The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End / with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books

by Livy

28 During the time of those transactions in Asia, affairs were tranquil in the other provinces. At Rome, the censors, Titus Quintius Flamininus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, read over the roll of the senate; Publius Scipio Africanus was, a third time, declared prince of the senate, and only four members were struck out, none of whom had held any curule office. In their review of the knights, also, their censorship was very mild. They contracted for the erection of a building in the Æquimælium, on the capitoline mount, and for paving, with flint, a road from the gate Capena to the temple of Mars. The Campanians consulted the senate respecting the place where they should have their census; and an order was passed that they should be rated at Rome. Extraordinary quantities of rain fell this year; twelve times the Tiber overflowed the field of Mars and the lower parts of the city. The war with the Gauls in Asia having been brought to a conclusion by the consul Cneius Manlius, the other consul, Marcus Fulvius, as the Ætolians were now completely reduced, passed over to Cephallenia, and sent messengers round the states of the island, to inquire whether they chose to submit to the Romans, or to try the fortune of war. Fear prevailed so strongly on them all, that they did not refuse to surrender. They gave the number of hostages demanded, which was proportioned to the abilities of a weak people, the Nesians, Cranians, Pallenians, and Samæans, giving twenty each. An unhoped-for peace had now shone on Cephallenia, when one state, the Samæans, suddenly revolted, from some motive not yet ascertained. They said, that as their city was commodiously situated, they were afraid that the Romans would compel them to remove from it. But whether, they conceived this in their own minds, and, under the impulse of a groundless fear, disturbed the general quiet, or whether, such a project had been mentioned in conversation among the Romans, and reported to them, nothing is ascertained, unless that after having given hostages they suddenly shut their gates, and would not relinquish their design, even for the prayers of their friends, whom the consul sent to the walls, to try how far they might be influenced by compassion for their parents and countrymen. When no pacific answer was given, the city began to be besieged. The consul had all the apparatus, engines and machines, which had been brought over from Ambracia; and the soldiers executed with great diligence the works necessary to be formed. The rams were therefore brought forward in two places, and began to batter the walls.

29 The townsmen omitted nothing by which the works or the motions of the besiegers could be obstructed. But they resisted in two ways in particular; one of which was to raise constantly, instead of the part of the wall knocked down, a new wall of equal strength on the inside; and the other was to make sudden sallies, at one time against the enemy’s works, at another against his advanced guards; and in those attacks, they generally got the better. The only plan that was invented to confine them within the walls, though ineffectual, deserves to be recorded. One hundred slingers were brought from Ægium, Patras, and Dymæ. These men, according to the customary practice of that nation, were exercised from their childhood in throwing with a sling, into the open sea, the round pebbles, with which, mixed with sand, the shores were generally strewn; therefore they cast weapons of that sort to a greater distance, with surer aim, and more powerful effect, than even the Balearian slingers. Besides, their sling does not consist merely of a single strap, like the Balearic and that of other nations, but the thong of the sling is three-fold, and made firm by several seams, that the bullet may not, by the yielding of the strap in the act of throwing, be let fly at random, but after sticking fast while whirled about, it may be discharged as if sent from the string of a bow. Being accustomed to drive their bullets through circular marks of small circumference, placed at a great distance, they not only hit the enemy’s heads, but any part of their face that they aimed at. These slings checked the Samæans from sallying either so frequently or so boldly; insomuch that they would, sometimes, from the walls, beseech the Achæans to retire for a while, and be quiet spectators of their fight with the Roman guards. Same supported a siege of four months. When some of their small number were daily killed or wounded, and the survivors were, through continual fatigues, greatly reduced both in strength and spirits, the Romans, one night scaling the wall of the citadel, which they call Cyatides, (for the city sloping towards the sea verges towards the west,) made their way into the forum. The Samæans, on discovering that a part of the city was taken, fled, with their wives and children, into the greater citadel; but submitting next day, they were all sold as slaves, their city being plundered.

30 As soon as he had settled the affairs of Cephallenia, the consul, leaving a garrison in Same, sailed over to Peloponnesus, where the Ægians and Lacedæmonians, chiefly, solicited his presence for a long time. From the first institution of the Achæan council, the assemblies of the nation had been held at Ægium, whether that was conceded to the dignity of the city, or the commodiousness of its situation. This usage Philopœmen first attempted to subvert in that year, and determined to introduce an ordinance, that these should be held in rotation in every one of the cities, which were members of the Achæan union; and a little before the arrival of the consul, when the Demiurguses, who are the chief magistrates in the states, summoned the representatives to Ægium, Philopœmen, then prætor, by proclamation, appointed their meeting at Argos. To which place when it was apparent that all would come, the consul likewise, though he favoured the cause of the Ægians, went to Argos, but, after there had been a debate, and he saw the scale turning against the Ægians, he desisted from his undertaking. The Lacedæmonians then drew his attention to their disputes. The exiles especially kept that state in alarm: of whom great numbers resided in the maritime forts on the coast of Laconia, all which had been taken from the Lacedæmonians. At this the Lacedæmonians were deeply chagrined, and in order that they might have some where a free access to the sea, if they should have occasion to send ambassadors to Rome, or any other place, and at the same time possess some mart and repository for foreign merchandise, for their necessary demands, attacked in the night a maritime village called Las, and seized it by surprise. The inhabitants, and the exiles residing in the place, were terrified, at first, by the sudden assault; but afterwards collecting in a body before day, after a slight contest, they drove back the Lacedæmonians. A general alarm, nevertheless, spread over the whole coast, and all the forts and villages, with the exiles whose homes were there, united in sending a common embassy to the Achæans.

31 The prætor, Philopœmen,—(who, from the beginning, had ever been a friend to the cause of the exiles, and had always advised the Achæans to reduce the power and influence of the Lacedæmonians,)—gave an audience of the council to the ambassadors while making their complaints. There, on a motion made by him, a decree was passed, that, “whereas Titus Quintius and the Romans had committed their forts and villages, on the coast of Laconia, to the protection and guardianship of the Achæans; and whereas the Lacedæmonians, according to the treaty, ought to leave them unmolested; notwithstanding which, the village of Las has been attacked by them and bloodshed committed therein; therefore, unless the authors and abettors of this outrage were delivered up to the Achæans, the treaty would be considered as violated.” To demand those persons, ambassadors were instantly despatched to Lacedæmon. This authoritative injunction appeared to the Lacedæmonians so haughty and insolent, that if their state had been in its ancient condition, they would undoubtedly have taken to arms. But they were principally alarmed by apprehensions, lest, if by obeying the first mandates they once received the yoke, Philopœmen should put the exiles in possession of Lacedæmon, a design which he had been a long time planning. Maddened therefore with anger, they put to death thirty men of the faction which had held some correspondence with Philopœmen and the exiles, and passed a decree, that the alliance with the Achæans should be renounced, and that ambassadors should be sent immediately to Cephallenia, to surrender Lacedæmon to the consul Marcus Fulvius and the Romans, and beseech him to come into Peloponnesus, and to receive Lacedæmon under the protection and dominion of the Roman people.

32 When the Achæan ambassadors returned with an account of these proceedings, war was declared against the Lacedæmonians, by a unanimous vote of all the states of the confederacy; but the winter prevented its being commenced immediately. However, the confines of the Lacedæmonians were laid waste by small expeditions, more like freebooting than a regular war, made not only by land, but also by ships at sea. This commotion brought the consul into Peloponnesus, and, by his order, a council being summoned at Elis, the Lacedæmonians were called on to plead their own cause. There were not only violent debates then, but even altercation. To which, the consul, although his answer had been indecisive in other respects, since he encouraged both parties through a very eager desire to please, put an end, by one decisive order, that they should desist from hostilities, until they sent ambassadors to Rome, to the senate. An embassy was despatched by both parties to Rome. The Lacedæmonian exiles intrusted their cause and embassy to the Achæans. Diophanes and Lycortas, both of them Megalopolitans, were at the head of the Achæan embassy, who, being at variance in their own republic, there also delivered speeches by no means in unison. Diophanes was for leaving the determination of every point to the senate—that they would best decide the controversies between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians; while Lycortas, according to the instructions of Philopœmen, required, that the senate should permit the Achæans to execute their own decrees, made conformable to the treaty, and their own laws; and that they should concede to them, uninfringed, the liberty which they themselves had bestowed. The Achæan nation was, at that time, in high esteem with the Romans; yet it was resolved, that no alteration should be made respecting the Lacedæmonians; but the answer given was so confused, that, while the Achæans understood it as full permission given to them in relation to Lacedæmon, the Lacedæmonians construed it, that unlimited power was not conceded to them.

33 The Achæans used this power in an immoderate and tyrannical manner. Philopœmen is continued in office, and he, in the beginning of spring, collecting an army, encamped in the territory of the Lacedæmonians, and thence sent ambassadors to insist on their delivering up the authors of the insurrection; promising, that if they complied, their state should remain in peace, and that those persons should not suffer any punishment, without having pleaded their cause. There was silence among the rest through fear; but the persons demanded by name, declared that they would voluntarily go, if their faith was pledged by the ambassadors, that violence would not be resorted to, until their cause were heard. Several other men, of illustrious characters, went along with them, both as supporters of those private individuals, and because they thought their cause concerned the public interest. The Achæans had never before brought the Lacedæmonian exiles into the country, because they knew that nothing would disgust the people so much; but now, the vanguard of almost their whole army was composed of them. When the Lacedæmonians came to the gate of the camp, these men met them in a body, and, first, began to provoke them with insulting language; a wrangle then ensuing, and their passions being inflamed, the most furious of the exiles made an attack on the Lacedæmonians. While these appealed to the gods, and the faith of the ambassadors; and while the ambassadors and the prætor were driving back the crowd, and protecting the Lacedæmonians, and were keeping back some who were already binding them in chains,—the multitude was increasing, owing to a tumult having been excited. The Achæans, at first, ran thither to view the spectacle; but then the exiles, with loud clamours, complained of the sufferings that they had undergone, implored assistance, and at the same time insisted, that they would never have such an opportunity if they neglected this; that the treaties, solemnly ratified in the Capitol, at Olympia, and in the citadel of Athens, had been rendered void by these men; and that before they should be bound by a new treaty, the guilty ought to be punished. The multitude being inflamed by these expressions, at the voice of one who called out that they should fall on, attacked them with stones; and seventeen persons, who, during the disturbance, had been put in chains, were killed. The next day, sixty-three, whom the prætor had protected from violence, not because he wished them safe, but because he was unwilling that they should perish without a defence, being taken into custody, and brought before an enraged multitude, after addressing a few words to such prejudiced ears, were all condemned and executed.

34 After this fear had been inspired, orders were sent to the Lacedæmonians, first, that they should demolish their walls; then, that all the foreign auxiliaries, who had served for pay under the tyrants, should quit the Laconian territories; then, that the slaves, whom the tyrants had set free, who amounted to a great multitude, should depart before a certain day; that the Achæans should be authorized to seize, sell, and carry away those who might remain in the country. That they should abrogate the laws and customs of Lycurgus, and adopt the laws and institutions of the Achæans; that thus all would become one body, and concord would be established among them. They obeyed none of these injunctions more willingly than that of demolishing the walls, nor suffered any with more reluctance than the restoration of the exiles. A decree for their restoration was made at Tegea, in a general council of the Achæans; where, an account being brought, that the foreign auxiliaries had been sent away, and that the newly-registered Lacedæmonians (so they called the slaves who were enfranchised by the tyrants) had left the city and dispersed through the country, it was resolved, that, before the army was disbanded, the prætor should go with some light troops, and, seizing that description of people, sell them as spoil. Great numbers were accordingly seized, and sold; and with that money a portico at Megalopolis, which the Lacedæmonians had demolished, was rebuilt, with the approbation of the Achæans. The lands of Belbinis, of which the Lacedæmonian tyrants had unjustly kept possession, were also restored to that state, according to an old decree of the Achæans, made in the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas. The state of Lacedæmon having, by these means, lost the sinews of its strength, remained long in subjection to the Achæans; but nothing hurt it so materially as the abolition of the discipline of Lycurgus, in the practice of which they had continued during seven hundred years.

35 After the sitting of the council, wherein the debate between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians was held in presence of the consul, as the year was expiring, Marcus Fulvius, having gone home to Rome to hold the elections, appointed Marcus Valerius Messala and Caius Livius Salinator consuls, after having, this year, procured the rejection of his enemy, Marcus Æmilius Lepidus. Then Quintus Marcius Philippus, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Caius Stertinius, Caius Atinius, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Lucius Manlius Acidinus, were elected prætors. When the elections were finished, it was resolved, that the consul, Marcus Fulvius, should return into his province to the army; and to him and his colleague, Cneius Manlius, their command was prolonged for a year. In this year, in pursuance of directions from the decemvirs, a statue of Hercules was set up in his temple, and a gilded chariot with six horses were placed in the Capitol, by Publius Cornelius. The inscription mentioned, that Publius Cornelius, the consul,[30] made the offering. Also twelve gilded shields, out of money raised by fines on corn merchants, for raising the market by hoarding the grain, were dedicated by the curule ædiles, Publius Claudius Pulcher and Servius Sulpicius Galba; and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, the plebeian ædile, having convicted one malefactor, (for the ædiles prosecuted separately,) dedicated two gilded statues. His colleague, Aulus Cæcilius, did not convict any one. The Roman games were exhibited thrice; the plebeian, five times altogether. Marcus Valerius Messala, and Caius Livius Salinator, after entering into office on the ides of March, consulted the senate concerning the state of the commonwealth, the provinces, and the armies. With respect to Ætolia and Asia no alteration was made. With regard to the consuls, to the one Pisæ, with the Ligurians, is decreed as his province; to the other, Gaul. They were ordered to cast lots for these, or to settle the matter between themselves, to enrol new armies, two legions for each; and to levy off the allies of the Latin name, fifteen thousand foot, and one thousand two hundred horse. Liguria fell, by lot, to Messala; Gaul, to Salinator. The prætors then cast lots, and the city jurisdiction fell to Marcus Claudius; the foreign, to Publius Claudius. Quintus Marcius obtained, by lot, Sicily; Caius Stertinius, Sardinia; Lucius Manlius, Hither Spain; Caius Atinius, Farther Spain.

36 Respecting the armies, they passed the following resolutions—that the legions which had served under Caius Lælius, should be removed out of Gaul into Bruttium, to Marcus Tuccius, the proprætor; that the army which was in Sicily should be disbanded, and that Marcus Sempronius, the proprætor, should bring back to Rome the fleet that was there. For the Spains were decreed the legions then in those provinces, one for each, with orders, that each of the two prætors should levy from among the allies, as a reinforcement, three thousand foot and two hundred horse, and bring them with them. Before the new magistrates set out for their provinces, a supplication, of three days’ continuance, was ordered by the college of decemvirs to be performed in every street, on account of a darkness having overspread the light of day, between the third and fourth hours; and the nine days’ solemnity was proclaimed, because there had been a shower of stones on the Aventine. The Campanians, as the censors obliged them, pursuant to the decree of the senate, made last year, to pass the general survey at Rome, (for before that, it had not been fixed where they should be surveyed,) petitioned that they might be allowed to take in marriage women who were citizens of Rome, and that any who had, heretofore, married such, might retain them; and, likewise, that children born of such marriages, before that day, might be legitimate, and entitled to inherit; both which requests were obtained. Caius Valerius Tappus, a tribune of the commons, proposed an order of the people concerning the citizens of the free towns of Formiæ, Fundi, and Arpinum, that they should be invested with the right of voting, for hitherto they had had the rights of citizenship without the privilege of voting. When four tribunes of the commons were protesting against the bill, because it was not made under the direction of the senate, on being informed, that the power of imparting the privilege of voting to any person they should choose belonged to the people, and not to the senate, they desisted from their opposition. An order was passed, that the Formians and Fundans should vote in the Æmilian tribe, and the Arpinians in the Cornelian; and in these tribes they were then, for the first time, rated in the census, in pursuance of the order of the people proposed by Valerius. Marcus Claudius Marcellus, the censor, having got the better of Titus Quintius in the lots, closed the lustrum. Two hundred and fifty-eight thousand three hundred and eight citizens were rated. When the lustrum was finished, the consuls set out for their provinces.

37 During the winter wherein these acts were performed at Rome, embassies from all the nations and states which dwelt on this side of Mount Taurus, came together on all sides to Cneius Manlius, at first consul, and afterwards proconsul, passing the winter in Asia; and although the conquest of Antiochus was more splendid and glorious to the Romans than that of the Gauls, yet the latter gave greater joy to the allies than the former. Subjection to the king had been more tolerable to them than the savage nature of those wild barbarians, and the daily alarm, with the uncertainty of the direction in which the storm would, as it were, drift them in their desolating path. Therefore since to them liberty was given by the expulsion of Antiochus, and permanent peace by the conquest of the Gauls, they brought, not only congratulations, but also golden crowns, in proportion to the ability of each. Ambassadors also came from Antiochus, and from the Gauls themselves, that the conditions of peace might be dictated to them; and from Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, to solicit pardon, and make atonement, by money, for his crime in assisting Antiochus with troops. Six hundred talents of silver are levied off him. Answer was made to the Gauls, that when king Eumenes arrived, he would settle the conditions. The embassies of the several states were dismissed with kind answers, much happier than when they arrived. The ambassadors of Antiochus were ordered to bring the money and the corn, (according to the treaty concluded with Lucius Scipio,) into Pamphylia, whither the consul intended to go with his forces. In the beginning of the next spring, after purifying the army, he began his march, and on the eighth day arrived at Apamea. Having halted there during three days, he, on the third day after his departure from that place, arrived in Pamphylia, to which place he had ordered the king’s ambassadors to bring together the money and corn. Two thousand five hundred talents[31] of silver, being received by him, were conveyed to Apamea; the corn was distributed among the army. Thence he marched to Perga, the only place in the country still held by a garrison of the king’s troops. On his approach, the governor of the town met him, and requested thirty days’ time, that he might consult Antiochus about the surrender of the city. The time being granted, on the appointed day the garrison evacuated the city. From Perga, he detached his brother, Lucius Manlius, with four thousand men, to Oroanda, to exact from that town the remainder of the money which they had promised; and, having ordered the ambassadors of Antiochus to follow, he led back his army to Apamea, because he heard that king Eumenes, and the ten ambassadors from Rome, were arrived at Ephesus.