Velleius Paterculus

“ Emulation nourishes genius; and at one time envy, at another admiration, kindles a spirit of imitation. Any art, too, which is pursued with extreme zeal, will soon reach the height of excellence; and to stand still on the summit is difficult ”

“ How constantly envy attends eminent fortune, and how closely it pursues the highest characters, may be understood from the follow circumstance, that while no one objected to the triumphs of Anicius and Octavius, there were some who endeavoured to hinder that of Paulus, though it far exceeded the others, as well in the greatness of Perses as a monarch, as in the magnificent display of war-trophies, and the quantity of money carried in it ”

“ It would be difficult to find, indeed, a man of any nation, age, or rank, whose felicity can be compared with that of Metellus; for besides his splendid triumph, his distinguished honours, his acknowledged pre-eminence in the state, his long extent of life, and his zealous yet harmless contests with opponents for the good of his country, he was the father of four sons, whom he saw arrive at manhood, and whom he left surviving, and in enjoyment of the highest honours. ”

“ During the same period, sixty-five years before the foundation of Rome, the city of Carthage was built by Elissa of Tyre, whom some suppose to be the same as Dido. About the same time, Caranus, a man of regal extraction, being the sixteenth in descent from Hercules, took his departure from Argos, and seized on the kingdom of Macedonia. The great Alexander, being the seventeenth in succession from Caranus, might justly boast of his lineages, as being on his mother’s side from Achilles, and on his father’s from Hercules [12] . ”

“ What is most remarkable with respect to him, is, that neither was there any one before him whom he could imitate, nor has any one since been found who could imitate him. Nor can we point to any other author, except Homer and Antilochus, who arrived at the highest excellence in the kind of writing of which he was the inventor. He lived longer after the Trojan war, which he took for his subject, than some suppose; for he flourished about nine hundred and fifty years ago, and was born within a thousand. ”

“ XIII Three years before Carthage was demolished, Marcus Cato, who had been a constant advocate for its destruction, died, in the consulship of Lucius Censorinus and Marcus Manlius. In the very year in which Carthage fell, Lucius Mummius utterly destroyed Corinth, nine hundred and fifty-two years after it had been built by Aletes the son of Hippotes. Each of the generals was honoured with a name from the people whom he conquered, the one being styled Africanus, the other Achaicus. No new man [22] , before Mummius, had ever assumed a surname derived from military merit. ”

“ One age, and that not extending through many years, gave lustre to tragedy by the works of those great authors, men animated by a divine spirit, Æschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. One age produced the Ancient Comedy, under Cratinus, Aristophanes, and Eupolis. As for the New Comedy, Menander, with Philemon and Diphilus, his equals in age rather than ability, not only invented it within a few years, but left works in it beyond imitation. ”

“ Even the Rhodians, who had previously been most faithful to the Romans, began, with wavering allegiance, to watch the turns of fortune, and appeared rather inclined to the side of the king. Eumenes, too, in this war, was undecided in his views, and acted consistently neither with his brother’s [16] proceedings at first, nor with his own general conduct. At length the senate and people of Rome elected to the consulship Lucius Æmilius Paulus, who had previously triumphed both as prætor and consul; a man deserving of the highest honour which merit can be conceived to attain. ”

“ XV Neither while Hannibal remained in Italy, nor for several years immediately succeeding his departure, had the Romans any opportunities of founding colonies; for, while the war lasted, they were obliged to press soldiers, instead of discharging them, and, when it was ended, their strength required to be recruited rather than dispersed. However, in the consulship of Manlius Volso and Fabius Nobilior, about two hundred and seventeen years ago, the colony of Bononia was settled, and five years afterwards, those of Pisaurum and Potentia; in three years more, Aquileia and Gravisca ”

“ The king, after quitting Macedonia, took refuge in the island of Samothrace, and committed himself, as a suppliant, to the sanctuary of the temple. Cnæus Octavius, the prætor, who had the command of the fleet, followed him thither, and prevailed on him, rather by persuasion than by force, to trust himself to the honour of the Romans. Æmilius Paulus, in consequence, led this most eminent and celebrated prince in triumph. ”

“ From his death, eternal glory accrued to Codrus, and victory to the Athenians. Who can help admiring a man that sought for death with the same stratagems with which, by those of meaner spirit, life is wont to be sought? His son Medon was the first archon at Athens; from whom his descendants were called by the Athenians Medontidæ; and these, as well as the following archons, down to the time of Charops, held their office during life. The Peloponnesians, on retiring from the Athenian territory, founded Megara, a city equally distant from Corinth and Athens. ”

“ And as we are at first excited with ardour to overtake those whom we think our superiors, so, when we once despair of surpassing or equalling them, our zeal flags with our hope, ceases to pursue what it cannot attain, and, relinquishing that object as already pre-occupied, turns to something new. Declining any pursuit in which we cannot arrive at eminence, we endeavour to find one that will allow scope for our exertions ”

“ He had a hundred chosen men, called Fathers, as a public council. Such origin had the term Patricians [14] . The seizure of the Sabine virgins * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
IX ​* * * proved a more powerful enemy [15] than the Romans had apprehended; for he maintained a struggle, during two years, with such variation of fortune, that he had generally the advantage, and drew a great part of Greece into alliance with him. ”

“ Nor is there any reason for us to wonder that it was called Corinth by Homer; for, in his character of poet, he calls both this city, and some of the Ionian colonies, built long after the taking of Troy, by the same names which they bore in his own times.
IV The Athenians settled colonies at Chalcis and Eretria in Eubœa; the Lacedæmonians established another at Magnesia in Asia. Not long afterwards, the people of Chalcis, who were sprung, as I have just said, from the Athenians, founded Cumæ in Italy, under the leadership of Hippocles and Megasthenes. ”

“ At this time, also, a fleet of the Tyrians, then very powerful at sea, founded the city of Gades, on the remotest coast of Spain, at the extremity of one part of the world, and on an island surrounded by the Ocean, divided from the continent only by a very narrow strait. By the same people, also, a few years afterwards, Utica, in Africa, was built. The children of Orestes, being expelled by the Heraclidæ, and harassed by various misfortunes, as well as by hardships at sea, found a settlement, in the fifteenth year after their expulsion, opposite the island of Lesbos. ”

“ By some, however, Atreus is said to have commenced this solemnity, when he exhibited, in this same place, funeral games in honour of his father Pelops, about twelve hundred and fifty years ago, on which occasion Hercules was victor in every kind of contest.
It was at this time that the archons at Athens ceased to be elected for life, Alcmæon being the last that was so appointed, and were chosen only for ten years; an arrangement which lasted for seventy years, when the administration was committed to annual magistrates. ”

“ Whoever believes that he was born blind, must be himself deprived of all his senses.
VI In the subsequent period, about eight hundred and seventy years ago, the empire of Asia was transferred from the Assyrians, who had held it a thousand and seventy years, to the Medes. For Arbaces, a Mede, dethroned and put to death their monarch Sardanapalus, a man immersed in luxurious gratifications, and courting extravagant pleasures to his own destruction ”

“ That the same has been the case with regard to grammarians, statuaries, painters, and sculptors [32] , whoever investigates the records of ages will easily convince himself, and will see that the most eminent performances in every art are confined within very narrow limits of time. ”