BOOK XI.
ARGUMENT.
Schoenbeck supposes this book to have been written in memory of the Iberian war; because it not only touches on military affairs, but contains also some bitter sarcasms on the morals of certain young men who served in that campaign. Petermann coincides in the same opinion. Corpet supposes that the principal object of the book was an elaborate defense of the character of Scipio Africanus; especially with regard to the salutary and strict discipline which he restored to the Roman army during the Numantine war. Gerlach admits the probability of these conjectures, though he scarcely thinks that the Fragments which have come down to us of this book are of sufficient length to enable us to pronounce definitively on the question. It is quite clear that the mention of Opimius the father, or of the elder Lucius Cotta, can bear no relation to the Numantine war, since they both lived before it began; still it is possible that their names might have been introduced, to render the morals of their sons still more conspicuous. How the Fragment (2) respecting the plebeian Caius Cassius Cephalo was connected with the main subject is not clear, unless he was introduced for the purpose of incidentally mentioning the bribery of the unjust judge, Tullius.
The fourth and ninth Fragments may clearly refer to the Numantine war; as may perhaps the seventh; as we learn from Cicero, that while Scipio Africanus was before Numantia, he received some munificent presents, which were sent to him from Asia by King Attalus, and which he accepted in the presence of his army. (Cic. pro Dei., 7.) This happened probably only a few months before the death of Attalus; and Lucilius was most likely an eye-witness of the fact. The thirteenth Fragment also may refer to the same campaign; though Duentzer supposes it to be an allusion to the miserable penuriousness of Ælius Tubero. The fifth and sixth Fragments apparently refer rather to civil than military matters.
1 Quintus Opimius, the famous father of this Jugurthinus, was both a handsome man and an infamous, both in his early youth; latterly he conducted himself more uprightly.[1746]
2 This Caius Cassius, a laborer, whom we call Cefalo—a cut-purse and thief—him, one Tullius, a judge, made his heir; while all the rest were disinherited.[1747]
3 Lucius Cotta the elder, the father of this Crassus, "the all-blazing," was a close-fisted fellow in money-matters; very slow in paying any body—[1748]
4
5 Asellus cast it in the teeth of the great Scipio, that during his censorship, the lustrum had been unfortunate and inauspicious.[1749]
6 ... and now I wished to throw into verse a saying of Granius, the præco.[1750]
7 ... a noble meeting; there glittered the drawers, the cloaks, the twisted chains of the great Datis.[1751]
8 ... and a road must be made, and a rampart thrown up here, and that kind of groundwork—[1752]
9 ... he is a wanderer now these many years; he is now a soldier in winter quarters, serving with us
10 ... thence, while still of tender age and a mere boy, comes to Rome.
11 Nor have I need of him as a lover, nor a mean fellow to bail me—
12 ... he is a jibber, a shuffler, a hard-mouthed, obstinate brute.[1753]
13 When they had taken their seats here, and the skins were extended in due order....[1754]
14 ... who in the wash-house and the pool....