[11] That we may not, however, appear to be retreating and withdrawing from illuminating and perspicuous testimonials into the dim past, as into a place of darkness, let us now leave the kings and transfer our discourse to the most notable deeds and the most celebrated wars. And in these wars, who would not acknowledge that much daring and courage was needed and also, as Timotheüs
1
has it,
Shame, the helpmate of warring Valour?
Yet the smooth flow of events and the impelling swiftness of Rome’s progress to so high a pinnacle of power and expansion demonstrates to all who reason aright that the progress of Rome’s sovereignty was not brought about by the handiwork and urging of human beings, but was speeded on its way by divine escort and the fair wind of Fortune. Trophy upon trophy arises, triumph meets triumph, and the first blood, while still warm on their arms, is overtaken and washed away by a second flood. They count their victories, not by the multitude of corpses and spoils, but by captive kingdoms, by nations enslaved, by islands and continents added to their mighty realm. In one battle Philip lost Macedonia, with one stroke Antiochus was forced to withdraw from Asia, by one defeat the Carthaginians lost Africa. One man
2
in the swift onset of one campaign added to the Roman dominion Armenia, Pontus, the Euxine, Syria, Arabia, the Albanians, the Iberians, and all the territory to the Caucasus and the Hyrcanians; thrice did the Ocean which encircles the inhabited world see him victorious, for in Africa he drove back the Numidians
3
to the strands of the southern sea; even as far as the Atlantic Ocean, he subdued Iberia,
4
which had joined in the distemper of Sertorius; the kings of the Albanians were pursued until he brought them to a halt near the Caspian Sea.
5
All these successes he won through enjoying the Fortune of the Roman commonwealth; then he was overthrown by his own fate. But the great Guardian Spirit of Rome sent a favouring breeze, not for one day, nor at its height for a brief time only, like the Macedonian, nor but a land breeze, like the Spartan, nor but a sea breeze, like the Athenian, nor late to rise, like the Persian, nor quick to cease, like the Carthaginian
6
; but this Spirit, from its first creation, grew in maturity, in might, and in polity together with the City, and remained constant to it on land and on sea, in war and in peace, against foreigners, against Greeks. This it was that dissipated and exhausted in the confines of Italy, like a mountain torrent, Hannibal the Carthaginian, since no fresh aid flowed to him from home because of jealousy and political enmities. This it was that separated and kept apart by great intervals of space and time the armies of the Cimbri and of the Teutons, that Marius
7
might avail to fight each of them in turn, and that three hundred thousand men of irresistible and invincible arms might not simultaneously invade and overwhelm Italy. Through the agency of this Spirit Antiochus was fully occupied while war was being waged against Philip,
8
and Philip had been vanquished and was falling when Antiochus was making his venture; the Sarmatian and Bastarnian wars restrained Mithridates
9
during the time when the Marsian war was blazing up against Rome; suspicion and jealousy kept Tigranes
10
from Mithridates while Mithridates was brilliantly successful, but he joined himself to Mithridates only to perish with him in defeat.
De fortuna Romanorum. Plutarch. Frank Cole Babbitt (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1936.
Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.
Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.