some importance. If the book provokes salutary criticism, so much the better . OXFORD, 1 June 1939 R. S. NOTE TO SECOND IMP

nd in practice a modern and academic failing. Tacitus and Gibbon knew better . 1 The narrative of Augustus’ rise to supreme pow

ator bears the heavier blame for civil war. In truth, Pompeius was no better ‘occultior non melior’. 2 And Pompeius is in the

to themselves the name of populares often sinister and fraudulent, no better than their rivals, the men in power, who naturall

. Ap. Pulcher fought in Macedonia, where he died; P. Servilius with better fortune for four years in Cilicia. Most glorious

it or stupidity and mistook craft for sagacity. They might have known better Cato’s stubborn refusal to agree to the land bill

udgement about the guilt of the Civil War. 3 Pompeius had been little better , if at all, than his younger and more active riva

tatue. That was not the point. The cause of Pompeius had become the better cause. Caesar could not compete. Though interest

n’s dagger to slay a Roman aristocrat, a friend and a benefactor, for better reasons than that. They stood, not merely for the

tisan, commanding armies, namely Cn. Domitius Calvinus, and he was no better than his colleague Messalla or his illustrious pr

the capitulation of the neighbouring city of Corfinium. Pompeius knew better than did his allies the oligarchs the true condit

May 22nd). PageBook=>117 Antonian tribune; then, waiting for a better opportunity, he derived encouragement from the ab

for the Republic, and damaged in repute, surviving a cause for which better men had died, will none the less have striven thr

e and throughout Italy. Octavianus had more skill, fewer scruples and better fortune than the Liberators. By the beginning of

ive consulars. The leaders were Pompeius and Cato. It was clearly the better cause and it seemed the NotesPage=>137 1 A

use of ordered government was still not beyond hope: to save it, what better champion than a patriot who boasted never to have

ot: a natural and indeed laudable partiality for Cicero, and for the ‘ better cause’, may cover the intrusion of special and ir

n of civil war, Republicans might honestly hold an unjust peace to be better than the justest of wars. Then the fair name lost

ation with a citizen in arms, any hope or guarantee of concord, it is better to fight and to fall, as becomes a Roman and a Se

uasion to convert an opponent, to make him ‘see reason’ and join the ‘ better side’. 6 In the heat of civil passion the task of

provincial governors and commanders in his civil wars naturally fare better ; 3 but two of them at least, having passed over t

presumably Picene, cf. above, p. 92. Another historical nonentity, of better descent however, was Sex. Pompeius (cos. 35 B.C.)

Antonius confronted his Caesarian rival. For war, his prospects were better than he could have hoped; and he at once demonstr

om duty to his ally and to the Caesarian party, Antonius had lost the better part of two years, sacrificing ambition, interest

remained with him until they recognized, to their own salvation, the better cause ‘meliora et utiliora’. 2 Many senators an

tense and passionate chapters of Thucydides. He could not have chosen better , if choice there was, for he, too, was witness of

ed to have been Volumnia (the freedwoman of P. Volumnius Eutrapelus), better known as Cytheris, formerly the mistress of Anton

poems were made public (38 or 37 B.C.). Maecenas encouraged him to do better . The mannered frivolity and imitated graces of th

nian consuls would be in power at Rome. Antonius had already lost the better part of two years not Ventidius but the victor of

ctions to the same course of action, or at least of acquiescence. The better sort of people in Italy did not like war or despo

f all Augustan writers stand closest to the government. On the whole, better to say nothing of Caesar, or for that matter of A

us to Antonius, to Sex. Pompeius and again to Antonius, thence to the better cause. 3 The father of Norbanus had been general,

usurped their privileges and their power. M. Vipsanius Agrippa was a better Republican than all the descendants of consuls hi

entidius of a natural death. Had they survived from good fortune or a better calculation in treason, they would have held prid

‘hoc, hoc tribuno militum’. 6 Horace himself was only one generation better . Here again, no return to Republican prejudices o

aesar and Tiberius, the Julian and the Claudian, knew their own class better and knew its failings. His name, his ambition a

nt. Nothing could be more fair and honest. There were also deeper and better reasons for political advancement in the Principa

established in Italian and provincial colonies. Fresh material and a better tradition took their place. Augustus in the sam

he dedication of an ode. 2 The nobiles can hardly be said to fare any better . 3 To the military men who served the dynasty and

ns of Etruria surrendered to self-pity and the horror of death. 1 The better sort of Roman voluptuary waited for the end with

them; and so they receive no praise from the poets. 1 Pompeius was no better , though he has the advantage over Caesar in Virgi

, though now forbidden to senators, was condoned in others for it was better than no marriage. The Roman People was to contemp

ainst Hellas, there was no harm, but every advantage, in invoking the better sort of Greek deities on the right side, so that

oney to the peasant, if his life was stern and laborious, so much the better . He must learn to love it, for his own good and f

upon a firm basis of theory and to claim the rank of classics for the better sort of contemporary literature. As in politics

s the fashion to be Pompeian rather than Caesarian, for that was the ‘ better cause’. 2 It may be presumed that Augustus’ histo

ulmo and the Paelignians, a virile and hardy race, should have made a better contribution to the New Italy and achieved a nobl

and it was his habit to boast openly that he had always followed the better cause in politics. 2 As he had been among the ear

The politician prospered: the scholarly Labeo continued to enjoy the better reputation. 1 The law courts could still provid

t he reprehended Antonius in justification of his own adhesion to the better cause. Q. Dellius described the eastern campaigns

ivors of a catastrophe, doomed to slow and inexorable extinction. The better cause and the best men, the brave and the loyal,

the Free State or were abruptly extinguished in the Revolution had a better fate than some that prolonged an ignoble existenc

e Caesarian leader. But the Caesarians themselves seem to fare little better . The vaunting Cornificius vanished utterly. Obscu

ment, would have been an enthusiastic supporter of the New State; the better cause for which Cato fought had prevailed after h

e race for wealth and power. The nobilis, less obtrusive, might be no better . After a social revolution the primacy of the nob

libertas by force of arms and established dominatio. Pompeius was no better . After that, only a contest for supreme power. 2

le garb of Princeps, beyond contest the greatest of the principes and better than all of them. They had been selfish dynasts,

e principes, by general consent capable of Empire. It might have been better for Tiberius and for Rome if Augustus had died ea