s'd. [73]

I pass over the speeches of Dolabella, and Curio, the father, in which
the former calls him "the queen's rival, and the inner-side of the royal
couch," and the latter, "the brothel of Nicomedes, and the Bithynian
stew." I would likewise say nothing of the edicts of Bibulus, in which
he proclaimed his colleague under the name of "the queen of Bithynia;"
adding, that "he had formerly been in love with a king, but now coveted a
kingdom." At which time, as Marcus Brutus relates, one Octavius, a man
of a crazy brain, and therefore the more free in his raillery, after he
had in a crowded assembly saluted Pompey by the title of king, addressed
Caesar by that of queen. Caius Memmius likewise upbraided him with
serving the king at table, among the rest of his catamites, in the
presence of a large company, in which were some merchants from Rome, the
names of whom he mentions. But Cicero was not content with writing in
some of his letters, that he was conducted by the royal attendants into
the king's bed-chamber, lay upon a bed of gold with a covering of purple,
and that the youthful bloom of this scion of Venus had been tainted in
Bithynia--but upon Caesar's pleading the cause of Nysa, the daughter of
(32) Nicomedes before the senate, and recounting the king's kindnesses to
him, replied, "Pray tell us no more of that; for it is well known what he
gave you, and you gave him." To conclude, his soldiers in the Gallic
triumph, amongst other verses, such as they jocularly sung on those
occasions, following the general's chariot, recited these, which since
that time have become extremely common:

The Gauls to Caesar yield, Caesar to Nicomede,
Lo! Caesar triumphs for his glorious deed,
But Caesar's conqueror gains no victor's meed. [74]

L. It is admitted by all that he was much addicted to women, as well as
very expensive in his intrigues with them, and that he debauched many
ladies of the highest quality; among whom were Posthumia, the wife of
Servius Sulpicius; Lollia, the wife of Aulus Gabinius; Tertulla, the wife
of Marcus Crassus; and Mucia, the wife of Cneius Pompey. For it is
certain that the Curios, both father and son, and many others, made it a
reproach to Pompey, "That to gratify his ambition, he married the
daughter of a man, upon whose account he had divorced his wife, after
having had three children by her; and whom he used, with a deep sigh, to
call Aegisthus." [75] But the mistress he m