when he would arrive. Now the friends of
Cato fell a-laughing, but Cato exclaimed, "O wretched city," and
passed by without making further answer. However Pompeius himself made
Demetrius less an object of odium to others by submitting to his
caprices without complaint. For it is said that frequently when
Pompeius at entertainments was waiting for and receiving his guests,
Demetrius would already have taken his place at the table, reclining
with haughty air, and with his vest[291] over his ears hanging down.
Before he had returned to Rome, Demetrius had got possession of the
most agreeable places in the suburbs, and the finest pleasure-grounds
and costly gardens were called Demetrian; and yet up to his third
triumph Pompeius was lodged in a moderate and simple manner. But
afterwards when he was erecting for the Romans that beautiful and
far-famed theatre,[292] he built, what may be compared to the small
boat that is towed after a big vessel, close by a house more
magnificent than he had before; and yet even this was so far from
being such a building as to excite any jealousy that the person who
became the owner of it after Pompeius, was surprised when he entered
it, and he asked where Pompeius Magnus used to sup. Such is the story
about these matters.

XLI. The King of the Arabians in the neighbourhood of Petra[293]
hitherto had not troubled himself at all about the Romans, but now
being much alarmed he wrote to say that he was ready to submit and to
do anything. Pompeius wishing to confirm him in this disposition made
an expedition against Petra, wherein he did not altogether escape
censure from most people. For they considered that this was evading
the pursuit of Mithridates, and they urged him to turn against him who
was his old antagonist and was fanning his flame and preparing
according to report to lead an army through the country of the
Scythians and Paeonians[294] against Italy. But Pompeius thinking it
would be easier to crush the forces of Mithridates in the field than
to overtake him when he was flying, did not choose to exhaust himself
to no purpose in a pursuit, and he contrived to find other occupations
in the interval of the war and he protracted the time. Fortune,
however, settled the difficulty; for when he was at no great distance
from Petra, and had already pitched his camp for that day and was
exercising himself with his horse around the camp, letter-bearers rode
up from Pontus with good tidings. Thi