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20Pompey, when he had accomplished what has been related, proceeded again to Pontus and after taking over the forts returned to Asia and thence to Greece and Italy. 2Thus he had won many battles, had brought into subjection many potentates and kings, some by war and some by treaty, he had colonized eight cities, had opened up many lands and sources of revenue to the Romans, and had established and organized most of the nations in the continent of Asia then belonging to them with their own laws and constitutions, so that even to this day they use the laws that he laid down. 3Yet, great as these achievements were and unrivalled by those of any earlier Roman, one might ascribe them both to his good fortune and to his troops; but the act for which credit particularly attaches to Pompey himself—a deed forever worthy of admiration—I will now relate. 4He had enormous power both on sea and on land; he had supplied himself with vast wealth from the captives; he had made numerous potentates and kings his friends; and he had kept practically all the communities which he ruled well disposed through benefits conferred; 5and although by these means he might have occupied Italy and gained for himself the whole Roman power, since the majority would have accepted him voluntarily, and if any had resisted, they would certainly have capitulated through weakness, yet he did not choose to do this. 6Instead, as soon as he had crossed to Brundisium, he dismissed all his forces on his own initiative, without waiting for any vote to be passed in the matter by the senate or the people, and without concerning himself at all even about their use in the triumph. For since he understood that men held the careers of Marius and Sulla in abomination, he did not wish to cause them any fear even for a few days that they should undergo any similar experiences.
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