The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost BooksLivy
History
The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books
Livy
Rome -- History
58. On the proceedings being finished by the prætor Quintius Terentius,
Hostilius and Furius, being condemned, gave securities the same day to
the city quæstors. Scipio, when he insisted that all the money received
by him was in the treasury, and that he had not in his possession any
thing whatever belonging to the public, was ordered to prison. Publius
Scipio Nasica then appealed to the tribunes, and made a speech fraught
with just encomiums, not only on the Cornelian family in general, but on
his own branch of it in particular. “His father,” he said, “and the
father of Publius Africanus and Lucius Scipio, who was now ordered to
prison, were Cneius and Publius Scipio, men of the most illustrious
characters; that when, through a long course of years, they had highly
enhanced the reputation of the Roman name in the land of Spain, against
many commanders and many armies of the Carthaginians and Spaniards, not
only by their military exploits, but also by exhibiting to the nations
of that country brilliant examples of Roman moderation and fidelity,
both, at last, fell in the service of the Roman people. Although it
ought to be sufficient to their descendants to support the glory derived
from them, yet Publius Africanus so far surpassed his father’s renown,
as to occasion a belief that he was not sprung from the human race, but
was of divine extraction. As to Lucius Scipio, concerning whom the
question then was, to pass over his exploits in Spain and in Africa,
(while he was lieutenant-general to his brother,) on his being elected
consul, was by the senate considered so worthy, that the province of
Asia and the war with Antiochus were assigned him, without leaving it to
the decision of the lots; and by his brother, that, after two
consulships, the censorship, and a triumph, he attended him into Asia in
quality of lieutenant-general. There, that the great and splendid
character of the lieutenant might not eclipse the fame of the consul, it
so happened, that, on the day when Lucius Scipio conquered Antiochus in
a pitched battle at Magnesia, Publius Scipio was absent at the distance
of several days’ journey, being sick at Elæa. The army of the enemy, on
that occasion, was not inferior to that of Hannibal, when the battle was
fought with him in Africa; and the same Hannibal, who was
commander-in-chief in the Carthaginian war, was among many other
generals of the king. The war indeed was so conducted, that no one
could throw blame even on fortune. A ground of accusation is sought for
in the peace; it is said that it was sold. The ten ambassadors, in
pursuance of whose counsel the peace was concluded, are at the same time
included in this charge. Some of the ten ambassadors had even stood
forth as accusers of Cneius Manlius, yet their charges were so far from
gaining credit that they did not produce even a delay of his triumph.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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