reason, was very inefficient and unsuccessful in his government. Sylla
proposed to supersede him by sending Pompey to take his place. Pompey
replied that it was not right to take the command from a man who was so
much his superior in age and character, but that, if Metellus wished for
his _assistance_ in the management of his command, he would proceed to
Gaul and render him every service in his power. When this answer was
reported to Metellus, he wrote to Pompey to come. Pompey accordingly
went to Gaul, where he obtained new victories, and gained new and higher
honors than before.

[Sidenote: An example.]
[Sidenote: Pompey divorces his wife.]
[Sidenote: He marries Sylla's daughter-in-law.]

These, and various anecdotes which the ancient historians relate, would
lead us to form very favorable ideas of Pompey's character. Some other
circumstances, however, which occurred, seem to furnish different
indications. For example, on his return to Rome, some time after the
events above related, Sylla, whose estimation of Pompey's character and
of the importance of his services seemed continually to increase, wished
to connect him with his own family by marriage. He accordingly proposed
that Pompey should divorce his wife Antistia, and marry Aemilia, the
daughter-in-law of Sylla. Aemilia was already the wife of another man,
from whom she would have to be taken away to make her the wife of
Pompey. This, however, does not seem to have been thought a very serious
difficulty in the way of the arrangement. Pompey's wife was put away,
and the wife of another man taken in her place. Such a deed was a gross
violation not merely of revealed and written law, but of those universal
instincts of right and wrong which are implanted indelibly in all human
hearts. It ended, as might have been expected, most disastrously.