Pompey’s death in different narratives · 庞培之死的不同叙述

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Ascertaining these facts, Pompeius gave up his idea of visiting Syria, took the funds belonging to the association of tax-farmers, borrowed money from certain private persons, and deposited on shipboard a great weight of bronze coinage for the use of the soldiers; and having armed two thousand men, partly those whom he had selected from the households of the tax-farmers, partly those whom he had requisitioned from the merchants and those of their own men whom each owner judged to be fit for the purpose, arrived at Pelusium. There by chance was King Ptolomaeus, a boy in years, waging war with large forces against his sister Cleopatra, whom a few months before he had expelled from the throne by the help of his relations and friends. The camp of Cleopatra was not far distant from his camp. To him Pompeius sent begging to be received in Alexandria and supported in his calamity by the king’s resources, in remembrance of the hospitality and friendship that he had shown his father. But his messengers, having fulfilled the duty of their embassy, began to converse more freely with the king’s soldiers and to exhort them to show their dutiful loyalty to Pompeius, and not to despise his fortunes. In the number of these men were very many soldiers of Pompeius, whom Gabinius had taken over from his army in Syria and had transported to Alexandria, and on the conclusion of the war had left them with Ptolomaeus, the youth’s father.

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On Caesar’s arrival in Asia he found that T. Ampius had attempted to remove sums of money from Ephesus from the temple of Diana, and that with this object he had summoned all the senators from the province, that he might employ them as witnesses in reference to the amount of the sum, but that he had fled when interrupted by Caesar’s arrival. So on two occasions Caesar saved the Ephesian funds. Also it was established, by going back and calculating the dates, that at Elis in the temple of Minerva, on the very day on which Caesar had fought his successful battle, the image of Victory, which had been placed in front of Minerva herself and had previously looked towards the image of Minerva, had turned itself towards the folding-doors and threshold of the temple. And on the same day at Antioch in Syria so great a clamour of a host and a noise of trumpetings had twice been heard that the body of citizens rushed about in arms on the walls. The same thing happened at Ptolomais. At Pergamum in the secret and concealed parts of the temple, whither no one but the priests is allowed to approach, which the Greeks call ἄδυτα, there was a sound of drums. Also at Tralles in the temple of Victory, where they had dedicated a statue of Caesar, a palm was pointed out as having grown up during those days from the pavement between the joints of the stones.

Ibi ab Achilla et Septimio interficitur (Caesar, Bell. Civ. iii. 104).

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Having determined upon this plan, they entrusted the execution of it to Achillas. So he took with him a certain Septimius, who had once been a tribune of Pompey’s, and Salvius besides, a centurion, with three or four servants, and put out towards the ship of Pompey. Now, all the most distinguished of Pompey’s fellow-voyagers had come aboard of her to see what was going on. Accordingly, when they saw a reception that was not royal, nor splendid, nor in accordance with the hopes of Theophanes, but a few men sailing up in a single fishing-boat, they viewed this lack of respect with suspicion, and advised Pompey to have his ship rowed back into the open sea, while they were beyond reach of missiles. But meanwhile the boat drew near, and first Septimius rose up and addressed Pompey in the Roman tongue as Imperator. Then Achillas saluted him in Greek, and invited him to come aboard the boat, telling him that the shallows were extensive, and that the sea, which had a sandy bottom, was not deep enough to float a trireme. At the same time some of the royal ships were seen to be taking their crews aboard, and men-at-arms were occupying the shore, so that there seemed to be no escape even if they changed their minds; and besides, this very lack of confidence might give the murderers an excuse for their crime. Accordingly, after embracing Cornelia, who was bewailing his approaching death, he ordered two centurions to go into the boat before him, besides Philip, one of his freedmen, and a servant named Scythes, and while Achillas was already stretching out his hand to him from the boat, turned towards his wife and son and repeated the verses of Sophocles:— Whatever man unto a tyrant takes his way, His slave he is, even though a freeman when he goes.

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When the people on the ships beheld the murder, they uttered a wailing cry that could be heard as far as the shore, and weighing anchor quickly, took to flight. And a strong wind came to their aid as they ran out to sea, so that the Egyptians, though desirous of pursuing, turned back. But they cut off Pompey’s head, and threw the rest of his body unclothed out of the boat, and left it for those who craved so pitiful a sight. Philip, however, stayed by the body, until such had taken their fill of gazing; then he washed it in sea-water, wrapped it in a tunic of his own, and since he had no other supply, sought along the coast until he found the remnants of a small fishing-boat, old stuff, indeed, but sufficient to furnish a funeral pyre that would answer for an unclothed corpse, and that too not entire. As he was gathering the wood and building the pyre, there came up a Roman who was now an old man, but who in his youth had served his first campaigns with Pompey, and said: Who art thou, my man, that thinkest to give burial rites to Pompey the Great? And when Philip said that he was his freedman, the man said: But thou shalt not have this honour all to thyself; let me too share in a pious privilege thus offered, that I may not altogether regret my sojourn in a foreign land, if in requital for many hardships I find this happiness at least, to touch with my hands and array for burial the greatest of Roman imperators. Such were the obsequies of Pompey. And on the following day Lucius Lentulus, as he came sailing from Cyprus and coasted along the shore not knowing what had happened, saw a funeral pyre and Philip standing beside it, and before he had been seen himself exclaimed: Who, pray, rests here at the end of his allotted days? Then, after a slight pause and with a groan he said: But perhaps it is thou, Pompey the Great! And after a little he went ashore, was seized, and put to death. This was the end of Pompey. But not long afterwards Caesar came to Egypt, and found it filled with this great deed of abomination. From the man who brought him Pompey’s head he turned away with loathing, as from an assassin; and on receiving Pompey’s seal-ring, he burst into tears; the device was a lion holding a sword in his paws. But Achillas and Potheinus he put to death. The king himself, moreover, was defeated in battle along the river, and disappeared. Theodotus the sophist, however, escaped the vengeance of Caesar; for he fled out of Egypt and wandered about in wretchedness and hated of all men. But Marcus Brutus, after he had slain Caesar and come into power, discovered him in Asia, and put him to death with every possible torture. The remains of Pompey were taken to Cornelia, who gave them burial at his Alban villa.