THE FIRST EASTERN WAR.
215-183.
Scipio remained in Africa till he had arranged matters and won such a
claim to Massinissa's gratitude that this king of Numidia was sure to
watch over the interests of Rome. Scipio then returned home, and entered
Rome with a grand triumph, all the nobler for himself that he did not
lead Hannibal in his chains. He had been too generous to demand that so
brave an enemy should be delivered up to him. He received the surname of
Africanus, and was one of the most respected and beloved of Romans. He
was the first who began to take up Greek learning and culture, and to
exchange the old Roman ruggedness for the graces of philosophy and
poetry. Indeed the Romans were beginning to have much to do with the
Greeks, and the war they entered upon now was the first for the sake of
spreading their own power. All the former ones had been in self-defence,
and the new one did in fact spring out of the Punic war, for the
Carthaginians had tried to persuade Philip, king of Macedon, to follow
in the track of Pyrrhus, and come and help Hannibal in Southern Italy.
The Romans had kept him off by stirring up the robber Ætolians against
him; and when he began to punish these wild neighbors, the Romans
leagued themselves with the old Greek cities which Macedon oppressed,
and a great war took place.
Titus Quinctius Flaminius commanded in Greece for four years, first as
consul and then as proconsul. His crowning victory was at Cynocephalæ,
or the Dogshead Rocks, where he so broke the strength of Macedon that at
the Isthmian games he proclaimed the deliverance of Greece, and in their
joy the people crowded round him with crowns and garlands, and shouted
so loud that birds in the air were said to have dropped down at the
sound.
Macedon had cities in Asia Minor, and the king of Syria's enemy,
Antiochus the Great, hoped to master them, and even to conquer Greece by
the help of Hannibal, who had found himself unable to live in Carthage
after his defeat, and was wandering about to give his services to any
one who was a foe of Rome.
As Rome took the part of Philip, as her subject and ally, there was soon
full scope for his efforts; but the Syrians were such wretched troops
that even Hannibal could do nothing with them, and the king himself
would not attend to his advice, but wasted his time in pleasure in the
isle of Euboea. So the consul Acilius first beat them at Thermopylæ, and
then, on Lucius Cornelius Scipio being sent to conduct the war, his
great brother Africanus volunteered to go with him as his lieutenant,
and together they followed Antiochus into Asia Minor, and gained such
advantages that the Syrian was obliged to sue for peace. The Romans
replied by requiring of him to give up all Asia Minor as far as Mount
Tarsus, and in despair he risked a battle in Magnesia, and met with a
total defeat; 80,000 Greeks and Syrians being overthrown by 50,000
Romans. Neither Africanus nor Hannibal were present in this battle,
since the first was ill, and the second was besieged in a city in
Pamphylia; but while terms of peace were being made, the two are said
have met on friendly terms, and Scipio asked Hannibal whom he thought
the greatest of generals. "Alexander," was the answer. "Whom the next
greatest?" "Pyrrhus." "Whom do you rank as the third?" "Myself," said
Hannibal. "But if you had beaten me?" asked Scipio. "Then I would have
placed myself before Alexander."
[Illustration: HANNIBAL]
The Romans insisted that Hannibal should be dismissed by Antiochus,
though Scipio declared that this was ungenerous; but they dreaded his
never-ceasing enmity; and when he took refuge with the king of Bothnia,
they still required that he should be given up or driven a way. On this,
Hannibal, worn-out and disappointed, put an end to his own life by
poison, saying he would rid the Romans of their fear of an old man.
The provinces taken from Antiochus were given to Eumenes, king of
Pergamus, who was to reign over them as tributary to the Romans. Lucius
Scipio received the surname of Asiaticus, and the two brothers returned
to Rome; but they had been too generous and merciful to the conquered to
suit the grasping spirit that had begun to prevail at Rome, and directly
after his triumph Lucius was accused of having taken to himself an undue
share of the spoil. His brother was too indignant at the shameful
accusation to think of letting him justify himself, but tore up his
accounts in the face of the people. The tribune, Nævius, thereupon
spitefully called upon him to give an account of the spoil of Carthage
taken twenty years before. The only reply he gave was to exclaim, "This
is the day of the victory of Zama. Let us give thanks to the gods for
it;" and he led all that was noble and good in Rome with him to the
temple of Jupiter and offered the anniversary sacrifice. No one durst
say another word against him or his brother; but he did not choose to
remain among the citizens who had thus insulted him, but went away to
his estate at Liternum, and when he died, desired to be buried there,
saying that he would not even leave his bones to his ungrateful country.
The Cornelian family was the only one among the higher Romans who buried
instead of burning their dead. He left no son, only a daughter, who was
married to Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a brave officer who was among
those who were sent to finish reducing Spain. It was a long, terrible
war, fought city by city, inch by inch; but Gracchus is said to have
taken no less than three hundred fortresses. But he was a milder
conqueror than some of the Romans, and tried to tame and civilize the
wild races instead of treating them with the terrible severity shown by
Marcus Porcius Cato, the sternest of all old Romans. However, by the
year 178 Spain had been reduced to obedience, and the cities and the
coast were in good order, though the mountains harbored fierce tribes
always ready for revolt.
Gracchus died early, and Cornelia, his widow, devoted herself to the
cause of his three children, refusing to be married again, which was
very uncommon in a Roman lady. When a lady asked her to show her her
ornaments, she called her two boys, Tiberius and Caius, and their sister
Sempronia, and said, "These are my jewels;" and when she was
complimented on being the daughter of Africanus, she said that the
honor she should care more for was the being called "the mother of the
Gracchi."
It was not, however, one of her sons that was chosen to carry on their
grandfather's name and the sacrifices of the Cornelian family. Probably
Caius was not born when Scipio died, for his choice had been the second
son of his sister and of Lucius Æmilius Paulus (son of him who died at
Cannæ.) This child being adopted by his uncle, was called Publius
Cornelius Scipio Æmilianus, and when he grew up was to marry his cousin
Sempronia.
[Illustration]