Page:Cicero And The Fall Of The Roman Republic.djvu/107

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67 B.C.]
Pompey and the Pirates.
85

were assigned to them for winter-quarters, than cities of the enemy, which they had taken by force of arms," Pompey succeeded in protecting the peaceable provincials against his troops. His own self-restraint set them an example, and likewise enabled him sternly to repress any outrages on the part of his subordinates. The integrity and single-mindedness of the commander contributed not a little to his great and startling success. "Whence came, do you suppose, this incredible rapidity of movement? It was not any preternatural strength in his oars-men, nor any magic art in navigation, nor any new currents of wind which bore him so swiftly to the ends of the earth. It was, that those impediments, which check the progress of other commanders, never stayed him. Greed never made him swerve from his path for any prey, nor lust for any beauty, nor any pleasant spot that he should loiter there, nor any famous city that he should be curious about it, nor any toil that he should repose after it; and for the statues and pictures and all the adornments of Grecian towns, which others think are made for them to carry off, he would not so much as look at them."[1]

The glories of Pompey's success are heightened doubtless by all the skill of the orator; but the success itself was complete, indubitable, and overwhelming, and it was the more welcome from the long period of distress and humiliation to which it put an end. In the meantime affairs in the East were fast approaching a serious crisis. Lucullus could conquer


  1. Pro. Leg. Man., 14, 40.