Nine Books of Memorable Deeds and Sayings

Thus he pursues the memory of the benefits by which he was kindly and generously augmented by Sex. Pompeius.

Now that Sex. Pompeius is without doubt the same man whom Tacitus (Annals I, 7) writes was the first to swear in the name of Tiberius alongside his colleague Sex. Appuleius in the year of the city 767 (14 A.D.), the year in which Augustus met his final day; and I see that all chroniclers of his life now agree on this 1. When he had obtained the province of Asia as proconsul, he took Valerius Maximus with him there (cf. II, 6, 8), not as one serving in the army—although this is the generally accepted opinion—but, as I personally find more probable to conjecture from his own words when he commemorates both that journey and the overall relationship that existed between himself and his patron, he was in the company of friends either without an office or endowed with some small duty. The time of his departure can be established with sufficiently certain arguments, if I am not mistaken. Pompeius, as we have mentioned, sought Asia as proconsul, and indeed as a former consul, not as a former praetor. For Augustus, when he had assigned the administration of ten provinces to the senate and the Roman people, had established that in two of them, Asia and Africa, men of consular rank should be sent, while in the remaining ones only those of praetorian rank were to be sent. Therefore, the Asiatic journey of Pompeius could by no means precede his consulship. Furthermore, according to the decree of the senate 2 confirmed by Cn. Pompeius Magnus 3 and retained by Augustus 4, it was not permitted to go into a province before the fifth year after having held the consulship, such that Sex. Pompeius necessarily must have been in Asia either in 773 A.U.C. or some years after. Now, that men of consular rank were sent into provinces according to a certain order, such that he who had been longer in that dignity would receive the proconsular command first, is not only grounded in the nature of the matter, but is also clear both from Tacitus (Annals III, 71) 5 and from the subsequent proconsuls of Asia whom I have enumerated.

1) Cf. G. I. Vossius, de hist. lat. On Latin History I, 24. Fabricius, bibl. lat. Latin Library II, 5. G. E. Müller, l.c. p. 341. Dio Cassius (LVI, 29) records that he was a relative of Augustus. In the index of consuls in Dio (LVI), he is called the son of Sextus, and Ryckius, in his notes to Tacitus (Annals III, 11), not improbably believes him to have been the son of Sex. Pompeius, consul in 719 A.U.C. (35 B.C.), whose grandfather Sex. F. Cn. N. had a brother, Cn. Pompeius Strabo, the father of Pompey the Great. Cf. Drumann, gesch. Roms History of Rome IV, pp. 305 and 306. Regarding this Sex. Pompeius, see also Ovid, ex Ponto from the Black Sea IV, epp. 1, 4, 5. Lipsius, on Tacitus (Annals III, 11). Dio Cassius, LVI, 45.
2) Cf. Dio Cassius XL, 30, p. 242 Reim.; ibid. 46, p. 251.
3) Cf. Dio Cassius XL, 56, p. 257.
4) Cf. Dio Cassius LIII, 14, p. 706. Strabo XVII, 25, p. 840. Suetonius, Aug. Life of Augustus 47.
5) "Thus the lot of Asia was assigned to him who was next to Maluginensis among the consulars."