The young man left to carry on the great name of Scipio was the son of
Aemilius Paulus and nephew by marriage of Africanus, whose son adopted
him into the Cornelian family.
Scipio Aemilianus, to give him the name by which he was always known
after this adoption, saw, even more clearly than Africanus had done,
both that Rome was changing and what was good and what was bad in the
change. He shared in both good and bad. No one saw more clearly than he
the baseness of the destruction of Carthage and the cruelty of the sack
of Numantia; yet it was he who, as general, had to carry them out. He
saw the dangers of the growing contrast between the increasing wealth of
the few rich, as treasures poured from all parts of the world into their
coffers, and the wretchedness of the poor in Rome; he saw the cruelty,
indifference to human life, and love of pleasure that filled men's minds
after a series of successful wars; he saw the old simplicity of life and
high devotion to country disappearing and a new selfishness and personal
ambition growing up.
Scipio was a man of action; an excellent soldier and general. Even old
Cato, who hated the Scipios, had to admire Aemilianus. Speaking of him
he quoted a famous line of Homer: 'He is a real man: the rest are
shadows.' In a very profound sense this was true. The mind of Scipio
Aemilianus saw below the surface of things to the reality. He could act,
but like all really first-rate men of action--Napoleon, Hannibal,
Caesar--he was a thinker. Round his table there gathered the most
interesting men in Rome. They talked of all the questions that have
puzzled and perplexed men's minds since men began to think at all.
Closest of his friends was Polybius, the great Greek historian who wrote
the history of the wars with Carthage. He lived in his house and
accompanied him in his wars in Spain and Africa. Polybius stood by
Scipio's side as he watched Carthage burning to the ground (146). Orders
had come from Rome that the city was to be utterly destroyed;
a ploughshare was to be drawn across the site and a solemn curse laid on
any one who should ever rebuild there. 'It is a wonderful sight,' said
Aemilianus as they watched walls toppling and buildings collapsing in
the flames which rose up, a huge cloud of ruddy smoke darkening and
thickening the noonday sky of Africa, 'but I shudder to think that some
one may some day give the same order--for Rome.'
The following sketch of his character by Polybius shows some of his
distinguishing traits:
_Scipio Aemilianus as a Sportsman_
After the war was decided, Paulus, in the belief that hunting was
the best training and recreation that a young man could have, put
the king's huntsmen at the orders of Scipio, and gave him full
authority over everything connected with the chase. Scipio readily
accepted the charge and, regarding it almost as a royal office,
continued to occupy himself with it as long as the army remained
in Macedonia after the battle. His youth and natural disposition
qualified him for this pursuit, like a high-bred hound, and his
devotion to hunting became permanent, being continued when he came
to Rome and found Polybius as enthusiastic as himself.
Consequently, all the time that other young men spent in the
law-courts and with morning calls, waiting about in the Forum and
trying thus to make a favourable impression on the people, was
passed by Scipio in hunting; and as he was constantly performing
brilliant and notable exploits, he distinguished himself more than
all the rest. For they could not win credit except by injuring
others; such are the conditions of legal action; but Scipio,
without doing any harm to any one, gained a popular reputation for
courage, matching words with deeds. Therefore he soon excelled his
contemporaries more than any Roman of whom we have record, though
he followed a path to fame which, in view of Roman character and
prejudice, was the very opposite of that chosen by his rivals.
Polybius, xxxvi. 15. 5-12.
From Carthage came another friend of Scipio's--the poet Terence. Born in
that city about the time of Hannibal's death, the lad had come to Rome
as a slave. His rare parts attracted the notice of his owner, who
finally set him free. Terence was introduced to Scipio by another friend
of his. This was Caecilius, the playwriter. His plays are unfortunately
all lost, so that we have no means of judging what they were like. One
day when Caecilius was at supper he was told that the managers of the
games had sent a young man to read him a play which he had submitted to
them, and of which they thought well. Caecilius called him in and bade
him sit down on a stool on the other side of the table from that at
which he and his friends were reclining on sofas, and begin to read to
him. The young man had only read a few lines when the elder poet stopped
him. The work was so good, he said, that he ought to sit at the author's
feet, not he at his; he called Terence up to the table. Afterwards
Caecilius took the young man to see Scipio Aemilianus; and he soon
became one of the intimate circle which Scipio had gathered round him.
Scipio and Caecilius helped him with advice, and they all worked
together at Scipio's favourite task of improving and purifying the Latin
language. A line in one of Terence's plays expresses the point of view
which Scipio Aemilianus and his friends tried to take. 'I am human:
nothing human is alien to me.' These plays are among the earliest works
of pure literature in Latin, and they show in every line the influence
of Greece. The Greek spirit was one of questioning; and its influence on
Roman thought was profound.
[Illustration: TRAGIC AND COMIC MASKS]
Scipio Aemilianus questioned but looked on. He saw much in the present
state of Rome to disturb and displease him; he dreaded what might come
in the future, as the few grew richer and the many poorer; but he did
not take any action. His was the mind of the philosopher; like his
friends Polybius and Terence he wanted to understand. He did not believe
that things could be changed. What was to happen would happen; to
perturb and perplex oneself was useless and might be dangerous. The
people who got excited and believed that great improvements could be
brought about easily seemed to him stupid and dangerous. It was easy to
breed disorder; to spoil the things that had made Rome great; very hard
to make alterations. The men who really served the Republic were not the
politicians clamouring in the market-place, orating in the Assembly, or
the idle dirty mobs who listened to them and were ready to shout for
this to-day and the other thing to-morrow. Them Scipio scorned. The real
workers and builders he thought were the silent soldiers fighting and
working in all the dreariness and discomfort of camps in foreign
countries. In Scipio there was a good deal of the temper of that Lucius
Junius Brutus who in the earliest days of the Republic had condemned his
own sons to death for treason to the State. He judged his own friends
and relations more, not less, severely than other people. Thus when
Tiberius Gracchus, the kinsman and brother-in-law of Scipio (his own
wife was Sempronia, the sister of Gracchus) brought in his Land Bill and
came, over it, into conflict with the Senate, Scipio was against him.
When disorders and rioting in the streets of Rome grew out of the
struggle over the Land Bill and Tiberius was murdered, Scipio made a
speech in the Senate in which he said that Tiberius had deserved his
death. He quoted a line of Homer: 'So perish all who do the like again.'
When the people shouted him down in their anger he turned on them with
cold contempt--fear of any kind was not in Scipio--and said, 'Be silent,
ye to whom Italy is only a step-mother.' Speeches like that did not make
him popular. Scipio was so much respected that men always listened when
he spoke. There was something lofty and splendid about him and no
soldier of his day could compare with him. But he stood aloof. Outside
his own circle of close friends he was little known and less understood.
His death was sudden and mysterious. One day after speaking in the
Senate he returned home apparently well and in his ordinary calm frame
of mind. Nothing had occurred to disturb him. He did not seem to be
disturbed about anything. Next morning he was found dead in his bed.
What had happened was never known. It was whispered about that he had
been murdered.
V