Marcus Fulvius the consul besieged Ambracia, in Epirus, and received its
surrender; he reduced Cephallenia, and granted peace to the Ætolians,
on their complete subjection. Cneius Manlius the consul, his colleague,
conquered the Gallogræcians, including the Tolistoboii, Tectosagi, and
Trocmi who, under the command of Brennus, had crossed over into
Asia, since they were the only refractory nation on this side of Mount
Taurus. Their origin is related, and likewise the manner in which they
became masters of the territories which they now hold. An instance, also,
of virtue and chastity in a woman is recorded: for when the wife of
Ortiagon, king of the Gallogræcians, was a captive, she slew a centurion
who was sentinel over her, because he offered her violence. The lustrum
was closed by the censors. Two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three
hundred and twenty-eight citizens were rated. A treaty of amity was
entered into with Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia. Cneius Manlius,
although the ten ambassadors by whose advice he had written the terms
of the treaty with Antiochus, opposed him, pleaded his cause in person
in the senate, and triumphed over the Gallogræcians. Scipio Africanus,
a day of trial being appointed him, as some say, by Quintus Petillius,
tribune of the people, as others say, by Nævius, on the charge of having
fraudulently deprived the treasury of the plunder taken from Antiochus,
when the day of trial came on, was summoned to the rostrum, and said,
“On this day, Romans, I conquered Carthage;” and, followed by the
people, ascended the Capitol. Subsequently, that he might not receive
any further annoyance front the injuries done him by the tribunes, he
retired into voluntary exile at Liternum: it is uncertain whether he
died there or at Rome, for monuments were erected to his memory in
both places. Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, brother of Africanus, was accused
and condemned on the same charge of embezzlement as his brother: when
he was being led to prison, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, tribune of the
commons, who had been previously on unfriendly terms with the Scipios,
vetoed it; and in return for that kindness, received in marriage the
daughter of Africanus. When the quæstors were sent to take public possession
of the property of Lucius Scipio, not only was no trace of the king’s
money apparent in it, but not even so much was raised thereby as the
amount in which he was fined. He would not receive the countless sum
collected by his relations and friends: the mere necessaries of life were
purchased back.
1
While the war is being carried on in Asia, matters
were not even then tranquil among the Ætolians, a commencement
of these disturbances having originated with the
nation of the Athamanians. At that period, since the expulsion
of Amynander, Athamania was kept in subjection by royal
garrisons, under governors appointed by Philip, who by their
haughty and overbearing exercise of power, had made the people
regret the loss of Amynander. The hope of recovering the
kingdom was presented to Amynander, then an exile in Ætolia,
by the letters of his partisans, who informed him of the state of
Athamania: and messengers were sent to Argithea, (for that
was the chief city of Athamania,) to inform the principal men,
that, if they were sufficiently assured of the inclinations of their
countrymen, he, having obtained succours from the Ætolians,
would come, into Athamania with a chosen body of Ætolians,
who constituted the council of that nation, and their prætor,
Nicander. And, when he found that they were prepared for
every thing, he gave them notice, immediately after, of the day
on which he would enter Athamania at the head of an army.
At first there were four conspirators against the Macedonian
garrison; then each of these took as associates six assistants
for the execution of the business; but, afterwards, distrusting
their small number, which was rather calculated for
the concealment than for the execution of the design, they
took in a number of associates, equal to the former. Being
thus increased to fifty-two, they divided themselves into four
parties, one of which repaired to Heraclea, another to Tetraphylia,
where the royal treasure used to be kept, a third to
Theudoria, and the fourth to Argithea. It was agreed that
they should at first appear in the forum publicly, without any
bustle, as if they had come about their own ordinary concerns;
and then, on a certain day, raise the whole populace, so as to
dislodge the Macedonian garrisons from the citadels. When
the day came, and Amynander with a thousand Ætolians was
on the frontiers, by the preconcerted plan the Macedonian
garrisons were driven from the four places at once, and letters
were despatched to all the other cities, calling on them to rescue
themselves from the exorbitant tyranny of Philip, and to
reinstate their hereditary and lawful prince. Accordingly,
the Macedonians were, every where, expelled. The town of
Theium, (in consequence of the letters being intercepted by
Teno, commander of the garrison, and owing to the citadel
being occupied by the king’s troops,) stood a siege of a few
days, and then surrendered to Amynander, who had now all
Athamania in his power, except the fort of Athenæum, on
the borders of Macedonia.
2
When Philip heard of the defection of Athamania, he
out at the head of six thousand men, and proceeded, with
the utmost speed, to Gomphi. Having left the greater part
of his force, as they would not have been equal to such long
marches, he went forward, with two thousand, to Athenæum,
the only place which had been retained by his troops. Then,
having made attempts on the nearest places, when he clearly
perceived that all the rest of the country was hostile to him,
he retreated to Gomphi, and returned with the whole of his
army into Athamania. He then sent Zeno, at the head of
one thousand foot, with orders to seize on Ethopia, which
stands advantageously for commanding Argithea; and, as
soon as he understood that this post was in possession of his
party, he himself encamped near the temple of Acræan Jupiter.
Here he was detained one whole day, by a tremendous
storm; and on the next, proceeded to lead them towards Argithea.
On the troops commencing their march the Athamanians
immediately appeared hastening to the hills which
overlooked the road. On the sight of whom, the foremost
battalions halted, while fear and confusion spread through the
whole army, and every one began to consider what might have
been the consequence, if the troops had gone down into the valleys
commanded by those cliffs. This confusion compelled the
king, who wished, if his men would follow him, to push on
rapidly through the defile, to call back the foremost, and return
by the same road by which he came. The Athamanians
at first followed at a distance, without making any attempt:
after the Ætolians joined them, they left these to harass
the rear, and extended themselves on both flanks. Some of
them, by taking a shorter way, through known paths, seized
the passes; and such terror was struck into the Macedonians,
that they repassed the river in a manner more like a hasty
flight than a regular march, leaving behind many of their men
and arms. Here was the end of the pursuit, and the Macedonians,
in safety, returned to Gomphi, and from Gomphi into
Macedonia. The Athamanians and Ætolians ran together,
from all sides, to Ethopia, to crush Zeno and his thousand
Macedonians. The Macedonians, distrusting their position,
removed from Ethopia, to a hill which was higher and steeper
on all sides; from which the Athamanians, having found access
in several places, dislodged them; and while they were
dispersed, and unable to find the road for flight, through impassable
and unknown rocks, slew part of them and made part
prisoners. Great numbers, in their panic, tumbled down the
precipices; very few, with Zeno, effected their escape to the
king. Afterwards, permission to bury their dead was given
to them during the truce.
3
Amynander, on recovering possession of his kingdom,
sent ambassadors, both to the senate at Rome and to the
Scipios in Asia, who, since the grand battle with Antiochus,
stayed at Ephesus. He requested a treaty of amity, and apologized
for having had recourse to the Ætolians, for the
recovery of his hereditary dominions. He made many charges
against Philip. The Ætolians from Athamania proceeded
into Amphilochia, and, with the consent of the greater part of
the inhabitants, reduced that nation under their power and
dominion. After the recovery of Amphilochia, for it had
formerly belonged to the Ætolians, they passed on, with hopes
of equal success, into Aperantia. That also, for the most
part, surrendered to the Ætolians without a contest. The
Dolopians had never been subject to the Ætolians, but
they were to Philip. These, at first, ran to arms; but when
they were informed of the Amphilochians taking part with
the Ætolians, of Philip’s flight from Athamania, and the
destruction of his detachment, they also revolted from Philip
to the Ætolians. Whilst the Ætolians believed that they
were now secured against the Macedonians on all sides, by
these nations surrounding them, the report is brought to them
that Antiochus was conquered in Asia by the Romans. Not
very long after, their ambassadors came home from Rome,
without the prospect of peace, announcing that the consul
Fulvius, with his army, had already crossed the sea. Dismayed
at these accounts, they send the chief men of the state
to Rome to try the last hope, having previously solicited embassies
from Rhodes and Athens, that, through the influence
of those states, their petitions, lately rejected, might meet
with a more favourable reception from the senate: they took
no kind of precaution to avert the war, before it was almost
within sight. Marcus Fulvius, having brought over his army
to Apollonia, was, at this time, consulting with the Epirot
chiefs where he should commence his operations. It was the
opinion of the Epirots that he should attack Ambracia, which
had lately united itself to Ætolia; alleging, that, “in case
the Ætolians should come to its relief, there were open
plains around it, to fight in; or that if they should avoid a
battle there would be no great difficulty in the siege, for
there were at hand abundant materials for raising mounds and
other works, while the Arachthus, a navigable river, well
adapted to convey every thing requisite, flowed by the walls;
besides, the summer was just approaching, the fittest season
for the enterprise.” By these arguments they persuaded him
to march on through Epirus.
4
To the consul, on his arrival at Ambracia, the siege
appeared to be a work of no small difficulty. Ambracia
stands at the foot of a rocky hill, called by the natives Perranthe:
the city, where the wall faces the plain and the river,
looks towards the west; the citadel, which is seated on the
hill, towards the east. The river Arachthus, which rises in
Athamania, falls here into a gulf of the sea, called the Ambracian,
from the name of the adjacent city. Besides that the
river defended it on one side and the hills on the other, it was
also surrounded by a strong wall, extending in circuit somewhat
more than three miles. Fulvius formed two camps at a
short distance from each other, and one fort on the high
ground opposite to the citadel; all which he intended to join
together by a rampart and trench, in such a manner that there
should be no exit from the city for the besieged, nor entrance
For the introduction of assistance from without. The Ætolians,
on the report of the siege of Ambracia, were by this
time assembled at Stratus, in obedience to an edict of their
prætor, Nicander. At first they intended to have marched
hence, with their whole force, to raise the siege; afterwards,
when they heard that the place was already, in a great
measure, surrounded with works, and that the Epirots were
encamped on level ground, on the other side of the river, they
resolved to divide their forces. Eupolemus, with one thousand
light troops, marching to Ambracia, made his way into
the city, though the works were joined to each other. Nicander’s
first plan was to have attacked the camp of the
Epirots in the night, with the rest of the troops, as assistance
could not be easily received from the Romans, because the
river ran between them. Afterward, judging it too dangerous
an undertaking, lest the Romans should by any means discover
it, and his retreat become unsafe, he was deterred from
this design, and marched away to ravage the country of
Acarnania.
5
The consul having now finished the intrenchments with
which it was necessary to surround the city, and likewise the
works which he was preparing to bring forward to the walls,
attacked the city in five different places; three attacks, at equal
distances from each other, he directed against the quarter which
they called Pyrrheum, as the approach was easier from the
plain; one opposite to the temple of Æsculapius, and one against
the citadel. He broke down the walls with battering-rams, and
tore down the battlements with poles armed with scythes. At
first, terror and dismay seized the townsmen, at the formidable
appearance of the works, and the shocks given to the walls,
which were attended with a dreadful noise: afterwards, when
they beheld them contrary to their hopes standing, having again
resumed courage, they, by means of cranes, threw down upon
the battering-rams weighty masses of lead, or stone, or beams
of timber; dragging the armed poles, with iron grapples, within
the walls, they broke off the hooks; besides, by sallies, both
by night against the watch-guards of the engines, and by
day against the advanced posts, they kept the besiegers in a
state of continual alarm. While affairs at Ambracia were in
this state, the Ætolians had returned from ravaging Acarnania,
to Stratus. Their prætor, Nicander, having conceived
hopes of raising the siege by a bold effort, sent a person
called Nicodamus, with five hundred Ætolians, into Ambracia,
and appointed a certain night, and even the time of
the night, on which, from within the city, they were to
assault the works of the enemy, opposite to the Pyrrheum,
while he himself should alarm the Roman camp. He supposed
that, in consequence of the alarm on both sides, and night increasing
the terror, something memorable might be achieved.
And Nicodamus, in the dead of the night, (when he had
escaped the notice of some of the parties on watch, and broken
through others by his determined onset,) having passed the
intrenchment, penetrated into the city; and gave the besieged
considerable hope and courage for any enterprise; and as
soon as the appointed time arrived, according to the plan preconcerted,
he made a sudden assault on the works. This undertaking was
more formidable in the attempt than in the effect,
because no attack was made from without; for the prætor of
the Ætolians had either been deterred by fear, or had judged it
more advisable to carry succours to Amphilochia, which had
been lately reduced; which Perseus, the son of Philip, who
was sent to recover Dolopia and Amphilochia, was besieging
with the greatest vigour.
6
The works of the Romans against the Pyrrheum were
carried on in three different places, as has been mentioned
before, all which works the Ætolians assaulted at once, but not
with similar weapons or similar force. Some advanced with
burning torches, others carrying tow and pitch, and fire-darts,
their entire line being illuminated by the blaze. At the first
assault they cut off many of the men on guard. Afterwards,
when the shout and uproar reached the camp, and the signal
was given by the consul, the troops took arms and poured out
of all the gates to succour their friends. In one place the
contest was carried on with fire and sword; from the other
two, the Ætolians retired with disappointment, after essaying
rather than supporting a fight. The whole brunt of the battle
fell on the one quarter with great fury. Here the two commanders,
Eupolemus and Nicodamus, in their different posts,
encouraged their men and animated them with hope amounting
almost to certainty, that Nicander would, according to his
agreement, come up speedily and attack the enemy’s rear.
This expectation for some time supported their courage in
the fight. But at last, as they did not receive the concerted
signal from their friends, and saw the number of their enemies
continually increasing, they pressed on with less energy, as if
deserted; finally, having abandoned the attempt, their retreat
now becoming almost impracticable, they were driven in flight
into the city, after having burned a part of the works, however,
and killed a much greater number than they lost themselves.
If the affair had been conducted according to the plan
concerted, there was no reason to doubt but that one part at
least of the works might have been stormed with great havoc
of the Romans;. The Ambracians and the Ætolians, who
were within, not only renounced the enterprise of that night,
but supposing themselves betrayed by their friends, became
much less spirited. None of them any longer sallied out, as
before, against the enemy’s stations, but posted on the walls
and towers, fought without danger.
7
Perseus, on hearing of the approach of the Ætolians,
having raised the siege of the city in which he was employed,
and having ravaged the country, quitted Amphilochia, and
returned into Macedon. The devastation of their sea-coast
called away the Ætolians from this region. Pleuratus, king
of the Illyrians, entered the Corinthian gulf with sixty barks,
and having formed a junction with the ships of the Achæans
lying at Patræ, wasted the maritime parts of Ætolia. Against
these one thousand Ætolians were sent, who, by taking short
routes, met the fleet wherever it, while sailing around the indentations
of the coast, attempted a landing. The Romans at
Ambracia, by the battering of their rams in many places at once,
laid open a great part of the city; but nevertheless were unable
to penetrate into the heart of it. For instead of the wall knocked
down a new one was raised with proportionate speed, while the
armed men standing on the ruins, formed a kind of bulwark.
The consul, therefore, when he made no progress by open force,
resolved to form a secret mine, covering the ground first with
his machines. And for a long time his workmen, though
employed both night and day, not only in digging under the
ground but also in carrying away the earth, escaped the
observation of the enemy. A heap of it, however, rising
suddenly, gave the townsmen intimation of their work, and
terrified lest, the wall being undermined, a passage should be
opened into the city, they determined to draw a trench within,
opposite to the work that was covered with machines. In
which when they reached such a depth as the bottom of the
mine could well be, then keeping profound silence, having
applied their ears to several different places, they endeavoured
to catch the sound of the miners; which being heard, they
opened a way directly towards them. Nor did it require
much exertion, for they came in a short time to an open space
where the wall was supported with props by the enemy. The
works joining here, as the passage was open from the trench
to the mine, the parties began to fight in the dark under
ground, first of all with the tools which they had used in the
works, but afterwards armed men came quickly up. Subsequently
the contest became less spirited; as the besieged
stopped the passage, sometimes by stretching strong hair-cloths
across it, sometimes by hastily placing doors in the
way of their antagonists. A new engine, requiring no great
labour, was invented against those who were in the mine.
The besieged bored a hole in the bottom of a cask, by which a
moderate-sized pipe could be inserted, and made an iron pipe
and iron head for the cask, which was perforated in many
places. They placed this cask, filled with small feathers, with
its mouth turned towards the mine. Through, the holes in the
head of the cask projected those very long spears, which they
call sarissas, to keep off the enemy. They kindled a small spark
of fire, placed among the feathers, by blowing with a smith’s
bellows, inserted into the end of the pipe. After that the
smoke arising from this, not only in great quantities, but also
more offensive from the nauseous stench proceeding from the
burnt feathers, had filled the mine, scarcely any one could stay
within.
8
Whilst affairs at Ambracia were in this state, Phæneas
and Damoteles came to the consul, as ambassadors from the
Ætolians, invested with full powers by a decree of the
general assembly of that nation. For when their prætor saw
on one side Ambracia besieged; on another, the sea-coast
infested by the enemy’s ships; on a third, Amphilochia and
Dolopia ravaged by the Macedonians, and that the Ætolians
were incapable of meeting the three enemies at once, having
summoned a council, he consulted the chiefs on what was to be
done. The opinions of all tended to one point: “that peace
should be solicited on equal terms if possible; if not, on any
terms that could be borne. That the war was undertaken in
reliance on Antiochus. Since Antiochus was vanquished by
land and sea, and driven beyond the mountains of Taurus,
almost out of the world, what hope remained of their being
able to support it? That Phæneas and Damoteles, since the
emergency was so great, should do whatever they might judge
to tend to the interest of the Ætolians and their own honour.
For what counsel, what option had been left them by fortune?”
Ambassadors were despatched with instructions,
to beseech the consul to “have mercy on the city, and to
take compassion on a nation once acknowledged as an ally;
and driven to madness, they would not say by ill treatment,
but undoubtedly by their sufferings.” That the Ætolians “had
not in Antiochus’ war deserved a larger share of punishment
than they had of reward in that against Philip. That neither
then was compensation liberally made them, nor ought punishment
now to be inflicted on them in an immoderate degree.”
To this the consul answered, that “the Ætolians had sued for
peace often, rather than ever with sincere intentions. Let
them in soliciting peace imitate Antiochus, whom they had
drawn into the war. He had ceded, not the few cities whose
liberty was the ground of the dispute, but an opulent kingdom,
all Asia on this side Mount Taurus. That he (the consul)
would not listen to the Ætolians, treating concerning peace,
unless they laid down their arms. That, in the first place,
their arms and all their horses must be delivered up; and in
the next place, one thousand talents17 of silver must be paid to
the Roman people; half of which sum must be laid down immediately,
if they wished for peace. To these articles he
would add when concluding the treaty, that they must have the
same allies and the same enemies as the Roman people.”
9
To which demands the ambassadors having made no
reply, both because they were severe, and because they knew
the spirit of their country to be unbroken and changeable,
returned home, that they might again and again, while the
thing was undecided, consult the prætor and chiefs as to what
was to be done. They were received with clamour and reproaches,
and were asked “how long would they protract the
matter, though commanded to bring with them a peace of some
kind or other?” But as they were going back to Ambracia,
they were caught in an ambuscade, laid near the road by the
Acarnanians, with whom they were at war, and carried to Thyrium
to be confined. The delay arising from this incident interrupted
the negotiations. When the ambassadors of the Athenians
and Rhodians, who had come to intercede for them, were
now with the consul, Amynander also, king of Athamania, having
obtained a safe-conduct, had come into the Roman camp,
being more concerned for the city of Ambracia, where he had
spent the greatest part of his exile, than for the nation of the
Ætolians. When the consul was informed by them of the
accident which had befallen the ambassadors, he ordered them
to be brought from Thyrium; and on their arrival they began
to treat concerning peace. Amynander, as that was his
principal object, laboured assiduously to persuade the Ambracians
to capitulate. When he made but little progress in this,
while he was coming under the walls and conferring with their
chiefs, he at last, with the consul’s permission, went into the
city; where, partly by arguments, partly by entreaties, he prevailed
on them to surrender themselves to the Romans. Caius
Valerius, the son of Lævinus, who was the first that had made
a treaty of alliance with that nation, the brother of the consul,
born of the same mother, eminently aided the Ætolians. The
Ambracians, having first stipulated that they might send away
the auxiliary Ætolians in safety, opened their gates. Then
the Ætolians stipulated that “they should pay five hundred
Euboic talents,18 two hundred of this sum at present, and three
hundred at six equal annual payments; that they should
deliver up to the Romans the prisoners and deserters; that
they should not subject any city to their jurisdiction, which,
since the first coming of Titus Quintius into Greece, had
either been taken by the arms of the Romans, or voluntarily
entered into alliance with them: and that the island of
Cephallenia should be excluded from the treaty.” Although
these terms were more moderate than they themselves had
expected, yet the Ætolians begged permission to lay them
before the council, which request was granted. A short discussion
about the cities engaged the council. Since they had
been for some time under their laws, they bore with pain that
they should be torn off, as it were, from their body. However,
they unanimously voted that the terms of peace should
be accepted. The Ambracians presented the consul with a
golden crown of one hundred and fifty pounds’ weight. The
brazen and marble statues and paintings, with which Ambracia
was more richly decorated than any other city in that
country, since it was the royal residence of Pyrrhus, were.
all removed and carried away; but nothing else was injured
or even touched.
10
The consul, marching into the interior parts of Ætolia,
encamped at Amphilochian Argos, twenty-two miles from Ambracia.
Here, at length, the Ætolian ambassadors arrived, the
consul in the mean time wondered at the cause of their delay.
Then, after he heard that the council of the Ætolians had approved
of the terms of peace, having ordered them to go to
Rome to the senate, and having permitted the Athenian and
Rhodian mediators to go with them, and appointed his brother,
Caius Valerius, to accompany them, he himself passed over to
Cephallenia. The ambassadors found the ears and minds of all
the principal people at Rome prepossessed by charges made
against them by Philip, who, by complaining both by ambassadors
and by letters, that Dolopia, Amphilochia, and Athamania
had been forcibly taken from him, that his garrison, and at last
even his son Perseus, had been driven out of Amphilochia, had
turned away the senate from their entreaties. The Athenians
and Rhodians were, nevertheless, heard with attention. An
Athenian ambassador, Leon, son of Icesias, is said to have even
affected them much by his eloquence. Making use of a common
simile, and comparing the multitude of the Ætolians to a
calm sea, when it comes to be ruffled by the winds, he said,
that “as long as they faithfully adhered to the alliance with
Rome, they rested in the calm state natural to nations; but
that when Thoas and Dicæarchus began to blow from Asia,
Menetas and Damocrites from Europe, then was raised that
storm which dashed them on Antiochus as on a rock.”
11
The Ætolians, after being a long time buffeted about,
at length prevailed to have articles of peace concluded. They
were these:—“Let the Ætolian nation, without fraud or
deceit, maintain the empire and majesty of the Roman people;
let them not suffer to pass through their territories, nor,
in any manner whatever, aid or assist any army that shall
march against the allies and friends of the Romans; let them
have the same enemies as the Roman people; let them bear
arms against them, and take a share in their wars; let them
deliver up the deserters, fugitives, and prisoners, to the
Romans and their allies, excepting such as were prisoners
before, who having returned home, were afterwards captured;
and also such as, at the time of their being taken,
were enemies to Rome, while the Ætolians were in the Roman
army. Let such of the others as can be found be delivered up.
without reserve, to the magistrates of Corcyra, within one
hundred days; and such as cannot now be found, as soon as
they shall be discovered. Let them give forty hostages at the
discretion of the Roman consul, none younger than twelve
years nor older than forty; let neither the prætor, nor the
general of the horse, nor the public secretary, be a hostage;
nor any person who has before been a hostage in the hands of
the Romans. Let Cephallenia be excluded from these articles.”
With respect to the sum of money which they were to pay, and
the mode of payment, no alteration was made in the arrangement
which had been made by the consul. If they chose to give
gold instead of silver, it was agreed that they might do so,
provided that one piece of gold should be deemed equivalent to
ten of silver of the same weight. “Whatever cities, whatever
lands, whatever men have been formerly under the jurisdiction
of the Ætolians, and have, either in the consulate of Titus Quintius
and Publius Ælius, or since their consulate, been subdued
by the arms of the Roman people, or have made a voluntary
submission to them, the Ætolians are not to reclaim. The
Œnians, with their city and lands, are to belong to the Acarnanians.”
On these conditions was the treaty concluded with
the Ætolians.
12
Not only in the same summer, but almost at the very
time in which these acts were performed by Marcus Fulvius
the consul in Ætolia, the other consul, Cneius Manlius, carried
on war in Gallogræcia; the progress of which I shall now
relate. In the beginning of spring the consul came to Ephesus,
and having received the command of the army from Lucius
Scipio, and reviewed the troops, he made an harangue
to the soldiers; in which, having praised their bravery in
having completely conquered Antiochus in a single battle, he
encouraged them to undertake a new war against the Gauls,
who had supported Antiochus with auxiliaries, and were,
besides, of such untractable tempers, that Antiochus was
to no purpose removed beyond the range of Mount Taurus,
unless the power of the Gauls was broken; he then spoke
briefly of himself, in terms neither ill-grounded nor extravagant.
The delighted soldiers heard the consul with frequent
bursts of applause, considering the Gauls as having been a
part of the strength of Antiochus; and that, since that king
had been vanquished, there would be no power in the forces
of the Gauls, by themselves. The consul judged that Eumenes
was absent at an unseasonable time, (he was then at Rome,) as
he was well acquainted with the nature of the country and
of the inhabitants, and as it was his interest that the power of
the Gauls should be broken. He therefore sends for his
brother Attalus, from Pergamus, and having exhorted him to
undertake the war in conjunction with him, he sends him,
away to make preparations, after promising his own exertions
and those of his countrymen. A few days after, Attalus with
one thousand foot and two hundred horse, having ordered his
brother Athenæus to follow with the rest of the troops, and
committed the care of Pergamus to persons whom he knew to
be faithful to his brother and to his government, met the consul,
who had marched from Ephesus to Magnesia. The consul,
after highly commending the young prince, having advanced
with all his forces, encamped on the bank of the Mæander, for
as that river could not be forded, it was necessary to collect
shipping for carrying over the army.
13
Having passed the Mæander, they came to Hiera
Come.19 In this place there is a magnificent temple, and
oracle of Apollo; the priests are said to deliver their responses
in verses by no means inelegant. Hence, in two days’ march
they reached the river Harpasus; whither came ambassadors
from Alabandæ, entreating the consul, either by his authority
or his arms, to compel a fort, which had lately revolted from
it, to return to its former allegiance. To the same place came
Athenæus the brother of Eumenes, and Attalus, with Leusus,
a Cretan, and Corragos, a Macedonian commander. They
brought with them one thousand foot and three hundred horse,
composed of various nations. The consul, having sent a military
tribune with a small party, took the fort by assault, and
restored it to the Alabandians. He himself, not deviating from
his route, pitched his camp at Antioch on the Mæander. The
source of this river is in Celænæ, which city was formerly
the metropolis of Phrygia. The inhabitants afterwards removed
to a spot not far distant from Old Celænæ, and the
name of Apama was given to their new city, from Apama the
sister of king Seleucus. The river Marsyas also, rising at a
little distance from the head of the Mæander, falls into the
latter river, and report so has it, that at Celænæ Marsyas contended
with Apollo in the music of the pipe. The Mæander,
springing up in the highest part of the citadel of Celænæ, runs
down through the middle of the city, then through Caria, afterwards
through Ionia, and empties itself into a bay which
lies between Priene and Miletus. Seleucus, son of Antiochus,
came into the consul’s camp at Antioch, to furnish corn for
the troops, in conformity with the treaty with Scipio. Here a
small dispute arose, concerning the auxiliary troops of Attalus;
for Seleucus affirmed, that Antiochus engaged to supply
corn to the Roman soldiers only. This difference was terminated
by the firmness of the consul, who gave orders to a
tribune despatched by him, that the Roman soldiers should
receive none, until the auxiliaries under Attalus should have
received their share. From hence the army advanced to Gordiutichos,20
as they call it: from which place it marched, in
three days, to Tabæ. This city stands on the confines of Pisidia,
in that part which verges to the Pamphylian sea.
Whilst the strength of that country was unimpaired, it produced
valiant warriors: and even on this occasion, their
horsemen, sallying out on the Roman troops, caused by their
first onset no small confusion; then, as soon as it appeared
that they were not equal to them either in numbers or
bravery, being driven back to the city, they begged pardon for
their transgressions, and offered to surrender the city. They
were ordered to pay twenty-five talents of silver,21 and ten
thousand bushels of wheat; and on these terms their surrender
was accepted.
14
On the third day after their leaving this place, the army
reached the river Chaus, and proceeding thence, took the
city of Eriza at the first assault. They then came to Thabusios,
a fort standing on the bank of the river Indus, to which
an elephant’s guide thrown from the animal had given its
name. They were now not far from Cibyra, yet no embassy
appeared from Moagetes, the tyrant of that state; a
man faithless and tyrannical in every respect. The consul,
in order to sound his intentions, sent forward Caius Helvius,
with four thousand foot and five hundred horse. Ambassadors
met this body on their entrance into his territories, declaring,
that the king was ready to execute their commands.
They entreated Helvius to enter their confines in a friendly
manner, and to restrain his soldiers from plundering the land;
and they brought with them in lieu of a golden crown fifteen
talents. Helvius, having promised to keep their lands safe
from plunderers, ordered the ambassadors to go on to the consul.
And when they delivered the same message to him, the
consul said, “We Romans have not any sign of the tyrant’s
good will towards us, and we are agreed that he is such
a person that we ought rather to think of punishing him than
of contracting friendship with him.” Struck with astonishment
at such a reception, the ambassadors requested nothing more
than that he should receive the present, and give permission
to the tyrant to come to him, and an opportunity to speak and
excuse himself. By the permission of the consul, the tyrant
came next day into the camp. His dress and retinue were
scarcely equal to the style of a private person of moderate
fortune; while his discourse was humble and incoherent, depreciating
his own wealth and complaining of the poverty of
the cities under his sway. He had under his dominion, (beside
Cibyra,) Syleum, and the city called Alimne. Out of these
he promised (in such a manner as if he were diffident that he
could strip himself and his subjects of so much) to raise
twenty-five talents.22 “Truly,” said the consul, “this trifling
cannot be borne. It is not enough for you that you did not
blush, though absent, when you were imposing on us by your
ambassadors; but even when present you persist in the same
effrontery. Is it that twenty-five talents would exhaust your
dominions? If within three days you do not pay down five
hundred talents,23 expect the devastation of your lands and
the siege of your city.” Although terrified by this menace,
he persisted obstinately in his plea of poverty; gradually by
illiberal advances, (sometimes cavilling, sometimes recurring
to prayers and counterfeit tears,) he was brought to agree to
the payment of one hundred talents,24 to which, were added ten
thousand bushels of corn. All this was done within six
days.
15
From Cibyra the army was led through the territory of
the Sindensians, and, after crossing the river Caularis, encamped.
Next day they marched along the side of the lake of Caralitis,
and passed the night at Mandropolis. As they advanced to the
next city, Lagos, the inhabitants fled through fear. The place
being deserted, yet filled with abundance of every thing, was pillaged
by the soldiers. From this they marched to the sources
of the river Lysis, and on the next day to the river Cobulatus.
At this time the Termessians were besieging the citadel of
the Isiondensians, after having taken the city. The besieged,
when they had no other hope of aid, sent ambassadors to the
consul, imploring succour; adding, that, “being shut up in
the citadel, with their wives and children, they were in daily
expectation of suffering death, either by the sword or famine.”
An occasion for turning aside to Pamphylia was thereby offered
to the consul, who was very desirous of it. By his approach he
raised the siege of Isionda. He granted peace to Termessus on
receiving fifty talents of silver;25 and, likewise, to the Aspendians
and other states of Pamphylia. Returning from Pamphylia
he pitched his camp, the first day, at the river Taurus, and
the second at Come Xyline,26 as they call it. Departing from
which, he proceeded, by uninterrupted marches, to the city
of Cormasa. The next city was Darsa, which he found abandoned
by the inhabitants through fear, but filled with abundance
of every thing useful. Ambassadors from Lysinoe, with
the surrender of that state, met him while marching along the
marshes. He then came into the Sagalassenian territory, rich
and abounding in every kind of production. The inhabitants
are Pisidians, the best soldiers, by far, of any in that part of the
world. This circumstance, as well as the fertility of their soil,
the multitude of their people, and the situation of their city, preeminently
fortified, gave them boldness. The consul sent a
party to ravage the country, because no embassy attended him
on the frontiers. Then, at length, their obstinacy was overcome,
as soon as they saw their property carried off and driven away.
After sending ambassadors, and agreeing to pay fifty talents,
with twenty thousand bushels of wheat and twenty thousand
of barley, they obtained peace. The consul then marched to the
source of the Obrima, and encamped at a village called Come
Acaridos.27 Hither Seleucus came, next day, from Apamea.
Then when the consul had sent the sick and the useless baggage
to Apamea, having received guides from Seleucus, he
marched that day into the plain of Metropolis, and advanced
on the day following to Diniæ in Phrygia, and thence to Synnas;
all the towns on every side being deserted by the inhabitants
through fear. And now, bringing along his army
encumbered with the spoil of those cities, after scarcely
completing in a whole day a march of five miles, he arrived at
a town called Old Beudi. Next day he encamped at Anabura;
on the following, at the source of the Alander, and on the
third at Abassus, where he halted for several days, because
he arrived at the borders of the Tolistoboians.
16
These Gauls, in a very numerous body, induced either
by scarcity of land or hopes of plunder, and thinking that no
nation through which they were to pass would be a match for
them in arms, made their way under the command of Brennus
into Dardania. There a dissension arose, and about twenty
thousand men under the chieftains Leonorius and Lutarius, a
secession being made from Brennus, turned their route to
Thrace. Then when, fighting with such as resisted them, and
imposing a tribute on such as sued for peace, they had arrived
at Byzantium, they held possession for a long time of the
cities in that quarter, laying the coast of the Propontis under
contribution. Then a desire of passing over into Asia seized
them, hearing in the neighbourhood how great the fertility of
that continent was; and, having taken Lysimachia by treachery,
and possessed themselves of the whole Chersonesus by force
of arms, they went down to the Hellespont. When they
there beheld Asia separated from them by a narrow strait,
their wishes to pass into it were much more highly inflamed,
and they despatched envoys to Antipater, governor of that
coast, to treat of a passage. And when, business being protracted
to a greater length than they expected, a new quarrel
broke out between their chieftains, Leonorius, with the greater
part of the people, went back to Byzantium, whence they came:
Lutarius takes two decked ships and three barks from some Macedonians,
sent by Antipater, under the pretext of an embassy,
to act as spies. By carrying over in these galleys detachment
after detachment, day and night, he transported all his troops
within a few days. Not long after, Leonorius, with the assistance
of Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, passed over from Byzantium.
The Gauls then re-united their forces, and assisted
Nicomedes in a war which he was carrying on against Zybœta,
who held possession of a part of Bithynia. By their
assistance chiefly Zybœta was subdued, and the whole of
Bithynia reduced under the dominion of Nicomedes. Then
leaving Bithynia, they advanced into Asia; and although, of
their twenty thousand men, not more than ten thousand carried
arms, yet such a degree of terror did they strike into all
the natives, dwelling on this side of Taurus, that those which
they visited, and those which they did not visit, the most remote
as well as the nearest, submitted to their authority. At
length as there were three tribes of them, the Tolistoboians, the
Trocmians, and the Tectosagians, they made a division of Asia
into three provinces, according to which it was made tributary
to each of their states. The coast of the Hellespont was assigned
to the Trocmians; the Tolistoboians obtained of the allotment
Æolia and Ionia; the Tectosagians received the inland parts
of Asia. They levied tribute throughout every part of Asia
on this side Mount Taurus; but chose their own residence
on the banks of the river Halys; and so great was the terror
of their name, their numbers, too, increasing by a rapid population,
that at last even the kings of Syria did not refuse to
pay them tribute. The first of all the inhabitants of Asia
who refused, was Attalus, the father of king Eumenes; and
beyond the expectation of all, fortune favoured his bold resolution,
and he defeated them in a pitched battle; yet he did
not so effectually break their spirits, as to make them give up
their pretensions to empire. Their power continued the same
until the war between Antiochus and the Romans; and, even
then, after Antiochus was expelled the country, they still entertained
a hope, that, as they lived remote from the sea, the
Roman army would not come so far.
17
As the troops were about to act against this enemy,
so terrible to all in that part of the world, the consul, in
an assembly, addressed the soldiers for the most part to
this effect: “It does not escape me, that, of all the nations
inhabiting Asia, the Gauls are pre-eminent for military fame.
A fierce nation, after overrunning the face of the earth with
its arms, has fixed its abode in the midst of a race of men the
gentlest in the world. Their tall persons, their long red hair,
their vast shields, and swords of enormous length; their songs
also, when they are advancing to action, their yells and dances,
and the horrid clashing of their armour, while they brandish
their shields in a peculiar manner, practised in their original
country; all these circumstances are preconcerted to inspire
terror. But let Greeks, and Phrygians, and Carians, to whom
these things are unusual and strange, be frightened by such
acts: to the Romans, accustomed to Gallic tumults, even these
vain efforts to strike terror are known. Once our ancestors fled
from them, but it was long ago, when they first met them at
the Allia. Ever since that time, for, now, two hundred years,
the Romans drive them before them in dismay, and kill them
like cattle; there have, indeed, been more triumphs celebrated
over the Gauls, than over almost all the rest of the world. It is
now well known by experience, that if you sustain their first onset,
which they make with fiery eagerness and blind fury, their
limbs are unnerved with sweat and fatigue; their arms flag;
and, though you should not employ a weapon on them, the
sun, dust, and thirst prostrate their enervated bodies and
minds when their fury has ceased. We have tried them,
not only with our legions against theirs, but in single combat,
man to man. Titus Manlius and Marcus Valerius
have demonstrated how far Roman valour surpasses Gallic
fury. Marcus Manlius, singly, thrust back the Gauls who
were mounting the Capitol in a body. Our forefathers had to
deal with genuine Gauls, born in their own lands; but they
are now degenerate, a mongrel race, and, in reality, what they
are named, Gallogræcians; just as is the case of vegetables
and cattle, the seeds are not so efficacious in preserving their
original constitution, as the properties of the soil and climate
under which they are reared, are in changing it. The Macedonians
who settled at Alexandria in Egypt, or in Seleucia, or
Babylonia, or in any other of their colonies scattered over
the world, have sunk into Syrians, Parthians, or Egyptians.
Marseilles, owing to its situation in the midst of Gauls, has
contracted somewhat of the disposition of its adjoining neighbours.
What of the hardy, rugged discipline of Sparta hath
remained to the Tarentines? Every thing is produced in
higher perfection in its own native soil; whatever is planted
in a foreign land, by a gradual change in its nature, degenerates
into that by which it is nurtured. Therefore you, victorious,
will slay the conquered Phrygians, though laden with
Gallic armour, as you slew them in the ranks of Antiochus. I
am more apprehensive of our gaining but little honour from
the victory, than of the struggle being a severe one. King
Attalus often routed and put them to flight. Do you think
that brutes only, when taken, retain at first their natural ferocity,
and subsequently grow tame, after being long fed by the
hands of men; and that nature does not exert the same power
in softening the savage disposition of men. Do you believe
these to be of the same kind that their fathers and grandfathers
were? Exiles from home through scarcity of land, they
marched along the craggy coast of Illyricum, then traversed
Pæonia and Thrace, in a continual struggle against the fiercest
nations, and took possession of these countries. A land which
could glut them with plenty of every thing, received them
hardened and infuriated by so many evils. By the very great
fertility of the soil, the very great mildness of the climate,
and the gentle dispositions of the neighbouring nations, all
that fierceness with which they came has been quite mollified.
You, by Hercules, who are the sons of Mars, ought to guard
against the seductions of Asia, and shun them from the very
first; so great is the power of those foreign pleasures in extinguishing
the vigour of the mind, so strong the contagion
from the relaxed discipline and manners of the people about
you. One thing has happened fortunately; that though they
will not bring against you a degree of strength by any means
equal to what they formerly possessed, yet they still retain a
character among the Greeks equal to what they had at their
first coming; consequently you, when victors, will acquire
the same warlike renown, as if you had conquered the Gauls
still acting up to their ancient standard of courage.”
18
Having then dismissed the assembly, and having
despatched ambassadors to Eposognatus, (who alone of all
the petty princes had remained in friendship with Eumenes,
and refused to assist Antiochus against the Romans,) he proceeded
on his march. He came the first day to the river
Alander, and the next to a village called Tyscos. When
ambassadors of the Oroandensians had come to that place,
seeking amity, two hundred talents28 were levied on them; and
on their requesting that they might bear this announcement
home, permission to do so was given. The consul then led
the army to Plitendos; then the Roman camp was pitched at
Alyatti. The persons sent to Eposognatus returned to him
here, and with them ambassadors from that chieftain, who
entreated him not to make war on the Tolistoboians, for that
Eposognatus himself would go among that people and persuade
them to submit. This request of the prince was complied
with. The army then began to march through the country
called Axylos:29 which derives its name from the nature of
the place; for it not only does not produce timber, but not
even brambles, or any species of fire-wood. The inhabitants,
instead of wood, use cow dung. While the Romans were
encamped at Cuballum, a fort of Gallogræcia, the enemy’s
cavalry appeared with great tumult. They not only disordered
by their sudden charge the advanced guards of the
Romans, but killed several of the men; and when this alarm
was spread to the camp, the Roman cavalry, pouring out
hastily by all the gates, routed and dispersed the Gauls, and
killed many as they fled. The consul, now perceiving that he
had reached the enemy’s country, marched henceforth exploring
his route and carefully bringing up his rear. When
by continued marches he had arrived at the river Sangarius,
he set about constructing a bridge, because no where was
there a passage by a ford. The Sangarius, running from the
mountain of Adoreus, through Phrygia, joins the river Thymbris
at the confines of Bithynia. After doubling its quantity
of water by this junction, it proceeds in a more copious
stream through Bithynia, and empties itself into the Euxine
Sea. Yet it is not so remarkable for the size of its current, as
for the vast quantity of fish which it supplies to the people in
its vicinity. When the bridge was finished, and the army
had passed the river, as they were marching along the bank,
the Gallic priests of the Great Mother, coming from Pessinus
with the symbols of their office, met them; who, in inspired
rhymes, foretold that the goddess would grant the Romans a
safe passage, success in the war, and the empire over that
country. When the consul had said that he embraced the
omen, he pitched his camp on that very spot. On the following
day he arrived at Gordium. This is not a large town,
but a mart more frequented and noted than an inland town
generally is. It has three seas nearly at equal distances from
it, that at the Hellespont, that at Sinope, and that at the shore
of the opposite coast, in which the maritime Cilicians dwell.
It is also contiguous to the borders of many and great nations,
the commerce of which has been centred by mutual convenience
principally in this place. The Romans found the town deserted
owing to the flight of the inhabitants, yet at the same time
filled with plenty of every thing. While they halted here,
ambassadors came from Eposognatus, with information that
“he had applied to the petty princes of the Gauls, and had
been unable to bring them to reason; that they were
removing in crowds from the villages and lands in the open
country; and, with their wives and children, carrying and
driving whatever could be carried or driven, were going to
Mount Olympus, that there they might defend themselves by
their arms and the nature of the ground.”
19
Deputies from the Oroandensians afterwards brought
more particular intelligence; that “the state of the Tolistoboians
had seized Mount Olympus, but that the Tectosagians,
taking a different route, were gone to another mountain called
Magaba; and that the Trocmians, leaving their wives and
children in charge with the Tectosagians, had resolved to
carry their armed force to the assistance of the Tolistoboians.”
The chieftains of the three states were at that time, Ortiagon,
Combolomarus, and Gaulotus; and this was their reason in particular
for choosing this mode of warfare, because as they had
possession of the highest mountains in that part of the world,
and had conveyed thither stores of every kind, sufficient for
their consumption during the time, although long, they
thought that they would weary out the enemy by the tediousness
of the enterprise: “for neither would they dare to climb
over places so steep and uneven; and if they should attempt
it, they could be prevented and driven down, even by a small
band; nor would they, sitting in inactivity at the foot of the
frosty mountains, endure cold and hunger.” Although the
height of their posts was in itself a strong defence, yet they
drew, besides, a trench and other fortifications round the
summits which they occupied. The least part of their care
was employed in providing a stock of missile weapons; for
they trusted that the rocky ground itself would furnish stones
in abundance.
20
The consul, as he had foreseen that the fight would
not be hand to hand, but at a distance, in the attack of
the enemy’s post, had prepared an immense quantity of
javelins, light infantry, spears, arrows, balls of lead, and
small stones, fit to be thrown with slings. Furnished with
this stock of missile weapons, he marched towards Mount
Olympus, and encamped within five miles of it. On the
next day, as he was advancing with four hundred horse, and
Attalus, to examine the nature of the mountain and situation
of the camp of the Gauls; a party of the enemy’s cavalry,
double in number to his, sallying from the camp, forced him
to take to flight. A few of his soldiers were killed in the flight,
and several wounded. On the third day, marching to explore the
ground at the head of all his cavalry, as none of the enemy
advanced beyond their fortifications, he rode round the mountain
with safety, and saw that on the south side the hills were
composed of earth, and rose to a certain height, with a gentle
slope, but that on the north there was nothing but steep and
almost perpendicular cliffs; and that there were but three
practicable ways, almost all the others being impassable; one
at the middle of the mountain, where the ground was earthy,
and two others, both very difficult, one on the south-east, and
the other on the north-west. After taking a full view of all
these places, he pitched his camp that day close to the foot of
the mountain. On the day following, after that, offering
sacrifice, he had received favourable auspices with the first
victims, he proceeds to lead his army, in three divisions,
against the enemy. He himself, with the greatest part of the
forces, marched up where the mountain afforded the easiest
ascent. He ordered his brother, Lucius Manlius, to ascend
on the south-east side, as far as the ground allowed him to
do so with safety; but if any dangerous and steep precipices
should lie in his way, then not to contend with the unfavourable
nature of the place, or attempt to conquer insuperable
obstacles, but by a slope across the mountain to incline
towards him, and join the body under his command; and he
directed Caius Helvius, with the third division, to march
round leisurely, by the foot of the mountain, and to climb the
hill on the north-east. The auxiliary troops of Attalus he
distributed equally among the three divisions, ordering the
young prince to accompany him. The cavalry and elephants
he left in the plain, at the foot of the hills; orders
were given to the prefects to watch attentively every thing
that should happen, and to be expeditious in bringing succour
wherever circumstances should require it.
21
The Gauls, (thoroughly satisfied that the ground on
their two flanks was impassable,) in order to secure, by arms,
the ascent on the side which was situated towards the south,
sent about four thousand soldiers to keep possession of a hill
which hung over the road, at the distance of near a mile from
their camp; hoping that they might stop the enemies’ progress
by this as by a fortress. Which when the Romans saw, they
prepared for battle. The light infantry marched a little in
advance of the line, supported by draughts from Attalus’s troops,
composed of the Cretan archers and slingers, the Trallians and
Thracians. The battalions of infantry, as the ground was steep,
marched at a slow pace, holding their shields before them,
merely to ward off missile weapons, as they did not seem likely
to fight in a close engagement. The fight commenced with the
missile weapons, at the proper interval, and was at first equal.
as the situation aided the Gauls, the variety and abundance of
weapons, the Romans. But, as the contest advanced, there
was no longer any equality: their shields, long, but too narrow
for the breadth of their bodies, and besides being flat, ill protected
the Gauls. Nor had they now any other weapons except
their swords, which they had no opportunity of using, as
the enemy did not come to close action. They used stones,
and these not of a proper size, as they had not previously laid
them up, but whatever came to the hand of each in his haste
and confusion, as persons unaccustomed generally do, aiding
the blow neither by skill nor strength. Incautiously exposing
themselves, they were transfixed on all sides by arrows, leaden
balls, and darts; nor did they know what to do, their minds
being paralysed by rage and fear; and they were engaged in
a kind of fight for which they were least of all qualified. For,
as in a close encounter, where they can receive and give
wounds in turn, rage inflames their courage; so when they are
wounded at a distance, with light weapons from unknown hands,
and have no object on which they can rush in their blind fury,
they rush forward at random, like wounded wild beasts,
often upon their own party. Their wounds were more conspicuous
because they always fight naked, and their bodies are
large and white, since they are never stripped except in battle;
thus more blood was poured from their large persons,
and the cuts appeared the more shocking, while the whiteness
of their skins offered a stronger contrast to the black
blood. But they were not much moved by open wounds.
Sometimes they even cut off the skin, when the wound was
more broad than deep, thinking that in this condition they
fought with the greater glory. But when the point of an arrow
or a ball, sinking deep in the flesh, tormented them, with a
wound small in appearance, and the weapon did not come forth
although they used every effort to extract it, then they fell into
fits of phrensy and shame, at being destroyed by so small a
hurt; and dashing themselves on the ground, they lay scattered
over the place. Some rushing against the enemy were
overwhelmed with darts; and when any of them came near,
they were slain by the swords of the light infantry. A soldier
of this description carries a shield three feet long, and, in
his right hand, javelins, which he throws at a distance. He
is begirt with a Spanish sword, and when he must fight in
close encounter, having shifted his spears into his left hand,
he draws it. There were few of the Gauls now left; and
these, seeing themselves overpowered by the light infantry,
and the battalions of the legions advancing, fled in confusion
to the camp, now full of tumult and dismay, as the women,
children, and others unfit to bear arms, were all crowded together
there. The hills, thus abandoned by the enemy, were
seized by the victorious Romans.
22
At this juncture, Lucius Manlius and Caius Helvius,
having marched up as high as the sloping hills allowed them
to do, after they came to insuperable steeps, turned towards
that side of the mountain which alone had a practicable ascent;
and began, as if by concert, to follow the consul’s party
at a moderate distance; being driven by necessity to adopt the
plan, now, which would have been the best at the beginning.
For in such disadvantageous ground reserves have often been
of the utmost use; for instance, should the first line happen to
be repulsed, the second may both cover their retreat, and, being
fresh, succeed to their place in the fight. The consul, as soon as
the vanguard of the legions reached the hills taken by the light
infantry, ordered the troops to halt and take breath; at the
same time he showed them the bodies of the Gauls spread
about the hills, asking them, “Since the light troops had
fought such a battle, what might be expected from the legions,
from a regular army, and from the spirit of the bravest soldiers?
They ought certainly to take the camp into which
the enemy had been driven in confusion by the light infantry.”
He then orders the light infantry to go forward,
who, while the army halted, had not spent their time in
idleness, but in gathering weapons about the hills, that there
might be a sufficient supply of missiles. They now approached
the camp. The Gauls, lest their fortifications
might not give them sufficient protection, had posted themselves,
in arms, on the outside of the rampart. Then being
overwhelmed with weapons of every description, since in proportion
as they were more numerous and crowded together,
the less likely were the weapons to fall between them without
effect, they were driven in an instant within their trenches,
leaving only strong guards at the entrances of the gates.
Against the crowd that fled into the camp a vast quantity of
missile weapons was discharged, and the shouts, intermixed
with lamentations of the women and children, showed that
great numbers were wounded. The first line of the legions
hurled their javelins against those who were posted to
guard the gate; these, however, were not wounded, but
most of them, having their shields pierced through, were entangled
and fastened together, nor did they longer withstand
the attack.
23
The gates being now open, a flight of the Gauls in
every direction from the camp took place before the victors
could burst in. They rushed on blindly through passable and
impassable places; no craggy cliffs, nor even perpendicular
rocks, stopped them; they feared nothing but the enemy.
Great numbers, therefore, falling down precipices of vast
height, were either maimed or killed. The consul, taking
possession of the camp, restrained the soldiers from plunder
and booty; he orders every one to pursue with his utmost
speed, to press on the enemy, and to increase their panic while
they were in dismay. The other party, under Lucius Manlius,
now came up. These he did not suffer to enter the
camp, but sent them forward in the pursuit, and followed
shortly in person, after committing the guard of the prisoners
to some military tribunes: for he thought that the war would
be finished, if in that consternation the greatest possible number
should be slain or taken prisoners. After the consul’s departure,
Caius Helvius arrived, with the third division: he
was not able to prevent their sacking the camp; and, by a
most unjust dispensation, the booty fell into the hands of men
who had not had any concern in the action. The cavalry
stood for a long time ignorant of the fight, and of the success
of their army. At last, they also, as far as they could ascend
the hills on horseback, pursuing the Gauls, (who were now
dispersed round the foot of the mountain,) either killed or made
prisoners of them. The number of the slain could not easily be
ascertained because the flight and slaughter were widely extended
through all the windings of the mountains; and a great
number fell from impassable cliffs into cavities of prodigious
depth; others were killed in the woods and thickets. Claudius,
who mentions two battles on Mount Olympus, asserts, that forty-thousand
fell in them; yet Valerius Antias, who is generally
addicted to great exaggeration on the point of numbers, says,
not more than ten thousand. The number of prisoners undoubtedly
amounted to forty thousand, because the Gauls had
dragged along with them a crowd of people of all descriptions
and of all ages, like men removing to another country, rather
than going out to war. The consul, having burnt the arms of
the enemy collected in one heap, then ordered all to bring together
the rest of the booty, and either sold that portion which
was to be applied to the use of the public, or distributed the
remainder among the soldiers, taking care that the shares
should be as just as possible. They were all praised in a public
assembly, and presented with gifts each according to his
merit; Attalus was distinguished above all, with the general
approbation of the rest. For not only were the courage and
activity of that young prince conspicuous in undergoing
dangers and fatigue, but also the modesty of his deportment.
24
The war with the Tectosagians remained still in its
original state. The consul, marching against them, arrived,
on the third day, at Ancyra, a city remarkable in those parts,
from which the enemy were but a little more than ten miles
distant. While his camp lay there, a memorable action was
performed by a female. Among many other captives, the wife
of the Gallic chieftain Ortiagon, a woman of exquisite beauty,
was strictly guarded, and a centurion, possessing the lust and
avarice usual among military men, commanded this guard.
He, first, endeavoured to learn her sentiments; but, finding
that she abhorred the thought of voluntary prostitution, he
offered violence to her person, which by the decree of fortune
was his slave. Afterwards, in order to soothe her indignation
at the insult, he gives the lady hope of a return to her friends;
and not even that gratuitously, like a lover. He stipulated
for a certain weight of gold, but, being unwilling to have any
of his countrymen privy to it, he gave her leave to send any
one of the prisoners, whom she chose, as a messenger to her
friends. He appointed a spot near the river, to which two of
this woman’s friends, and not more, were to come with the
gold in the night following, to receive her. It happened that
among the prisoners under the same guard was a servant of
the lady; the centurion, as soon as it grew dark, conveyed
this messenger beyond the advanced posts. Her friends came
to the place at the appointed time, likewise the centurion
with his prisoner. Here, on their producing the gold, which
mounted to an Attic talent, for he had stipulated for that
sum the lady in her own language ordered them to draw their
swords, and kill the centurion, while he was weighing the
gold. She herself, bearing wrapped up in her garment the
head of the slain centurion, detached from the trunk, reached
her husband Ortiagon, who had fled home from Olympus.
And before she would embrace him, she threw down the centurion’s
head at his feet; and on his asking, with astonishment,
whose head it was, and what was the meaning of such
a proceeding, so unaccountable in a female, she acknowledged
to her husband the injury committed on her person, and the
vengeance she had taken for the forcible violation of her chastity.
She maintained to the last, as it is said, by the purity
and strictness of the rest of her life, the glory of this achievement,
so honourable to her sex.
25
Envoys from the Tectosagians met the consul at Ancyra,
entreating him not to decamp until he had held a conference
with their kings; that any conditions of peace were
in their opinion preferable to war. The time fixed was the
next day, and the place that which seemed the most central between
the camp of the Gauls and Ancyra. The consul came
thither at the appointed hour, with a guard of five hundred
horse, but seeing none of the Gauls there, returned into his
camp: after which the same envoys came again, with an apology,
that their kings could not come, since religious feelings
deterred them; but that the principal men of the nation would
attend, and that the business might be as well transacted by
them. To which the consul answered, that he would send
Attalus on his part. To this meeting both parties came.
When Attalus had brought with him as an escort three hundred
horse, the terms of peace were proposed. As there
could not be a conclusion to the affair in the absence of the
leaders, it was agreed, that the consul and the kings should
meet in the same place on the following day. The delay of the
Gauls had the following objects: first, to waste time, that they
might remove their effects, which they were unwilling to risk,
and also their wives and children, to the other side of the
river Halys; and, secondly, because they were framing a plot
against the consul, who took no precautions against treachery
in the conference. They chose for this purpose, out of all
their number, one thousand horsemen of approved intrepidity;
and their treachery would have taken effect, had not fortune
exerted herself in favour of the law of nations, in violation of
which their plan was laid. The Roman parties, who went out for
forage and wood, were led towards that quarter where the conference
was to be held; for the tribunes judged that to be the
safest course, as they would have the consul’s escort, and himself,
as a guard opposed to the enemy. However, they posted
another guard of their own, of six hundred horse, nearer to
the camp. The consul, being assured by Attalus that the
kings would come, and that the business might be concluded,
having set out from his camp with the same attendants
as before, when he had advanced about five miles, and was
not far from the place appointed, he saw, on a sudden, the
Gauls coming on with hostile fury, and with their horses at full
gallop. He halted, and ordering his horsemen to make ready
their arms, and recall their courage, received the enemy’s first
charge with firmness, nor gave way. At length, when their numbers
were overpowering him, he began to retreat leisurely, without
disturbing the order of the troops, but at last, when there
was more danger in delay than protection in keeping their
ranks, they all fled in hurry and disorder. Then truly the
Gauls pressed hard on them, dispersed, and killed several;
and a great part of them would have been cut off, had not the
six hundred horse, the guard of the foragers, come up to meet
them. These, on hearing, at a distance, the shout of dismay
raised by their friends, made ready their weapons and horses,
and, being quite fresh, renewed the fight after it was almost
over. The fortune of the battle, therefore, was instantly reversed,
and dismay recoiled from the conquered on the conquerors.
At the first charge the Gauls were routed; at the
same time the foragers from the fields ran together towards
the spot, and an enemy was on every side of the Gauls in such
a manner that they could not have an easy or safe retreat,
especially as the Romans pursued on fresh horses, while theirs
were fatigued. Few therefore escaped; yet not one was taken;
by far the greater part paid their lives as a forfeit for having
violated the faith of a conference. The whole army of the
Romans, with minds burning with rage, marched up, next
day, close to the enemy.
26
The consul, that no particular should escape his knowledge,
spent two days in examining the nature of the mountain
with his own eyes. On the third day, after taking the
auspices, and then offering sacrifice, he formed his troops in
four divisions, that he might lead two up the middle of the
mountain, and direct the other two, one on each side, against
the wings of the Gauls. The main strength of the enemy,
the Tectosagians and Trocmians, amounting to fifty thousand
men, formed the centre of their line. They dismounted their
cavalry, in number ten thousand men, because horsemen
could not act among the uneven rocks, and placed them on
the right wing. The Cappadocians of Ariarathes, with the
auxiliary troops of Morzes, on the left, made up almost four
thousand. The consul, having placed his light troops in the
van, as he had done before at Mount Olympus, took care
that they should have ready at hand the same abundance of
weapons of every sort. When they approached the enemy,
all circumstances, on both sides, were the same as in the former
battle, excepting their spirits; those of the victors being elated
by their success, and those of the Gauls depressed; because,
though they themselves had not been defeated, yet they considered
as their own, the overthrow of people of their own race.
The battle, therefore, commencing under similar circumstances,
had the same issue. The cloud, as it were, of light weapons
that were thrown, overwhelmed the army of the Gauls; and,
as none of them dared to charge forward from their ranks,
for fear of exposing all parts of their bodies to the blows, so
while they stood still, the closer they were together the more
wounds they received, as the assailants directed their weapons
as if at a mark. The consul now judged, that if he should once
show the standards of the legions to them already disordered,
they would instantly turn about and fly; receiving, therefore,
the light infantry, and the rest of the auxiliaries, between the
ranks, he ordered the line to advance.
27
The Gauls, discouraged by the memory of the defeat of
the Tolistoboians, and carrying weapons sticking in their flesh,
fatigued also by long standing and wounds, were not able to
support even the first shout and onset of the Romans. Their
flight was directed towards their camp; only a few of them
entered the trenches; the greater part, passing by, on the
right and left, fled whichever way each man’s giddy haste carried
him. The conquerors, following them to the camp, cut
off their rear; but then, through greediness for booty, they
stopped in the camp, and not one of them continued the pursuit.
The Gauls in the wings stood some time longer, because
the Romans reached them at a later period. But they did not
endure even the first discharge of weapons. The consul, as he
could not draw off the men who had got into the camp for plunder,
sent forward those, who had been in the wings, to pursue
the enemy. They, accordingly, followed them a considerable
way; yet, in the pursuit, for there was no fight, they killed not
more than eight thousand men: the rest crossed the river
Halys. A great part of the Romans lodged that night in the
enemy’s camp; the consul led back the rest to his own. Next
day, he took a review of the prisoners, and of the booty, the
quantity of which was as great as a nation most greedy of
rapine could amass, after holding possession, by force of arms,
of all the country on this side Mount Taurus, during a space
of many years. The Gauls, after this scattered and confused
flight, re-assembled in one place, a great part of them being
wounded or unarmed, and as all were destitute of every kind
of property, they sent deputies to the consul, to supplicate for
peace. Manlius ordered them to attend him at Ephesus; and,
being in haste to quit those cold regions, in the vicinity of
Mount Taurus, as it was now the middle of autumn, he led back
his victorious army into winter quarters on the sea-coast.
28
During the time of those transactions in Asia, affairs
were tranquil in the other provinces. At Rome, the censors,
Titus Quintius Flamininus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus,
read over the roll of the senate; Publius Scipio Africanus was,
a third time, declared prince of the senate, and only four members
were struck out, none of whom had held any curule office.
In their review of the knights, also, their censorship was very
mild. They contracted for the erection of a building in the
Æquimælium, on the capitoline mount, and for paving, with
flint, a road from the gate Capena to the temple of Mars. The
Campanians consulted the senate respecting the place where
they should have their census; and an order was passed that
they should be rated at Rome. Extraordinary quantities of rain
fell this year; twelve times the Tiber overflowed the field of
Mars and the lower parts of the city. The war with the Gauls
in Asia having been brought to a conclusion by the consul
Cneius Manlius, the other consul, Marcus Fulvius, as the
Ætolians were now completely reduced, passed over to Cephallenia,
and sent messengers round the states of the island,
to inquire whether they chose to submit to the Romans, or
to try the fortune of war. Fear prevailed so strongly on
them all, that they did not refuse to surrender. They gave
the number of hostages demanded, which was proportioned to
the abilities of a weak people, the Nesians, Cranians, Pallenians,
and Samæans, giving twenty each. An unhoped-for peace had
now shone on Cephallenia, when one state, the Samæans, suddenly
revolted, from some motive not yet ascertained. They
said, that as their city was commodiously situated, they were
afraid that the Romans would compel them to remove from it.
But whether, they conceived this in their own minds, and, under
the impulse of a groundless fear, disturbed the general quiet,
or whether, such a project had been mentioned in conversation
among the Romans, and reported to them, nothing is
ascertained, unless that after having given hostages they suddenly
shut their gates, and would not relinquish their design,
even for the prayers of their friends, whom the consul sent
to the walls, to try how far they might be influenced by compassion
for their parents and countrymen. When no pacific
answer was given, the city began to be besieged. The consul
had all the apparatus, engines and machines, which had been
brought over from Ambracia; and the soldiers executed with
great diligence the works necessary to be formed. The rams
were therefore brought forward in two places, and began to
batter the walls.
29
The townsmen omitted nothing by which the works or
the motions of the besiegers could be obstructed. But they
resisted in two ways in particular; one of which was to raise
constantly, instead of the part of the wall knocked down, a new
wall of equal strength on the inside; and the other was to
make sudden sallies, at one time against the enemy’s works, at
another against his advanced guards; and in those attacks, they
generally got the better. The only plan that was invented to
confine them within the walls, though ineffectual, deserves to be
recorded. One hundred slingers were brought from Ægium,
Patras, and Dymæ. These men, according to the customary
practice of that nation, were exercised from their childhood in
throwing with a sling, into the open sea, the round pebbles, with
which, mixed with sand, the shores were generally strewn;
therefore they cast weapons of that sort to a greater distance,
with surer aim, and more powerful effect, than even the Balearian
slingers. Besides, their sling does not consist merely of a
single strap, like the Balearic and that of other nations, but the
thong of the sling is three-fold, and made firm by several seams,
that the bullet may not, by the yielding of the strap in the act of
throwing, be let fly at random, but after sticking fast while
whirled about, it may be discharged as if sent from the string of
a bow. Being accustomed to drive their bullets through circular
marks of small circumference, placed at a great distance, they
not only hit the enemy’s heads, but any part of their face that
they aimed at. These slings checked the Samæans from sallying
either so frequently or so boldly; insomuch that they would,
sometimes, from the walls, beseech the Achæans to retire for
a while, and be quiet spectators of their fight with the Roman
guards. Same supported a siege of four months. When
some of their small number were daily killed or wounded, and
the survivors were, through continual fatigues, greatly reduced
both in strength and spirits, the Romans, one night scaling
the wall of the citadel, which they call Cyatides, (for the city
sloping towards the sea verges towards the west,) made their
way into the forum. The Samæans, on discovering that a
part of the city was taken, fled, with their wives and children,
into the greater citadel; but submitting next day, they were
all sold as slaves, their city being plundered.
30
As soon as he had settled the affairs of Cephallenia, the
consul, leaving a garrison in Same, sailed over to Peloponnesus,
where the Ægians and Lacedæmonians, chiefly, solicited
his presence for a long time. From the first institution of the
Achæan council, the assemblies of the nation had been held
at Ægium, whether that was conceded to the dignity of the
city, or the commodiousness of its situation. This usage Philopœmen
first attempted to subvert in that year, and determined
to introduce an ordinance, that these should be held in rotation
in every one of the cities, which were members of the Achæan
union; and a little before the arrival of the consul, when
the Demiurguses, who are the chief magistrates in the states,
summoned the representatives to Ægium, Philopœmen, then
prætor, by proclamation, appointed their meeting at Argos.
To which place when it was apparent that all would come, the
consul likewise, though he favoured the cause of the Ægians,
went to Argos, but, after there had been a debate, and he
saw the scale turning against the Ægians, he desisted from
his undertaking. The Lacedæmonians then drew his attention
to their disputes. The exiles especially kept that state
in alarm: of whom great numbers resided in the maritime
forts on the coast of Laconia, all which had been taken from
the Lacedæmonians. At this the Lacedæmonians were deeply
chagrined, and in order that they might have some where a free
access to the sea, if they should have occasion to send ambassadors
to Rome, or any other place, and at the same time possess
some mart and repository for foreign merchandise, for their
necessary demands, attacked in the night a maritime village
called Las, and seized it by surprise. The inhabitants, and
the exiles residing in the place, were terrified, at first, by the
sudden assault; but afterwards collecting in a body before
day, after a slight contest, they drove back the Lacedæmonians.
A general alarm, nevertheless, spread over the whole coast,
and all the forts and villages, with the exiles whose homes were
there, united in sending a common embassy to the Achæans.
31
The prætor, Philopœmen,—(who, from the beginning,
had ever been a friend to the cause of the exiles, and had always
advised the Achæans to reduce the power and influence
of the Lacedæmonians,)—gave an audience of the council to the
ambassadors while making their complaints. There, on a motion
made by him, a decree was passed, that, “whereas Titus
Quintius and the Romans had committed their forts and villages,
on the coast of Laconia, to the protection and guardianship
of the Achæans; and whereas the Lacedæmonians, according
to the treaty, ought to leave them unmolested; notwithstanding
which, the village of Las has been attacked by them
and bloodshed committed therein; therefore, unless the
authors and abettors of this outrage were delivered up to
the Achæans, the treaty would be considered as violated.”
To demand those persons, ambassadors were instantly despatched
to Lacedæmon. This authoritative injunction appeared
to the Lacedæmonians so haughty and insolent, that if
their state had been in its ancient condition, they would undoubtedly
have taken to arms. But they were principally
alarmed by apprehensions, lest, if by obeying the first mandates
they once received the yoke, Philopœmen should put
the exiles in possession of Lacedæmon, a design which he had
been a long time planning. Maddened therefore with anger,
they put to death thirty men of the faction which had held
some correspondence with Philopœmen and the exiles, and
passed a decree, that the alliance with the Achæans should be
renounced, and that ambassadors should be sent immediately
to Cephallenia, to surrender Lacedæmon to the consul Marcus
Fulvius and the Romans, and beseech him to come into Peloponnesus,
and to receive Lacedæmon under the protection
and dominion of the Roman people.
32
When the Achæan ambassadors returned with an account
of these proceedings, war was declared against the
Lacedæmonians, by a unanimous vote of all the states of the confederacy;
but the winter prevented its being commenced immediately.
However, the confines of the Lacedæmonians were
laid waste by small expeditions, more like freebooting than a
regular war, made not only by land, but also by ships at sea.
This commotion brought the consul into Peloponnesus, and,
by his order, a council being summoned at Elis, the Lacedæmonians
were called on to plead their own cause. There
were not only violent debates then, but even altercation. To
which, the consul, although his answer had been indecisive in
other respects, since he encouraged both parties through a very
eager desire to please, put an end, by one decisive order, that
they should desist from hostilities, until they sent ambassadors
to Rome, to the senate. An embassy was despatched by both
parties to Rome. The Lacedæmonian exiles intrusted their
cause and embassy to the Achæans. Diophanes and Lycortas,
both of them Megalopolitans, were at the head of the
Achæan embassy, who, being at variance in their own republic,
there also delivered speeches by no means in unison.
Diophanes was for leaving the determination of every
point to the senate—that they would best decide the controversies
between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians; while Lycortas,
according to the instructions of Philopœmen, required,
that the senate should permit the Achæans to execute their
own decrees, made conformable to the treaty, and their own
laws; and that they should concede to them, uninfringed, the
liberty which they themselves had bestowed. The Achæan nation
was, at that time, in high esteem with the Romans; yet
it was resolved, that no alteration should be made respecting
the Lacedæmonians; but the answer given was so confused,
that, while the Achæans understood it as full permission given
to them in relation to Lacedæmon, the Lacedæmonians construed
it, that unlimited power was not conceded to them.
33
The Achæans used this power in an immoderate and
tyrannical manner. Philopœmen is continued in office, and
he, in the beginning of spring, collecting an army, encamped
in the territory of the Lacedæmonians, and thence
sent ambassadors to insist on their delivering up the authors
of the insurrection; promising, that if they complied, their
state should remain in peace, and that those persons should
not suffer any punishment, without having pleaded their
cause. There was silence among the rest through fear; but
the persons demanded by name, declared that they would
voluntarily go, if their faith was pledged by the ambassadors,
that violence would not be resorted to, until their cause were
heard. Several other men, of illustrious characters, went
along with them, both as supporters of those private individuals,
and because they thought their cause concerned the
public interest. The Achæans had never before brought the
Lacedæmonian exiles into the country, because they knew
that nothing would disgust the people so much; but now, the
vanguard of almost their whole army was composed of them.
When the Lacedæmonians came to the gate of the camp, these
men met them in a body, and, first, began to provoke them with
insulting language; a wrangle then ensuing, and their passions
being inflamed, the most furious of the exiles made an attack on
the Lacedæmonians. While these appealed to the gods, and
the faith of the ambassadors; and while the ambassadors and
the prætor were driving back the crowd, and protecting the Lacedæmonians,
and were keeping back some who were already
binding them in chains,—the multitude was increasing, owing
to a tumult having been excited. The Achæans, at first, ran
thither to view the spectacle; but then the exiles, with loud
clamours, complained of the sufferings that they had undergone,
implored assistance, and at the same time insisted, that they
would never have such an opportunity if they neglected this;
that the treaties, solemnly ratified in the Capitol, at Olympia,
and in the citadel of Athens, had been rendered void by these
men; and that before they should be bound by a new treaty,
the guilty ought to be punished. The multitude being inflamed
by these expressions, at the voice of one who called
out that they should fall on, attacked them with stones; and
seventeen persons, who, during the disturbance, had been put
in chains, were killed. The next day, sixty-three, whom the
prætor had protected from violence, not because he wished
them safe, but because he was unwilling that they should perish
without a defence, being taken into custody, and brought
before an enraged multitude, after addressing a few words to
such prejudiced ears, were all condemned and executed.
34
After this fear had been inspired, orders were sent to
the Lacedæmonians, first, that they should demolish their
walls; then, that all the foreign auxiliaries, who had served
for pay under the tyrants, should quit the Laconian territories;
then, that the slaves, whom the tyrants had set free,
who amounted to a great multitude, should depart before a
certain day; that the Achæans should be authorized to seize,
sell, and carry away those who might remain in the country.
That they should abrogate the laws and customs of Lycurgus,
and adopt the laws and institutions of the Achæans; that thus
all would become one body, and concord would be established
among them. They obeyed none of these injunctions more
willingly than that of demolishing the walls, nor suffered any
with more reluctance than the restoration of the exiles. A
decree for their restoration was made at Tegea, in a general
council of the Achæans; where, an account being brought,
that the foreign auxiliaries had been sent away, and that the
newly-registered Lacedæmonians (so they called the slaves
who were enfranchised by the tyrants) had left the city and
dispersed through the country, it was resolved, that, before
the army was disbanded, the prætor should go with some
light troops, and, seizing that description of people, sell them
as spoil. Great numbers were accordingly seized, and sold;
and with that money a portico at Megalopolis, which the
Lacedæmonians had demolished, was rebuilt, with the approbation
of the Achæans. The lands of Belbinis, of which
the Lacedæmonian tyrants had unjustly kept possession, were
also restored to that state, according to an old decree of the
Achæans, made in the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas. The
state of Lacedæmon having, by these means, lost the sinews
of its strength, remained long in subjection to the Achæans;
but nothing hurt it so materially as the abolition of the discipline
of Lycurgus, in the practice of which they had continued
during seven hundred years.
35
After the sitting of the council, wherein the debate
between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians was held in presence
of the consul, as the year was expiring, Marcus Fulvius,
having gone home to Rome to hold the elections, appointed
Marcus Valerius Messala and Caius Livius Salinator
consuls, after having, this year, procured the rejection of his
enemy, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. Then Quintus Marcius
Philippus, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Caius Stertinius, Caius
Atinius, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Lucius Manlius
Acidinus, were elected prætors. When the elections were
finished, it was resolved, that the consul, Marcus Fulvius,
should return into his province to the army; and to him and
his colleague, Cneius Manlius, their command was prolonged
for a year. In this year, in pursuance of directions from the
decemvirs, a statue of Hercules was set up in his temple, and
a gilded chariot with six horses were placed in the Capitol,
by Publius Cornelius. The inscription mentioned, that Publius
Cornelius, the consul,30 made the offering. Also twelve gilded
shields, out of money raised by fines on corn merchants, for
raising the market by hoarding the grain, were dedicated by
the curule ædiles, Publius Claudius Pulcher and Servius Sulpicius
Galba; and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the plebeian ædile,
having convicted one malefactor, (for the ædiles prosecuted separately,)
dedicated two gilded statues. His colleague, Aulus
Cæcilius, did not convict any one. The Roman games were
exhibited thrice; the plebeian, five times altogether. Marcus
Valerius Messala, and Caius Livius Salinator, after entering
into office on the ides of March, consulted the senate concerning
the state of the commonwealth, the provinces, and
the armies. With respect to Ætolia and Asia no alteration
was made. With regard to the consuls, to the one Pisæ, with
the Ligurians, is decreed as his province; to the other, Gaul.
They were ordered to cast lots for these, or to settle the matter
between themselves, to enrol new armies, two legions for
each; and to levy off the allies of the Latin name, fifteen
thousand foot, and one thousand two hundred horse. Liguria
fell, by lot, to Messala; Gaul, to Salinator. The prætors
then cast lots, and the city jurisdiction fell to Marcus Claudius;
the foreign, to Publius Claudius. Quintus Marcius obtained,
by lot, Sicily; Caius Stertinius, Sardinia; Lucius
Manlius, Hither Spain; Caius Atinius, Farther Spain.
36
Respecting the armies, they passed the following resolutions—that
the legions which had served under Caius Lælius,
should be removed out of Gaul into Bruttium, to Marcus
Tuccius, the proprætor; that the army which was in Sicily
should be disbanded, and that Marcus Sempronius, the proprætor,
should bring back to Rome the fleet that was there. For
the Spains were decreed the legions then in those provinces, one
for each, with orders, that each of the two prætors should
levy from among the allies, as a reinforcement, three thousand
foot and two hundred horse, and bring them with them.
Before the new magistrates set out for their provinces, a supplication,
of three days’ continuance, was ordered by the college
of decemvirs to be performed in every street, on account
of a darkness having overspread the light of day, between the
third and fourth hours; and the nine days’ solemnity was
proclaimed, because there had been a shower of stones on the
Aventine. The Campanians, as the censors obliged them,
pursuant to the decree of the senate, made last year, to pass
the general survey at Rome, (for before that, it had not been
fixed where they should be surveyed,) petitioned that they
might be allowed to take in marriage women who were citizens
of Rome, and that any who had, heretofore, married such,
might retain them; and, likewise, that children born of such
marriages, before that day, might be legitimate, and entitled to
inherit; both which requests were obtained. Caius Valerius
Tappus, a tribune of the commons, proposed an order of the people
concerning the citizens of the free towns of Formiæ, Fundi,
and Arpinum, that they should be invested with the right of
voting, for hitherto they had had the rights of citizenship without
the privilege of voting. When four tribunes of the commons
were protesting against the bill, because it was not made under
the direction of the senate, on being informed, that the power
of imparting the privilege of voting to any person they should
choose belonged to the people, and not to the senate, they desisted
from their opposition. An order was passed, that the
Formians and Fundans should vote in the Æmilian tribe, and
the Arpinians in the Cornelian; and in these tribes they were
then, for the first time, rated in the census, in pursuance of
the order of the people proposed by Valerius. Marcus Claudius
Marcellus, the censor, having got the better of Titus Quintius
in the lots, closed the lustrum. Two hundred and fifty-eight
thousand three hundred and eight citizens were rated.
When the lustrum was finished, the consuls set out for their
provinces.
37
During the winter wherein these acts were performed
at Rome, embassies from all the nations and states which
dwelt on this side of Mount Taurus, came together on all sides
to Cneius Manlius, at first consul, and afterwards proconsul,
passing the winter in Asia; and although the conquest of Antiochus
was more splendid and glorious to the Romans than
that of the Gauls, yet the latter gave greater joy to the allies
than the former. Subjection to the king had been more tolerable
to them than the savage nature of those wild barbarians,
and the daily alarm, with the uncertainty of the direction in
which the storm would, as it were, drift them in their desolating
path. Therefore since to them liberty was given by
the expulsion of Antiochus, and permanent peace by the conquest
of the Gauls, they brought, not only congratulations,
but also golden crowns, in proportion to the ability of each.
Ambassadors also came from Antiochus, and from the Gauls
themselves, that the conditions of peace might be dictated to
them; and from Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, to solicit
pardon, and make atonement, by money, for his crime in assisting
Antiochus with troops. Six hundred talents of silver
are levied off him. Answer was made to the Gauls, that
when king Eumenes arrived, he would settle the conditions.
The embassies of the several states were dismissed with kind
answers, much happier than when they arrived. The ambassadors
of Antiochus were ordered to bring the money and the
corn, (according to the treaty concluded with Lucius Scipio,)
into Pamphylia, whither the consul intended to go with his
forces. In the beginning of the next spring, after purifying
the army, he began his march, and on the eighth day arrived at
Apamea. Having halted there during three days, he, on the
third day after his departure from that place, arrived in Pamphylia,
to which place he had ordered the king’s ambassadors to
bring together the money and corn. Two thousand five hundred
talents31 of silver, being received by him, were conveyed
to Apamea; the corn was distributed among the army. Thence
he marched to Perga, the only place in the country still held
by a garrison of the king’s troops. On his approach, the
governor of the town met him, and requested thirty days’
time, that he might consult Antiochus about the surrender of
the city. The time being granted, on the appointed day
the garrison evacuated the city. From Perga, he detached
his brother, Lucius Manlius, with four thousand men, to
Oroanda, to exact from that town the remainder of the money
which they had promised; and, having ordered the ambassadors
of Antiochus to follow, he led back his army to Apamea,
because he heard that king Eumenes, and the ten ambassadors
from Rome, were arrived at Ephesus.
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, thunderstruck. 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 twofold: 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.
54
The death of Africanus increased the courage of his
enemies, the chief of whom was Marcus Porcius Cato, who,
even during his life, was accustomed to sneer at his splendid
character. The Petillii are supposed, both to have commenced
the prosecution against Africanus at his instigation while
he was alive, and on his death to have proposed a bill against
him. The motion for the order was made in these words:
“Romans, is it your will and order, with respect to the money
taken, carried off, and collected from king Antiochus, and
those under his government, and with respect to such part
thereof as has not been accounted for to the public, that
Servius Sulpicius, the city prætor, shall ask the senate which
of the present prætors they will appoint to hold an inquiry
concerning those matters?” Quintus and Lucius Mummius
at first objected to this motion: they thought it proper that,
according to the practice always hitherto observed, the senate
should make the inquiry concerning such money as had not been
brought into the public treasury. The Petillii represented the
great influence, the sovereign power which the Scipios possessed
in the senate. Lucius Furius Purpureo, a senator of consular
rank, who had been one of the ten ambassadors in Asia, was of
opinion that the inquiry ought to be carried to a wider extent;
not only as to the money taken from Antiochus, but to what
had been taken from other kings and nations, attacking his
enemy Cneius Manlius. Lucius Scipio, who, it was evident,
was arguing rather in favour of himself than against the
order, stood forward to oppose it. He complained heavily of
such a motion being brought on after the death of his brother,
Publius Africanus, the bravest and most illustrious of men.
For “it had not been deemed sufficient that Publius Africanus
was not eulogized from the rostrum after his death, unless he
should be also the subject of accusation. The Carthaginians
had been content with the banishment of Hannibal, but the
Roman people would not be satisfied even with the death of
Publius Scipio, unless, after he was laid in his grave, his
character were mangled, and his brother also sacrificed,
another victim to envy.” Marcus Cato supported the motion
in a speech on the money of king Antiochus, which is still
extant; and, by his influence, deterred the Mummii, the two
tribunes, from their opposition to the order. On their withdrawing
their intended protest, every one of the tribes voted
in favour of the motion.
55
Servius Sulpicius then putting the question to the
senate, whom they would appoint, according to the Petillian
order of the people, to hold the inquiry, they appointed
Quintus Terentius Culleo. Before this prætor, so warmly
attached to the Cornelian family, (that those writers, who
say that Publius Scipio died and was buried at Rome, for
that too is asserted, have left on record, that he walked
at his funeral before the bier with a cap of liberty on his
head, as he had done before at his triumph; and that, at the
Capuan gate, he gave wine and honey to those who attended
the obsequies, to show his gratitude for having been recovered
by Scipio, among other captives, out of the hands of the
enemy in Africa,) or so great an enemy to that family, that
on account of his known animosity, he was selected in particular
by the faction that supported the proceedings against
the Scipios, to hold the inquiry; however that may be, before
this prætor, whether too favourable or too much the contrary,
Lucius Scipio was immediately arraigned. At the same time
charges were presented and received against his lieutenants-general,
the two Hostilius Catos, Aulus and Lucius; and his
quæstor, Caius Furius Aculeo: and (that all things might
appear infected with the contagion of peculation) against his
two secretaries and crier, Lucius Hostilius. The secretaries
and the crier were acquitted before Scipio was tried. Scipio
and Aulus Hostilius, his lieutenant-general, and Caius Furius,
were convicted on the following charges, that, “as bribes, for
granting more favourable terms of peace to Antiochus, Scipio
had received, over and above what he brought into the treasury,
six thousand pounds’ weight of gold, and four hundred
and eighty of silver; Aulus Hostilius, eighty pounds of gold,
and four hundred and three of silver; and Furius, the quæstor,
one hundred and thirty of gold, and two hundred of silver.”
These sums of gold and silver I find mentioned by
Antias. As to what regards Lucius Scipio, I suspect some
mistake of the transcriber, rather than a falsehood of the historian,
respecting the amount of the gold and silver. For it
is more probable that the weight of silver was greater than
that of gold, and that the fine was laid at four millions,37 than
at twenty-four millions of sesterces,38 the more on this account,
as they record that an account of that sum was demanded
from Publius Scipio himself, in the senate; and that when he
had desired his brother Lucius to bring the book of his accounts,
he tore it to pieces in the view of the senate, at the
same time expressing indignation at being called to account
for four millions after he had brought two hundred millions39
into the treasury. From the same confidence of spirit, when the
quæstors would not venture to bring money out of the coffers
contrary to law, he demanded the keys of the treasury, declaring
that he would open it as he had caused it to be shut.
56
Many other things are at variance respecting the latter
part, particularly, of Scipio’s life, that is to say, his trial death,
funeral, and sepulchre, so that I cannot determine which tradition
or which writings I ought to credit. Writers do not agree
as to his accuser; some affirming that Marcus Nævius, others
that the Petillii, instituted the prosecution; neither are they
agreed as to the time when it was carried on; nor the year in
which he died; nor the place; nor where he was buried.
Some assert, that he died and was buried at Rome; others, at
Liternum; and in both places memorials and statues of him
are shown. For at Liternum there was a monument, and on
it stood his statue, which we in person lately saw cast down
by a storm. At Rome likewise, on a monument of the Scipios
outside the Capuan gate, are three statues, two of which are
said to be those of Publius and Lucius Scipio, and the third
that of the poet Quintus Ennius. Nor do these differences
exist between historians only; the speeches attributed to
Publius Scipio and Tiberius Gracchus, if they really are theirs,
differ widely from one another. The title of Publius Scipio’s
speech bears the name of Marcus Nævius, the tribune of the
commons; the speech itself does not furnish the name of the prosecutor;
it only calls him sometimes a knave, sometimes a trifler.
Even the speech of Gracchus makes no mention of the Petillii
accusing Africanus, or of the prosecution carried on against him.
An entirely different story must be framed consistent with the
speech of Gracchus; and those writers must be followed who
affirm, that, at the time when Lucius Scipio was impeached,
and convicted of having taken money from the king, Africanus
was a lieutenant-general in Etruria; whence, on hearing of
this misfortune, throwing up his commission, he hastened to
Rome; and when he came straight from the gate to the forum,
because he was told that his brother was being led into confinement,
he drove away the officer from his person; and, on
the tribunes attempting to detain him, laid violent hands on
them, showing more affection towards his brother than regard
for the laws. Of these acts, Gracchus himself complained,
saying, that the tribunitian power was annulled by a private
person; and at last, when he promises support to Lucius
Scipio, he adds, that the precedent would be more tolerable,
if both the tribunitian authority and the state appeared to be
overpowered by a tribune of the commons, than if by a private
citizen. But he loaded him with reproaches for this
signal instance of intemperate violence, in such a manner, that
while he charged him with having degenerated so far from
himself, he gave to him his long-established praises for moderation,
self-control, with many-fold increase, so as to make
ample amends for the present reprehension. For he said, that
the people were formerly severely rebuked by Scipio, because
they wished to make him perpetual consul and dictator; that
he hindered statues from being erected to him in the comitium,
in the rostrum, in the senate-house, in the Capitol, in the chapel
of Jupiter’s temple, and that he prevented, a decree being
passed, that his image, in a triumphal habit, should be brought
in procession out of the temple of Jupiter the supremely good
and great. Such particulars as these, which even an enemy acknowledged
while censuring him, even if inserted in a professed
panegyric, would demonstrate an uncommon greatness of
mind, in limiting his honours conformably to his position as a
citizen.
57
It is universally agreed, that the younger of Scipio’s
two daughters was married to this Gracchus; for the elder
was undoubtedly disposed of by her father, to Publius Cornelius
Nasica. But it is not so certain, whether she was both
betrothed and married after her father’s death, or whether the
accounts are true, that Gracchus, when Lucius Scipio was
being led to prison, and no other of the tribunes interfered to
protect him, swore, that “the same enmity which he had entertained
against the Scipios still subsisted; and that he did
not perform any act for the sake of gaining their favour.
But that, having seen Publius Africanus leading the kings
and generals of enemies to prison, he would never suffer his
brother to be led to the same place.” They add, that the
senators, happening to sup that day in the Capitol, rose up
together, and requested of Africanus, before the company
departed, to betroth his daughter to Gracchus: that the contract
was accordingly executed in due form, in the presence
of this assembly; and that Scipio, on his return home, told
his wife Æmilia that he had concluded a match for her younger
daughter. That she, feeling her female pride hurt, expressing
some resentment on not having been consulted in the disposal
of their common child, added, that, even were he giving her
to Tiberius Gracchus, her mother ought not to be kept in ignorance
of his intention; to which Scipio, rejoiced at her
judgment concurring so entirely with his own, replied, that
she was betrothed to that very man. These circumstances
respecting so great a captain, though they might vary, both
in traditionary and written relation, ought to be stated.
58
On the proceedings being finished by the prætor Quintius
Terentius, Hostilius and Furius, being condemned, gave
securities the same day to the city quæstors. Scipio, when
he insisted that all the money received by him was in the
treasury, and that he had not in his possession any thing
whatever belonging to the public, was ordered to prison.
Publius Scipio Nasica then appealed to the tribunes, and made
a speech fraught with just encomiums, not only on the Cornelian
family in general, but on his own branch of it in particular.
“His father,” he said, “and the father of Publius
Africanus and Lucius Scipio, who was now ordered to prison,
were Cneius and Publius Scipio, men of the most illustrious
characters; that when, through a long course of years, they
had highly enhanced the reputation of the Roman name in
the land of Spain, against many commanders and many
armies of the Carthaginians and Spaniards, not only by their
military exploits, but also by exhibiting to the nations of that
country brilliant examples of Roman moderation and fidelity,
both, at last, fell in the service of the Roman people. Although
it ought to be sufficient to their descendants to support
the glory derived from them, yet Publius Africanus so far surpassed
his father’s renown, as to occasion a belief that he was
not sprung from the human race, but was of divine extraction.
As to Lucius Scipio, concerning whom the question then was,
to pass over his exploits in Spain and in Africa, (while he was
lieutenant-general to his brother,) on his being elected consul,
was by the senate considered so worthy, that the province
of Asia and the war with Antiochus were assigned him,
without leaving it to the decision of the lots; and by his
brother, that, after two consulships, the censorship, and a triumph,
he attended him into Asia in quality of lieutenant-general.
There, that the great and splendid character of the
lieutenant might not eclipse the fame of the consul, it so happened,
that, on the day when Lucius Scipio conquered Antiochus
in a pitched battle at Magnesia, Publius Scipio was
absent at the distance of several days’ journey, being sick at
Elæa. The army of the enemy, on that occasion, was not inferior
to that of Hannibal, when the battle was fought with
him in Africa; and the same Hannibal, who was commander-in-chief
in the Carthaginian war, was among many other
generals of the king. The war indeed was so conducted,
that no one could throw blame even on fortune. A ground
of accusation is sought for in the peace; it is said that it was
sold. The ten ambassadors, in pursuance of whose counsel
the peace was concluded, are at the same time included in this
charge. Some of the ten ambassadors had even stood forth
as accusers of Cneius Manlius, yet their charges were so far
from gaining credit that they did not produce even a delay of
his triumph.
59
“But truly, in the case of Scipio, the articles of the
peace are suspected as being too favourable to Antiochus.
For his entire kingdom has been left to him: although conquered,
he retains possession of every thing that belonged to
him before the war; and though, he had an immense quantity
of gold and silver, none of it has been applied to the use of
the public: all has been converted to private purposes. Now,
was there not a quantity of gold and silver carried before the
eyes of the public in the triumph of Lucius Scipio, so great
that an equal quantity was not carried in ten of the former
triumphs, even if it was amassed together? Why need I
speak of the extent of the kingdom of Antiochus, or that he
held all Asia, and the adjoining parts of Europe? Every
body knows what a large portion of the surface of the earth
that is, which stretches from Mount Taurus quite to the
Ægean Sea; what a number, not only of cities, but of nations,
it comprehends; and that this tract, as far as the summit of
Mount Taurus, more than thirty days’ journey in length and
ten in breadth, from one sea to the other,—has been taken
from Antiochus, who is thereby removed to the most distant
corner of the world? Now if peace had been granted
him without any pecuniary consideration, could more have
been taken from him? Macedon was left to Philip after he
was conquered; Lacedæmon to Nabis; yet the grounds of
an accusation were never sought against Quinctius on that
account. The reason was, that he had not Africanus for a
brother, whose high renown ought to have been serviceable
to Lucius Scipio; but envy of his merit had done him injury.
A quantity of gold and silver was mentioned in the senate to
have been conveyed to the house of Lucius Scipio, greater
than could be raised from the sale of his whole property.
Where, then, was all this royal treasure; where the value of
so many estates received? Surely in a house, which extravagance
never exhausted, this new accumulation of wealth
ought to appear. But what cannot be levied out of his
effects, the enemies of Lucius Scipio will exact from his
person, and from his very flesh, by vexatious persecution and
insult; carried to such a degree that a man of his illustrious
character would be shut up in a prison, among midnight
thieves and robbers, and forced to breathe his last in a
dungeon and in darkness, and his naked corpse thrown before
the prison door. Such proceedings will reflect more disgrace
on the city of Rome, than they will on the Cornelian family.”
60
In answer to this, the prætor, Terentius, read the
Petillian order of the people, the decree of the senate, and
the judgment pronounced against Lucius Scipio; and declared
that unless the money adjudged were paid into the public
treasury, he had no other step to take, than to order the person
convicted to be taken into custody, and carried to prison.
The tribunes retired to confer together, and in a short time
after, Caius Fannius, according to his own opinion and that
of all his colleagues, except Gracchus, declared that the tribunes
would not interfere with the prætor to hinder his
making use of his power. Tiberius Gracchus thus decreed:
“that he would not protest against the prætor’s levying the
sum adjudged out of the effects of Lucius Scipio; but that
Lucius Scipio, who had subdued the most powerful king in
the world, had extended the empire of the Roman people to
the utmost limits of the earth, had bound under obligations to
the Roman people king Eumenes, the Rhodians, and so many
other states of Asia, and had led in triumph so many generals
of the enemies, and imprisoned them, should himself lie in
prison among the enemies of the Roman people, and in chains,
he never would suffer; and therefore he ordered him to be
discharged.” This decision was heard with such approbation,
and the people beheld with so much pleasure the liberation
of Scipio, that it could hardly appear that the sentence had
been passed in the same community. The prætor then sent
the quæstors to take possession of Lucius Scipio’s property,
for the use of the public. And not only did no trace appear
of money received from the king, but not even so much was
made up from the sale as the sum in which he was fined. So
large a contribution was made for Lucius Scipio by his
relations, friends, and clients, that, if he had accepted it, he
would have been much richer than before this misfortune: but
he received nothing. Such things as were necessary for his
family occasions, were bought back at the sale by his nearest
relations. And the public hatred which had been pointed
against the Scipios, reverted on the prætor, his advisers, and
the accusers.