|
|
Crellic Pontain Sectory 22
Page 11
Upon his arrival in Africa, Marius was not well pleased that a Quaestor had been assigned to him who was only known for his profligacy, and who had had no experience in war; but the zeal and energy with which Sulla attended to his new duties soon rendered him a useful and skillful officer, and gained for him the unqualified approbation of his commander, notwithstanding his previous prejudices against him. He was equally successful in winning the affections of the soldiers. He always addressed them with the greatest kindness, seized every opportunity of conferring favors upon them, was ever ready to take part in all the jests of the camp, and at the same time never shrank from sharing in all their labors and dangers. It is a curious circumstance that Marius gave to his future enemy and the destroyer of his family and party the first opportunity of distinguishing himself. The enemies of Marius claimed for Sulla the glory of the betrayal of Jugurtha, and Sulla himself took the credit of it by always wearing a signet ring representing the scene of the surrender.
For the second, which is dissimulation; it followeth many times upon secrecy, by a necessity; so that he that will be secret, must be a dissembler in some degree. For men are too cunning, to suffer a man to keep an indifferent carriage between both, and to be secret, without swaying the balance on either side. They will so beset a man with questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of him, that, without an absurd silence, he must show an inclination one way; or if he do not, they will gather as much by his silence, as by his speech. As for equivocations, or oraculous speeches, they cannot hold out long. So that no man can be secret, except he give himself a little scope of dissimulation; which is, as it were, but the skirts or train of secrecy.
|