Paulus Aemilius, advanced in years, being nearly threescore, yet
vigorous in his own person, and rich in valiant sons and sons-in-law,
besides a great number of influential relations and friends, all of whom
joined in urging him to yield to the desires of the people, who called
him to the consulship. He at first manifested some shyness of the
people, and withdrew himself from their importunity, professing
reluctance to hold office; but, when they daily came to his doors,
urging him to come forth to the place of election, and pressing him with
noise and clamor, he acceded to their request. When he appeared amongst
the candidates, it did not look as if it were to sue for the consulship,
but to bring victory and success, that he came down into the Campus;
with such hopes and such gladness did they all receive him there,
unanimously choosing him a second time consul; nor would they suffer the
lots to be cast, as was usual, to determine which province should fall
to his share, but immediately decreed him the command of the Macedonian
war. It is told, that when he had been proclaimed general against
Perseus, and was honorably accompanied home by great numbers of people,
he found his daughter Tertia, a very little girl, weeping, and taking
her to him asked her why she was crying. She, catching him about the
neck and kissing him, said, "O father, do you not know that Perseus is
dead?" meaning a little dog of that name who had been brought up in the
house with her; to which Aemilius replied, "Good fortune, my daughter;
I embrace the omen." Thus Cicero, the orator, relates in his book on
divination.
* * * * *
The triumph of Aemilius over Perseus was performed in this manner.
The people erected scaffolds in the Forum, in the circuses, as they call
their buildings, for horse-races, and in all other parts of the city
where they could best behold the show. The spectators were clad in white
garments; all the temples were open, and full of garlands and perfumes;
the ways were cleared and kept open by numerous officers, who drove back
all who crowded into or ran across the main avenue. This triumph lasted
three days. On the first, which was scarcely long enough for the sight,
were to be seen the statues, pictures, and colossal images, which were
taken from the enemy, drawn upon two hundred and fifty chariots. On the
second, was carried in a great many wagons the finest and richest armor
of the Macedonians, both of brass and steel, all newly polished and
glittering; the pieces of which were piled up and arranged purposely
with the greatest art, so as to seem to be tumbled in heaps carelessly
and by chance; helmets were thrown upon shields, coats of mail upon
greaves; Cretan targets, and Thracian bucklers and quivers of arrows,
lay huddled amongst horses' bits, and through these there appeared the
points of naked swords, intermixed with long Macedonian sarissas. All
these arms were fastened together with just so much looseness that they
struck against one another as they were drawn along, and made a harsh
and alarming noise, so that, even as spoils of a conquered enemy, they
could not be beheld without dread. After these wagons loaded with
armor, there followed three thousand men who carried the silver that was
coined, in seven hundred and fifty vessels, each of which weighed three
talents, and was carried by four men. Others brought silver bowls and
goblets and cups, all disposed in such order as to make the best show,
and all curious as well for their size as the solidity of their embossed
work.
On the third day, early in the morning, first came the trumpeters, who
did not sound as they were wont in a procession or solemn entry, but
such a charge as the Romans use when they encourage the soldiers to
fight. Next followed young men wearing frocks with ornamented borders,
who led to the sacrifice a hundred and twenty stalled oxen, with their
horns gilded, and their heads adorned with ribbons and garlands; and
with these were boys that carried basins for libation, of silver and
gold. After this was brought the gold coin, which was divided into
vessels that weighed three talents, like those that contained the
silver; they were in number seventy-seven. These were followed by those
that brought the consecrated bowl which Aemilius had caused to be made,
that weighed ten talents, and was set with precious stones. Then were
exposed to view the cups of Antigonus and Seleucus, and those of the
Thericlean make (Thericles, according to the more probable supposition,
was a Corinthian potter: the first maker of a particular kind of cup,
which long continued to bear his name.) and all the gold plate that was
used at Perseus' table. Next to these came Perseus' chariot, in which
his armor was placed, and on that his diadem. And, after a little
intermission, the king's children were led captives, and with them a
train of their attendants, masters, and teachers, all shedding tears,
and stretching out their hands to the spectators, and making the
children themselves also beg and entreat their compassion. There were
two sons and a daughter whose tender age made them but little sensible
of the greatness of their misery, which very insensibility of their
condition rendered it the more deplorable; insomuch that Perseus himself
was scarcely regarded as he went along, whilst pity fixed the eyes of
the Romans upon the infants; many of them could not forbear tears, and
all beheld the sight with a mixture of sorrow and pleasure, until the
children had passed.
After his children and their attendants came Perseus himself, clad all
in black, and wearing the boots of his country; and looking like one
altogether stunned and deprived of reason, through the greatness of his
misfortunes. Next followed a great company of his friends and familiars,
whose countenances were disfigured with grief, and who let the
spectators see, by their tears and their continual looking upon Perseus,
that it was his fortune they so much lamented, and that they were
regardless of their own. Perseus sent to Aemilius to entreat that he
might not be led in pomp, but be left out of the triumph; who, deriding,
as was but just, his cowardice and fondness of life, sent him this
answer, that as for that, it had been before, and was now, in his own
power; giving him to understand that the disgrace could be avoided by
death; which the faint-hearted man not having the spirit for, and made
effeminate by I know not what hopes, allowed himself to appear as a part
of his own spoils. After these were carried four hundred crowns, all
made of gold, sent from the cities by their respective deputations to
Aemilius, in honor of his victory. Then he himself came, seated on a
chariot magnificently adorned (a man well worthy to be looked at, even
without these ensigns of power), dressed in a robe of purple, interwoven
with gold, and holding a laurel branch in his right hand. All the army,
in like manner, with boughs of laurel in their hands, divided into
their bands and companies, followed the chariot of their commander; some
singing verses, according to the usual custom, mingled with raillery;
others, songs of triumph, and the praise of Aemilius's deeds; who,
indeed, was admired and accounted happy by all men, and unenvied by
every one that was good; except so far as it seems the province of some
god to lessen that happiness which is too great and inordinate, and so
to mingle the affairs of human life that no one should be entirely free
from calamities; but, as we read in Homer*, only those should think
themselves truly blessed to whom fortune has given an equal share of
good and evil.
* "Grief is useless; cease to lament," Achilles to Priam,
his suppliant for the body of Hecor. "For thus have the gods
appointed for mortal men; that they should live in vexation,
while the gods themselves are untroubled. Two vessels are
set upon the threshold of Zeus, of the gifts that he
dispenses; one of evil things, the other of good; he who
receives from both at the hand of thundering Zeus, meets at
one time with evil, and at another with good; he who
receives from only one, is a miserable wretch."