25. This year the Roman games were exhibited in the circus, and on the stage, by the curule aediles, Publius Cornelius Scipio and Cneius Manlius Vulso, with an unusual degree of splendour, and were beheld with the greater delight, in consequence of the late successes in war. They were thrice repeated entire, and the plebeian games seven times. These were exhibited by Manius Acilius Glabrio and Caius Laelius, who also, out of the money arising from fines, erected three brazen statues, to Ceres, Liber, and Libera. Lucius Furius and Marcus Claudius Marcellus, having entered on the consulship, when the distribution of the provinces came to be agitated, and the senate appeared disposed to vote Italy the province of both, exerted themselves to get that of Macedonia put to the lot along with Italy. Marcellus, who of the two was the more eager for that province, by assertions that the peace was merely a feigned and delusive one, and that, if the army were withdrawn thence, the king would renew the war, caused some perplexity in the minds of the senate. The consuls would probably have carried the point, had not Quintus Marcius Rex and Caius Antinius Labeo, plebeian tribunes, declared, that they would enter their protest, unless they were allowed, before any further proceeding, to take the sense of the people, whether it was their will and order that peace be concluded with Philip. This question was put to the people in the Capitol, and every one of the thirty-five tribes voted on the affirmative side. The public found the greater reason to rejoice at the ratification of the peace with Macedonia, as melancholy news was brought from Spain; and a letter was made public, announcing that "the proconsul, Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, had been defeated in battle in the Hither Spain; that his army had been utterly routed and dispersed, and several men of distinction slain in the fight. That Tuditanus, having been grievously wounded, and carried out of the field, expired soon after." Italy was decreed the province of both consuls, in which they were to employ the same legions which the preceding consuls had; and they were to raise four new legions, two for the city, and two to be in readiness to be sent whithersoever the senate should direct. Titus Quinctius Flamininus was ordered to continue in the government of his province, with the army of two legions, then on the spot. The former prolongation of his command was deemed sufficient.

26. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces. Lucius Apustius Fullo obtained the city jurisdiction; Manius Acilius Glabrio, that between natives and foreigners; Quintus Fabius Buteo, Farther Spain; Quintus Minucius Thermus, Hither Spain; Caius Laelius, Sicily; Tiberius Sempronius Longus, Sardinia. To Quintus Fabius Buteo and Quintus Minucius, to whom the government of the two Spains had fallen, it was decreed, that the consuls, out of the four legions raised by them, should give one each whichever they thought fit, together with four thousand foot and three hundred horse of the allies and Latin confederates; and those praetors were ordered to repair to their provinces at the earliest possible time. This war in Spain broke out in the fifth year after the former had been ended, together with the Punic war. The Spaniards now, for the first time, had taken arms in their own name, unconnected with any Carthaginian army or general. Before the consuls stirred from the city, however, they were ordered, as usual, to expiate the reported prodigies. Publius Villius, a Roman knight, on the road to Sabinia, had been killed by lightning, together with his horse. The temple of Feronia, in the Capenatian district, had been struck by lightning. At the temple of Moneta, the shafts of two spears had taken fire and burned. A wolf, coming in through the Esquiline gate, and running through the most frequented part of the city, down into the forum, passed thence through the Tuscan and Maelian streets; and scarcely receiving a stroke, made its escape out of the Capenian gate. These prodigies were expiated with victims of the larger kinds.

27. About the same time Cneius Cornelius Lentulus, who had held the government of Hither Spain before Sempronius Tuditanus, entered the city in ovation, pursuant to a decree of the senate, and carried in the procession one thousand five hundred and fifteen pounds' weight of gold, twenty thousand of silver; and in coin, thirty-four thousand five hundred and fifty denarii.[1] Lucius Stretinius, from the Farther Spain, without making any pretensions to a triumph, carried into the treasury fifty thousand pounds' weight of silver; and out of the spoils taken, built two arches in the cattle-market, at the fronts of the temple of Fortune and Mother Matuta, and one in the great Circus; and on these arches placed gilded statues. These were the principal occurrences during the winter. At this time Quinctius was in winter quarters at Elatia. Among many requests, made to him by the allies, was that of the Boeotians, namely, that their countrymen, who had served in the army with Philip, might be restored to them. With this Quinctius readily complied; not because he thought them very deserving, but that, as king Antiochus was already suspected, he judged it advisable to conciliate every state in favour of the Roman interest. It quickly appeared how very little gratitude existed among the Boeotians; for they not only sent persons to give thanks to Philip for the restoration of their fellows, as if that favour had been conferred on them by him, and not by Quinctius and the Romans; but, at the next election, raised to the office of Boeotarch a man named Brachyllas, for no other reason than because he had been commander of the Boeotians serving in the army of Philip; passing by Zeuxippus, Pisistratus, and the others, who had promoted the alliance with Rome. These men were both offended at the present and alarmed about the future consequences: for if such things were done when a Roman army lay almost at their gates, what would become of them when the Romans should have gone away to Italy, and Philip, from a situation so near, should support his own associates, and vent his resentment on those who had been of the opposite party?

[Footnote 1: 1115l. 13s. 3-1/2d.]

28. It was resolved, while they had the Roman army near at hand, to take off Brachyllas, who was the principal leader of the faction which favoured the king; and they chose an opportunity for the deed, when, after having been at a public feast, he was returning to his house inebriated, and accompanied by some of his debauched companions, who, for the sake of merriment, had been admitted to the crowded entertainment. He was surrounded and assassinated by six men, of whom three were Italians and three Aetolians. His companions fled, crying out for help; and a great uproar ensued among the people, who ran up and down, through all parts of the city, with lights; but the assassins made their escape through the nearest gate. At the first dawn, a full assembly was called together in the theatre, by the voice of a crier, as if in consequence of a previous appointment. Many openly clamoured that Brachyllas was killed by those detestable wretches who accompanied him; but their private conjectures pointed to Zeuxippus, as author of the murder. It was resolved, however, that those who had been in company with him should be seized and examined in their presence. While they were under examination, Zeuxippus, with his usual composure, came into the assembly, for the purpose of averting the charge from himself; yet said, that people were mistaken in supposing that so daring a murder was the act of such effeminate wretches as those who were charged with it, urging many plausible arguments to the same purpose. By which behaviour he led several to believe, that, if he were conscious of guilt, he would never have presented himself before the multitude, or, without being challenged by any, have made any mention of the murder. Others were convinced that he intended, by thus unblushingly exposing himself to the charge, to throw off all suspicion from himself. Soon after, those men who were innocent were put to the torture; and, taking the universal opinion as having the effect of evidence, they named Zeuxippus and Pisistratus; but they produced no proof to show that they knew any thing of the matter. Zeuxippus, however, accompanied by a man named Stratonidas, fled by night to Tanagra; alarmed by his own conscience rather than by the assertion of men who were privy to no one circumstance of the affair. Pisistratus, despising the informers, remained at Thebes. A slave of Zeuxippus had carried messages backwards and forwards, and had been intrusted with the management of the whole business. From this man Pisistratus dreaded a discovery; and by that very dread forced him, against his will, to make one. He sent a letter to Zeuxippus, desiring him to "put out of the way the slave who was privy to their crime; for he did not believe him as well qualified for the concealment of the fact as he was for the perpetration of it." He ordered the bearer of this letter to deliver it to Zeuxippus as soon as possible; but he, not finding an opportunity of meeting him, put it into the hands of the very slave in question, whom he believed to be the most faithful to his master of any; and added, that it came from Pisistratus respecting a matter of the utmost consequence to Zeuxippus. Struck by consciousness of guilt, the slave after promising to deliver the letter, immediately opened it; and, on reading the contents, fled in a fright to Thebes and laid the information before the magistrate. Zeuxippus, alarmed by the flight of his slave, withdrew to Athens, where he thought he might live in exile with greater safety. Pisistratus, after being examined several times by torture, was put to death.

29. This murder exasperated the Thebans, and all the Boeotians, to the most rancorous animosity against the Romans, for they considered that Zeuxippus, one of the first men of the nation, had not been party to such a crime without the instigation of the Roman general. To recommence a war, they had neither strength nor a leader; but they had recourse to private massacres, as being next to war, and cut off many of the soldiers, some as they came to lodge in their houses, others as they wandered about their winter quarters, or were on leave of absence for various purposes. Some were killed on the roads by parties lying in wait in lurking-places; others were seduced and carried away to inns, which were left uninhabited, and there put to death. At last they committed these crimes, not merely out of hatred, but likewise from a desire of booty; for the soldiers on furlough generally carried money in their purses for the purpose of trading. At first a few at a time, afterwards greater numbers used to be missed, until all Boeotia became notorious for those practices, and a soldier went beyond the bounds of the camp with more timidity than into an enemy's country. Quinctius then sent deputies round the states, to make inquiry concerning the murders committed. The greatest number of murders were found to have been committed about the lake called Copais; there the bodies were dug out of the mud, and drawn up out of the marsh, having had earthen jars or stones tied to them, so as to be dragged to the bottom by the weight. Many deeds of this sort were discovered to have been perpetrated at Acrphia and Coronea. Quinctius at first insisted that the persons guilty should be given up to him, and that, for five hundred soldiers, (for so many had been cut off,) the Botians should pay five hundred talents.[1] Neither of these requisitions being complied with, and the states only making verbal apologies, declaring, that none of those acts had been authorized by the public; Quinctius first sent ambassadors to Athens and Achaia, to satisfy the allies, that the war which he was about to make on the Botians was conformable to justice and piety; and then, ordering Publius Claudius to march with one-half of the troops to Acrphia, he himself, with the remainder, invested Coronea; and these two bodies' marching by different roads from Elatia, laid waste all the country through which they passed. The Botians, dismayed by these losses, while every place was filled with fugitives, and while the terror became universal, sent ambassadors to the camp; and as these were refused admittance, the Achaeans and Athenians came to their assistance. The Achaeans had the greater influence as intercessors; inasmuch as they were resolved, in case they could not procure peace for the Botians, to join them in the war. Through the mediation of the Achaeans, however, the Botians obtained admission and an audience of the Roman general; who, ordering them to deliver up the guilty, and to pay thirty talents[2] as a fine, granted them peace, and raised the siege.

[Footnote 1: 96,875l.]

[Footnote 2: 5821l. 10s.]

30. A few days after this, the ten ambassadors arrived from Rome, in pursuance of whose counsel, peace was granted to Philip on the following conditions: "That all the Grecian states, as well those in Asia as those in Europe, should enjoy liberty, and their own laws: That from such of them as had been in the possession of Philip, he should withdraw his garrisons, particularly from the following places in Asia; Euromus, Pedasi, Bargylii, Iassus, Myrina, Abydus; and from Thasus and Perinthus, for it was determined that these likewise should be free: That with respect to the freedom of Cius, Quinctius should write to Prusias, king of Bithynia, the resolutions of the senate, and of the ten ambassadors: That Philip should return to the Romans the prisoners and deserters, and deliver up all his decked ships, excepting five and the royal galley,—of a size almost unmanageable, being moved by sixteen banks of oars: That he should not keep more than five hundred soldiers, nor any elephant: That he should not wage war beyond the bounds of Macedonia without permission from the senate: That he should pay to the Roman people one thousand talents:[1] one half at present, the other by instalments, within ten years." Valerius Antias writes, that there was imposed on him an annual tribute of four thousand pounds' weight of silver, for ten years, and an immediate payment of twenty thousand pounds' weight. The same author says that an article was expressly inserted, that he should not make war on Eumenes, Attalus's son, who had lately come to the throne. For the performance of these conditions hostages were received, among whom was Demetrius, Philip's son. Valerius Antias adds, that the island of Aegina, and the elephants, were given as a present to Attalus, who was absent; to the Rhodians, Stratonice, and other cities of Caria which had been in the possession of Philip; and to the Athenians, the islands of Paros, Imbros, Delos, and Scyros.

[Footnote 1: 193,750l.]

31. While all the other states of Greece expressed their approbation of these terms of peace, the Aetolians alone, in private murmurs, made severe strictures on the determination of the ten ambassadors. They said, "it consisted merely of an empty piece of writing varnished over with a fallacious appearance of liberty. For why should some cities be put into the hands of the Romans without being named, while others were particularized, and ordered to be enfranchised without such consignment; unless the intent was, that those in Asia, which, from their distant situation, were more secure from danger, should be free; but those in Greece, not being even mentioned by name, should be made their property: Corinth, Chalcis, and Oreum; with Eretria, and Demetrias." Nor was this charge entirely without foundation: for there was some hesitation with respect to Corinth, Chalcis, and Demetrias; because, in the decree of the senate in pursuance of which the ten ambassadors had been sent from Rome, all Greece and Asia, except these three, were expressly ordered to be set at liberty; but, with regard to these, ambassadors were instructed, that, whatever measures the exigencies of the state might render expedient, they should determine to pursue in conformity to the public good and their own honour. King Antiochus was one of whom they did not doubt that, so soon as he was satisfied that his forces were adequate, he would cross over into Europe; and they were unwilling to let these cities, the possession of which would be so advantageous to him, lie open to his occupation. Quinctius, with the ten ambassadors, sailed from Elatia to Anticyra, and thence to Corinth. Here the plans they had laid down respecting the liberation of Greece were discussed for about three days in a council of the ten ambassadors. Quinctius frequently urged, that "every part of Greece ought to be set at liberty, if they wished to refute the cavils of the Aetolians; if they wished, that sincere affection and respect for the Roman nation should be universally entertained; or if they wished to convince the world that they had crossed the sea with the design of liberating Greece, and not of transferring the sovereignty of it from Philip to themselves." The Macedonians alleged nothing in opposition to the arguments made use of in favour of the freedom of the cities; but "they thought it safer for those cities themselves that they should remain, for a time, under the protection of Roman garrisons, than be obliged to receive Antiochus for a master in the room of Philip." Their final determination was, that "Corinth be restored to the Achaeans, but that a Roman garrison should continue in the citadel; and that Chalcis and Demetrias be retained, until their apprehensions respecting Antiochus should cease."

32. The stated solemnity of the Isthmian games was at hand. These have ever been attended by very numerous meetings, as well on account of the universal fondness entertained by this nation for exhibitions of skill in arts of every kind, as well as of contests in strength and swiftness of foot; as also, because of the convenience of the locality, which furnishes commercial advantages of all kinds by its two opposite seas, and by which it had obtained the character of a rendezvous for all the population of Asia and Greece. But on this occasion, all were led thither not only for their ordinary purposes, but by an eager curiosity to learn what was thenceforward to be the state of Greece, and what their own condition; while many at the same time not only formed opinions within themselves but uttered their conjectures in conversation. Scarcely any supposed that the Romans, victorious as they were, would withdraw from the whole of Greece. They took their seats, as spectators; and a herald, preceded by a trumpeter, according to custom, advanced into the centre of the theatre, where notice of the commencement of the games is usually made, in a solemn form of words. Silence being commanded by sound of trumpet, he uttered aloud the following proclamation: THE SENATE AND PEOPLE OF ROME, AND TITUS QUINCTIUS, THEIR GENERAL, HAVING SUBDUED KING PHILIP AND THE MACEDONIANS, DO HEREBY ORDER, THAT THE FOLLOWING STATES BE FREE, INDEPENDENT, AND RULED BY THEIR OWN LAWS: THE CORINTHIANS, PHOCIANS, AND ALL THE LOCRIANS; THE ISLAND OF EUBOEA, AND THE MAGNESIANS; THE THESSALIANS, PERRHAEBIANS, AND THE ACHAEANS OF PHTHIOTIS. He then read a list of all the states which had been under subjection to king Philip. The joy occasioned by hearing these words of the herald was so great, that the people's minds were unable to conceive the matter at once. Scarcely could they believe that they had heard them; and they looked at each other, marvelling as at the empty illusion of a dream. Each inquired of his neighbours about what immediately concerned himself, altogether distrusting the evidence of his own ears. As everyone desired not only to hear, but to see the messenger of liberty, the herald was called out again; and he again repeated the proclamation. When they were thus assured of the reality of the joyful tidings, they raised such a shout, and clapping of hands, and repeated them so often, as clearly to show that of all blessings none is more grateful to the multitude than liberty. The games were then proceeded through with hurry; for neither the thoughts nor eyes of any attended to the exhibitions, so entirely had the single passion of joy pre-occupied their minds, as to exclude the sense of all other pleasures.

33. But, when the games were finished, every one eagerly passed towards the Roman general; so that by the crowd rushing to one spot, all wishing to come near him, and to touch his right hand, and throwing garlands and ribands, he was in some degree of danger. He was then about thirty-three years of age; and besides the vigour of youth, the grateful sensations excited by so eminent a harvest of glory, increased his strength. Nor was the general exultation exhausted in the presence of all the assembly, but, through the space of many days, was continually revived by sentiments and expressions of gratitude. "There was a nation in the world," they said, "which, at its own expense, with its own labour, and at its own risk, waged wars for the liberty of others. And this was performed, not merely for contiguous states, or near neighbours, or for countries that made parts of the same continent; but they even crossed the seas for the purpose, that no unlawful power should subsist on the face of the whole earth; but that justice, right, and law should every where have sovereign sway. By one sentence, pronounced by a herald all the cities of Greece and Asia had been set at liberty. To have conceived hopes of this, argued a daring spirit; to have carried it into effect, was a proof of the most consummate bravery and good fortune."

34. Quinctius and the ten ambassadors then gave audience to the embassies of the several kings, nations, and states. First of all, the ambassadors of king Antiochus were called. Their proceedings, here, were nearly the same as at Rome; a mere display of words unsupported by facts. But the answer given them was not ambiguous as formerly, during the uncertainty of affairs, and while Philip was unsubdued; for the king was required in express terms to evacuate the cities of Asia, which had been in possession either of Philip or Ptolemy; not to meddle with the free cities, or ever take arms against them, and to be in a state of peace and equality with all the cities of Greece wherever they might be. Above all it was insisted on, that he should neither come himself into Europe, nor transport an army thither. The king's ambassadors being dismissed, a general convention of the nations and states was immediately held; and the business was despatched with the greater expedition, because the resolutions of the ten ambassadors mentioned the several states by name. To the people of Orestis, a district of Macedonia, in consideration of their having been the first who came over from the side of the king, their own laws were granted. The Magnesians, Perrhaebians, and Dolopians were likewise declared free. To the nation of the Thessalians, besides the enjoyment of liberty, the Achaean part of Phthiotis was granted, excepting Phthiotian Thebes and Pharsalus. The Aetolians, demanding that Pharsalus and Leucas should be restored to them in conformity to the treaty, were referred to the senate: but the council united to these, by authority of a decree, Phocis and Locris, places which had formerly been annexed to them. Corinth, Triphylia, and Heraea, another city of Peloponnesus, were restored to the Achaeans. The ten ambassadors were inclined to give Oreum and Eretria to king Eumenes, son of Attalus; but Quinctius dissenting, the matter came under the determination of the senate, and the senate declared those cities free; adding to them Carystus. Lycus and Parthinia, Illyrian states, each of which had been under subjection to Philip, were given to Pleuratus. Amynander was ordered to retain possession of the forts, which he had taken from Philip during the war.

35. When the convention broke up, the ten ambassadors, dividing the business among them, set out by different routes to give liberty to the several cities within their respective districts. Publius Lentulus went to Bargylii; Lucius Stertinius, to Hephaestia, Thasus, and the cities of Thrace; Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius to king Antiochus; and Cneius Cornelius to Philip. The last of these, after executing his commission with respect to smaller matters, asked Philip, whether he was disposed to listen to advice, not only useful but highly salutary. To which the king answered that he was, and would give him thanks besides, if he mentioned any thing conducive to his advantage. He then earnestly recommended to him, since he had obtained peace with the Romans, to send ambassadors to Rome to solicit their alliance and friendship; lest, in case of Antiochus pursuing any hostile measure, he might be suspected of having lain in wait and seized the opportunity of the times for reviving hostilities. This meeting with Philip was at Tempe in Thessaly; and on his answering that he would send ambassadors without delay, Cornelius proceeded to Thermopylae, where all the states of Greece are accustomed to meet in general assembly on certain stated days. This is called the Pylaic assembly. Here he admonished the Aetolians, in particular, constantly and firmly to cultivate the friendship of the Roman people; but some of the principal of these interrupted him with complaints, that the disposition of the Romans towards their nation was not the same since the victory, that it had been during the war; while others censured them with greater boldness, and in a reproachful manner asserted, that "without the aid of the Aetolians, the Romans could neither have conquered Philip, nor even have made good their passage into Greece." To such discourses the Roman forbore giving an answer, lest the matter might end in an altercation, and only said, that if they sent ambassadors to Rome, every thing that was reasonable would be granted to them. Accordingly, they passed a decree for such mission, agreeably to his direction.—In this manner was the war with Philip concluded.

36. While these transactions passed in Greece, Macedonia, and Asia, a conspiracy among the slaves had well nigh made Etruria an hostile province. To examine into and suppress this, Manius Acilius the praetor, whose province was the administration of justice between natives and foreigners, was sent at the head of one of the two city legions. A number of them, who were by this time formed in a body, he reduced by force of arms, killing and taking many. Some, who had been the ringleaders of the conspiracy, he scourged with rods and then crucified; some he returned to their masters. The consuls repaired to their provinces. Just as Marcellus entered the frontiers of the Boians, and while his men were fatigued with marching the whole length of the day, and as he was pitching his camp on a rising ground, Corolam, a chieftain of the Boians, attacked him with a very numerous force, and slew three thousand of his men: several persons of distinction fell in that tumultuary engagement; amongst others, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Marcus Junius Silanus, praefects of the allies; and Aulus Ogulnius and Publius Claudius, military tribunes in the second legion. The Romans, not withstanding, had courage enough to finish the fortification of their camp, and to defend it, in spite of an assault made on it by the enemy, elated by their success in the field. Marcellus remained for some time in the same post, until he could tend the wounded, and revive the spirits of his men after such a disheartening blow. The Boians, a nation remarkably impatient of delay, and quickly disgusted at a state of inaction, separated, and withdrew to their several forts and villages. Marcellus then, suddenly crossing the Po, led his legions into the territory of Comum, where the Insubrians, after rousing the people of the country to arms, lay encamped. The fierce Boian Gauls attacked him on his march, and they first onset was so vigorous, as to make a considerable impression on his van. On perceiving which, and fearing lest, if his men once gave way, they would be dislodged, he brought up a cohort of Marsians against the enemy, and ordered every troop of the Latin cavalry to charge them. The first and second charges of these having checked the enemy in their furious attack, the other troops in the Roman line, resuming courage, advanced briskly on the foe. The Gauls no longer maintained the contest, but turned their backs and fled in confusion. Valerius Antias relates, that in that battle above forty thousand men were killed, five hundred and seven military standards taken, with four hundred and thirty-two chariots, and a great number of gold chains, one of which, of great weight, Claudius says, was deposited as an offering to Jupiter, in his temple in the Capitol. The camp of the Gauls was taken and plundered the same day; and the town of Comum was reduced in a few days after. In a little time, twenty-eight forts came over to the consul. There is a doubt among writers, whether the consul led his legions first against the Boians, or against the Insubrians; so as to determine, whether the successful battle obliterated the disgrace of the defeat, or whether the victory obtained at Comum was tarnished by the disaster incurred among the Boii.

37. Soon after those matters had passed with such variety of fortune, Lucius Furius Purpureo, the other consul, came into the country of the Boians, through the Sappinian tribe. He proceeded almost to the fort of Mutilus, when, beginning to apprehend that he might be enclosed between the Boians and Ligurians, he marched back by the road by which he came; and, making a long circuit, through an open and therefore safe country, arrived at the camp of his colleague. After this junction of their forces, they overran the territory of the Boians, spreading devastation as far as the city of Felsina. This city, with the other fortresses, and almost all the Boians, excepting only the young men who kept arms in their hands for the sake of plunder, and had at that time withdrawn into remote woods, made submission. The army was then led away against the Ligurians. The Boians thought that the Romans, as they were supposed to be at a great distance, would be the more careless in keeping their army together, and thereby afford an opportunity of attacking them unawares: with this expectation, they followed them by secret paths through the forests. They did not overtake them: and therefore, passing the Po suddenly in ships, they ravaged all the country of the Laevans and Libuans; whence, as they were returning with the spoil of the country, they fell in with the Roman army on the borders of Liguria. A battle was begun with more speed, and with greater fury, than if the parties had met with their minds prepared, and at an appointed time and place. On this occasion it appeared to what degree of violence anger can stimulate men; for the Romans fought with such a desire of slaughter, rather than of victory, that they scarcely left one of the enemy to carry the news of their defeat. On account of these successes, when the letters of the consuls were brought to Rome, a supplication for three days was decreed. Soon after, Marcellus came to Rome, and had a triumph decreed him by an unanimous vote of the senate. He triumphed, while in office, over the Insubrians and Comans. The prospect of a triumph over the Boians he left to his colleague, because his own arms had been unfortunate in that country; those of his colleague, successful. Large quantities of spoils, taken from the enemy, were carried in the procession in captured chariots, and many military standards; also, three hundred and twenty thousand asses of brass,[1] two hundred and thirty-four thousand of silver denarii,[2] stamped with a chariot. Eighty asses[3] were bestowed on each foot soldier, and thrice that value on each horseman and centurion.

[Footnote 1: 1033l. 6s. 8d.]

[Footnote 2: 2331l. 2s. 6d.]

[Footnote 3: 5s. 2-1/4d.]

38. During that year, king Antiochus, after having spent the winter at Ephesus, took measures for reducing, under his dominion, all the cities of Asia, which had formerly been members of the empire. As to the rest, being either situated in plains, or having neither walls, arms, nor men in whom they could confide, he supposed they would, without difficulty, receive the yoke. But Smyrna and Lampsacus openly asserted their independence: yet there was a danger that if what they claimed were conceded to these, the rest of the cities in Aetolia and Ionia would follow the example of Smyrna; and those on the Hellespont that of Lampsacus. Wherefore he sent an army from Ephesus to invest Smyrna; and ordered the troops, which were at Abydos, to leave there only a small garrison, and to go and lay siege to Lampsacus. Nor did he only alarm them by an exhibition of force. By sending ambassadors, to make gentle remonstrances, and reprove the rashness and obstinacy of their conduct, he endeavoured to give them hopes that they might soon obtain the object of their wishes; but not until it should appear clearly, both to themselves and to all the world, that they had gained their liberty through the kindness of the king, and not by any violent efforts of their own. In answer to which, they said, that "Antiochus ought neither to be surprised nor displeased, if they did not very patiently suffer the establishment of their liberty to be deferred to a distant period." He himself, with his fleet, set sail from Ephesus in the beginning of spring, and steered towards the Hellespont. His army he transported to Madytus, a city in the Chersonese, and there joined his land and sea forces together. The inhabitants having shut their gates, he surrounded the walls with his troops; and when he was just bringing up his machines to the walls, a capitulation was entered into. This diffused such fear through the inhabitants of Sestus and the other cities of the Chersonese, as induced them to submit. He then came, with the whole of his united forces, by land and sea, to Lysimachia; which finding deserted, and almost buried in ruins, (for the Thracians had, a few years before, taken, sacked, and burned it,) he conceived a wish to rebuild a city so celebrated, and so commodiously situated. Accordingly, extending his care to every object at once, he set about repairing the walls and houses, ransomed some of the Lysimachians who were in captivity, sought out and brought home others, who had fled and dispersed themselves through the Chersonese and Hellespontus, enrolled new colonists, whom he invited by prospects of advantages, and used every means to repeople it fully. At the same time, that all fear of the Thracians might be removed, he went, in person, with one half of the land forces, to lay waste the nearest provinces of Thrace; leaving the other half, and all the crews of the ships, employed in the repairs of the city.

39. About this time Lucius Cornelius, who had been commissioned by the senate to accommodate the differences between the kings Antiochus and Ptolemy, stopped at Selymbria; and, of the ten ambassadors, Publius Lentulus from Bargylii, and Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius from Thasus, came to Lysimachia. Hither came, likewise, Lucius Cornelius from Selymbria, and a few days after Antiochus from Thrace. His first meeting with the ambassadors, and an invitation which he afterwards gave them, were friendly and hospitable; but when the business intrusted to them and the present state of Asia, came to be treated of, the minds of both parties were exasperated. The Romans did not scruple to declare, that every one of his proceedings, from the time when he set sail from Syria, was displeasing to the senate; and they required restitution to be made, to Ptolemy, of all the cities which had been under his dominion. "For, as to what related to the cities which had been in the possession of Philip, and which Antiochus, taking advantage of a season when Philip's attention was turned to the war with Rome, had seized into his own hands, it would surely be an intolerable hardship, if the Romans were to have undergone such toils and dangers, on land and sea, for so many years, and Antiochus to appropriate to himself the prizes of the war. But, though his coming into Asia might be passed over unnoticed by the Romans, as a matter not pertaining to them, yet when he proceeded so far as to pass over into Europe with all his land and naval forces, how much was this short of open war with the Romans? Doubtless, had he even passed into Italy, he would deny that intention. But the Romans would not wait to give him an opportunity of doing so."

40. To this the king replied, that "he wondered how it was, that the Romans were in the habit of diligently inquiring what ought to be done by king Antiochus; but never considered how far they themselves ought to advance on land or sea. Asia was no concernment of the Romans, in any shape; nor had they any more right to inquire what Antiochus did in Asia, than Antiochus had to inquire what the Roman people did in Italy. With respect to Ptolemy, from whom they complained that cities had been taken, there was a friendly connexion subsisting between him and Ptolemy, and he was taking measures to effect speedily a connexion of affinity also; neither had he sought to acquire any spoils from the misfortunes of Philip, nor had he come into Europe against the Romans, but to recover the cities and lands of the Chersonese, which, having been the property of Lysimachus,[1] he considered as part of his own dominion; because, when Lysimachus was subdued, all things belonging to him became, by the right of conquest, the property of Seleucus. That, at times, when his predecessors were occupied by cares of different kinds, Ptolemy first, and afterwards Philip, usurping the rights of others, possessed themselves of several of these places, but who could doubt that the Chersonese and the nearest parts of Thrace belonged to Lysimachus? To restore these to their ancient state, was the intent of his coming, and to build Lysimachia anew, (it having been destroyed by an inroad of the Thracians,) in order that his son, Seleucus, might have it for the seat of his empire."

[Footnote 1: Here is a chasm in the original, which is supplied from Polybius.]

41. These disputes had been carried on for several days, when a rumour reached them, but without any sufficiently certain authority, that Ptolemy was dead; which prevented the conferences coming to any issue: for both parties made a secret of their having heard it; and Lucius Cornelius, who was charged with the embassy to the two kings, Antiochus and Ptolemy, requested to be allowed a short space of time, in which he could have a meeting with the latter; because he wished to arrive in Egypt before any change of measures should take place in consequence of the new succession to the crown: while Antiochus believed that Egypt would be his own, if at that time he should take possession of it. Wherefore, having dismissed the Romans, and left his son Seleucus, with the land forces, to finish the rebuilding of Lysimachia, as he had intended to do, he sailed, with his whole fleet, to Ephesus; sent ambassadors to Quinctius to treat with him about an alliance, assuring him that the king would attempt no innovations, and then, coasting along the shore of Asia, proceeded to Lycia. Having learned at Patarae that Ptolemy was living, he dropped the design of sailing to Egypt, but nevertheless steered towards Cyprus; and, when he had passed the promontory of Chelidonium, was detained some little time in Pamphylia, near the river Eurymedon, by a mutiny among his rowers. When he had sailed thence as far as the headlands, as they are called, of Sarus, such a dreadful storm arose as almost buried him and his whole fleet in the deep. Many ships were broken to pieces, and many cast on shore; many swallowed so entirely in the sea, that not one man of their crews escaped to land. Great numbers of his men perished on this occasion; not only persons of mean rank, rowers and soldiers, but even of his particular friends in high stations. When he had collected the relics of the general wreck, being in no capacity of making an attempt on Cyprus, he returned to Seleucia, with a far less numerous force than he had set out with. Here he ordered the ships to be hauled ashore, for the winter was now at hand, and proceeded to Antioch, where he intended to pass the winter.—In this posture stood the affairs of the kings.

42. At Rome, in this year, for the first time, were created offices called triumviri epulones;[1] these were Caius Licinius Lucullus, who, as tribune, had proposed the law for their creation, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Laeca. These triumvirs, as well as the pontiffs, were allowed by law the privilege of wearing the purple-bordered gown. The body of the pontiffs had this year a warm dispute with the city quaestors, Quintus Fabius Labeo and Lucius Aurelius. Money was wanted; an order having been passed for making the last payment to private persons of that which had been raised for the support of the war; and the quaestors demanded it from the augurs and pontiffs, because they had not contributed their share while the war subsisted. The priests in vain appealed to the tribunes; and the contribution was exacted for every year in which they had not paid. During the same year two pontiffs died, and others were substituted in their room: Marcus Marcellus, the consul, in the room of Caius Sempronius Tuditanus, who had been a praetor in Spain; and Lucius Valerius, in the room of Marcus Cornelius Cethegus. An augur also, Quintius Fabius Maximus, died very young, before he had attained to any public office; but no augur was appointed in his place during that year. The consular election was then held by the consul Marcellus. The persons chosen were, Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius Cato. Then were elected praetors, Caius Fabricius Luscinus, Caius Atinius Labeo, Cneius Manlius Vulso, Appius Claudius Nero, Publius Manlius, and Publius Porcius Laeca. The curule aediles, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Caius Flaminius, made a distribution to the people of one million pecks of wheat, at the price of two asses. This corn the Sicilians had brought to Rome, out of respect to Caius Flaminius and his father; and he gave share of the credit to his colleague. The Roman games were solemnized with magnificence, and exhibited thrice entire. The plebeian aediles, Cneius Domitius Aenobarbus and Caius Scribonius, chief curio, brought many farmers of the public pastures to trial before the people. Three of these were convicted; and out of the money accruing from fines imposed on them, they built a temple of Faunus in the island. The plebeian games were exhibited for two days, and there was a feast on occasion of the games.

[Footnote 1: It was their office to regulate the feasts of the gods.]

43. Lucius Valerius Flaccus and Marcus Porcius, on the ides of March, the day of their entering into office, consulted the senate respecting the provinces; who resolved, that "whereas the war in Spain was grown so formidable, as to require a consular army and commander; it was their opinion, therefore, that the consuls should either settle between themselves, or cast lots, for Hither Spain and Italy as their provinces. That he to whom Spain fell should carry with him two legions, five thousand of the Latin confederates, and five hundred horse; together with a fleet of twenty ships of war. That the other consul should raise two legions; for these would be sufficient to maintain tranquillity in the province of Gaul, as the spirits of the Insubrians and Boians had been broken the year before." The lots gave Spain to Cato, and Italy to Valerius. The praetors then cast lots for their provinces: to Caius Fabricius Luscinus fell the city jurisdiction; Caius Atinius Labeo obtained the foreign; Cneius Manlius Vulso, Sicily; Appius Claudius Nero, Farther Spain; Publius Porcius Laeca, Pisa, in order that he might be at the back of the Ligurians; and Publius Manlius was sent into Hither Spain, as an assistant to the consul. Quinctius was continued in command for the year, as apprehensions were entertained, not only of Antiochus and the Aetolians, but likewise of Nabis, tyrant of Lacedaemon; and it was ordered that he should have two legions, for which, if there was any necessity for a further supply, the consuls were ordered to raise recruits, and send them into Macedonia. Appius Claudius was permitted to raise, in addition to the legion which Quintius Fabius had commanded, two thousand foot and two hundred horse. The like number of new-raised foot and horse was assigned to Publius Manlius for Hither Spain; and the legion was given to him which had been under the command of Minucius, the praetor. To Publius Porcius Laeca, for Etruria, near Pisa, were decreed two thousand foot and five hundred horse, out of the army in Gaul. Sempronius Longus was continued in command in Sardinia.

44. The provinces being thus distributed, the consuls, before their departure from the city, were ordered, in accordance with a decree of the pontiffs, to proclaim a sacred spring, which Aulus Cornelius Mammula, praetor, had vowed in pursuance of a vote of the senate, and an order of the people, in the consulate of Cneius Servilius and Caius Flaminius. It was celebrated twenty-one years after the vow had been made. About the same time, Caius Claudius Pulcher, son of Appius, was chosen and inaugurated into the office of augur, in the room of Quintus Fabius Maximus, who died the year before. While people, in general, wondered that, though Spain had arisen in arms, they were neglecting the war, a letter was brought from Quintus Minucius, announcing "that he had fought a pitched battle with the Spanish generals, Budar and Besasis, near the town of Tura, and had gained the victory: that twelve thousand of the enemy were slain; their general, Budar, taken; and the rest routed and dispersed." After the reading of this letter less alarm prevailed with respect to Spain, where a very formidable war had been apprehended. The whole anxiety of the public was directed towards king Antiochus, especially after the arrival of the ten ambassadors. These, after relating the proceedings with Philip, and the conditions on which peace had been granted him, gave information, that "there still subsisted a war of no less magnitude to be waged with Antiochus; that he had come over into Europe with a very numerous fleet and a powerful army; that, had not a delusive prospect of an opportunity of invading Egypt, raised by a more delusive rumour, diverted him to another quarter, all Greece would have quickly been involved in the flames of war. Nor would even the Aetolians remain quiet, a race as well restless by nature as full of anger against the Romans. That, besides, there was another evil, of a most dangerous nature, lurking in the bowels of Greece: Nabis, tyrant at present of Lacedaemon, but who would soon if suffered, become tyrant of all Greece, equalling in avarice and cruelty all the tyrants most remarkable in history. For, if he were allowed to keep possession of Argos, which served as a citadel commanding the Peloponnesus, when the Roman armies should be brought home to Italy, Greece would have been in vain delivered out of bondage to Philip; because, instead of that king, who, supposing no other difference, resided at a distance, she would have for a master, a tyrant, close to her side."

45. On this intelligence being received from men of such respectable authority, and who had, besides, examined into all the matters which were reported, the senate, although they deemed the business relating to Antiochus the more important, yet, as the king had, for some reason or other, gone home into Syria, they thought that the affair respecting the tyrant ought to be more promptly attended to. After debating, for a long time, whether they should judge the grounds which they had at present sufficient whereon a declaration of war should be decreed, or whether they should empower Titus Quinctius to act, in the case respecting Nabis the Lacedaemonian, in such manner as he should judge conducive to the public interest; they left it in his hands. For they thought the business of such a nature, that whether expedited or delayed, it could not very materially affect the general interest of the Roman people. It was deemed more important to endeavour to discover what line of conduct Hannibal and the Carthaginians would pursue, in case of a war breaking out with Antiochus. Persons of the faction which opposed Hannibal wrote continually to their several friends, among the principal men in Rome, that "messages and letters were sent by Hannibal to Antiochus, and that envoys came secretly from the king to him. That, as some wild beasts can never be tamed, so the disposition of this man was irreclaimable and implacable. That he sometimes complained, that the state was debilitated by ease and indolence, and lulled by sloth into a lethargy, from which nothing could rouse it but the sound of arms." These accounts were deemed probable, when people recollected the former war, which had not more been carried on than at first set on foot by the efforts of that single man. Besides, he had by a recent act provoked the resentment of many men in power.

46. The order of judges possessed, at that time, absolute power in Carthage; and this was owing chiefly to their holding the office during life. The property, character, and life of every man was in their disposal. He who incurred the displeasure of one of that order, found an enemy in every one of them; nor were accusers wanting in a court where the justices were disposed to condemn. While they were in possession of this despotism, (for they did not exercise their exorbitant power constitutionally,) Hannibal was elected praetor and he summoned the quaestor before him. The quaestor disregarded the summons, for he was of the opposite faction; and besides, as the practice was that, after the quaestorship men were advanced into the order of judges, the most powerful of all, he already assumed a spirit suited to the powers which he was shortly to possess. Hannibal, highly offended Hereat, sent an officer to apprehend the quaestor; and, bringing him forth into an assembly of the people, he made heavy charges not against him alone, but on the whole order of judges; in consequence of whose arrogance and power neither the magistracy nor the laws availed any thing. Then perceiving that his discourse was with willing ears attended to, and that the conduct of those men was incompatible with the freedom of the lowest classes, he proposed a law, and procured it to be enacted, that the "judges should be elected annually; and that no person should hold the office two years successively." But, whatever degree of favour he acquired among the commons by this proceeding, he roused, in a great part of the nobility, an equal degree of resentment. To this he added another act, which, while it was for the advantage of the people, provoked personal enmity against himself. The public revenues were partly wasted through neglect, partly embezzled, and divided among some leading men and magistrates; insomuch, that there was not money sufficient for the regular annual payment of the tribute to the Romans, so that private persons seemed to be threatened with a heavy tax.

47. When Hannibal had informed himself of the amount of the revenues arising from taxes and port duties, for what purposes they were issued from the treasury, what proportion of them was consumed by the ordinary expenses of the state, and how much was alienated by embezzlement; he asserted in an assembly of the people, that if payment were enforced of the residuary funds, the taxes might be remitted to the subjects; and that the state would still be rich enough to pay the tribute to the Romans: which assertion he proved to be true. But now those persons who, for several years past, had maintained themselves by plundering the public, were greatly enraged; as if this were ravishing from them their own property, and not as dragging out of their hands their ill-gotten spoil. Accordingly, they instigated the Romans against Hannibal, who were seeking a pretext for indulging their hatred against him. A strenuous opposition was, however, for a long time made to this by Scipio Africanus, who thought it highly unbecoming the dignity of the Roman people to make themselves a party in the animosities and charges against Hannibal; to interpose the public authority among factions of the Carthaginians, not deeming it sufficient to have conquered that commander in the field, but to become as it were his prosecutors[1] in a judicial process, and preferring an action against him. Yet at length the point was carried, that an embassy should be sent to Carthage to represent to the senate there, that Hannibal, in concert with king Antiochus, was forming plans for kindling a war. Three ambassadors were sent, Caius Servilius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Quintus Terentius Culleo. These, when they had arrived at Carthage, by the advice of Hannibal's enemies, ordered, that any who inquired the cause of their coming should be told, that they came to determine the disputes subsisting between the Carthaginians and Masinissa, king of Numidia; and this was generally believed. But Hannibal was not ignorant that he was the sole object aimed at by the Romans; and that, though they had granted peace to the Carthaginians, their war against him, individually, remained irreconcilable. He therefore determined to give way to fortune and the times; and having already made every preparation for flight, he showed himself that day in the forum, in order to guard against suspicion; and, as soon as it grew dark, went in his common dress to one of the gates, with his two attendants, who knew nothing of his intention.

[Footnote 1: Subscribere actioni is to join the prosecutor as an assistant; and the prosecutors were obliged calumniam jurare, to swear that they did not carry on the prosecution through malice, or a vexatious design. Scipio, therefore, means to reprobate the interference of the Roman state, which could bring it into the situation of a common prosecutor in a court of justice.]

48. Finding horses in readiness at a spot where he had ordered, he traversed by night a district which the Africans denominated Byzacium, and arrived, in the morning of the following day, at a castle of his own between Acholla and Thapsus. There a ship, ready fitted out and furnished with rowers, took him on board. In this manner did Hannibal leave Africa, lamenting the misfortunes of his country oftener than his own. He sailed over, the same day, to the island of Cercina, where he found in the port a number of merchant ships, belonging to the Phoenicians, with their cargoes; and on landing was surrounded by a concourse of people, who came to pay their respects to him; on which he gave orders that, in answer to any inquiries, it should be said that he had been sent as ambassador to Tyre. Fearing, however, lest some of these ships might sail in the night to Thapsus or Adrumetum, and carry information of his having been seen at Cercina, he ordered a sacrifice to be prepared, and the masters of the ships, with the merchants, to be invited to the entertainment, and that the sails and yards should be collected out of the ships to form a shade on shore for the company at supper, as it happened to be the middle of summer. The feast of the day was as sumptuous, and well attended, as the time and circumstances allowed; and the entertainment was prolonged, with plenty of wine, until late in the night. As soon as Hannibal saw an opportunity of escaping the notice of those who were in the harbour, he set sail. The rest were fast asleep, nor was it early, next day, when they arose from their sleep, full of the illness of intoxication; and then, when it was too late, they set about replacing the sails in the ships, and fitting up the rigging, which employed several hours. At Carthage, those who were accustomed to visit Hannibal met in a crowd, at the porch of his house; and when it was publicly known that he was not to be found, the whole multitude assembled in the forum, eager to gain intelligence of the man who was considered as the first in the state. Some surmised that he had fled, as the case was; others, that he had been put to death through the treachery of the Romans; and there was visible in the expression of their countenances, that variety which might naturally be expected in a state divided into factions, whereof each supported a different interest. At length intelligence was brought, that he had been seen at Cercina.

49 The Roman ambassadors represented to the council, that "proof had been laid before the senate at Rome, that formerly king Philip had been moved, principally by the instigation of Hannibal, to make war on the Roman people; and that lately, Hannibal had, besides, sent letters and messages to king Antiochus, that he had entered into plans for driving Carthage to revolt, and that he had now gone no whither but to king Antiochus. That he was a man who would never be content, until he had excited war in every part of the globe. That such conduct ought not to be suffered to pass with impunity, if the Carthaginians wished to convince the Roman people that none of those things were done with their consent, or with the approbation of the state." The Carthaginians answered, that they were ready to do whatever the Romans required them.

Hannibal, after a prosperous voyage, arrived at Tyre; where, as a man illustrated by every description of honours, he was received by those founders of Carthage, as if in a second native country, and here he staid a few days. He then sailed to Antioch; where, hearing that the king had already left the place, he procured an interview with his son, who was celebrating the solemnity of the games at Daphne, and who treated him with much kindness; after which, he set sail without delay. At Ephesus, he overtook the king, who was still hesitating in his mind, and undetermined respecting a war with Rome: but the arrival of Hannibal proved an incentive of no small efficacy to the prosecution of that design. At the same time, the inclinations of the Aetolians also were alienated from the Roman alliance in consequence of the senate having referred to Quinctius their ambassadors, who demanded Pharsalus and Leucas, and some other cities, in conformity with the first treaty.



BOOK XXXIV.

The Oppian law, respecting the dress of the women, after much debate, repealed, notwithstanding it was strenuously supported by Marcus Porcius Cato, the consul. The consul's successes in Spain. Titus Quinctius Flamininus finishes the war with the Lacedaemonians and the tyrant Nabis; makes peace with them, and restores liberty to Argos. Separate seats at the public games, for the first time, appointed for the senator. Colonies sent forth. Marcus Porcius Cato triumphs on account of his successes in Spain. Further successes in Spain against the Boians and Insubrian Gauls. Titus Quinctius Flamininus, having subdued Philip, king of Macedonia, and Nabis, the Lacedaemonian tyrant, and restored all Greece to freedom, triumphs for three days. Carthaginian ambassadors bring intelligence of the hostile designs of Antiochus and Hannibal.

1. Amid the serious concerns of important wars, either scarcely brought to a close or impending, an incident intervened, trivial indeed to be mentioned, but which, through the zeal of the parties concerned, issued in a violent contest. Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, plebeian tribunes, proposed to the people the repealing of the Oppian law. This law, which had been introduced by Caius Oppias, plebeian tribune, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius, during the heat of the Punic war, enacted that "no woman should possess more than half an ounce of gold, or wear a garment of various colours, or ride in a carriage drawn by horses, in a city, or any town, or any place nearer thereto than one mile; except on occasion of some public religious solemnity." Marcus and Publius Junius Brutus, plebeian tribunes, supported the Oppian law, and declared, that they would never suffer it to be repealed; while many of the nobility stood forth to argue for and against the motion proposed. The Capitol was filled with crowds, who favoured or opposed the law; nor could the matrons be kept at home, either by advice or shame, nor even by the commands of their husbands; but beset every street and pass in the city, beseeching the men as they went down to the forum, that in the present flourishing state of the commonwealth, when the private fortune of all was daily increasing they would suffer the women to have their former ornaments of dress restored. This throng of women increased daily, for they arrived even from the country towns and villages; and they had at length the boldness to come up to the consuls, praetors, and magistrates, to urge their request. One of the consuls, however, they found especially inexorable—Marcus Porcius Cato, who, in support of the law proposed to be repealed, spoke to this effect:—

2. "If, Romans, every individual among us had made it a rule to maintain the prerogative and authority of a husband with respect to his own wife, we should have less trouble with the whole sex. But now, our privileges, overpowered at home by female contumacy, are, even here in the forum, spurned and trodden under foot; and because we are unable to withstand each separately, we now dread their collective body. I was accustomed to think it a fabulous and fictitious tale, that, in a certain island, the whole race of males was utterly extirpated by a conspiracy of the women. But the utmost danger may be apprehended equally from either sex, if you suffer cabals, assemblies, and secret consultations to be held: scarcely, indeed, can I determine, in my own mind, whether the act itself, or the precedent that it affords, is of more pernicious tendency. The latter of these more particularly concerns us consuls, and the other magistrates: the former, yourselves, my fellow-citizens. For, whether the measure proposed to your consideration be profitable to the state or not, is to be determined by you, who are about to go to the vote. As to the outrageous behaviour of these women, whether it be merely an act of their own, or owing to your instigations, Marcus Fundanius and Lucius Valerius, it unquestionably implies culpable conduct in magistrates. I know not whether it reflects greater disgrace on you, tribunes, or on the consuls: on you certainly, if you have, on the present occasion, brought these women hither for the purpose of raising tribunitian seditions; on us, if we suffer laws to be imposed on us by a secession of women, as was done formerly by that of the common people. It was not without painful emotions of shame, that I, just now, made my way into the forum through the midst of a band of women. Had I not been restrained by respect for the modesty and dignity of some individuals among them, rather than of the whole number, and been unwilling that they should be seen rebuked by a consul, I should have said to them, 'What sort of practice is this, of running out into public, besetting the streets, and addressing other women's husbands? Could not each have made the same request to her husband at home? Are your blandishments more seducing in public than in private; and with other women's husbands, than with your own? Although if the modesty of matrons confined them within the limits of their own rights, it did not become you, even at home, to concern yourselves about what laws might be passed or repealed here.' Our ancestors thought it not proper that women should perform any, even private business, without a director; but that they should be ever under the control of parents, brothers, or husbands. We, it seems, suffer them, now, to interfere in the management of state affairs, and to introduce themselves into the forum, into general assemblies, and into assemblies of election. For, what are they doing, at this moment, in your streets and lanes? What, but arguing, some in support of the motion of the plebeian tribunes; others, for the repeal of the law? Will you give the reins to their intractable nature, and their uncontrolled passions, and then expect that themselves should set bounds to their licentiousness, when you have failed to do so? This is the smallest of the injunctions laid on them by usage or the laws, all which women bear with impatience: they long for liberty; or rather, to speak the truth, for unbounded freedom in every particular. For what will they not attempt, if they now come off victorious?

3. "Recollect all the institutions respecting the sex, by which our forefathers restrained their undue freedom, and by which they subjected them to their husbands; and yet, even with the help of all these restrictions, you can scarcely keep them within bounds. If, then, you suffer them to throw these off one by one, to tear them all asunder, and, at last, to be set on an equal footing with yourselves, can you imagine that they will be any longer tolerable by you? The moment they have arrived at an equality with you, they will have become your superiors. But, forsooth, they only object to any new law being made against them: they mean to deprecate, not justice, but severity. Nay, their wish is, that a law which you have admitted, established by your suffrages, and confirmed by the practice and experience of so many years to be beneficial, should now be repealed; that is, that, by abolishing one law, you should weaken all the rest. No law perfectly suits the convenience of every member of the community: the only consideration is, whether, upon the whole, it be profitable to the greater part. If because a law proves obnoxious to a private individual, that circumstance should destroy and sweep it away, to what purpose is it for the community to enact general laws, which those, with reference to whom they were passed, could presently repeal? I should like, however, to hear what this important affair is which has induced the matrons thus to run out into public in this excited manner, scarcely restraining from pushing into the forum and the assembly of the people. Is it to solicit that their parents, their husbands, children, and brothers may be ransomed from captivity under Hannibal? By no means: and far be ever from the commonwealth so unfortunate a situation. Yet, even when such was the case, you refused this to their prayers. But it is not duty, nor solicitude for their friends; it is religion that has collected them together. They are about to receive the Idaean Mother, coming out of Phrygia from Pessinus! What motive, that even common decency will allow to be mentioned, is pretended for this female insurrection? Why, say they, that we may shine in gold and purple; that, both on festal and common days, we may ride through the city in our chariots, triumphing over vanquished and abrogated law, after having captured and wrested from you your suffrages; and that there may be no bounds to our expenses and our luxury.

4. "Often have you heard me complain of the profuse expenses of the women—often of those of the men; and that not only of men in private stations, but of the magistrates: and that the state was endangered by two opposite vices, luxury and avarice; those pests, which have been the ruin of all great empires. These I dread the more, as the circumstances of the commonwealth grow daily more prosperous and happy; as the empire increases; as we have now passed over into Greece and Asia, places abounding with every kind of temptation that can inflame the passions; and as we have begun to handle even royal treasures: so much the more do I fear that these matters will bring us into captivity, rather than we them. Believe me, those statues from Syracuse were brought into this city with hostile effect. I already hear too many commending and admiring the decorations of Athens and Corinth, and ridiculing the earthen images of our Roman gods that stand on the fronts of their temples. For my part I prefer these gods,—propitious as they are, and I hope will continue to be, if we allow them to remain in their own mansions. In the memory of our fathers, Pyrrhus, by his ambassador Cineas, made trial of the dispositions, not only of our men, but of our women also, by offers of presents: at that time the Oppian law, for restraining female luxury, had not been made; and yet not one woman accepted a present. What, think you, was the reason? That for which our ancestors made no provision by law on this subject: there was no luxury existing which needed to be restrained. As diseases must necessarily be known before their remedies, so passions come into being before the laws which prescribe limits to them. What called forth the Licinian law, restricting estates to five hundred acres, but the unbounded desire for enlarging estates? What the Cincian law, concerning gifts and presents, but that the plebeians[1] had become vassals and tributaries to the senate? It is not therefore in any degree surprising, that no want of the Oppian law, or of any other, to limit the expenses of the women, was felt at that time, when they refused to receive gold and purple that was thrown in their way, and offered to their acceptance. If Cineas were now to go round the city with his presents, he would find numbers of women standing in the public streets to receive them. There are some passions, the causes or motives of which I can no way account for. For that that should not be lawful for you which is permitted to another, may perhaps naturally excite some degree of shame or indignation; yet, when the dress of all is alike, why should any one of you fear, lest she should not be an object of observation? Of all kinds of shame, the worst, surely, is the being ashamed of frugality or of poverty; but the law relieves you with regard to both; since that which you have not it is unlawful for you to possess. This equalization, says the rich matron, is the very thing that I cannot endure. Why do not I make a figure, distinguished with gold and purple? Why is the poverty of others concealed under this cover of a law, so that it should be thought that, if the law permitted, they would have such things as they are not now able to procure? Romans, do you wish to excite among your wives an emulation of this sort, that the rich should wish to have what no other can have; and that the poor, lest they should be despised as such should extend their expenses beyond their means? Be assured, that when a woman once begins to be ashamed of what she ought not to be ashamed of, she will not be ashamed of what she ought. She who can, will purchase out of her own purse; she who cannot, will ask her husband. Unhappy is the husband, both he who complies with the request, and he who does not; for what he will not give himself, he will see given by another. Now, they openly solicit favours from other women's husbands; and, what is more, solicit a law and votes. From some they obtain them; although, with regard to yourself, your property, or your children, they would be inexorable. So soon as the law shall cease to limit the expenses of your wife, you yourself will never be able to do so. Do not suppose that the matter will hereafter be in the same state in which it was before the law was made on the subject. It is safer that a wicked man should even never be accused, than that he should be acquitted; and luxury, if it had never been meddled with, would be more tolerable than it will be, now, like a wild beast, irritated by having been chained, and then let loose. My opinion is, that the Oppian law ought, on no account, to be repealed. Whatever determination you may come to, I pray all the gods to prosper it."

[Footnote 1: Previous to the passing of the Cincian law, about ten years before this time, the advocates who pleaded in the courts received fees and presents: and as all or most of these were senators, the plebeians are here represented as tributary to the senate. By the above law they were forbidden to receive either fees or presents.]

5. After him the plebeian tribunes, who had declared their intention of protesting, added a few words to the same purport. Then Lucius Valerius spoke thus in support of the measure which he himself had introduced:—"If private persons only had stood forth to argue for and against the proposition which we have submitted to your consideration, I for my part, thinking enough to have been said on both sides, would have waited in silence for your determination. But since a person of most respectable judgment, the consul, Marcus Porcius, has reprobated our motion, not only by the influence of his opinion, which, had he said nothing, would carry very great weight, but also in a long and careful discourse, it becomes necessary to say a few words in answer. He has spent more words in rebuking the matrons, than in arguing against the measure proposed; and even went so far as to mention a doubt, whether the matrons had committed the conduct which he censured in them spontaneously or at our instigation. I shall defend the measure, not ourselves: for the consul threw out those insinuations against us, rather for argument's sake than as a serious charge. He has made use of the terms cabal and sedition; and, sometimes, secession of the women: because the matrons had requested of you, in the public streets, that, in this time of peace, when the commonwealth is flourishing and happy, you would repeal a law that was made against them during a war, and in times of distress. I know that these and other similar strong expressions, for the purpose of exaggeration, are easily found; and, mild as Marcus Cato is in his disposition, yet in his speeches he is not only vehement, but sometimes even austere. What new thing, let me ask, have the matrons done in coming out into public in a body on an occasion which nearly concerns themselves? Have they never before appeared in public? I will turn over your own Antiquities,[1] and quote them against you. Hear, now how often they have done the same, and always to the advantage of the public. In the earliest period of our history, even in the reign of Romulus, when the Capitol had been taken by the Sabines, and a pitched battle was fought in the forum, was not the fight stopped by the interposition of the matrons between the two armies? When, after the expulsion of the kings, the legions of the Volscians, under the command of Marcius Coriolanus, were encamped at the fifth stone, did not the matrons turn away that army, which would have overwhelmed this city? Again, when Rome was taken by the Gauls, whence was the city ransomed? Did not the matrons, by unanimous agreement, bring their gold into the public treasury? In the late war, not to go back to remote antiquity, when there was a want of money, did not the funds of the widows supply the treasury? And when even new gods were invited hither to the relief of our distressed affairs, did not the matrons go out in a body to the sea-shore to receive the Idaean Mother? The cases, you will say, are dissimilar. It is not my purpose to produce similar instances; it is sufficient that I clear these women of having done any thing new. Now, what nobody wondered at their doing in cases which concerned all in common, both men and women, can we wonder at their doing in a case peculiarly affecting themselves? But what have they done? We have proud ears, truly, if, though masters disdain not the prayers of slaves, we are offended at being asked a favour by honourable women.

[Footnote 1: Alluding to a treatise by Cato, upon the antiquities of Italy, entitled "Origines," which is the word used here by Valerius.]

6. "I come now to the question in debate, with respect to which the consul's argument is twofold: for, first, he is displeased at the thought of any law whatever being repealed; and then, particularly, of that law which was made to restrain female luxury. His former argument, in support of the laws in general, appeared highly becoming of a consul; and that on the latter, against luxury, was quite conformable to the rigid strictness of his morals. There is, therefore, a danger lest, unless I shall show what, on each subject, was inconclusive, you may probably be led away by error. For while I acknowledge, that of those laws which are instituted, not for any particular time, but for eternity, on account of their perpetual utility, not one ought to be repealed; unless either experience evince it to be useless, or some state of the public affairs render it so; I see, at the same time, that those laws which particular seasons have required, are mortal, (if I may use the term,) and changeable with the times. Those made in peace are generally repealed by war; those made in war, by peace; as in the management of a ship, some implements are useful in good weather, others in bad. As these two kinds are thus distinct in their nature, of which kind does that law appear to be which we now propose to repeal? Is it an ancient law of the kings, coeval with the city itself? Or, what is next to that, was it written in the twelve tables by the decemvirs, appointed to form a code of laws? Is it one, without which our ancestors thought that the honour of the female sex could not be preserved? and, therefore, have we also reason to fear, that, together with it, we should repeal the modesty and chastity of our females? Now, is there a man among you who does not know that this is a new law, passed not more than twenty years ago, in the consulate of Quintus Fabius and Tiberius Sempronius? And as, without it, our matrons sustained, for such a number of years, the most virtuous characters, what danger is there of their abandoning themselves to luxury on its being repealed? For, if that law had been passed for the purpose of setting a limit to the passions of the sex, there would be reason to fear lest the repeal of it might operate as an incitement to them. But the real reason of its being passed, the time itself will show Hannibal was then in Italy, victorious at Cannae: he already held possession of Tarentum, of Arpi, of Capua, and seemed ready to bring up his army to the city of Rome. Our allies had deserted us. We had neither soldiers to fill up the legions, nor seamen to man the fleet, nor money in the treasury. Slaves, who were to be employed as soldiers, were purchased on condition of their price being paid to the owners at the end of the war. The farmers of the revenues had declared, that they would contract to supply corn and other matters, which the exigencies of the war required, to be paid for at the same time. We gave up our slaves to the oar, in numbers proportioned to our properties, and paid them out of our own incomes. All our gold and silver, in imitation of the example given by the senators, we dedicated to the use of the public. Widows and minors lodged their money in the treasury. It was provided by law that we should not keep in our houses more than a certain quantity of wrought gold or silver, or more than a certain sum of coined silver or brass. At such a time as this, were the matrons so eagerly engaged in luxury and dress, that the Oppian law was requisite to repress such practices; when the senate, because the sacrifice of Ceres had been omitted, in consequence of all the matrons being in mourning, ordered the mourning to end in thirty days? Who does not clearly see, that the poverty and distress of the state, requiring that every private person's money should be converted to the use of the public, enacted that law, with intent that it should remain in force so long only as the cause of enacting the law should remain? For if all the decrees of the senate and orders of the people, which were then made to answer the necessities of the times, are to be of perpetual obligation, why do we refund their money to private persons? Why do we contract for public works for ready money? Why are not slaves brought to serve in the army? Why do not we, private subjects, supply rowers as we did then?

7. "Shall, then, every other class of people, every individual, feel the improvement in the condition of the state; and shall our wives alone reap none of the fruits of the public peace and tranquillity? Shall we men have the use of purple, wearing the purple-bordered gown in magistracies and priests' offices? Shall our children wear gowns bordered with purple? Shall we allow the privilege of wearing the toga praetexta to the magistrates of the colonies and borough towns, and to the very lowest of them here at Rome, the superintendents of the streets; and not only of wearing such an ornament of distinction while alive, but of being buried with it when dead; and shall we interdict the use of purple to women alone? And when you, the husband, may wear purple in your great coat, will you not suffer your wife to have a purple mantle? Shall your horse be more splendidly caparisoned than your wife is clothed? But with respect to purple, which will be worn out and consumed, I can see an unjust, indeed, but still a sort of reason, for parsimony; but with respect to gold, in which, excepting the price of the workmanship, there is no waste, what objection can there be? It rather serves as a reserve fund for both public and private exigencies, as you have already experienced. He says there will be no emulation between individuals, when no one is possessed of it. But, in truth, it will be a source of grief and indignation to all, when they see those ornaments allowed to the wives of the Latin confederates of which they themselves have been deprived; when they see those riding through the city in their carriages, and decorated with gold and purple, while they are obliged to follow on foot, as if the seat of empire were in the country of the others, not in their own. This would hurt the feelings even of men, and what do you think must be its effect on those of weak women, whom even trifles can disturb? Neither offices of state, nor of the priesthood, nor triumphs, nor badges of distinction, nor military presents, nor spoils, can fall to their share. Elegance of appearance, and ornaments, and dress, these are the women's badges of distinction; in these they delight and glory; these our ancestors called the women's world. What else do they lay aside when in mourning, except their gold and purple? And what else do they resume when the mourning is over? How do they distinguish themselves on occasion of public thanksgivings and supplications, but by adding unusual splendour of dress? But then, (it may be said,) if you repeal the Oppian law, should you choose to prohibit any of those particulars which the law at present prohibits, you will not have it in your power; your daughters, wives, and even the sisters of some, will be less under control. The bondage of women is never shaken off without the loss of their friends; and they themselves look with horror on that freedom which is purchased with the condition of the widow or the orphan. Their wish is, that their dress should be under your regulation, not under that of the law; and it ought to be your wish to hold them in control and guardianship, not in bondage; and to prefer the title of father or husband to that of master. The consul just now made use of some invidious terms, calling it a female sedition and secession; because, I suppose, there is danger of their seizing the sacred mount, as formerly the angry plebeians did; or the Aventine. Their feeble nature must submit to whatever you think proper to enjoin; and, the greater power you possess, the more moderate ought you to be in the exercise of your authority."