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.

BOOK XXXIX.

1 While these things are done at Rome, (if they were truly transacted in this year,) both the consuls were employed in the war with the Ligurians. This enemy seemed born for the purpose of preserving military discipline among the Romans, during the intervals between important wars; nor was any province better calculated to form a soldier to active valour. For Asia, from the enticing pleasures of its cities, the abundance of every production both of land and sea, the unwarlike temper of the enemy, and the wealth of its princes, made Roman armies rich, rather than brave. Under the command of Cneius Manlius, particularly, the troops were kept in a state of idleness and licentiousness. Therefore, in Thrace, a passage somewhat more difficult, and a more vigorous enemy, checked them with severe loss. Whereas in Liguria there was every circumstance that could invigorate the courage of soldiers; the country mountainous and rugged, so that even the taking possession of unoccupied posts, and much more the dislodging of an enemy from those already in possession, was attended with much labour; the roads hilly, narrow, and exposed to ambuscades; the enemy light, active, and energetic in their motions, so as to allow no season or place to be quiet or secure; the necessary attack on the strong forts with much toil and danger; and the country so poor as to constrain the soldier to a sparing mode of living, while it afforded but a small share of booty. Accordingly, no sutler followed the army, no long train of baggage horses extended its line of march, nothing was to be seen but arms, and men having all their hopes in their arms. Nor was either subject or cause for hostilities with them ever wanting; because on account of their poverty at home they made frequent incursions on the territories of their neighbours; they did not. however, fight a battle which could decide the entire war.

2 The consul, Caius Flaminius, after several successful battles against the Frinian Ligurians in their own country, received the submission of that tribe, and ordered them to deliver up their arms; as they did not give them up honourably, and were reproved for their behaviour, who abandoned their villages, and fled to the mountain called Auginus, whither the consul immediately followed them. A part of the enemy again betook themselves to flight; and, running with precipitate haste, the greatest part without arms, over pathless tracts and rocky precipices, they escaped to places where an enemy could not follow them. Thus they got away beyond the Apennine; the rest, who remained in the camp, were surrounded and reduced by assault. The legions were then led over the Apennine; then the enemy, assisted by the height of the mountain, which they had occupied at first, stood on their defence; but, in a little time, submitted. Their arms were then sought for with greater care and all taken from them. The war was then transferred to the Apuan tribe of Ligurians, who had made so many incursions into the territory of Pisa and Bononia, that it could not be cultivated. These being entirely subdued, the consul restored peace to the neighbourhood. And, as he had effected the security of the province from the war, he made a road from Bononia to Anetium, that he might not keep the soldiers in a state of idleness. The other consul, Marcus Æmilius, ravaged with fire and sword the lands of the Ligurians, together with their villages that stood in the plains, while the inhabitants remained posted on two mountains, Ballista and Suismontium. He then attacked those who were on the mountains, harassed them for some time in skirmishes, and, at last, compelled them to come to an engagement, and utterly defeated them in a regular battle: in which he vowed a temple to Diana. Having now reduced all on this side of the Apennine, he marched against those on the other side of that mountain; among whom were the Brinian tribe, which had not been attacked by Flaminius: Æmilius subdued them all, stripped them of their arms, and obliged the multitude to come down from the mountains into the plains. The Ligurians being brought to a state of peace, he led his army into the Gallic territory, and drew a road from Placentia to Ariminum, to meet that made by Flaminius. During the last engagement, when he fought a pitched battle with the Ligurians, he vowed a temple to Imperial Juno. Such were the transactions of this year in Liguria.

3 In Gaul, the prætor, Marcus Furius, seeking a pretext for war in the midst of peace, deprived, the unoffending Cænomanians of their arms. The Cænomanians complained of this to the senate at Rome, and were by them referred to the consul Æmilius, whom the senate authorized to examine into and determine the cause; after a warm contest with the prætor they gained their cause. The prætor was ordered to restore their arms to the Cænomanians, and quit the province.

The senate afterwards gave audience to envoys of the Latin confederation, who had come, in great numbers, from all parts of Latium. On their complaint that a great multitude of their citizens had been removed to Rome, and had been assessed there in the survey; a commission was given to Quintus Terentius Culleo, the prætor, to make inquiry after such persons; and on the allies proving that those persons themselves, or their fathers, had been assessed in the surveys of their states in the censorship of Caius Claudius and Marcus Livius, or at some time subsequent to their censorship, he was ordered to compel all such to return to the several states wherein they had been so rated. In consequence of this inquiry, twelve thousand Latins returned home; as the multitude of foreigners even then burdened the city.

4 Before the consuls came home to Rome, Marcus Fulvius, the proconsul, returned from Ætolia. He, when he had as usual recited to the senate, in the temple of Apollo, the services which he had performed in Ætolia and Cephallenia, then requested of the fathers, that, in consideration of his having conducted the business of the public with good fortune and success, they would think proper to order public thanks to be offered to the immortal gods, and to decree a triumph to him. Marcus Abutius, a tribune of the commons, gave notice, that, if any thing were determined on that subject before the arrival of Marcus Æmilius, he would enter his protest: for “the consul intended to oppose that measure; and, at his setting out for his province, had given him a charge to keep the discussion of it open until he should come home. That Fulvius would suffer a loss of nothing but time; for, notwithstanding the presence of the consul, the senate would determine according to their own wishes.” Fulvius replied, that, “even if the quarrel subsisting between him and Marcus Æmilius was unknown to the world, or with what overbearing, and, in some measure, tyrannical rancour, that man prosecuted his enmity; yet it was insufferable, that the absence of the consul should both obstruct the worship of the immortal gods, and delay a triumph merited and due; that a commander, after performing signal services, and his victorious army with its booty and prisoners, should remain outside the gates, until a consul, who purposely delayed abroad, should be pleased to return to Rome. But, in the present case, when the animosity between him and the consul was most notorious, what fair dealing could any one expect from a man who procured clandestinely, in a thin house, and lodged in the treasury, a decree of the senate, that “it did not appear that Ambracia was taken by force:” a town which was attacked with mounds and engines; where, after the works were burned, others were constructed anew; where a fight was carried on around the walls for fifteen days, both above and under ground; where, from the first dawn, when the soldiers mounted the walls, a battle, for a long time doubtful, lasted until night; and where more than three thousand of the enemy were killed? Then, again, what a malicious misrepresentation did he make to the pontiffs, of the temples of the immortal gods being plundered in a captured city! If it were allowable that Rome should be decorated with the ornaments of Syracuse, and other conquered places, then the laws of war must lose their force in the case of Ambracia alone, among conquered towns. For his part, he besought the conscript fathers, and requested the tribunes, not to suffer him to become a subject of derision to a most haughty enemy.”

5 All around were in his favour; and some entreated the tribune to desist, while others sharply reproved his conduct. The speech of his colleague, Tiberius Gracchus, moved him most, that, “for a man in office to prosecute even his own quarrels, was an example of no good tendency; but, that a tribune of the people should take upon himself to be a solicitor in the quarrel of another, was infamous, and highly unworthy of the power and sacred laws of the order to which he belonged. That men ought to love or hate others, approve or disapprove of measures, according to the dictates of their own judgment; but that a tribune ought not to depend on the look or nod of another man, veer about at the movements of another’s will, and make himself a tool to his displeasure; nor remember a private charge, committed to him by Marcus Æmilius, and forget that the tribuneship was a public charge, intrusted to him by the Roman people, for the protection and liberty of private citizens, not to aggrandize the arbitrary power of a consul. His colleague did not seem to consider that this circumstance would be committed to record and posterity: that, of two plebeian tribunes of the same college, one sacrificed his own resentment to the public good, the other prosecuted the resentment of another man which was merely intrusted to him.” When the tribune, overcome by these severe rebukes, had withdrawn from the meeting, a triumph was voted to Marcus Fulvius, on the motion of Servius Sulpicius, the prætor. When he returned thanks to the conscript fathers, he then mentioned, that, “on the day of his taking Ambracia, he had vowed to celebrate the great games in honour of Jupiter the supremely good and great; that a contribution for that purpose had been made to him by the several states, amounting to one hundred and ten pounds’ weight of gold; and he requested them to order that sum to be set apart, out of the money which he was to deposit in the treasury, after being borne in triumph.” The senate ordered the college of pontiffs to be consulted, whether it were necessary that the whole of that sum should be expended on the games: when the pontiffs had answered, that it mattered little to religion what was the expense of the games, the senate gave permission to Fulvius to expend as much as he thought proper, provided he did not exceed eighty thousand sesterces.40 He, at first, intended to celebrate his triumph in the month of January; but, hearing that the consul Æmilius, in consequence of a letter from the tribune Abutius, concerning his waving his protest, was coming in person to Rome, to hinder his triumph, but had been obliged, by sickness to halt on the road, he hastened the time of the celebration, lest he should have more contests about it than he had met in the war. He triumphed over the Ætolians and Cephallenia on the tenth day before the calends of January. There were carried before his chariot, golden crowns to the amount of one hundred and twelve pounds’ weight; of silver, eighty-three thousand pounds; of gold, two hundred and forty-three thousand; of Attic tetradrachms, one hundred and eighteen thousand;41 of the coin called Philippeans, twelve thousand four hundred and twenty-two;42 brazen statues, two hundred and eighty-five; marble statues, two hundred and thirty; arms, weapons, and other spoils in great quantities: besides these, catapultas, ballistas, and engines of every kind; and in the procession were led twenty-seven commanders, either Ætolian and Cephallenian, or belonging to king Antiochus, and left with them. Before he rode into the city, in the Flaminian circus, he presented great numbers of tribunes, præfects, horsemen, centurions, both Romans and allies, with military gifts; to each of the soldiers he distributed out of the booty twenty-five denariuses,43 double to a centurion, triple to a horseman.

6 The time of the election of consuls now approached; and as Marcus Æmilius, to whose lot that business had fallen, could not attend, Caius Flaminius came home to Rome. Spurius Posthumius Albinus and Quintus Marcus Philippus were elected consuls by him. Then were chosen as prætors,—Titus Mænius, Publius Cornelius Sulla, Caius Calpurnius Piso, Marcus Licinius Lucullus, Caius Aurelius Scaurus, and Lucius Quintius Crispinus. At the close of the year, after the magistrates were appointed, on the third day before the nones of March, Cneius Manlius Vulso triumphed over the Gauls inhabiting Asia. The reason of his deferring his triumph so long was, to avoid standing a trial under the Petillian law, during the prætorship of Quintus Terentius Culleo; and the being involved in the ill consequences of the sentence passed on another, that by which Lucius Scipio was condemned; especially as the judges would be more disposed to severity against him than against Scipio, for this reason, because fame had reported, that he, Scipio’s successor, had, by tolerating every description of licentiousness, ruined military discipline, so strictly preserved by his predecessor. Nor were the facts, which were reported to have happened in the province far from the eyes of spectators, the only things that disgraced his character; but still more so, those circumstances which were every day beheld in his soldiers; for by this army returning from Asia was the origin of foreign luxury imported into the city. These men first brought to Rome gilded couches, rich tapestry, with hangings and other works of the loom; and, what were then deemed magnificent furniture, single-footed tables and buffets. At entertainments, likewise, were introduced female players on the harp and timbrel, with buffoons for the diversion of the guests. Their meats also began to be prepared with greater care and cost; while the cook, whom the ancients considered as the meanest of their slaves both in estimation and use, became highly valuable, and what was considered as a servile office began to be considered an art. Nevertheless, those introductions which were then looked on as remarkable were scarcely even the seeds of the future luxury.

7 Cneius Manlius carried in the triumph two hundred golden crowns of twelve pounds’ weight; two hundred and twenty thousand pounds’ weight of silver; two thousand two hundred and three of gold; one hundred and twenty-seven thousand Attic tetradrachms;44 two hundred and fifty thousand cistophoruses;45 sixteen thousand three hundred and twenty golden Philippeans;46 together with abundance of Gallic arms and spoils in chariots. Fifty-two generals of the enemy were led before his car. He distributed to each of his soldiers forty-two denariuses,47 and double that sum to a centurion; to the foot-soldiers double pay, to the horsemen triple. Great numbers of all ranks, whom he had distinguished by gifts, accompanied him. The verses thrown out by the soldiers were of such a kind, that it was quite evident that they were sung to a commander who had been indulgent to them, and courted their affections. It was indeed evident that the triumph was celebrated with a greater degree of favour by the troops, than by the citizens. The friends of Manlius, however, were able to acquire for him the regard of the people also; through whose efforts a decree of the senate was passed, ordering, that “such part of the soldiers’ pay, contributed to the public funds by the people, as was not yet repaid, should be discharged out of that which had been carried in the procession to the treasury.” Accordingly the city prætors, with care and fidelity, paid twenty-five denariuses and a half48 instead of each thousand asses.49 About this time two military tribunes arrived from the two Spains with letters from Caius Atinius and Lucius Manlius, who governed those provinces. From these letters it appeared, that the Celtiberians and Lusitanians were in arms, and ravaging the territories of the allies; the senate, however, deferred all consideration of that business until the new magistrates should come into office. This year, during the celebration of the Roman games which Publius Cornelius Cethegus and Aulus Postumius Albinus exhibited, a pole in the circus, being loosely set in the ground, fell on the statue of Pollentia, and threw it down. The senate moved by such a religious circumstance, voted that one day should be added to the celebration of the games, that two statues should be set up instead of the one, and that one of them, a new statue, should be gilded. The plebeian games were likewise repeated for one day, by the ædiles Caius Sempronius Blæsus and Marcus Furius Luscus.

8 The following year diverted Spurius Postumius Albinus and Quintus Marcius Philippus, from the care of armies, and wars, and provinces, to the punishing of an intestine conpiracy. The prætors cast lots for their provinces, Titus Mænius obtained the city jurisdiction; Marcus Licinius Lucullus, that between citizens and foreigners; Caius Aurelius Scaurus, Sardinia; Publius Cornelius Sulla, Sicily; Lucius Quintius Crispinus, Hither Spain; Caius Calpurnius Piso, Farther Spain. The making inquisition concerning clandestine meetings was decreed to both the consuls. A Greek of mean condition came, first, into Etruria, not with one of the many trades which his nation, of all others the most skilful in the cultivation of the mind and body, has introduced among us, but a low operator in sacrifices, and a soothsayer; nor was he one who, by open religious rites, and by publicly professing his calling and teaching, imbued the minds of his followers with terror, but a priest of secret and nocturnal rites. These mysterious rites were, at first, imparted to a few, but afterwards communicated to great numbers, both men and women. To their religious performances were added the pleasures of wine and feasting, to allure a greater number of proselytes. When wine, lascivious discourse, night, and the intercourse of the sexes had extinguished every sentiment of modesty, then debaucheries of every kind began to be practised, as every person found at hand that sort of enjoyment to which he was disposed by the passion predominant in his nature. Nor were they confined to one species of vice—the promiscuous intercourse of free-born men and women; but from this store-house of villany proceeded false witnesses, counterfeit seals, false evidences, and pretended discoveries. From the same place, too, proceeded poison and secret murders, so that in some cases, even the bodies could not be found for burial. Many of their audacious deeds were brought about by treachery, but most of them by force; it served to conceal the violence, that, on account of the loud shouting, and the noise of drums and cymbals, none of the cries uttered by the persons suffering violation or murder could be heard abroad.

9 The infection of this mischief, like that from the contagion of disease, spread from Etruria to Rome; where, the size of the city affording greater room for such evils, and more means of concealment, cloaked it at first; but information of it was at length brought to the consul, Postumius, principally in the following manner. Publius Æbutius, whose father had held equestrian rank in the army, was left an orphan, and his guardians dying, he was educated under the eye of his mother Duronia, and his stepfather Titus Sempronius Rutilus. Duronia was entirely devoted to her husband; and Sempronius, having managed the guardianship in such a manner that he could not give an account of the property, wished that his ward should be either made away with, or bound to compliance with his will by some strong tie. The Bacchanalian rites were the only way to effect the ruin of the youth. His mother told him, that, “during his sickness, she had made a vow for him, that if he should recover, she would initiate him among the Bacchanalians; that being, through the kindness of the gods, bound by this vow, she wished now to fulfil it; that it was necessary he should preserve chastity for ten days, and on the tenth, after he should have supped and washed himself, she would conduct him into the place of worship.” There was a freedwoman called Hispala Fecenia, a noted courtesan, but deserving of a better lot than the mode of life to which she had been accustomed when very young, and a slave, and by which she had maintained herself since her manumission. As they lived in the same neighbourhood, an intimacy subsisted between her and Æbutius, which was far from being injurious either to the young man’s character or property; for he had been loved and wooed by her unsolicited; and as his friends supplied his wants illiberally, he was supported by the generosity of this woman; nay, to such a length did she go under the influence of her affection, that, on the death of her patron, because she was under the protection of no one, having petitioned the tribunes and prætors for a guardian, when she was making her will, she constituted Æbutius her sole heir.

10 As such pledges of mutual love subsisted, and as neither kept any thing secret from the other, the young man, jokingly bid her not be surprised if he separated himself from her for a few nights; as, “on account of a religious duty, to a vow made for his health, he intended to be initiated among the Bacchanalians.” On hearing this, the woman, greatly alarmed, cried out, “May the gods will more favourably!” affirming that “it would be better, both for him and her, to lose their lives than that he should do such a thing:” she then imprecated curses, vengeance, and destruction, on the head of those who advised him to such a step. The young man, surprised both at her expressions and at the violence of her alarm, bid her refrain from curses, for “it was his mother who ordered him to do so, with the approbation of his stepfather.” “Then,” said she, “your stepfather (for perhaps it is not allowable to censure your mother) is in haste to destroy, by that act, your chastity, your character, your hopes, and your life.” To him, now surprised by such language, and inquiring what was the matter, she said, (after imploring the favour and pardon of the gods and goddesses, if, compelled by her regard for him, she disclosed what ought not to be revealed,) that “when in service, she had gone into that place of worship, as an attendant on her mistress; but that, since she had obtained her liberty, she had never once gone near it: that she knew it to be the receptacle of all kinds of debaucheries; that it was well known that, for two years past, no one older than twenty had been initiated there. When any person was introduced he was delivered as a victim to the priests, who led him away to a place resounding with shouts, the sound of music, and the beating of cymbals and drums, lest his cries, while suffering violation, should be heard abroad.” She then entreated and besought him to put an end to that matter in some way or other; and not to plunge himself into a situation, where he must first, suffer, and afterwards commit, every thing that was abominable. Nor did she quit him until the young man gave her his promise to keep himself clear of those rites.

11 When he came home, and his mother made mention of such things pertaining to the ceremony as were to be performed on this day, and on the several following days, he told her that he would not perform any of them, nor did he intend to be initiated. His stepfather was present at this discourse. Immediately the woman observed, that “he could not deprive himself of the company of Hispala for ten nights; that he was so fascinated by the caresses and baneful influence of that serpent, that he retained no respect for his mother or stepfather, or even the gods themselves.” His mother on one side and his stepfather on the other loading him with reproaches, drove him out of the house, assisted by four slaves. The youth on this repaired to his aunt Æbutia, told her the reason of his being turned out by his mother, and the next day, by her advice, gave information of the affair to the consul Postumius, without any witnesses of the interview. The consul dismissed him, with an order to come again on the third day following. In the mean time, he inquired of his mother-in-law Sulpicia, a woman of respectable character, “whether she knew an old matron called Æbutia, who lived on the Aventine hill?” When she had answered that “she knew her well, and that Æbutia was a woman of virtue, and of the ancient purity of morals”; he said that he required a conference with her, and that a messenger should be sent for her to come. Æbutia, on receiving the message, came to Sulpicia’s house, and the consul, soon after, coming in, as if by accident, introduced a conversation about Æbutius, her brother’s son. The tears of the woman burst forth, and she began to lament the unhappy lot of the youth: “who, after being robbed of his property by persons whom it least of all became, was then residing with her, being driven out of doors by his mother, because, being a good youth, (may the gods be propitious to him,)” he refused to be initiated in ceremonies devoted to lewdness, as report goes.

12 The consul, thinking that he had made sufficient inquiries concerning Æbutius, and that his testimony was unquestionable, having dismissed Æbutia, requested his mother-in-law to send again to the Aventine, and bring from that quarter Hispala, a freedwoman, not unknown in that neighbourhood; for there were some queries which he wished to make of her. Hispala being alarmed because she was sent for by a woman of such high rank and respectable character, and being ignorant of the cause, after that she saw the lictors in the porch, the multitude attending on the consul and the consul himself, was very near fainting. The consul led her into a retired part of the house, and, in the presence of his mother-in-law, told her, that “she need not be uneasy, if she could resolve to speak the truth. She might receive a promise of protection either from Sulpicia, a matron of such dignified character, or from himself. That she ought to tell him, what was accustomed to be done at the Bacchanalia, in the nocturnal orgies in the grove of Stimula. When the woman heard this, such terror and trembling of all her limbs seized her, that for a long time she was unable to speak; but recovering, at length she said, that “when she was very young, and a slave, she had been initiated, together with her mistress; but for several years past, since she had obtained her liberty, she knew nothing of what was done there.” The consul commended her so far, as not having denied that she was initiated, but charged her to explain all the rest with the same sincerity; and told her, affirming that she knew nothing further, that “there would not be the same tenderness or pardon extended to her, if she should be convicted by another person, and one who had made a voluntary confession; that there was such a person, who had heard the whole from her, and had given him a full account of it.”

13 The woman, now thinking without a doubt that it must certainly be Æbutius who had discovered the secret, threw herself at Sulpicia’s feet, and at first began to beseech her, “not to let the private conversation of a freedwoman with her lover be turned not only into a serious business, but even capital charge;” declaring that “she had spoken of such things merely to frighten him, and not because she knew any thing of the kind.” On this Postumius, growing angry, said, “she seemed to imagine that then too she was wrangling with her gallant Æbutius, and not that she was speaking in the house of a most respectable matron, and to a consul.” Sulpicia raised her, terrified, from the ground, and while she encouraged her to speak out, at the same time pacified her son-in-law’s anger. At length she took courage, and, having censured severely the perfidy of Æbutius, because he had made such a return for the extraordinary kindness shown to him in that very instance, she declared that “she stood in great dread of the gods, whose secret mysteries she was to divulge; and in much greater dread of the men implicated, who would tear her asunder with their hands if she became an informer. Therefore, she entreated this favour of Sulpicia, and likewise of the consul, that they would send her away to some place out of Italy, where she might pass the remainder of her life in safety.” The consul desired her to be of good spirits, and said that it should be his care that she might live securely in Rome.

Hispala then gave a full account of the origin of the mysteries. “At first,” she said, “those rites were performed by women. No man used to be admitted. They had three stated days in the year on which persons were initiated among the Bacchanalians, in the day-time. The matrons used to be appointed priestesses, in rotation. Paculla Minia, a Campanian, when priestesss, made an alteration in every particular, as if by the direction of the gods. For she first introduced men, who were her own sons, Minucius and Herrenius, both surnamed Cerrinius; changed the time of celebration, from day to night; and, instead of three days in the year, appointed five days of initiation, in each month. From the time that the rites were thus made common, and men were intermixed with women, and the licentious freedom of the night was added, there was nothing wicked, nothing flagitious, that had not been practised among them. There were more frequent pollution of men, with each other, than with women. If any were less patient in submitting to dishonour, or more averse to the commission of vice, they were sacrificed as victims. To think nothing unlawful, was the grand maxim of their religion. The men, as if bereft of reason, uttered predictions, with frantic contortions of their bodies; the women, in the habit of Bacchantes, with their hair dishevelled, and carrying blazing torches, ran down to the Tiber; where, dipping their torches in the water, they drew them up again with the flame unextinguished, being composed of native sulphur and charcoal. They said that those men were carried off by the gods, whom the machines laid hold of and dragged from their view into secret caves. These were such as refused to take the oath of the society, or to associate in their crimes, or to submit to defilement. Their number was exceedingly great now, almost a second state in themselves, and among them were many men and women of noble families. During the last two years it had been a rule, that no person above the age of twenty should be initiated; for they sought for people of such age as made them more liable to suffer deception and personal abuse.”

14 When she had completed her information, she again fell at the consuls knees, and repeated the same entreaties, that he might send her out of the country. The consul requests his mother-in-law to clear some part of the house, into which Hispala might remove; accordingly, an apartment was assigned her in the upper part of it, of which the stairs, opening into the street, were stopped up, and the entrance made from the inner court. Thither all Fecenia’s effects were immediately removed, and her domestics sent for. Æbutius, also, was ordered to remove to the house of one of the consul’s clients.

When both the informers were by these means in his power, Postumius represented the affair to the senate, laying before them the whole circumstance, in due order; the information given to him at first, and the discoveries gained by his inquiries afterwards. Great consternation seized on the senators; not only on the public account, lest such conspiracies and nightly meetings might be productive of secret treachery and mischief, but, likewise, on account of their own particular families, lest some of their relations might be involved in this infamous affair. The senate voted, however, that thanks should be given to the consul because he had investigated the matter with singular diligence, and without exciting any alarm. They then commit to the consuls the holding an inquiry, out of the common course, concerning the Bacchanals and their nocturnal orgies. They order them to take care that the informers, Æbutius and Fecenia, might suffer no injury on that account; and to invite other informers in the matter, by offering rewards. They ordered that the officials in those rites, whether men or women, should be sought for, not only at Rome, but also throughout all the market towns and places of assembly, and be delivered over to the power of the consuls; and also that proclamation should be made in the city of Rome, and published through all Italy, that “no persons initiated in the Bacchanalian rites should presume to come together or assemble on account of those rites, or to perform any such kind of worship;” and above all, that search should be made for those who had assembled or conspired for personal abuse, or for any other flagitious practices. The senate passed these decrees. The consuls directed the curule ædiles to make strict inquiry after all the priests of those mysteries, and to keep such as they could apprehend in custody until their trial; they at the same time charged the plebeian ædiles to take care that no religious ceremonies should be performed in private. To the capital triumvirs the task was assigned to post watches in proper places of the city, and to use vigilance in preventing any meetings by night. In order likewise to guard against fires, five assistants were joined to the triumvirs, so that each might have the charge of the buildings in his own separate district, on this side the Tiber.

15 After despatching these officers to their several employments, the consuls mounted the rostrum; and, having summoned an assembly of the people, one of the consuls, when he had finished the solemn form of prayer which the magistrates are accustomed to pronounce before they address the people, proceeded thus: “Romans, to no former assembly was this solemn supplication to the gods more suitable or even more necessary: as it serves to remind you, that these are the deities whom your forefathers pointed out as the objects of your worship, veneration, and prayers: and not those which infatuated men’s minds with corrupt and foreign modes of religion, and drove them, as if goaded by the furies, to every lust and every vice. I am at a loss to know what I should conceal, or how far I ought to speak out; for I dread lest, if I leave you ignorant of any particular, I should give room for carelessness, or if I disclose the whole, that I should too much awaken your fears. Whatever I shall say, be assured that it is less than the magnitude and atrociousness of the affair would justify: exertions will be used by us that it may be sufficient to set us properly on our guard. That the Bacchanalian rites have subsisted for some time past in every country in Italy, and are at present performed in many parts of this city also, I am sure you must have been informed, not only by report, but by the nightly noises and horrid yells that resound through the whole city; but still you are ignorant of the nature of that business. Part of you think it is some kind of worship of the gods; others, some excusable sport and amusement, and that, whatever it may be, it concerns but a few. As regards the number, if I tell you that they are many thousands, that you would be immediately terrified to excess is a necessary consequence; unless I further acquaint you who and what sort of persons they are. First, then, a great part of them are women, and this was the source of the evil; the rest are males, but nearly resembling women; actors and pathics in the vilest lewdness; night revellers, driven frantic by wine, noise of instruments, and clamours. The conspiracy, as yet, has no strength; but it has abundant means of acquiring strength, for they are becoming more numerous every day. Your ancestors would not allow that you should ever assemble casually, without some good reason; that is, either when the standard was erected on the Janiculum, and the army led out on occasion of elections; or when the tribunes proclaimed a meeting of the commons, or some of the magistrates summoned you to it. And they judged it necessary, that wherever a multitude was, there should be a lawful governor of that multitude present. Of what kind do you suppose are the meetings of these people? In the first place, held in the night, and in the next, composed promiscuously of men and women. If you knew at what ages the males are initiated, you would feel not only pity but also shame for them. Romans, can you think youths initiated, under such oaths as theirs, are fit to be made soldiers? That arms should be intrusted with wretches brought out of that temple of obscenity? Shall these, contaminated with their own foul debaucheries and those of others, be champions for the chastity of your wives and children?

16 “But the mischief were less, if they were only effeminated by their practices; of that the disgrace would chiefly affect themselves; if they refrained their hands from outrage, and their thoughts from fraud. But never was there in the state an evil of so great magnitude, or one that extended to so many persons or so many acts of wickedness. Whatever deeds of villany have, during late years, been committed through lust; whatever, through fraud; whatever, through violence; they have all, be assured, proceeded from that association alone. They have not yet perpetrated all the crimes for which they combined. The impious assembly at present confines itself to outrages on private citizens; because it has not yet acquired force sufficient to crush the commonwealth: but the evil increases and spreads daily; it is already too great for the private ranks of life to contain it, and aims Us views at the body of the state. Unless you take timely precautions, Romans, their nightly assembly may become as large as this, held in open day, and legally summoned by a consul. Now they one by one dread you collected together in the assembly; presently, when you shall have separated and retired to your several dwellings, in town and country, they will again come together, and will hold a consultation on the means of their own safety, and, at the same time, of your destruction. Thus united, they will cause terror to every one of you. Each of you, therefore, ought to pray that his kindred may have behaved with wisdom and prudence; and if lust, if madness, has dragged any of them into that abyss, to consider such a person as the relation of those with whom he has conspired for every disgraceful and reckless act, and not as one of your own. I am not secure, lest some, even of yourselves, may have erred through mistake; for nothing is more deceptive in appearance than false religion. When the authority of the gods is held out as a pretext to cover vice, fear enters our minds, lest, in punishing the crimes of men, we may violate some divine right connected therewith. Numberless decisions of the pontiffs, decrees of the senate, and even answers of the aruspices, free you from religious scruples of this character. How often in the ages of our fathers was it given in charge to the magistrates, to prohibit the performance of any foreign religious rites; to banish strolling sacrificers and soothsayers from the forum, the circus, and the city; to search for, and burn, books of divination; and to abolish every mode of sacrificing that was not conformable to the Roman practice! For they, completely versed in every divine and human law, maintained, that nothing tended so strongly to the subversion of religion as sacrifice, when we offered it not after the institutions of our forefathers, but after foreign customs. Thus much I thought necessary to mention to you beforehand, that no vain scruple might disturb your minds when you should see us demolishing the places resorted to by the Bacchanalians, and dispersing their impious assemblies. We shall do all these things with the favour and approbation of the gods; who, because they were indignant that their divinity was dishonoured by those people’s lusts and crimes, have drawn forth their proceedings from hidden darkness into the open light; and who have directed them to be exposed, not that they may escape with impunity, but in order that they may be punished and suppressed. The senate have committed to me and my colleague, an inquisition extraordinary concerning that affair. What is requisite to be done by ourselves, in person, we will do with energy. The charge of posting watches through the city, during the night, we have committed to the inferior magistrates; and, for your parts, it is incumbent on you to execute vigorously whatever duties are assigned you, and in the several places where each will be placed, to perform whatever orders you shall receive, and to use your best endeavours that no danger or tumult may arise from the treachery of the party involved in the guilt.”

17 They then ordered the decrees of the senate to be read, and published a reward for any discoverer who should bring any of the guilty before them, or give information against any of the absent, adding, that “if any person accused should fly”, they would limit a certain day upon which, if he did not answer when summoned, he would be condemned in his absence; and if any one should be charged who was out of Italy, they would allow him a longer time, if he should wish to come and make his defence.” They then issued an edict, that “no person whatever should presume to buy or sell any thing for the purpose of leaving the country; or to receive or conceal, or by any means aid the fugitives.” On the assembly being dismissed, great terror spread throughout the city; nor was it confined merely within the walls, or to the Roman territory, for every where throughout the whole of Italy alarm began to be felt, when the letters from the guest-friends were received, concerning the decree of the senate, and what passed in the assembly, and the edict of the consuls. During the night, which succeeded the day in which the affair was made public, great numbers, attempting to fly, were seized, and brought back by the triumvirs, who had posted guards at all the gates; and informations were lodged against many, some of whom, both men and women, put themselves to death. Above seven thousand men and women are said to have taken the oath of the association. But it appeared that the heads of the conspiracy were the two Catinii, Marcus and Caius, Roman plebeians; Lucius Opiturnius, a Faliscian; and Minius Cerrinius, a Campanian: that from these proceeded all their criminal practices, and that these, were the chief priests and founders of the sect. Care was taken that they should be apprehended as soon as possible. They were brought before the consuls, and, confessing their guilt, caused no delay to the ends of justice.

18 But so great were the numbers that fled from the city, that because the lawsuits and property of many persons were going to ruin, the prætors, Titus Mænius and Marcus Licinius, were obliged, under the direction of the senate, to adjourn their courts for thirty days, until the inquiries should be finished by the consuls. The same deserted state of the law-courts, since the persons, against whom charges were brought, did not appear to answer, nor could be found in Rome, necessitated the consuls to make a circuit of the country towns, and there to make their inquisitions and hold the trials. Those who, as it appeared, had been only initiated, and had made after the priest, and in the most solemn form, the prescribed imprecations, in which the accursed conspiracy for the perpetration of every crime and lust was contained, but who had not themselves committed, or compelled others to commit, any of those acts to which they were bound by the oath,—all such they left in prison. But those who had forcibly committed personal defilements or murders, or were stained with the guilt of false evidence, counterfeit seals, forged wills, or other frauds, all these they punished with death. A greater number were executed than thrown into prison; indeed, the multitude of men and women who suffered in both ways, was very considerable. The consuls delivered the women, who were condemned, to their relations, or to those under whose guardianship they were, that they might inflict the punishment in private; but if there did not appear any proper person of the kind to execute the sentence, the punishment was inflicted in public. A charge was then given to demolish all the places where the Bacchanalians had held their meetings; first, in Rome, and then throughout all Italy; excepting those wherein should be found some ancient altar, or consecrated statue. With regard to the future, the senate passed a decree, “that no Bacchanalian rites should be celebrated in Rome or in Italy:” and ordering that, “in case any person should believe some such kind of worship incumbent on him, and necessary; and that he could not, without offence to religion, and incurring guilt, omit it, he should represent this to the city prætor, and the prætor should lay the business before the senate. If permission were granted by the senate, when not less than one hundred members were present, then he might perform those rites, provided that no more than five persons should be present at the sacrifice, and that they should have no common stock of money, nor any president of the ceremonies, nor priest.”

19 Another decree connected with this was then made, on a motion of the consul, Quintus Marcius, that “the business respecting the persons who had served the consuls as informers should be proposed to the senate in its original form, when Spurius Postumius should have finished his inquiries, and returned to Rome.” They voted that Minius Cerrinius, the Campanian, should be sent to Ardea, to be kept in custody there; and that a caution should be given to the magistrates of that city, to guard him with more than ordinary care, so as to prevent not only his escaping, but his having an opportunity of committing suicide. Spurius Postumius some time after came to Rome, and on his proposing the question, concerning the reward to be given to Publius Æbutius and Hispala Fecenia, because the Bacchanalian ceremonies were discovered by their exertions, the senate passed a vote, that “the city quæstors should give to each of them, out of the public treasury, one hundred thousand asses;50 and that the consuls should desire the plebeian tribunes to propose to the commons as soon as convenient, that the campaigns of Publius Æbutius should be considered as served, that he should not become a soldier against his wishes, nor should any censor assign him a horse51 at the public charge.” They voted also, that “Hispala Fecenia should enjoy the privileges of alienating her property by gift or deed; of marrying out of her rank, and of choosing a guardian, as if a husband had conferred them by will; that she should be at liberty to wed a man of honourable birth, and that there should be no disgrace or ignominy to him who should marry her; and that the consuls and prætors then in office, and their successors, should take care that no injury should be offered to that woman, and that she might live in safety. That the senate wished, and thought proper, that all these things should be so ordered.”—All these particulars were proposed to the commons, and executed, according to the vote of the senate; and full permission was given to the consuls to determine respecting the impunity and rewards of the other informers.

20 Quintus Marcius, having completed the inquiries in his district, prepared at length to proceed into the province of Liguria, for the service of which he received a supply of three thousand Roman foot and one hundred and fifty horse, with five thousand Latin foot and two hundred horse. The same province, and the same numbers of horse and foot, had been voted to his colleague, and they received the armies which, during the preceding year, the consuls, Caius Flaminius and Marcus Æmilius, had commanded. They were also ordered, by a decree of the senate, to raise two new legions, and they demanded from the allies and Latins twenty thousand foot and one thousand three hundred horse; besides, they levied three thousand Roman foot and two hundred horse. It was resolved that all this army, except the legions, should be led to reinforce the army in Spain. The consuls, therefore, while they themselves were engaged in the inquisitions, appointed Titus Mænius to hold the levy. When the trials were finished, Quintus Marcius first marched against the Apuan Ligurians. While he pursued these into very remote fastnesses, which had always served them as lurking-places and receptacles, he was surrounded in a disadvantageous position, a narrow defile which the enemy had previously seized. Here four thousand soldiers fell, and three standards of the second legion, with eleven ensigns of the Latin allies, were taken; abundance of arms were likewise lost, which were thrown away by the men in every direction, because they impeded their flight through the woody paths. The Ligurians ceased to pursue, sooner than the Romans to fly. As soon as the consul had effected his escape out of the enemy’s territories, he disbanded the troops, in the country of their friends, in order that the greatness of the loss sustained might not appear. But he could not obliterate all memorial of his misconduct; for the pass, from which the Ligurians put him to flight, has been called the Marcian pass.

21 A little before this intelligence from the war in Liguria was made public, a letter from Spain was read to them, which brought joy mingled with grief. Caius Atinius, who, two years before, had gone to that province in quality of prætor, fought in the territory of Asta a pitched battle with the Lusitanians. About six thousand of the enemy were killed, the rest routed, driven from the field, and their camp taken. He then led his legions to attack the town of Asta, which he took with little more trouble than he met at the camp; but, having been wounded whilst he was approaching the walls too incautiously, he died in a few days from the effects of the wound. When the letter was read, acquainting them with the proprætor’s death, the senate voted, that a courier should be sent to overtake the prætor, Caius Calpurnius, at the port of Luna, and inform him, that the senate thought proper that he should hasten his journey lest the province should be without a governor. The person who was sent reached Luna on the fourth day, but Calpurnius had set out some days before. In Hither Spain, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, who had come into that province at the same time when Caius Atinius came into his, fought a battle with the Celtiberians. They quitted the field, the victory being undecided with the exception of this, that the Celtiberians removed their camp from that quarter on the following night: permission was thus afforded to the Romans to bury their dead, and collect the spoils. In a few days after, the Celtiberians, having gathered a large army, attacked the Romans, near the town of Calaguris. Nothing is recorded respecting the cause that rendered them weaker after their numbers were increased, but they were defeated in the battle; twelve thousand of their men were killed, more than two thousand taken, and the Roman army got possession of their camp, and had not a successor, by his arrival, checked the career of the conqueror, the Celtiberians would have been completely subdued. Both the new prætors drew off their armies into winter quarters.

22 During the time in which this intelligence was announced from Spain, the games called Taurilia52 were celebrated, during two days, on a religious account. Then Marcus Fulvius exhibited games, which he had vowed in the Ætolian war, and which lasted ten days. Many artists, out of respect to him, came from Greece on the occasion; and now, for the first time, the Romans had an opportunity of seeing contests of wrestlers; they were also presented with a hunt of lions and panthers; the games were celebrated with almost the variety and abundance of the present age. The nine days’ solemnity succeeded, because showers of stones had fallen, for three days, in Picenum; and fires from heaven were said to have arisen in various places, and singed the clothes of many persons by slight flashes. By order of the pontiffs, a supplication, of one day’s continuance, was added because the temple of Ops, in the Capitol, was struck by lightning. The consuls sacrificed victims of the larger kinds, and purified the city. At the same time, an account was brought from Umbria, of a hermaphrodite, twelve years old, being found there. The consuls wishing to get rid of the prodigy, as it was a fearful omen, ordered that it should be removed instantly out of the Roman territory, and put to death. During this year, a body of Transalpine Gauls came into Venetia, without committing depredation or hostility, and pitched on a spot for building a town, not far from that where Aquileia now stands. Ambassadors were sent from Rome, over the Alps, on this business, and to them an answer was given that “they had not emigrated by the authority of their state, nor did their countrymen know what they were doing in Italy.” About this time Lucius Scipio celebrated games, which he said he had vowed during the war with Antiochus; they lasted ten days, and the money was contributed for the purpose by the kings and states of Asia. Valerius Antias asserts, that, after his condemnation, and the sale of his effects, he was sent as ambassador into Asia, to adjust disputes between the kings Antiochus and Eumenes; that there the money was contributed for him, and actors collected through Asia: and that after his embassy, the subject of those games (of which he had made no mention after the war, in which he asserted that they had been vowed) was at length introduced in the senate-house.