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
are said to have been killed, and more, than seven hundred taken, in
various places; besides which, the victors brought off eighty-two of
their military standards. Nor was the victory gained without loss of
blood; above three thousand of the conquerors fell in the conflict; for
as neither party gave way, the foremost on both sides were cut off.
8. When the Ligurians re-assembled in one body, after their scattered
flight, they found that a much greater number of their countrymen were
lost than left alive (for there were not above ten thousand men
surviving); on which they surrendered. They did not stipulate for any
terms, yet entertained hopes that the consul would not treat them with
greater severity than former commanders. But he immediately took their
arms from them, razed their town, and sold themselves and their effects;
and he then sent a letter to the senate, relating the services which he
had performed. When Aulus Atilius, the prætor, read this letter in the
council, (for the other consul, Postumius, was absent, being employed in
surveying the lands in Campania,) the proceeding appeared to the senate
in a heinous light; “that the people of Satiella, who alone, of all the
Ligurian nation, had not borne arms against the Romans, should be
attacked, when not offering hostilities, and even after surrendering
themselves in dependence on the protection of the Roman people, should
be butchered and exterminated, that so many thousands of innocent
persons suffering, who had implored the protection of the Roman people,
established the worst possible precedent, calculated to deter any one
from ever venturing to surrender to them; dragged as the were away into
various parts of the country, and made slaves to those who were formerly
the avowed enemies of Rome, though now reduced to quiet. That for these
reasons the senate ordered, that the consul, Marcus Popilius, should
reinstate the Ligurians in their liberty, repaying the purchase-money to
the buyers, and should likewise use his best endeavours to recover and
restore their effects. That arms should be made for them, as soon as
possible; and that the consul should not depart from his province before
he restored to their country the Ligurians that had surrendered. That
victory derived its lustre from conquering the enemy in arms, not from
cruelty to the vanquished.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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