Here generals were made prisoners; and there the cities which the pirates had seized upon were paying their ransom, to the great disgrace of the Roman power.

The number of their galleys amounted to a thousand, and the cities taken to four hundred." The passage is taken from the life of Pompey.
[142] Florus, lib.iii., 6: "An felicitatem, quod ne una cuidam navis amissa est; an vero perpetuitatem, quod amplius piratae non fuerunt." [143] Of the singular trust placed in Pompey there are very many proofs in the history of Rome at this period, but none, perhaps, clearer than the exception made in this favor in the wording of laws.

In the agrarian law proposed by the Tribune Rullus, and opposed by Cicero when he was Consul, there is a clause commanding all Generals under the Republic to account for the spoils taken by them in war.

But there is a special exemption in favor of Pompey.

"Pompeius exceptus esto." It is as though no Tribune dared to propose a law affecting Pompey.
[144] See Appendix D.
[145] Asconius Pedianus was a grammarian who lived in the reign of Tiberius, and whose commentaries on Cicero's speeches, as far as they go, are very useful in explaining to us the meaning of the orator.