Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
History
Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 1: A series of pen and pencil sketches of the lives of more than 200 of the most prominent personages in History
Biography
In the year B.C. 190, some discussions arose in the Senate as to what
provinces should be assigned to the two consuls, Laelius and L.
Cornelius Scipio, brother of the great Africanus. Africanus, although
he was princeps senatus, offered to accompany his brother, as legate,
if the Senate would give him Greece as his province, for this province
conferred upon Lucius the command in the war against Antiochus. The
offer was accepted, and the two brothers set out for Greece, and
thence for Asia. Africanus took his son with him on this expedition,
but by some unlucky chance the boy was taken prisoner, and sent to
Antiochus. The king offered to restore him to freedom, and to give a
considerable sum of money, if the father would interpose his influence
to obtain favorable terms for the king. Africanus refused; but the
king, notwithstanding, soon after sent the boy back to his father, who
just then was suffering from illness, and was absent from the camp. To
show his gratitude, Africanus sent a message to Antiochus, advising
him not to engage in a battle until he himself had returned to the
Roman camp. After the great battle near Mount Sipylus, Antiochus again
applied to Scipio for peace, and the latter now used his influence
with his brother Lucius and the council of war, on behalf of the king.
The conditions of the peace were tolerably mild, but they were
afterward made much more severe when the peace was ratified at Rome.
The enemies of Africanus at Rome had now another charge against him.
The peace with Antiochus, and the conditions proposed by Africanus and
his brother Lucius, were regarded by the hostile party as the result
of bribes from Antiochus, and of the liberation of the son of
Africanus. A charge was therefore brought against the two brothers, on
their return to Rome, of having accepted bribes of the king, and of
having retained a part of the treasures which they ought to have
delivered up to the aerarium. At the same time they were called upon to
give an account of the sums of money they had taken from Antiochus.
Lucius was ready to obey; but his brother Africanus with indignation
snatched the accounts from the hands of his brother and tore them to
pieces before the Senate. The tribune of the people, C. Minucius
Augurinus, however, fined Lucius; and when he was going to be thrown
into prison until he should pay the heavy fine, Africanus dragged him
away; and the tribune Tib. Gracchus, though disapproving of the
violence of Africanus, liberated Lucius from imprisonment. Africanus
himself was now summoned before the people by the tribune M. Naevius;
but instead of answering the charges he reminded the people that it
was the anniversary of his victory at Zama, and bade them rather thank
the gods for such citizens as he.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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