Aulus Gabinius

The Helvetii believed that they could either induce the Allobroges to let them pass through their country, as they were not yet apparently well disposed towards the Romans, or could compel them to do so.

When everything was ready for their departure, they fixed the 28th of March in the consulship of Lucius Piso and Aulus Gabinius for the general muster on the banks of the Rhone.

As soon as Caesar was informed that they were attempting to march through the province, he promptly quitted the capital, pushed on as fast as he could possibly travel into Further Gaul, and made his way to the neighborhood of Geneva.

As the entire force in Further Gaul amounted only to one legion, he ordered as many troops as possible to be raised throughout the province, and directed that the bridge at Geneva should be broken down.

Um, so yeah, a bit of time doing, uh, with that.

Then he was, uh, he was then recruited by, uh, a man called Aulus Gabinius to go and serve with him in, um, the, in Egypt and, uh, and in the, um, Near East, uh, or Middle East, um, Judea, et cetera.

And this is where he probably met Cleopatra for the first time when she was 13 years old, and um, obviously massive in his life.

But at this point, if you read Plutarch, I think he's, he's suggests that, um, Anthony was immediately in- infatuated with her, which again, I don't buy.

Gross.

"And he was serving as Master of the Horse under Gabinius at Alexandria."

Which is referenced in this movie, by the way.

[laughs]

It is.

I do like this little tidbit because the situation gets reversed.

What we hear from Cleopatra in a scene when she's with Antony is that she had noticed him when he'd been in Alexandria under Gabinius.

So the detail comes from Appian, but the credit in the film is given to Cleopatra probably to smooth over the fact that it's a bit awkward for an adult man, uh, to be crushing on a young girl.

In brackets, seventy-one through seventy-nine.

Selection nine, Division of the Country into Five Districts by Gabinius.

Gabinius completes Pompey's work in the settlement of the province of Syria, around fifty-seven BC.

After this, Gabinius reinstated Hyrcanus in Jerusalem and committed to him the custody of the temple.

The civil administration he reconstituted under the form of an aristocracy.

He divided the whole nation into five unions or sessions, conventions, sunadoi.

After hearing both parties, Antony inquired of Hyrcanus, who was the best qualified ruler.

Hyrcanus pronouncing in favor of Herod and his brother.

Selection nine.

Division of the country into five districts by Gabinius.

Gabinius completes Pompey's work in the settlement of the province of Syria around fifty-seven BC.

After this, Gabinius reinstated Hyrcanus in Jerusalem and committed to him the custody of the temple.

The civil administration he reconstituted under the form of an aristocracy.

He divided the whole nation into five unions or sessions, conventions, sunodoi.

The defense was undertaken by Messala, Hyrcanus supporting him because of his marriage connection with Herod.

After hearing both parties, Antony inquired of Hyrcanus, who was the best qualified ruler.

Cicero's abuse is awful.

Let the reader curious in such matters turn to the diatribes against Vatinius, one of Caesar's creatures, and to that against the unfortunate proconsul Piso, or to his attacks on Gabinius who was consul together with Piso in the year of Cicero's banishment.

There are wonderful morsels in the Philippics dealing with Antony's private character, but the words which he uses against Gabinius and Piso beat all that I know elsewhere in the science of invective.

Junius could not approach him, and even Macaulay, though he has in certain passages been very bitter, has not allowed himself the latitude which Roman taste and Roman manners permitted to Cicero.

It may however be said that the need of biographical memoirs as to a man of letters is by no means in proportion to the excellence of the work that he has achieved.

We have to bethink ourselves that his words are two thousand years old.

There is such a touch of humanity in them, such a feeling of latter-day civilization and almost of Christianity, that we are apt to condemn what remains in them of paganism, as though they were uttered yesterday.

When we come to the coarseness of his attacks, his descriptions of Piso by and by, his abuse of Gabinius and his invectives against Antony, when we read his altered opinions as shown in the period of Caesar's dominion, his flattery of Caesar when in power and his exultations when Caesar has been killed, when we find that he could be coarse in his language, and a bully, and servile, for it has all to be admitted, we have to reflect under what circumstances, under what surroundings, and for what object were used the words which displease us.

The authority against which they had been useful as levers was overthrown, and to quote the evils against which the Gracchi had striven as the object at this period of the popular party's attack is as idle as it would have been to support the reform bill of 1868 with the arguments used for that of 1832.

In B.C. 67, the partisans of Pompey had forced the hand of the popular party and compelled them to support the proposal of Gabinius.

The proposal became law, and for the next five years it was not the Senate but the suspected military dictator that was the object of the democratic hatred and fear.

It is at this juncture that Catiline appears on the scene.

When he had satisfied himself on the points he desired, he summoned a meeting of all those whose needs were the most pressing and spirit the most daring.

To this meeting came Publius Lentulus Sura, Publius Altronius, Lucius Cassius Longinus, Gaius Cethegus, Publius and Servius, the two sons of Servius Sulla, Lucius Vargunteius, Quintus Annius, Marcus Porcius Laeca, Lucius Bestia, Quintus Curius, all of senatorial rank.

With them were Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Lucius Statilius, Publius Gabinius Capito, and Gaius Cornelius from the equestrian order, besides many persons from the military colonies and towns, men of rank in their own neighborhood.

Many, however, of the nobility were associated in this plot, though they kept more in the background.