Plutarch's Lives, Volume 2 (of 4)

by Plutarch

"Sing, maidens, sing,
Of Rome's good faith that keeps its oath,
And gentle Titus full of truth,
Our city's saviour, Titus and Apollo sing."

XVII. He also received honours from the Greeks at large, and that which gives reality to honours, great goodwill from all for his kindly disposition. For though indeed he had some slight differences with Philopœmen, and again with Diophanes when chief of the Achæan league, he was not rancorous, and never acted under the impulse of anger, but soon laid aside his displeasure. He was harsh to no one, but was thought by most men to be clever and witty, and the pleasantest of companions. When the Achæans were endeavouring to gain for themselves the island of Zakynthus, he discouraged their enterprise by saying that if they proceeded so far from Peloponnesus they would be in the same danger as the tortoise when he stretches his head out beyond his shell.

When Philip first met him to discuss terms of peace, and observed that Titus had come with a large suite, while he was alone, Titus answered, "You by your own act have made yourself lonely, by having killed all your friends and relations." Once at Rome Deinokrates the Messenian got drunk and danced in women's clothes, and on the next day begged Titus to assist him in his design of detaching Messenia from the Achæan league. Titus answered that he would consider the matter, but that he wondered that a man engaged in such important designs should sing and dance over his wine. When the ambassadors of Antiochus were telling the Achæans the number of the king's army and were enumerating the various forces of which it was composed under various designations, Titus remarked that when dining with his host he had been surprised at the variety of meats, and had expressed his wonder as to how he had been able to obtain so many different kinds; but his host informed him that it was all nothing more than pork disguised by various sauces and cooked in various ways. "So now," continued he, "men of Achæa, do not be alarmed at the power of Antiochus when you hear these catalogues of spearmen and lance-bearers and foot-guards; for they are all nothing more than Syrians disguised with different kind of arms."

XVIII. After the pacification of Greece and the end of the war with Antiochus, Flamininus was elected censor, which is the highest office at Rome, and is as it were the goal of political life. His colleague was Marcellus, the son of him that was five times consul. They ejected from the Senate four men of no reputation, and admitted into it all the candidates who were of free birth, being forced to do so by the tribune of the people Terentius Culeo, who by his invectives against the patricians had induced the people to pass a decree to that effect.

The two most prominent men in Rome at this time were Scipio Africanus and Marcus Cato. Of these Titus appointed Scipio to be President of the Senate, as being the first man in the state, but he quarrelled with Cato for the following reason. Titus had a brother, Lucius Flamininus, who was very unlike himself in disposition, being licentious in his pleasures and careless of his reputation. He had a favourite whom he always took with him even when he was in command of an army or governor of a province. This boy once at a wine party said that he was so greatly attached to Lucius, that he left a show of gladiators before he had seen a man killed, to please him. Lucius, delighted at this proof of affection, said, "That is easily remedied; I will gratify your wish." He ordered a condemned criminal to be brought, sent for the executioner, and bade him strike off the man's head in the banquetting chamber. Valerius of Antium says that Lucius did this to please a female, not a male favourite. But Livy says that in Cato's own speech on the subject we are told that Lucius, to gratify his favourite, slew with his own hand a Gaulish deserter who came with his wife and children to the door, and whom he had himself invited into the banquetting chamber. It is probable that Cato added these particulars to exaggerate the horror of the story, for Cicero the Orator, who gives the story in his book 'On Old Age,' and many other writers, say that the man was not a deserter, but a criminal, and condemned to death.

XIX. In consequence of this, Cato, when censor, removed Lucius from the Senate, although he was of consular rank, and although his degradation affected his brother as well as himself. Both of them now presented themselves before the people poorly clad and in tears, and appeared to be making a very reasonable demand in begging Cato to state the grounds upon which he had cast such ignominy upon an honourable family. Cato, however, not in the least affected by this, came forward with his colleague and publicly demanded of Titus whether he was acquainted with what happened at the banquet. When Titus answered that he knew nothing of it, Cato related the circumstances, challenging Lucius to contradict him if he spoke untruly. As Lucius remained silent, the people saw that his degradation had been deserved, and Cato retired in triumph. Titus, vexed at what had befallen his brother, now joined the party of Cato's enemies, objected to all purchases, lettings, and sales by the Senate of public property which had been made by Cato, and carried his point so far as to have them all declared void. Thus he, I cannot say justly, became the violent opponent of a legally constituted official and an excellent citizen, for the sake of a man who, though his brother, was a worthless character and had only met with his deserts. Nevertheless, on one occasion, when the Roman people were witnessing some spectacle in the theatre, the Senate, as is customary, sitting in the best place in great state, they were filled with compassion on seeing Lucius Flamininus sitting on the back benches in a mean dress, and the people became so excited that they could not restrain their cries to him to resume his former seat, until at length he did so, and was welcomed by the other consulars.

XX. The ambitious character of Titus gained him much glory, while he was in the prime of life, in the wars of which we have made mention: for after his consulship he again served in the army as military tribune; but when he retired from public life, being an elderly man, he often incurred the blame of his countrymen from his desire to distinguish himself. For instance, his conduct in regard to Hannibal made him much disliked at Rome. Hannibal after his escape from Carthage, joined king Antiochus, but when Antiochus, after his defeat in Phrygia, was glad to accept terms of peace from the Romans, he again became an exile, and after many wanderings, at length settled at the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia. Every one at Rome knew that he was there, but no one wished to meddle with him because of his age and weakness, as he appeared to be deserted by fortune. However, Titus was sent to Prusias on an embassy about certain other matters, and seeing Hannibal there took offence at his being alive, and would not accede to the prayers and entreaties of Prusias on behalf of his suppliant. There was, it seems, a certain oracle which ends with this verse:—

"Libyssa's earth shall cover Hannibal."

Now Hannibal himself took this to mean Libya, and that he should be buried at Carthage; but in Bithynia there is a shingly tract by the seashore near which is a large village named Libyssa, in which Hannibal was living. As he mistrusted the weakness of Prusias and feared the Romans, he had previously to this arranged seven ways of escape leading from his own room into different subterranean passages, all of which led into the open air by concealed apertures. When then he heard that Titus insisted upon his death he endeavoured to escape by one of those passages, but finding every outlet watched by the soldiers of Prusias he determined to die by his own hand. Some say that he destroyed himself by winding his cloak round his neck, and ordered a slave to place his knee in the small of his back and pull the cloak violently until he choked; while some tell us that he imitated Themistokles and Midas, by drinking bull's blood. Livy[36] says that he prepared some poison which he kept by him ready for such an emergency, and that as he was about to drink it he said:—"Let us set the Roman people free from their terrible anxiety, since they think it long to wait for the death of the old man whom they hate. However, Titus will not gain a glorious victory, or one worthy of his ancestors, who sent to bid Pyrrhus beware of poison, although he was their enemy and actually at war with them."

XXI. Thus is Hannibal said to have perished. When the news was brought to the Senate many thought that Titus had acted officiously and cruelly in putting Hannibal to death, when he was living unharmed and helpless, merely in order to obtain the credit of having killed him. When they reflected upon the mildness and magnanimity of Scipio Africanus they wondered yet more, for Scipio, after vanquishing the terrible and unconquered Hannibal in Libya, did not drive him into exile, or insist upon his countrymen delivering him up. He actually met him on friendly terms before the battle, and when he made a treaty with him after his victory he did not bear himself unseemly or insult his rival's misfortune. It is related that they met again in Ephesus, and that as they walked together Hannibal took the place of honour, while Africanus walked contentedly beside him. Their conversation turned upon great generals, and when Hannibal stated his opinion that the best of generals was Alexander, next to him Pyrrhus, and next himself, Scipio, with a quiet smile, asked him: "What would you have said, if I had not conquered you?" "In that case, Scipio," answered Hannibal, "I should not have reckoned myself third but first of generals." The people remembering this cried shame upon Titus, for having laid hands upon a man whom another had slain.[37] Some few, however, praised the deed, thinking that Hannibal, as long as he lived, was a fire which might easily be fanned into a destructive conflagration. They pointed out that even when he was in the prime of life it was not his bodily strength or personal prowess that made him so terrible to the Romans, but his intellect and skill, together with his inveterate hatred of Rome, none of which had been diminished by age, but that his natural gifts remained the same, while also fortune was wont to change, and so those who had any permanent cause of enmity with another nation were ever encouraged by hopes of success to make new attacks. Indeed subsequent events seemed to prove Titus right, as Aristonikus, the son of the harp-player, in his admiration for Eumenes, filled the whole of Asia with revolt and revolution, while Mithridates, after his tremendous losses at the hands of Sulla and Fimbria, again gathered together such great forces both by land and sea to oppose Lucullus. Yet Hannibal did not fall so low as Caius Marius. The former was to the last the friend of a king, and spent his time in sailing in ships, riding on horseback, and in the study of how to keep a military force efficient; whereas the Romans, who had laughed Marius to scorn as he wandered a beggar in Africa, soon licked the dust before him while he flogged and slaughtered them in Rome. Thus no one of our present circumstances can be said to be either important or trifling, great or small, in comparison with what is to come, but we only cease to change when we cease to exist.