_Marcus Æmilius, the consul, having subdued the Ligurians, made a
road from Placentia as far as Ariminum, and connected it with the
Flaminian way. The commencement of luxury, introduced by the
Asiatic army, is related. All the Ligurians who dwell on the hither
side of the Apennines were subdued. The Bacchanalia, a Grecian
sacred ceremony, held at night, a hot-bed of every vice, after
having become a conspiracy including great numbers, were discovered
by one of the consuls and suppressed, while many of those concerned
were punished. Lucius Quinctius Flamininus, the brother of Titus,
was expelled the senate, by the censors Lucius Valerius Flaccus and
Marcus Porcius Cato, who was most distinguished in the arts of war
and peace, for the following reason: because when, as consul, he
had held the province of Gaul, he slew with his own hand a certain
Gaul, at the request of Philip, a Carthaginian, his noble minion;
or, as some have stated, because he had beheaded a condemned
criminal at the request of a courtesan of Placentia, with whom he
was desperately in love. The speech of Marcus Cato against him is
still extant. Scipio died at Liternum. And, as if fortune destined
for the same period the death of the two most distinguished men of
the day, Hannibal committed suicide by taking poison, when he was
on the point of being given up to the Romans by Prusias, king of
Bithynia, to whom he had fled for refuge on the defeat of
Antiochus: the Romans had sent Titus Quinctius Flamininus to demand
Hannibal. Philopœmen likewise, the general of the Achæans, a most
distinguished man, after having fallen into the hands of the
Messenians in war, was put to death by poison. Colonies are planted
at Potentia, Pisaurus, Modena, and Parma. This book contains in
addition the success over the Celtiberians, and the commencement
and cause of the Macedonian war; the origin of which proceeded from
the following source: Philip was dissatisfied that his kingdom was
being diminished by the Romans, and because he was compelled to
withdraw his garrisons from Thrace and other places._
1. While these things are done at Rome, (if they were really transacted
in this year,) both the consuls were employed in the war with the
Ligurians. This enemy seemed born for the purpose of preserving military
discipline among the Romans, during the intervals between important
wars; nor was any province better calculated to form a soldier to active
valour. For Asia, from the enticing pleasures of its cities, the
abundance of every production both of land and sea, the unwarlike temper
of the enemy, and the wealth of its princes, made Roman armies rich,
rather than brave. Under the command of Cneius Manlius, particularly,
the troops were kept in a state of idleness and licentiousness.
Therefore, in Thrace, a passage somewhat more difficult, and a more
vigorous enemy, checked them with severe loss. Whereas in Liguria there
was every circumstance that could invigorate the courage of soldiers;
the country mountainous and rugged, so that even the taking possession
of unoccupied posts, and much more the dislodging of an enemy from those
already in possession, was attended with much labour; the roads hilly,
narrow, and exposed to ambuscades; the enemy light, active, and
energetic in their motions, so as to allow no season or place to be
quiet or secure; the necessary attack on the strong forts with much toil
and danger; and the country so poor as to constrain the soldier to a
sparing mode of living, while it afforded but a small share of booty.
Accordingly, no sutler followed the army, no long train of baggage
horses extended its line of march, nothing was to be seen but arms, and
men having all their hopes in their arms. Nor was either subject or
cause for hostilities with them ever wanting; because on account of
their poverty at home they made frequent incursions on the territories
of their neighbours; they did not, however, fight a battle which could
decide the entire war.
2. The consul, Caius Flaminius, after several successful battles against
the Frinian Ligurians in their own country, received the submission of
that tribe, and ordered them to deliver up their arms; as they did not
give them up honourably, and were reproved for their behaviour, who
abandoned their villages, and fled to the mountain called Auginus,
whither the consul immediately followed them. A part of the enemy again
betook themselves to flight; and, running with precipitate haste, the
greatest part without arms, over pathless tracts and rocky precipices,
they escaped to places where an enemy could not follow them. Thus they
got away beyond the Apennine; the rest, who remained in the camp, were
surrounded and reduced by assault. The legions were then led over the
Apennine; then the enemy, assisted by the height of the mountain, which
they had occupied at first, stood on their defence; but, in a little
time, submitted. Their arms were then sought for with greater care and
all taken from them. The war was then transferred to the Apuan tribe of
Ligurians, who had made so many incursions into the territory of Pisa
and Bononia, that it could not be cultivated. These being entirely
subdued, the consul restored peace to the neighbourhood. And, as he had
effected the security of the province from the war, he made a road from
Bononia to Anetium, that he might not keep the soldiers in a state of
idleness. The other consul, Marcus Æmilius, ravaged with fire and sword
the lands of the Ligurians, together with their villages that stood in
the plains, while the inhabitants remained posted on two mountains,
Ballista and Suismontium. He then attacked those who were on the
mountains, harassed them for some time in skirmishes, and, at last,
compelled them to come to an engagement, and utterly defeated them in a
regular battle: in which he vowed a temple to Diana. Having now reduced
all on this side of the Apennine, he marched against those on the other
side of that mountain; among whom were the Brinian tribe, which had not
been attacked by Flaminius: Æmilius subdued them all, stripped them of
their arms, and obliged the multitude to come down from the mountains
into the plains. The Ligurians being brought to a state of peace, he led
his army into the Gallic territory, and drew a road from Placentia to
Ariminum, to meet that made by Flaminius. During the last engagement,
when he fought a pitched battle with the Ligurians, he vowed a temple to
Imperial Juno. Such were the transactions of this year in Liguria.
3. In Gaul, the prætor, Marcus Furius, seeking a pretext for war in the
midst of peace, deprived, the unoffending Cænomanians of their arms. The
Cænomanians complained of this to the senate at Rome, and were by them
referred to the consul Æmilius, whom the senate authorized to examine
into and determine the cause; after a warm contest with the prætor they
gained their cause. The prætor was ordered to restore their arms to the
Cænomanians, and quit the province.
The senate afterwards gave audience to envoys of the Latin
confederation, who had come, in great numbers, from all parts of Latium.
On their complaint that a great multitude of their citizens had been
removed to Rome, and had been assessed there in the survey; a commission
was given to Quintus Terentius Culleo, the prætor, to make inquiry after
such persons; and on the allies proving that those persons themselves,
or their fathers, had been assessed in the surveys of their states in
the censorship of Caius Claudius and Marcus Livius, or at some time
subsequent to their censorship, he was ordered to compel all such to
return to the several states wherein they had been so rated. In
consequence of this inquiry, twelve thousand Latins returned home; as
the multitude of foreigners even then burdened the city.
4. Before the consuls came home to Rome, Marcus Fulvius, the proconsul,
returned from Ætolia. He, when he had as usual recited to the senate, in
the temple of Apollo, the services which he had performed in Ætolia and
Cephallenia, then requested of the fathers, that, in consideration of
his having conducted the business of the public with good fortune and
success, they would think proper to order public thanks to be offered to
the immortal gods, and to decree a triumph to him. Marcus Abutius, a
tribune of the commons, gave notice, that, if any thing were determined
on that subject before the arrival of Marcus Æmilius, he would enter his
protest: for “the consul intended to oppose that measure; and, at his
setting out for his province, had given him a charge to keep the
discussion of it open until he should come home. That Fulvius would
suffer a loss of nothing but time; for, notwithstanding the presence of
the consul, the senate would determine according to their own wishes.”
Fulvius replied, that, “even if the quarrel subsisting between him and
Marcus Æmilius was unknown to the world, or with what overbearing, and,
in some measure, tyrannical rancour, that man prosecuted his enmity; yet
it was insufferable, that the absence of the consul should both obstruct
the worship of the immortal gods, and delay a triumph merited and due;
that a commander, after performing signal services, and his victorious
army with its booty and prisoners, should remain outside the gates,
until a consul, who purposely delayed abroad, should be pleased to
return to Rome. But, in the present case, when the animosity between
him and the consul was most notorious, what fair dealing could any one
expect from a man who procured clandestinely, in a thin house, and
lodged in the treasury, a decree of the senate, that “it did not appear
that Ambracia was taken by force:” a town which was attacked with mounds
and engines; where, after the works were burned, others were constructed
anew; where a fight was carried on around the walls for fifteen days,
both above and under ground; where, from the first dawn, when the
soldiers mounted the walls, a battle, for a long time doubtful, lasted
until night; and where more than three thousand of the enemy were
killed? Then, again, what a malicious misrepresentation did he make to
the pontiffs, of the temples of the immortal gods being plundered in a
captured city! If it were allowable that Rome should be decorated with
the ornaments of Syracuse, and other conquered places, then the laws of
war must lose their force in the case of Ambracia alone, among conquered
towns. For his part, he besought the conscript fathers, and requested
the tribunes, not to suffer him to become a subject of derision to a
most haughty enemy.”
5. All around were in his favour; and some entreated the tribune to
desist, while others sharply reproved his conduct. The speech of his
colleague, Tiberius Gracchus, moved him most, that, “for a man in office
to prosecute even his own quarrels, was an example of no good tendency;
but, that a tribune of the people should take upon himself to be a
solicitor in the quarrel of another, was infamous, and highly unworthy
of the power and sacred laws of the order to which he belonged. That men
ought to love or hate others, approve or disapprove of measures,
according to the dictates of their own judgment; but that a tribune
ought not to depend on the look or nod of another man, veer about at the
movements of another’s will, and make himself a tool to his displeasure;
nor remember a private charge, committed to him by Marcus Æmilius, and
forget that the tribuneship was a public charge, intrusted to him by the
Roman people, for the protection and liberty of private citizens, not to
aggrandize the arbitrary power of a consul. His colleague did not seem
to consider that this circumstance would be committed to record and
posterity: that, of two plebeian tribunes of the same college, one
sacrificed his own resentment to the public good, the other prosecuted
the resentment of another man which was merely intrusted to him.” When
the tribune, overcome by these severe rebukes, had withdrawn from the
meeting, a triumph was voted to Marcus Fulvius, on the motion of Servius
Sulpicius, the prætor. When he returned thanks to the conscript fathers,
he then mentioned, that, “on the day of his taking Ambracia, he had
vowed to celebrate the great games in honour of Jupiter the supremely
good and great; that a contribution for that purpose had been made to
him by the several states, amounting to one hundred and ten pounds’
weight of gold; and he requested them to order that sum to be set apart,
out of the money which he was to deposit in the treasury, after being
borne in triumph.” The senate ordered the college of pontiffs to be
consulted, whether it were necessary that the whole of that sum should
be expended on the games: when the pontiffs had answered, that it
mattered little to religion what was the expense of the games, the
senate gave permission to Fulvius to expend as much as he thought
proper, provided he did not exceed eighty thousand sesterces.[40] He, at
first, intended to celebrate his triumph in the month of January; but,
hearing that the consul Æmilius, in consequence of a letter from the
tribune Abutius, concerning his waving his protest, was coming in person
to Rome, to hinder his triumph, but had been obliged, by sickness to
halt on the road, he hastened the time of the celebration, lest he
should have more contests about it than he had met in the war. He
triumphed over the Ætolians and Cephallenia on the tenth day before the
calends of January. There were carried before his chariot, golden crowns
to the amount of one hundred and twelve pounds’ weight; of silver,
eighty-three thousand pounds; of gold, two hundred and forty-three
thousand; of Attic tetradrachms, one hundred and eighteen thousand;[41]
of the coin called Philippeans, twelve thousand four hundred and
twenty-two;[42] brazen statues, two hundred and eighty-five; marble
statues, two hundred and thirty; arms, weapons, and other spoils in
great quantities: besides these, catapultas, ballistas, and engines of
every kind; and in the procession were led twenty-seven commanders,
either Ætolian and Cephallenian, or belonging to king Antiochus, and
left with them. Before he rode into the city, in the Flaminian circus,
he presented great numbers of tribunes, præfects, horsemen, centurions,
both Romans and allies, with military gifts; to each of the soldiers he
distributed out of the booty twenty-five denariuses,[43] double to a
centurion, triple to a horseman.
6. The time of the election of consuls now approached; and as Marcus
Æmilius, to whose lot that business had fallen, could not attend, Caius
Flaminius came home to Rome. Spurius Posthumius Albinus and Quintus
Marcus Philippus were elected consuls by him. Then were chosen as
prætors,—Titus Mænius, Publius Cornelius Sulla, Caius Calpurnius Piso,
Marcus Licinius Lucullus, Caius Aurelius Scaurus, and Lucius Quintius
Crispinus. At the close of the year, after the magistrates were
appointed, on the third day before the nones of March, Cneius Manlius
Vulso triumphed over the Gauls inhabiting Asia. The reason of his
deferring his triumph so long was, to avoid standing a trial under the
Petillian law, during the prætorship of Quintus Terentius Culleo; and
the being involved in the ill consequences of the sentence passed on
another, that by which Lucius Scipio was condemned; especially as the
judges would be more disposed to severity against him than against
Scipio, for this reason, because fame had reported, that he, Scipio’s
successor, had, by tolerating every description of licentiousness,
ruined military discipline, so strictly preserved by his predecessor.
Nor were the facts, which were reported to have happened in the province
far from the eyes of spectators, the only things that disgraced his
character; but still more so, those circumstances which were every day
beheld in his soldiers; for by this army returning from Asia was the
origin of foreign luxury imported into the city. These men first brought
to Rome gilded couches, rich tapestry, with hangings and other works of
the loom; and, what were then deemed magnificent furniture,
single-footed tables and buffets. At entertainments, likewise, were
introduced female players on the harp and timbrel, with buffoons for the
diversion of the guests. Their meats also began to be prepared with
greater care and cost; while the cook, whom the ancients considered as
the meanest of their slaves both in estimation and use, became highly
valuable, and what was considered as a servile office began to be
considered an art. Nevertheless, those introductions which were then
looked on as remarkable were scarcely even the seeds of the future
luxury.
7. Cneius Manlius carried in the triumph two hundred golden crowns of
twelve pounds’ weight; two hundred and twenty thousand pounds’ weight of
silver; two thousand two hundred and three of gold; one hundred and
twenty-seven thousand Attic tetradrachms;[44] two hundred and fifty
thousand cistophoruses;[45] sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty
golden Philippeans;[46] together with abundance of Gallic arms and
spoils in chariots. Fifty-two generals of the enemy were led before his
car. He distributed to each of his soldiers forty-two denariuses,[47]
and double that sum to a centurion; to the foot-soldiers double pay, to
the horsemen triple. Great numbers of all ranks, whom he had
distinguished by gifts, accompanied him. The verses thrown out by the
soldiers were of such a kind, that it was quite evident that they were
sung to a commander who had been indulgent to them, and courted their
affections. It was indeed evident that the triumph was celebrated with a
greater degree of favour by the troops, than by the citizens. The
friends of Manlius, however, were able to acquire for him the regard of
the people also; through whose efforts a decree of the senate was
passed, ordering, that “such part of the soldiers’ pay, contributed to
the public funds by the people, as was not yet repaid, should be
discharged out of that which had been carried in the procession to the
treasury.” Accordingly the city prætors, with care and fidelity, paid
twenty-five denariuses and a half[48] instead of each thousand
asses.[49] About this time two military tribunes arrived from the two
Spains with letters from Caius Atinius and Lucius Manlius, who governed
those provinces. From these letters it appeared, that the Celtiberians
and Lusitanians were in arms, and ravaging the territories of the
allies; the senate, however, deferred all consideration of that business
until the new magistrates should come into office. This year, during the
celebration of the Roman games which Publius Cornelius Cethegus and
Aulus Postumius Albinus exhibited, a pole in the circus, being loosely
set in the ground, fell on the statue of Pollentia, and threw it down.
The senate moved by such a religious circumstance, voted that one day
should be added to the celebration of the games, that two statues should
be set up instead of the one, and that one of them, a new statue, should
be gilded. The plebeian games were likewise repeated for one day, by the
ædiles Caius Sempronius Blæsus and Marcus Furius Luscus.
8. The following year diverted Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus
Marcius Philippus, from the care of armies, and wars, and provinces, to
the punishing of an intestine conpiracy. The prætors cast lots for their
provinces, Titus Mænius obtained the city jurisdiction; Marcus Licinius
Lucullus, that between citizens and foreigners; Caius Aurelius Scaurus,
Sardinia; Publius Cornelius Sulla, Sicily; Lucius Quintius Crispinus,
Hither Spain; Caius Calpurnius Piso, Farther Spain. The making
inquisition concerning clandestine meetings was decreed to both the
consuls. A Greek of mean condition came, first, into Etruria, not with
one of the many trades which his nation, of all others the most skilful
in the cultivation of the mind and body, has introduced among us, but a
low operator in sacrifices, and a soothsayer; nor was he one who, by
open religious rites, and by publicly professing his calling and
teaching, imbued the minds of his followers with terror, but a priest of
secret and nocturnal rites. These mysterious rites were, at first,
imparted to a few, but afterwards communicated to great numbers, both
men and women. To their religious performances were added the pleasures
of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When
wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had
extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind
began to be practised, as every person found at hand that sort of
enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his
nature. Nor were they confined to one species of vice—the promiscuous
intercourse of free-born men and women; but from this store-house of
villany proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences,
and pretended discoveries. From the same place, too, proceeded poison
and secret murders, so that in some cases, even the bodies could not be
found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by
treachery, but most of them by force; it served to conceal the violence,
that, on account of the loud shouting, and the noise of drums and
cymbals, none of the cries uttered by the persons suffering violation or
murder could be heard abroad.
9. The infection of this mischief, like that from the contagion of
disease, spread from Etruria to Rome; where, the size of the city
affording greater room for such evils, and more means of concealment,
cloaked it at first; but information of it was at length brought to the
consul, Postumius, principally in the following manner. Publius Æbutius,
whose father had held equestrian rank in the army, was left an orphan,
and his guardians dying, he was educated under the eye of his mother
Duronia, and his stepfather Titus Sempronius Rutilus. Duronia was
entirely devoted to her husband; and Sempronius, having managed the
guardianship in such a manner that he could not give an account of the
property, wished that his ward should be either made away with, or bound
to compliance with his will by some strong tie. The Bacchanalian rites
were the only way to effect the ruin of the youth. His mother told him,
that, “during his sickness, she had made a vow for him, that if he
should recover, she would initiate him among the Bacchanalians; that
being, through the kindness of the gods, bound by this vow, she wished
now to fulfil it; that it was necessary he should preserve chastity for
ten days, and on the tenth, after he should have supped and washed
himself, she would conduct him into the place of worship.” There was a
freedwoman called Hispala Fecenia, a noted courtesan, but deserving of a
better lot than the mode of life to which she had been accustomed when
very young, and a slave, and by which she had maintained herself since
her manumission. As they lived in the same neighbourhood, an intimacy
subsisted between her and Æbutius, which was far from being injurious
either to the young man’s character or property; for he had been loved
and wooed by her unsolicited; and as his friends supplied his wants
illiberally, he was supported by the generosity of this woman; nay, to
such a length did she go under the influence of her affection, that, on
the death of her patron, because she was under the protection of no one,
having petitioned the tribunes and prætors for a guardian, when she was
making her will, she constituted Æbutius her sole heir.
10. As such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither kept any
thing secret from the other, the young man, jokingly bid her not be
surprised if he separated himself from her for a few nights; as, “on
account of a religious duty, to a vow made for his health, he intended
to be initiated among the Bacchanalians.” On hearing this, the woman,
greatly alarmed, cried out, “May the gods will more favourably!”
affirming that “it would be better, both for him and her, to lose their
lives than that he should do such a thing:” she then imprecated curses,
vengeance, and destruction, on the head of those who advised him to such
a step. The young man, surprised both at her expressions and at the
violence of her alarm, bid her refrain from curses, for “it was his
mother who ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his
stepfather.” “Then,” said she, “your stepfather (for perhaps it is not
allowable to censure your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act,
your chastity, your character, your hopes, and your life.” To him, now
surprised by such language, and inquiring what was the matter, she said,
(after imploring the favour and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if,
compelled by her regard for him, she disclosed what ought not to be
revealed,) that “when in service, she had gone into that place of
worship, as an attendant on her mistress; but that, since she had
obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near it: that she knew it
to be the receptacle of all kinds of debaucheries; that it was well
known that, for two years past, no one older than twenty had been
initiated there. When any person was introduced he was delivered as a
victim to the priests, who led him away to a place resounding with
shouts, the sound of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest
his cries, while suffering violation, should be heard abroad.” She then
entreated and besought him to put an end to that matter in some way or
other; and not to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first,
suffer, and afterwards commit, every thing that was abominable. Nor did
she quit him until the young man gave her his promise to keep himself
clear of those rites.
11. When he came home, and his mother made mention of such things
pertaining to the ceremony as were to be performed on this day, and on
the several following days, he told her that he would not perform any of
them, nor did he intend to be initiated. His stepfather was present at
this discourse. Immediately the woman observed, that “he could not
deprive himself of the company of Hispala for ten nights; that he was
so fascinated by the caresses and baneful influence of that serpent,
that he retained no respect for his mother or stepfather, or even the
gods themselves.” His mother on one side and his stepfather on the other
loading him with reproaches, drove him out of the house, assisted by
four slaves. The youth on this repaired to his aunt Æbutia, told her the
reason of his being turned out by his mother, and the next day, by her
advice, gave information of the affair to the consul Postumius, without
any witnesses of the interview. The consul dismissed him, with an order
to come again on the third day following. In the mean time, he inquired
of his mother-in-law Sulpicia, a woman of respectable character,
“whether she knew an old matron called Æbutia, who lived on the Aventine
hill?” When she had answered that “she knew her well, and that Æbutia
was a woman of virtue, and of the ancient purity of morals”; he said that
he required a conference with her, and that a messenger should be sent
for her to come. Æbutia, on receiving the message, came to Sulpicia’s
house, and the consul, soon after, coming in, as if by accident,
introduced a conversation about Æbutius, her brother’s son. The tears of
the woman burst forth, and she began to lament the unhappy lot of the
youth: “who, after being robbed of his property by persons whom it least
of all became, was then residing with her, being driven out of doors by
his mother, because, being a good youth, (may the gods be propitious to
him,)” he refused to be initiated in ceremonies devoted to lewdness, as
report goes.
12. The consul, thinking that he had made sufficient inquiries
concerning Æbutius, and that his testimony was unquestionable, having
dismissed Æbutia, requested his mother-in-law to send again to the
Aventine, and bring from that quarter Hispala, a freedwoman, not unknown
in that neighbourhood; for there were some queries which he wished to
make of her. Hispala being alarmed because she was sent for by a woman
of such high rank and respectable character, and being ignorant of the
cause, after that she saw the lictors in the porch, the multitude
attending on the consul and the consul himself, was very near fainting.
The consul led her into a retired part of the house, and, in the
presence of his mother-in-law, told her, that “she need not be uneasy,
if she could resolve to speak the truth. She might receive a promise of
protection either from Sulpicia, a matron of such dignified character,
or from himself. That she ought to tell him, what was accustomed to be
done at the Bacchanalia, in the nocturnal orgies in the grove of
Stimula.” When the woman heard this, such terror and trembling of all her
limbs seized her, that for a long time she was unable to speak; but
recovering, at length she said, that “when she was very young, and a
slave, she had been initiated, together with her mistress; but for
several years past, since she had obtained her liberty, she knew nothing
of what was done there.” The consul commended her so far, as not having
denied that she was initiated, but charged her to explain all the rest
with the same sincerity; and told her, affirming that she knew nothing
further, that “there would not be the same tenderness or pardon extended
to her, if she should be convicted by another person, and one who had
made a voluntary confession; that there was such a person, who had heard
the whole from her, and had given him a full account of it.” 13. The
woman, now thinking without a doubt that it must certainly be Æbutius
who had discovered the secret, threw herself at Sulpicia’s feet, and at
first began to beseech her, “not to let the private conversation of a
freedwoman with her lover be turned not only into a serious business,
but even capital charge;” declaring that “she had spoken of such things
merely to frighten him, and not because she knew any thing of the kind.”
On this Postumius, growing angry, said, “she seemed to imagine that then
too she was wrangling with her gallant Æbutius, and not that she was
speaking in the house of a most respectable matron, and to a consul.”
Sulpicia raised her, terrified, from the ground, and while she
encouraged her to speak out, at the same time pacified her son-in-law’s
anger. At length she took courage, and, having censured severely the
perfidy of Æbutius, because he had made such a return for the
extraordinary kindness shown to him in that very instance, she declared
that “she stood in great dread of the gods, whose secret mysteries she
was to divulge; and in much greater dread of the men implicated, who
would tear her asunder with their hands if she became an informer.
Therefore, she entreated this favour of Sulpicia, and likewise of the
consul, that they would send her away to some place out of Italy, where
she might pass the remainder of her life in safety.” The consul desired
her to be of good spirits, and said that it should be his care that she
might live securely in Rome.
Hispala then gave a full account of the origin of the mysteries. “At
first,” she said, “those rites were performed by women. No man used to
be admitted. They had three stated days in the year on which persons
were initiated among the Bacchanalians, in the day-time. The matrons
used to be appointed priestesses, in rotation. Paculla Minia, a
Campanian, when priestesss, made an alteration in every particular, as
if by the direction of the gods. For she first introduced men, who were
her own sons, Minucius and Herrenius, both surnamed Cerrinius; changed
the time of celebration, from day to night; and, instead of three days
in the year, appointed five days of initiation, in each month. From the
time that the rites were thus made common, and men were intermixed with
women, and the licentious freedom of the night was added, there was
nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practised among
them. There were more frequent pollution of men, with each other, than
with women. If any were less patient in submitting to dishonour, or more
averse to the commission of vice, they were sacrificed as victims. To
think nothing unlawful, was the grand maxim of their religion. The men,
as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of
their bodies; the women, in the habit of Bacchantes, with their hair
dishevelled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to the Tiber; where,
dipping their torches in the water, they drew them up again with the
flame unextinguished, being composed of native sulphur and charcoal.
They said that those men were carried off by the gods, whom the machines
laid hold of and dragged from their view into secret caves. These were
such as refused to take the oath of the society, or to associate in
their crimes, or to submit to defilement. Their number was exceedingly
great now, almost a second state in themselves, and among them were many
men and women of noble families. During the last two years it had been a
rule, that no person above the age of twenty should be initiated; for
they sought for people of such age as made them more liable to suffer
deception and personal abuse.” 14. When she had completed her
information, she again fell at the consuls knees, and repeated the same
entreaties, that he might send her out of the country. The consul
requests his mother-in-law to clear some part of the house, into which
Hispala might remove; accordingly, an apartment was assigned her in the
upper part of it, of which the stairs, opening into the street, were
stopped up, and the entrance made from the inner court. Thither all
Fecenia’s effects were immediately removed, and her domestics sent for.
Æbutius, also, was ordered to remove to the house of one of the consul’s
clients.
When both the informers were by these means in his power, Postumius
represented the affair to the senate, laying before them the whole
circumstance, in due order; the information given to him at first, and
the discoveries gained by his inquiries afterwards. Great consternation
seized on the senators; not only on the public account, lest such
conspiracies and nightly meetings might be productive of secret
treachery and mischief, but, likewise, on account of their own
particular families, lest some of their relations might be involved in
this infamous affair. The senate voted, however, that thanks should be
given to the consul because he had investigated the matter with singular
diligence, and without exciting any alarm. They then commit to the
consuls the holding an inquiry, out of the common course, concerning the
Bacchanals and their nocturnal orgies. They order them to take care that
the informers, Æbutius and Fecenia, might suffer no injury on that
account; and to invite other informers in the matter, by offering
rewards. They ordered that the officials in those rites, whether men or
women, should be sought for, not only at Rome, but also throughout all
the market towns and places of assembly, and be delivered over to the
power of the consuls; and also that proclamation should be made in the
city of Rome, and published through all Italy, that “no persons
initiated in the Bacchanalian rites should presume to come together or
assemble on account of those rites, or to perform any such kind of
worship;” and above all, that search should be made for those who had
assembled or conspired for personal abuse, or for any other flagitious
practices. The senate passed these decrees. The consuls directed the
curule ædiles to make strict inquiry after all the priests of those
mysteries, and to keep such as they could apprehend in custody until
their trial; they at the same time charged the plebeian ædiles to take
care that no religious ceremonies should be performed in private. To
the capital triumvirs the task was assigned to post watches in proper
places of the city, and to use vigilance in preventing any meetings by
night. In order likewise to guard against fires, five assistants were
joined to the triumvirs, so that each might have the charge of the
buildings in his own separate district, on this side the Tiber.
15. After despatching these officers to their several employments, the
consuls mounted the rostrum; and, having summoned an assembly of the
people, one of the consuls, when he had finished the solemn form of
prayer which the magistrates are accustomed to pronounce before they
address the people, proceeded thus: “Romans, to no former assembly was
this solemn supplication to the gods more suitable or even more
necessary: as it serves to remind you, that these are the deities whom
your forefathers pointed out as the objects of your worship, veneration,
and prayers: and not those which infatuated men’s minds with corrupt and
foreign modes of religion, and drove them, as if goaded by the furies,
to every lust and every vice. I am at a loss to know what I should
conceal, or how far I ought to speak out; for I dread lest, if I leave
you ignorant of any particular, I should give room for carelessness, or
if I disclose the whole, that I should too much awaken your fears.
Whatever I shall say, be assured that it is less than the magnitude and
atrociousness of the affair would justify: exertions will be used by us
that it may be sufficient to set us properly on our guard. That the
Bacchanalian rites have subsisted for some time past in every country in
Italy, and are at present performed in many parts of this city also, I
am sure you must have been informed, not only by report, but by the
nightly noises and horrid yells that resound through the whole city; but
still you are ignorant of the nature of that business. Part of you think
it is some kind of worship of the gods; others, some excusable sport and
amusement, and that, whatever it may be, it concerns but a few. As
regards the number, if I tell you that they are many thousands, that you
would be immediately terrified to excess is a necessary consequence;
unless I further acquaint you who and what sort of persons they are.
First, then, a great part of them are women, and this was the source of
the evil; the rest are males, but nearly resembling women; actors and
pathics in the vilest lewdness; night revellers, driven frantic by wine,
noise of instruments, and clamours. The conspiracy, as yet, has no
strength; but it has abundant means of acquiring strength, for they are
becoming more numerous every day. Your ancestors would not allow that
you should ever assemble casually, without some good reason; that is,
either when the standard was erected on the Janiculum, and the army led
out on occasion of elections; or when the tribunes proclaimed a meeting
of the commons, or some of the magistrates summoned you to it. And they
judged it necessary, that wherever a multitude was, there should be a
lawful governor of that multitude present. Of what kind do you suppose
are the meetings of these people? In the first place, held in the night,
and in the next, composed promiscuously of men and women. If you knew at
what ages the males are initiated, you would feel not only pity but also
shame for them. Romans, can you think youths initiated, under such oaths
as theirs, are fit to be made soldiers? That arms should be intrusted
with wretches brought out of that temple of obscenity? Shall these,
contaminated with their own foul debaucheries and those of others, be
champions for the chastity of your wives and children?
16. “But the mischief were less, if they were only effeminated by their
practices; of that the disgrace would chiefly affect themselves; if they
refrained their hands from outrage, and their thoughts from fraud. But
never was there in the state an evil of so great magnitude, or one that
extended to so many persons or so many acts of wickedness. Whatever
deeds of villany have, during late years, been committed through lust;
whatever, through fraud; whatever, through violence; they have all, be
assured, proceeded from that association alone. They have not yet
perpetrated all the crimes for which they combined. The impious assembly
at present confines itself to outrages on private citizens; because it
has not yet acquired force sufficient to crush the commonwealth: but the
evil increases and spreads daily; it is already too great for the
private ranks of life to contain it, and aims Us views at the body of
the state. Unless you take timely precautions, Romans, their nightly
assembly may become as large as this, held in open day, and legally
summoned by a consul. Now they one by one dread you collected together
in the assembly; presently, when you shall have separated and retired to
your several dwellings, in town and country, they will again come
together, and will hold a consultation on the means of their own safety,
and, at the same time, of your destruction. Thus united, they will cause
terror to every one of you. Each of you, therefore, ought to pray that
his kindred may have behaved with wisdom and prudence; and if lust, if
madness, has dragged any of them into that abyss, to consider such a
person as the relation of those with whom he has conspired for every
disgraceful and reckless act, and not as one of your own. I am not
secure, lest some, even of yourselves, may have erred through mistake;
for nothing is more deceptive in appearance than false religion. When
the authority of the gods is held out as a pretext to cover vice, fear
enters our minds, lest, in punishing the crimes of men, we may violate
some divine right connected therewith. Numberless decisions of the
pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and even answers of the aruspices, free
you from religious scruples of this character. How often in the ages of
our fathers was it given in charge to the magistrates, to prohibit the
performance of any foreign religious rites; to banish strolling
sacrificers and soothsayers from the forum, the circus, and the city; to
search for, and burn, books of divination; and to abolish every mode of
sacrificing that was not conformable to the Roman practice! For they,
completely versed in every divine and human law, maintained, that
nothing tended so strongly to the subversion of religion as sacrifice,
when we offered it not after the institutions of our forefathers, but
after foreign customs. Thus much I thought necessary to mention to you
beforehand, that no vain scruple might disturb your minds when you
should see us demolishing the places resorted to by the Bacchanalians,
and dispersing their impious assemblies. We shall do all these things
with the favour and approbation of the gods; who, because they were
indignant that their divinity was dishonoured by those people’s lusts
and crimes, have drawn forth their proceedings from hidden darkness into
the open light; and who have directed them to be exposed, not that they
may escape with impunity, but in order that they may be punished and
suppressed. The senate have committed to me and my colleague, an
inquisition extraordinary concerning that affair. What is requisite to
be done by ourselves, in person, we will do with energy. The charge of
posting watches through the city, during the night, we have committed to
the inferior magistrates; and, for your parts, it is incumbent on you to
execute vigorously whatever duties are assigned you, and in the several
places where each will be placed, to perform whatever orders you shall
receive, and to use your best endeavours that no danger or tumult may
arise from the treachery of the party involved in the guilt.”
17. They then ordered the decrees of the senate to be read, and
published a reward for any discoverer who should bring any of the guilty
before them, or give information against any of the absent, adding, that
“if any person accused should fly, they would limit a certain day upon
which, if he did not answer when summoned, he would be condemned in his
absence; and if any one should be charged who was out of Italy, they
would allow him a longer time, if he should wish to come and make his
defence.” They then issued an edict, that “no person whatever should
presume to buy or sell any thing for the purpose of leaving the country;
or to receive or conceal, or by any means aid the fugitives.” On the
assembly being dismissed, great terror spread throughout the city; nor
was it confined merely within the walls, or to the Roman territory, for
every where throughout the whole of Italy alarm began to be felt, when
the letters from the guest-friends were received, concerning the decree
of the senate, and what passed in the assembly, and the edict of the
consuls. During the night, which succeeded the day in which the affair
was made public, great numbers, attempting to fly, were seized, and
brought back by the triumvirs, who had posted guards at all the gates;
and informations were lodged against many, some of whom, both men and
women, put themselves to death. Above seven thousand men and women are
said to have taken the oath of the association. But it appeared that the
heads of the conspiracy were the two Catinii, Marcus and Caius, Roman
plebeians; Lucius Opiturnius, a Faliscian; and Minius Cerrinius, a
Campanian: that from these proceeded all their criminal practices, and
that these, were the chief priests and founders of the sect. Care was
taken that they should be apprehended as soon as possible. They were
brought before the consuls, and, confessing their guilt, caused no delay
to the ends of justice.
18. But so great were the numbers that fled from the city, that because
the lawsuits and property of many persons were going to ruin, the
prætors, Titus Mænius and Marcus Licinius, were obliged, under the
direction of the senate, to adjourn their courts for thirty days, until
the inquiries should be finished by the consuls. The same deserted state
of the law-courts, since the persons, against whom charges were brought,
did not appear to answer, nor could be found in Rome, necessitated the
consuls to make a circuit of the country towns, and there to make their
inquisitions and hold the trials. Those who, as it appeared, had been
only initiated, and had made after the priest, and in the most solemn
form, the prescribed imprecations, in which the accursed conspiracy for
the perpetration of every crime and lust was contained, but who had not
themselves committed, or compelled others to commit, any of those acts
to which they were bound by the oath,—all such they left in prison. But
those who had forcibly committed personal defilements or murders, or
were stained with the guilt of false evidence, counterfeit seals, forged
wills, or other frauds, all these they punished with death. A greater
number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude of
men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable. The
consuls delivered the women, who were condemned, to their relations, or
to those under whose guardianship they were, that they might inflict the
punishment in private; but if there did not appear any proper person of
the kind to execute the sentence, the punishment was inflicted in
public. A charge was then given to demolish all the places where the
Bacchanalians had held their meetings; first, in Rome, and then
throughout all Italy; excepting those wherein should be found some
ancient altar, or consecrated statue. With regard to the future, the
senate passed a decree, “that no Bacchanalian rites should be celebrated
in Rome or in Italy:” and ordering that, “in case any person should
believe some such kind of worship incumbent on him, and necessary; and
that he could not, without offence to religion, and incurring guilt,
omit it, he should represent this to the city prætor, and the prætor
should lay the business before the senate. If permission were granted by
the senate, when not less than one hundred members were present, then he
might perform those rites, provided that no more than five persons
should be present at the sacrifice, and that they should have no common
stock of money, nor any president of the ceremonies, nor priest.”
19. Another decree connected with this was then made, on a motion of the
consul, Quintus Marcius, that “the business respecting the persons who
had served the consuls as informers should be proposed to the senate in
its original form, when Spurius Postumius should have finished his
inquiries, and returned to Rome.” They voted that Minius Cerrinius, the
Campanian, should be sent to Ardea, to be kept in custody there; and
that a caution should be given to the magistrates of that city, to guard
him with more than ordinary care, so as to prevent not only his
escaping, but his having an opportunity of committing suicide. Spurius
Postumius some time after came to Rome, and on his proposing the
question, concerning the reward to be given to Publius Æbutius and
Hispala Fecenia, because the Bacchanalian ceremonies were discovered by
their exertions, the senate passed a vote, that “the city quæstors
should give to each of them, out of the public treasury, one hundred
thousand _asses_;[50] and that the consuls should desire the plebeian
tribunes to propose to the commons as soon as convenient, that the
campaigns of Publius Æbutius should be considered as served, that he
should not become a soldier against his wishes, nor should any censor
assign him a horse[51] at the public charge.” They voted also, that
“Hispala Fecenia should enjoy the privileges of alienating her property
by gift or deed; of marrying out of her rank, and of choosing a
guardian, as if a husband had conferred them by will; that she should be
at liberty to wed a man of honourable birth, and that there should be no
disgrace or ignominy to him who should marry her; and that the consuls
and prætors then in office, and their successors, should take care that
no injury should be offered to that woman, and that she might live in
safety. That the senate wished, and thought proper, that all these
things should be so ordered.”—All these particulars were proposed to the
commons, and executed, according to the vote of the senate; and full
permission was given to the consuls to determine respecting the impunity
and rewards of the other informers.
20. Quintus Marcius, having completed the inquiries in his district,
prepared at length to proceed into the province of Liguria, for the
service of which he received a supply of three thousand Roman foot and
one hundred and fifty horse, with five thousand Latin foot and two
hundred horse. The same province, and the same numbers of horse and
foot, had been voted to his colleague, and they received the armies
which, during the preceding year, the consuls, Caius Flaminius and
Marcus Æmilius, had commanded. They were also ordered, by a decree of
the senate, to raise two new legions, and they demanded from the allies
and Latins twenty thousand foot and one thousand three hundred horse;
besides, they levied three thousand Roman foot and two hundred horse. It
was resolved that all this army, except the legions, should be led to
reinforce the army in Spain. The consuls, therefore, while they
themselves were engaged in the inquisitions, appointed Titus Mænius to
hold the levy. When the trials were finished, Quintus Marcius first
marched against the Apuan Ligurians. While he pursued these into very
remote fastnesses, which had always served them as lurking-places and
receptacles, he was surrounded in a disadvantageous position, a narrow
defile which the enemy had previously seized. Here four thousand
soldiers fell, and three standards of the second legion, with eleven
ensigns of the Latin allies, were taken; abundance of arms were likewise
lost, which were thrown away by the men in every direction, because they
impeded their flight through the woody paths. The Ligurians ceased to
pursue, sooner than the Romans to fly. As soon as the consul had
effected his escape out of the enemy’s territories, he disbanded the
troops, in the country of their friends, in order that the greatness of
the loss sustained might not appear. But he could not obliterate all
memorial of his misconduct; for the pass, from which the Ligurians put
him to flight, has been called the Marcian pass.
21. A little before this intelligence from the war in Liguria was made
public, a letter from Spain was read to them, which brought joy mingled
with grief. Caius Atinius, who, two years before, had gone to that
province in quality of prætor, fought in the territory of Asta a pitched
battle with the Lusitanians. About six thousand of the enemy were
killed, the rest routed, driven from the field, and their camp taken. He
then led his legions to attack the town of Asta, which he took with
little more trouble than he met at the camp; but, having been wounded
whilst he was approaching the walls too incautiously, he died in a few
days from the effects of the wound. When the letter was read,
acquainting them with the proprætor’s death, the senate voted, that a
courier should be sent to overtake the prætor, Caius Calpurnius, at the
port of Luna, and inform him, that the senate thought proper that he
should hasten his journey lest the province should be without a
governor. The person who was sent reached Luna on the fourth day, but
Calpurnius had set out some days before. In Hither Spain, Lucius Manlius
Acidinus, who had come into that province at the same time when Caius
Atinius came into his, fought a battle with the Celtiberians. They
quitted the field, the victory being undecided with the exception of
this, that the Celtiberians removed their camp from that quarter on the
following night: permission was thus afforded to the Romans to bury
their dead, and collect the spoils. In a few days after, the
Celtiberians, having gathered a large army, attacked the Romans, near
the town of Calaguris. Nothing is recorded respecting the cause that
rendered them weaker after their numbers were increased, but they were
defeated in the battle; twelve thousand of their men were killed, more
than two thousand taken, and the Roman army got possession of their
camp, and had not a successor, by his arrival, checked the career of the
conqueror, the Celtiberians would have been completely subdued. Both the
new prætors drew off their armies into winter quarters.
22. During the time in which this intelligence was announced from Spain,
the games called Taurilia[52] were celebrated, during two days, on a
religious account. Then Marcus Fulvius exhibited games, which he had
vowed in the Ætolian war, and which lasted ten days. Many artists, out
of respect to him, came from Greece on the occasion; and now, for the
first time, the Romans had an opportunity of seeing contests of
wrestlers; they were also presented with a hunt of lions and panthers;
the games were celebrated with almost the variety and abundance of the
present age. The nine days’ solemnity succeeded, because showers of
stones had fallen, for three days, in Picenum; and fires from heaven
were said to have arisen in various places, and singed the clothes of
many persons by slight flashes. By order of the pontiffs, a
supplication, of one day’s continuance, was added because the temple of
Ops, in the Capitol, was struck by lightning. The consuls sacrificed
victims of the larger kinds, and purified the city. At the same time, an
account was brought from Umbria, of a hermaphrodite, twelve years old,
being found there. The consuls wishing to get rid of the prodigy, as it
was a fearful omen, ordered that it should be removed instantly out of
the Roman territory, and put to death. During this year, a body of
Transalpine Gauls came into Venetia, without committing depredation or
hostility, and pitched on a spot for building a town, not far from that
where Aquileia now stands. Ambassadors were sent from Rome, over the
Alps, on this business, and to them an answer was given that “they had
not emigrated by the authority of their state, nor did their countrymen
know what they were doing in Italy.” About this time Lucius Scipio
celebrated games, which he said he had vowed during the war with
Antiochus; they lasted ten days, and the money was contributed for the
purpose by the kings and states of Asia. Valerius Antias asserts, that,
after his condemnation, and the sale of his effects, he was sent as
ambassador into Asia, to adjust disputes between the kings Antiochus and
Eumenes; that there the money was contributed for him, and actors
collected through Asia: and that after his embassy, the subject of those
games (of which he had made no mention after the war, in which he
asserted that they had been vowed) was at length introduced in the
senate-house.
23. As the year was now drawing to a conclusion, Quintus Marcius, then
abroad, was soon to go out of office. Spurius Postumius, after having
conducted the inquisitions with the utmost care and propriety, held the
elections. Appius Claudius Pulcher and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus were
chosen consuls. Next day, Publius Cornelius Cethegus, Aulus Postumius
Albinus, Caius Afranius Stellio, Caius Atilius Serranus Lucius Postumius
Tempsanus, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus were elected prætors. Towards
the close of the year, because the consul Spurius Postumius reported
that in travelling along the coasts of Italy, for the purpose of holding
the inquisitions, he had found two colonies deserted, Sipontum on the
upper sea, and Buxentum on the lower; in pursuance of a decree of the
senate, Lucius Scribonus Libo, Marcus Tuccius, and Cneius Bebius
Tamphilus, were appointed commissioners for conducting colonies thither,
by Titus Mænius, city prætor. The war with king Perseus and the
Macedonians, which was impending, has not derived its origin from what
most persons imagine, nor from Perseus himself. The preliminary steps
were taken by Philip, and, if he had lived some time longer, he would
himself have carried on that war. When the conditions of peace were
imposed on him, when he was vanquished, one particular chagrined him
more than all the rest; this was because the liberty of wreaking his
vengeance on such of the Macedonians as had revolted from him in the
course of the war, was taken from him by the senate; although, because
Quintius had left that point undetermined, when lie was adjusting the
articles of pacification, he had not despaired of the possibility of
obtaining it. Afterwards, on the defeat of Antiochus at Thermopylæ, the
armies being separated at the time when the consul Acilius carried on
the siege of Heraclea, and Philip besieged Lamia, because he was ordered
to retire from the walls of Lamia, as soon as Heraclea was taken, and
the town was surrendered to the Romans, he was grievously offended with
this circumstance. The consul, indeed, in some measure, soothed his
resentment; for, when he was hastening to Naupactum, where the Ætolians
had re-assembled after their flight, he gave Philip permission to make
war on Amynander and Athamania; and to annex to his dominions the cities
which the Ætolians had taken from the Thessalians. Without much
difficulty, he expelled Amynander from Athamania, and got possession of
several cities. He also reduced under his dominion the city of
Demetrias, a place of great strength, and convenient in every respect;
with the whole of the Magnesian state. Afterwards, finding that several
cities in Thrace, through an abuse of the liberty which they had lately
acquired, and to which they had not been accustomed, were distracted by
dissensions among their leading men, he, by uniting himself to the
parties that were worsted in their disputes with their countrymen, made
himself master of them all.
24. By these means the king’s wrath against the Romans was appeased for
the present; but he never abandoned the project of collecting such a
force during peace, as would enable him to maintain a war, whenever the
fortunate occasion should be offered. He augmented the revenues of his
kingdom, not only out of the produce of the lands and the port duties,
but also he worked the mines, both the old ones which had been
neglected, and new ones which he opened in many places. Then, (in order
to restore the former degree of population, which had been diminished by
the calamities of war,) he not only caused an increase in the offspring
of that generation, by compelling every one to marry and rear children;
but he transplanted a great multitude of Thracians into Macedonia, and,
during a long suspension of arms, he employed the utmost assiduity in
augmenting, by every possible means, the strength of his kingdom. Causes
afterward occurred, which served to revive his animosity against the
Romans. Complaints made by the Thessalians and Perrhæbians, of his
holding possession of their towns, and, by ambassadors from king
Eumenes, of his having forcibly seized the cities of Thrace, and
transplanted great numbers of their people into Macedonia, had been
received in such a manner as plainly evinced that they were not thought
unworthy of attention. What made the greatest impression on the senate,
was, their having been informed, that Philip aimed at the possession of
Ænus and Maronea; as to the Thessalians, they regarded them less.
Ambassadors came, likewise, from the Athamanians, complaining not of the
loss of a part of their territory, nor of encroachment on their
frontier,—but that all Athamania had been brought under the dominion and
jurisdiction of the king. Exiles from Maronea also appeared, who had
been expelled by the king’s troops, for having supported the cause of
liberty; who reported, that not only Maronea, but Ænus too, was held in
subjection by him. Ambassadors came from Philip to defend his conduct,
who asserted, that, nothing bad been done without permission from the
Roman commanders. That “the states of the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and
Magnesians, and the nation of the Athamanians, with Amynander, had all
been engaged in the same cause with the Ætolians. That after the
expulsion of king Antiochus, the consul, being himself busy in reducing
the towns of Ætolia, had named Philip to subdue those states, and they
remained subject to him in consequence of their being conquered by his
arms.” The senate, too, that they might not make any decision concerning
the king in his absence, sent Quintus Cascilius Metellus, Marcus Bæebius
Tamphilus, and Tiberius Sempronius, ambassadors to adjust those
disputes. Previous to their arrival, a convention of all those states
who had disputes with the king, was summoned to meet at Tempe in
Thessaly.
25. When all were seated there, (the Roman ambassadors in the character
of arbitrators, the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and Athamanians
professedly as accusers, and Philip as defendant, to hear the
accusations brought against him,) those who were the heads of the
embassies, according to their several tempers, their favour, or their
hatred towards the king, spoke, some with acrimony, others with
mildness. Philippopolis, Trica, Phaloria, Eurymenæ, and the other towns
in their neighbourhood, became the subject of dispute. The point in
controversy was, whether these towns were the property of the
Thessalians, when they were forcibly taken from them, and held by the
Ætolians, (for from these it was acknowledged that Philip had received
them,) or whether they were originally belonging to the Ætolians:
Acilius having granted them to the king, on the condition that “they had
been the property of the Ætolians; and if they had sided with the
Ætolians of their own free will, and not compelled by violence and
arms.” The question in regard to the towns of the Perrhæbians and
Magnesians turned on the same points; for the Ætolians, by holding
possession of them occasionally, had confused the rights of all. To
these particulars, which were matter of discussion, the complaints of
the Thessalians were added, that “if these towns were now restored to
them, they would come into their hands in a state of desolation, and
depopulated; for besides the loss of inhabitants through the casualties
of war, Philip had carried away five hundred of their young men of the
first rank into Macedonia, and abused their labour by employing them in
servile offices; and had taken pains to render useless whatever he
should be compelled to restore to the Thessalians. That Thebes in
Phthiotis was the only sea-port they had, which formerly produced much
profit and advantage to the inhabitants of Thessaly; but that Philip,
having collected there a number of ships of burthen, made them steer
their course past Thebes to Demetrias, and turned thither the whole
commerce by sea. That he did not now scruple to offer violence, even to
ambassadors, who, by the law of nations, are every where held
inviolable, but had laid an ambush for theirs who were going to Titus
Quintius, that the Thessalians were in consequence seized with such
dread, that not one of them, even in their own states, or in the general
assemblies of the nation, ventured to open his lips. For the Romans, the
defenders of their liberty, were far distant; and a severe master close
at their side, debarring them from using the kindness of the Romans. If
speech were not free, what else could be said to be so: at present,
through confidence in the protection of the ambassadors, they uttered
their groans rather than words; but, unless the Romans would take some
precautions that both the fears of the Greeks bordering on Macedonia and
the arrogance of Philip should be abated, his having been conquered, and
their being set at liberty, would prove utterly fruitless. Like a
restive, unmanageable horse, he required to be cheeked with a strong
bridle.” These bitter expressions were used by the last speakers among
them; those who spoke before having endeavoured by mildness to mitigate
his resentment; requesting of him “that he should pardon persons
pleading in defence of their liberty; that he should, laying aside the
harshness of a master, generally display himself an ally and friend;
that he should imitate the Roman people, who wished to unite their
allies to them by the ties of affection, rather than of fear.” When the
Thessalians had finished, the Perrhæbians pleaded that Gonnocondylos, to
which Philip had given the name of Olympias, belonged to Perrhæbia, and
ought to be restored to them; and the same demand was made with respect
to Malœa, and Ericinium. The Athamanians claimed a restoration of
liberty, and the forts Athenæus and Pœtneus.
26. Philip began his discourse also with complaints, that he might
maintain the appearance of an accuser rather than of a defendant. He
complained that “the Thessalians had taken by force of arms, Menelais in
Dolopia, a town belonging to his dominions; likewise, Petra in Pieria
was taken by the same Thessalians and the Perrhæbians; that they had
reduced under their government Xyniæ, which unquestionably belonged to
Ætolia; and that Parachelois, which was under Athamania, was, without
any just claim, subjected to the jurisdiction of the Thessalians. As to
the charges brought against him, concerning an ambush laid for
ambassadors, and of sea-ports being frequented or deserted, the one was
quite ridiculous, (as if he were to account for what harbours merchants
or sailors should frequent,) and the other the constant tenor of his
conduct rejected with scorn. During a number of years, ambassadors had
never ceased carrying complaints against him, sometimes to the Roman
generals, at others to Rome to the senate. Which of them had ever been
injured, even in words? They said, indeed, that an ambush was once laid
for some who were going to Quintius, but they are silent in regard to
consequences. Such were the accusations of men searching for false
imputations, because they had no truth on their side.” He said, that
“the Thessalians, insolently and wantonly, abused the indulgence of the
Roman people, too greedily drinking, as it were, strong draughts of
liberty after a long thirst; and thus, in the manner of slaves lately
set free, made trial of their voices and tongues, and prided themselves
in invectives and railings against their masters.” Then, hurried on by
passion, he added, that “his sun had not set yet;” which expression, not
only the Thessalians, but the Romans also, took as a menace to
themselves; and when a murmur of displeasure followed his words, and was
at length hushed, he replied to the ambassadors of the Perrhæbians and
Athamanians, “that the cases of the cities of which they had spoken were
the same. The consul Acilius and the Romans gave them to him, when they
were the property of enemies. If the donors chose to resume what they
had given, he knew he must submit, but in that case they would, for the
gratification of inconstant and unprofitable allies, do injury to a more
useful and more faithful friend. For no favour produced less permanent
gratitude than the gift of liberty, especially among people who were
ready to corrupt it by using it badly.” After examining the merits of
the cause, the ambassadors pronounced their judgment, that “the
Macedonian garrisons should be withdrawn from the cities in question,
and that the kingdom of Macedonia should be limited by its ancient
boundaries. That with regard to the injuries which both parties
complained of being done to them, it would be requisite to institute
some compact for the attainment of justice, in order to decide the
controversies between those states and the Macedonians.”
27. The king being grievously offended, the ambassadors proceeded thence
to Thessalonica, to give a hearing to the business concerning the cities
of Thrace. Here the ambassadors of Eumenes said, that “if the Romans
wished that Ænus and Maronea should be independent, the king felt
ashamed to say more, than to recommend it to them to leave those people
free in fact, and not in words; nor to suffer their kindness to be
intercepted by another. But if they had not so much concern for the
states situated in Thrace, it was much more reasonable that Eumenes
should possess, as the rewards of war, the places which had been under
the dominion of Antiochus, than Philip; and that, either on account of
his father Attalus’s deserts in the war, waged by the Roman people
against Philip himself, or on account of his own, because he had shared
all the toils and dangers on land and sea, during the war with
Antiochus. Besides, he had the previous judgment of the ten ambassadors
to that purpose; who, when they granted the Chersonesus and Lysimachia,
surely yielded at the same time Ænus and Maronea; which, even from the
proximity of situation, were but a sort of appendage to the larger gift.
For, as to Philip, by what merits towards the Roman people, or what
right of dominion, had he put garrisons into those places, which were at
so great a distance from the borders of Macedonia? They then desired
that the Romans would order the Maronites to be called, from whom they
would receive more positive information of the condition of those
cities.” The Maronite ambassadors being called in, declared, that “not
in one spot of the city, as in other garrisoned towns, but in every
quarter of it, there was a party of the king’s troops, and that Maronea
was full of Macedonians; in consequence of which, the favourites of the
king domineered over the rest; they alone had liberty of speaking,
either in the senate or assemblies of the people. All posts of eminence
they assumed to themselves, or conferred on whom they thought proper.
That the most deserving persons, who had a regard for liberty and for
the laws, were either expelled their country, and in exile, or remained
in silence, dishonoured and subjected to men of the worst description.”
They added also a few words respecting their right to the frontier
places, affirming, that “Quintus Fabius Labeo, when he was in that
country, had fixed as a boundary line to Philip, the old royal road
leading to Paroreia, in Thrace, which in no place leads towards the sea;
and that Philip afterwards drew a new one in another direction, in order
to include the cities and lands of the Maronites.”