3
The Romans in a war with the Samnites elected Postumius Albinus general.He as consul 321 b.c. accodring to Livy, ix. 1. ff., but his death after his defeat was not so dramatic as is here depicted. He was ambushed at a place called the Caudine Forks (it is a very narrow pass) and lost three legions, and himself fell mortally wounded. But in the dead of night he revived for a little and despoiled the enemy’s corpses of their shields. With these he set up a trophy and, dipping his hand in his blood, wrote upon it: The Romans from the Samnites to Jupiter Feretrius. But Maximus, surnamed the Glutton,Gurges; cf. Macrobius, Saturnalia, iii. 13. 6. was dispatched as general and when he had come to the place and had seen the trophy, he gladly accepted the omen. He attacked the enemy and conquered, and taking their king prisoner, sent him to Rome. Thus Aristeides the Milesian in the third book of his Italian Histories.
4
When the Persians were marching with five million men against Greece, Leonidas was sent by the Spartans to Thermopylae with three hundred men. While they were eating and drinking there, the barbarian host attacked them; and when Leonidas saw the barbarians, he said, Eat your lunch now as if you were to dine in the other world. Cf. Moralia, 225 d, and the note there (Vol. III. p. 350). And when he rushed against the barbarians, and was pierced by many a spear, he made his way up to Xerxes and snatched off his crown. When he was dead the barbarian king cut out his heart and found it covered with hair. Cf. Stobaeus, Florilegium, vii. 65 (iii. 330 Hense); Lydus, De Mensibus 167 (p. 179 Wünsch). So Aristeides in the firstStobaeus says, in the third. book of his Persian History.
