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 Zyboeta, who held possession of a part of Bithynia. By their assistance chiefly Zyboeta 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 Philopoemen 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, Philopoemen, 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, Philopoemen,—(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, Philopoemen 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 Philopoemen 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 Philopoemen, 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. Philopoemen 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, Rhoeteum 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.