dging himself
excellently in summer, but making a house that was uninhabitable
in winter. Lucullus merely smiled and said, 'Do you think that I
have less sense than the cranes and storks, and do not change my
home according to the season?' At another time, when a Praetor was
anxious to make his spectacle magnificent, and begged for a loan
of some purple cloaks to dress the performers, Lucullus replied
that he would give him some if he found that he had any. Next day
he asked how many were wanted, and hearing that a hundred would be
enough, he offered two hundred. Horace is thinking of this when he
remarks that he considers a house poor when the valuables hidden
and overlooked are not more than those known to the master.

Plutarch, xxxvi. 39.

X

Cnaeus Pompeius

At the time of Sulla's death the unanimous opinion of Rome would have
fixed upon Cnaeus Pompeius as the one young man then alive who was
likely to follow in his footsteps and rule the Roman world by his own
will. And if there had been in Pompeius's character the qualities which
his rapid success seemed to promise, they would have been right. But the
life of Pompeius shows how much circumstances--chance, opportunity, the
good opinion of others, birth and wealth--can do for a man; and what
they cannot do, unless he has within himself the qualities of mind and
will which mark off the first-rate from the best second-rate. Greatness
was, as it were, thrust upon him; but since he was not great in himself
he could not achieve it. It is this that makes him so interesting a
failure. His failure was due to the fact that at a supreme crisis he was
called upon to do just the things he could not do. It was no accident
that enabled Julius Caesar to succeed where he failed. For Caesar
possessed in supreme degree the power to act with decision, which, when
combined with clear judgement, makes the great man of action. At the
crucial moment the judgement of Pompeius wavered: his will was
uncertain. In ordinary peaceful times his weaknesses might never have
been seen; but his life fell within an era of storm and stress when the
stuff of which men are made is tested and shown.

Tall, strongly built, with curly hair and large eyes that though
prominently set and wide open had a rather sleepy expression, Pompeius
when young was often likened to Alexander the Great. He had his regular
features and brilliant colouring, but in his eyes there was n