And here one may justly admire
and respect the old Romans, who requited with such appellations and
titles not success in war and battles only, but honoured therewith
political services and merits also. Two men accordingly the people
proclaimed Maximi, which means the Greatest; Valerius,[214] because he
reconciled the senate to the people when there was a misunderstanding
between them; and Fabius Rullus,[215] because he ejected from the
senate certain rich persons the children of freedmen who had been
enrolled in the list of senators.
XIV. After this Pompeius asked for a triumph, but Sulla opposed his
claim: for the law gives a triumph to a consul or to a praetor[216]
only, but to no one else. And this is the reason why the first Scipio,
after defeating the Carthaginians in greater and more important
contests in Iberia, did not ask for a triumph, for he was not consul,
nor yet praetor. Sulla considered that if Pompeius, who was not yet
well bearded, should enter the city in triumph, he who, by reason of
his age, was not yet a member of the senate, both his own office and
the honour given to Pompeius would be exposed to much obloquy. Sulla
made these remarks to Pompeius, to show that he did not intend to let
him have a triumph, but would resist him and check his ambition, if he
would not listen to reason. Pompeius, however, was not cowed, but he
told Sulla to reflect, that more men worship the rising than the
setting sun, intending him to understand that his own power was on the
increase, but that the power of Sulla was diminishing and fading away.
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