40 Valerius Antias tells us, that the total of the captured gold and silver, carried in the procession, was one hundred and twenty millions of sesterces;103 but from the number of chariots, and the weights of the gold and silver, specifically set down by himself, the amount is unquestionably made much greater. An equal sum, it is said, had been either expended on the late war, or dissipated during the flight, when he sought Samothrace; and it was more wonderful on this account, because so large a quantity of money had been amassed within the space of the thirty years that intervened since Philip’s war with the Romans, partly out of the produce of the mines, and partly from the other branches of revenue. Philip began war against the Romans almost destitute of money; Perseus, on the contrary, was immensely rich. Last came Paullus himself, in his chariot, making a very majestic appearance, both from the dignity of his person, and from his age. After his chariot, among other illustrious personages, were his two sons, Quintus Maximus and Publius Scipio; then the cavalry, troop by troop, and the cohorts of infantry, each in its order. The donative distributed among them was one hundred denariuses104 to each footman, double to a centurion, and triple to a horseman; and it is believed that he would have given as much more to the infantry, and in the same proportion to the others, had they not objected to his attaining the present honour, or had they answered with thankful acclamations, when that sum was announced as their reward. But Perseus, led through the city of his enemies in chains, before the chariot of the general, his conqueror, was not the only instance at the time of the misfortunes incident to mankind; another appeared even in the victorious Paullus, though glittering in gold and purple. For, of two sons, (whom, after having given away two others on adoption, he had retained at home, the sole heirs of his name, household gods, and estate,) the younger, about twelve years old, died five days before the triumph, and the elder fourteen years of age, three days after it; who ought to have been carried in the chariot with their father, dressed in the prætexta, and anticipating, in their hopes, the like kind of honours for themselves. A few days after, at a general assembly granted by Marcus Antonius, tribune of the people, after Paullus has descanted on his own proper services, as usually done by other commanders, his speech was memorable, and worthy of a Roman chief.
41 “Although, Romans, I think you are not ignorant that I have successfully administered the state, nor that two dreadful strokes have lately crushed my house; since now my triumph and now the funerals of my two sons have been exhibited to your view; yet permit me, I pray you, to take in few words, and with that temper which becomes me, a comparative view of my own private situation, and the happy state of the public. Departing from Italy, I sailed from Brundusium at sun-rise; at the ninth hour, with my whole squadron, I reached Corcyra. On the fifth day after that I offered sacrifice to Apollo, at Delphi, in expiation of myself, of your armies and fleets. From Delphi I arrived on the fifth day in the camp; where, having received the command of the army, and altered several matters which greatly impeded success, I advanced into the country; as the enemy’s camp was impregnable, and Perseus could not be brought to an action, I forced the pass of Petra in the very face of his guards, and at length, compelled the king to come to an engagement, and gained a complete victory. I reduced Macedonia under the power of the Romans; and in fifteen days finished a war, which four consuls before me had for four years conducted in such a manner, that each left it to his successor more formidable than he had found it. Other prosperous events followed in consequence of this; all the cities of Macedon submitted; the royal treasure came into my hands; the king himself, with his children, was taken in the temple of Samothrace, just as if the gods themselves delivered him into my hands. I now thought my good fortune excessive, and on that account to be suspected; I began to dread the dangers of the sea in carrying away the king’s vast treasure, and transporting the victorious army. When all arrived in Italy, after a prosperous voyage, and I had nothing further to wish, I prayed that (as fortune generally from the highest elevation rolls backwards) my own house, rather than the commonwealth, might feel the change. I hope, therefore, that the republic is free from danger, by my having undergone such an extraordinary calamity, as to have my triumph, in mockery as it were of human fortunes, intervene between the funerals of my two sons. And though Perseus and myself are at present exhibited as the most striking examples of the vicissitudes of mortals, yet he,—who, himself in captivity saw his children led captive,—has them still in safety; while I who triumphed over him, went up in my chariot to the Capitol from the funeral of one son, and came down from the Capitol to the bed of the other, just expiring; nor out of so large a family of children is there one remaining to bear the name of Lucius Æmilius Paullus. For, as out of a numerous progeny, the Cornelian and Fabian families have two of them who were given in adoption. In the house of Paullus, except the old man, none remains. However, your happiness, and the prosperous state of the commonwealth, console me for this ruin of my house.” 42. These words, expressed with such magnanimity, moved the minds of the audience with deeper commiseration than if he had with tears bewailed the loss of his children in the most plaintive terms.
42 Cneius Octavius celebrated a naval triumph over king Perseus, on the calends of December. That triumph was without prisoners or spoils. He distributed to each seaman seventy-five denariuses;105 to the pilots who were on board, twice that sum; and to the masters of ships, four times. A meeting of the senate was then held. The fathers ordered that Quintus Cassius should conduct king Perseus and his son Alexander to Alba, to be there kept in custody; but that he should retain his attendants, money, plate, and furniture. Bitis, son to the king of Thrace, was sent to Carseoli; with the hostages he had given to Macedon, the rest, who had been led in triumph, were ordered to be shut up in prison. A few days after this passed, ambassadors came from Cotys, king of Thrace, bringing money to ransom his son and the said hostages. When they were introduced to an audience of the senate, and alleged, as an argument, in excuse of Cotys, that he had not voluntarily assisted Perseus in the war, but had been compelled to do it; and likewise requested the senate to allow the hostages to be ransomed, at any price that should be judged proper; the following answer was returned to them: that “the Roman people remembered the friendship which had subsisted between them and Cotys, and likewise his predecessors, and the Thracian nation; that the giving of hostages was the very fault laid to his charge, and not an apology for it; for Perseus, even when at rest from others, could not be formidable to the Thracian nation, much less when he was embroiled in a war with Rome. But that notwithstanding that Cotys had preferred the favour of Perseus to the friendship of the Roman people, yet the senate would consider rather what suited their own dignity, than what treatment he had merited; and would send home his son and the hostages; that the kind acts of the Roman people were always gratuitous, and that they chose to leave the value of them in the memory of the receivers, rather than to demand it at the time.” Titus Quintius Flamininus, Caius Licinius Nerva, and Marcus Caninius Rebilus were nominated ambassadors to conduct the hostages to Thrace; and a present of two thousand asses106 was made to each of the Thracian ambassadors. Bithys was fetched from Carseoli, and, accompanied by the hostages, was sent to his father along with the ambassadors. Some of the king’s ships which were taken from the Macedonians, which were of a size never seen before, were hauled ashore in the field of Mars.
43 While the memory of the Macedonian triumph was remaining not only in the minds but almost before the eyes of the people, Lucius Anicius triumphed over king Gentius and the Illyrians, on the day of the festival of Quirinus. These exhibitions were considered rather as similar than equal. The commander himself was inferior; Anicius was not to be compared in renown with Æmilius; a prætor, in dignity of office, with a consul; neither could Gentius be set on a level with Perseus, nor the Illyrians with the Macedonians; nor the spoils, nor the money, nor the presents obtained in one country, with those obtained in the other. But though the late triumph outshone the present, yet the latter, when considered by itself, appeared very far from contemptible. For Anicius had, in the space of a few days, entirely subdued the Illyrian nation, though they were remarkable for their courage both on land and sea, and confident in the strength of their position; he had also taken their king and the whole royal family. He carried in his triumph many military standards, and much spoil of other sorts, with all the royal furniture; and also twenty-seven pounds’ weight of gold, and nineteen of silver, besides three thousand denariuses,107 and, in Illyrian money, the amount of one hundred and twenty thousand.108 Before his chariot were led Gentius, with his queen and children; Caravantius, the king’s brother, and several Illyrian nobles. Out of the booty he gave forty-five denariuses109 to each footman, double that sum to a centurion, triple it to a horseman; to the Latin allies the like sums as to natives, and to the seamen the same as to the soldiers. The soldiers attended this triumph with greater demonstrations of joy than that of Æmilius, and the general was celebrated in abundance of songs. Valerius Antias says, that twenty thousand sesterces110 were produced by the sale of the booty, besides the gold and silver carried to the treasury; but, as no sources appeared from which such a sum could be raised, I have set down my authority instead of asserting the fact. King Gentius, with his queen, children, and brother, was, pursuant to an order of the senate taken to Spoletium, to be kept there in custody; the rest of the prisoners were thrown into prison at Rome; but the people of Spoletium refusing the charge, the royal family was removed to Iguvium. There remained of the Illyrian spoil, two hundred and twenty barks, which Quintus Cassius, by order of the senate, distributed among the Corcyreans, Apollonians, and Dyrrachians.
44 The consuls of this year, after merely ravaging the lands of the Ligurians, as the enemy never brought an army into the field, returned to Rome to elect new magistrates, without having performed any matter of importance; and on the first day on which the assembly could meet, they appointed Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Caius Sulpicius Gallus, consuls. Lucius Livius, Lucius Appuleius Saturninus, Aulus Licinius Nerva, Publius Rutilius Calvus, Publius Quintilius Varus, and Marcus Fonteius, were elected prætors on the next day. The two city provinces, the two Spains, Sicily, and Sardinia were decreed to these prætors. There was an intercalation made in the calendar this year, which took place on the day after the feast of Terminus. One of the augurs, Caius Claudius, died this year, and Titus Quintus Flamininus was chosen in his place by the college. The flamen quirinalis, Quintus Fabius Pictor, died also. This year king Prusias arrived at Rome with his son Nicomedes. Coming into the city with a large retinue, he went directly from the gate to the forum, to the tribunal of the prætor, Quintus Cassius; and a crowd immediately collecting, he said, that “he came to pay his respects to the deities inhabiting the city of Rome, and to the Roman senate and people, to congratulate them on their conquest of the two kings, Perseus and Gentius, and the augmentation of their empire by the reduction of Macedon and Illyria under their dominion.” When the prætor told him that, if he chose it, he would procure him audience of the senate on the same day, he desired two days’ time, in which he might go round and visit the temples of the gods, see the city, and his acquaintances and friends. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, then quæstor, who had been sent to Capua to meet him, was appointed to conduct him around Rome. A house was likewise provided, capable of lodging him and his retinue with convenience. On the third day after, he attended at a meeting of the senate. He congratulated them on their success, recounted his own deserts towards them during the war, and then requested that “he might be allowed to fulfil a vow of sacrificing ten large victims in the Capitol, and one to Fortune at Præneste; a vow which had been made for the success of the Roman people. He further desired that the alliance with him might be renewed; and that the territory taken from king Antiochus, and not granted to any other, but now in possession of the Gauls, might be given to him.” Lastly, he recommended to the senate his son Nicomedes. He was assisted by the interest of all those who had commanded armies in Macedon; his requests therefore were granted, except that with regard to the territory, concerning which he received this answer: that “they would send ambassadors to examine the matter on the spot. If the territory in question had become the property of the Roman people, and if no grant had been made of it, they would deem no other so deserving of a present of the kind as Prusias. But if it had not belonged to Antiochus, it evidently, in consequence, did not become the property of the Roman people; or if it had been already granted to the Gauls, Prusias must excuse the Roman people if they did not choose to confer a present on him in violation of the rights of others. A present cannot be acceptable to the receiver, which he knows the donor may take away whenever he thinks proper. That they cheerfully accepted his recommendation of Nicomedes; and Ptolemy, king of Egypt, was an instance of the great care with which the Roman people supported the children of their friends.” With this answer Prusias was dismissed. Presents were ordered to be given him to the value of * * * * sesterces besides vases of silver, weighing fifty pounds. And they voted that gifts should be given to his son Nicomedes of the same value with those given to Masgaba, the son of king Masinissa; and that the same victims, and other matters pertaining to sacrifices, should be furnished to the king at the public expense, as to the Roman magistrates, whenever he chose to make the offering, either at Rome or at Præneste; and that twenty ships of war should be assigned to him, and which were then lying at Brundusium, of which he should have the use until he arrived at the fleet which was presented to him. That Lucius Cornelius Scipio should not quit him, but defray all his expenses, and those of his retinue, until they went on board the ships. We are told that Prusias was wonderfully rejoiced at the kind treatment which he received from the Roman people; that he refused all that had been offered to himself, but ordered his son to receive the present of the Roman people. Such are the accounts given of Prusias by our own writers. Polybius, however, represents that king as having degraded the majesty of his name,—and says that he used to meet the ambassadors, wearing a cap, and having his head shaved, calling himself a freed slave of the Roman people, and, accordingly, bearing the badges of that class; that likewise at Rome, when coming into the senate-house, he stooped down and kissed the threshold; called the senate his tutelar deities, and used other expressions not so honourable to the hearers as disgraceful to himself. He staid in the city and its vicinity not more than thirty days, and then returned to his kingdom, and the war that had been carried on in Asia. * * * * * * * * * *
Here ends all that has reached us of this history. Of ninety-five books more, which it originally consisted of, the contents only have been preserved; they are as follow:—
PRESERVED CONTENTS OF THE REMAINING BOOKS
BOOK XLVI.
King Eumenes came to Rome. [y. r. 586. b. c. 166.] A general law was introduced, that no king should be permitted to come to Rome, in order that he might not appear to be declared an enemy, if he were excluded; nor yet justified, if he were admitted—because he had remained neutral in the Macedonian war. The consul, Claudius Marcellus, subdued the Alpine Gauls; and Caius Sulpicius Gallus the Ligurians. [y. r. 587. b. c. 165.] The ambassadors of king Prusias complain of Eumenes, for ravaging their borders; they accuse him of entering into a conspiracy, with Antiochus, against the Romans. A treaty of friendship was made with the Rhodians, upon their solicitation, [y. r. 588. b. c. 164.] A census was held by the censors; the number of the citizens was found to be three hundred and twenty-seven thousand and twenty-two. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus was chosen chief of the senate. Ptolemy, king of Egypt, being dethroned by his younger brother, was restored by ambassadors sent from Rome. [y. r. 589. b. c. 163.] Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, died, and was succeeded by his son Ariarathes, who entered anew into a treaty of friendship with the Romans. [y. r. 590. b. c. 162.] Expeditions against the Ligurians, Corsicans, and Lusitanians, were attended with various success. Commotions took place in Syria, on occasion of the death of Antiochus, who had left a son, an infant; Demetrius, the son of Seleucus, who had been a hostage at Rome, secretly murders this young Antiochus, with his tutor Lysias, because he was not dismissed by the Romans, and usurps the kingdom, [y. r. 591. b. c. 161.] Lucius Æmilius Paullus, the conqueror of Perseus, died. Such was the moderation and integrity of this great commander, that, notwithstanding the immense treasures he had brought from Spain and Macedon, upon the sale of his effects, there could scarcely be raised a sum sufficient to repay his wife’s fortune, [y. r. 592. b. c. 160.] The Pomptine marshes were drained, and converted into dry land, by the consul, Cornelius Cethegus.
BOOK XLVII.
Cneius Tremellius, a plebeian tribune, was [y. r. 593. b. c. 159] fined for contending in an unjust cause with Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, the chief priest; which greatly enhanced the authority of the priesthood. A law was made respecting the canvassing for offices, [y. r. 594. b. c. 158.] A census was held: the number of Roman citizens was found to be three hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and fourteen. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus was again chosen chief of the senate. A treaty was concluded between the Ptolemies, brothers, that one should be the king of Egypt, the other of Cyrene. [y. r. 595. b. c. 157.] Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, being deprived of his kingdom by the intrigues and power of Demetrius, king of Syria, was restored by the senate. Ambassadors were sent by the senate to determine a territorial dispute between Masinissa and the Carthaginians, [y. r. 596. b. c. 156.] Caius Marcius, the consul, fought against the Dalmatians, at first unfortunately; but afterwards successfully. The cause of this war was, that they had made inroads upon the Illyrians, who were in alliance with the people of Rome. [y. r. 597. b. c. 155.] The Dalmatians were subdued by the consul, Cornelius Nasica. The consul, Quintus Opimius, defeats the Transalpine Ligurians, who had plundered Antipolis and Nicæa, two towns belonging to the Massilians. [y. r. 598. b. c. 154.] Various ill successes occurred under different commanders, in Spain. In the five hundred and ninety-eighth year from the foundation of the city, the consuls enter upon office immediately after the conclusion of their election; which alteration was made on account of a rebellion in Spain. [y. r. 599. b. c. 153.] The ambassadors sent by the senate to determine a dispute between Masinissa and the Carthaginians return, and report that the Carthaginians had collected a vast quantity of materials for ship-building. Several prætors, accused of extortion by different provinces, were condemned and punished.
BOOK XLVIII.
A census was held by the censors [y. r. 600. b. c. 152]; the number of citizens amounted to three hundred and twenty-four thousand. The causes of the third Punic war are enumerated: when a large army of Numidians was said to be in the territory of the Carthaginians, with Ariobarzanes, the descendant of Syphax, as general, Marcus Porcius Cato advised that war should be declared against the Carthaginians, because they had invited Ariobarzanes into their country, apparently to oppose king Masinissa, but in reality against the Romans. Publius Scipio Nasica being of a contrary opinion, it is resolved to send ambassadors to Carthage, to inquire into the truth of the affair. The Carthaginian senate being reproved for levying forces, and preparing materials for ship-building, contrary to treaty, declare themselves ready to make peace with Masinissa, upon condition of his giving up the lands in dispute. But Gisgo, son of Hamilcar, a man of a seditious disposition, at that time chief magistrate, notwithstanding the determination of the senate to abide by the decision of the ambassadors, urges the Carthaginians to war against the Romans, in such strong terms, that the ambassadors are obliged to save themselves by flight from personal violence. On this being announced at Rome, the senate becomes more highly incensed against them. Cato, being poor, celebrated the funeral obsequies of his son, who died in the office of prætor, at a very small expense. Andriscus, an impostor, pretending to be the son of Perseus, king of Macedonia, was sent to Rome. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who had been six times declared chief of the senate, on his death-bed, gives strict orders to his sons that he shall be carried out to burial on a couch, without the usual ornaments of purple and fine linen, and that there shall not be expended on his funeral more than ten pieces of brass: alleging that the funerals of the most distinguished men used, formerly, to be decorated by trains of images, and not by vast expense. An inquiry was instituted concerning poisoning. Publicia and Licinia, women of high rank, accused of the murder of their husbands, were tried before the prætor, and executed, [y. r. 601. b. c. 151.] Gulussa, son of Masinissa, gives information that troops were levying and a fleet fitting out at Carthage, and that there could be no doubt of their intending war. Cato urging a declaration of war, and Nasica speaking against it, entreated the senate to do nothing rashly; it is resolved to send ten ambassadors to inquire into the affair. The consuls, Lucius Licinius Lucullus, and Aulus Postumius Albinus, carrying on the levying of soldiers with inflexible severity, were committed to prison by the tribunes of the people, for not, at their entreaty, sparing some of their friends. The ill success of the war in Spain having so discouraged the citizens of Rome, that none could be found to undertake any military command or office, Publius Cornelius Æmilianus comes forward, and offers to undertake any office whatever, which it should be thought proper to call him to: roused by his example, the whole body of the people make the like offer. It was thought that the consul, Claudius Marcellus, had reduced all the states of Celtiberia to a state of tranquillity; nevertheless, his successor, Lucius Lucullus, is engaged in war with the Vaccosans, Cantabrians, and other nations of Spaniards, hitherto unknown; all of which he subdues. In this war, Publius Cornelius Africanus Scipio Æmilianus, the son of Lucius Paullus, and nephew, by adoption, of Africanus, a military tribune, slays a barbarian who had challenged him, and distinguishes himself highly at the siege of Intercatia; being the first who scaled the wall. The prætor, Servius Sulpicius Galba, fights against the Lusitanians unsuccessfully. When the ambassadors, returning from Africa, together with some Carthaginian deputies, and Gulussa, reported that they found an army and a fleet ready for service at Carthage, the matter was taken into consideration by the senate. Cato, and other principal Senators, urge that an army should be immediately sent over into Africa; but Cornelius Nasica declaring that he yet saw no just cause for war, it is resolved that it should not be declared, provided the Carthaginians would burn their fleet, and disband their troops; but if not, that then the next succeeding consuls should propose the question of war. A theatre which the censors had contracted for, being built, Cornelius Nasica moves, and carries the question, that it be pulled down, as being not only useless, but injurious to the morals of the people: the people, therefore, continue to behold the public shows standing. Masinissa, now ninety-two years old, vanquishes the Carthaginians, who had made war against him unjustly, and contrary to treaty. By this infraction of the treaty, they also involve themselves in a war with Rome.
BOOK XLIX.
The commencement of the third Punic war, dated [y. r. 602. b. c. 150], which was ended within five years after it began. Marcus Porcius Cato, deemed the wisest man in the state, and Scipio Nasica, adjudged by the senate to be the best, differ in opinion, and have a sharp altercation: Cato urging the demolition of Carthage; Nasica arguing against it. It was, however, resolved, that war should be declared against the Carthaginians, for having fitted out a fleet contrary to treaty, and led forth an army beyond the boundaries of their state; for having committed hostilities against Masinissa the friend and ally of the Romans; and refusing to admit Gulussa, who accompanied the ambassadors into their city. [y. r. 603. b. c. 149.] Before any forces were embarked, ambassadors came from Utica, and surrendered their state and property to the Romans: an ominous circumstance highly pleasing to the Roman senate, and at the same time a grievous mortification to the Carthaginians. Games were exhibited at Tarentum, in honour of Pluto, according to directions found in the Sibylline books, the same as had been celebrated a hundred years before, during the first Punic war. [y. r. 502.] The Carthaginians send thirty ambassadors to Rome to make a tender of submission; but the opinion of Cato, that the consuls should be ordered to proceed immediately to the war prevails. These, passing over into Africa, receive three hundred hostages, and take possession of all the arms and warlike stores to be found in Carthage; they then, by authority of the senate, command them to build themselves a new city, at least ten miles from the sea. Roused by this indignant treatment, the Carthaginians resolve to have recourse to arms. Lucius Marcius and Marcus Manlius, consuls, lay siege to Carthage. During this siege, two military tribunes force their way in, with their troops, in a place which they observed to be negligently guarded; they are set upon and beaten by the townsmen, but rescued afterwards by Scipio Africanus, who also, with a few horsemen, relieves a Roman fort, attacked by the enemy in the night. He also repulsed the Carthaginians, who sallied forth in great force to attack the camp. When, afterwards, one of the consuls (the other having gone to Rome to hold the elections) observed that the siege of Carthage was not going on prosperously, and proposed to attack Hasdrubal, who had drawn up his forces in a narrow pass, he (Scipio) first advised him not to venture upon an engagement on ground so very disadvantageous: and then, when his advice was overruled by those who were envious both of his prudence and valour, he himself rushed into the pass; and when the Romans were routed and put to flight, as he foresaw would take place, he returns with a very small body of horse, rescues his friends, and brings them off in safety. Which valiant action, Cato, although much more inclined to censure than to praise, extols in the senate in very magnificent terms: saying that all the others, who were fighting in Africa, were but mere shadows; Scipio was life itself: and such was the favour he gained among his fellow-citizens, that at the ensuing election the greater number of the tribes voted for electing him consul, although he was under the legal age. Lucius Scribonius, tribune of the people, proposes a law, that the Lusitanians, who, notwithstanding they had surrendered upon the faith of the Roman people, had been sold in Gaul, by Servius Galba, should be restored to liberty; which Marcus Cato supports with great zeal, as may be seen by his oration, which is still extant, being published in his annals. Quintus Fulvius Nobilior, although Cato had before handled him with great severity, yet takes up the cause of Galba. Galba himself too, apprehensive of being condemned, taking up in his arms his own two infant children, and the son of Sulpicius Gallus, speaks in his own behalf, in such a piteous strain of supplication, that the question was carried in his favour. One Andriscus, a man of the meanest extraction, having given himself out to be the son of Perseus, and changed his name to Philip, flies from Rome, whither Demetrius had sent him, on account of this audacious forgery; many people believing his fabulous account of himself to be true, gather round him, and enable him to raise an army; at the head of which, partly by force, and partly by the willing submission of the people, he acquires the possession of all Macedon. The story which he propagated was this: that he was the son of Perseus by a harlot; that he had been delivered to a certain Cretan woman to be taken care of, and brought up; in order that whatever might be the event of the war, in which the king was at that time engaged with the Romans, some one, at least, of the royal progeny might remain. That, upon the death of Perseus, he was educated at Adramytteum, until he was twelve years old; ignorant all along of his real parentage, and always supposing himself to be the son of the person who brought him up. That, at length, this person being ill, and about to die, discovered to him the secret of his birth; informing him at the same time of a certain writing, sealed with the royal signet of Perseus, which had been intrusted to his supposed mother, to keep and give to him, when he should attain to manhood: but with the strictest injunctions that the affair should be kept a profound secret until the arrival of that period. That, when the time came, the writing was delivered to him; in which was indicated a very considerable treasure, left him by his father. That the woman, after informing him fully of the circumstance of his birth, earnestly besought him to quit that part of the country before the affair should come to the knowledge of Eumenes, the enemy of his father Perseus, lest he should be murdered. That, fearful of being assassinated, and in hopes also of receiving some assistance from Demetrius, he had gone into Syria; and had there first ventured openly to declare who he was.
BOOK L.
The aforesaid impostor [y. r. 604. b. c. 148] assuming the name of Philip, being about to invade and forcibly possess himself of Thessaly, was prevented by the Roman ambassadors, with the aid of the Achæans. Prusias, king of Bithynia, a man abandoned to the practice of every vice, was murdered by his son Nicomedes, assisted by Attalus, king of Pergamus. He had another son, who in the place of teeth in his upper jaw, is said to have had one entire bone. The Romans send an embassy to negotiate peace between Nicomedes and Prusias; it happening that one of the ambassadors had his head deformed by scars, from many wounds; another was lame from gout, and the third was of weak understanding: Cato said, it was an embassy without head, feet, or heart. The king of Syria was of the royal race of Perseus; but being, like Prusias, addicted to every vicious pursuit, and passing his whole time in tippling-houses, brothels, and such like places of infamous resort, Ammonus rules in his stead; and puts to death all the king’s friends, together with his queen Laodice, and Antigonus, the son of Demetrius. Masinissa, king of Numidia, a man of a character truly illustrious, dies, aged upwards of ninety years; he retained the vigour of youth even to his last years; and begot a son at the age of eighty-six. Publius Scipio Æmilianus, being authorized by his will so to do divides his kingdom into three parts, and allots their respective portions of it to his three sons, Micipsa, Gulussa, and Manastabal. Scipio persuades Phamæas, general of the Carthaginian cavalry, under Himilco, a man highly looked up to and relied upon by the Carthaginians, to revolt to the Romans, with the troops under his command. Claudius Marcellus, one of the three ambassadors sent to Masinissa, was lost in a storm. Hasdrubal, nephew of Masinissa, was put to death by the Carthaginians, who suspected him of treasonable views, on account of his affinity to Gulussa, now the friend of the Romans. Scipio Æmilianus, when a candidate for the ædileship was elected consul by the people, though under age: a violent contest arises from this, the people supporting, the nobles opposing, his election; which, at length, terminates in his favour. Manius Manlius takes several citizens in the neighbourhood of Carthage. The impostor Philip, having slain the prætor, Publius Juventius, and vanquished his army, was himself afterwards subdued and taken prisoner by Quintua Cæcilius, who recovered Macedonia.
BOOK LI.
Carthage, [y. r. 605. b. c. 147,] comprehended in a circuit of twenty-three miles, was besieged with immense exertion, and was gradually taken; first, by Mancinus, acting as lieutenant-general; and afterwards by Scipio, the consul, to whom Africa was voted as his province, without casting lots. The Carthaginians having constructed a new mole, (the old one being destroyed by Scipio,) and equipped, secretly, in an unusually short space of time, a considerable fleet, engage, unsuccessfully, in a sea-fight. Hasdrubal, with his army, notwithstanding he had taken post in a place of extremely difficult approach, was cut off by Scipio; who at length took the city by storm, in the seven hundredth year after its foundation. [y. r. 606. b. c. 146.] The greater part of the spoil was returned to the Sicilians, from whom it had been taken. During the destruction of the city, when Hasdrubal had given himself up into Scipio’s hands, his wife, who, a few days before, had not been able to prevail upon him to surrender to the conqueror, casts herself, with her two children, from a tower into the flames of the burning city. Scipio, following the example of his father, Æmilius Paullus, the conqueror of Macedon, celebrates solemn games; during which he exposes the deserters and fugitives to wild beasts. The origin of the Achæan war is referred to the circumstance of the ambassadors of the Romans being expelled from Corinth by the Achæans, when they were sent to separate from the Achæan council those cities which had been under the dominion of Philip.
BOOK LII.
Quintus Cæcilius Metellus engages and conquers the Achæans, together with the Bœotians and Chalcidians. Critolaus, their unsuccessful general, poisons himself; in whose room, the Achæans choose as general, Diæus, the chief promoter of the insurrection; he also is conquered, in an engagement near Isthmos, and all Achaia reduced; Corinth was demolished, by order of the senate, because violence had been done there to the ambassadors. Thebes also, and Chalcis, for having furnished aid to the Achæans, were destroyed. Lucius Mummius afforded in himself an example of extreme forbearance, for, having all the vast wealth and splendid ornaments of the opulent city of Corinth in his power, he took none of them. Quintus Cæcilius Metellus triumphs, on account of his victory, over Andriscus; likewise Publius Cornelius Scipio, for the conquest of Carthage and Hasdrubal. [y. r. 607. b. c. 145.] Viriathus, in Spain, from a shepherd becomes a hunter, then leader of a band of robbers; afterwards general of a powerful army, with which he possesses himself of all Lusitania, having vanquished the prætor, Petilius, and put his army to flight. Caius Plautius, the prætor, sent against him, is equally unfortunate. So successful was his career, that, at length, it was deemed necessary to send a consul, at the head of a consular army, against him. Commotions in Syria, and wars between the kings in those parts are recorded. Alexander, a man utterly unknown, and of an unknown race, murders Demetrius, and usurps the crown in Syria: he is afterwards slain by Demetrius, (son of the before-mentioned Demetrius,) aided by Ptolemy, king of Egypt, whose daughter he had married. Ptolemy grievously wounded in the head; dies of the operations intended for the cure of his wounds; and is succeeded by his younger brother, Ptolemy, king of Cyrene. Demetrius, by his cruelty towards his subjects, provokes an insurrection; is vanquished by Diodotus, and flies to Seleucia, while Diodotus claims the crown for Alexander, a child scarcely two years old. Lucius Mummius triumphed over the Achæans, and so carried in his triumph brazen standards, marble statues, and pictures.
BOOK LIII.
Appius Claudius, the consul, [y. r. 608. b. c. 144,] subdued the Salacians, a nation of the Alps. Another impostor, assuming the name of Philip, appears in Macedonia, but is vanquished by the quæstor, Lucius Tremellius. [y. r. 609. b. c. 143.] Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, the proconsul, defeats the Celtiberians. [y. r. 610. b. c. 142.] Quintus Fabius, the proconsul, takes many cities of Lusitania, and recovers the greatest part of that country. Caius Julius, a senator, writes the history of Rome in the Greek language.
BOOK LIV.
Quintus Pompeius, the consul, [y. r. 611. b. c. 141,] subdues the Termestines in Spain, and makes peace with them, and also with the Numantines. A census was held,—the number of citizen amounts to three hundred and twenty-eight thousand three hundred and forty-two. Ambassadors from Macedon complain that Decius Junius Silanus, the prætor, had extorted money from that province; Titus Manlius Torquatus, the father of Silanus, sought and obtained permission to inquire into the matter. And the case having been considered at home, he condemned and disowned his son, and did not even attend his funeral after he had hung himself, but continued to sit at home, and give audience to those who consulted him, as if nothing, which concerned him, had happened, [y. r. 612. b. c. 140.] Quintus Fabius, the proconsul, having successfully terminated the war, stains the honour of his victories by making peace with Viriathus, upon terms of equality, [y. r. 613. b. c. 139.] Servilius Cæpio procures the death of Viriathus, by traitors; he is much bewailed, and interred with distinguished funeral honours by his army. He was, in truth, a great man, and a valiant general; and in the fourteen years during which he carried on war with the Romans, had very frequently vanquished their armies.
BOOK LV.
While Publius Cornelius Nasica, [y. r. 614. b. c. 138,] (who was nicknamed Scrapio by the plebeian tribune Curiatius, a man of humour,) and Decius Junius Brutus, the consuls, were holding the levies, an act of public justice was done, in the sight of the whole body of the young men then assembled, which afforded a very useful example: Caius Matienus was accused, before the tribunes, of deserting from the army in Spain; being found guilty, he was scourged under the gallows, and sold as a slave, for a sestertius.111 The tribunes of the people claimed the privilege of exempting from service any ten soldiers whom they thought proper; on this being refused by the consuls, they commit the latter to prison. Junius Brutus, the consul in Spain, allots lands, and a town called Valentia, to the soldiers who had served under Viriathus. Marcus Popilius, having made peace with the Numantines, which the senate refused to ratify, was routed, and his whole army put to flight. [y. r. 615. b. c. 137.] While Caius Hostilius Mancinus, the consul, was sacrificing, the holy chickens escape from their coop, and fly away; afterwards, as he was getting on board his ship, to sail for Spain, a voice is heard crying out, “Go not, Mancinus, go not.” The event afterwards proves these omens to have been inauspicious: for, being vanquished by the Numantines, and driven out of his camp, when he had no prospect of preserving his army, he made a disgraceful peace, which the senate likewise refused to ratify. Upon this occasion thirty thousand Romans were beaten by only four thousand Numantines. Decius Junius Brutus subdues all Lusitania, as far as the western sea; and when his soldiers refused to pass the river Oblivio, he seizes the standard and carries it over; whereupon they follow him. The son of Alexander, king of Syria, was traitorously murdered by his guardian Diodotus, surnamed Tryphon: his physicians were bribed to give out that he had a stone in his bladder; and in pretending to cut him for it, they killed him.
BOOK LVI.
[y. r. 616. b. c. 136.] Decius Junius Brutus fought with success against the Gallæcians, in Farther Spain: Marcus Æmilius Lepidus engages the Vaccæans, unsuccessfully, and is as unfortunate as Mancinus was against the Numantines. The Romans, to absolve themselves from the guilt of breach of treaty, order Mancinus, who made the peace with the Numantines, to be delivered up to that people; but they refuse to receive him. [y. r. 617. b. c. 135.] The lustrum was closed by the censors: the number of citizens was three hundred and twenty-three thousand. Fulvius Flaccus, the consul, subdued the Vardeans in Illyria. Marcus Cosconius, the prætor, fights against the Scordiscians, in Thrace, and conquers them. The war in Numantia still continuing, owing to the ill-conduct of the generals, the senate and people voluntarily confer the consulship upon Scipio Africanus: on which occasion the law, which prohibits any man from being elected consul a second time, is dispensed with. [y. r. 618. b. c. 134.] An insurrection of the slaves arose in Sicily; which is committed to the care of the consul, Caius Fulvius, when the prætor is unable to quell it. Eunus, a slave, a Syrian by birth, was the author of this war; by gathering a large body of the rustic slaves, and breaking open the prisons, he raised a considerable army: Cleon also, another slave, having assembled seventy thousand slaves, joins him; and they, several times, engage the Roman forces in those parts.
BOOK LVII.
Scipio Africanus laid siege to Numantia, [y. r. 619. b. c. 133,] and restored to the strictest military discipline the army, which had been corrupted by licentiousness and luxury: this he effected by cutting off every kind of pleasurable gratification; driving away the prostitutes who followed the camp, to the number of two thousand; keeping the soldiers to hard labour, and compelling every man to bear on his shoulders provisions for thirty days, besides seven stakes for their fortifications; to any one who lagged behind on account of the burden, he used to cry out, When you are able to defend yourself with your sword, then cease to carry your fortification; he ordered another who carried with ease a small shield, to bear one unusually large; and not unfrequently ridiculed them for being more expert in managing their shields for the defence of their own bodies, than their swords for the annoyance of those of the enemy. When he found any man absent from his post, he ordered him to be flogged with vine twigs, if a Roman; if a foreigner, with rods. He sold all the beasts of burden, that the soldiers might be forced to carry their own baggage. He engaged in frequent skirmishes with the enemy, with good success. The Vaccæans, being reduced to extremity, first put their wives and children to death, and then slew themselves. Antiochus, king of Syria, having sent him some very magnificent presents, Scipio, contrary to the practice of other commanders who used to conceal these royal gifts, received them openly, and ordered the quæstor to place the whole to the public account, and promised out of them, to reward those who should most distinguish themselves by their valour. When Numantia was closely invested on all sides, he gave orders that those who came out in search of victuals should not be killed; saying, that the more numerous the inhabitants were, the sooner would their provisions be consumed.
BOOK LVIII.
Titus Sempronius Gracchus, the plebeian tribune, having proposed an Agrarian law, (contrary to the sense of the senate, and the equestrian order,) to the effect that no person should hold more than five hundred acres of the public lands, wrought himself up to such a degree of passion that he deprived his colleague, Marcus Octavius, of his authority by a law which he made, and appointed himself, together with his brother Caius, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius, commissioners for dividing the lands. He also proposed another Agrarian law, by which the land was still more at his disposal, that the same commissioners should be authorized to determine which was public and which private land. When afterwards it appeared that there was not land sufficient to be divided so as to satisfy the people, whose hopes he had raised to cupidity by the expectations held out to them, he declared that he would propose a law, that all those, who by the law of Sempronius were entitled to such grant, should be paid in money out of the bequest of king Attalus. But Attalus, king of Pergamus, son of Eumenes, had made the Romans his heirs. The senate was roused to indignation at such repeated ill-treatment; and chiefly Publius Mucius, the consul, who, having delivered a severe invective against Gracchus in the senate, was seized by him, dragged before the people, and accused; nevertheless he continued to inveigh against him from the rostrum. Gracchus, endeavouring to procure his re-election as tribune, was slain in the Capitol, by the chief nobles, by the advice of Publius Cornelius Nasica, after having been beaten first with the fragments of the seats, and was thrown, without the rites of sepulture, into the river, together with some others who fell in the tumult. Various engagements, with various success, against the slaves in Sicily are recorded.
BOOK LIX.
The Numantines, reduced to the extremity of distress by famine, put themselves to death. Scipio having taken the city, destroys it and triumphs in the fourteenth year after the destruction of Carthage, [y. r. 620. b. c. 132.] The consul, Publius Rupilius, puts an end to the war with the slaves in Sicily. Aristonicus, the son of king Eumenes, invades and seizes Asia; which having been bequeathed to the Roman people by Attalus, ought to be free. The consul, Publius Licinius Crassus, who was also chief priest, marches against him out of Italy, (which never was done before,) engages with him in battle, is beaten and slain. Marcus Peperna, the consul, subdued Aristonicus. Quintus Metellus and Quintus Pomponius, the first plebeians who were ever both at one time elected censors, closed the lustrum; the number of citizens amounted to three hundred and thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, besides orphans and widows, [y. r. 621. b. c. 131.] Quintus Metellus gives his opinion, that every man should be compelled to marry, in order to increase the population of the state. His speech upon the occasion, is still extant, and so exactly does it apply to the present times, that Augustus Cæsar read it in the senate upon occasion of his proposing to release marriage from all restraints on account of the difference of rank. Caius Atinius Labeo, tribune of the people, orders the censor, Quintus Metellus, to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock for striking him out of the list of the senate; but the other tribunes interfere and protect him. [y. r. 622. b. c. 130.] Quintus Carbo, the plebeian tribune, proposes a law that the people might have the power of re-electing the same tribune as often as they please: Publius Africanus argues against the proposition in a speech of great energy, in which he asserts that Tiberius Gracchus was justly put to death. Gracchus supports the proposed law; but Scipio prevails. War was waged between Antiochus, king of Syria, and Phraates, king of Parthia, nor does the record show that greater tranquillity existed in Egypt. Ptolemy, surnamed Evergetes, being detested on account of his cruelty by his subjects, who set his palace on fire, escaped to Cyprus, and when the people conferred the kingdom upon his sister Cleopatra, whom he had divorced, after having first ravished and then married her daughter; he being enraged, murders the son he had by her at Cyprus, and sent his head and limbs to the mother, [y. r. 623. b. c. 129.] Seditions were excited by Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Gracchus, and Caius Carbo, appointed to carry into execution the Agrarian law: these were opposed by Publius Scipio Africanus, who going home at night in perfect health, was found dead in his chamber the next morning. His wife, Sempronia, sister of the Gracchuses, with whom Scipio was at enmity, was strongly suspected of having given him poison: no inquiry however was made into the matter. Upon his death the popular seditions blaze out with great fury. Caius Sempronius, the consul, fought the Iapidæ, at first unsuccessfully, but soon repairs all his losses by a signal victory, gained by the valour of Junius Brutus, the conqueror of Lusitania.
BOOK LX.
Lucius Aurelius subdued the rebellious Sardinians, [y. r. 624. b. c. 128.] Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, who first subdued the Transalpine Ligurians, was sent to assist the Massilians, against the Salvian Gauls, who were ravaging their country. Lucius Opimius, the prætor, caused the revolted Fregellans to lay down their arms, and destroyed Fregellæ. [y. r. 625. b. c. 127.] An extraordinary multitude of locusts in Africa, killed and lying dead on the ground, is said to have produced a pestilence, [y. r. 626. b. c. 126.] The censors closed the lustrum: the number of the citizens was three hundred and ninety thousand seven hundred and thirty-six. [y. r. 627. b. c. 125.] Caius Gracchus, the plebeian tribune, the brother of Tiberius, even more eloquent than his brother, carried some very dangerous laws; among others, one respecting corn, that the people shall be supplied with the article in the market at the rate of half and a third of an as; also an Agrarian law, the same as his brother’s: and a third intended to corrupt the equestrian order, who at that time were subservient in all their opinions to the senate: namely, that six hundred of them should be admitted into the senate: these six hundred equestrians were to be joined to three hundred senators for at that time there were only three hundred senators; that is, in other words, that the equestrian order should have double influence in the senate. His office being continued to him another year, by Agrarian laws which he passed, he caused that many colonies should be led out into Italy, and he himself, having been made triumvir, headed one to the territory of demolished Carthage, [y. r. 628. b. c. 124.] The successful expeditions of the consul Quintus Metellus against the Balearians, called by the Greeks Gymnesians, because they go naked all the summer, are recorded. They are called Balearians, from their skill in throwing weapons; or, as some will have it, from Baleus, the companion of Hercules, who left him there behind him, when he sailed to Geryon. [y. r. 629. b. c. 123.] Commotions in Syria, in which Cleopatra murders her husband Demetrius, and also his son Seleucus, for assuming the crown without her consent, upon his father’s death, are also mentioned.
BOOK LXI.
Caius Sextius, the proconsul, [y. r. 630. b. c. 122,] having subdued the nation of the Salyans, founds a colony, which he named Aquæ Sextiæ, after his own name, and on account of the abundance of water which he found there, flowing both from hot and cold springs, [y. r. 631. b. c. 121.] Cneius Domitius, the proconsul, fought the Allobrogians with success at the town of Vindalium. The cause of this war was their receiving, and furnishing with all the aid in their power, Teutomalius, the king of the Salyans, who had fled to them, and their ravaging the lands of the Æduans, who were in alliance with the people of Rome. [y. r. 632. b. c. 120.] Caius Gracchus, upon the expiration of his seditious tribunate, seized upon the Aventine mount with a considerable number of armed followers; Lucius Opimius, by a decree of the senate, armed the people, drove him from it, and put him to death, together with Fulvius Flaccus, a man of consular rank, a participator of the same wild project. Quintus Fabius Maximus, the consul, nephew of Paullus, gained a battle against the Allobrogians and Bituitus, king of the Arvernians, in which one thousand one hundred and twenty of the army of Bituitus were slain, [y. r. 633. b. c. 119.] The king having come to Rome to make satisfaction to the senate, was sent prisoner to Alba, there to be kept in custody, as it was not considered safe to send him back to Gaul. A decree was also passed, that his son, Congentiatus, should be taken and sent to Rome. The Allobrogians were admitted to a capitulation. Lucius Opimius, being brought to trial before the people for committing to prison some citizens who had not been condemned, was acquitted.
BOOK LXII.
The consul, Quintus Marcius, [y. r. 634. b. c. 118,] subdued the Stonians, an Alpine nation. Micipsa, king of Numidia, dying, bequeathed his kingdom to his two sons, Adherbal, Hiempsal, and Jugurtha, his nephew, whom he had adopted. [y. r. 635. b. c. 117.] Lucius Cæcilius Metellus subdued the Dalmatians. Jugurtha went to war with his brother Hiempsal; vanquished him and put him to death; drove Adherbal from his kingdom, who was restored by the senate. [y. r. 636. b. c. 116.] Lucius Cæcilius Metellus, and Cneius Domitius Ahenobarbus, the censors, expelled thirty-two senators. [y. r. 637. b. c. 115.] Disturbances in Syria are recorded.
BOOK LXIII.
Caius Porcius, the consul, [y. r. 638. b. c. 114,] fought against the Scordiscians in Thrace, unsuccessfully. The lustrum was closed by the censors: the number of the citizens amounts to three hundred and ninety-four thousand three hundred and thirty-six. Æmilia, Licinia, and Marcia, vestal virgins, were found guilty of incest. [y. r. 639. b. c. 113.] The Cimbrians, a wandering people, came into Illyria, where they fight with and defeat the army of the consul, Papirius Carbo. [y. r. 640. b. c. 112.] The consul, Livius Drusus, made war successfully upon the Scordiscians, a people descended from the Gauls.
BOOK LXIV.
Jugurtha attacked Adherbal, besieged him in Cirta, and put him to death, contrary to the express commands of the senate. [y. r. 641. b. c. 111.] War was declared against him on this account, which being committed to the conduct of the consul, Calpurnius Bestia, he made peace with Jugurtha, without authority from the senate and people. [y. r. 642. b. c. 110.] Jugurtha, called upon to declare who were his advisers, came to Rome upon the faith of a safe-conduct; he is supposed to have bribed many of the principal senators. And being called on to stand his trial for the murder of a certain prince, by name Massiva, slain at Rome, who had aimed at his kingdom, which he hoped to obtain through the hatred of the Romans to Jugurtha, he escaped when he found himself in danger; and is reported to have said, on going away, “O venal city! doomed to quick perdition, could but a purchaser be found!” Aulus Posthumius, having fought against Jugurtha unsuccessfully, added to his disgrace, by making an ignominious peace with him; which the senate refused to ratify.
BOOK LXV.
Quintus Cæcilius Metellus, the consul, [y. r. 643. b. c. 109,] defeated Jugurtha, in two battles, and ravaged all Numidia. Marcus Junius Silanus, the consul, fought unsuccessfully against the Cimbrians. The Cimbrian ambassadors petitioning the senate for a settlement and lands, were refused. [y. r. 644. b. c. 108.] Marcus Minucius, the proconsul, vanquished the Thracians. Cassius, the consul, with his army, was cut off by the Tigurine Gauls, in the country of the Helvetians. The soldiers who survived that unfortunate action stipulated for their lives, by giving hostages, and delivering up half their property.
BOOK LXVI.
Jugurtha, [y. r. 645. b. c. 107,] being driven out of Numidia by Caius Marius, received aid from Bocchus, king of the Moors. [y. r. 646. b. c. 106.] Bocchus, having lost a battle, and being unwilling to carry on the war any longer, delivered up Jugurtha in chains to Marius. In this action, Lucius Cornelius Sylla, the quæstor under Marius, distinguished himself most highly.
BOOK LXVII.
Marcus Aurelius Scaurus, [y. r. 647. b. c. 105,] lieutenant-general under the consul, was taken prisoner by the Cimbrians, his army being routed; and was slain by Boiorix, for saying, in their council, when they talked of invading Italy, that the Romans were not to be conquered. Cneius Mallius, the consul, and Quintus Servilius Cæpio, the proconsul, were taken prisoners by the same enemies who defeated their armies and drove them from both their camps, with the loss of eighty thousand men, and forty thousand sutlers, and other camp-followers. The goods of Cæpio, whose rashness was the cause of this misfortune, were sold by auction, by order of the people; being the first person whose effects were confiscated, since the dethronement of king Tarquin, and he was deprived of office. [y. r. 648. b. c. 104.] Jugurtha, with his two sons, was led in triumph before the chariot of Caius Marius, and was put to death in prison. Marius entered the senate, in his triumphal habit; the first person that ever did so: on account of the apprehensions of a Cimbrian war, he is continued in the consulship for several years, being elected a second and a third time, in his absence; dissembling his views, he attains the consulship a fourth time. The Cimbrians, having ravaged all the country between the Rhine and the Pyrenees, passed into Spain, where, having committed many depredations, they were at length put to flight by the Celtiberians: returning into Gaul, they joined the Teutons, a warlike people.
BOOK LXVIII.
Marcus Antonius, the prætor, [y. r. 649. b. c. 103,] attacked the pirates, and chased them into Cilicia. The consul, Caius Marius, when attacked by the Teutons and Ambrogians, with their utmost force, defended himself; and afterwards, in two battles, in the neighbourhood of Aquæ Sextiæ, utterly defeated them, with the loss, it is said, of two hundred thousand killed, and ninety thousand taken prisoners. Marius was elected consul, in his absence, a fifth time. A triumph was offered to him, which he deferred until he should have subdued the Cimbrians also. [y. r. 650. b. c. 102.] The Cimbrians, having driven Quintus Catulus, the proconsul, from the Alps, where he had possessed himself of the narrow passes, and erected a castle to command the river Athesis, which he abandoned, passed into Italy. Catulus and Marius, having effected a junction of their forces, fought and vanquished them: in this battle we are told that there fell one hundred and forty thousand of the enemy, and that sixty thousand were taken. Marius, on his return to Rome, was received with the highest honours, by the whole body of the citizens; two triumphs were offered him, but he contented himself with one. The principal men in the state, who were for some time extremely envious that such distinctions should be conferred upon a man of no family, now acknowledge him to have saved the commonwealth. [y. r. 651. b. c. 101.] Publicius Malleolus was executed for the murder of his mother; being the first that ever was sewn up in a sack and cast into the sea. The sacred shields are said to have shaken, with considerable noise, previous to the conclusion of the Cimbrian war. Wars between the kings of Syria.
BOOK LXIX.
Lucius Apuleius Saturninus, aided by Marius,—the soldiers having killed his competitor, Aulus Nonius,—having been forcibly elected prætor, exercised his office with a violence equal to that by which he obtained it. Having procured an Agrarian law, he summons Metellus Numidicus to stand his trial before the people, for refusing to swear to the observance of it. Metellus, notwithstanding he enjoyed the protection of all the best men in the state, yet, being unwilling to furnish matter of dispute, retires into voluntary exile, to Rhodes: there he passed his time entirely in study, and in receiving the visits of men of eminent character, [y. r. 652. b. c. 100.] Caius Marius, the chief promoter of the sedition, who had now purchased a fourth consulship, by openly distributing money among the tribes, pronounced sentence of banishment upon him after his departure. The same Appuleius Saturninus murders Caius Memmius, who was a candidate for the consulship, fearing lest he might have, in him, a strenuous opposer of his evil actions. By which conduct the senate was aroused, and Caius Marius, when he could no longer defend Saturninus, being a man of fickle and versatile disposition, who always suited his plans to circumstances, joined it. Saturninus, with Glaucias, and other participators of the same mad conduct, having been overpowered by force of arms, was killed in what may be considered a war. [y. r. 653. b. c. 99.] Quintus Cæcilius Metellus was recalled from banishment by the decided favour of the whole state. Marcus Aquilius, the proconsul put an end to the servile war in Sicily.
BOOK LXX.
Manius Aquilius, [y. r. 654. b. c. 98,] being accused of extortion, refused to implore the favour of the judges appointed to try him. Marcus Antonius, his advocate, cut open his vest, and showed the scars of his honourable wounds; upon sight of which he was clearly acquitted, [y. r. 655. b. c. 97.] This fact is related upon the authority of Cicero only. Titus Didius, the proconsul, fought successfully against the Celtiberians. [y. r. 656. b. c. 96.] Ptolemy, king of Cyrene, surnamed Apio, dying, bequeathed his kingdom to the Roman people: and the senate decreed that the cities in that kingdom should be free. [y. r. 657. b. c. 95.] Ariobarzanes was restored to his kingdom of Cappadocia by Lucius Sylla. Ambassadors from Arsaces, king of Parthia, come to Sylla, to solicit the friendship of the Roman people, [y. r. 658. b. c. 94.] Publius Rutilius, a man of the strictest integrity, because he exerted himself, when lieutenant-general under Quintus Mucius, the proconsul, to protect the people of Asia from the oppression of the revenue farmers, became odious to the equestrian order, who had the cognizance of affairs of that nature, and being brought to trial, was condemned to exile, [y. r. 659. b. c. 93.] Caius Sentius, the prætor, fought unsuccessfully against the Thracians. [y. r. 660. b. c. 92.] The senate not being disposed to tolerate the inefficiency of the equestrian order in the exercise of their judicial functions, tried, by all its influence, to have those functions transferred to itself, and Marcus Livius Drusus, the plebeian tribune, promoting this design, stimulated the people, by the pernicious hope of bribes, to add their sanction. Moreover a commotion occurred among the kings of Syria.
BOOK LXXI.
Marcus Livius Drusus, the plebeian tribune, [y. r. 661. b. c. 91,] in order the more effectually to support the senate in their pretensions, gained the concurrence of the allies, and the Italian states, by promising them the freedom of the city. Aided by them, besides the Agrarian and corn laws, he carried that also relative to criminal jurisdiction;—that in capital prosecutions the senate should have equal authority with the equestrian order. It was afterwards found that the freedom which he had promised could not be conferred upon them; which incensed and incited them to revolt. An account is given of their assembling,—their combinations and speeches made at their meetings, by the chief men among them. Drusus becoming obnoxious even to the senate, on account of his conduct in this affair, and being considered as the cause of the social war, was slain in his own house, by an unknown hand.