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 horse[51] 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 Taurilia[52] 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.
23 As the year was now drawing to a conclusion, Quintus Marcius, then abroad, was soon to go out of office. Spurius Postumius, after having conducted the inquisitions with the utmost care and propriety, held the elections. Appius Claudius Pulcher and Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus were chosen consuls. Next day, Publius Cornelius Cethegus, Aulus Postumius Albinus, Caius Afranius Stellio, Caius Atilius Serranus Lucius Postumius Tempsanus, and Marcus Claudius Marcellus were elected prætors. Towards the close of the year, because the consul Spurius Postumius reported that in travelling along the coasts of Italy, for the purpose of holding the inquisitions, he had found two colonies deserted, Sipontum on the upper sea, and Buxentum on the lower; in pursuance of a decree of the senate, Lucius Scribonus Libo, Marcus Tuccius, and Cneius Bebius Tamphilus, were appointed commissioners for conducting colonies thither, by Titus Mænius, city prætor. The war with king Perseus and the Macedonians, which was impending, has not derived its origin from what most persons imagine, nor from Perseus himself. The preliminary steps were taken by Philip, and, if he had lived some time longer, he would himself have carried on that war. When the conditions of peace were imposed on him, when he was vanquished, one particular chagrined him more than all the rest; this was because the liberty of wreaking his vengeance on such of the Macedonians as had revolted from him in the course of the war, was taken from him by the senate; although, because Quintius had left that point undetermined, when lie was adjusting the articles of pacification, he had not despaired of the possibility of obtaining it. Afterwards, on the defeat of Antiochus at Thermopylæ, the armies being separated at the time when the consul Acilius carried on the siege of Heraclea, and Philip besieged Lamia, because he was ordered to retire from the walls of Lamia, as soon as Heraclea was taken, and the town was surrendered to the Romans, he was grievously offended with this circumstance. The consul, indeed, in some measure, soothed his resentment; for, when he was hastening to Naupactum, where the Ætolians had re-assembled after their flight, he gave Philip permission to make war on Amynander and Athamania; and to annex to his dominions the cities which the Ætolians had taken from the Thessalians. Without much difficulty, he expelled Amynander from Athamania, and got possession of several cities. He also reduced under his dominion the city of Demetrias, a place of great strength, and convenient in every respect; with the whole of the Magnesian state. Afterwards, finding that several cities in Thrace, through an abuse of the liberty which they had lately acquired, and to which they had not been accustomed, were distracted by dissensions among their leading men, he, by uniting himself to the parties that were worsted in their disputes with their countrymen, made himself master of them all.
24 By these means the king’s wrath against the Romans was appeased for the present; but he never abandoned the project of collecting such a force during peace, as would enable him to maintain a war, whenever the fortunate occasion should be offered. He augmented the revenues of his kingdom, not only out of the produce of the lands and the port duties, but also he worked the mines, both the old ones which had been neglected, and new ones which he opened in many places. Then, (in order to restore the former degree of population, which had been diminished by the calamities of war,) he not only caused an increase in the offspring of that generation, by compelling every one to marry and rear children; but he transplanted a great multitude of Thracians into Macedonia, and, during a long suspension of arms, he employed the utmost assiduity in augmenting, by every possible means, the strength of his kingdom. Causes afterward occurred, which served to revive his animosity against the Romans. Complaints made by the Thessalians and Perrhæbians, of his holding possession of their towns, and, by ambassadors from king Eumenes, of his having forcibly seized the cities of Thrace, and transplanted great numbers of their people into Macedonia, had been received in such a manner as plainly evinced that they were not thought unworthy of attention. What made the greatest impression on the senate, was, their having been informed, that Philip aimed at the possession of Ænus and Maronea; as to the Thessalians, they regarded them less. Ambassadors came, likewise, from the Athamanians, complaining not of the loss of a part of their territory, nor of encroachment on their frontier,—but that all Athamania had been brought under the dominion and jurisdiction of the king. Exiles from Maronea also appeared, who had been expelled by the king’s troops, for having supported the cause of liberty; who reported, that not only Maronea, but Ænus too, was held in subjection by him. Ambassadors came from Philip to defend his conduct, who asserted, that, nothing bad been done without permission from the Roman commanders. That “the states of the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and Magnesians, and the nation of the Athamanians, with Amynander, had all been engaged in the same cause with the Ætolians. That after the expulsion of king Antiochus, the consul, being himself busy in reducing the towns of Ætolia, had named Philip to subdue those states, and they remained subject to him in consequence of their being conquered by his arms.” The senate, too, that they might not make any decision concerning the king in his absence, sent Quintus Cascilius Metellus, Marcus Bæebius Tamphilus, and Tiberius Sempronius, ambassadors to adjust those disputes. Previous to their arrival, a convention of all those states who had disputes with the king, was summoned to meet at Tempe in Thessaly.
25 When all were seated there, (the Roman ambassadors in the character of arbitrators, the Thessalians, Perrhæbians, and Athamanians professedly as accusers, and Philip as defendant, to hear the accusations brought against him,) those who were the heads of the embassies, according to their several tempers, their favour, or their hatred towards the king, spoke, some with acrimony, others with mildness. Philippopolis, Trica, Phaloria, Eurymenæ, and the other towns in their neighbourhood, became the subject of dispute. The point in controversy was, whether these towns were the property of the Thessalians, when they were forcibly taken from them, and held by the Ætolians, (for from these it was acknowledged that Philip had received them,) or whether they were originally belonging to the Ætolians: Acilius having granted them to the king, on the condition that “they had been the property of the Ætolians; and if they had sided with the Ætolians of their own free will, and not compelled by violence and arms.” The question in regard to the towns of the Perrhæbians and Magnesians turned on the same points; for the Ætolians, by holding possession of them occasionally, had confused the rights of all. To these particulars, which were matter of discussion, the complaints of the Thessalians were added, that “if these towns were now restored to them, they would come into their hands in a state of desolation, and depopulated; for besides the loss of inhabitants through the casualties of war, Philip had carried away five hundred of their young men of the first rank into Macedonia, and abused their labour by employing them in servile offices; and had taken pains to render useless whatever he should be compelled to restore to the Thessalians. That Thebes in Phthiotis was the only sea-port they had, which formerly produced much profit and advantage to the inhabitants of Thessaly; but that Philip, having collected there a number of ships of burthen, made them steer their course past Thebes to Demetrias, and turned thither the whole commerce by sea. That he did not now scruple to offer violence, even to ambassadors, who, by the law of nations, are every where held inviolable, but had laid an ambush for theirs who were going to Titus Quintius, that the Thessalians were in consequence seized with such dread, that not one of them, even in their own states, or in the general assemblies of the nation, ventured to open his lips. For the Romans, the defenders of their liberty, were far distant; and a severe master close at their side, debarring them from using the kindness of the Romans. If speech were not free, what else could be said to be so: at present, through confidence in the protection of the ambassadors, they uttered their groans rather than words; but, unless the Romans would take some precautions that both the fears of the Greeks bordering on Macedonia and the arrogance of Philip should be abated, his having been conquered, and their being set at liberty, would prove utterly fruitless. Like a restive, unmanageable horse, he required to be cheeked with a strong bridle.” These bitter expressions were used by the last speakers among them; those who spoke before having endeavoured by mildness to mitigate his resentment; requesting of him “that he should pardon persons pleading in defence of their liberty; that he should, laying aside the harshness of a master, generally display himself an ally and friend; that he should imitate the Roman people, who wished to unite their allies to them by the ties of affection, rather than of fear.” When the Thessalians had finished, the Perrhæbians pleaded that Gonnocondylos, to which Philip had given the name of Olympias, belonged to Perrhæbia, and ought to be restored to them; and the same demand was made with respect to Malœa, and Ericinium. The Athamanians claimed a restoration of liberty, and the forts Athenæus and Pœtneus.