History of Rome, Vol III by Titus Livius

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40. Quinctius, conceiving greater hopes from the fears of the enemy
than from the immediate effect of his operations, kept them in a
continual alarm during the three succeeding days; sometimes harassing
them with assaults, sometimes enclosing several places with works,
so as to leave no passage open for flight. These menaces had such an
effect on the tyrant that he again sent Pythagoras to solicit peace.
Quinctius, at first, rejected him with disdain, ordering him to quit
the camp; but afterwards, on his suppliant entreaties, and throwing
himself at his feet, he admitted him to an audience. The purport of
his discourse, at first, was, an offer of implicit submission to the
will of the Romans; but this availed nothing, being considered as
nugatory and indecisive. The business was, at length, brought to this
issue, that a truce should be made on the conditions delivered in
writing a few days before, and the money and hostages were accordingly
received. While the tyrant was kept shut up by the siege, the Argives,
receiving frequent accounts, one after another, that Lacedaemon was on
the point of being taken, and having themselves resumed courage on
the departure of Pythagoras, with the strongest part of his garrison,
looked now with contempt on the small number remaining in the citadel;
and, being headed by a person named Archippus, drove the garrison
out. They gave Timocrates, of Pellene, leave to retire, with solemn
assurance of sparing his life, in consideration of the mildness
which he had shown in his government. In the midst of this rejoicing,
Quinctius arrived, after having granted peace to the tyrant, dismissed
Eumenes and the Rhodians from Lacedaemon, and sent back his brother,
Lucius Quinctius, to the fleet.

41. The Nemaean games, the most celebrated of all the festivals, and
their most splendid public spectacle, had been omitted, at the regular
time, on account of the disasters of the war: the state now, in the
fulness of their joy, ordered them to be celebrated on the arrival of
the Roman general and his army; and appointed the general, himself,
president of the games. There were many circumstances which heightened
their happiness: their countrymen, whom Pythagoras, lately, and,
before that, Nabis, had carried away, were brought home from
Lacedaemon; those who on the discovery of the conspiracy by
Pythagoras, and when the massacre was already begun, had fled from
home, now returned; they saw their liberty restored, after a long
interval, and beheld, in their city, the Romans, the authors of its
restoration, whose only view, in making war on the tyrant, was the
support of their interest. The freedom of the Argives was, also,
solemnly announced, by the voice of a herald, on the very day of the
Nemaean games. Whatever pleasure the Achaeans felt on Argos being
reinstated in the general council of Achaia, it was, in a great
measure, alloyed by Lacedaemon being left in slavery, and the tyrant
close at their side. As to the Aetolians, they loudly railed at that
measure in every meeting. They remarked, that "the war with Philip was
not ended until he evacuated all the cities of Greece. But Lacedaemon
was left to the tyrant, while the lawful king, who had been, at the
time, in the Roman camp, and others, the noblest of the citizens, must
live in exile: so that the Roman nation was become a partisan of Nabis
in his tyranny." Quinctius led back his army to Elatia, whence he had
set out to the Spartan war. Some writers say, that the tyrant's method
of carrying on hostilities was not by sallies from the city, but that
he encamped in the face of the Romans; and that, after he had declined
fighting a long time, waiting for succours from the Aetolians, he was
forced to come to an engagement, by an attack which the Romans made on
his foragers, when, being defeated in that battle, and beaten out of
his camp, he sued for peace, after fifteen thousand of his men had
been killed, and more than four thousand made prisoners.

42. Nearly at the same time, arrived at Rome a letter from Titus
Quinctius, with an account of his proceedings at Lacedaemon; and
another, out of Spain, from Marcus Porcius, the consul; whereupon the
senate decreed a supplication, for three days, in the name of each.
The other consul, Lucius Valerius, as his province had remained quiet
since the defeat of the Boians at the wood of Litana, came home to
Rome to hold the elections. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, a
second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus, were elected consuls. The
fathers of these two had been consuls in the first year of the second
Punic war. The election of praetors was then held, and the choice
fell on Publius Cornelius Scipio, two Cneius Corneliuses, Merenda
and Blasio, Cneius Domitius Aenobarbus, Sextus Digitius, and Titus
Juvencius Thalna. As soon as the elections were finished, the consul
returned to his province. The inhabitants of Ferentinum, this year,
laid claim to a privilege unheard of before; that Latins, giving in
their names for a Roman colony, should be deemed citizens of Rome.
Some colonists, who had given in their names for Puteoli, Salernum,
and Buxentum, assumed, on that ground, the character of Roman
citizens; but the senate determined that they were not.

43. In the beginning of the year, wherein Publius Scipio Africanus,
a second time, and Tiberius Sempronius Longus were consuls, two
ambassadors from the tyrant Nabis came to Rome. The senate gave them
audience in the temple of Apollo, outside the city. They entreated
that a peace might be concluded on the terms settled with Quinctius,
and obtained their request. When the question was put concerning the
provinces, the majority of the senate were of opinion, that as the
wars in Spain and Macedonia were at an end, Italy should be the
province of both the consuls; but Scipio contended that one consul was
sufficient for Italy, and that Macedonia ought to be decreed to the
other; that "there was every reason to apprehend a dangerous war with
Antiochus, for he had already, of his own accord, come into Europe;
and how did they suppose he would act in future, when he should be
encouraged to a war, on one hand, by the Aetolians, avowed enemies
of their state, and stimulated, on the other, by Hannibal, a general
famous for his victories over the Romans?" While the consular
provinces were in dispute, the praetors cast lots for theirs. The city
jurisdiction fell to Cneius Domitius; the foreign, to Titus Juvencius:
Farther Spain, to Publius Cornelius; Hither Spain, to Sextus Digitius;
Sicily, to Cneius Cornelius Blasio; Sardinia, to Cneius Cornelius
Merenda. It was resolved, that no new army should be sent into
Macedonia, but that the one which was there should be brought home to
Italy by Quinctius, and disbanded; that the army which was in Spain,
under Marcus Porcius Cato, should likewise be disbanded; that Italy
should be the province of both the consuls, and that they should
raise two city legions; so that, after the disbanding of the armies,
mentioned in the resolution of the senate, there should be in all
eight Roman legions.

44. A sacred spring had been celebrated, in the preceding year, during
the consulate of Marcus Porcius and Lucius Valerius; but Publius
Licinius, one of the pontiffs, having made a report, first, to
the college of pontiffs, and afterwards, under the sanction of the
college, to the senate, that it had not been duly performed, they
resolved, that it should be celebrated anew, under the direction of
the pontiffs; and that the great games, vowed together with it, should
be exhibited at the same expense which was customary; that the sacred
spring should be deemed to comprehend all the cattle born between the
calends of March and the day preceding the calends of May, in the year
of the consulate of Publius Cornelius Scipio and Tiberius Sempronius
Longus. Then followed the election of censors. Sextus Aelius Paetus,
and Caius Cornelius Cethegus, being created censors, named as prince
of the senate the consul Publius Scipio, whom the former censors
likewise had appointed. They passed by only three senators in the
whole, none of whom had enjoyed the honour of a curule office. They
obtained, on another account, the highest degree of credit with that
body; for, at the celebration of the Roman games, they ordered the
curule aediles to set apart places for the senators, distinct from
those of the people, whereas, hitherto, all the spectators used to sit
promiscuously. Of the knights, also, very few were deprived of their
horses; nor was severity shown towards any rank of men. The gallery
of the temple of Liberty, and the Villa Publica, were repaired and
enlarged by the same censors. The sacred spring, and the votive games,
were celebrated, pursuant to the vow of Servius Sulpicius Galba, when
consul. While every one's thoughts were engaged by the shows then
exhibited, Quintus Pleminius, who, for the many crimes against gods
and men committed by him at Locri, had been thrown into prison,
procured men who were to set fire by night to several parts of
the city at once, in order that, while the town was thrown into
consternation by this nocturnal disturbance, the prison might be
broken open. But this plot was disclosed by some of the accomplices,
and the affair was laid before the senate. Pleminius was thrown into a
lower dungeon, and there put to death.

45. In this year colonies of Roman citizens were settled at Puteoli,
Vulturnum, and Liternum; three hundred men in each place. Colonies of
Roman citizens were likewise established at Salernum and Buxentum.
The lands allotted to them had formerly belonged to the Campanians.
Tiberius Sempronius Longus, who was then consul, Marcus Servilius, and
Quintus Minucius Thermus, were the triumviri who settled the colony.
Other commissioners also, Decius Junius Brutus, Marcus Baebius
Tamphilus, and Marcus Helvius, led a colony of Roman citizens to
Sipontum, into a district which had belonged to the Arpinians. To
Tempsa, likewise, and to Croto, colonies of Roman citizens were led
out. The lands of Tempsa had been taken from the Bruttians, who had
formerly expelled the Greeks from them. Croto was possessed by Greeks.
In ordering these establishments, there were named, for Croto,--Cneius
Octavius, Lucius Aemilius Paullus, and Caius Pletorius; for
Tempsa,--Lucius Cornelius Merula, and Caius Salonius. Several
prodigies were observed at Rome that year, and others reported, from
other places. In the forum, comitium, and Capitol, drops of blood were
seen, and several showers of earth fell, and the head of Vulcan was
surrounded with a blaze of fire. It was reported that a stream of milk
ran in the river at Interamna; that, in some reputable families at
Ariminum, children were born without eyes and nose; and one, in the
territory of Picenum, that had neither hands nor feet. These prodigies
were expiated according to an order of the pontiffs; and the
nine days' festival was celebrated, because the Hadrians had sent
intelligence that a shower of stones had fallen in their fields.

46. In Gaul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, proconsul, in a pitched battle
near Mediolanum, completely overthrew the Insubrian Gauls, and the
Boians; who, under the command of Dorulacus, had crossed the Po, to
rouse the Insubrians to arms. Ten thousand of the enemy were slain.
About this time his colleague, Marcus Porcius Cato, triumphed over
Spain. He carried in the procession twenty-five thousand pounds'
weight of unwrought silver, one hundred and three thousand silver
denarii,[1] five hundred and forty of Oscan silver,[2] and one
thousand four hundred pounds' weight of gold. Out of the booty,
he distributed to each of his soldiers two hundred and seventy
_asses_;[3] and three times that amount to each horseman. Tiberius
Sempronius, consul, proceeding to his province, led his legions,
first, into the territory of the Boians. At this time Boiorix their
chieftain, with his two brothers, after having drawn out the whole
nation into the field to renew the war, pitched his camp in the open
country, that it might be evident that he was prepared to fight in
case the enemy should pass the frontiers. When the consul understood
what a numerous force and what a degree of resolution the enemy had,
he sent an express to his colleague, requesting him, "if he thought
proper, to hasten to join him;" adding, that "he would act on the
defensive, and defer engaging in battle, until his arrival." The same
reason which made the consul wish to decline an action, induced
the Gauls, whose spirits were raised by the backwardness of their
antagonists, to bring it on as soon as possible, that they might
finish the affair before the two consuls should unite their forces.
However, during two days, they did nothing more than stand in
readiness for battle, if any should come out against them. On the
third, they advanced furiously to the rampart, and assaulted the camp
on every side at once. The consul immediately ordered his men to take
arms, and kept them quiet, under arms, for some time; both to add to
the foolish confidence of the enemy, and to arrange his troops at the
gates, through which each party was to sally out. The two legions were
ordered to march by the two principal gates; but, in the very pass of
the gates, the Gauls opposed them in such close bodies as to stop up
the way. The fight was maintained a long time in these narrow passes;
nor were their hands or swords much employed in the business, but
pushing with their shields and bodies, they pressed against each
other, the Romans struggling to force their standards beyond the
gates, the Gauls, to break into the camp, or, at least, to hinder the
Romans from issuing forth. However, neither party could make the least
impression on the other, until Quintus Victorius, a first centurion,
and Caius Atinius, a military tribune, the former of the second,
the latter of the fourth legion, had taken a course often tried in
desperate conflicts; snatching the standards from the officers who
carried them, and throwing them among the enemy. In the struggle to
recover the standards, the men of the second legion first made their
way out of the gate.

[Footnote 1: 397l. 17s. 6d.]

[Footnote 2: 17l. 8s. 9d.]

[Footnote 3: 17s. 5-1/2d.]

47. These were now fighting on the outside of the rampart, the fourth
legion still entangled in the gate, when a new alarm arose on the
opposite side of the camp. The Gauls had broke in by the Quaestorian
gate, and had slain the quaestor, Lucius Postumius, surnamed Tympanus,
with Marcus Atinius and Publius Sempronius, praefects of the allies,
who made an obstinate resistance; and also, near two hundred soldiers.
The camp in that part had been taken, when a cohort of those who are
called Extraordinaries, having been sent by the consul to defend the
Quaestorian gate, killed some who had got within the rampart, drove
out the rest, and opposed others who were attempting to break
in. About the same time, the fourth legion, and two cohorts of
Extraordinaries, burst out of the gate; and thus there were three
battles, in different places, round the camp; while the various kinds
of shouts raised by them, called off the attention of the combatants
from their own immediate conflict to the uncertain casualties which
threatened their friends. The battle was maintained until mid-day with
equal strength, and with nearly equal hopes. At length, the fatigue
and heat so far got the better of the soft relaxed bodies of the
Gauls, who are incapable of enduring thirst, as to make most of them
give up the fight; and the few who stood their ground, were attacked
by the Romans, routed, and driven to their camp. The consul then gave
the signal for retreat, on which the greater part retired; but some,
eager to continue the fight, and hoping to get possession of the camp,
pressed forward to the rampart, on which the Gauls, despising their
small number, rushed out in a body. The Romans were then routed in
turn, and compelled, by their own fear and dismay, to retreat to their
camp, which they had refused to do at the command of their general.
Thus now flight and now victory alternated on both sides. The Gauls,
however, had eleven thousand killed, the Romans but five thousand. The
Gauls retreated into the heart of their country, and the consul led
his legions to Placentia. Some writers say, that Scipio, after joining
his forces to those of his colleague, overran and plundered the
country of the Boians and Ligurians, as far as the woods and marshes
suffered him to proceed; others, that, without having effected any
thing material, he returned to Rome to hold the elections.

48. Titus Quinctius passed the entire winter season of this year at
Elatia, where he had established the winter quarters of his army, in
adjusting political arrangements, and reversing the measures which had
been introduced in the several states under the arbitrary domination
of Philip and his deputies, who crushed the rights and liberties of
others, in order to augment the power of those who formed a faction
in their favour. Early in the spring he came to Corinth, where he had
summoned a general convention. Ambassadors having attended from every
one of the states, so as to form a numerous assembly, he addressed
them in a long speech, in which, beginning from the first commencement
of friendship between the Romans and the nation of the Greeks, he
enumerated the proceedings of the commanders who had been in Macedonia
before him, and likewise his own. His whole narration was heard with
the warmest approbation, except when he came to make mention of
Nabis; and then they expressed their opinion, that it was utterly
inconsistent with the character of the deliverer of Greece to have
left seated, in the centre of one of its most respectable states,
a tyrant, who was not only insupportable to his own country, but a
terror to all the states in his neighbourhood. Whereupon Quinctius,
not unacquainted with this tendency of their feelings, freely
acknowledged, that "if the business could have been accomplished
without the entire destruction of Lacedaemon, no mention of peace with
the tyrant ought ever to have been listened to; but that, when it was
not possible to crush him otherwise than by the utter ruin of this
most important city, it was judged more eligible to leave the tyrant
in a state of debility, stripped of almost every kind of power to do
injury to any, than to suffer the city, which must have perished in
the very process of its delivery being effectuated, to sink under
remedies too violent for it to support."

49. To the recital of matters past, he subjoined, that "his intention
was to depart shortly for Italy, and to carry with him all his troops;
that they should hear, within ten days, of the garrisons having
evacuated Demetrias; and that Chalcis, the citadel of Corinth, should
be before their own eyes evacuated to the Achaeans: that all the world
might know whose habit it was to deceive, that of the Romans or the
Aetolians, who had spread insinuations, that the cause of liberty had
been unwisely intrusted to the Romans, and that they had only received
as their masters the Romans in exchange for the Macedonians. But they
were men who never scrupled what they either said or did. The rest of
the nations he advised to form their estimate of friends from deeds,
not from words; and to satisfy themselves whom they ought to trust,
and against whom they ought to be on their guard; to use their liberty
with moderation: for, when regulated by prudence, it was productive
of happiness both to individuals and to states; but, when pushed to
excess, it became not only obnoxious to others, but to the possessors
of it themselves an unbridled and headstrong impulse. He recommended,
that those at the head of affairs, and all the several ranks of men
in each particular state, should cultivate harmony between themselves;
and that all should direct their views to the general interest of the
whole. For, while they acted in concert, no king or tyrant would be
sufficiently powerful against them: but discord and dissension gave
every advantage to those who might plot against them; as the
party worsted in a domestic dispute generally join themselves with
foreigners, rather than submit to a countryman of their own. He then
exhorted them, as the arms of others had procured their liberty, and
the good faith of foreigners had restored it to them, to apply now
their own diligent care to the watching and guarding of it; that
the Roman people might perceive that those on whom they had bestowed
liberty were deserving of it, and that their kindness had not been ill
placed."

50. On hearing these admonitions, such as parental tenderness might
dictate, every one present shed tears of joy; and they affected his
feelings to such a degree as to interrupt his discourse. For some
time a confused noise prevailed, from those who were expressing their
approbation of his words, and charging each other to treasure up those
expressions in their minds and hearts, as if they had been uttered by
an oracle. Then silence ensuing, he requested of them to make diligent
search for such Roman citizens as were in servitude among them, and to
send them into Thessaly to him, within two months; observing, that
"it would not be honourable to themselves, that, in a land restored
to liberty, its deliverers should remain in servitude." To this all
exclaimed with acclamations that they returned him thanks on this
account in addition to others, that they had been reminded of the
discharge of a duty so indispensably incumbent on their gratitude.
There was a vast number of these who had been made prisoners in the
Punic war, and sold by Hannibal when their countrymen refused to
ransom them. That they were very numerous, is proved by what Polybius
says, that this business cost the Achaeans one hundred talents,[1]
though they had fixed the price to be paid for each captive, to the
owner, so low as five hundred denarii.[2] For, at that rate, there
were one thousand two hundred in Achaia. Calculate now, in proportion
to this, how many were probably in all Greece.

[Footnote 1: 19,375l.]

[Footnote 2: 16l. 2s. 11d.]

51. Before the convention broke up, they saw the garrison march down
from the citadel of Corinth, proceed forward to the gate, and depart.
The general followed them, accompanied by the whole assembly, who,
with loud acclamations, blessed him as their preserver and deliverer.
At length, taking leave of these, and dismissing them, he returned to
Elatia by the same road through which he came. He thence sent Appius
Claudius, lieutenant-general, with all the troops, ordering him to
march through Thessaly and Epirus, and to wait for him at Oricum,
whence he intended to embark the army for Italy. He also wrote to his
brother, Lucius Quinctius, lieutenant-general, and commander of the
fleet, to collect thither transport ships from all the coasts of
Greece. He himself proceeded to Chalcis; and, after sending away
the garrisons, not only from that city, but likewise from Oreum and
Eretria, he held there a congress of the Euboean states, whom he
reminded of the condition in which he had found their affairs, and of
that in which he was leaving them; and then dismissed the assembly. He
then proceeded to Demetrias, and removed the garrison. Accompanied by
all the citizens, as at Corinth and Chalcis, he pursued his route into
Thessaly, where the states were not only to be set at liberty, but
also to be reduced from a state of utter anarchy and confusion into
some tolerable order; for they had been thrown into confusion,
not only through the faults of the times, and the violence and
licentiousness of royalty, but also through the restless disposition
of the nation, who, from the earliest times, even to our days,
have never conducted any election, or assembly, or council, without
dissensions and tumult. He chose both senators and judges, with
regard, principally, to their property, and made that party the most
powerful in the state to whom it was most important that all things
should be tranquil and secure.

52. When he had completed these regulations in Thessaly, he went on,
through Epirus, to Oricum, whence he intended to take his passage.
From Oricum all the troops were transported to Brundusium. From this
place to the city, they passed the whole length of Italy, in a manner,
like a triumph; the captured effects which they brought with them
forming a train as large as that of the troops themselves. When they
arrived at Rome, the senate assembled outside the city, to receive
from Quinctius a recital of his services; and, with high satisfaction,
a well-merited triumph was decreed him. His triumph lasted three days.
On the first day were carried in procession, armour, weapons, brazen
and marble statues of which he had taken greater numbers from Philip
than from the states of Greece. On the second, gold and silver
wrought, unwrought, and coined. Of unwrought silver, there were
eighteen thousand pounds' weight; and of wrought, two hundred and
seventy thousand; consisting of many vessels of various sorts, most of
them engraved, and several of exquisite workmanship; also a great many
others made of brass; and besides these, ten shields of silver. The
coined silver amounted to eighty-four thousand of the Attic coin,
called Tetradrachmus, containing each of silver about the weight of
four denarii.[1] Of gold there were three thousand seven hundred and
fourteen pounds, and one shield wholly of gold: and of the gold coin
called Philippics, fourteen thousand five hundred and fourteen.[2]
On the third day were carried golden crowns, presented by the several
states, in number one hundred and fourteen; then the victims. Before
his chariot went many illustrious persons, captives and hostages,
among whom were Demetrius, son of king Philip, and Armenes, a
Lacedaemonian, son of the tyrant Nabis. Then Quinctius himself rode
into the city, followed by a numerous body of soldiers, as the
whole army had been brought home from the province. Among these he
distributed two hundred and fifty _asses_[3] to each footman, double
to a centurion, triple to a horseman. Those who had been redeemed from
captivity added to the grandeur of the procession, walking after him
with their heads shaven.