The Numantines, reduced to the extremity of distress by famine, put
themselves to death. Scipio having taken the city, destroys it and
triumphs in the fourteenth year after the destruction of Carthage, [Y.
R. 620. B. C. 132.] The consul, Publius Rupilius, puts an end to the war
with the slaves in Sicily. Aristonicus, the son of king Eumenes, invades
and seizes Asia; which having been bequeathed to the Roman people by
Attalus, ought to be free. The consul, Publius Licinius Crassus, who was
also chief priest, marches against him out of Italy, (which never was
done before,) engages with him in battle, is beaten and slain. Marcus
Peperna, the consul, subdued Aristonicus. Quintus Metellus and Quintus
Pomponius, the first plebeians who were ever both at one time elected
censors, closed the lustrum; the number of citizens amounted to three
hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, besides
orphans and widows, [Y. R. 621. B. C. 131.] Quintus Metellus gives his
opinion, that every man should be compelled to marry, in order to
increase the population of the state. His speech upon the occasion, is
still extant, and so exactly does it apply to the present times, that
Augustus Cæsar read it in the senate upon occasion of his proposing to
release marriage from all restraints on account of the difference of
rank. Caius Atinius Labeo, tribune of the people, orders the censor,
Quintus Metellus, to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock for striking him
out of the list of the senate; but the other tribunes interfere and
protect him. [Y. R. 622. B. C. 130.] Quintus Carbo, the plebeian
tribune, proposes a law that the people might have the power of
re-electing the same tribune as often as they please: Publius Africanus
argues against the proposition in a speech of great energy, in which he
asserts that Tiberius Gracchus was justly put to death. Gracchus
supports the proposed law; but Scipio prevails. War was waged between
Antiochus, king of Syria, and Phraates, king of Parthia, nor does the
record show that greater tranquillity existed in Egypt. Ptolemy,
surnamed Evergetes, being detested on account of his cruelty by his
subjects, who set his palace on fire, escaped to Cyprus, and when the
people conferred the kingdom upon his sister Cleopatra, whom he had
divorced, after having first ravished and then married her daughter; he
being enraged, murders the son he had by her at Cyprus, and sent his
head and limbs to the mother, [Y. R. 623. B. C. 129.] Seditions were
excited by Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Gracchus, and Caius Carbo, appointed
to carry into execution the Agrarian law: these were opposed by Publius
Scipio Africanus, who going home at night in perfect health, was found
dead in his chamber the next morning. His wife, Sempronia, sister of the
Gracchuses, with whom Scipio was at enmity, was strongly suspected of
having given him poison: no inquiry however was made into the matter.
Upon his death the popular seditions blaze out with great fury. Caius
Sempronius, the consul, fought the Iapidæ, at first unsuccessfully, but
soon repairs all his losses by a signal victory, gained by the valour of
Junius Brutus, the conqueror of Lusitania.