But swift is the pace of Fortune, bold is her spirit,
and most vaunting her hopes ; she outstrips Virtue
and is close at hand. She does not raise herself in
the air on light pinions, nor advance ‘poised on tip-toe
above a globe,’ in a precarious and hesitant posture,
and then depart from sight. But even as the Spartans
say that Aphroditê, as she crossed the Eurotas, put
aside her mirrors and ornaments and her magic
girdle, and took a spear and shield, adorning herself
to please Lycurgus, even so Fortune, when she had
deserted the Persians and Assyrians, had flitted
lightly over Macedonia, and had quickly shaken off
Alexander, made her way through Egypt and Syria,
conveying kingships here and there ; and turning
about, she would often exalt the Carthaginians. But
when she was approaching the Palatine and crossing
the Tiber, it appears that she took off her wings,
stepped out of her sandals, and abandoned her untrustworthy and unstable globe.
1 Thus did she enter
Rome, as with intent to abide, and in such guise is she
present to-day, as though ready to meet her trial.
For stubborn is she not,
as Pindar
2 says,
Nor is the rudder double that she plies ;
but rather is she
The sister of Good Order and Persuasion, and
The daughter of Foresight,
[p. 333]
as Alcman
3 describes her lineage. And she holds
that celebrated Horn of Plenty in her hand, filled not
with fruits of everlasting bloom, but as many as are
the products of the whole earth and of all the seas,
rivers, mines, and harbours, these does she pour forth
in unstinted abundance. Not a few splendid and
distinguished men are seen in her company : Numa
Pompilius from the Sabine country and Priscus from
Tarquinii, whom as adventitious and foreign kings she
set upon the throne of Romulus ; and Aemilius
Paulus, leading back his army without a wound
4
from Perseus and the Macedonians, triumphing for a
tearless victory, magnifies Fortune. There magnifies
her also the aged Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus,
5
borne to his grave by four sons of consular rank,
Quintus Baliaricus, Lucius Diadematus,
6 Marcus
Metellus, Gaius Caprarius, and by two sons-in-law of
consular rank, and by grandsons made distinguished
by illustrious deeds and offices. Aemilius Scaurus, a
novus homo,
7 was raised by her from a humble station
and a humbler family to be enrolled as the first man
of the Senate,
8 Cornelius Sulla she took up and
elevated from the embraces of his mistress, Nicopolis,
9
and designated him for a monarchy and dictatorship
which ranked far above the Cimbrian triumphs and
the seven consulships of Marius. Sulla used openly
to declare himself, together with his exploits, to be
[p. 335]
the adopted child of Fortune, loudly asserting in the
words of Sophocles' Oedipus,
10
And Fortune's son I hold myself to be.
In the Latin tongue he was called Felix,
11 but for the
Greeks he wrote his name thus : Lucius Cornelius
Sulla Epaphroditus.
12 And the trophies at my home
in Chaeroneia and those of the Mithridatic Wars are
thus inscribed, quite appropriately ; for not ‘Night,’
as Menander
13 has it, but Fortune has the ‘greater
share in Aphroditê.’.
