3. In this he was equalled by Prosper, at that time master of the horse in Gaul; a man of abject spirit and great inactivity; and, as the comic poet has it, despising the acts of secret robbing he plundered openly.[58]
4. And, while these two officers were conniving together, and reciprocally helping each other to many means of acquiring riches, the chiefs of the Persian nation who lived nearest to the river, profiting by the fact that the king was occupied in the most distant parts of his dominions, and that these commanders were occupied in plundering the people placed under their authority, began to harass our territories with predatory bands, making audacious inroads, sometimes into Armenia, often also into Mesopotamia.
[32] Tlepolemus and Hiero, whom Cicero, Verres iii. 11, calls Cibyratici canes.
[33] Herodotus, iv. 184, records that in Africa, in the country about Mount Atlas, dreams are unknown.
[36] The Bodensee, more generally known as the Lake of Constance: at its south-eastern end is the town of Bregenz, the ancient Brigantia.
[37] The Arethusa is in Sicily, near Syracuse.
[38] The Comites were a picked body of troops, divided into several regiments distinguished by separate names, such as Seniores, Juniores, Sagittarii, &c.
[39] The Promoti were also picked men, something like the Comites; the French translator calls them the Veterans.
[40] From κόπτω to cut, and ματτύα any delicate food; meant as equivalent to our cheeseparer, or skinflint.
[41] This was a very important post; it seems to have united the functions of a modern chamberlain, chancellor, and secretary of state. The master presented citizens to the emperor, received foreign ambassadors, recommended men for civil employments, decided civil actions of several kinds, and superintended many of the affairs of the post.
[43] The dragons were the effigies on some of the standards.
[44] There is no such passage in any extant work of Cicero, but a sentence in his speech ad Pontifices resembles it: "For although it be more desirable to end one's life without pain, and without injury, still it tends more to an immortality of glory to be regretted by one's countrymen, than to have been always free from injury." And a still closer likeness to the sentiment is found in his speech ad Quirites post reditum: "Although there is nothing more to be wished for by man than prosperous, equal, continual good-fortune in life, flowing on in a prosperous course, without any misadventure; still, if all my life had been tranquil and peaceful, I should have been deprived of the incredible and almost heavenly delight and happiness which I now enjoy through your kindness."--Orations, v. 2; Bohn, p. 491-2.