The English text is first, (odd-numbered pages), followed by the Roman text, (even-numbered pages).
Click on the footnote number and you will jump to the corresponding note. There you may click on the number and you will jump up to where you were in the text.
IF I had been warring against you, against my country, and against my fathers’ gods, when I endured such hardship and dangers as those amid which from my early youth the armies under my command have routed the most criminal of your enemies and insured your safety; even then, Fathers of the Senate, you could have done no more against me in my absence than you are now doing. For after having exposed me, in spite of my youth,2 to a most cruel war, you have, so far as in you lay, destroyed me and a faithful army by starvation, the most wretched of all deaths. Was it with such expectations that the Roman people sent its sons to war? Are these the rewards for wounds and for so often shedding our blood for our country? Wearied with writing letters and sending envoys, I have exhausted my personal resources and even my expectations, and in the meantime for three years you have barely given me the means of meeting a year’s expenses. By the immortal gods! do you think that I can play the part of a treasury or maintain an army without food or pay?
I admit that I entered upon this war with more zeal than discretion; for within forty days of the time when I received from you the empty title of 417 commander I had raised and equipped an army and driven the enemy, who were already at the throat of Italy, from the Alps into Spain; and over those mountains I had opened for you another and more convenient route than Hannibal had taken. I recovered Gaul, the Pyrenees, Lacetania, and the Indigetes; with raw soldiers and far inferior numbers I withstood the first onslaught of triumphant Sertorius; and I spent the winter in camp amid the most savage of foes, not in the towns or in adding to my own popularity.3
Why need I enumerate our battles or our winter campaigns, the towns which we destroyed or captured? Actions speak louder than words. The taking of the enemy’s camp at Sucro, the battle at the river Turia, and the destruction of Gaius Herennius, leader of the enemy, together with his army and the city of Valentia, are well enough known to you. In return for these, grateful fathers, you give me want and hunger. Thus the condition of my army and of that of the enemy is the same; for neither is paid and either can march Victorious into Italy.4 Of this situation I warn you and I beg you to give it your attention; do not force me to provide for my necessities on my own responsibility. Hither Spain, so far as it is not in the possession of the enemy, either we or Sertorius have devastated to the point of ruin, except for the coast towns, so that it is actually an expense and a burden to us. Gaul last year supplied the army of Metellus with pay and provisions and can now scarcely keep alive itself because of a failure of the crops; I 419 myself have exhausted not only my means, but even my credit. You are our only resource; unless you come to our rescue, against my will, but not without warning from me, our army will pass over into Italy, bringing with it all the war in Spain.
This letter was read in the senate at the beginning of the following year. But the consuls distributed the provinces which had been decreed by the senate, Cotta taking Hither Gaul and Octavius taking Cilicia. Then the next consuls, Lucius Lucullus and Marcus Cotta, who were greatly agitated by Pompey’s letters and messages, both because of the interests of the state and because they feared that, if he led his army into Italy, they would have neither glory nor position, used every means to provide him with money and reinforcements. And they were aided especially by the nobles, the greater number of whom were already giving expression to their confidence and adapting their conduct to their words.
1 In the autumn of 75 B.C. Sertorius by avoiding pitched battles and resorting to guerilla warfare cut off Pompey’s supplies. Since Pompey had long since exhausted his own means, he wrote this letter to the senate, asking for reinforcements and money.
2 Pompey was only twenty-eight years old at the time and had held no civil office.
3 By indulging the soldiers; for the same use of ambitio see Jug. xlv. 1.
4 The meaning is, that Pompey can lead his victorious army into Italy (i.e., return home) and then Sertorius would be able to march into Italy unopposed.
1 SI advorsus vos patriamque et deos penatis tot labores et pericula suscepissem, quotiens a prima adulescentia ductu meo scelestissumi hostes fusi et vobis salus quaesita est, nihil amplius in absentem me statuissetis quam adhuc agitis, patres conscripti, quem contra acetatem proiectum ad bellum saevisumum cum exercitu optume merito, quantum est in vobis, fame, miserruma omnium morte, confecistis. 2 Hacine spe populus Romanus liberos suos ad bellum misit? Haec sunt praemia pro volneribus et totiens ob rem publicam fuso sanguine? Fessus scribundo mittundoque legatos omnis opes et spes privatas meas consumpsi, cum interim a vobis per triennium vix annuus sumptus datus est. 3 Per deos immortalis, utrum censetis me vicem aerari praestare an exercitum sine frumento et stipendio habere posse?
4 Equidem fateor me ad hoc bellum maiore studio quam consilio profectum, quippe qui nomine modo 416 imperi a vobis accepto, diebus quadraginta exercitum paravi hostisque in cervicibus iam Italiae agentis ab Alpibus in Hispaniam submovi; per eas iter aliud atque Hannibal, nobil opporutnius, patefeci. 5 Recepi Galliam, Pyrenaeum, Lacetaniam, Indigetis et primum impetum Sertori victoris novis militibus et multo paucioribus sustinui hiememque castris inter saevissumos hostis, non per oppida neque ex ambtione mea egi.
6 Quid deinde proelia aut expeditiones hibernas, oppida excisa aut recepta enumerem? Quando res plus valet quam verba: castra hostium apud Sucronem capta et proelium apud flumen Turiam et dux hostium C. Herennius cum urbe Valentia et exercitu deleti satis clara vobis sunt; pro quis, o grati patres, egestatem et famem redditis. Itaque meo et hostium exercitui par condicio est; namque stipendium neutri datur, 7 victor uterque in Italiam venire potest. 8 Quod ego vos moneo quaesoque ut animadvortatis neu cogatis necessitatibus privatim mihi consulere. 9 Hispaniam citeriorem, quae non ab hostibas tenetur, nos aut Sertorius ad internecionem vastavimus praeter maritumas civitates, ultro nobis sumptui onerique; Gallia superiore anno Metelli exercitum stipendio frumentoque aluit et nunc malis fructibus ipsa vix agitat; ego non rem familiarem 418 modo, verum etiam fiedem consumpsi. 10 Reliqui vos estis: qui nisi subvenitis, invito et praedicente me exercitus hinc et cum eo omne bellum Hispaniae in Italiam transgradientur.
Hae litterae principio sequentis anni recitatae in senatu. Sed consules decretas a patribus provincias inter se paravere; Cotta Galliam citeriorem habuit, Ciliciam Octavius. Dein proxumi consules, L. Lucullus et M. Cotta, litteris nuntiisque Pompei graviter perculsi, cum summae rei gratia tum ne exercitu in Italiam deducto neque laus sua neque dignitas esset, omni modo stipendium et supplementum paravere, adnitente maxime nobilitate, cuius plerique iam tum lingua ferociam suam et dicta factis sequebantur.6
5 Histories, ii. 98.
6 Frag. Aurel.