stars, at others sinking them to the lowest depths of hell.
30. And though the examples of such vicissitudes are beyond number, nevertheless I will only enumerable a few in a cursory manner. This changeable and fickle fortune made Agathocles, the Sicilian, a king from being a potter, and reduced Dionysius, formerly the terror of all nations, to be the master of a grammar school. This same fortune emboldened Andriscus of Adramyttium, who had been born in a fuller's shop, to assume the name of Philip, and compelled the legitimate son of Perseus[1] to descend to the trade of a blacksmith to obtain a livelihood. Again, fortune surrendered Mancinus[2] to the people of Numantia, after he had enjoyed the supreme command, exposed Veturius[3] to the cruelty of the Samnites, Claudius[4] to that of the Corsicans, and made Regulus[5] a victim to the ferocity of the Carthaginians. Through the injustice of fortune, Pompey,[6] after he had acquired the surname of the Great by the grandeur of his exploits, was murdered in Ægypt at the pleasure of some eunuchs, while a fellow named Eunus, a slave who had escaped from a house of correction, commanded an army of runaway slaves in Sicily. How many men of the highest birth, through the connivance of this same fortune, submitted to the authority of Viriathus and of Spartacus![7] How many heads at which nations once trembled have fallen under the deadly hand of the executioner! One man is thrown into prison, another is promoted to unexpected power,
- ↑ See Plutarch's Life of Æmilius, c. 37. The name of the young prince was Alexander.
- ↑ Called also Hostilius; cf. Vell. Paterc. ii. 1.
- ↑ Cf. Liv. ix. c. x.; Cicero de Officiis, iii. 30.
- ↑ Of Val. Max. vi. 3.
- ↑ Cf. Horace, Od. iv. ult.; Florus ii. 1. The story of the cruelties inflicted on Regulus is now, however, generally disbelieved.
- ↑ The fate of Pompey serves also as an instance to Juvenal in his satire on the vanity of human wishes.
Sat. X. 283, &c.
Provida Poimpeio diderat Campania febres
Optandas, sed multæ urbes et publica vota
Vicerunt; igitur Fortuna ipsius et Urbis
Servatum victo caput abstulit.
- ↑ Spartacus was the celebrated leader of the slaves in the Servile War.
