He himself as a narrator was neither specially friendly nor specially hostile.

He has told what was believed at the time, and he has drawn a character that agrees perfectly with all that we have learned since.
[235] By no one has the character and object of the Triumvirate been so well described as by Lucan, who, bombastic as he is, still manages to bring home to the reader the ideas as to persons and events which he wishes to convey.

I have ventured to give in an Appendix, E, the passages referred to, with such a translation in prose as I have been able to produce.

It will be found at the end of this volume.
[236] Plutarch--Crassus: [Greek: kai synestesen ek ton trion ischyn amachon.] [237] Velleius Paterculus, lib.ii., 44: "Hoc igitur consule, inter eum et Cn.

Pompeium et M.Crassum inita potentiae societas, quae urbi orbique terrarum, nec minus diverso quoque tempore ipsis exitiabilis fuit." Suetonius, Julius Caesar, xix., "Societatem cum utroque iniit." Officers called Triumviri were quite common, as were Quinqueviri and Decemviri.