Chapter VII: Book XXXVIII (3)

38. Then, with the concurrence of the ten ambassadors, a treaty was concluded with Antiochus, in nearly the following words: “Let there be friendship between king Antiochus and the Roman people, on the following terms and conditions—Let not the king suffer any army, intended to act against the Roman people, or their allies, to pass through the territories of his own realm, or of any state under his dominion, nor supply it with provisions, or with any other assistance. Let the Romans and their allies observe the same conduct toward Antiochus, and those under his government. Let there not be to Antiochus the right of carrying on war with the inhabitants of the islands, or of passing over into Europe. Let him evacuate the cities, lands, villages, and forts on this side of Mount Taurus, as far as the river Halys; and from the foot of Mount Taurus to the summit, where it verges upon Lycaonia. Let him not remove any arms out of those towns, lands, or forts which he may evacuate; if he hath removed any, let him honourably replace what he ought to make good, and in the place that he ought. Let him not receive any soldier, or other person, from the kingdom of Eumenes. If any natives of those cities, which are hereby separated from his kingdom, are now with Antiochus, or within the bounds of his realms, let them all return to Apamea, before a certain day. Let such of the natives of Antiochus’s kingdom, as are now with the Romans and their allies, have liberty to depart or to stay. Let him deliver to the Romans and their allies, all their slaves, whether fugitives or taken in war, likewise whatever free-born person may be a prisoner or deserter. Let him give up all his elephants, and not procure others. Let him also surrender his ships of war, and their stores; let him not keep more than ten light trading vessels, none of which are to be worked with more than thirty oars, nor a galley of one tier of oars, for the purpose of an offensive war; let him not ail on this side of the promontories, Calycadnus and Sarpedon, except in a ship which will carry money, tribute, ambassadors, or hostages. Let there not be to king Antiochus the right of hiring soldiers out of those nations which are under the dominion of the Roman people, nor of receiving volunteers. Whatever houses and buildings, within the limits of Antiochus’s kingdom, belong to the Rhodians and their allies, let them belong to the Rhodians and allies on the same footing as they did before the war. If any sums of money are due to them, let them have a right to enforce payment; likewise, if any of their property has been taken away, let them have a right to search for, discover, and reclaim it. If any persons, to whom Antiochus hath given the cities which ought to be surrendered, still hold them, let him remove the garrisons, and take care that they may be properly surrendered. Let him pay, within twelve years, by equal annual payments, twelve thousand Attic talents of silver,[32] the talent to weigh not less than eighty Roman pounds; and five hundred and forty thousand pecks of wheat. He shall pay to king Eumenes, within five years, three hundred and fifty talents;[33] and, for the corn due, the sum which arises from his own valuation, one hundred and twenty seven talents.[34] Let him deliver to the Romans twenty hostages, and change them every third year; none of which are to be younger than eighteen, or older than forty-five years. If any of the allies of the Roman people shall make war on Antiochus, let him have liberty to repel force by force, provided he does not keep possession of any city, either by right of arms, or by admitting it into a treaty of amity. Let them decide the controversies among themselves by equity and arbitration; or, if it shall be the choice of both parties, by arms.” A clause was added to this treaty also, about delivering up Hannibal the Carthaginian, Thoas the Ætolian, Mnasimachus the Acarnanian, and the Chalcidians Eubalidas and Philo; and another, that if it should afterwards please the parties that any thing should be added, cancelled, or altered, that it might be done without invalidating the treaty.

39. The consul swore to the observance of this treaty. Quintus Minucius Thermus and Lucius Manlius, who happened to return just at that time from Oroanda, went to require the oath of the king. At the same time he wrote to Quintus Fabius Labeo, commander of the fleet, to sail, without delay, to Patara, to break up and burn the king’s ships that lay there. Sailing, accordingly, from Ephesus, he broke up or burned fifty decked ships; and, in the same voyage, took Telmessus, the inhabitants being terrified by his sudden appearance. Then having ordered those who were left at Ephesus to follow him, he passed onward from Lycia, through the islands to Greece. At Athens, after waiting a few days, until the ships from Ephesus came to Piræeus, he then brought home the whole fleet to Italy. Cneius Manlius, when he had, among other matters to be given up by Antiochus, received his elephants, and given them all as a present to Eumenes, then examined the causes of the several states, since many had been thrown into confusion amid the violent changes. King Ariarathes, the half of the money levied on him being remitted, through the kind offices of Eumenes, to whom he had betrothed, during that time, his daughter, was received into friendship. The ten ambassadors, after examining the causes of the respective states, made different arrangements, in different cases. They gave independence to those which had been tributary to king Antiochus and had sided with the Romans; and they ordered all such as had taken part with Antiochus, or had been tributary to king Attalus, to pay tribute to Eumenes. Besides they granted independence to the Colophonians, who live in Notium, the Cymæans, and Milasenians, all of whom they specified by name. To the Clazomenians they gave, besides their independence, the island of Drymusa. To the Milesians they restored what was called the sacred lands. They added to the territory of the Trojans, Rhœteum and Gergithus, not so much in consideration of any recent merits of theirs, as out of respect to their own origin. The same motive was the reason of their liberating Dardanum. They gifted the Chians, also the Smyrnæans and Erythræans, with lands, in consideration of the singular fidelity which they displayed during the war, and treated them with every distinguished honour. To the Phocæans, the territory which they had enjoyed before the war was restored; and permission was given them to use their ancient laws. They confirmed to the Rhodians the grants which were mentioned in the former decree. Lycia and Caria were assigned to them as far as the river Mæander, excepting Telmessus. To king Eumenes they gave, in Europe, the Chersonese and Lysimachia, with the forts, towns, and lands thereof, with the same frontier as Antiochus had held them; and, in Asia, both the Phrygias, the one on the Hellespont, and the other called the Greater, and restored to him Mysia, which had been taken by king Prusias, and also gave to him Lycaonia, and Milyas, and Lydia, and, by express mention, the cities of Tralles, and Ephesus, and Telmessus. When a dispute had arisen between Eumenes and Antiochus’s ambassadors, concerning Pamphylia, because part of it lay on the hither side, and part on the further side of Taurus, the matter was referred wholly to the senate.

40. When these treaties and grants were concluded, Manlius, with the ten ambassadors, and all his army, marched to the Hellespont, and dictated to the chiefs of the Gauls, whom he had summoned thither, terms on which they should maintain peace with Eumenes; and warned them to put an end to the practice of straggling in arms, and to confine themselves within the bounds of their own territories. Then, having collected ships from all parts of the coast, and Eumenes’s fleet also being brought thither from Elæa by Athenæus, that king’s brother, he transported all his forces into Europe. Then leading slowly through the Chersonese, by short marches, the army heavily encumbered with booty of every sort, he halted at Lysimachia; in order that he might enter Thrace, the march through which they in general dreaded, with the beasts of burden as fresh and vigorous as possible. On the day in which he set out from Lysimachia, he came to the river which they call Melas,[35] and thence, next day, to Cypsela. The road, about ten miles from Cypsela, proved to be obstructed by woods, narrow and broken. On account of these difficulties he divided the army into two parts; and, ordering one to advance in front, and the other at a considerable distance, to cover the rear, he placed between them the baggage; it was composed of waggons with the public money, and other booty of great value. As he was marching in this order through the defile, a body of Thracians, not more in number than ten thousand, composed of four states, the Astians, Cænians, Maduatians, and Corelians, posted themselves on both sides of the road at the narrowest part. There was an opinion that this was not done without the treacherous connivance of Philip, king of Macedonia; that he knew that the Romans would return by no other route than that through Thrace, and what an immense sum they would carry with them. The general himself was in the van, anxious about the disadvantages of the ground. The Thracians did not stir until the troops passed by; but, when they saw that the foremost division had got clear of the narrow pass, and that the rear division was not yet drawing near, they rushed upon the encumbrances and the baggage, and after killing the guards, some rifled the waggons, while others led off the horses under their loads. After their shouts reached those on the rear, who were then just entering the pass, and afterwards those in the van, the Romans ran together from both extremities to the centre, and an irregular sort of fight commenced, in many different places at once. The booty itself exposed the Thracians to slaughter, as they were encumbered with burdens, and most of them had thrown away their arms, that they might have their hands disengaged for plundering; the disadvantageous nature of the ground militated against the Romans, as the barbarians attacked them through well-known paths, and sometimes lurked in the ravines. The loads too, and the waggons, lying incommodiously for one party or the other, as chance directed, were great obstructions to their movements; and here the plunderer, there the defender of the booty, fell. The fortune of the fight was variable, according as the ground was favourable or unfavourable to this party or that, and according to the spirit of the combatants, and their numbers, for some had come in contact with a stronger party than themselves, others with a weaker. On both sides, however, great numbers fell. The night was now approaching, when the Thracians retired from the fight, not for the purpose of avoiding wounds or death, but because they had got enough of booty.

41. The first division of the Romans encamped beyond the pass, in open ground, round the temple of Bendis;[36] the second division remained in the middle of the defile, surrounded by a double rampart, to guard the baggage. Next day, having carefully examined the ground before they put themselves in motion, they rejoined the first. In that battle, although part of the baggage was lost, while a great part of the attendants and many of the soldiers perished, (since the fight was carried on through almost the whole extent of the defile,) yet the heaviest loss sustained was in the death of Quintus Minucius Thermus, a brave and gallant officer. The army arrived that day at the Hebrus, and thence passed through the country of the Ænians, by the temple of Apollo, whom the natives call Zerynthius. Another defile, as rugged and uneven as the former, awaits them around Tempyra (this is the name of the place); but, as there were no woods near, it afforded no cover for an ambuscade. Hither assembled the Thrausians, (who are also a Thracian tribe,) with the same hope of plunder; but because the bare valleys had this effect, that they were visible at a distance besetting the defile, there was less terror and tumult among the Romans; for, although they were obliged to fight on disadvantageous ground, yet it was in a regular battle, in an open field, and a fair encounter. Advancing in close order, with the war-shout, and falling on the enemy, they soon drove them off the ground, and put them to flight. Afterwards the rout and massacre began to take place, for the narrow passes actually impeded them. The victorious Romans encamped at a village of the Maronites, called Sare. Next day, after marching through an open country, the plain of Priate received them, where they halted three days, to receive supplies of corn, partly from the country of the Maronites, who made a voluntary contribution, and partly from their own ships, which attended them with stores of every kind. From this post there was one day’s march to Apollonia, whence they proceeded through the territory of Abdera to Neapolis. All this march through the Grecian colonies was performed in security. The rest of their march through the midst of the Thracians, though not harassed, was full of apprehension, by day and night, until they arrived in Macedon. This same army, when it proceeded by the same route under Scipio, had found the Thracians more peaceable, but for no other reason, than because it had then less booty, which was the object of their attack: although Claudius writes, that even on that occasion, a body of fifteen thousand Thracians opposed Mutines, the Numidian, who had advanced to reconnoitre the country. That the Numidians were four hundred horsemen, and a few elephants. That the son of Mutines, with a hundred and fifty chosen horsemen, broke through the middle of the enemy; and that the same individual, presently, when Mutines, placing his elephants in the centre, and the horse on the wings, had begun to engage the enemy, cast terror into them by an attack on their rear; and that owing to this, the enemy, routed by the storm, as it were, of cavalry, did not come near the main body of infantry. Cneius Manlius conducted his army through Macedon into Thessaly; and, having proceeded, through Epirus to Apollonia, passed the winter there, as the sea in the winter was not as yet considered so little formidable that he might venture on the passage.

42. It was almost at the expiration of the year, that the consul, Marcus Valerius, came from Liguria to Rome to elect new magistrates, although he had not performed in his province any memorable act that could afford a reasonable excuse for coming later than usual to the elections. The assembly for choosing the consuls was held on the twelfth day before the calends of March. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus and Caius Flaminius were elected consuls. The following day, Appius Claudius Pulcher, Servius Sulpicius Galba, Quintus Terentius Culleo, Lucius Terentius Massa, Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and Marcus Furius Crassipes were elected prætors. When the elections were concluded, the consul asked the senate what were the provinces that they wished should be given to the prætors: they decreed two for the administration of justice in Rome; two out of Italy—Sicily and Sardinia; and two in Italy—Tarentum and Gaul: the prætors were ordered to cast lots immediately, before they entered on their office. Servius Sulpicius received by lot the city jurisdiction; Quintus Terentius, the foreign; Lucius Terentius obtained Sicily; Quintus Fulvius, Sardinia; Appius Claudius, Tarentum; and Marcus Furius, Gaul. In that year, Lucius Minucius Myrtilus and Lucius Manlius, as they were charged with having beaten the Carthaginian ambassadors, were, by order of Marcus Claudius, city prætor, delivered up by heralds to the ambassadors, and carried to Carthage. Reports prevailed of a great war, growing too every day more formidable, in Liguria. The senate, therefore, decreed Liguria as the province of both the new consuls, on the day that they made their motion in the senate concerning the republic and the provinces. To this vote the consul, Lepidus, objected, asserting that “it would be highly indecorous to shut up the consuls among the valleys of Liguria, while Marcus Fulvius and Cneius Manlius reigned, a second year, one in Europe, another in Asia, as if substituted in the room of Philip and Antiochus. If it was resolved to keep armies in those countries, it was more fitting that consuls, rather than private persons, should have the command of them. That they made their circuits with all the terrors of war, among nations against whom war had not been declared, trafficking peace for money. If it was necessary to hold these provinces with armies, in the same manner as Lucius Scipio, consul, had succeeded Manius Acilius, consul; and as Marcus Fulvius and Cneius Manlius succeeded Lucius Scipio; so ought Caius Livius and Marcus Valerius, the consuls, to have succeeded Fulvius and Manlius. But, unquestionably, at this time, after the Ætolian war had been concluded, Asia taken from Antiochus, and the Gauls subdued,—either the consuls ought to be sent to the consular armies, or the legions ought be brought home, and restored to the commonwealth.” The senate, although they heard these words, persisted in their vote, that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls; but they ordered, that Manlius and Fulvius should leave their provinces, withdraw the troops, and come home to Rome.

43. There was a quarrel between Marcus Fulvius and the consul Æmilius; and in addition to other motives, Æmilius thought, that he had been made consul two years later, by the opposition of Marcus Fulvius. In order, therefore, to exasperate the minds of the public against him, he introduced to the senate ambassadors from Ambracia, whom he had secretly instructed in the charges they were to make against him. These complained, that “war had been made on them when they were in a state of peace, after they had executed the commands of former consuls, and were ready to show the same obedience to Marcus Fulvius; that first their lands were ravaged; and that, the terror of rapine and carnage was then cast into the city, that by that fear they might be compelled to shut their gates. They were then besieged and assaulted, and all the horrors of war were inflicted on them, murders, burnings, the sacking and demolishing of their city. Their wives and children were dragged away into slavery; their goods taken from them; and, what shocked them more than all, their temples were despoiled of their ornaments, and the images of their gods, nay, the gods themselves were torn from their mansions, and carried away; so that the Ambracians had nothing left to adore, to which they could address their prayers and supplications, but naked walls and pillars.” While they were making these complaints, the consul, as had been agreed, by asking questions leading to further charges, drew them on, as if against their inclinations, to the mention of other matters. The senators being moved by these accusations, the other consul, Caius Flaminius, took up the cause of Marcus Fulvius: and he said that “the Ambracians had set out in an old course, now long out of use. In this manner Marcus Marcellus had been accused by the Syracusans; and Quintus Fulvius by the Campanians. Why might not the senate as well allow Titus Quintius to be accused by king Philip; Manius Acilius and Lucius Scipio, by Antiochus; Cneius Manlius, by the Gauls; and Fulvius himself, by the Ætolians and the states of Cephallenia? Do you think, conscript fathers, either that I in behalf of Marcus Fulvius, or that Marcus Fulvius himself, will deny the besieging and taking Ambracia, the removing thence the statues and ornaments, and the other proceedings, which are usual on the capture of cities? He is about to demand a triumph from you for those very services, and to carry before his chariot those statues, the removal of which is charged as criminal, together with the other spoils of that city, and hang them up on the pillars of his house. There is no kind of pretence for their separating themselves from the Ætolians; the cause of the Ambracians and of the Ætolians is the same. Let, therefore, my colleague either vent his malice in some other case; or, if he is determined to proceed in this, let him detain his Ambracians until Fulvius comes home. I will not suffer any determination, concerning either the Ambracians or Ætolians, to pass in the absence of Marcus Fulvius.”

44. When Æmilius inveighed against the artful malignity of his adversary as being notorious to all, and affirmed, that he would spin out the time by affecting delays, so as not to return to Rome while an adversary was consul; two days were wasted in this dispute, and it was apparent that while Flaminius was present, no decision of the cause could be procured. The opportunity was eagerly caught at by Æmilius, when Flaminius, happening to fall sick, was absent, and on his proposing the motion the senate decreed, that, “all their effects should be restored to the Ambracians, that they should enjoy liberty, and the benefit of their own laws, and should levy what duties they might think proper on goods conveyed by land or sea, provided that the Romans and the allies of the Latin nation should be exempted therefrom. That with respect to the statues, and other ornaments, which they complained were carried away from their sacred buildings, their order was, that immediately on the return of Marcus Fulvius to Rome, the business should be laid before the college of pontiffs, and that whatever they might think proper should be done.” Nor was the consul content with this; but afterwards, in a badly attended meeting, he procured a clause to be added to the decree, “that it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force.” A supplication of three days’ continuance was then performed for the health of the people, because a grievous pestilence was desolating the city and country. The Latin festival was afterwards celebrated, when the consuls, being relieved from these religious duties, and having finished their levies, (for both of them chose to employ new soldiers,) set out for their provinces, where they disbanded all the old troops.

Shortly after the departure of the consuls, Cneius Manlius, the proconsul, arrived at Rome; and, when an audience of the senate was granted to him in the temple of Bellona, by Servius Sulpicius, the prætor, after enumerating the services which he had performed, he demanded that, in consideration thereof, public thanks should be offered to the immortal gods, and permission be granted to himself, to ride through the city in triumph; the greater number of the ten ambassadors, who had been in the province along with him, opposed the grant, and particularly Lucius Furius Purpureo, and Lucius Æmilius Paulus.

45. They alleged that “they had been appointed ambassadors in conjunction with Manlius, to make peace with Antiochus, and to conclude the terms of the treaty which had been entered on with Lucius Scipio. That Cneius Manlius laboured to the utmost of his power, to confound this peace, and to seize Antiochus by treachery, if he should put his person in the consul’s power; but that he (Antiochus) having discovered the treacherous designs of the consul, though frequently tempted by proposals of a conference, had not only avoided the meeting, but even the sight of him. That Manlius, desiring to cross Mount Taurus, was with difficulty restrained by the entreaties of all the ambassadors, who besought him not to brave the curse denounced in the Sibylline verses against such as should pass those fatal limits. Nevertheless, he marched his army thither, and encamped almost on the very summit where the waters take opposite directions. As he could find no sort of pretence for hostilities, the king’s subjects being perfectly quiet, he led his army round to the Gallogræcians, against which nation war was waged, without any decree of the senate, or order of the people. Which did ever any general before presume to do in like manner, on his own judgment? The latest wars were those with Antiochus, with Philip, and with Hannibal and the Carthaginians; concerning all these the senate had passed its decrees, the people their orders; several embassies were previously sent; restitution demanded; and, finally, heralds were sent to proclaim war. Now, Cneius Manlius,” said they, “has any one of these proceedings been observed in the present case, that we should consider it a war of the Roman people, and not a predatory expedition of your own contrivance? But, were you even content with this? Did you lead your army against those whom you had chosen to consider as enemies, by the direct course; or did you ramble through every deflection of the roads, when you stopped at every division of the way, in order that, to whatever side Eumenes’s brother, Attalus, should turn his route, you the consul, as an auxiliary in his pay, might follow with a Roman army? Did you not traverse every recess and corner of Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Phrygia; levying contributions from the tyrants and peasants in those remote regions? For, what had you to do with the Oroandians, what with other states equally inoffensive?

“But, in what manner did you conduct this war, on the merit of which you ask a triumph? Did you fight on equal ground, and at the time of your own choosing? Indeed you with propriety require that thanks be returned to the immortal gods; first, because they did not ordain that the army should undergo the penalty deserved by the temerity of its commander, in commencing a war in accordance with no law of nations; and next, because they gave us, for antagonists, brutes, and not men.

46. “Do not suppose that the name only of the Gallogræcians is a mixed one: their bodies, and their minds, have undergone a similar process, and have been corrupted by the mixture. Had they been such Gauls as those whom we have a thousand times encountered in Italy, with various success, would any one of us, considering the conduct of our commander, have returned to tell the story? Two battles were fought; twice he sustained the disadvantages of position, and, at the bottom of a valley, almost placed his army under the feet of the enemy; so that they were able to overwhelm us, even though they did not cast their weapons from the higher ground, but merely threw themselves on us without arms. What, then, was the consequence? Great is the fortune of the Roman people; great and terrible its name! By the recent downfall of Hannibal, Philip, and Antiochus, the Gauls were, in a manner, thunder-struck. Bulky as their bodies were, they were dismayed, and put to flight, by slings and arrows; not a sword was stained in battle during the Gallic war. Like flocks of birds, they flew away at the very sound of our missiles. But, indeed, when we, the same army, were on our return, and happened to fall in with a party of Thracian robbers, (as if fortune meant to teach us what the issue would have been, if we had met an enemy,) we were beaten, routed, and stripped of our baggage. Among many other brave soldiers fell Quintus Minucius Thermus, whose death was a much greater loss, than if Cneius Manlius, to whose rashness the misfortune had happened, had perished. An army, carrying home the spoils of king Antiochus, was dispersed in three places, and with the vanguard in one place, the rear in another, and the baggage in a third, hid itself for a night among bushes, in the dens of wild beasts. Is a triumph demanded for such exploits as these? Although no disaster and disgrace had been suffered in Thrace, over what enemies would you triumph? Over those, I suppose, whom the Roman senate or people had assigned to you as your enemies. On these grounds, indeed, a triumph was granted to Lucius Scipio; to Manius Acilius, over king Antiochus; to Titus Quintius, over king Philip; and to Publius Africanus, over Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and Syphax. Now, after the senate had voted a declaration of war, the following unimportant matters were inquired into:—To whom the declaration ought to be made; whether to the kings in person, or whether making it at some of their garrisons were sufficient? Do you wish, then, that all these rites should be disregarded and profaned? That the laws of the heralds be abrogated? That there should be no heralds? Let religion (the gods pardon the expression) be thrown aside; let forgetfulness of the gods occupy your minds. Do you, also, judge it fit that the senate should not be consulted concerning war? That the people should not be asked, whether they choose and order war to be made on the Gauls? On a late occasion, the consuls, certainly, wished for the provinces of Greece and Asia; yet, when you persisted in assigning Liguria as their province, they obeyed your commands. They will, therefore, if the war should be successfully carried on, justly demand a triumph from you, conscript fathers, under whose authority they carried it on.”

47. Such were the arguments of Furius and Æmilius. We have heard that Maulius replied in nearly the following manner: “Conscript fathers, formerly the tribunes of the people were accustomed to oppose generals demanding a triumph. I am thankful to the present tribunes because they have conceded so much either to me, or to the greatness of my services, as not only to show, by their silence, their approbation of my pretensions to that honour, but likewise their readiness, if there were occasion, to make a motion to that purpose. I have, since it is the pleasure of the gods, as my opponents some of the ten ambassadors, the actual council which our ancestors assigned to generals for the purpose of arranging their conquests and gracing their victories. Lucius Furius and Lucius Æmilius forbid me to mount the triumphal chariot, and pluck from my head the crown of glory, the persons whom, if the tribunes had opposed triumph, I should have cited as witnesses to bear testimony to my services. Conscript fathers, I envy no man’s honours; but, on a late occasion, you yourselves deterred by your authority the tribunes of the people, brave and active men, from impeding the triumph of Quintus Fabius Labeo. Fabius enjoyed a triumph; and yet his adversaries alleged, not that he had carried on an unjust war, but that he had not seen the enemy at all. Whereas I, who fought so many pitched battles with one hundred thousand of your fiercest enemies; who killed or made prisoners more than forty thousand; who stormed two of their camps; who left all the countries on this side of the summits of Taurus in greater tranquillity than is the country of Italy; am not only defrauded of a triumph, but obliged to plead my cause before you, conscript fathers, whilst my own council of ambassadors accuse me. Conscript fathers, their charge, as you perceive, is twoold: for they assert, that I ought not to have waged war with the Gauls; and besides, that the war was carried on rashly and imprudently. The Gauls were not enemies; but, you committed hostilities against them, when peaceable and obedient to your orders. I am not about to require from you, conscript fathers, that you may attribute to the Gauls who inhabit Asia, those characteristics which you are well aware belong to the Gallic race in general, savage fierceness and most inveterate hatred to the name of Rome. Excluding the infamous and odious character of the whole nation, judge of these Gauls by themselves. I wish king Eumenes, I wish all the states of Asia were present, and that you heard their complaints, rather than my charges against them. Send ambassadors round all the cities of Asia, and ask whether they were relieved from more grievous servitude by the removal of Antiochus beyond the summits of Taurus, or by the conquest of the Gauls. Let them tell you how often their territories were ravaged, how often their property and their people were carried off as prey; while they had scarcely ever an opportunity of ransoming any prisoners, they heard of nothing but human victims slain, and their children offered up in sacrifice. Be assured that your allies paid tribute to these Gauls; and, though delivered now by you from the yoke of Antiochus, must still have continued to pay it, if I had been inactive. The farther Antiochus was removed, the more tyrannically would the Gauls have domineered in Asia; and all the countries on this side of Taurus you would have annexed to their empire, not to your own.

48. “But, allowing all this to be so; the Gauls formerly sacked Delphi, the common oracle to which all mankind resort, and the central point of the globe of the earth; yet the Roman people did not, on that account, proclaim or wage war against them. I really thought, that there was some distinction to be made between that period when Greece and Asia were not yet under your jurisdiction and dominion, and the present, when you have made Mount Taurus the boundary of the Roman empire; when you grant liberty and independence to the states of that country; when you augment the territories of some; amerce others in a part of their lands; impose tribute; add to, diminish, give, and take away kingdoms, and deem it your business to take care that they may enjoy peace both on land and sea. Is it not the case that you would not have thought Asia liberated unless Antiochus withdrew his garrisons, which lay quiet in their citadels: if the armies of the Gauls roamed about without control, would the grants which you made to king Eumenes be secure, or the liberty of the states entire? But why do I reason thus? as if I had not found the Gauls enemies, but made them such! I appeal to you, Lucius Scipio, whose bravery and good fortune alike I suppliantly sought, and not in vain, from the immortal gods, when I succeeded you in the command; and to you, Publius Scipio, who held, both with your brother the consul, and with the army, the commission of a lieutenant-general and the dignity of a colleague; did you ascertain that legions of the Gauls were in the army of Antiochus? Did you see them in his line of battle, posted in both wings; for there was his main strength? Did you fight with them as declared enemies? Did you kill them? Did you carry off their spoils? Yet the senate had decreed, and the people ordered, war against Antiochus, not against the Gauls. But as I judge, they had at the same time decreed and ordered that war should be with all those who should be reckoned among his troops; so that, excepting Antiochus, with whom Scipio had negotiated a peace, and with whom, specifying him by name, you had directed a treaty to be concluded, every one who had borne arms on the side of Antiochus against us, were our enemies. And although the Gauls had been conspicuous in that cause, and several petty princes and tyrants also; nevertheless, I made peace with the rest, after compelling them to atone for their transgressions, as the dignity of your empire required. I made trial, at the same time, of the temper of the Gauls, whether they could be reclaimed from their natural ferocity; but, perceiving them untractable and implacable, I then judged it necessary to chastise them by force of arms.

49. “Now, since the charge respecting the undertaking of the war has been fully refuted, I must account for my conduct in the prosecution of it. In which, indeed, I should perfectly confide in the merits of my cause, though I were pleading, not before a Roman, but before a Carthaginian senate, by whom their commanders are said to be crucified, if they act on wrong plans, even with success. But in such a state as this, which, in the commencement and progress of every undertaking, makes application to the gods on this account, because it subjects to no malicious cavilling those plans of which the gods have approved; and which, in the established form, when it decrees a supplication or triumph, uses these words,—‘For having conducted the business of the public successfully and fortunately;’ if I should be unwilling, if I should think it presumptuous and arrogant to boast of my own bravery, and if I should demand, in consideration of my own good fortune, and that of my army, in having vanquished so great a nation, without any loss of men, that thanks should be given to the immortal gods, and that I should ascend the Capitol in triumph, from whence I took my departure, with vows duly offered;—would you refuse this to me, and the immortal gods? Yes; for I fought on unfavourable ground. Tell me, then, on what more favourable ground could I have fought, when the enemy had seized on a mountain, and kept themselves in a strong post; surely, if I wished to conquer them, I must go where they were. What if they had a town on the same spot, and kept within the walls: surely they must be attacked. Did Manlius Acilius fight with Antiochus, at Thermopylæ on favourable ground? Did not Titus Quintius dislodge Philip when he was posted in the same manner, on the tops of mountains, over the river Anio? Truly I cannot yet discover what sort of an enemy they may represent to themselves, or in what light they may wish them to appear to you. If as being degenerate and softened by the pleasures of Asia, what danger was there in advancing against them even on unfavourable ground? If formidable, both for fierceness of courage and strength of body, do you refuse a triumph to victories so honourable? Conscript fathers, envy is blind, and only capable of depreciating merit, and poisoning its honours and rewards. Pardon me, I beseech you, conscript fathers, on these conditions, if it be the case that the necessary reply to the accusation, and not my desire of boasting of my exploits, hath made my speech too long. Whether could I, in my march through Thrace, create open glades out of narrow defiles, and level plains out of steep precipices, and fields out of woods, and insure that the Thracian plunderers should not lurk any where in those concealments which they were acquainted with; that none of our packages should be snatched away, none of our loaded horses, out of so large a train, led off; that no one should be wounded; and that the brave and active Lucius Minucius should not die of his wound? On this mischance, by which we unfortunately lost so valuable a citizen, those men declaim profusely. That the enemy attacked us in a dangerous pass, where every advantage of ground was against us; that our two divisions, the front and the rear, surrounded by a combined movement the army of the barbarians, while they were employed about our baggage; that they killed and took prisoners many thousands on that day; and, in a few days after, many more;—do they imagine that you would not ascertain this, even if they passed it over in silence, when the whole army can testify the truth of what I assert? If I had never drawn a sword in Asia, if I had never seen an enemy there, yet, by the two battles fought in Thrace, I had merited a triumph, as proconsul. But I have said enough, and shall only request, and, I should hope, obtain, your pardon, conscript fathers, for having troubled you longer than I could have wished to do.”

50. The accusations that day would have been more powerful than the defence, had they not prolonged the debate to a late hour; for the senate adjourned in a mood likely to refuse the triumph. Next day the relations and friends of Cneius Manlius exerted their utmost efforts in his behalf; and the opinion of the elder senators prevailed, who asserted, that there was no instance on record of a commander who had subdued the enemy, completed the business of his province, and brought home his army, entering the city as a private citizen, without honours, and without the chariot and laurel. This feeling of shame overcame their prejudices against him, and a great majority voted for his triumph. A greater contest which was set on foot against a greater and more illustrious personage, suppressed all mention and memory of this struggle. The two Petillii, as Valerius Antias writes, instituted a prosecution against Publius Scipio Africanus. Men construed this according to their different dispositions; some did not blame the plebeian tribunes, but the public in general, that could suffer such a process to be carried on. They observed, that “the two greatest states in the world proved, nearly at the same time, ungrateful to their chief commanders; but Rome the more ungrateful of the two, because Carthage was subdued when she sent the vanquished Hannibal into exile; whereas Rome, when victorious, was for banishing the conqueror Africanus.” Others asserted, that “no one citizen ought to stand so high above the rest, as not to be made answerable to the laws for his conduct: for nothing contributed so much towards the equalization of liberty, as that the most powerful might be brought to trial. For how could any charge, especially the administration of government, be safely intrusted to any man, if he were not liable to be called to an account? That force was not unjustly used against him who could not bear an equality of rights.” These subjects were discussed in conversation, until the day of trial came. Never was either any other person, or Scipio himself, when consul or censor, escorted to the forum by a more numerous multitude of all kinds, than he was on that day when he appeared to answer the charge against him. When ordered to make his defence, without taking any notice of the facts laid to his charge, he delivered so magnificent a speech concerning his exploits, that it was universally agreed, that no man had been ever praised either to more advantage or with more truth. For his achievements were described with the same ardent spirit and powerful genius with which they had been performed; and his auditors felt no disgust, because his acts were mentioned to meet the peril, and not for ostentation.

51. The plebeian tribunes, in order to procure credit to their present accusations, introduced the old imputations of his luxurious style of living in his winter quarters at Syracuse, and the tumult raised by Pleminius at Locri. They then brought forward against him the charge of receiving money, grounded on suspicion, not on proof. They alleged, that “his son, being taken prisoner, was restored without ransom; and that, in every other instance, Scipio was courted by Antiochus, as if peace and war with Rome were at his sole disposal. He had acted towards the consul, in his province, as dictator, not as lieutenant-general; nor had he gone thither with any other view than that this might appear to Greece and Asia, and all the kings and nations eastward, which had been long since the settled conviction of Spain, Gaul, Sicily, and Africa, that he alone was the head and pillar of the Roman empire; that a state which was mistress of the world, lay sheltered under the shade of Scipio; and that his nods were equivalent to decrees of the senate, and orders of the people.” They attack by envy, as much as they can, him out of the reach of dishonour. The pleading having lasted till night, the trial was adjourned to another day. When that came, the tribunes took their seat in the rostrum at the dawn of day. The accused being summoned, came, with a numerous train of friends and dependents, through the middle of the assembly, to the rostrum; and, silence being made, he said,—“Tribunes of the people, and you, Romans, on the anniversary of this day I fought a pitched battle in Africa, with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, with good fortune and success. As, therefore, it is but decent that a stop be put, for this day, to litigation and wrangling, I will immediately go to the Capitol, there to return my acknowledgments to Jupiter the supremely good and great, to Juno, Minerva, and the other deities presiding over the Capitol and citadel, and will give them thanks for having, on this day, and at many other times, endowed me both with the will and ability to perform extraordinary services to the commonwealth. Such of you also, Romans, as it suits, come with me and beseech the gods that you may have commanders like myself; since, from my seventeenth year to old age, you have always anticipated my years with honours, and I, your honours with services.” Accordingly, he went up from the rostrum to the Capitol; and, at the same time, the whole assembly turned about and followed him; insomuch, that at last even the clerks and messengers left the tribunes, not one remaining, except the slaves who attended them, and the crier, who was in the habit of summoning the accused from the rostrum. Scipio, attended by the whole body of the Roman people, went round all the temples of the gods, not only in the Capitol, but throughout the whole city. This day was almost more famous owing to the favour of the Romans towards him, and their high estimation of his real greatness, than that on which he rode through Rome in triumph over king Syphax and the Carthaginians.

52. It was, however, the last day that shone with lustre on Publius Scipio. For, as he could foresee nothing but the prosecutions of envy, and continual disputes with the tribunes, the trial being adjourned to a future day, he retired to the territory of Liternum, with a fixed determination not to attend the trial. His spirit was by nature too lofty, and habituated to such an elevated course of fortune, that he did not know how to act the part of an accused person, or stoop to the humble deportment of men pleading their cause. When the day came, and he began to be summoned in his absence, Lucius Scipio pleaded in his excuse that sickness was the reason of his absence. Which excuse the tribunes, who were the prosecutors, would not admit, but insisted that he did not come to plead his cause, owing to the same arrogance with which he had left the trial, the tribunes of the people, and the general assembly; and followed by the very men whom he had robbed of the right of passing sentence on him, together with their freedom of suffrage, had exhibited a triumph over the Roman people, and made a secession, the same day, from the tribunes to the Capitol. “You have therefore,” said they, “the due reward of that thoughtless conduct. You are, yourselves, forsaken by him under whose lead and direction you forsook us. And so much is our spirit daily on the decline, that although, seventeen years ago, when he was at the head of an army and fleet, we had resolution enough to send plebeian tribunes and an ædile into Sicily to take him into custody, and bring him home to Rome; yet we dare not now send to compel him, though a private citizen, to come from his country-seat to stand his trial.” The tribunes of the commons, being appealed to by Lucius Scipio, came to the following determination: that “since the excuse of sickness was pleaded it was their judgment that this excuse should be admitted, and that the day of trial should be adjourned by their colleagues.”

53. Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was, at that time, a plebeian tribune, and between him and Publius Scipio there was an enmity subsisting. When he had forbidden his name to be subscribed to the determination of his colleague, and every one expected from him a sentence more severe, he pronounced his judgment thus: that “Inasmuch as Lucius Scipio had pleaded sickness in excuse for his brother, that plea appeared to him to be sufficient: that he would not suffer Publius Scipio to be accused until he should return to Rome: and even then, if he appealed to him, he would support him in refusing to abide a trial: that Publius Scipio, by his great achievements, by the honours received from the Roman people, by the joint consent of gods and men, had risen to such a height of dignity, that were he to stand as a criminal, under the rostrum, and afford a hearing to the insults of young men, it would reflect more disgrace on the Romans than on him.” To his decree he added the language of indignation: “Shall Scipio, the celebrated conqueror of Africa, stand at the feet of you, tribunes? Was it for this he defeated and routed, in Spain, four of the most distinguished generals of the Carthaginians, and their four armies? Was it for this he took Syphax prisoner, conquered Hannibal, made Carthage tributary to you, and removed Antiochus beyond Mount Taurus (for Lucius Scipio received his brother Africanus as his associate in this glory); that he should crouch under two Petillii? that you should gain the palm of victory over Publius Africanus? Will men of illustrious characters never, through their own merits, or through honours conferred by you, arrive at a safe and inviolable sanctuary, where their old age may repose, if not revered, at least secure from injury?” Both his decree and additional discourse made a deep impression, not only on the rest of the assembly, but even on the prosecutors; who said that they would consider further what might be consistent with their rights and duties. Afterwards, as soon as the assembly of the people broke up, the senate met, and at that meeting the warmest thanks were bestowed by the whole body, especially by the consular and elder members, on Tiberius Gracchus, for having consulted the public good in preference to private animosity; and the Petillii were assailed with severe insults, because they had endeavoured to become distinguished by exciting odium against another, and were seeking spoils from a triumph over Africanus. After that there was silence concerning Africanus. He passed the remainder of his life at Liternum, without a wish to revisit the city; and it is said that when he was dying he ordered his body to be buried in the country, in that very place, and his monument to be erected there, that even his obsequies might not be performed in his ungrateful country. He was a man of eminent merit; but more conspicuous in the affairs of war than in those of peace. The former part of his life was more illustrious than the latter, because in his early years wars were constantly carried on by him; with old age his exploits faded away, as occasions did not occur to call forth the exercise of his talents. What was his second consulship to his first, even if you should add to it the censorship? What, compared with it, was his commission in Asia, rendered useless by want of health, and clouded by the misfortune of his son, and the necessity to which it subjected him after his return, of either undergoing a trial, or withdrawing himself from that and his country together. However, he enjoyed alone the distinguished honour of putting an end to the Carthaginian war, which was by far the most difficult and dangerous war in which the Roman state was ever engaged.