Safety at Corfinium · 科尔菲尼乌姆的安全保证
reported-in-source
Caesar narrates Lentulus Spinther’s request to be spared at Corfinium and presents his own explanation of the campaign.
Evidence limit: A particular narrative of sparing an opponent does not establish universal clemency or transfer directly to a later trial.
bc 1.22
Julius Caesar. The Civil Wars. Peskett, Arthur George, translator. London, UK: William Heinemann; New York, NY, 1914.
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.22
About the fourth watch Lentulus Spinther confers with our outposts and sentries from the wall, saying that he would like to have an interview with Caesar if the opportunity were granted him. Permission being given, he is escorted from the town, nor do the Domitian soldiers leave him till he is brought into the presence of Caesar. He pleads with him for his own safety, begs and beseeches that he will spare him, reminds him of their old-standing friendship, and sets forth the benefits that Caesar had conferred on him —and they were very great, for through his means he had been admitted to the College of the Pontifices, had held the province of Spain after his prae- torship, and had been assisted in his candidature for the consulship. Caesar interrupts his speech, observing that he had not quitted his province with any evil intent, but to defend himself from the insults of his foes, to restore to their position the tribunes of the people who at that conjuncture had been expelled from the state, to assert the freedom of himself and the Roman people who had been oppressed by a small faction. Lentulus, encouraged, by his speech, begs permission to return to the town, saying that the fact that he had gained his point about his own safety would comfort the rest in their hope for theirs; some of them, he added, are so terrified that they are being forced to adopt harsh measures against their own life. Receiving permission, he departs.
Context before
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.21
When these things were known, although Caesar thought it of great importance to get possession of the town at once and to transfer the cohorts to his own camp, lest any change of feeling should be effected by lavish gifts or by a strengthening of their courage or by false news, since, as he reflected, great crises often occurred in war through slight Influences; nevertheless, fearing lest the town should be plundered by the entry of the troops and the licence of night, he commends those who had come to him and dismisses them into the town and orders the gates and walls to be carefully guarded. He personally distributes his men over the earthworks which he had set himself to construct, not leaving fixed intervals, as had been the custom on previous days, but in an unbroken line of sentries and outposts, so that they may touch one another and fill up the whole line of investment; he sends round the tribunes and prefects, exhorting them not merely to be on their guard against sallies, but also to watch for the secret exit of individuals. And, in fact, no one among them all was so remiss and languid in ’spirit as to take rest that night. So keenly did they await the ultimate issue that their hearts and minds were drawn in different directions as they asked what was happening to the Corfinians themselves, what to Domitius, what to Lentulus and to the rest, and what chances were befalling each side.
Context after
urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng2:1.23
As soon as day dawned Caesar orders all senators and their sons, military tribunes, and Roman knights to be brought before him. There were fifty of them: of the senatorial order, L Domitius, P Lentulus Spinther, L. Caecilius Rufus, Sex. Quintilius Varus the quaestor, L. Rubrius; also the son of Domitius with many other youths, and a large number of Roman knights and decurions whom Domitius had summoned from the municipal towns. All these when brought before him he protects from the clamorous insolence of the troops: he addresses them in a few words, complaining that no gratitude had been shown him on their part for his signal acts of kindness, and dismisses them all unharmed. The sum of 6,000,000 sesterces which had been taken by Domitius to Corfinium and placed in the public treasury, and then handed over to him by the four magistrates of Corfinium, he restores to Domitius, in order that he may not be thought more self-eon-trolled in dealing with men’s lives than with their property, although there was no doubt that this money belonged to the state and had been assigned by Pompeius for military pay. The soldiers of Domitius he orders to take the oath of allegiance to himself, and on that day moves camp and completes a full day’s march, having stopped at Corfinium for seven days in all, and, passing through the borders of the Marrucni, Frentani, and Larinates, arrives in Apulia.