46 “Do not suppose that the name only of the Gallogræcians is a mixed one: their bodies, and their minds, have undergone a similar process, and have been corrupted by the mixture. Had they been such Gauls as those whom we have a thousand times encountered in Italy, with various success, would any one of us, considering the conduct of our commander, have returned to tell the story? Two battles were fought; twice he sustained the disadvantages of position, and, at the bottom of a valley, almost placed his army under the feet of the enemy; so that they were able to overwhelm us, even though they did not cast their weapons from the higher ground, but merely threw themselves on us without arms. What, then, was the consequence? Great is the fortune of the Roman people; great and terrible its name! By the recent downfall of Hannibal, Philip, and Antiochus, the Gauls were, in a manner, thunderstruck. Bulky as their bodies were, they were dismayed, and put to flight, by slings and arrows; not a sword was stained in battle during the Gallic war. Like flocks of birds, they flew away at the very sound of our missiles. But, indeed, when we, the same army, were on our return, and happened to fall in with a party of Thracian robbers, (as if fortune meant to teach us what the issue would have been, if we had met an enemy,) we were beaten, routed, and stripped of our baggage. Among many other brave soldiers fell Quintus Minucius Thermus, whose death was a much greater loss, than if Cneius Manlius, to whose rashness the misfortune had happened, had perished. An army, carrying home the spoils of king Antiochus, was dispersed in three places, and with the vanguard in one place, the rear in another, and the baggage in a third, hid itself for a night among bushes, in the dens of wild beasts. Is a triumph demanded for such exploits as these? Although no disaster and disgrace had been suffered in Thrace, over what enemies would you triumph? Over those, I suppose, whom the Roman senate or people had assigned to you as your enemies. On these grounds, indeed, a triumph was granted to Lucius Scipio; to Manius Acilius, over king Antiochus; to Titus Quintius, over king Philip; and to Publius Africanus, over Hannibal, the Carthaginians, and Syphax. Now, after the senate had voted a declaration of war, the following unimportant matters were inquired into:—To whom the declaration ought to be made; whether to the kings in person, or whether making it at some of their garrisons were sufficient? Do you wish, then, that all these rites should be disregarded and profaned? That the laws of the heralds be abrogated? That there should be no heralds? Let religion (the gods pardon the expression) be thrown aside; let forgetfulness of the gods occupy your minds. Do you, also, judge it fit that the senate should not be consulted concerning war? That the people should not be asked, whether they choose and order war to be made on the Gauls? On a late occasion, the consuls, certainly, wished for the provinces of Greece and Asia; yet, when you persisted in assigning Liguria as their province, they obeyed your commands. They will, therefore, if the war should be successfully carried on, justly demand a triumph from you, conscript fathers, under whose authority they carried it on.”
47 Such were the arguments of Furius and Æmilius. We have heard that Maulius replied in nearly the following manner: “Conscript fathers, formerly the tribunes of the people were accustomed to oppose generals demanding a triumph. I am thankful to the present tribunes because they have conceded so much either to me, or to the greatness of my services, as not only to show, by their silence, their approbation of my pretensions to that honour, but likewise their readiness, if there were occasion, to make a motion to that purpose. I have, since it is the pleasure of the gods, as my opponents some of the ten ambassadors, the actual council which our ancestors assigned to generals for the purpose of arranging their conquests and gracing their victories. Lucius Furius and Lucius Æmilius forbid me to mount the triumphal chariot, and pluck from my head the crown of glory, the persons whom, if the tribunes had opposed triumph, I should have cited as witnesses to bear testimony to my services. Conscript fathers, I envy no man’s honours; but, on a late occasion, you yourselves deterred by your authority the tribunes of the people, brave and active men, from impeding the triumph of Quintus Fabius Labeo. Fabius enjoyed a triumph; and yet his adversaries alleged, not that he had carried on an unjust war, but that he had not seen the enemy at all. Whereas I, who fought so many pitched battles with one hundred thousand of your fiercest enemies; who killed or made prisoners more than forty thousand; who stormed two of their camps; who left all the countries on this side of the summits of Taurus in greater tranquillity than is the country of Italy; am not only defrauded of a triumph, but obliged to plead my cause before you, conscript fathers, whilst my own council of ambassadors accuse me. Conscript fathers, their charge, as you perceive, is twofold: for they assert, that I ought not to have waged war with the Gauls; and besides, that the war was carried on rashly and imprudently. The Gauls were not enemies; but, you committed hostilities against them, when peaceable and obedient to your orders. I am not about to require from you, conscript fathers, that you may attribute to the Gauls who inhabit Asia, those characteristics which you are well aware belong to the Gallic race in general, savage fierceness and most inveterate hatred to the name of Rome. Excluding the infamous and odious character of the whole nation, judge of these Gauls by themselves. I wish king Eumenes, I wish all the states of Asia were present, and that you heard their complaints, rather than my charges against them. Send ambassadors round all the cities of Asia, and ask whether they were relieved from more grievous servitude by the removal of Antiochus beyond the summits of Taurus, or by the conquest of the Gauls. Let them tell you how often their territories were ravaged, how often their property and their people were carried off as prey; while they had scarcely ever an opportunity of ransoming any prisoners, they heard of nothing but human victims slain, and their children offered up in sacrifice. Be assured that your allies paid tribute to these Gauls; and, though delivered now by you from the yoke of Antiochus, must still have continued to pay it, if I had been inactive. The farther Antiochus was removed, the more tyrannically would the Gauls have domineered in Asia; and all the countries on this side of Taurus you would have annexed to their empire, not to your own.
48 “But, allowing all this to be so; the Gauls formerly sacked Delphi, the common oracle to which all mankind resort, and the central point of the globe of the earth; yet the Roman people did not, on that account, proclaim or wage war against them. I really thought, that there was some distinction to be made between that period when Greece and Asia were not yet under your jurisdiction and dominion, and the present, when you have made Mount Taurus the boundary of the Roman empire; when you grant liberty and independence to the states of that country; when you augment the territories of some; amerce others in a part of their lands; impose tribute; add to, diminish, give, and take away kingdoms, and deem it your business to take care that they may enjoy peace both on land and sea. Is it not the case that you would not have thought Asia liberated unless Antiochus withdrew his garrisons, which lay quiet in their citadels: if the armies of the Gauls roamed about without control, would the grants which you made to king Eumenes be secure, or the liberty of the states entire? But why do I reason thus? as if I had not found the Gauls enemies, but made them such! I appeal to you, Lucius Scipio, whose bravery and good fortune alike I suppliantly sought, and not in vain, from the immortal gods, when I succeeded you in the command; and to you, Publius Scipio, who held, both with your brother the consul, and with the army, the commission of a lieutenant-general and the dignity of a colleague; did you ascertain that legions of the Gauls were in the army of Antiochus? Did you see them in his line of battle, posted in both wings; for there was his main strength? Did you fight with them as declared enemies? Did you kill them? Did you carry off their spoils? Yet the senate had decreed, and the people ordered, war against Antiochus, not against the Gauls. But as I judge, they had at the same time decreed and ordered that war should be with all those who should be reckoned among his troops; so that, excepting Antiochus, with whom Scipio had negotiated a peace, and with whom, specifying him by name, you had directed a treaty to be concluded, every one who had borne arms on the side of Antiochus against us, were our enemies. And although the Gauls had been conspicuous in that cause, and several petty princes and tyrants also; nevertheless, I made peace with the rest, after compelling them to atone for their transgressions, as the dignity of your empire required. I made trial, at the same time, of the temper of the Gauls, whether they could be reclaimed from their natural ferocity; but, perceiving them untractable and implacable, I then judged it necessary to chastise them by force of arms.
49 “Now, since the charge respecting the undertaking of the war has been fully refuted, I must account for my conduct in the prosecution of it. In which, indeed, I should perfectly confide in the merits of my cause, though I were pleading, not before a Roman, but before a Carthaginian senate, by whom their commanders are said to be crucified, if they act on wrong plans, even with success. But in such a state as this, which, in the commencement and progress of every undertaking, makes application to the gods on this account, because it subjects to no malicious cavilling those plans of which the gods have approved; and which, in the established form, when it decrees a supplication or triumph, uses these words,—‘For having conducted the business of the public successfully and fortunately;’ if I should be unwilling, if I should think it presumptuous and arrogant to boast of my own bravery, and if I should demand, in consideration of my own good fortune, and that of my army, in having vanquished so great a nation, without any loss of men, that thanks should be given to the immortal gods, and that I should ascend the Capitol in triumph, from whence I took my departure, with vows duly offered;—would you refuse this to me, and the immortal gods? Yes; for I fought on unfavourable ground. Tell me, then, on what more favourable ground could I have fought, when the enemy had seized on a mountain, and kept themselves in a strong post; surely, if I wished to conquer them, I must go where they were. What if they had a town on the same spot, and kept within the walls: surely they must be attacked. Did Manlius Acilius fight with Antiochus, at Thermopylæ on favourable ground? Did not Titus Quintius dislodge Philip when he was posted in the same manner, on the tops of mountains, over the river Anio*? Truly I cannot yet discover what sort of an enemy they may represent to themselves, or in what light they may wish them to appear to you. If as being degenerate and softened by the pleasures of Asia, what danger was there in advancing against them even on unfavourable ground? If formidable, both for fierceness of courage and strength of body, do you refuse a triumph to victories so honourable? Conscript fathers, envy is blind, and only capable of depreciating merit, and poisoning its honours and rewards. Pardon me, I beseech you, conscript fathers, on these conditions, if it be the case that the necessary reply to the accusation, and not my desire of boasting of my exploits, hath made my speech too long. Whether could I, in my march through Thrace, create open glades out of narrow defiles, and level plains out of steep precipices, and fields out of woods, and insure that the Thracian plunderers should not lurk any where in those concealments which they were acquainted with; that none of our packages should be snatched away, none of our loaded horses, out of so large a train, led off; that no one should be wounded; and that the brave and active Lucius Minucius should not die of his wound? On this mischance, by which we unfortunately lost so valuable a citizen, those men declaim profusely. That the enemy attacked us in a dangerous pass, where every advantage of ground was against us; that our two divisions, the front and the rear, surrounded by a combined movement the army of the barbarians, while they were employed about our baggage; that they killed and took prisoners many thousands on that day; and, in a few days after, many more;—do they imagine that you would not ascertain this, even if they passed it over in silence, when the whole army can testify the truth of what I assert? If I had never drawn a sword in Asia, if I had never seen an enemy there, yet, by the two battles fought in Thrace, I had merited a triumph, as proconsul. But I have said enough, and shall only request, and, I should hope, obtain, your pardon, conscript fathers, for having troubled you longer than I could have wished to do.”
50 The accusations that day would have been more powerful than the defence, had they not prolonged the debate to a late hour; for the senate adjourned in a mood likely to refuse the triumph. Next day the relations and friends of Cneius Manlius exerted their utmost efforts in his behalf; and the opinion of the elder senators prevailed, who asserted, that there was no instance on record of a commander who had subdued the enemy, completed the business of his province, and brought home his army, entering the city as a private citizen, without honours, and without the chariot and laurel. This feeling of shame overcame their prejudices against him, and a great majority voted for his triumph. A greater contest which was set on foot against a greater and more illustrious personage, suppressed all mention and memory of this struggle. The two Petillii, as Valerius Antias writes, instituted a prosecution against Publius Scipio Africanus. Men construed this according to their different dispositions; some did not blame the plebeian tribunes, but the public in general, that could suffer such a process to be carried on. They observed, that “the two greatest states in the world proved, nearly at the same time, ungrateful to their chief commanders; but Rome the more ungrateful of the two, because Carthage was subdued when she sent the vanquished Hannibal into exile; whereas Rome, when victorious, was for banishing the conqueror Africanus.” Others asserted, that “no one citizen ought to stand so high above the rest, as not to be made answerable to the laws for his conduct: for nothing contributed so much towards the equalization of liberty, as that the most powerful might be brought to trial. For how could any charge, especially the administration of government, be safely intrusted to any man, if he were not liable to be called to an account? That force was not unjustly used against him who could not bear an equality of rights.” These subjects were discussed in conversation, until the day of trial came. Never was either any other person, or Scipio himself, when consul or censor, escorted to the forum by a more numerous multitude of all kinds, than he was on that day when he appeared to answer the charge against him. When ordered to make his defence, without taking any notice of the facts laid to his charge, he delivered so magnificent a speech concerning his exploits, that it was universally agreed, that no man had been ever praised either to more advantage or with more truth. For his achievements were described with the same ardent spirit and powerful genius with which they had been performed; and his auditors felt no disgust, because his acts were mentioned to meet the peril, and not for ostentation.
51 The plebeian tribunes, in order to procure credit to their present accusations, introduced the old imputations of his luxurious style of living in his winter quarters at Syracuse, and the tumult raised by Pleminius at Locri. They then brought forward against him the charge of receiving money, grounded on suspicion, not on proof. They alleged, that “his son, being taken prisoner, was restored without ransom; and that, in every other instance, Scipio was courted by Antiochus, as if peace and war with Rome were at his sole disposal. He had acted towards the consul, in his province, as dictator, not as lieutenant-general; nor had he gone thither with any other view than that this might appear to Greece and Asia, and all the kings and nations eastward, which had been long since the settled conviction of Spain, Gaul, Sicily, and Africa, that he alone was the head and pillar of the Roman empire; that a state which was mistress of the world, lay sheltered under the shade of Scipio; and that his nods were equivalent to decrees of the senate, and orders of the people.” They attack by envy, as much as they can, him out of the reach of dishonour. The pleading having lasted till night, the trial was adjourned to another day. When that came, the tribunes took their seat in the rostrum at the dawn of day. The accused being summoned, came, with a numerous train of friends and dependents, through the middle of the assembly, to the rostrum; and, silence being made, he said,—“Tribunes of the people, and you, Romans, on the anniversary of this day I fought a pitched battle in Africa, with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, with good fortune and success. As, therefore, it is but decent that a stop be put, for this day, to litigation and wrangling, I will immediately go to the Capitol, there to return my acknowledgments to Jupiter the supremely good and great, to Juno, Minerva, and the other deities presiding over the Capitol and citadel, and will give them thanks for having, on this day, and at many other times, endowed me both with the will and ability to perform extraordinary services to the commonwealth. Such of you also, Romans, as it suits, come with me and beseech the gods that you may have commanders like myself; since, from my seventeenth year to old age, you have always anticipated my years with honours, and I, your honours with services.” Accordingly, he went up from the rostrum to the Capitol; and, at the same time, the whole assembly turned about and followed him; insomuch, that at last even the clerks and messengers left the tribunes, not one remaining, except the slaves who attended them, and the crier, who was in the habit of summoning the accused from the rostrum. Scipio, attended by the whole body of the Roman people, went round all the temples of the gods, not only in the Capitol, but throughout the whole city. This day was almost more famous owing to the favour of the Romans towards him, and their high estimation of his real greatness, than that on which he rode through Rome in triumph over king Syphax and the Carthaginians.
52 It was, however, the last day that shone with lustre on Publius Scipio. For, as he could foresee nothing but the prosecutions of envy, and continual disputes with the tribunes, the trial being adjourned to a future day, he retired to the territory of Liternum, with a fixed determination not to attend the trial. His spirit was by nature too lofty, and habituated to such an elevated course of fortune, that he did not know how to act the part of an accused person, or stoop to the humble deportment of men pleading their cause. When the day came, and he began to be summoned in his absence, Lucius Scipio pleaded in his excuse that sickness was the reason of his absence. Which excuse the tribunes, who were the prosecutors, would not admit, but insisted that he did not come to plead his cause, owing to the same arrogance with which he had left the trial, the tribunes of the people, and the general assembly; and followed by the very men whom he had robbed of the right of passing sentence on him, together with their freedom of suffrage, had exhibited a triumph over the Roman people, and made a secession, the same day, from the tribunes to the Capitol. “You have therefore,” said they, “the due reward of that thoughtless conduct. You are, yourselves, forsaken by him under whose lead and direction you forsook us. And so much is our spirit daily on the decline, that although, seventeen years ago, when he was at the head of an army and fleet, we had resolution enough to send plebeian tribunes and an ædile into Sicily to take him into custody, and bring him home to Rome; yet we dare not now send to compel him, though a private citizen, to come from his country-seat to stand his trial.” The tribunes of the commons, being appealed to by Lucius Scipio, came to the following determination: that “since the excuse of sickness was pleaded” it was their judgment that this excuse should be admitted, and that the day of trial should be adjourned by their colleagues.”
53 Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was, at that time, a plebeian tribune, and between him and Publius Scipio there was an enmity subsisting. When he had forbidden his name to be subscribed to the determination of his colleague, and every one expected from him a sentence more severe, he pronounced his judgment thus: that “Inasmuch as Lucius Scipio had pleaded sickness in excuse for his brother, that plea appeared to him to be sufficient: that he would not suffer Publius Scipio to be accused until he should return to Rome: and even then, if he appealed to him, he would support him in refusing to abide a trial: that Publius Scipio, by his great achievements, by the honours received from the Roman people, by the joint consent of gods and men, had risen to such a height of dignity, that were he to stand as a criminal, under the rostrum, and afford a hearing to the insults of young men, it would reflect more disgrace on the Romans than on him.” To his decree he added the language of indignation: “Shall Scipio, the celebrated conqueror of Africa, stand at the feet of you, tribunes? Was it for this he defeated and routed, in Spain, four of the most distinguished generals of the Carthaginians, and their four armies? Was it for this he took Syphax prisoner, conquered Hannibal, made Carthage tributary to you, and removed Antiochus beyond Mount Taurus (for Lucius Scipio received his brother Africanus as his associate in this glory); that he should crouch under two Petillii? that you should gain the palm of victory over Publius Africanus? Will men of illustrious characters never, through their own merits, or through honours conferred by you, arrive at a safe and inviolable sanctuary, where their old age may repose, if not revered, at least secure from injury?” Both his decree and additional discourse made a deep impression, not only on the rest of the assembly, but even on the prosecutors; who said that they would consider further what might be consistent with their rights and duties. Afterwards, as soon as the assembly of the people broke up, the senate met, and at that meeting the warmest thanks were bestowed by the whole body, especially by the consular and elder members, on Tiberius Gracchus, for having consulted the public good in preference to private animosity; and the Petillii were assailed with severe insults, because they had endeavoured to become distinguished by exciting odium against another, and were seeking spoils from a triumph over Africanus. After that there was silence concerning Africanus. He passed the remainder of his life at Liternum, without a wish to revisit the city; and it is said that when he was dying he ordered his body to be buried in the country, in that very place, and his monument to be erected there, that even his obsequies might not be performed in his ungrateful country. He was a man of eminent merit; but more conspicuous in the affairs of war than in those of peace. The former part of his life was more illustrious than the latter, because in his early years wars were constantly carried on by him; with old age his exploits faded away, as occasions did not occur to call forth the exercise of his talents. What was his second consulship to his first, even if you should add to it the censorship? What, compared with it, was his commission in Asia, rendered useless by want of health, and clouded by the misfortune of his son, and the necessity to which it subjected him after his return, of either undergoing a trial, or withdrawing himself from that and his country together. However, he enjoyed alone the distinguished honour of putting an end to the Carthaginian war, which was by far the most difficult and dangerous war in which the Roman state was ever engaged.
54 The death of Africanus increased the courage of his enemies, the chief of whom was Marcus Porcius Cato, who, even during his life, was accustomed to sneer at his splendid character. The Petillii are supposed, both to have commenced the prosecution against Africanus at his instigation while he was alive, and on his death to have proposed a bill against him. The motion for the order was made in these words: “Romans, is it your will and order, with respect to the money taken, carried off, and collected from king Antiochus, and those under his government, and with respect to such part thereof as has not been accounted for to the public, that Servius Sulpicius, the city prætor, shall ask the senate which of the present prætors they will appoint to hold an inquiry concerning those matters?” Quintus and Lucius Mummius at first objected to this motion: they thought it proper that, according to the practice always hitherto observed, the senate should make the inquiry concerning such money as had not been brought into the public treasury. The Petillii represented the great influence, the sovereign power which the Scipios possessed in the senate. Lucius Furius Purpureo, a senator of consular rank, who had been one of the ten ambassadors in Asia, was of opinion that the inquiry ought to be carried to a wider extent; not only as to the money taken from Antiochus, but to what had been taken from other kings and nations, attacking his enemy Cneius Manlius. Lucius Scipio, who, it was evident, was arguing rather in favour of himself than against the order, stood forward to oppose it. He complained heavily of such a motion being brought on after the death of his brother, Publius Africanus, the bravest and most illustrious of men. For “it had not been deemed sufficient that Publius Africanus was not eulogized from the rostrum after his death, unless he should be also the subject of accusation. The Carthaginians had been content with the banishment of Hannibal, but the Roman people would not be satisfied even with the death of Publius Scipio, unless, after he was laid in his grave, his character were mangled, and his brother also sacrificed, another victim to envy.” Marcus Cato supported the motion in a speech on the money of king Antiochus, which is still extant; and, by his influence, deterred the Mummii, the two tribunes, from their opposition to the order. On their withdrawing their intended protest, every one of the tribes voted in favour of the motion.
55 Servius Sulpicius then putting the question to the senate, whom they would appoint, according to the Petillian order of the people, to hold the inquiry, they appointed Quintus Terentius Culleo. Before this prætor, so warmly attached to the Cornelian family, (that those writers, who say that Publius Scipio died and was buried at Rome, for that too is asserted, have left on record, that he walked at his funeral before the bier with a cap of liberty on his head, as he had done before at his triumph; and that, at the Capuan gate, he gave wine and honey to those who attended the obsequies, to show his gratitude for having been recovered by Scipio, among other captives, out of the hands of the enemy in Africa,) or so great an enemy to that family, that on account of his known animosity, he was selected in particular by the faction that supported the proceedings against the Scipios, to hold the inquiry; however that may be, before this prætor, whether too favourable or too much the contrary, Lucius Scipio was immediately arraigned. At the same time charges were presented and received against his lieutenants-general, the two Hostilius Catos, Aulus and Lucius; and his quæstor, Caius Furius Aculeo: and (that all things might appear infected with the contagion of peculation) against his two secretaries and crier, Lucius Hostilius. The secretaries and the crier were acquitted before Scipio was tried. Scipio and Aulus Hostilius, his lieutenant-general, and Caius Furius, were convicted on the following charges, that, “as bribes, for granting more favourable terms of peace to Antiochus, Scipio had received, over and above what he brought into the treasury, six thousand pounds’ weight of gold, and four hundred and eighty of silver; Aulus Hostilius, eighty pounds of gold, and four hundred and three of silver; and Furius, the quæstor, one hundred and thirty of gold, and two hundred of silver.” These sums of gold and silver I find mentioned by Antias. As to what regards Lucius Scipio, I suspect some mistake of the transcriber, rather than a falsehood of the historian, respecting the amount of the gold and silver. For it is more probable that the weight of silver was greater than that of gold, and that the fine was laid at four millions,[37] than at twenty-four millions of sesterces,[38] the more on this account, as they record that an account of that sum was demanded from Publius Scipio himself, in the senate; and that when he had desired his brother Lucius to bring the book of his accounts, he tore it to pieces in the view of the senate, at the same time expressing indignation at being called to account for four millions after he had brought two hundred millions[39] 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.