While Publius Cornelius Nasica, [Y. R. 614. B. C. 138,] (who was
nicknamed Scrapio by the plebeian tribune Curiatius, a man of humour,)
and Decius Junius Brutus, the consuls, were holding the levies, an act
of public justice was done, in the sight of the whole body of the young
men then assembled, which afforded a very useful example: Caius Matienus
was accused, before the tribunes, of deserting from the army in Spain;
being found guilty, he was scourged under the gallows, and sold as a
slave, for a sestertius.[111] The tribunes of the people claimed the
privilege of exempting from service any ten soldiers whom they thought
proper; on this being refused by the consuls, they commit the latter to
prison. Junius Brutus, the consul in Spain, allots lands, and a town
called Valentia, to the soldiers who had served under Viriathus. Marcus
Popilius, having made peace with the Numantines, which the senate
refused to ratify, was routed, and his whole army put to flight. [Y. R.
615. B. C. 137.] While Caius Hostilius Mancinus, the consul, was
sacrificing, the holy chickens escape from their coop, and fly away;
afterwards, as he was getting on board his ship, to sail for Spain, a
voice is heard crying out, “Go not, Mancinus, go not.” The event
afterwards proves these omens to have been inauspicious: for, being
vanquished by the Numantines, and driven out of his camp, when he had no
prospect of preserving his army, he made a disgraceful peace, which the
senate likewise refused to ratify. Upon this occasion thirty thousand
Romans were beaten by only four thousand Numantines. Decius Junius
Brutus subdues all Lusitania, as far as the western sea; and when his
soldiers refused to pass the river Oblivio, he seizes the standard and
carries it over; whereupon they follow him. The son of Alexander, king
of Syria, was traitorously murdered by his guardian Diodotus, surnamed
Tryphon: his physicians were bribed to give out that he had a stone in
his bladder; and in pretending to cut him for it, they killed him.