Bellum Alexandrinum 78

B. Alex. 78.1Ita per Gallograeciam Bīthȳniamque in Asiam iter facit omniumque eārum prōvinciārum dē contrōversiīs cognōscit et statuit;

So he made his way through Galatia and Bithynia into Asia, and heard and settled the disputes of all those provinces;

Note. Gallograeciam: Galatia, the land of the Gauls who had settled in Asia Minor. dē contrōversiīs cognōscit et statuit: the same legal phrase as in chapter 65.

B. Alex. 78.1iūra in tetrarchās, rēgēs, cīvitātēs distribuit.

he assigned rights to the tetrarchs, kings and communities.

Note. iūra … distribuit: 'he assigned rights', i.e. defined the powers of each ruler.

B. Alex. 78.2Mithridātēn Pergamēnum, ā quō rem fēlīciter celeriterque gestam in Aegyptō suprā scrīpsimus, rēgiō genere ortum, disciplīnīs etiam rēgiīs ēducātum— nam eum Mithridātēs, rēx Asiae tōtīus, propter nōbilitātem Pergamō parvulum sēcum asportāverat in castra multōsque retinuerat annōs— rēgem Bosphorī cōnstituit, quod regnum sub imperiō Pharnacis fuerat, prōvinciāsque populī Rōmānī ā barbarīs atque inimīcīs rēgibus interpositō amīcissimō rēge mūnīvit.

Mithridates of Pergamum, whose successful and swift achievement in Egypt we have written of above, a man of royal birth and brought up with a royal education (for Mithridates, king of all Asia, had taken him as a small boy from Pergamum into his camp because of his noble birth, and kept him there many years), he made king of the Bosporus, a kingdom which had been under the rule of Pharnaces; and so he protected the provinces of the Roman people from barbarian and hostile kings by putting a very friendly king between them.

Note. Mithridātēn Pergamēnum: Mithridates of Pergamum, who had brought Caesar relief at Alexandria (chapters 26-28); not the same man as the Mithridates, king of Pontus, in the parenthesis, who was said to be his real father. supra scrīpsimus: the author refers back to his own earlier account. Bosphorī: the kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus, which Pharnaces had held. interpositō amīcissimō rēge: ablative absolute, 'by placing a very friendly king between'.

B. Alex. 78.3Eīdem tetrarchiam Gallograecōrum iūre gentis et cognātiōnis adiūdicāvit occupātam et possessam paucīs ante annīs ā Dēiotarō.

To the same man he awarded a tetrarchy of the Galatians by right of race and kinship, which had been seized and held a few years before by Deiotarus.

Note. Eīdem: dative, 'to the same man'. iūre gentis et cognātiōnis: 'by right of race and kinship'. Kübler's text brackets a word legibus here as an interpolation, and it is omitted.

B. Alex. 78.4Neque tamen usquam diūtius morātus est, quam necessitās urbānārum sēditiōnum patī vidēbātur.

Yet he did not stay anywhere longer than the urgency of the troubles in the city seemed to allow.

Note. diūtius … quam: 'longer than'. urbānārum sēditiōnum: the riots in Rome mentioned in chapter 65.

B. Alex. 78.5Rēbus fēlīcissimē celerrimēque cōnfectīs in Ītaliam celerius omnium opīniōne vēnit.

Having completed his affairs most successfully and swiftly, he came to Italy sooner than anyone expected.

Note. fēlīcissimē celerrimēque: superlative adverbs. celerius omnium opīniōne: 'sooner than anyone expected'. Caesar reached Italy in late September 47 BC.