31. The prætor, Philopœmen,—(who, from the beginning, had ever been a

friend to the cause of the exiles, and had always advised the Achæans to

reduce the power and influence of the Lacedæmonians,)—gave an audience

of the council to the ambassadors while making their complaints. There,

on a motion made by him, a decree was passed, that, “whereas Titus

Quintius and the Romans had committed their forts and villages, on the

coast of Laconia, to the protection and guardianship of the Achæans; and

whereas the Lacedæmonians, according to the treaty, ought to leave them

unmolested; notwithstanding which, the village of Las has been attacked

by them and bloodshed committed therein; therefore, unless the authors

and abettors of this outrage were delivered up to the Achæans, the

treaty would be considered as violated.” To demand those persons,

ambassadors were instantly despatched to Lacedæmon. This authoritative

injunction appeared to the Lacedæmonians so haughty and insolent, that

if their state had been in its ancient condition, they would

undoubtedly have taken to arms. But they were principally alarmed by

apprehensions, lest, if by obeying the first mandates they once received

the yoke, Philopœmen should put the exiles in possession of Lacedæmon, a

design which he had been a long time planning. Maddened therefore with

anger, they put to death thirty men of the faction which had held some

correspondence with Philopœmen and the exiles, and passed a decree, that

the alliance with the Achæans should be renounced, and that ambassadors

should be sent immediately to Cephallenia, to surrender Lacedæmon to the

consul Marcus Fulvius and the Romans, and beseech him to come into

Peloponnesus, and to receive Lacedæmon under the protection and dominion

of the Roman people.

32. When the Achæan ambassadors returned with an account of these

proceedings, war was declared against the Lacedæmonians, by a unanimous

vote of all the states of the confederacy; but the winter prevented its

being commenced immediately. However, the confines of the Lacedæmonians

were laid waste by small expeditions, more like freebooting than a

regular war, made not only by land, but also by ships at sea. This

commotion brought the consul into Peloponnesus, and, by his order, a

council being summoned at Elis, the Lacedæmonians were called on to

plead their own cause. There were not only violent debates then, but

even altercation. To which, the consul, although his answer had been

indecisive in other respects, since he encouraged both parties through a

very eager desire to please, put an end, by one decisive order, that

they should desist from hostilities, until they sent ambassadors to

Rome, to the senate. An embassy was despatched by both parties to Rome.

The Lacedæmonian exiles intrusted their cause and embassy to the

Achæans. Diophanes and Lycortas, both of them Megalopolitans, were at

the head of the Achæan embassy, who, being at variance in their own

republic, there also delivered speeches by no means in unison. Diophanes

was for leaving the determination of every point to the senate—that they

would best decide the controversies between the Achæans and

Lacedæmonians; while Lycortas, according to the instructions of

Philopœmen, required, that the senate should permit the Achæans to

execute their own decrees, made conformable to the treaty, and their

own laws; and that they should concede to them, uninfringed, the

liberty which they themselves had bestowed. The Achæan nation was, at

that time, in high esteem with the Romans; yet it was resolved, that no

alteration should be made respecting the Lacedæmonians; but the answer

given was so confused, that, while the Achæans understood it as full

permission given to them in relation to Lacedæmon, the Lacedæmonians

construed it, that unlimited power was not conceded to them.

33. The Achæans used this power in an immoderate and tyrannical manner.

Philopœmen is continued in office, and he, in the beginning of spring,

collecting an army, encamped in the territory of the Lacedæmonians, and

thence sent ambassadors to insist on their delivering up the authors of

the insurrection; promising, that if they complied, their state should

remain in peace, and that those persons should not suffer any

punishment, without having pleaded their cause. There was silence among

the rest through fear; but the persons demanded by name, declared that

they would voluntarily go, if their faith was pledged by the

ambassadors, that violence would not be resorted to, until their cause

were heard. Several other men, of illustrious characters, went along

with them, both as supporters of those private individuals, and because

they thought their cause concerned the public interest. The Achæans had

never before brought the Lacedæmonian exiles into the country, because

they knew that nothing would disgust the people so much; but now, the

vanguard of almost their whole army was composed of them. When the

Lacedæmonians came to the gate of the camp, these men met them in a

body, and, first, began to provoke them with insulting language; a

wrangle then ensuing, and their passions being inflamed, the most

furious of the exiles made an attack on the Lacedæmonians. While these

appealed to the gods, and the faith of the ambassadors; and while the

ambassadors and the prætor were driving back the crowd, and protecting

the Lacedæmonians, and were keeping back some who were already binding

them in chains,—the multitude was increasing, owing to a tumult having

been excited. The Achæans, at first, ran thither to view the spectacle;

but then the exiles, with loud clamours, complained of the sufferings

that they had undergone, implored assistance, and at the same time

insisted, that they would never have such an opportunity if they

neglected this; that the treaties, solemnly ratified in the Capitol, at

Olympia, and in the citadel of Athens, had been rendered void by these

men; and that before they should be bound by a new treaty, the guilty

ought to be punished. The multitude being inflamed by these expressions,

at the voice of one who called out that they should fall on, attacked

them with stones; and seventeen persons, who, during the disturbance,

had been put in chains, were killed. The next day, sixty-three, whom the

prætor had protected from violence, not because he wished them safe, but

because he was unwilling that they should perish without a defence,

being taken into custody, and brought before an enraged multitude, after

addressing a few words to such prejudiced ears, were all condemned and

executed.

34. After this fear had been inspired, orders were sent to the

Lacedæmonians, first, that they should demolish their walls; then, that

all the foreign auxiliaries, who had served for pay under the tyrants,

should quit the Laconian territories; then, that the slaves, whom the

tyrants had set free, who amounted to a great multitude, should depart

before a certain day; that the Achæans should be authorized to seize,

sell, and carry away those who might remain in the country. That they

should abrogate the laws and customs of Lycurgus, and adopt the laws and

institutions of the Achæans; that thus all would become one body, and

concord would be established among them. They obeyed none of these

injunctions more willingly than that of demolishing the walls, nor

suffered any with more reluctance than the restoration of the exiles. A

decree for their restoration was made at Tegea, in a general council of

the Achæans; where, an account being brought, that the foreign

auxiliaries had been sent away, and that the newly-registered

Lacedæmonians (so they called the slaves who were enfranchised by the

tyrants) had left the city and dispersed through the country, it was

resolved, that, before the army was disbanded, the prætor should go with

some light troops, and, seizing that description of people, sell them as

spoil. Great numbers were accordingly seized, and sold; and with that

money a portico at Megalopolis, which the Lacedæmonians had demolished,

was rebuilt, with the approbation of the Achæans. The lands of Belbinis,

of which the Lacedæmonian tyrants had unjustly kept possession, were

also restored to that state, according to an old decree of the Achæans,

made in the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas. The state of Lacedæmon

having, by these means, lost the sinews of its strength, remained long

in subjection to the Achæans; but nothing hurt it so materially as the

abolition of the discipline of Lycurgus, in the practice of which they

had continued during seven hundred years.

35. After the sitting of the council, wherein the debate between the

Achæans and Lacedæmonians was held in presence of the consul, as the

year was expiring, Marcus Fulvius, having gone home to Rome to hold the

elections, appointed Marcus Valerius Messala and Caius Livius Salinator

consuls, after having, this year, procured the rejection of his enemy,

Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. Then Quintus Marcius Philippus, Marcus Claudius

Marcellus, Caius Stertinius, Caius Atinius, Publius Claudius Pulcher,

and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, were elected prætors. When the elections

were finished, it was resolved, that the consul, Marcus Fulvius, should

return into his province to the army; and to him and his colleague,

Cneius Manlius, their command was prolonged for a year. In this year, in

pursuance of directions from the decemvirs, a statue of Hercules was set

up in his temple, and a gilded chariot with six horses were placed in

the Capitol, by Publius Cornelius. The inscription mentioned, that

Publius Cornelius, the consul,[30] made the offering. Also twelve gilded

shields, out of money raised by fines on corn merchants, for raising the

market by hoarding the grain, were dedicated by the curule ædiles,

Publius Claudius Pulcher and Servius Sulpicius Galba; and Quintus

Fulvius Flaccus, the plebeian ædile, having convicted one malefactor,

(for the ædiles prosecuted separately,) dedicated two gilded statues.

His colleague, Aulus Cæcilius, did not convict any one. The Roman games

were exhibited thrice; the plebeian, five times altogether. Marcus

Valerius Messala, and Caius Livius Salinator, after entering into office

on the ides of March, consulted the senate concerning the state of the

commonwealth, the provinces, and the armies. With respect to Ætolia and

Asia no alteration was made. With regard to the consuls, to the one

Pisæ, with the Ligurians, is decreed as his province; to the other,

Gaul. They were ordered to cast lots for these, or to settle the matter

between themselves, to enrol new armies, two legions for each; and to

levy off the allies of the Latin name, fifteen thousand foot, and one

thousand two hundred horse. Liguria fell, by lot, to Messala; Gaul, to

Salinator. The prætors then cast lots, and the city jurisdiction fell to

Marcus Claudius; the foreign, to Publius Claudius. Quintus Marcius

obtained, by lot, Sicily; Caius Stertinius, Sardinia; Lucius Manlius,

Hither Spain; Caius Atinius, Farther Spain.

36. Respecting the armies, they passed the following resolutions—that

the legions which had served under Caius Lælius, should be removed out

of Gaul into Bruttium, to Marcus Tuccius, the proprætor; that the army

which was in Sicily should be disbanded, and that Marcus Sempronius, the

proprætor, should bring back to Rome the fleet that was there. For the

Spains were decreed the legions then in those provinces, one for each,

with orders, that each of the two prætors should levy from among the

allies, as a reinforcement, three thousand foot and two hundred horse,

and bring them with them. Before the new magistrates set out for their

provinces, a supplication, of three days’ continuance, was ordered by

the college of decemvirs to be performed in every street, on account of

a darkness having overspread the light of day, between the third and

fourth hours; and the nine days’ solemnity was proclaimed, because there

had been a shower of stones on the Aventine. The Campanians, as the

censors obliged them, pursuant to the decree of the senate, made last

year, to pass the general survey at Rome, (for before that, it had not

been fixed where they should be surveyed,) petitioned that they might be

allowed to take in marriage women who were citizens of Rome, and that

any who had, heretofore, married such, might retain them; and, likewise,

that children born of such marriages, before that day, might be

legitimate, and entitled to inherit; both which requests were obtained.

Caius Valerius Tappus, a tribune of the commons, proposed an order of

the people concerning the citizens of the free towns of Formiæ, Fundi,

and Arpinum, that they should be invested with the right of voting, for

hitherto they had had the rights of citizenship without the privilege of

voting. When four tribunes of the commons were protesting against the

bill, because it was not made under the direction of the senate, on

being informed, that the power of imparting the privilege of voting to

any person they should choose belonged to the people, and not to the

senate, they desisted from their opposition. An order was passed, that

the Formians and Fundans should vote in the Æmilian tribe, and the

Arpinians in the Cornelian; and in these tribes they were then, for the

first time, rated in the census, in pursuance of the order of the people

proposed by Valerius. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the censor, having got

the better of Titus Quintius in the lots, closed the lustrum. Two

hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred and eight citizens were

rated. When the lustrum was finished, the consuls set out for their

provinces.

37. During the winter wherein these acts were performed at Rome,

embassies from all the nations and states which dwelt on this side of

Mount Taurus, came together on all sides to Cneius Manlius, at first

consul, and afterwards proconsul, passing the winter in Asia; and

although the conquest of Antiochus was more splendid and glorious to the

Romans than that of the Gauls, yet the latter gave greater joy to the

allies than the former. Subjection to the king had been more tolerable

to them than the savage nature of those wild barbarians, and the daily

alarm, with the uncertainty of the direction in which the storm would,

as it were, drift them in their desolating path. Therefore since to them

liberty was given by the expulsion of Antiochus, and permanent peace by

the conquest of the Gauls, they brought, not only congratulations, but

also golden crowns, in proportion to the ability of each. Ambassadors

also came from Antiochus, and from the Gauls themselves, that the

conditions of peace might be dictated to them; and from Ariarathes, king

of Cappadocia, to solicit pardon, and make atonement, by money, for his

crime in assisting Antiochus with troops. Six hundred talents of silver

are levied off him. Answer was made to the Gauls, that when king Eumenes

arrived, he would settle the conditions. The embassies of the several

states were dismissed with kind answers, much happier than when they

arrived. The ambassadors of Antiochus were ordered to bring the money

and the corn, (according to the treaty concluded with Lucius Scipio,)

into Pamphylia, whither the consul intended to go with his forces. In

the beginning of the next spring, after purifying the army, he began his

march, and on the eighth day arrived at Apamea. Having halted there

during three days, he, on the third day after his departure from that

place, arrived in Pamphylia, to which place he had ordered the king’s

ambassadors to bring together the money and corn. Two thousand five

hundred talents[31] of silver, being received by him, were conveyed to

Apamea; the corn was distributed among the army. Thence he marched to

Perga, the only place in the country still held by a garrison of the

king’s troops. On his approach, the governor of the town met him, and

requested thirty days’ time, that he might consult Antiochus about the

surrender of the city. The time being granted, on the appointed day the

garrison evacuated the city. From Perga, he detached his brother, Lucius

Manlius, with four thousand men, to Oroanda, to exact from that town the

remainder of the money which they had promised; and, having ordered the

ambassadors of Antiochus to follow, he led back his army to Apamea,

because he heard that king Eumenes, and the ten ambassadors from Rome,

were arrived at Ephesus.

38. Then, with the concurrence of the ten ambassadors, a treaty was

concluded with Antiochus, in nearly the following words: “Let there be

friendship between king Antiochus and the Roman people, on the following

terms and conditions—Let not the king suffer any army, intended to act

against the Roman people, or their allies, to pass through the

territories of his own realm, or of any state under his dominion, nor

supply it with provisions, or with any other assistance. Let the Romans

and their allies observe the same conduct toward Antiochus, and those

under his government. Let there not be to Antiochus the right of

carrying on war with the inhabitants of the islands, or of passing over

into Europe. Let him evacuate the cities, lands, villages, and forts on

this side of Mount Taurus, as far as the river Halys; and from the foot

of Mount Taurus to the summit, where it verges upon Lycaonia. Let him

not remove any arms out of those towns, lands, or forts which he may

evacuate; if he hath removed any, let him honourably replace what he

ought to make good, and in the place that he ought. Let him not receive

any soldier, or other person, from the kingdom of Eumenes. If any

natives of those cities, which are hereby separated from his kingdom,

are now with Antiochus, or within the bounds of his realms, let them all

return to Apamea, before a certain day. Let such of the natives of

Antiochus’s kingdom, as are now with the Romans and their allies, have

liberty to depart or to stay. Let him deliver to the Romans and their

allies, all their slaves, whether fugitives or taken in war, likewise

whatever free-born person may be a prisoner or deserter. Let him give up

all his elephants, and not procure others. Let him also surrender his

ships of war, and their stores; let him not keep more than ten light

trading vessels, none of which are to be worked with more than thirty

oars, nor a galley of one tier of oars, for the purpose of an offensive

war; let him not ail on this side of the promontories, Calycadnus and

Sarpedon, except in a ship which will carry money, tribute, ambassadors,

or hostages. Let there not be to king Antiochus the right of hiring

soldiers out of those nations which are under the dominion of the Roman

people, nor of receiving volunteers. Whatever houses and buildings,

within the limits of Antiochus’s kingdom, belong to the Rhodians and

their allies, let them belong to the Rhodians and allies on the same

footing as they did before the war. If any sums of money are due to

them, let them have a right to enforce payment; likewise, if any of

their property has been taken away, let them have a right to search for,

discover, and reclaim it. If any persons, to whom Antiochus hath given

the cities which ought to be surrendered, still hold them, let him

remove the garrisons, and take care that they may be properly

surrendered. Let him pay, within twelve years, by equal annual payments,

twelve thousand Attic talents of silver,[32] the talent to weigh not

less than eighty Roman pounds; and five hundred and forty thousand pecks

of wheat. He shall pay to king Eumenes, within five years, three hundred

and fifty talents;[33] and, for the corn due, the sum which arises from

his own valuation, one hundred and twenty seven talents.[34] Let him

deliver to the Romans twenty hostages, and change them every third year;

none of which are to be younger than eighteen, or older than forty-five

years. If any of the allies of the Roman people shall make war on

Antiochus, let him have liberty to repel force by force, provided he

does not keep possession of any city, either by right of arms, or by

admitting it into a treaty of amity. Let them decide the controversies

among themselves by equity and arbitration; or, if it shall be the

choice of both parties, by arms.” A clause was added to this treaty

also, about delivering up Hannibal the Carthaginian, Thoas the Ætolian,

Mnasimachus the Acarnanian, and the Chalcidians Eubalidas and Philo; and

another, that if it should afterwards please the parties that any thing

should be added, cancelled, or altered, that it might be done without

invalidating the treaty.

39. The consul swore to the observance of this treaty. Quintus Minucius

Thermus and Lucius Manlius, who happened to return just at that time

from Oroanda, went to require the oath of the king. At the same time he

wrote to Quintus Fabius Labeo, commander of the fleet, to sail, without

delay, to Patara, to break up and burn the king’s ships that lay there.

Sailing, accordingly, from Ephesus, he broke up or burned fifty decked

ships; and, in the same voyage, took Telmessus, the inhabitants being

terrified by his sudden appearance. Then having ordered those who were

left at Ephesus to follow him, he passed onward from Lycia, through the

islands to Greece. At Athens, after waiting a few days, until the ships

from Ephesus came to Piræeus, he then brought home the whole fleet to

Italy. Cneius Manlius, when he had, among other matters to be given up

by Antiochus, received his elephants, and given them all as a present to

Eumenes, then examined the causes of the several states, since many had

been thrown into confusion amid the violent changes. King Ariarathes,

the half of the money levied on him being remitted, through the kind

offices of Eumenes, to whom he had betrothed, during that time, his

daughter, was received into friendship. The ten ambassadors, after

examining the causes of the respective states, made different

arrangements, in different cases. They gave independence to those which

had been tributary to king Antiochus and had sided with the Romans; and

they ordered all such as had taken part with Antiochus, or had been

tributary to king Attalus, to pay tribute to Eumenes. Besides they

granted independence to the Colophonians, who live in Notium, the

Cymæans, and Milasenians, all of whom they specified by name. To the

Clazomenians they gave, besides their independence, the island of

Drymusa. To the Milesians they restored what was called the sacred

lands. They added to the territory of the Trojans, Rhœteum and

Gergithus, not so much in consideration of any recent merits of theirs,

as out of respect to their own origin. The same motive was the reason of

their liberating Dardanum. They gifted the Chians, also the Smyrnæans

and Erythræans, with lands, in consideration of the singular fidelity

which they displayed during the war, and treated them with every

distinguished honour. To the Phocæans, the territory which they had

enjoyed before the war was restored; and permission was given them to

use their ancient laws. They confirmed to the Rhodians the grants which

were mentioned in the former decree. Lycia and Caria were assigned to

them as far as the river Mæander, excepting Telmessus. To king Eumenes

they gave, in Europe, the Chersonese and Lysimachia, with the forts,

towns, and lands thereof, with the same frontier as Antiochus had held

them; and, in Asia, both the Phrygias, the one on the Hellespont, and

the other called the Greater, and restored to him Mysia, which had been

taken by king Prusias, and also gave to him Lycaonia, and Milyas, and

Lydia, and, by express mention, the cities of Tralles, and Ephesus, and

Telmessus. When a dispute had arisen between Eumenes and Antiochus’s

ambassadors, concerning Pamphylia, because part of it lay on the hither

side, and part on the further side of Taurus, the matter was referred

wholly to the senate.

40. When these treaties and grants were concluded, Manlius, with the ten

ambassadors, and all his army, marched to the Hellespont, and dictated

to the chiefs of the Gauls, whom he had summoned thither, terms on which

they should maintain peace with Eumenes; and warned them to put an end

to the practice of straggling in arms, and to confine themselves within

the bounds of their own territories. Then, having collected ships from

all parts of the coast, and Eumenes’s fleet also being brought thither

from Elæa by Athenæus, that king’s brother, he transported all his

forces into Europe. Then leading slowly through the Chersonese, by short

marches, the army heavily encumbered with booty of every sort, he halted

at Lysimachia; in order that he might enter Thrace, the march through

which they in general dreaded, with the beasts of burden as fresh and

vigorous as possible. On the day in which he set out from Lysimachia, he

came to the river which they call Melas,[35] and thence, next day, to

Cypsela. The road, about ten miles from Cypsela, proved to be obstructed

by woods, narrow and broken. On account of these difficulties he

divided the army into two parts; and, ordering one to advance in front,

and the other at a considerable distance, to cover the rear, he placed

between them the baggage; it was composed of waggons with the public

money, and other booty of great value. As he was marching in this order

through the defile, a body of Thracians, not more in number than ten

thousand, composed of four states, the Astians, Cænians, Maduatians, and

Corelians, posted themselves on both sides of the road at the narrowest

part. There was an opinion that this was not done without the

treacherous connivance of Philip, king of Macedonia; that he knew that

the Romans would return by no other route than that through Thrace, and

what an immense sum they would carry with them. The general himself was

in the van, anxious about the disadvantages of the ground. The Thracians

did not stir until the troops passed by; but, when they saw that the

foremost division had got clear of the narrow pass, and that the rear

division was not yet drawing near, they rushed upon the encumbrances and

the baggage, and after killing the guards, some rifled the waggons,

while others led off the horses under their loads. After their shouts

reached those on the rear, who were then just entering the pass, and

afterwards those in the van, the Romans ran together from both

extremities to the centre, and an irregular sort of fight commenced, in

many different places at once. The booty itself exposed the Thracians to

slaughter, as they were encumbered with burdens, and most of them had

thrown away their arms, that they might have their hands disengaged for

plundering; the disadvantageous nature of the ground militated against

the Romans, as the barbarians attacked them through well-known paths,

and sometimes lurked in the ravines. The loads too, and the waggons,

lying incommodiously for one party or the other, as chance directed,

were great obstructions to their movements; and here the plunderer,

there the defender of the booty, fell. The fortune of the fight was

variable, according as the ground was favourable or unfavourable to this

party or that, and according to the spirit of the combatants, and their

numbers, for some had come in contact with a stronger party than

themselves, others with a weaker. On both sides, however, great numbers

fell. The night was now approaching, when the Thracians retired from

the fight, not for the purpose of avoiding wounds or death, but because

they had got enough of booty.

41. The first division of the Romans encamped beyond the pass, in open

ground, round the temple of Bendis;[36] the second division remained in

the middle of the defile, surrounded by a double rampart, to guard the

baggage. Next day, having carefully examined the ground before they put

themselves in motion, they rejoined the first. In that battle, although

part of the baggage was lost, while a great part of the attendants and

many of the soldiers perished, (since the fight was carried on through

almost the whole extent of the defile,) yet the heaviest loss sustained

was in the death of Quintus Minucius Thermus, a brave and gallant

officer. The army arrived that day at the Hebrus, and thence passed

through the country of the Ænians, by the temple of Apollo, whom the

natives call Zerynthius. Another defile, as rugged and uneven as the

former, awaits them around Tempyra (this is the name of the place); but,

as there were no woods near, it afforded no cover for an ambuscade.

Hither assembled the Thrausians, (who are also a Thracian tribe,) with

the same hope of plunder; but because the bare valleys had this effect,

that they were visible at a distance besetting the defile, there was

less terror and tumult among the Romans; for, although they were obliged

to fight on disadvantageous ground, yet it was in a regular battle, in

an open field, and a fair encounter. Advancing in close order, with the

war-shout, and falling on the enemy, they soon drove them off the

ground, and put them to flight. Afterwards the rout and massacre began

to take place, for the narrow passes actually impeded them. The

victorious Romans encamped at a village of the Maronites, called Sare.

Next day, after marching through an open country, the plain of Priate

received them, where they halted three days, to receive supplies of

corn, partly from the country of the Maronites, who made a voluntary

contribution, and partly from their own ships, which attended them with

stores of every kind. From this post there was one day’s march to

Apollonia, whence they proceeded through the territory of Abdera to

Neapolis. All this march through the Grecian colonies was performed in

security. The rest of their march through the midst of the Thracians,

though not harassed, was full of apprehension, by day and night, until

they arrived in Macedon. This same army, when it proceeded by the same

route under Scipio, had found the Thracians more peaceable, but for no

other reason, than because it had then less booty, which was the object

of their attack: although Claudius writes, that even on that occasion, a

body of fifteen thousand Thracians opposed Mutines, the Numidian, who

had advanced to reconnoitre the country. That the Numidians were four

hundred horsemen, and a few elephants. That the son of Mutines, with a

hundred and fifty chosen horsemen, broke through the middle of the

enemy; and that the same individual, presently, when Mutines, placing

his elephants in the centre, and the horse on the wings, had begun to

engage the enemy, cast terror into them by an attack on their rear; and

that owing to this, the enemy, routed by the storm, as it were, of

cavalry, did not come near the main body of infantry. Cneius Manlius

conducted his army through Macedon into Thessaly; and, having proceeded,

through Epirus to Apollonia, passed the winter there, as the sea in the

winter was not as yet considered so little formidable that he might

venture on the passage.

42. It was almost at the expiration of the year, that the consul, Marcus

Valerius, came from Liguria to Rome to elect new magistrates, although

he had not performed in his province any memorable act that could afford

a reasonable excuse for coming later than usual to the elections. The

assembly for choosing the consuls was held on the twelfth day before the

calends of March. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Caius Flaminius were

elected consuls. The following day, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Servius

Sulpicius Galba, Quintus Terentius Culleo, Lucius Terentius Massa,

Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Marcus Furius Crassipes were elected

prætors. When the elections were concluded, the consul asked the senate

what were the provinces that they wished should be given to the

prætors: they decreed two for the administration of justice in Rome;

two out of Italy—Sicily and Sardinia; and two in Italy—Tarentum and

Gaul: the prætors were ordered to cast lots immediately, before they

entered on their office. Servius Sulpicius received by lot the city

jurisdiction; Quintus Terentius, the foreign; Lucius Terentius obtained

Sicily; Quintus Fulvius, Sardinia; Appius Claudius, Tarentum; and

Marcus Furius, Gaul. In that year, Lucius Minucius Myrtilus and Lucius

Manlius, as they were charged with having beaten the Carthaginian

ambassadors, were, by order of Marcus Claudius, city prætor, delivered

up by heralds to the ambassadors, and carried to Carthage. Reports

prevailed of a great war, growing too every day more formidable, in

Liguria. The senate, therefore, decreed Liguria as the province of both

the new consuls, on the day that they made their motion in the senate

concerning the republic and the provinces. To this vote the consul,

Lepidus, objected, asserting that “it would be highly indecorous to shut

up the consuls among the valleys of Liguria, while Marcus Fulvius and

Cneius Manlius reigned, a second year, one in Europe, another in Asia,

as if substituted in the room of Philip and Antiochus. If it was

resolved to keep armies in those countries, it was more fitting that

consuls, rather than private persons, should have the command of them.

That they made their circuits with all the terrors of war, among nations

against whom war had not been declared, trafficking peace for money. If

it was necessary to hold these provinces with armies, in the same manner

as Lucius Scipio, consul, had succeeded Manius Acilius, consul; and as

Marcus Fulvius and Cneius Manlius succeeded Lucius Scipio; so ought

Caius Livius and Marcus Valerius, the consuls, to have succeeded Fulvius

and Manlius. But, unquestionably, at this time, after the Ætolian war

had been concluded, Asia taken from Antiochus, and the Gauls

subdued,—either the consuls ought to be sent to the consular armies, or

the legions ought be brought home, and restored to the commonwealth.”

The senate, although they heard these words, persisted in their vote,

that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls; but they

ordered, that Manlius and Fulvius should leave their provinces, withdraw

the troops, and come home to Rome.

43. There was a quarrel between Marcus Fulvius and the consul Æmilius;

and in addition to other motives, Æmilius thought, that he had been made

consul two years later, by the opposition of Marcus Fulvius. In order,

therefore, to exasperate the minds of the public against him, he

introduced to the senate ambassadors from Ambracia, whom he had secretly

instructed in the charges they were to make against him. These

complained, that “war had been made on them when they were in a state of

peace, after they had executed the commands of former consuls, and were

ready to show the same obedience to Marcus Fulvius; that first their

lands were ravaged; and that, the terror of rapine and carnage was then

cast into the city, that by that fear they might be compelled to shut

their gates. They were then besieged and assaulted, and all the horrors

of war were inflicted on them, murders, burnings, the sacking and

demolishing of their city. Their wives and children were dragged away

into slavery; their goods taken from them; and, what shocked them more

than all, their temples were despoiled of their ornaments, and the

images of their gods, nay, the gods themselves were torn from their

mansions, and carried away; so that the Ambracians had nothing left to

adore, to which they could address their prayers and supplications, but

naked walls and pillars.” While they were making these complaints, the

consul, as had been agreed, by asking questions leading to further

charges, drew them on, as if against their inclinations, to the mention

of other matters. The senators being moved by these accusations, the

other consul, Caius Flaminius, took up the cause of Marcus Fulvius: and

he said that “the Ambracians had set out in an old course, now long out

of use. In this manner Marcus Marcellus had been accused by the

Syracusans; and Quintus Fulvius by the Campanians. Why might not the

senate as well allow Titus Quintius to be accused by king Philip; Manius

Acilius and Lucius Scipio, by Antiochus; Cneius Manlius, by the Gauls;

and Fulvius himself, by the Ætolians and the states of Cephallenia? Do

you think, conscript fathers, either that I in behalf of Marcus Fulvius,

or that Marcus Fulvius himself, will deny the besieging and taking

Ambracia, the removing thence the statues and ornaments, and the other

proceedings, which are usual on the capture of cities? He is about to

demand a triumph from you for those very services, and to carry before

his chariot those statues, the removal of which is charged as criminal,

together with the other spoils of that city, and hang them up on the

pillars of his house. There is no kind of pretence for their separating

themselves from the Ætolians; the cause of the Ambracians and of the

Ætolians is the same. Let, therefore, my colleague either vent his

malice in some other case; or, if he is determined to proceed in this,

let him detain his Ambracians until Fulvius comes home. I will not

suffer any determination, concerning either the Ambracians or Ætolians,

to pass in the absence of Marcus Fulvius.”

44. When Æmilius inveighed against the artful malignity of his adversary

as being notorious to all, and affirmed, that he would spin out the time

by affecting delays, so as not to return to Rome while an adversary was

consul; two days were wasted in this dispute, and it was apparent that

while Flaminius was present, no decision of the cause could be procured.

The opportunity was eagerly caught at by Æmilius, when Flaminius,

happening to fall sick, was absent, and on his proposing the motion the

senate decreed, that, “all their effects should be restored to the

Ambracians, that they should enjoy liberty, and the benefit of their own

laws, and should levy what duties they might think proper on goods

conveyed by land or sea, provided that the Romans and the allies of the

Latin nation should be exempted therefrom. That with respect to the

statues, and other ornaments, which they complained were carried away

from their sacred buildings, their order was, that immediately on the

return of Marcus Fulvius to Rome, the business should be laid before the

college of pontiffs, and that whatever they might think proper should be

done.” Nor was the consul content with this; but afterwards, in a badly

attended meeting, he procured a clause to be added to the decree, “that

it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force.” A supplication of

three days’ continuance was then performed for the health of the people,

because a grievous pestilence was desolating the city and country. The

Latin festival was afterwards celebrated, when the consuls, being

relieved from these religious duties, and having finished their levies,

(for both of them chose to employ new soldiers,) set out for their

provinces, where they disbanded all the old troops.

Shortly after the departure of the consuls, Cneius Manlius, the

proconsul, arrived at Rome; and, when an audience of the senate was

granted to him in the temple of Bellona, by Servius Sulpicius, the

prætor, after enumerating the services which he had performed, he

demanded that, in consideration thereof, public thanks should be offered

to the immortal gods, and permission be granted to himself, to ride

through the city in triumph; the greater number of the ten ambassadors,

who had been in the province along with him, opposed the grant, and

particularly Lucius Furius Purpureo, and Lucius Æmilius Paulus.

45. They alleged that “they had been appointed ambassadors in

conjunction with Manlius, to make peace with Antiochus, and to conclude

the terms of the treaty which had been entered on with Lucius Scipio.

That Cneius Manlius laboured to the utmost of his power, to confound

this peace, and to seize Antiochus by treachery, if he should put his

person in the consul’s power; but that he (Antiochus) having discovered

the treacherous designs of the consul, though frequently tempted by

proposals of a conference, had not only avoided the meeting, but even

the sight of him. That Manlius, desiring to cross Mount Taurus, was with

difficulty restrained by the entreaties of all the ambassadors, who

besought him not to brave the curse denounced in the Sibylline verses

against such as should pass those fatal limits. Nevertheless, he marched

his army thither, and encamped almost on the very summit where the

waters take opposite directions. As he could find no sort of pretence

for hostilities, the king’s subjects being perfectly quiet, he led his

army round to the Gallogræcians, against which nation war was waged,

without any decree of the senate, or order of the people. Which did ever

any general before presume to do in like manner, on his own judgment?

The latest wars were those with Antiochus, with Philip, and with

Hannibal and the Carthaginians; concerning all these the senate had

passed its decrees, the people their orders; several embassies were

previously sent; restitution demanded; and, finally, heralds were sent

to proclaim war. Now, Cneius Manlius,” said they, “has any one of these

proceedings been observed in the present case, that we should consider

it a war of the Roman people, and not a predatory expedition of your own

contrivance? But, were you even content with this? Did you lead your

army against those whom you had chosen to consider as enemies, by the

direct course; or did you ramble through every deflection of the roads,

when you stopped at every division of the way, in order that, to

whatever side Eumenes’s brother, Attalus, should turn his route, you the

consul, as an auxiliary in his pay, might follow with a Roman army? Did

you not traverse every recess and corner of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and

Phrygia; levying contributions from the tyrants and peasants in those

remote regions? For, what had you to do with the Oroandians, what with

other states equally inoffensive?

“But, in what manner did you conduct this war, on the merit of which you

ask a triumph? Did you fight on equal ground, and at the time of your

own choosing? Indeed you with propriety require that thanks be returned

to the immortal gods; first, because they did not ordain that the army

should undergo the penalty deserved by the temerity of its commander, in

commencing a war in accordance with no law of nations; and next, because

they gave us, for antagonists, brutes, and not men.

46. “Do not suppose that the name only of the Gallogræcians is a mixed

one: their bodies, and their minds, have undergone a similar process,

and have been corrupted by the mixture. Had they been such Gauls as

those whom we have a thousand times encountered in Italy, with various

success, would any one of us, considering the conduct of our commander,

have returned to tell the story? Two battles were fought; twice he

sustained the disadvantages of position, and, at the bottom of a valley,

almost placed his army under the feet of the enemy; so that they were

able to overwhelm us, even though they did not cast their weapons from

the higher ground, but merely threw themselves on us without arms. What,

then, was the consequence? Great is the fortune of the Roman people;

great and terrible its name! By the recent downfall of Hannibal, Philip,

and Antiochus, the Gauls were, in a manner, thunder-struck. Bulky as

their bodies were, they were dismayed, and put to flight, by slings and

arrows; not a sword was stained in battle during the Gallic war. Like

flocks of birds, they flew away at the very sound of our missiles. But,

indeed, when we, the same army, were on our return, and happened to fall

in with a party of Thracian robbers, (as if fortune meant to teach us

what the issue would have been, if we had met an enemy,) we were beaten,

routed, and stripped of our baggage. Among many other brave soldiers

fell Quintus Minucius Thermus, whose death was a much greater loss, than

if Cneius Manlius, to whose rashness the misfortune had happened, had

perished. An army, carrying home the spoils of king Antiochus, was

dispersed in three places, and with the vanguard in one place, the rear

in another, and the baggage in a third, hid itself for a night among

bushes, in the dens of wild beasts. Is a triumph demanded for such

exploits as these? Although no disaster and disgrace had been suffered

in Thrace, over what enemies would you triumph? Over those, I suppose,

whom the Roman senate or people had assigned to you as your enemies. On

these grounds, indeed, a triumph was granted to Lucius Scipio; to Manius

Acilius, over king Antiochus; to Titus Quintius, over king Philip; and

to Publius Africanus, over Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and Syphax. Now,

after the senate had voted a declaration of war, the following

unimportant matters were inquired into:—To whom the declaration ought to

be made; whether to the kings in person, or whether making it at some of

their garrisons were sufficient? Do you wish, then, that all these rites

should be disregarded and profaned? That the laws of the heralds be

abrogated? That there should be no heralds? Let religion (the gods

pardon the expression) be thrown aside; let forgetfulness of the gods

occupy your minds. Do you, also, judge it fit that the senate should not

be consulted concerning war? That the people should not be asked,

whether they choose and order war to be made on the Gauls? On a late

occasion, the consuls, certainly, wished for the provinces of Greece and

Asia; yet, when you persisted in assigning Liguria as their province,

they obeyed your commands. They will, therefore, if the war should be

successfully carried on, justly demand a triumph from you, conscript

fathers, under whose authority they carried it on.”

47. Such were the arguments of Furius and Æmilius. We have heard that

Maulius replied in nearly the following manner: “Conscript fathers,

formerly the tribunes of the people were accustomed to oppose generals

demanding a triumph. I am thankful to the present tribunes because they

have conceded so much either to me, or to the greatness of my services,

as not only to show, by their silence, their approbation of my

pretensions to that honour, but likewise their readiness, if there were

occasion, to make a motion to that purpose. I have, since it is the

pleasure of the gods, as my opponents some of the ten ambassadors, the

actual council which our ancestors assigned to generals for the purpose

of arranging their conquests and gracing their victories. Lucius Furius

and Lucius Æmilius forbid me to mount the triumphal chariot, and pluck

from my head the crown of glory, the persons whom, if the tribunes had

opposed triumph, I should have cited as witnesses to bear testimony to

my services. Conscript fathers, I envy no man’s honours; but, on a late

occasion, you yourselves deterred by your authority the tribunes of the

people, brave and active men, from impeding the triumph of Quintus

Fabius Labeo. Fabius enjoyed a triumph; and yet his adversaries alleged,

not that he had carried on an unjust war, but that he had not seen the

enemy at all. Whereas I, who fought so many pitched battles with one

hundred thousand of your fiercest enemies; who killed or made prisoners

more than forty thousand; who stormed two of their camps; who left all

the countries on this side of the summits of Taurus in greater

tranquillity than is the country of Italy; am not only defrauded of a

triumph, but obliged to plead my cause before you, conscript fathers,

whilst my own council of ambassadors accuse me. Conscript fathers, their

charge, as you perceive, is twoold: for they assert, that I ought not to

have waged war with the Gauls; and besides, that the war was carried on

rashly and imprudently. The Gauls were not enemies; but, you committed

hostilities against them, when peaceable and obedient to your orders. I

am not about to require from you, conscript fathers, that you may

attribute to the Gauls who inhabit Asia, those characteristics which you

are well aware belong to the Gallic race in general, savage fierceness

and most inveterate hatred to the name of Rome. Excluding the infamous

and odious character of the whole nation, judge of these Gauls by

themselves. I wish king Eumenes, I wish all the states of Asia were

present, and that you heard their complaints, rather than my charges

against them. Send ambassadors round all the cities of Asia, and ask

whether they were relieved from more grievous servitude by the removal

of Antiochus beyond the summits of Taurus, or by the conquest of the

Gauls. Let them tell you how often their territories were ravaged, how

often their property and their people were carried off as prey; while

they had scarcely ever an opportunity of ransoming any prisoners, they

heard of nothing but human victims slain, and their children offered up

in sacrifice. Be assured that your allies paid tribute to these Gauls;

and, though delivered now by you from the yoke of Antiochus, must still

have continued to pay it, if I had been inactive. The farther Antiochus

was removed, the more tyrannically would the Gauls have domineered in

Asia; and all the countries on this side of Taurus you would have

annexed to their empire, not to your own.

48. “But, allowing all this to be so; the Gauls formerly sacked Delphi,

the common oracle to which all mankind resort, and the central point of

the globe of the earth; yet the Roman people did not, on that account,

proclaim or wage war against them. I really thought, that there was some

distinction to be made between that period when Greece and Asia were not

yet under your jurisdiction and dominion, and the present, when you have

made Mount Taurus the boundary of the Roman empire; when you grant

liberty and independence to the states of that country; when you augment

the territories of some; amerce others in a part of their lands; impose

tribute; add to, diminish, give, and take away kingdoms, and deem it

your business to take care that they may enjoy peace both on land and

sea. Is it not the case that you would not have thought Asia liberated

unless Antiochus withdrew his garrisons, which lay quiet in their

citadels: if the armies of the Gauls roamed about without control, would

the grants which you made to king Eumenes be secure, or the liberty of

the states entire? But why do I reason thus? as if I had not found the

Gauls enemies, but made them such! I appeal to you, Lucius Scipio, whose

bravery and good fortune alike I suppliantly sought, and not in vain,

from the immortal gods, when I succeeded you in the command; and to you,

Publius Scipio, who held, both with your brother the consul, and with

the army, the commission of a lieutenant-general and the dignity of a

colleague; did you ascertain that legions of the Gauls were in the army

of Antiochus? Did you see them in his line of battle, posted in both

wings; for there was his main strength? Did you fight with them as

declared enemies? Did you kill them? Did you carry off their spoils? Yet

the senate had decreed, and the people ordered, war against Antiochus,

not against the Gauls. But as I judge, they had at the same time decreed

and ordered that war should be with all those who should be reckoned

among his troops; so that, excepting Antiochus, with whom Scipio had

negotiated a peace, and with whom, specifying him by name, you had

directed a treaty to be concluded, every one who had borne arms on the

side of Antiochus against us, were our enemies. And although the Gauls

had been conspicuous in that cause, and several petty princes and

tyrants also; nevertheless, I made peace with the rest, after compelling

them to atone for their transgressions, as the dignity of your empire

required. I made trial, at the same time, of the temper of the Gauls,

whether they could be reclaimed from their natural ferocity; but,

perceiving them untractable and implacable, I then judged it necessary

to chastise them by force of arms.

49. “Now, since the charge respecting the undertaking of the war has

been fully refuted, I must account for my conduct in the prosecution of

it. In which, indeed, I should perfectly confide in the merits of my

cause, though I were pleading, not before a Roman, but before a

Carthaginian senate, by whom their commanders are said to be crucified,

if they act on wrong plans, even with success. But in such a state as

this, which, in the commencement and progress of every undertaking,

makes application to the gods on this account, because it subjects to no

malicious cavilling those plans of which the gods have approved; and

which, in the established form, when it decrees a supplication or

triumph, uses these words,—‘For having conducted the business of the

public successfully and fortunately;’ if I should be unwilling, if I

should think it presumptuous and arrogant to boast of my own bravery,

and if I should demand, in consideration of my own good fortune, and

that of my army, in having vanquished so great a nation, without any

loss of men, that thanks should be given to the immortal gods, and that

I should ascend the Capitol in triumph, from whence I took my departure,

with vows duly offered;—would you refuse this to me, and the immortal

gods? Yes; for I fought on unfavourable ground. Tell me, then, on what

more favourable ground could I have fought, when the enemy had seized on

a mountain, and kept themselves in a strong post; surely, if I wished to

conquer them, I must go where they were. What if they had a town on the

same spot, and kept within the walls: surely they must be attacked. Did

Manlius Acilius fight with Antiochus, at Thermopylæ on favourable

ground? Did not Titus Quintius dislodge Philip when he was posted in the

same manner, on the tops of mountains, over the river Anio? Truly I

cannot yet discover what sort of an enemy they may represent to

themselves, or in what light they may wish them to appear to you. If as

being degenerate and softened by the pleasures of Asia, what danger was

there in advancing against them even on unfavourable ground? If

formidable, both for fierceness of courage and strength of body, do you

refuse a triumph to victories so honourable? Conscript fathers, envy is

blind, and only capable of depreciating merit, and poisoning its honours

and rewards. Pardon me, I beseech you, conscript fathers, on these

conditions, if it be the case that the necessary reply to the

accusation, and not my desire of boasting of my exploits, hath made my

speech too long. Whether could I, in my march through Thrace, create

open glades out of narrow defiles, and level plains out of steep

precipices, and fields out of woods, and insure that the Thracian

plunderers should not lurk any where in those concealments which they

were acquainted with; that none of our packages should be snatched away,

none of our loaded horses, out of so large a train, led off; that no one

should be wounded; and that the brave and active Lucius Minucius should

not die of his wound? On this mischance, by which we unfortunately lost

so valuable a citizen, those men declaim profusely. That the enemy

attacked us in a dangerous pass, where every advantage of ground was

against us; that our two divisions, the front and the rear, surrounded

by a combined movement the army of the barbarians, while they were

employed about our baggage; that they killed and took prisoners many

thousands on that day; and, in a few days after, many more;—do they

imagine that you would not ascertain this, even if they passed it over

in silence, when the whole army can testify the truth of what I assert?

If I had never drawn a sword in Asia, if I had never seen an enemy

there, yet, by the two battles fought in Thrace, I had merited a

triumph, as proconsul. But I have said enough, and shall only request,

and, I should hope, obtain, your pardon, conscript fathers, for having

troubled you longer than I could have wished to do.”

50. The accusations that day would have been more powerful than the

defence, had they not prolonged the debate to a late hour; for the

senate adjourned in a mood likely to refuse the triumph. Next day the

relations and friends of Cneius Manlius exerted their utmost efforts in

his behalf; and the opinion of the elder senators prevailed, who

asserted, that there was no instance on record of a commander who had

subdued the enemy, completed the business of his province, and brought

home his army, entering the city as a private citizen, without honours,

and without the chariot and laurel. This feeling of shame overcame their

prejudices against him, and a great majority voted for his triumph. A

greater contest which was set on foot against a greater and more

illustrious personage, suppressed all mention and memory of this

struggle. The two Petillii, as Valerius Antias writes, instituted a

prosecution against Publius Scipio Africanus. Men construed this

according to their different dispositions; some did not blame the

plebeian tribunes, but the public in general, that could suffer such a

process to be carried on. They observed, that “the two greatest states

in the world proved, nearly at the same time, ungrateful to their chief

commanders; but Rome the more ungrateful of the two, because Carthage

was subdued when she sent the vanquished Hannibal into exile; whereas

Rome, when victorious, was for banishing the conqueror Africanus.”

Others asserted, that “no one citizen ought to stand so high above the

rest, as not to be made answerable to the laws for his conduct: for

nothing contributed so much towards the equalization of liberty, as that

the most powerful might be brought to trial. For how could any charge,

especially the administration of government, be safely intrusted to any

man, if he were not liable to be called to an account? That force was

not unjustly used against him who could not bear an equality of rights.”

These subjects were discussed in conversation, until the day of trial

came. Never was either any other person, or Scipio himself, when consul

or censor, escorted to the forum by a more numerous multitude of all

kinds, than he was on that day when he appeared to answer the charge

against him. When ordered to make his defence, without taking any notice

of the facts laid to his charge, he delivered so magnificent a speech

concerning his exploits, that it was universally agreed, that no man had

been ever praised either to more advantage or with more truth. For his

achievements were described with the same ardent spirit and powerful

genius with which they had been performed; and his auditors felt no

disgust, because his acts were mentioned to meet the peril, and not for

ostentation.

51. The plebeian tribunes, in order to procure credit to their present

accusations, introduced the old imputations of his luxurious style of

living in his winter quarters at Syracuse, and the tumult raised by

Pleminius at Locri. They then brought forward against him the charge of

receiving money, grounded on suspicion, not on proof. They alleged, that

“his son, being taken prisoner, was restored without ransom; and that,

in every other instance, Scipio was courted by Antiochus, as if peace

and war with Rome were at his sole disposal. He had acted towards the

consul, in his province, as dictator, not as lieutenant-general; nor had

he gone thither with any other view than that this might appear to

Greece and Asia, and all the kings and nations eastward, which had been

long since the settled conviction of Spain, Gaul, Sicily, and Africa,

that he alone was the head and pillar of the Roman empire; that a state

which was mistress of the world, lay sheltered under the shade of

Scipio; and that his nods were equivalent to decrees of the senate, and

orders of the people.” They attack by envy, as much as they can, him out

of the reach of dishonour. The pleading having lasted till night, the

trial was adjourned to another day. When that came, the tribunes took

their seat in the rostrum at the dawn of day. The accused being

summoned, came, with a numerous train of friends and dependents, through

the middle of the assembly, to the rostrum; and, silence being made, he

said,—“Tribunes of the people, and you, Romans, on the anniversary of

this day I fought a pitched battle in Africa, with Hannibal and the

Carthaginians, with good fortune and success. As, therefore, it is but

decent that a stop be put, for this day, to litigation and wrangling, I

will immediately go to the Capitol, there to return my acknowledgments

to Jupiter the supremely good and great, to Juno, Minerva, and the other

deities presiding over the Capitol and citadel, and will give them

thanks for having, on this day, and at many other times, endowed me both

with the will and ability to perform extraordinary services to the

commonwealth. Such of you also, Romans, as it suits, come with me and

beseech the gods that you may have commanders like myself; since, from

my seventeenth year to old age, you have always anticipated my years

with honours, and I, your honours with services.” Accordingly, he went

up from the rostrum to the Capitol; and, at the same time, the whole

assembly turned about and followed him; insomuch, that at last even the

clerks and messengers left the tribunes, not one remaining, except the

slaves who attended them, and the crier, who was in the habit of

summoning the accused from the rostrum. Scipio, attended by the whole

body of the Roman people, went round all the temples of the gods, not

only in the Capitol, but throughout the whole city. This day was almost

more famous owing to the favour of the Romans towards him, and their

high estimation of his real greatness, than that on which he rode

through Rome in triumph over king Syphax and the Carthaginians.

52. It was, however, the last day that shone with lustre on Publius

Scipio. For, as he could foresee nothing but the prosecutions of envy,

and continual disputes with the tribunes, the trial being adjourned to a

future day, he retired to the territory of Liternum, with a fixed

determination not to attend the trial. His spirit was by nature too

lofty, and habituated to such an elevated course of fortune, that he did

not know how to act the part of an accused person, or stoop to the

humble deportment of men pleading their cause. When the day came, and he

began to be summoned in his absence, Lucius Scipio pleaded in his excuse

that sickness was the reason of his absence. Which excuse the tribunes,

who were the prosecutors, would not admit, but insisted that he did not

come to plead his cause, owing to the same arrogance with which he had

left the trial, the tribunes of the people, and the general assembly;

and followed by the very men whom he had robbed of the right of passing

sentence on him, together with their freedom of suffrage, had exhibited

a triumph over the Roman people, and made a secession, the same day,

from the tribunes to the Capitol. “You have therefore,” said they, “the

due reward of that thoughtless conduct. You are, yourselves, forsaken by

him under whose lead and direction you forsook us. And so much is our

spirit daily on the decline, that although, seventeen years ago, when he

was at the head of an army and fleet, we had resolution enough to send

plebeian tribunes and an ædile into Sicily to take him into custody, and

bring him home to Rome; yet we dare not now send to compel him, though a

private citizen, to come from his country-seat to stand his trial.” The

tribunes of the commons, being appealed to by Lucius Scipio, came to

the following determination: that “since the excuse of sickness was

pleaded it was their judgment that this excuse should be admitted, and

that the day of trial should be adjourned by their colleagues.”

53. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was, at that time, a plebeian tribune,

and between him and Publius Scipio there was an enmity subsisting. When

he had forbidden his name to be subscribed to the determination of his

colleague, and every one expected from him a sentence more severe, he

pronounced his judgment thus: that “Inasmuch as Lucius Scipio had

pleaded sickness in excuse for his brother, that plea appeared to him to

be sufficient: that he would not suffer Publius Scipio to be accused

until he should return to Rome: and even then, if he appealed to him, he

would support him in refusing to abide a trial: that Publius Scipio, by

his great achievements, by the honours received from the Roman people,

by the joint consent of gods and men, had risen to such a height of

dignity, that were he to stand as a criminal, under the rostrum, and

afford a hearing to the insults of young men, it would reflect more

disgrace on the Romans than on him.” To his decree he added the language

of indignation: “Shall Scipio, the celebrated conqueror of Africa, stand

at the feet of you, tribunes? Was it for this he defeated and routed, in

Spain, four of the most distinguished generals of the Carthaginians, and

their four armies? Was it for this he took Syphax prisoner, conquered

Hannibal, made Carthage tributary to you, and removed Antiochus beyond

Mount Taurus (for Lucius Scipio received his brother Africanus as his

associate in this glory); that he should crouch under two Petillii? that

you should gain the palm of victory over Publius Africanus? Will men of

illustrious characters never, through their own merits, or through

honours conferred by you, arrive at a safe and inviolable sanctuary,

where their old age may repose, if not revered, at least secure from

injury?” Both his decree and additional discourse made a deep

impression, not only on the rest of the assembly, but even on the

prosecutors; who said that they would consider further what might be

consistent with their rights and duties. Afterwards, as soon as the

assembly of the people broke up, the senate met, and at that meeting the

warmest thanks were bestowed by the whole body, especially by the

consular and elder members, on Tiberius Gracchus, for having consulted

the public good in preference to private animosity; and the Petillii

were assailed with severe insults, because they had endeavoured to

become distinguished by exciting odium against another, and were seeking

spoils from a triumph over Africanus. After that there was silence

concerning Africanus. He passed the remainder of his life at Liternum,

without a wish to revisit the city; and it is said that when he was

dying he ordered his body to be buried in the country, in that very

place, and his monument to be erected there, that even his obsequies

might not be performed in his ungrateful country. He was a man of

eminent merit; but more conspicuous in the affairs of war than in those

of peace. The former part of his life was more illustrious than the

latter, because in his early years wars were constantly carried on by

him; with old age his exploits faded away, as occasions did not occur to

call forth the exercise of his talents. What was his second consulship

to his first, even if you should add to it the censorship? What,

compared with it, was his commission in Asia, rendered useless by want

of health, and clouded by the misfortune of his son, and the necessity

to which it subjected him after his return, of either undergoing a

trial, or withdrawing himself from that and his country together.

However, he enjoyed alone the distinguished honour of putting an end to

the Carthaginian war, which was by far the most difficult and dangerous

war in which the Roman state was ever engaged.

54. The death of Africanus increased the courage of his enemies, the

chief of whom was Marcus Porcius Cato, who, even during his life, was

accustomed to sneer at his splendid character. The Petillii are

supposed, both to have commenced the prosecution against Africanus at

his instigation while he was alive, and on his death to have proposed a

bill against him. The motion for the order was made in these words:

“Romans, is it your will and order, with respect to the money taken,

carried off, and collected from king Antiochus, and those under his

government, and with respect to such part thereof as has not been

accounted for to the public, that Servius Sulpicius, the city prætor,

shall ask the senate which of the present prætors they will appoint to

hold an inquiry concerning those matters?” Quintus and Lucius Mummius at

first objected to this motion: they thought it proper that, according

to the practice always hitherto observed, the senate should make the

inquiry concerning such money as had not been brought into the public

treasury. The Petillii represented the great influence, the sovereign

power which the Scipios possessed in the senate. Lucius Furius Purpureo,

a senator of consular rank, who had been one of the ten ambassadors in

Asia, was of opinion that the inquiry ought to be carried to a wider

extent; not only as to the money taken from Antiochus, but to what had

been taken from other kings and nations, attacking his enemy Cneius

Manlius. Lucius Scipio, who, it was evident, was arguing rather in

favour of himself than against the order, stood forward to oppose it. He

complained heavily of such a motion being brought on after the death of

his brother, Publius Africanus, the bravest and most illustrious of men.

For “it had not been deemed sufficient that Publius Africanus was not

eulogized from the rostrum after his death, unless he should be also the

subject of accusation. The Carthaginians had been content with the

banishment of Hannibal, but the Roman people would not be satisfied even

with the death of Publius Scipio, unless, after he was laid in his

grave, his character were mangled, and his brother also sacrificed,

another victim to envy.” Marcus Cato supported the motion in a speech on

the money of king Antiochus, which is still extant; and, by his

influence, deterred the Mummii, the two tribunes, from their opposition

to the order. On their withdrawing their intended protest, every one of

the tribes voted in favour of the motion.

55. Servius Sulpicius then putting the question to the senate, whom they

would appoint, according to the Petillian order of the people, to hold

the inquiry, they appointed Quintus Terentius Culleo. Before this

prætor, so warmly attached to the Cornelian family, (that those writers,

who say that Publius Scipio died and was buried at Rome, for that too is

asserted, have left on record, that he walked at his funeral before the

bier with a cap of liberty on his head, as he had done before at his

triumph; and that, at the Capuan gate, he gave wine and honey to those

who attended the obsequies, to show his gratitude for having been

recovered by Scipio, among other captives, out of the hands of the enemy

in Africa,) or so great an enemy to that family, that on account of his

known animosity, he was selected in particular by the faction that

supported the proceedings against the Scipios, to hold the inquiry;

however that may be, before this prætor, whether too favourable or too

much the contrary, Lucius Scipio was immediately arraigned. At the same

time charges were presented and received against his

lieutenants-general, the two Hostilius Catos, Aulus and Lucius; and his

quæstor, Caius Furius Aculeo: and (that all things might appear infected

with the contagion of peculation) against his two secretaries and crier,

Lucius Hostilius. The secretaries and the crier were acquitted before

Scipio was tried. Scipio and Aulus Hostilius, his lieutenant-general,

and Caius Furius, were convicted on the following charges, that, “as

bribes, for granting more favourable terms of peace to Antiochus, Scipio

had received, over and above what he brought into the treasury, six

thousand pounds’ weight of gold, and four hundred and eighty of silver;

Aulus Hostilius, eighty pounds of gold, and four hundred and three of

silver; and Furius, the quæstor, one hundred and thirty of gold, and two

hundred of silver.” These sums of gold and silver I find mentioned by

Antias. As to what regards Lucius Scipio, I suspect some mistake of the

transcriber, rather than a falsehood of the historian, respecting the

amount of the gold and silver. For it is more probable that the weight

of silver was greater than that of gold, and that the fine was laid at

four millions,[37] than at twenty-four millions of sesterces,[38] the

more on this account, as they record that an account of that sum was

demanded from Publius Scipio himself, in the senate; and that when he

had desired his brother Lucius to bring the book of his accounts, he

tore it to pieces in the view of the senate, at the same time expressing

indignation at being called to account for four millions after he had

brought two hundred millions[39] into the treasury. From the same

confidence of spirit, when the quæstors would not venture to bring money

out of the coffers contrary to law, he demanded the keys of the

treasury, declaring that he would open it as he had caused it to be

shut.

56. Many other things are at variance respecting the latter part,

particularly, of Scipio’s life, that is to say, his trial death,

funeral, and sepulchre, so that I cannot determine which tradition or

which writings I ought to credit. Writers do not agree as to his

accuser; some affirming that Marcus Nævius, others that the Petillii,

instituted the prosecution; neither are they agreed as to the time when

it was carried on; nor the year in which he died; nor the place; nor

where he was buried. Some assert, that he died and was buried at Rome;

others, at Liternum; and in both places memorials and statues of him are

shown. For at Liternum there was a monument, and on it stood his statue,

which we in person lately saw cast down by a storm. At Rome likewise, on

a monument of the Scipios outside the Capuan gate, are three statues,

two of which are said to be those of Publius and Lucius Scipio, and the

third that of the poet Quintus Ennius. Nor do these differences exist

between historians only; the speeches attributed to Publius Scipio and

Tiberius Gracchus, if they really are theirs, differ widely from one

another. The title of Publius Scipio’s speech bears the name of Marcus

Nævius, the tribune of the commons; the speech itself does not furnish

the name of the prosecutor; it only calls him sometimes a knave,

sometimes a trifler. Even the speech of Gracchus makes no mention of the

Petillii accusing Africanus, or of the prosecution carried on against

him. An entirely different story must be framed consistent with the

speech of Gracchus; and those writers must be followed who affirm, that,

at the time when Lucius Scipio was impeached, and convicted of having

taken money from the king, Africanus was a lieutenant-general in

Etruria; whence, on hearing of this misfortune, throwing up his

commission, he hastened to Rome; and when he came straight from the gate

to the forum, because he was told that his brother was being led into

confinement, he drove away the officer from his person; and, on the

tribunes attempting to detain him, laid violent hands on them, showing

more affection towards his brother than regard for the laws. Of these

acts, Gracchus himself complained, saying, that the tribunitian power

was annulled by a private person; and at last, when he promises support

to Lucius Scipio, he adds, that the precedent would be more tolerable,

if both the tribunitian authority and the state appeared to be

overpowered by a tribune of the commons, than if by a private citizen.

But he loaded him with reproaches for this signal instance of

intemperate violence, in such a manner, that while he charged him with

having degenerated so far from himself, he gave to him his

long-established praises for moderation, self-control, with many-fold

increase, so as to make ample amends for the present reprehension. For

he said, that the people were formerly severely rebuked by Scipio,

because they wished to make him perpetual consul and dictator; that he

hindered statues from being erected to him in the comitium, in the

rostrum, in the senate-house, in the Capitol, in the chapel of Jupiter’s

temple, and that he prevented, a decree being passed, that his image, in

a triumphal habit, should be brought in procession out of the temple of

Jupiter the supremely good and great. Such particulars as these, which

even an enemy acknowledged while censuring him, even if inserted in a

professed panegyric, would demonstrate an uncommon greatness of mind, in

limiting his honours conformably to his position as a citizen.

57. It is universally agreed, that the younger of Scipio’s two daughters

was married to this Gracchus; for the elder was undoubtedly disposed of

by her father, to Publius Cornelius Nasica. But it is not so certain,

whether she was both betrothed and married after her father’s death, or

whether the accounts are true, that Gracchus, when Lucius Scipio was

being led to prison, and no other of the tribunes interfered to protect

him, swore, that “the same enmity which he had entertained against the

Scipios still subsisted; and that he did not perform any act for the

sake of gaining their favour. But that, having seen Publius Africanus

leading the kings and generals of enemies to prison, he would never

suffer his brother to be led to the same place.” They add, that the

senators, happening to sup that day in the Capitol, rose up together,

and requested of Africanus, before the company departed, to betroth his

daughter to Gracchus: that the contract was accordingly executed in due

form, in the presence of this assembly; and that Scipio, on his return

home, told his wife Æmilia that he had concluded a match for her younger

daughter. That she, feeling her female pride hurt, expressing some

resentment on not having been consulted in the disposal of their common

child, added, that, even were he giving her to Tiberius Gracchus, her

mother ought not to be kept in ignorance of his intention; to which

Scipio, rejoiced at her judgment concurring so entirely with his own,

replied, that she was betrothed to that very man. These circumstances

respecting so great a captain, though they might vary, both in

traditionary and written relation, ought to be stated.

58. On the proceedings being finished by the prætor Quintius Terentius,

Hostilius and Furius, being condemned, gave securities the same day to

the city quæstors. Scipio, when he insisted that all the money received

by him was in the treasury, and that he had not in his possession any

thing whatever belonging to the public, was ordered to prison. Publius

Scipio Nasica then appealed to the tribunes, and made a speech fraught

with just encomiums, not only on the Cornelian family in general, but on

his own branch of it in particular. “His father,” he said, “and the

father of Publius Africanus and Lucius Scipio, who was now ordered to

prison, were Cneius and Publius Scipio, men of the most illustrious

characters; that when, through a long course of years, they had highly

enhanced the reputation of the Roman name in the land of Spain, against

many commanders and many armies of the Carthaginians and Spaniards, not

only by their military exploits, but also by exhibiting to the nations

of that country brilliant examples of Roman moderation and fidelity,

both, at last, fell in the service of the Roman people. Although it

ought to be sufficient to their descendants to support the glory derived

from them, yet Publius Africanus so far surpassed his father’s renown,

as to occasion a belief that he was not sprung from the human race, but

was of divine extraction. As to Lucius Scipio, concerning whom the

question then was, to pass over his exploits in Spain and in Africa,

(while he was lieutenant-general to his brother,) on his being elected

consul, was by the senate considered so worthy, that the province of

Asia and the war with Antiochus were assigned him, without leaving it to

the decision of the lots; and by his brother, that, after two

consulships, the censorship, and a triumph, he attended him into Asia in

quality of lieutenant-general. There, that the great and splendid

character of the lieutenant might not eclipse the fame of the consul, it

so happened, that, on the day when Lucius Scipio conquered Antiochus in

a pitched battle at Magnesia, Publius Scipio was absent at the distance

of several days’ journey, being sick at Elæa. The army of the enemy, on

that occasion, was not inferior to that of Hannibal, when the battle was

fought with him in Africa; and the same Hannibal, who was

commander-in-chief in the Carthaginian war, was among many other

generals of the king. The war indeed was so conducted, that no one

could throw blame even on fortune. A ground of accusation is sought for

in the peace; it is said that it was sold. The ten ambassadors, in

pursuance of whose counsel the peace was concluded, are at the same time

included in this charge. Some of the ten ambassadors had even stood

forth as accusers of Cneius Manlius, yet their charges were so far from

gaining credit that they did not produce even a delay of his triumph.

59. “But truly, in the case of Scipio, the articles of the peace are

suspected as being too favourable to Antiochus. For his entire kingdom

has been left to him: although conquered, he retains possession of every

thing that belonged to him before the war; and though, he had an immense

quantity of gold and silver, none of it has been applied to the use of

the public: all has been converted to private purposes. Now, was there

not a quantity of gold and silver carried before the eyes of the public

in the triumph of Lucius Scipio, so great that an equal quantity was not

carried in ten of the former triumphs, even if it was amassed together?

Why need I speak of the extent of the kingdom of Antiochus, or that he

held all Asia, and the adjoining parts of Europe? Every body knows what

a large portion of the surface of the earth that is, which stretches

from Mount Taurus quite to the Ægean Sea; what a number, not only of

cities, but of nations, it comprehends; and that this tract, as far as

the summit of Mount Taurus, more than thirty days’ journey in length and

ten in breadth, from one sea to the other,—has been taken from

Antiochus, who is thereby removed to the most distant corner of the

world? Now if peace had been granted him without any pecuniary

consideration, could more have been taken from him? Macedon was left to

Philip after he was conquered; Lacedæmon to Nabis; yet the grounds of an

accusation were never sought against Quinctius on that account. The

reason was, that he had not Africanus for a brother, whose high renown

ought to have been serviceable to Lucius Scipio; but envy of his merit

had done him injury. A quantity of gold and silver was mentioned in the

senate to have been conveyed to the house of Lucius Scipio, greater than

could be raised from the sale of his whole property. Where, then, was

all this royal treasure; where the value of so many estates received?

Surely in a house, which extravagance never exhausted, this new

accumulation of wealth ought to appear. But what cannot be levied out of

his effects, the enemies of Lucius Scipio will exact from his person,

and from his very flesh, by vexatious persecution and insult; carried to

such a degree that a man of his illustrious character would be shut up

in a prison, among midnight thieves and robbers, and forced to breathe

his last in a dungeon and in darkness, and his naked corpse thrown

before the prison door. Such proceedings will reflect more disgrace on

the city of Rome, than they will on the Cornelian family.”

60. In answer to this, the prætor, Terentius, read the Petillian order

of the people, the decree of the senate, and the judgment pronounced

against Lucius Scipio; and declared that unless the money adjudged were

paid into the public treasury, he had no other step to take, than to

order the person convicted to be taken into custody, and carried to

prison. The tribunes retired to confer together, and in a short time

after, Caius Fannius, according to his own opinion and that of all his

colleagues, except Gracchus, declared that the tribunes would not

interfere with the prætor to hinder his making use of his power.

Tiberius Gracchus thus decreed: “that he would not protest against the

prætor’s levying the sum adjudged out of the effects of Lucius Scipio;

but that Lucius Scipio, who had subdued the most powerful king in the

world, had extended the empire of the Roman people to the utmost limits

of the earth, had bound under obligations to the Roman people king

Eumenes, the Rhodians, and so many other states of Asia, and had led in

triumph so many generals of the enemies, and imprisoned them, should

himself lie in prison among the enemies of the Roman people, and in

chains, he never would suffer; and therefore he ordered him to be

discharged.” This decision was heard with such approbation, and the

people beheld with so much pleasure the liberation of Scipio, that it

could hardly appear that the sentence had been passed in the same

community. The prætor then sent the quæstors to take possession of

Lucius Scipio’s property, for the use of the public. And not only did no

trace appear of money received from the king, but not even so much was

made up from the sale as the sum in which he was fined. So large a

contribution was made for Lucius Scipio by his relations, friends, and

clients, that, if he had accepted it, he would have been much richer

than before this misfortune: but he received nothing. Such things as

were necessary for his family occasions, were bought back at the sale by

his nearest relations. And the public hatred which had been pointed

against the Scipios, reverted on the prætor, his advisers, and the

accusers.