Plutarch's Lives, Volume 1 (of 4)

by Plutarch

Of his two daughters, one married a son of Cato, the other Aelius Tubero, an excellent man, who supported his poverty more gloriously than any other Roman. There were sixteen in the family, all Aelii; and one small house and estate sufficed for them all, with their numerous offspring and their wives, among whom was the daughter of our Aemilius, who, though her father had twice been consul and twice triumphed, was not ashamed of the poverty of her husband, but was proud of the virtue that kept him poor. But nowadays brothers and kinsmen, unless their inheritances be divided by mountain ranges, rivers, and walls like fortifications, with plenty of space between them, quarrel without ceasing. These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.

VI. Aemilius, when elected consul, marched against the sub-Alpine Ligurians, called by some Ligustines, a brave and spirited nation, and from their nearness to Rome, skilled in the arts of war. Mixed with the Gauls, and the Iberians of the sea coast, they inhabit the extremity of Italy where it dies away into the Alps, and also that part of the Alps which is washed by the Tuscan Sea, opposite the Libyan coast. At this time they took also to seafaring, and, sailing forth in small piratical ships, they plundered and preyed upon commerce as far as the columns of Heracles. On Aemilius's approach they opposed him, forty thousand strong; but he, with only eight thousand, attacked five-fold his own numbers, put them to rout, and having chased them into their fastnesses, offered them reasonable and moderate terms; for it was not the Roman policy utterly to exterminate the Ligurian race, but to leave them as an outwork to protect Italy against the constant movements of the Gaulish tribes.

Trusting in Aemilius they surrendered all their ships and their cities into his hands. He did the cities no hurt, or at most destroyed the walls, and restored them to the owners, but he carried off all the ships, leaving them nothing larger than a six-oared boat; while he set free the numerous captives which they had taken both by sea and land, among whom were some Roman citizens. These were his glorious exploits in that consulship. Afterwards he frequently let his desire for re-election be seen, and once became a candidate, but as he failed and was passed over, he thenceforth remained in retirement, occupying himself with religious matters, and teaching his children not only the Roman education in which he himself had been brought up, but also the Greek, and that more carefully. For not only were the grammarians, philosophers, and orators Greek, but also the sculptors and painters, and the young men kept Greeks to manage their horses and hounds, and instruct them in hunting. Aemilius, unless hindered by public business, always was present at the exercises and studies of his sons, and was the kindest father in Rome.

VII. This was the period during which the Romans, who were at war with Perseus, King of Macedon, complained of their generals, whose ignorance and cowardice had led to the most disgraceful and ridiculous failure, and to the sustaining of much more loss than they inflicted. They, who had just driven Antiochus, called the Great, out of Asia Minor, beyond Taurus, and restricted him to Syria, making him glad to purchase peace at the price of fifteen thousand talents; who, a little before, had crushed Philip in Thessaly, and set free the Greeks from the power of Macedon; and who had also utterly subdued Hannibal himself, a man whose daring and immense resources rendered him far more dangerous an opponent than any king, thought that it was not to be borne that Perseus should wage war as if he were on equal terms with the Roman people, and that, too, with only the remnants of his father's routed forces; for they did not know that Philip, after his defeat, had greatly increased the power and efficiency of the Macedonian army. To explain which, I shall briefly relate the story from the beginning.

VIII. Antigonus, who was the most powerful of the generals and successors of Alexander, and who obtained for himself and his family the title of king, had a son named Demetrius, whose son was Antigonus, called Gonatas. His son again was named Demetrius, who, after reigning some short time, died, leaving a son Philip, a mere boy in years. Fearing disturbance during his minority, the Macedonian nobles made Antigonus, a cousin of the deceased, Regent and commander-in-chief, associating with him in this office the mother of Philip. Finding him a moderate and useful ruler, they soon gave him the title of king. He had the soubriquet of Doson, as though he were only a promiser, not a performer of his engagements. After this man, Philip came to the throne, and, while yet a boy, distinguished himself in all that becomes a king, so as to raise men's hopes that he might restore the empire of Macedon to its ancient glory, and be alone able to check the power of Rome, which now menaced the whole world. Defeated in a great battle at Scotussa by Titus Flamininus, he bent to the storm, surrendered all that he had to the Romans, and was thankful for mild treatment. Afterwards, chafing at his subordinate position, and thinking that to reign dependent on the pleasure of the Romans was more worthy of a slave who cares only for sensual pleasure, than of a man of spirit, he gave his whole mind up to preparations for war, and secretly and unscrupulously collected materials for it. Of the cities in his kingdom, he allowed those on the sea-coast and the main roads to fall into partial decay, so that his power might be despised, while he collected great forces in the interior. Here he filled all the outposts, fortresses, and cities with arms, money, and men fit for service, and thus trained the nation for war, yet kept his preparations secret. In his arsenals were arms for thirty thousand men; eight million medimni of corn were stored in his fortresses, and such a mass of treasure as would pay an army of ten thousand men for ten years. But before he could put all these forces in motion and begin the great struggle, he died of grief and remorse, for he had, as he admitted, unjustly put his other son Demetrius to death on the calumnies of one far worse than he was. Perseus, the survivor, inherited his father's hatred of the Romans with his kingdom, but was not of a calibre to carry out his designs, as his small and degraded mind was chiefly possessed by avarice. He is said not even to have been legitimate, but that Philip's wife obtained him when a baby from his real mother, a midwife of Argos, named Gnathaina, and palmed him off upon her husband. And this seems to have been one reason for her putting Demetrius to death, for fear that if the family had a legitimate heir, this one's bastardy would be discovered.

IX. However, low-born and low-minded though he was, yet having by the force of circumstances drifted into war, he held his own and maintained himself for a long time against the Romans, defeating generals of consular rank with great armies, and even capturing some of them. Publius Licinius, who first invaded Macedonia, was defeated in a cavalry engagement, with a loss of two thousand five hundred brave men killed, and six hundred prisoners. Perseus next by a sudden attack made himself master of the Roman naval station at Oreus, took twenty store ships, sunk the rest, which were loaded with grain, and took also four quinqueremes.[39] He fought also a second battle, in which he drove back the consular general Hostilius, who was trying to invade Macedonia near Elimiae; and when he tried to steal in through Thessaly, he again offered battle, which the Roman declined. As an accessory to the war he now made a campaign against the Dardans, as if affecting to despise the Romans and to be at leisure. Here he cut to pieces ten thousand of the barbarians, and carried off much plunder. He also had secret negotiations with the Gauls who dwell near the Ister, called Basternae, a nation of warlike horsemen, and by means of Genthius their king he endeavoured to induce the Illyrians to take part in the war. There was even a report that the barbarians had been induced by his bribes to march through the southern part of Gaul beside the Adriatic, and so invade Italy.

X. The Romans, when they learnt all this, determined that they would disregard political influence in their choice of a general, and choose some man of sense and capable of undertaking great operations. Such a one was Paulus Aemilius, a man of advanced age, being about sixty years old, but still in full vigour of body, and surrounded by kinsmen, grown-up sons, and friends, who all urged him to listen to the appeal of his country and be consul. He at first treated the people with little respect, and shunned their eager professions of zeal, on the plea that he did not wish for the command; but as they waited on him daily, and called for him to come into the forum and shouted his name, he was at length prevailed upon. When a candidate, he seemed to enter the field not with a view to getting office, but to giving victory and strength in battle to his fellow-citizens; with such zeal and confidence did they unanimously elect him consul for the second time, not permitting lots to be cast for provinces by the two consuls, as is usual, but at once decreeing to him the management of the Macedonian war. It is said that when he was named general against Perseus, he was escorted home in triumph by the people en masse, and found his daughter Tertia, who was quite a little child, in tears. He embraced her, and asked her why she was crying; and she, throwing her arms round him and kissing him, said, "Do you not know, father, that our Perseus is dead?" meaning a little dog which she had brought up, which was so named. Aemilius said, "May this bring good luck, my daughter: I accept the omen." This story Cicero the orator tells in his book on Divination.

XI. It being the custom that the consuls-elect should return thanks, and make a gracious speech to the people from the rostrum, Aemilius called together the people and said that he had sought for his former consulship because he wanted office, but for this one because they wanted a general: wherefore he felt no gratitude towards them, but would lay down his consulship if they thought that they would succeed better in the war under some one else; but if they felt confidence in him, he asked them not to interfere with his acts as general, nor to gossip about him, but to furnish quietly what was wanted for the war; for if they tried to command their commander they would afford even a more sorry spectacle than they had already done. By these words he made the citizens stand greatly in awe of him, and gave them great expectations of what he would effect, while all rejoiced that they had passed over those who used to flatter them, and had chosen a general of independence and spirit. So much did the Roman people respect bravery and honour, because it led to conquests, and to making them masters of the world.

XII. I consider it to have been by divine favour that Aemilius Paulus on starting for his campaign met with such a fortunate and calm voyage, and so speedily and safely arrived at the camp; but as to the war itself, and his conduct of it, accomplished as it was partly by swift daring, partly by wise dispositions, by the valour of friends, confidence in the midst of dangers, and reliance on sound plans, I cannot tell of any glorious and distinguished exploit, which, as in the case of other generals, owed its success to his good fortune; unless, indeed, any one should count as good fortune for Aemilius the avarice of Perseus, which destroyed the great and well-founded hopes of the Macedonians in the war, and brought them to ruin by the meanness of their chief. At his request there came a force of Basternae, a thousand horse and ten thousand light troops who fought with them, all mercenary soldiers—men who knew nothing of tilling the soil, or of sailing the sea, who did not live from the produce of their flocks, but who studied one art and business solely, ever to fight and overcome their antagonists. So, when in the camp at Maedike, these men mixed with the king's troops, tall in their person, admirable in their drill, boastful and haughty in their defiance of the foe, they gave confidence to the Macedonians, and made them think that the Romans never could withstand their attack, but would be terrified at their appearance and march, outlandish and ferocious as it was. But Perseus, now that he had got such auxiliaries as these, and put his men into such heart, because he was asked for a thousand staters for each officer, became bewildered at the amount of the sum which he would have to pay, and his meanness prevailing over his reason, refused their offers, and broke off the alliance, as if he had been steward of his kingdom for the Romans rather than fighting against them, and had to give an exact account of his expenses in the war to his enemies; though he might have been taught by them, who had besides other war materials, a hundred thousand soldiers collected together ready for use. Yet he, when engaged in war with such a power as this, where such great forces were kept on foot to contend with him, kept doling out and sparing his money as if it were not his own. And still he was not a Lydian or Phoenician, but a man who from his descent ought to have had a share of the spirit of Philip and Alexander, who made all their conquests by the principle that empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It used, indeed, to be a proverb that "It is not Philip, but Philip's gold that takes the cities of Greece." Alexander, too, when beginning his Indian campaign, seeing the Macedonians laboriously dragging along the rich and unwieldy plunder of the Persians, first burned all the royal carriages, and then persuaded the soldiers to do the like with their own, and start for the war as light as if they had shaken off a burden. But Perseus, when spending his own money to defend himself, his children, and his kingdom, rather than sacrifice a little and win, preferred to be taken to Rome with many others, a rich captive, and show the Romans how much he had saved for them.

XIII. For not only did he dismiss the Gauls and break his word to them, but after inducing Genthius the Illyrian to take part in the war for a bribe of three hundred talents, he lodged the money with that prince's envoys, all counted, and let them put their seals upon it. Genthius then thinking that he had got what he asked, did a wicked and impious deed in seizing and throwing into prison some Roman ambassadors who were sent to him. Perseus, thinking that Genthius no longer needed money to make him hostile to Rome, since he had given him such a pledge of his hatred of it, and had involved himself in war with it by such a crime, deprived the poor man of his three hundred talents, and shortly afterwards looked calmly on while he and his family were plucked out of their kingdom, like birds out of a nest, by Lucius Anicius, who was sent with an army against him. Aemilius, when he came to contend with such a rival as this, despised him as a man, but was surprised at the force which he had at his disposal. These were four thousand cavalry, and of infantry soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx nearly forty thousand. Encamped by the sea-shore, near the skirts of Mount Olympus, on ground nowhere accessible, and strongly fortified by himself with outworks and defences of wood, Perseus lived in careless security, thinking that by time and expense he should wear out Aemilius's attack. But he, while he busied his mind with every possible mode of assault, perceiving that his army in consequence of its past want of discipline was impatient, and usurped the general's province by proposing all sorts of wild schemes, severely reprimanded the soldiers, and ordered them not to meddle with what was not their concern, but only take care that they and their arms were ready, and to use their swords as Romans should when their general should give the word. He ordered the night sentries to go on guard without their spears, that they might be more attentive and less inclined to sleep, having no arms to defend themselves against the enemy.