Pompey   

his service, he should be very ready to accompany and assist him in
the war, which when Metellus came to understand, he approved of the
proposal, and invited him over by letter. On this Pompey fell
immediately into Gaul, where he not only achieved wonderful exploits
of himself, but also fired up and kindled again that bold and
warlike spirit, which old age had in a manner extinguished in
Metellus, into a new heat; just as molten copper, they say, when
poured upon that which is cold and solid, will dissolve and melt it
faster than fire itself. But as when a famous wrestler has gained
the first place among men, and borne away the prizes at all the games,
it is not usual to take account of his victories as a boy, or to enter
them upon record among the rest; so with the exploits of Pompey in his
youth, though they were extraordinary in themselves, yet because
they were obscured and buried in the multitude and greatness of his
later wars and conquests, I dare not be particular in them, lest, by
trifling away time in the lesser moments of his youth, we should be
driven to omit those greater actions and fortunes which best
illustrate his character.
Now, when Sylla had brought all Italy under his dominion, and was
proclaimed dictator, he began to reward the rest of his followers,
by giving them wealth, appointing them to offices in the state, and
granting them freely and without restriction any favours they asked
for. But as for Pompey, admiring his valour and conduct, and
thinking that he might prove a great stay and support to him hereafter
in his affairs, he sought means to attach him to himself by some
personal alliance, and his wife Metella joining in his wishes, they
two persuaded Pompey to put away Antistia, and marry Aemilia, the
step-daughter of Sylla, born by Metella to Scaurus, her former
husband, she being at that very time the wife of another man, living
with him, and with child by him. These were the very tyrannies of
marriage, and much more agreeable to the times under Sylla than to the
nature and habits of Pompey; that Aemilia great with child should
be, as it were, ravished from the embraces of another for him, and
that Antistia should be divorced with dishonour and misery by him, for
whose sake she had been but just before bereft of her father. For
Antistius was murdered in the senate, because he was suspected to be a
favourer of Sylla for Pompey's sake; and her mother, likewise, after
she had seen all these indignities, made away with herself, a new
calamity to be added to the tragic accompaniments of this marriage,
and that there might be nothing wanting to complete them, Aemilia
herself died, almost immediately after entering Pompey's house, in
childbed.
About this time news came to Sylla that Perpenna was fortifying
himself in Sicily, that the island was now become a refuge and
receptacle for the relics of the adverse party, that Carbo was
hovering about those seas with a navy, that Domitius had fallen in
upon Africa, and that many of the exiled men of note who had escaped
from the proscriptions were daily flocking into those parts. Against
these, therefore, Pompey was sent with a large force; and no sooner
was he arrived in Sicily, but Perpenna immediately departed, leaving
the whole island to him. Pompey received the distressed cities into
favour, and treated all with great humanity, except the Mamertines
in Messena; for when they protested against his court and
jurisdiction, alleging their privilege and exemption founded upon an
ancient charter or grant of the Romans, he replied sharply, "What!
will you never cease prating of laws to us that have swords by our
sides?" It was thought, likewise, that he showed some inhumanity to
Carbo, seeming rather to insult over his misfortunes than to
chastise his crimes. For if there had been a necessity, as perhaps
there was, that he should be taken off, that might have been done at
first, as soon as he was taken prisoner, for then it would have been
the act of him that commanded it. But here Pompey commanded a man that
had been thrice consul of Rome to be brought in fetters to stand at
the bar, he himself sitting upon the bench in judgment, examining