unjust demands. Agesilaus not only gratified the passion of his son, by sparing the life of Sphodrias, whose death ought to have atoned for the injuries he had done the Athenians: but he likewise screened Phabidas, who was guilty of an egregious infraction of the league with the Thebans, and it was visibly for the sake of his crime that he took him into his protection. In short, whatever troubles Pompey brought upon the Romans, either through ignorance or a timorous complaisance for his friends, Agesilaus brought as great distresses upon the Spartans, through a spirit of obstinacy and resentment; for such was the spirit that kindled the Baotian war.

If, when we are mentioning their faults, we may take notice of their fortune, the Romans could have no previous idea of that of Pompey; but the Lacedæmonians were sufficiently forewarned of the danger of a lame reign, and yet Agesilaus would not suffer them to avail themselves of that warning. Nay, supposing Leotychidas a mere stranger, and as much a bastard as he was; yet the family of Eurytion could easily have supplied Sparta with a king

See the Life of Agesilaus.

It is true, the latter part of Agesilaus's reign was unfortunate, but the misfortunes were owing to his malice against the Thebans, and to his fighting (contrary to the laws of Lycurgus) the same enemy so frequently, that he taught them to beat him at last.

Lysander been industrious enough to render the oracle obscure for the sake of Agesilaus.

As to their political talents, there never was a finer measure than that of Agesilaus, when, in the distress of the Spartans how to proceed against the fugitives after the battle of Leuctra, he decreed that the laws should be silent for that day. We have nothing of Pompey's that can possibly be compared to it. On the contrary, he thought himself exempted from observing the laws he had made, and that his transgressing them shewed his friends his superior power: whereas Agesilaus, when under a necessity of contravening the laws, to save a number of citizens, found out an expedient which saved both the laws and the criminals. I must also reckon among his political virtues, his inimitable behaviour upon the receipt of the scytale, which ordered him to leave Asia in the height of his success. For he did not, like Pompey, serve the commonwealth only in affairs which contributed to his own greatness; the good of his country was his great object, and, with a view to that, he renounced such power and so much glory as no man had either before or after him, except Alexander the Great.

If we view them in another light, and consider their military performances; the trophies which Pompey erected were so numerous, the armies he led so powerful, and the pitched battles he won so extraordinary, that I suppose Xenophon himself would not compare the victories of Agesilaus with them; though that historian, on account of his other excellencies, has been indulged the peculiar privilege of saying what he pleased of his hero.

There was a difference too, I think, in their behaviour to their enemies, in point of equity and moderation. Agesilaus was bent upon enslaving Thebes, and destroyed Messene; the former the city from which his family sprung, the latter Sparta's sister colony; and in the attempt he was near ruining Sparta itself. On the other hand, Pompey, after he had conquered the pirates, bestowed cities on such as were willing to change their way of life; and when he might have led Tigranes, king of Armenia, captive at the wheels of his chariot, he rather chose to make him an ally; on which occasion he made use of that memorable expression, "I prefer the glory that will last for ever, to that of a day."

But if the pre-eminence in military virtue is to be decided by such actions and counsels as are most characteristical of the great and wise commander, we shall find that the Lacedæmo nian leaves the Roman far behind. In the first place, he never abandoned his city, though it was besieged by seventy thousand men, while he had but a handful of men to oppose them

Nevertheless, the oracle, as we have observed in a * For Hercules was born at Thebes, and Messene former note, probably meant the lameness of the king-was a colony of the Heraclidæ, as well as Sparta. The dom, in having but one king instead of two, and not Latin and French translations have mistaken the sense the lameness of the king. of this passage.

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