AEMILIUS PAULUS

Almost all historians agree that the Aemilii were one of the ancient and

patrician houses in Rome; and those authors who affirm that king Numa was

pupil to Pythagoras, tell us that the first who gave the name to his

posterity was Mamercus, the son of Pythagoras, who, for his grace and

address in speaking, was called Aemilius. Most of this race that have

risen through their merit to reputation, also enjoyed good fortune; and

even the misfortune of Lucius Paulus at the battle of Cannae, gave

testimony to his wisdom and valor. For, not being able to persuade his

colleague not to hazard the battle, he, though against his judgment,

joined with him in the contest, but was no companion in his flight: on

the contrary, when he that was so resolute to engage deserted him in the

midst of danger, he kept the field, and died fighting. This Aemilius had

a daughter named Aemilia, who was married to Scipio the Great, and a son

Paulus, who is the subject of my present history.

In his early manhood, which fell at a time when Rome was flourishing with

illustrious characters, he was distinguished for not attaching himself to

the studies usual with the young men of mark of that age, nor treading

the same paths to fame. For he did not practice oratory with a view to

pleading causes, nor would he stoop to salute, embrace, and entertain the

vulgar, which were the usual insinuating arts by which many grew popular.

Not that he was incapable of either, but he chose to purchase a much more

lasting glory by his valor, justice, and integrity, and in these virtues

he soon outstripped all his equals.

The first honorable office he aspired to was that of aedile, which he

carried against twelve competitors of such merit, that all of them in

process of time were consuls. Being afterwards chosen into the number of

priests called augurs, appointed amongst the Romans to observe and

register divinations made by the flight of birds or prodigies in the air,

he so carefully studied the ancient customs of his country, and so

thoroughly understood the religion of his ancestors, that this office,

which was before only esteemed a title of honor and merely upon that

account sought after, by his means rose to the rank of one of the highest

arts, and gave a confirmation to the correctness of the definition which

some philosophers have given of religion, that it is the science of

worshiping the gods. When he performed any part of his duty, he did it

with great skill and utmost care, making it, when he was engaged in it,

his only business, not omitting any one ceremony, or adding the least

circumstance, but always insisting, with his companions of the same

order, even on points that might seem inconsiderable, and urging upon

them, that though they might think the deity was easily pacified, and

ready to forgive faults of inadvertency, yet any such laxity was a very

dangerous thing for a commonwealth to allow: because no man ever began

the disturbance of his country's peace by a notorious breach of its laws;

and those who are careless in trifles, give a precedent for remissness in

important duties. Nor was he less severe, in requiring and observing the

ancient Roman discipline in military affairs; not endeavoring, when he

had the command, to ingratiate himself with his soldiers by popular

flattery, though this custom prevailed at that time amongst many, who, by

favor and gentleness to those that were under them in their first

employment, sought to be promoted to a second; but, by instructing them

in the laws of military discipline with the same care and exactness a

priest would use in teaching ceremonies and dreadful mysteries, and by

severity to such as transgressed and contemned those laws, he maintained

his country in its former greatness, esteeming victory over enemies

itself but as an accessory to the proper training and disciplining of the

citizens.

Whilst the Romans were engaged in war with Antiochus the Great, against

whom their most experienced commanders were employed, there arose another

war in the west, and they were all up in arms in Spain. Thither they

sent Aemilius, in the quality of praetor, not with six axes, which number

other praetors were accustomed to have carried before them, but with

twelve; so that in his praetorship he was honored with the dignity of a

consul. He twice overcame the barbarians in battle, thirty thousand of

whom were slain: successes chiefly to be ascribed to the wisdom and

conduct of the commander, who by his great skill in choosing the

advantage of the ground, and making the onset at the passage of a river,

gave his soldiers an easy victory. Having made himself master of two

hundred and fifty cities, whose inhabitants voluntarily yielded, and

bound themselves by oath to fidelity, he left the province in peace, and

returned to Rome, not enriching himself a drachma by the war. And,

indeed, in general, he was but remiss in making money; though he always

lived freely and generously on what he had, which was so far from being

excessive, that after his death there was but barely enough left to

answer his wife's dowry.

His first wife was Papiria, the daughter of Maso, who had formerly been

consul. With her he lived a considerable time in wedlock, and then

divorced her, though she had made him the father of noble children; being

mother of the renowned Scipio, and Fabius Maximus. The reason of this

separation has not come to our knowledge; but there seems to be a truth

conveyed in the account of another Roman's being divorced from his wife,

which may be applicable here. This person being highly blamed by his

friends, who demanded, Was she not chaste? was she not fair? was she

not fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them, Whether it was not new?

and well made? Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches

me. Certain it is, that great and open faults have often led to no

separation; while mere petty repeated annoyances, arising from

unpleasantness or incongruity of character, have been the occasion of

such estrangement as to make it impossible for man and wife to live

together with any content.

Aemilius, having thus put away Papiria, married a second wife, by whom he

had two sons, whom he brought up in his own house, transferring the two

former into the greatest and most noble families of Rome. The elder was

adopted into the house of Fabius Maximus, who was five times consul; the

younger, by the son of Scipio Africanus, his cousin-german, and was by

him named Scipio.

Of the daughters of Aemilius, one was married to the son of Cato, the

other to Aelius Tubero, a most worthy man, and the one Roman who best

succeeded in combining liberal habits with poverty. For there were

sixteen near relations, all of them of the family of the Aelii, possessed

of but one farm, which sufficed them all, whilst one small house, or

rather cottage, contained them, their numerous offspring, and their

wives; amongst whom was the daughter of our Aemilius, who, although her

father had been twice consul, and had twice triumphed, was not ashamed

of her husband's poverty, but proud of his virtue that kept him poor.

Far otherwise it is with the brothers and relations of this age, who,

unless whole tracts of land, or at least walls and rivers, part their

inheritances, and keep them at a distance, never cease from mutual

quarrels. History suggests a variety of good counsel of this sort, by

the way, to those who desire to learn and improve.

To proceed: Aemilius, being chosen consul, waged war with the Ligurians,

or Ligustines, a people near the Alps. They were a bold and warlike

nation, and their neighborhood to the Romans had begun to give them skill

in the arts of war. They occupy the further parts of Italy ending under

the Alps, and those parts of the Alps themselves which are washed by the

Tuscan sea and face towards Africa, mingled there with Gauls and Iberians

of the coast. Besides, at that time they had turned their thoughts to

the sea, and sailing as far as the Pillars of Hercules in light vessels

fitted for that purpose, robbed and destroyed all that trafficked in

those parts. They, with an army of forty thousand, waited the coming of

Aemilius, who brought with him not above eight thousand, so that the

enemy was five to one when they engaged; yet he vanquished and put them

to flight, forcing them to retire into their walled towns, and in this

condition offered them fair conditions of accommodation; it being the

policy of the Romans not utterly to destroy the Ligurians, because they

were a sort of guard and bulwark against the frequent attempts of the

Gauls to overrun Italy. Trusting wholly therefore to Aemilius, they

delivered up their towns and shipping into his hands. He, at the utmost,

razed only the fortifications, and delivered their towns to them again,

but took away all their shipping with him, leaving them no vessels bigger

than those of three oars, and set at liberty great numbers of prisoners

they had taken both by sea and land, strangers as well as Romans. These

were the acts most worthy of remark in his first consulship.

Afterwards he frequently intimated his desire of being a second time

consul, and was once candidate; but, meeting with a repulse and being

passed by, he gave up all thought of it, and devoted himself to his

duties as augur, and to the education of his children, whom he not only

brought up, as he himself had been, in the Roman and ancient discipline,

but also with unusual zeal in that of Greece. To this purpose he not

only procured masters to teach them grammar, logic, and rhetoric, but had

for them also preceptors in modeling and drawing, managers of horses and

dogs, and instructors in field sports, all from Greece. And, if he was

not hindered by public affairs, he himself would be with them at their

studies, and see them perform their exercises, being the most

affectionate father in Rome.

This was the time, in public matters, when the Romans were engaged in war

with Perseus, king of the Macedonians, and great complaints were made of

their commanders, who, either through their want of skill or courage,

were conducting matters so shamefully, that they did less hurt to the

enemy than they received from him. They that not long before had forced

Antiochus the Great to quit the rest of Asia, to retire beyond Mount

Taurus, and confine himself to Syria, glad to buy his peace with fifteen

thousand talents; they that not long since had vanquished king Philip in

Thessaly, and freed the Greeks from the Macedonian yoke; nay, had

overcome Hannibal himself, who far surpassed all kings in daring and

power,—thought it scorn that Perseus should think himself an enemy fit to

match the Romans, and to be able to wage war with them so long on equal

terms, with the remainder only of his father's routed forces; not being

aware that Philip after his defeat had greatly improved both the strength

and discipline of the Macedonian army. To make which appear, I shall

briefly recount the story from the beginning.

Antigonus, the most powerful amongst the captains and successors of

Alexander, having obtained for himself and his posterity the title of

king, had a son named Demetrius, father to Antigonus, called Gonatas, and

he had a son Demetrius, who, reigning some short time, died and left a

young son called Philip. The chief men of Macedon, fearing great

confusion might arise in his minority, called in Antigonus, cousin-german

to the late king, and married him to the widow, the mother of Philip. At

first they only styled him regent and general, but, when they found by

experience that he governed the kingdom with moderation and to general

advantage, gave him the title of king. This was he that was surnamed

Doson, as if he was a great promiser, and a bad performer. To him

succeeded Philip, who in his youth gave great hopes of equaling the best

of kings, and that he one day would restore Macedon to its former state

and dignity, and prove himself the one man able to check the power of the

Romans, now rising and extending over the whole world. But, being

vanquished in a pitched battle by Titus Flamininus near Scotussa, his

resolution failed, and he yielded himself and all that he had to the

mercy of the Romans, well contented that he could escape with paying a

small tribute. Yet afterwards, recollecting himself, he bore it with

great impatience, and thought he lived rather like a slave that was

pleased with ease, than a man of sense and courage, whilst he held his

kingdom at the pleasure of his conquerors; which made him turn his whole

mind to war, and prepare himself with as much cunning and privacy as

possible. To this end, he left his cities on the high roads and

sea-coast ungarrisoned, and almost desolate, that they might seem

inconsiderable; in the mean time, collecting large forces up the country,

and furnishing his inland posts, strongholds, and towns, with arms,

money, and men fit for service, he thus provided himself for war, and yet

kept his preparations close. He had in his armory arms for thirty

thousand men; in granaries in places of strength, eight millions of

bushels of corn, and as much ready money as would defray the charge of

maintaining ten thousand mercenary soldiers for ten years in defense of

the country. But before he could put these things into motion, and carry

his designs into effect, he died for grief and anguish of mind, being

sensible he had put his innocent son Demetrius to death, upon the

calumnies of one that was far more guilty. Perseus, his son that

survived, inherited his hatred to the Romans as well as his kingdom, but

was incompetent to carry out his designs, through want of courage, and

the viciousness of a character in which, among faults and diseases of

various sorts, covetousness bore the chief place. There is a statement

also of his not being true born; that the wife of king Philip took him

from his mother Gnathaenion (a woman of Argos, that earned her living as

a seamstress), as soon as he was born, and passed him upon her husband as

her own. And this might be the chief cause of his contriving the death

of Demetrius; as he might well fear, that so long as there was a lawful

successor in the family, there was no security that his spurious birth

might not be revealed.

Notwithstanding all this, and though his spirit was so mean, and temper

so sordid, yet, trusting to the strength of his resources, he engaged in

a war with the Romans, and for a long time maintained it; repulsing and

even vanquishing some generals of consular dignity, and some great armies

and fleets. He routed Publius Licinius, who was the first that invaded

Macedonia, in a cavalry battle, slew twenty-five hundred practiced

soldiers, and took six hundred prisoners; and, surprising their fleet as

they rode at anchor before Oreus, he took twenty ships of burden with all

their lading, sunk the rest that were freighted with corn, and, besides

this, made himself master of four galleys with five banks of oars. He

fought a second battle with Hostilius, a consular officer, as he was

making his way into the country at Elimiae, and forced him to retreat;

and, when he afterwards by stealth designed an invasion through Thessaly,

challenged him to fight, which the other feared to accept. Nay more, to

show his contempt of the Romans, and that he wanted employment, as a war

by the by, he made an expedition against the Dardanians, in which he slew

ten thousand of those barbarian people, and brought a great spoil away.

He privately, moreover, solicited the Gauls (also called Basternae), a

warlike nation, and famous for horsemen, dwelling near the Danube; and

incited the Illyrians, by the means of Genthius their king, to join with

him in the war. It was also reported, that the barbarians, allured by

promise of rewards, were to make an irruption into Italy, through the

lower Gaul by the shore of the Adriatic Sea.

The Romans, being advertised of these things, thought it necessary no

longer to choose their commanders by favor or solicitation, but of their

own motion to select a general of wisdom and capacity for the management

of great affairs. And such was 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; they all received him there with such hopes and such gladness,

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 that was brought up in the house with her; to

which Aemilius replied, "Good fortune, my daughter; I embrace the omen."

This Cicero, the orator, relates in his book on divination.

It was the custom for such as were chosen consuls, from a stage designed

for such purposes, to address the people, and return them thanks for

their favor. Aemilius, therefore, having gathered an assembly, spoke and

said, that he sued for the first consulship, because he himself stood in

need of such honor; but for the second, because they wanted a general;

upon which account he thought there was no thanks due: if they judged

they could manage the war by any other to more advantage, he would

willingly yield up his charge; but, if they confided in him, they were

not to make themselves his colleagues in his office, or raise reports,

and criticize his actions, but, without talking, supply him with means

and assistance necessary to the carrying on of the war; for, if they

proposed to command their own commander, they would render this

expedition more ridiculous than the former. By this speech he inspired

great reverence for him amongst the citizens, and great expectations of

future success; all were well pleased, that they had passed by such as

sought to be preferred by flattery, and fixed upon a commander endued

with wisdom and courage to tell them the truth. So entirely did the

people of Rome, that they might rule, and become masters of the world,

yield obedience and service to reason and superior virtue.

That Aemilius, setting forward to the war, by a prosperous voyage and

successful journey, arrived with speed and safety at his camp, I

attribute to good fortune; but, when I see how the war under his command

was brought to a happy issue, partly by his own daring boldness, partly

by his good counsel, partly by the ready administration of his friends,

partly by his presence of mind and skill to embrace the most proper

advice in the extremity of danger, I cannot ascribe any of his remarkable

and famous actions (as I can those of other commanders) to his so much

celebrated good fortune; unless you will say that the covetousness of

Perseus was the good fortune of Aemilius. The truth is, Perseus' fear of

spending his money was the destruction and utter ruin of all those

splendid and great preparations with which the Macedonians were in high

hopes to carry on the war with success. For there came at his request

ten thousand horsemen of the Basternae, and as many foot, who were to

keep pace with them, and supply their places in case of failure; all of

them professed soldiers, men skilled neither in tilling of land, nor in

navigation of ships, nor able to get their livings by grazing, but whose

only business and single art and trade it was to fight and conquer all

that resisted them. When these came into the district of Maedica, and

encamped and mixed with the king's soldiers, being men of great stature,

admirable at their exercises, great boasters, and loud in their threats

against their enemies, they gave new courage to the Macedonians, who were

ready to think the Romans would not be able to confront them, but would

be struck with terror at their looks and motions, they were so strange

and so formidable to behold. When Perseus had thus encouraged his men,

and elevated them with these great hopes, as soon as a thousand gold

pieces were demanded for each captain, he was so amazed and beside

himself at the vastness of the amount, that out of mere stinginess he

drew back and let himself lose their assistance, as if he had been some

steward, not the enemy of the Romans, and would have to give an exact

account of the expenses of the war, to those with whom he waged it. Nay,

when he had his foes as tutors, to instruct him what he had to do, who,

besides their other preparations, had a hundred thousand men drawn

together and in readiness for their service; yet he that was to engage

against so considerable a force, and in a war that was maintaining such

numbers as this, nevertheless doled out his money, and put seals on his

bags, and was as fearful of touching it, as if it had belonged to some

one else. And all this was done by one, not descended from Lydians or

Phoenicians, but who could pretend to some share of the virtues of

Alexander and Philip, whom he was allied to by birth; men who conquered

the world by judging that empire was to be purchased by money, not money

by empire. Certainly it became a proverb, that not Philip, but his gold

took the cities of Greece. And Alexander, when he undertook his

expedition against the Indians, and found his Macedonians encumbered, and

appear to march heavily with their Persian spoils, first set fire to his

own carriages, and thence persuaded the rest to imitate his example, that

thus freed they might proceed to the war without hindrance. Whereas

Perseus, abounding in wealth, would not preserve himself; his children,

and his kingdom, at the expense of a small part of his treasure; but

chose rather to be carried away with numbers of his subjects with the

name of the wealthy captive, and show the Romans what great riches he had

husbanded and preserved for them. For he not only played false with the

Gauls, and sent them away, but also, after alluring Genthius, king of the

Illyrians, by the hopes of three hundred talents, to assist him in the

war, he caused the money to be counted out in the presence of his

messengers, and to be sealed up. Upon which Genthius, thinking himself

possessed of what he desired, committed a wicked and shameful act: he

seized and imprisoned the ambassadors sent to him from the Romans.

Whence Perseus, concluding that there was now no need of money to make

Genthius an enemy to the Romans, but that he had given a lasting earnest

of his enmity, and by his flagrant injustice sufficiently involved

himself in the war, defrauded the unfortunate king of his three hundred

talents, and without any concern beheld him, his wife, and children, in a

short time after, carried out of their kingdom, as from their nest, by

Lucius Anicius, who was sent against him with an army.

Aemilius, coming against such an adversary, made light indeed of him, but

admired his preparation and power. For he had four thousand horse, and

not much fewer than forty thousand full-armed foot of the phalanx; and

planting himself along the seaside, at the foot of Mount Olympus, in

ground with no access on any side, and on all sides fortified with fences

and bulwarks of wood, remained in great security, thinking by delay and

expense to weary out Aemilius. But he, in the meantime, busy in

thought, weighed all counsels and all means of attack, and perceiving his

soldiers, from their former want of discipline, to be impatient of delay,

and ready on all occasions to teach their general his duty, rebuked them,

and bade them not meddle with what was not their concern, but only take

care that they and their arms were in readiness, and to use their swords

like Romans when their commander should think fit to employ them.

Further he ordered, that the sentinels by night should watch without

javelins, that thus they might be more careful and surer to resist sleep,

having no arms to defend themselves against any attacks of an enemy.

What most annoyed the army was the want of water; for only a little, and

that foul, flowed out, or rather came by drops from a spring adjoining

the sea; but Aemilius, considering that he was at the foot of the high

and woody mountain Olympus, and conjecturing by the flourishing growth of

the trees that there were springs that had their course under ground, dug

a great many holes and wells along the foot of the mountain, which were

presently filled with pure water escaping from its confinement into the

vacuum they afforded. Although there are some, indeed, who deny that

there are reservoirs of water lying ready provided out of sight, in the

places from whence springs flow, and that when they appear, they merely

issue and run out; on the contrary, they say, they are then formed and

come into existence for the first time, by the liquefaction of the

surrounding matter; and that this change is caused by density and cold,

when the moist vapor, by being closely pressed together, becomes fluid.

As women's breasts are not like vessels full of milk always prepared and

ready to flow from them; but their nourishment being changed in their

breasts, is there made milk, and from thence is pressed out. In like

manner, places of the earth that are cold and full of springs, do not

contain any hidden waters or receptacles which are capable, as from a

source always ready and furnished, of supplying all the brooks and deep

rivers; but, by compressing and condensing the vapors and air, they turn

them into that substance. And thus places that are dug open flow by that

pressure, and afford the more water (as the breasts of women do milk by

their being sucked), the vapor thus moistening and becoming fluid;

whereas ground that remains idle and undug is not capable of producing

any water, whilst it wants that motion which is the cause of

liquefaction. But those that assert this opinion, give occasion to the

doubtful to argue, that on the same ground there should be no blood in

living creatures, but that it must be formed by the wound, some sort of

spirit or flesh being changed into a liquid and flowing matter.

Moreover, they are refuted by the fact that men who dig mines, either in

sieges or for metals, meet with rivers, which are not collected by little

and little (as must necessarily be, if they had their being at the very

instant the earth was opened), but break out at once with violence; and

upon the cutting through a rock, there often gush out great quantities of

water, which then as suddenly cease. But of this enough.

Aemilius lay still for some days, and it is said, that there were never

two great armies so nigh, that enjoyed so much quiet. When he had tried

and considered all things, he was informed that there was yet one passage

left unguarded, through Perrhaebia by the temple of Apollo and the Rock.

Gathering, therefore, more hope from the place being left defenseless

than fear from the roughness and difficulty of the passage, he proposed

it for consultation. Amongst those that were present at the council,

Scipio, surnamed Nasica, son-in-law to Scipio Africanus, who afterwards

was so powerful in the senate-house, was the first that offered himself

to command those that should be sent to encompass the enemy. Next to

him, Fabius Maximus, eldest son of Aemilius, although yet very young,

offered himself with great zeal. Aemilius, rejoicing, gave them, not so

many as Polybius states, but, as Nasica himself tells us in a brief

letter which he wrote to one of the kings with an account of the

expedition, three thousand Italians that were not Romans, and his left

wing consisting of five thousand. Taking with him, besides these, one

hundred and twenty horsemen, and two hundred Thracians and Cretans

intermixed that Harpalus had sent, he began his journey towards the sea,

and encamped near the temple of Hercules, as if he designed to embark,

and so to sail round and environ the enemy. But when the soldiers had

supped and it was dark, he made the captains acquainted with his real

intentions, and marching all night in the opposite direction, away from

the sea, till he came under the temple of Apollo, there rested his army.

At this place Mount Olympus rises in height more than ten furlongs, as

appears by the epigram made by the man that measured it:

The summit of Olympus, at the site

Where stands Apollo's temple, has a height

Of full ten furlongs by the line, and more,

Ten furlongs, and one hundred feet, less four.

Eumelus' son Xenagoras, reached the place.

Adieu, O king, and do thy pilgrim grace.

It is allowed, say the geometricians, that no mountain in height or sea

in depth exceeds ten furlongs, and yet it seems probable that Xenagoras

did not take his admeasurement carelessly, but according to the rules of

art, and with instruments for the purpose. Here it was that Nasica

passed the night.

A Cretan deserter, who fled to the enemy during the march, discovered to

Perseus the design which the Romans had to encompass him: for he, seeing

that Aemilius lay still, had not suspected any such attempt. He was

startled at the news, yet did not put his army in motion, but sent ten

thousand mercenary soldiers and two thousand Macedonians, under command

of Milo, with order to hasten and possess themselves of the passes.

Polybius relates that the Romans found these men asleep when they

attacked them; but Nasica says there was a sharp and severe conflict on

the top of the mountain, that he himself encountered a mercenary

Thracian, pierced him through with his javelin, and slew him; and that

the enemy being forced to retreat, Milo stripped to his coat and fled

shamefully without his armor, while he followed without danger, and

conveyed the whole army down into the country.

After this event, Perseus, now grown fearful, and fallen from his hopes,

removed his camp in all haste; he was under the necessity either to stop

before Pydna, and there run the hazard of a battle, or disperse his army

into cities, and there expect the event of the war, which, having once

made its way into his country, could not be driven out without great

slaughter and bloodshed. But Perseus, being told by his friends that he

was much superior in number, and that men fighting in the defense of

their wives and children must needs feel all the more courage, especially

when all was done in the sight of their king, who himself was engaged in

equal danger, was thus again encouraged; and, pitching his camp, prepared

himself to fight, viewed the country, and gave out the commands, as if he

designed to set upon the Romans as soon as they approached. The place

was a field fit for the action of a phalanx, which requires smooth

standing and even ground, and also had divers little hills, one joining

another, fit for the motions whether in retreat or advance of light

troops and skirmishers. Through the middle ran the rivers Aeson and

Leucus, which, though not very deep, it being the latter end of summer,

yet were likely enough to give the Romans some trouble.

As soon as Aemilius had rejoined Nasica, he advanced in battle array

against the enemy; but when he found how they were drawn up, and the

number of their forces, he regarded them with admiration and surprise,

and halted, considering within himself. The young commanders, eager to

fight, riding along, by his side, pressed him not to delay, and most of

all Nasica, flushed with his late success on Olympus. To whom Aemilius

answered with a smile: "So would I do, were I of your age; but many

victories have taught me the ways in which men are defeated, and forbid

me to engage soldiers weary with a long march, against an army drawn up

and prepared for battle."

Then he gave command that the front of his army, and such as were in

sight of the enemy, should form as if ready to engage, and those in the

rear should cast up the trenches and fortify the camp; so that the

hindmost in succession wheeling off by degrees and withdrawing, their

whole order was insensibly broken up, and the army encamped without noise

or trouble.

When it was night, and, supper being over, all were turning to sleep and

rest, on a sudden the moon, which was then at full and high in the

heavens, grew dark, and by degrees losing her light, passed through

various colors, and at length was totally eclipsed. The Romans,

according to their custom, clattering brass pans and lifting up

firebrands and torches into the air, invoked the return of her light; the

Macedonians behaved far otherwise: terror and amazement seized their

whole army, and a rumor crept by degrees into their camp that this

eclipse portended even that of their king. Aemilius was no novice in

these things, nor was ignorant of the nature of the seeming

irregularities of eclipses, that in a certain revolution of time, the

moon in her course enters the shadow of the earth and is there obscured,

till, passing the region of darkness, she is again enlightened by the

Sun. Yet being a devout man, a religious observer of sacrifices and the

art of divination, as soon as he perceived the moon beginning to regain

her former lustre, he offered up to her eleven heifers. At the break of

day he sacrificed as many as twenty in succession to Hercules, without

any token that his offering was accepted; but at the one and twentieth,

the signs promised victory to defenders. He then vowed a hecatomb and

solemn sports to Hercules, and commanded his captains to make ready for

battle, staying only till the sun should decline and come round to the

west, lest, being in their faces in the morning, it should dazzle the

eyes of his soldiers. Thus he whiled away the time in his tent, which

was open towards the plain where his enemies were encamped.

When it grew towards evening, some tell us, Aemilius himself used a

stratagem to induce the enemy to begin the fight; that he turned loose a

horse without a bridle, and sent some of the Romans to catch him, upon

whose following the beast, the battle began. Others relate that the

Thracians, under the command of one Alexander, set upon the Roman beasts

of burden that were bringing forage to the camp; that to oppose these, a

party of seven hundred Ligurians were immediately detached; and that,

relief coming still from both armies, the main bodies at last engaged.

Aemilius, like a wise pilot, foreseeing by the present waves and motion

of the armies, the greatness of the following storm, came out of his

tent, went through the legions, and encouraged his soldiers. Nasica, in

the mean time, who had ridden out to the skirmishers, saw the whole force

of the enemy on the point of engaging. First marched the Thracians, who,

he himself tells us, inspired him with most terror; they were of great

stature, with bright and glittering shields and black frocks under them,

their legs armed with greaves, and they brandished, as they moved,

straight and heavily-ironed spears over their right shoulders. Next the

Thracians marched the mercenary soldiers, armed after different fashions;

with these the Paeonians were mingled. These were succeeded by a third

division, of picked men, native Macedonians, the choicest for courage and

strength, in the prime of life, gleaming with gilt armor and scarlet

coats. As these were taking their places they were followed from the

camp by the troops in phalanx called the Brazen Shields, so that the

whole plain seemed alive with the flashing of steel and the glistening of

brass; and the hills also with their shouts, as they cheered each other

on. In this order they marched, and with such boldness and speed, that

those that were first slain died at but two furlongs distance from the

Roman camp.

The battle being begun, Aemilius came in and found that the foremost of

the Macedonians had already fixed the ends of their spears into the

shields of his Romans, so that it was impossible to come near them with

their swords. When he saw this, and observed that the rest of the

Macedonians took the targets that hung on their left shoulders, and

brought them round before them, and all at once stooped their pikes

against their enemies' shields, and considered the great strength of this

wall of shields, and the formidable appearance of a front thus bristling

with arms, he was seized with amazement and alarm; nothing he had ever

seen before had been equal to it; and in after times he frequently used

to speak both of the sight and of his own sensations. These, however, he

dissembled, and rode through his army without either breast-plate or

helmet, with a serene and cheerful countenance.

On the contrary, as Polybius relates, no sooner was the battle begun, but

the Macedonian king basely withdrew to the city Pydna, under a pretence

of sacrificing to Hercules: a God that is not wont to regard the faint

offerings of cowards, or to fulfill unsanctioned vows. For truly it can

hardly be a thing that heaven would sanction, that he that never shoots

should carry away the prize; he triumph that slinks from the battle; he

that takes no pains meet with success, or the wicked man prosper. But to

Aemilius's petitions the god listened; he prayed for victory with his

sword in his hand, and fought while entreating divine assistance.

A certain Posidonius, who has at some length written a history of

Perseus, and professes to have lived at the time, and to have been

himself engaged in these events, denies that Perseus left the field

either through fear or pretence of sacrificing, but that, the very day

before the fight, he received a kick from a horse on his thigh; that

though very much disabled, and dissuaded by all his friends, he commanded

one of his riding-horses to be brought, and entered the field unarmed;

that amongst an infinite number of darts that flew about on all sides,

one of iron lighted on him, and though not with the point, yet by a

glance struck him with such force on his left side, that it tore his

clothes and so bruised his flesh that the mark remained a long time

after. This is what Posidonius says in defense of Perseus.

The Romans not being able to make a breach in the phalanx, one Salius, a

commander of the Pelignians, snatched the ensign of his company and

threw it amongst the enemies; on seeing which, the Pelignians (as amongst

the Italians it is always thought the greatest breach of honor to abandon

a standard) rushed with great violence towards the place, where the

conflict grew very fierce, and the slaughter terrible on both sides. For

these endeavored to cut the spears asunder with their swords, or to beat

them back with their shields, or put them by with their hands; and, on

the other side, the Macedonians held their long sarissas in both hands,

and pierced those that came in their way quite through their armor, no

shield or corslet being able to resist the force of that weapon. The

Pelignians and Marrucinians were thrown headlong to the ground, having

without consideration, with mere animal fury, rushed upon a certain

death. Their first ranks being slain, those that were behind were forced

to give back; it cannot be said they fled, but they retreated towards

Mount Olocrus. When Aemilius saw this, Posidonius relates, he rent his

clothes, some of his men being ready to fly, and the rest not willing to

engage with a phalanx into which they could not hope to make any

entrance, a sort of palisade, as it were, impregnable and unapproachable,

with its close array of long spears everywhere meeting the assailant.

Nevertheless, the unequalness of the ground would not permit a widely

extended front to be so exactly drawn up as to have their shields

everywhere joined; and Aemilius perceived that there were a great many

interstices and breaches in the Macedonian phalanx; as it usually happens

in all great armies, according to the different efforts of the

combatants, who in one part press forward with eagerness, and in another

are forced to fall back. Taking, therefore, this occasion, with all

speed he broke up his men into their cohorts, and gave them order to fall

into the intervals and openings of the enemy's body, and not to make one

general attack upon them all, but to engage, as they were divided, in

several partial battles. These commands Aemilius gave to his captains,

and they to their soldiers; and no sooner had they entered the spaces and

separated their enemies, but they charged them, some on their side where

they were naked and exposed, and others, making a circuit, behind; and

thus destroyed the force of the phalanx, which consisted in common action

and close union. And now, come to fight man to man, or in small parties,

the Macedonians smote in vain upon firm and long shields with their

little swords, whilst their slight bucklers were not able to sustain the

weight and force of the Roman swords, which pierced through all their

armor to their bodies; they turned, in fine, and fled.

The conflict was obstinate. And here Marcus, the son of Cato, and son-

in-law of Aemilius, whilst he showed all possible courage, let fall his

sword. Being a young man, carefully brought up and disciplined, and, as

son of so renowned a father, bound to give proof of more than ordinary

virtue, he thought his life but a burden, should he live and permit his

enemies to enjoy this spoil. He hurried hither and thither, and wherever

he espied a friend or companion, declared his misfortune, and begged

their assistance; a considerable number of brave men being thus

collected, with one accord they made their way through their fellows

after their leader, and fell upon the enemy; whom, after a sharp

conflict, many wounds, and much slaughter, they repulsed, possessed the

place that was now deserted and free, and set themselves to search for

the sword, which at last they found covered with a great heap of arms and

dead bodies. Overjoyed with this success, they raised the song of

triumph, and with more eagerness than ever, charged the foes that yet

remained firm and unbroken. In the end, three thousand of the chosen

men, who kept their ground and fought valiantly to the last, were all cut

in pieces, while the slaughter of such as fled was also very great. The

plain and the lower part of the hills were filled with dead bodies, and

the water of the river Leucus, which the Romans did not pass till the

next day after the battle, was then mingled with blood. For it is said

there fell more than twenty-five thousand of the enemy; of the Romans, as

Posidonius relates, a hundred; as Nasica, only fourscore. This battle,

though so great, was very quickly decided, it being three in the

afternoon when they first engaged, and not four when the enemy was

vanquished; the rest of the day was spent in the pursuit of the

fugitives, whom they followed about thirteen or fourteen miles, so that

it was far in the night when they returned.

All the others were met by their servants with torches, and brought back

with joy and great triumph to their tents, which were set out with

lights, and decked with wreaths of ivy and laurel. But the general

himself was in great grief. Of the two sons that served under him in the

war, the youngest was missing, whom he held most dear, and whose courage

and good qualities he perceived much to excel those of his brothers.

Bold and eager for distinction, and still a mere child in age, he

concluded that he had perished, whilst for want of experience he had

engaged himself too far amongst his enemies. His sorrow and fears became

known to the army; the soldiers, quitting their suppers, ran about with

lights, some to Aemilius's tent, some out of the trenches, to seek him

amongst such as were slain in the first onset. There was nothing but

grief in the camp, and the plain was filled with the cries of men calling

out for Scipio; for, from his very youth, he was an object of admiration;

endowed above any of his equals with the good qualities requisite either

for command or counsel. At length, when it was late, and they almost

despaired, he returned from the pursuit with only two or three of his

companions, all covered with the fresh blood of his enemies, having been,

like some dog of noble breed, carried away by the pleasure, greater than

he could control, of his first victory. This was that Scipio

that afterwards destroyed Carthage and Numantia, and was, without

dispute, the first of the Romans in merit, and had the greatest authority

amongst them. Thus Fortune, deferring her displeasure and jealousy of

such great success to some other time, let Aemilius at present enjoy this

victory, without any detraction or diminution.

As for Perseus, from Pydna he fled to Pella with his cavalry, which was

as yet almost entire. But when the foot came up with them, and,

upbraiding them as cowards and traitors, tried to pull them off their

horses, and fell to blows, Perseus, fearing the tumult, forsook the

common road, and, lest he should be known, pulled off his purple, and

carried it before him, and took his crown in his hand, and, that he might

the better converse with his friends, alighted from his horse and led

him. Of those that were about him, one stopped, pretending to tie his

shoe that was loose, another to water his horse, a third to drink

himself; and thus lagging behind, by degrees left him, they having not so

much reason to fear their enemies, as his cruelty; for he, disordered by

his misfortune, sought to clear himself by laying the cause of the

overthrow upon everybody else. He arrived at Pella in the night, where

Euctus and Eudaeus, two of his treasurers, came to him, and, what with

their reflecting on his former faults, and their free and ill-timed

admonitions and counsels, so exasperated him, that he killed them both,

stabbing them with his own dagger. After this, nobody stuck to him but

Evander the Cretan, Archedemus the Aetolian, and Neon the Boeotian. Of

the common soldiers there followed him only those from Crete, not out of

any good-will, but because they were as constant to his riches as the

bees to their hive. For he carried a great treasure with him, out of

which he had suffered them to take cups, bowls, and other vessels of

silver and gold, to the value of fifty talents. But when he was come to

Amphipolis, and afterwards to Galepsus, and his fears were a little

abated, he relapsed into his old and constitutional disease of

covetousness, and lamented to his friends that he had, through

inadvertency, allowed some gold plate which had belonged to Alexander the

Great to go into the hands of the Cretans, and besought those that had

it, with tears in his eyes, to exchange with him again for money. Those

that understood him thoroughly knew very well he only played the Cretan

with the Cretans, but those that believed him, and restored what they

had, were cheated; as he not only did not pay the money, but by craft got

thirty talents more of his friends into his hands (which in a short time

after fell to the enemy), and with them sailed to Samothrace, and there

fled to the temple of Castor and Pollux for refuge.

The Macedonians were always accounted great lovers of their kings, but

now, as if their chief prop was broken, they all gave way together, and

submitted to Aemilius, and in two days made him master of their whole

country. This seems to confirm the opinion which ascribes whatever he

did to good fortune. The omen, also, that happened at Amphipolis, has a

supernatural character. When he was sacrificing there, and the holy

rites were just begun, on a sudden, lightning fell upon the altar, set

the wood on fire, and completed the immolation of the sacrifice. The

most signal manifestation, however, of preternatural agency appears in

the story of the rumor of his success. For on the fourth day after

Perseus was vanquished at Pydna, whilst the people at Rome were seeing

the horse-races, a report suddenly arose at the entrance of the theater

that Aemilius had defeated Perseus in a great battle, and was reducing

all Macedonia under his power; and from thence it spread amongst the

people, and created general joy, with shoutings and acclamations for that

whole day through the city. But when no certain author was found of the

news, and every one alike had taken it at random, it was abandoned for

the present and thought no more of, until, a few days after, certain

intelligence came, and then the first was looked upon as no less than a

miracle, having, under an appearance of fiction, contained what was real

and true. It is reported, also, that the news of the battle fought in

Italy, near the river Sagra, was conveyed into Peloponnesus the same day,

and of that at Mycale against the Medes, to Plataea. When the Romans had

defeated the Tarquins, who were combined with the Latins, a little after,

there were seen at Rome two tall and comely men, who professed to bring

the news from the camp. They were conjectured to be Castor and Pollux.

The first man that spoke to them in the forum, near the fountain where

they were cooling their horses, which were all of a foam, expressed

surprise at the report of the victory, when, it is said, they smiled, and

gently touched his beard with their hands, the hair of which from being

black was, on the spot, changed to yellow. This gave credit to what they

said, and fixed the name of Ahenobarbus, or Brazen-beard, on the man.

And a thing which happened in our own time will make all these credible.

For when Antonius rebelled against Domitian, and Rome was in

consternation, expecting great wars from the quarter of Germany, all on a

sudden, and nobody knows upon what account, the people spontaneously gave

out a rumor of victory, and the news ran current through the city, that

Antonius himself was slain, his whole army destroyed, and not so much as

a part of it escaped; nay, this belief was so strong and positive, that

many of the magistrates offered up sacrifice. But when, at length, the

author was sought for, and none was to be found, it vanished by degrees,

every one shifting it off from himself to another, and, at last, was lost

in the numberless crowd, as in a vast ocean, and, having no solid ground

to support its credit, was, in a short time, not so much as named in the

city. Nevertheless, when Domitian marched out with his forces to the

war, he met with messengers and letters that gave him a relation of the

victory; and the rumor, it was found, had come the very day it was

gained, though the distance between the places was more than twenty-five

hundred miles. The truth of this no man of our time is ignorant of.

But to proceed. Cnaeus Octavius, who was joined in command with

Aemilius, came to an anchor with his fleet under Samothrace, where, out

of respect to the gods, he permitted Perseus to enjoy the benefit of

refuge, but took care that he should not escape by sea. Notwithstanding,

Perseus secretly persuaded Oroandes of Crete, master of a small vessel,

to convey him and his treasure away. He, however, playing the true

Cretan, took in the treasure, and bade him come, in the night, with his

children and most necessary attendants, to the port by the temple of

Ceres; but, as soon as it was evening, set sail without him. It had been

sad enough for Perseus to be forced to let down himself, his wife and

children, through a narrow window by a wall, -- people altogether

unaccustomed to hardship and flying; but that which drew a far sadder

sigh from his heart was, when he was told by a man, as he wandered on the

shore, that he had seen Oroandes under sail in the main sea; it being now

about daybreak. So, there being no hopes left of escaping, he fled back

again to the wall, which he and his wife recovered, though they were seen

by the Romans, before they could reach them. His children he

himself had delivered into the hands of Ion, one that had been his

favorite, but now proved his betrayer, and was the chief cause that

forced him (beasts themselves will do so when their young ones are taken)

to come and yield himself up to those that had them in their power. His

greatest confidence was in Nasica, and it was for him he called, but he

not being there, he bewailed his misfortune, and, seeing there was no

possible remedy, surrendered himself to Octavius. And here, in

particular, he made it manifest that he was possessed with a vice more

sordid than covetousness itself, namely, the fondness of life; by which

he deprived himself even of pity, the only thing that fortune never takes

away from the most wretched. He desired to be brought to Aemilius, who

arose from his seat, and accompanied with his friends went to receive

him, with tears in his eyes, as a great man fallen by the anger of the

gods and his own ill fortune; when Perseus -- the most shameful of sights

-- threw himself at his feet, embraced his knees, and uttered unmanly

cries and petitions, such as Aemilius was not able to bear, nor would

vouchsafe to hear: but looking on him with a sad and angry countenance

he said, "Why, unhappy man, do you thus take pains to exonerate fortune

of your heaviest charge against her, by conduct that will make it seem

that you are not unjustly in calamity, and that it is not your present

condition, but your former happiness, that was more than your deserts?

And why depreciate also my victory, and make my conquests insignificant,

by proving yourself a coward, and a foe beneath a Roman? Distressed

valor challenges great respect, even from enemies; but cowardice, though

never so successful, from the Romans has always met with scorn." Yet for

all this he took him up, gave him his hand, and delivered him into the

custody of Tubero. Meantime, he himself carried his sons, his

son-in-law, and others of chief rank, especially of the younger sort,

back with him into his tent, where for a long time he sat down without

speaking one word, insomuch that they all wondered at him. At last, he

began to discourse of fortune and human affairs. "Is it meet," said he,

"for him that knows he is but man, in his greatest prosperity to pride

himself, and be exalted at the conquest of a city, nation, or kingdom,

and not rather well to weigh this change of fortune, in which all

warriors may see an example of their common frailty, and learn a lesson

that there is nothing durable or constant? For what time can men select

to think themselves secure, when that of victory itself forces us more

than any to dread our own fortune? and a very little consideration on

the law of things, and how all are hurried round, and each man's station

changed, will introduce sadness in the midst of the greatest joy. Or can

you, when you see before your eyes the succession of Alexander himself,

who arrived at the height of power and ruled the greatest empire, in the

short space of an hour trodden under foot, -- when you behold a king, that

was but even now surrounded with so numerous an army, receiving

nourishment to support his life from the hands of his conquerors, -- can

you, I say, believe there is any certainty in what we now possess, whilst

there is such a thing as chance? No, young men, cast off that vain

pride and empty boast of victory; sit down with humility, looking always

for what is yet to come, and the possible future reverses which the

divine displeasure may eventually make the end of our present happiness."

It is said that Aemilius, having spoken much more to the same purpose,

dismissed the young men properly humbled, and with their vain-glory and

insolence thoroughly chastened and curbed by his address.

When this was done, he put his army into garrisons, to refresh

themselves, and went himself to visit Greece, and to spend a short time

in relaxations equally honorable and humane. For, as he passed, he eased

the people's grievances, reformed their governments, and bestowed gifts

upon them; to some, corn, to others, oil out of the king's storehouses,

in which, they report, there were such vast quantities laid up, that

receivers and petitioners were lacking before they could be exhausted.

In Delphi he found a great square pillar of white marble, designed for

the pedestal of king Perseus' golden statue, on which he commanded his

own to be placed, alleging that it was but just that the conquered should

give place to the conquerors. In Olympia he is said to have uttered the

saying everybody has heard, that Phidias had carved Homer's Jupiter.

When the ten commissioners arrived from Rome, he delivered up again to

the Macedonians their cities and country, granting them to live at

liberty, and according to their own laws, only paying the Romans the

tribute of a hundred talents, double which sum they had been wont to pay

to their kings. Then he celebrated all manner of shows and games, and

sacrifices to the gods, and made great entertainments and feasts; the

charge of all which he liberally defrayed out of the king's treasury; and

showed that he understood the ordering and placing of his guests, and how

every man should be received, answerably to their rank and quality, with

such nice exactness, that the Greeks were full of wonder, finding the

care of these matters of pleasure did not escape him, and that though

involved in such important business, he could observe correctness in

these bides. Nor was it least gratifying to him, that, amidst all the

magnificent and splendid preparations, he himself was always the most

grateful sight, and greatest pleasure to those he entertained. And he

told those that seemed to wonder at his diligence, that there was the

same spirit shown in marshaling a banquet as an army; in rendering the

one formidable to the enemy, the other acceptable to the guests. Nor did

men less praise his liberality, and the greatness of his soul, than his

other virtues; for he would not so much as see those great quantities of

silver and gold, which were heaped together out of the king's palaces,

but delivered them to the quaestors, to be put into the public treasury.

He only permitted his own sons, who were great lovers of learning, to

take the king's books; and when he distributed rewards due to

extraordinary valor, he gave his son-in-law, Aelius Tubero, a bowl that

weighed five pounds. This is that Tubero we have already mentioned, who

was one of sixteen relations that lived together, and were all maintained

out of one little farm; and it is said, that this was the first plate

that ever entered the house of the Aelii, brought thither as an honor and

reward of virtue; before this time, neither they nor their wives ever

made use either of silver or gold.

Having thus settled everything well, taking his leave of the Greeks, and

exhorting the Macedonians, that, mindful of the liberty they had received

from the Romans, they should endeavor to maintain it by their obedience

to the laws, and concord amongst themselves, he departed for Epirus,

having orders from the senate, to give the soldiers that followed him in

the war against Perseus the pillage of the cities of that country. That

he might set upon them all at once by surprise and unawares, he summoned

ten of the principal men out of each, whom he commanded, on such an

appointed day, to bring all the gold and silver they had either in their

private houses or temples; and, with every one of these, as if it were

for this very purpose, and under a presence of searching for and

receiving the gold, he sent a centurion and a guard of soldiers; who, the

set day being come, rose all at once, and at the very self-same time fell

upon them, and proceeded to ransack the cities; so that in one hour a

hundred and fifty thousand persons were made slaves, and threescore and

ten cities sacked. Yet what was given to each soldier, out of so vast a

destruction and utter ruin, amounted to no more than eleven drachmas; so

that men could only shudder at the issue of a war, where the wealth of a

whole nation, thus divided, turned to so little advantage and profit to

each particular man.

When Aemilius had done this, -- an action perfectly contrary to his gentle

and mild nature, -- he went down to Oricus, where he embarked his army for

Italy. He sailed up the river Tiber in the king's galley, that had

sixteen banks of oars, and was richly adorned with captured arms and with

cloths of purple and scarlet; so that, the vessel rowing slowly against

the stream, the Romans that crowded on the shore to meet him had a

foretaste of his following triumph. But the soldiers, who had cast a

covetous eye on the treasures of Perseus, when they did not obtain as

much as they thought they deserved, were secretly enraged and angry with

Aemilius for this, but openly complained that he had been a severe and

tyrannical commander over them; nor were they ready to show their desire

of his triumph. When Servius Galba, who was Aemilius's enemy, though he

commanded as tribune under him, understood this, he had the boldness

plainly to affirm that a triumph was not to be allowed him; and sowed

various calumnies amongst the soldiers, which yet further increased their

ill-will. Nay more, he desired the tribunes of the people, because the

four hours that were remaining of the day could not suffice for the

accusation, to let him put it off till another. But when the tribunes

commanded him to speak then, if he had anything to say, he began a long

oration, filled with all manner of reproaches, in which he spent the

remaining part of the time, and the tribunes, when it was dark, dismissed

the assembly. The soldiers, growing more vehement on this, thronged all

to Galba, and entering into a conspiracy, early in the morning beset the

capitol, where the tribunes had appointed the following assembly to be

held.

As soon as it was day, it was put to the vote, and the first tribe was

proceeding to refuse the triumph; and the news spread amongst the people

and to the senate. The people were indeed much grieved that Aemilius

should meet with such ignominy; but this was only in words, which had no

effect. The chief of the senate exclaimed against it as a base action,

and excited one another to repress the boldness and insolence of the

soldiers, which would erelong become altogether ungovernable and violent,

were they now permitted to deprive Aemilius of his triumph. Forcing a

passage through the crowd, they came up in great numbers, and desired the

tribunes to defer polling, till they had spoken what they had to say to

the people. All things thus suspended, and silence being made, Marcus

Servilius stood up, a man of consular dignity, and who had killed

twenty-three of his enemies that had challenged him in single combat.

"It is now more than ever," said he, "clear to my mind how great a

commander our Aemilius Paulus is, when I see he was able to perform such

famous and great exploits with an army so full of sedition and baseness;

nor can I sufficiently wonder, that a people that seemed to glory in the

triumphs over Illyrians and Ligurians, should now through envy refuse to

see the Macedonian king led alive, and all the glory of Philip and

Alexander in captivity to the Roman power. For is it not a strange thing

for you who, upon a slight rumor of victory that came by chance into the

city, did offer sacrifices and put up your requests unto the gods that

you might see the report verified, now, when the general is returned with

an undoubted conquest, to defraud the gods of honor, and yourselves of

joy, as if you feared to behold the greatness of his warlike deed, or

were resolved to spare your enemy? And of the two, much better were it

to put a stop to the triumph, out of pity to him, than out of envy to

your general; yet to such a height of power is malice arrived amongst

you, that a man without one scar to show on his skin, that is smooth and

sleek with ease and home-keeping habits, will undertake to define the

office and duties of a general before us, who with our own wounds have

been taught how to judge of the valor or the cowardice of commanders."

And, at the same time, putting aside his garment, he showed an infinite

number of scars upon his breast, and, turning about, he exposed some

parts of his person which it is usual to conceal; and, addressing Galba,

said: "You deride me for these, in which I glory before my

fellow-citizens, for it is in their service, in which I have ridden night

and day, that I received them; but go collect the votes, whilst I follow

after, and note the base and ungrateful, and such as choose rather to be

flattered and courted than commanded by their general." It is said, this

speech so stopped the soldiers' mouths, and altered their minds, that all

the tribes decreed a triumph for Aemilius; which was performed after 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, 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 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; and many of them could not forbear

tears, and all beheld the sight with a mixture of sorrow and pleasure,

until the children were 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

fainthearted 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 and exempt from calamities; but, as we read

in Homer, that those should think themselves truly blessed to whom

fortune has given an equal share of good and evil.

Aemilius had four sons, of whom Scipio and Fabius, as is already related,

were adopted into other families; the other two, whom he had by a second

wife, and who were yet but young, he brought up in his own house. One of

these died at fourteen years of age, five days before his father's

triumph; the other at twelve, three days after: so that there was no

Roman without a deep sense of his suffering, and who did not shudder at

the cruelty of fortune, that had not scrupled to bring so much sorrow

into a house replenished with happiness, rejoicing, and sacrifices, and

to intermingle tears and laments with songs of victory and triumph.

Aemilius, however, reasoning justly that courage and resolution was not

merely to resist armor and spears, but all the shocks of ill fortune, so

met and so adapted himself to these mingled and contrasting

circumstances, as to outbalance the evil with the good, and his private

concerns with those of the public; and thus did not allow anything

either to take away from the grandeur, or sully the dignity of his

victory. For as soon as he had buried the first of his sons, (as we have

already said,) he triumphed; and the second dying almost as soon as his

triumph was over, he gathered together an assembly of the people, and

made an oration to them, not like a man that stood in need of comfort

from others, but one that undertook to support his fellow-citizens in

their grief for the sufferings he himself underwent.

"I," he said, "who never yet feared anything that was human, have,

amongst such as were divine, always had a dread of fortune as faithless

and inconstant; and, for the very reason that in this war she had been as

a favorable gale in all my affairs, I still expected some change and

reflux of things. In one day I passed the Ionian sea, and reached

Corcyra from Brundisium; thence in five more I sacrificed at Delphi, and

in other five days came to my forces in Macedonia, where, after I had

finished the usual sacrifices for the purifying of the army, I entered on

my duties, and, in the space of fifteen days, put an honorable period to

the war. Still retaining a jealousy of fortune, even from the smooth

current of my affairs, and seeing myself secure and free from the danger

of any enemy, I chiefly dreaded the change of the goddess at sea, whilst

conveying home my victorious army, vast spoils, and a captive king. Nay,

indeed, after I was returned to you safe, and saw the city full of joy,

congratulating, and sacrifices, yet still I distrusted, well knowing that

fortune never conferred any great benefits that were unmixed and

unattended with probabilities of reverse. Nor could my mind, that was

still as it were in labor, and always foreseeing something to befall this

city, free itself from this fear, until this great misfortune befell me

in my own family, and till, in the midst of those days set apart for

triumph, I carried two of the best of sons, my only destined successors,

one after another to their funerals. Now, therefore, I am myself safe

from danger, at least as to what was my greatest care; and I trust and am

verily persuaded, that for the time to come Fortune will prove constant

and harmless unto you; since she has sufficiently wreaked her jealousy at

our great successes on me and mine, and has made the conqueror as marked

an example of human instability as the captive whom he led in triumph,

with this only difference, that Perseus, though conquered, does yet enjoy

his children, while the conqueror, Aemilius, is deprived of his." This

was the generous and magnanimous oration Aemilius is said to have spoken

to the people, from a heart truly sincere and free from all artifice.

Although he very much pitied the condition of Perseus, and studied to

befriend him in what he was able, yet he could procure no other favor,

than his removal from the common prison, the Carcer, into a more cleanly

and humane place of security, where, whilst he was guarded, it is said,

he starved himself to death. Others state his death to have been of the

strangest and most unusual character: that the soldiers who were his

guard, having conceived a spite and hatred against him for some reason,

and finding no other way to grieve and afflict him, kept him from sleep,

took pains to disturb him when he was disposed to rest, and found out

contrivances to keep him continually awake, by which means at length he

was utterly worn out, and expired. Two of his children, also, died soon

after him; the third, who was named Alexander, they say proved an

exquisite artist in turning and graving small figures, and learned so

perfectly to speak and write the Roman language, that he became clerk to

the magistrates, and behaved himself in his office with great skill and

conduct.

They ascribe to Aemilius's conquest of Macedonia, this most acceptable

benefit to the people, that he brought so vast a quantity of money into

the public treasury, that they never paid any taxes, until Hirtius and

Pansa were consuls, which was in the first war between Antony and Caesar.

This also was peculiar and remarkable in Aemilius, that though he was

extremely beloved and honored by the people, yet he always sided with the

nobles; nor would he either say or do anything to ingratiate himself

with the multitude, but constantly adhered to the nobility, in all

political matters, which in after-times was cast in Scipio Africanus's

teeth by Appius; these two being in their time the most considerable men

in the city, and standing in competition for the office of censor. The

one had on his side the nobles and the senate, to which party the Appii

were always attached; the other, although his own interest was great, yet

made use of the favor and love of the people. When, therefore, Appius

saw Scipio come to the market-place, surrounded with men of mean rank,

and such as were but newly made free, yet were very fit to manage a

debate, to gather together the rabble, and to carry whatsoever they

designed by importunity and noise, crying out with a loud voice: "Groan

now," said he, "O Aemilius Paulus, if you have knowledge in your grave of

what is done above, that your son aspires to be censor, by the help of

Aemilius, the common crier, and Licinius Philonicus." Scipio always had

the good-will of the people, because he was constantly heaping favors on

them; but Aemilius, although he still took part with the nobles, yet was

as much the people's favorite as those who most sought popularity and

used every art to obtain it. This they made manifest, when, amongst

other dignities, they thought him worthy of the office of censor, a trust

accounted most sacred and of great authority, as well in other things, as

in the strict examination into men's lives. For the censors had power to

expel a senator, and enroll whom they judged most fit in his room, and to

disgrace such young men as lived licentiously, by taking away their

horses. Besides this, they were to value and assess each man's estate,

and register the number of the people. There were numbered by Aemilius,

337,452 men. He declared Marcus Aemilius Lepidus first senator, who had

already four times held that honor, and he removed from their office

three of the senators of the least note. The same moderation he and his

fellow censor, Marcius Philippus, used at the muster of the knights.

Whilst he was thus busy about many and weighty affairs, he fell sick of a

disease, which at first seemed hazardous; and although after awhile it

proved without danger, yet was troublesome and difficult to be cured: so

that by the advice of his physicians he sailed to Velia, in South Italy,

and there dwelt a long time near the sea, where he enjoyed all possible

quietness. The Romans, in the meanwhile, longed for his return, and

oftentimes by their expressions in the theaters, gave public testimony of

their great desire and impatience to see him. When, therefore, the time

drew nigh that a solemn sacrifice was of necessity to be offered, and he

found, as he thought, his body strong enough, he came back again to Rome,

and there performed the holy rites with the rest of the priests, the

people in the mean time crowding about him, and congratulating his

return. The next day he sacrificed again to the gods for his recovery;

and, having finished the sacrifice, returned to his house and sat down to

dinner, when, all on a sudden and when no change was expected, he fell

into a fit of delirium, and, being quite deprived of his senses, the

third day after ended a life, in which he had wanted no manner of thing

which is thought to conduce to happiness. Nay, his very funeral pomp had

something in it remarkable and to be admired, and his virtue was graced

with the most solemn and happy rites at his burial; consisting, not in

gold and ivory, or in the usual sumptuousness and splendor of such

preparations, but in the good-will, honor, and love, not only of his

fellow-citizens, but of his enemies themselves. For as many Spaniards,

Ligurians, and Macedonians, as happened to be present at the solemnity,

that were young and of vigorous bodies, took up the bier and carried it

whilst the more aged followed, calling Aemilius the benefactor and

preserver of their countries. For not only at the time of his conquest

had he acted to all with kindness and clemency, but, through the whole

course of his life, he continued to do them good and look after their

concerns, as if they had been his familiars and relations. They report,

that the whole of his estate scarce amounted to three hundred and seventy

thousand drachmas; to which he left his two sons coheirs; but Scipio, who

was the youngest, being adopted into the more wealthy family of

Africanus, gave it all to his brother. Such are said to have been the

life and manners of Aemilius.