6.

I know not how any one can rely upon his authority respecting what is uncertain, when he has nothing probable to advance on the subject; for he reasons so falsely respecting things which are evident, and this too when he enjoyed the friendship of Pompey, who had carried on war against the Iberes and Albani, and was acquainted with both the Caspian and Colchian902 Seas on each side of the isthmus. It is related, that when Pompey903 was at Rhodes, on his expedition against the pirates, (he was soon afterwards to carry on war against Mithridates and the nations as far as the Caspian Sea,) he accidentally heard a philosophical lecture of Posidonius; and on his departure he asked Posidonius if he had any commands; to which he replied,

[Pg 218]

[CAS. 492]

“To stand the first in worth, as in command.”904

Add to this, that he wrote the history of Pompey. For these reasons he ought to have paid a greater regard to truth.