Plutarch's Lives Volume I Part 25

XXVII. The time of year was the beginning of summer, near the solstice at the end of the month Thargelion.[A] A thick mist rose from the river, and all the plain was concealed in fog, so that nothing could be seen of the enemy, but only a confused murmur from the movement of that great host reached the hill. The Corinthians, when they had reached the summit, paused and piled their arms. Now the sun shone out, and the mist rose from the valley. Gathering together, it hung in clouds about the hill-tops, while below, the river Krimesus appeared, with the enemy crossing it.

[Footnote A: About May.]

First went the four-horse chariots in terrible pomp, all drawn up in battle array, while next to them followed ten thousand hoplites with white shields. These they conjectured to be native Carthaginians by the splendour of their equipments and their slow and orderly march.

Following these came the other nations, turbulently and confusedly struggling across. Timoleon, seeing that the river kept off the ma.s.s of the enemy, and allowed them to fight with just so many as they chose, pointed out to his soldiers how the enemy's array was broken by the stream, some having crossed, and some being still crossing. He ordered Demaretus to take the cavalry and charge the Carthaginians, to prevent their having time to form in order of battle. But he himself marched down to the plain, having drawn up his force with the other Sicilian Greeks and a few strangers on each of the wings, but with his Syracusans and the best of the paid force under his own command in the centre.

For a short time he held back, watching the effect of the cavalry charge; but seeing that they were unable to come to blows with the Carthaginians because of the chariots which careered about in front of their ranks, and that they constantly had to fall back to avoid their array being broken, and then to make short rushes as occasion served, he himself took his shield, and called to the infantry to follow him and be of good cheer. It seemed to them that his voice was more than man's, and louder than was his wont, either from their faculties being strained by the excitement of the contest, or else because, as most of them believed, some G.o.d shouted with him. Quickly they raised their war-cry in answer, and begged him to lead them on and wait no longer. Ordering the cavalry to ride round the line of chariots and attack the infantry in flank, he closed up the foremost ranks, and with the trumpet sounding the charge, attacked the Carthaginians.

XXVIII. They manfully encountered his first a.s.sault, and being armed with iron cuira.s.ses and bra.s.s helmets, and protected with large shields, they were able to withstand the thrust of the Greek spears. But when the struggle came to be decided with swords, where skill as well as strength was employed, there suddenly broke upon them from the mountains a terrible storm of thunder with vivid flashes of lightning. The mist, which had hitherto hung about the mountain peaks, now rolled down on to the field of battle, with violent gusts, hail, and rain. The Greeks received it on their backs, while the rain beat into the faces of the barbarians, and the lightning dazzled their eyes, as the storm swept violently along with frequent flashes from the clouds. These were great disadvantages, especially to inexperienced men, as the thunder and the pattering of the rain and hail on their armour prevented their hearing the commands of their officers. The Carthaginians, not being lightly equipped, but, as has been narrated, in complete armour, slipped on the muddy ground and were enc.u.mbered by the wet folds of their dress, which rendered them less active in the fight, and easily overcome by the Greeks, since when they fell in the slippery mud they could not rise again with their shields. The river Krimesus, which had been held up by the mult.i.tudes that were crossing it, was now swollen to a torrent by the rain, and the plain through which it runs, lying as it does under many steep glens and ravines, was now covered with streams not running in the ordinary channels, in which the Carthaginians stumbled and were hard bested.

At last, from the violence of the storm, and the Greeks having cut to pieces their front rank, a chosen body of four hundred men, the great ma.s.s turned and fled. Many were overtaken and slain on the plain, and many more perished in the river, while the light-armed troops prevented most of them from gaining the shelter of the mountains. It was said that among the myriads of slain there were three thousand citizens of Carthage--a great loss and grief to that city, for they belonged to the n.o.blest and richest cla.s.ses; nor do we ever hear of so many native Carthaginians having perished in any one battle before this, as they generally make use of Libyan, Spanish and Numidian troops, so that in case of defeat the loss falls upon other nations.

XXIX. The Greeks discovered the rank of the dead by the richness of their spoil; for when they collected the booty no account was taken of iron or bra.s.s, such an abundance was there of silver and gold; for they crossed the river and captured the enemy's camp. Of the captives, the greater part were stolen by the soldiers, and sold privately, but a body of five thousand was brought into the common stock. Two hundred chariots also were taken. The most glorious and magnificent spectacle of all was the tent of Timoleon, round which booty of every kind was piled up in heaps, among which were a thousand corslets of exquisite workmanship, and ten thousand shields. As they were but few to gather the plunder of so many, and as they fell in with such riches, it was only on the third day that they managed to erect a trophy of their victory. Together with the despatch announcing his success, Timoleon sent home to Corinth the finest of the arms and armour, desiring to make his country envied by all men, when they should see, in that alone of all Greek cities, that the most important shrines were not adorned with Grecian spoils, nor with offerings obtained by the slaughter of men of their own race and blood, dismal memorials at best, but with spoils of the barbarian, whose inscriptions bore n.o.ble testimony to the justice, as well as the courage of the victors, telling how the Corinthians and their general, Timoleon, having freed the Greeks who dwell in Sicily from the yoke of Carthage, set up these thank-offerings to the G.o.ds.

x.x.x. After the victory he left the paid force in the enemy's country, to ravage and plunder the Carthaginian dominions, and himself proceeded to Syracuse. He now ordered out of the island those mercenary troops by whom he had been deserted before the battle; and even forced them to quit Sicily before sunset. These men crossed into Italy and perished there at the hands of the Bruttians, who broke their word to them and betrayed them. This was the penalty which Heaven imposed on them for their desertion. But Mamercus, the despot of Catana, and Hiketes, either through disgust at Timoleon's successes, or else fearing him as a man not likely to keep faith with despots, made an alliance with Carthage, as they said that the Carthaginians, unless they wished to be utterly driven out of Sicily, must send a competent force and a general. Gisco the son of Hanno sailed thither with seventy ships, and also with a force of Greek mercenary soldiers, whom the Carthaginians had never used before; but now they were full of admiration for the Greeks, as being the most warlike and invincible of men. Having effected a junction of their forces in the territory of Messina, they cut to pieces a body of four hundred foreign soldiers whom Timoleon sent against them; and in the Carthaginian dominion they laid an ambush near the place called Hietae, and cut off the hired troops of Euthymus the Leukadian. Both these circ.u.mstances made the good fortune of Timoleon more renowned. For these were some of the men who under Philomelus of Phokis and Onomarchus sacrilegiously took Delphi, and shared in the plunder of the temple. As all men loathed them and shrank from them as from men under a curse, they wandered about Peloponnesus until Timoleon, being unable to get any other soldiers, enlisted them in his service. When they reached Sicily, they were victorious in every battle which they fought where he was present. After the most important struggles of the war were over, they were sent to reinforce others, and so perished and came to nought; and not all at once, but piecemeal, as if their avenging fate had given way to Timoleon's good fortune for a season, lest the good should suffer from the punishment of the wicked. Thus the kindness of the G.o.ds towards Timoleon was no less seen and wondered at in his failures than in his successes.

x.x.xI. The people of Syracuse were much nettled by the insulting jests pa.s.sed upon them by the despots. Mamercus, who plumed himself on his poems and tragedies, gave himself great airs after conquering the mercenaries, and when he hung up their shields as offerings to the G.o.ds, he inscribed this insolent elegiac couplet upon them.

"These, with purple wrought, and ivory, gold, and amber, We with our simple shields conquered and laid in the dust."

After these events, while Timoleon was on a campaign in the direction of Kalauria, Hiketes invaded the Syracusan territory, did much damage and insult, and retired loaded with spoil, past the very walls of Kalauria, despising Timoleon, who had but a small force with him. He, however, let him pa.s.s, but then pursued with his cavalry and light troops. Hiketes, perceiving this, halted after crossing the river Damyrias, and drew up his troops along the farther bank to dispute the pa.s.sage, encouraged to do so by the different nature of the ford, and the steepness of the hills on either hand. Now a strange rivalry and contest arose among Timoleon's captains, which delayed their onset. No one chose to let any one else lead the way against the enemy, but each man wished to be first; so that their crossing was conducted in a disorderly fashion, each man trying to push by and outstrip the rest. Hereupon Timoleon, wishing to choose the leaders by lot, took a ring from each. These he threw into his own cloak, mixed them up, and showed the first which he drew out, which happened to be engraved with the figure of a trophy of victory. When the young men saw this they raised a shout of joy, and would not wait for the rest to be drawn, but each man, as fast as he could, rode through the river and set upon the enemy. Their a.s.sault was irresistible; the enemy fled, all of them throwing away their shields, and with the loss of a hundred men.

x.x.xII. Soon after this, while Timoleon was campaigning in the Leontine country, he took Hiketes alive, with his son Eupolemus, and Euthymus, the commander of his cavalry. The soldiers seized and bound them, and led them into Timoleon's presence. Hiketes and his son were put to death as despots and traitors; nor did Euthymus meet with compa.s.sion, though he was a man of renown in athletic contest, and of great personal bravery, because of a scoffing speech of which he was accused against the Corinthians. The story goes that he was addressing the people of Leontini on the subject of the Corinthian invasion, and told them that there was nothing to be alarmed at if

"Corinthian ladies have come out from home."[A]

Thus it is that most people seem to suffer more from hard words than hard deeds, and are more excited by insult than by actual hurt. What we do to our enemies in war is done of necessity, but the evil we say of them seems to spring from an excess of spite.

[Footnote A: A line in the Medea of Euripides. The point of the joke depends on the punctuation, but cannot be kept in translation.]

x.x.xIII. On Timoleon's return the Syracusans brought the family and daughters of Hiketes before the public a.s.sembly for trial, and condemned them to death. And this, methinks, is the most heartless of Timoleon's actions, that for want of a word from him these poor creatures should have perished. He seems not to have interfered, and to have let the people give full vent to their desire to avenge Dion, who dethroned Dionysius. For Hiketes was the man who threw Dion's wife Arete alive into the sea, with her sister Aristomache and her little son, as is told in the Life of Dion.

x.x.xIV. After this he marched against Mamercus at Catana. He beat him in a pitched battle near the river Abolus, routing him with a loss of two thousand men, no small part of whom belonged to the Phoenician contingent under Gisco. Hereupon, at the request of the Carthaginians, he made peace, stipulating that they should hold the country beyond the river Lykus, and that those who wished should be allowed to have it and go to reside at Syracuse, with their families and property, and also that they should give up their alliance with the despots. In despair at this Mamercus sailed to Italy, to try to bring the Lucanians against Timoleon and the Syracusans; but he was deserted by his followers, who turned their ships back, sailed to Syracuse, and surrendered Catana to Timoleon. Mamercus now was forced to take refuge in Messina with Hippo, the despot there. But Timoleon came and besieged it both by sea and land. Hippo endeavoured to escape on a ship, and was taken. The people of Messina, to whom he was delivered up, brought every one, even the boys from school, into the theatre, to witness that most salutary spectacle, a tyrant meeting with his deserts. He was put to death with torture; but Mamercus surrendered himself to Timoleon on condition that he should have a fair trial before the people of Syracuse, and that Timoleon should say nothing against him. When he was brought to Syracuse he was brought before the people, and tried to deliver a long premeditated speech to them, but meeting with interruptions and seeing that the a.s.sembly was inexorable he flung away his cloak and rushed across the theatre, striking his head against a stone step with the intention of killing himself. However he failed, and paid the penalty of his crimes by suffering the death of a pirate.

x.x.xV. In this fashion the despotisms were put down by Timoleon, and the wars finished. The whole island, which had become a mere wilderness through the constant wars, and was grown hateful to the very natives, under his administration became so civilized and desirable a country that colonists sailed to it from those very places to which its own citizens had formerly betaken themselves to escape from it. For Akragas and Gela, large cities, which after the war with Athens had been destroyed by the Carthaginians, were now repeopled; the former colonists led by Megellus and Pheristus, from Elea on the south coast of Italy, and the latter by a party led by Gorgus, who sailed from Keos and collected together the former citizens.

When these cities were being reorganised Timoleon not only afforded them peace and safety, but also gave them great a.s.sistance, and showed so great an interest in them as to be loved and respected by them as their real Founder. The other cities also all of them looked upon him with the same feelings, so that no peace could be made by them, no laws established, no country divided among settlers, no const.i.tutional changes made that seemed satisfactory, unless he had a hand in them, and arranged them just as an architect, when a building is finished, gives some graceful touches which adorn the whole.

x.x.xVI. There were many Greeks, in his lifetime, who became great, and did great things, such as Timotheus, and Agesilaus, and Pelopidas, and Timoleon's great model, Epameinondas. But these men's actions produced a glory which was involved in much strain and toil, and some of their deeds have incurred censure, and even been repented of. Whereas those of Timoleon, if we except the terrible affair of his brother, have nothing in them to which we cannot apply, like Timaeus, that verse of Sophocles--

"Ye G.o.ds, what Venus or what grace divine Took part in this."

For as in the poetry of Antimachus, and the paintings of Dionysius, the Kolophonians, we find a certain vigour and power, yet think them forced in expression, and produced with much labour, while the paintings of Nikomachus and the verses of Homer, besides their other graces and merits, have the charm of seeming to have been composed easily and without effort, so also the campaigns of Timoleon, when compared with the laborious and hardly contested ones of Epameinondas or Agesilaus, seem to have, besides their glory, a wonderful ease, which property is not so much to be attributed to good luck as to prosperous valour. He, however, ascribed all his successes to Fortune, for in writing to his friends at home, and in his public speeches to the Syracusans, he frequently expressed his thankfulness to this G.o.ddess, who, having determined to save Sicily, had chosen to ascribe to him the credit of doing it. In his house he built a chapel to Automatia,--the G.o.ddess under whose auspices blessings and glory came as it were of themselves.

To her he offered sacrifices, and consecrated his house to her. He lived in a house which the Syracusans had bestowed upon him as a special prize for his successes as general, and also the most beautiful and pleasant country seat, where indeed he spent most of his leisure time with his wife and children, whom he had sent for from Corinth. For he never returned to Corinth, nor mixed himself up in the troubles of Greece, nor did he expose himself to the hatred of political faction, which is the rock upon which great generals commonly split, in their insatiate thirst for honour and power; but he remained in Sicily, enjoying the blessings of which he was the author; the greatest of which was to see so many cities, and so many tens of thousands, all made happy and prosperous by his means.

x.x.xVII. But since, as Simonides says, all larks must have crests, and all republics sycophants, so two of the popular leaders, Laphystius and Demaenetus, attacked Timoleon. When Laphystius was insisting on his giving bail for some lawsuit, he would not permit the people to hoot at him or stop him; for he said that all his labours and dangers had been endured to obtain for every Syracusan the right of appealing to the laws. Demaenetus made many attacks in the public a.s.sembly on his generalship; but he made him no answer except to declare his thankfulness to the G.o.ds for having granted his prayer that he might see all Syracusans in possession of liberty of speech.

Though he confessedly had performed the greatest and most glorious actions of any Greek of his time, and though he had gained the glory of having alone done that which the orators in their speeches at great public meetings used to urge the entire nation to attempt, he was fortunately removed from the troubles which fell upon ancient Greece, and saved from defiling his hands with the blood of his countrymen. His courage and conduct were shown at the expense of barbarians and despots; his mildness of temper was experienced by Greeks; he was able to erect the trophies for most of his victories, without causing tears and mourning to the citizens; but nevertheless, within eight years, he restored Sicily to its native inhabitants, freed from the scourges which had afflicted it for so long a time and seemed so ineradicable. When advanced in years he suffered from a dimness of sight, which soon became total blindness. He had done nothing to cause it, and had met with no accident, but the disease was congenital, and in time produced a cataract. Many of his relatives are said in a similar fashion to have lost their sight when advanced in years. But Athanis tells us that during the war with Hippo and Mamercus, at the camp at Mylae, his eyesight became affected, and that this was noticed by all, but that he did not on that account desist from the siege, but persevered in the war, till he captured the two despots; but as soon as he returned to Syracuse he resigned his post of commander-in-chief, begging the citizens to allow him to do so, as the war had been brought to a happy conclusion.

x.x.xVIII. That he endured his misfortune without repining is not to be wondered at; but one must admire the respect and love shown him when blind by the people of Syracuse. They constantly visited him, and brought with them any strangers that might be staying with them, both to his town and country house, to show them their benefactor, glorying in the fact that he had chosen to spend his life amongst them, and had scorned the magnificent reception which his exploits would have ensured him, had he returned to Greece. Of the many important tributes to his worth none was greater than the decree of the Syracusans that whenever they should be engaged in war with foreign tribes, they would have a Corinthian for their general. Great honour was also reflected upon him by their conduct in the public a.s.sembly; for, though they managed ordinary business by themselves, on the occasion of any important debate they used to call him in. Then he would drive through the market-place into the theatre; and when the carriage in which he sat was brought in, the people would rise and salute him with one voice. Having returned their greeting, and allowed a short time for their cheers and blessings, he would hear the disputed point debated, and then give his opinion.

When this had been voted upon his servants would lead his carriage out of the theatre, while the citizens, cheering and applauding him as he went, proceeded to despatch their other business without him.

x.x.xIX. Cherished in his old age with such respect and honour, as the common father of his country, Timoleon at length, after a slight illness, died. Some time was given for the Syracusans to prepare his funeral, and for neighbours and foreigners to a.s.semble, so that the ceremony was performed with great splendour. The bier, magnificently adorned, and carried by young men chosen by lot, pa.s.sed over the place where once the castle of Dionysius had been pulled down. The procession was joined by tens of thousands of men and women, whose appearance was gay enough for a festival, for they all wore garlands and white robes.

Their lamentations and tears mingled with their praises of the deceased showed that they were not performing this as a matter of mere outward respect and compliance with a decree, but that they expressed real sorrow and loving grat.i.tude. At last, when the bier was placed upon the pyre, Demetrius, the loudest voiced of the heralds at that time, read aloud the following:--

"The Syracusan people solemnise, at the cost of two hundred minae, the funeral of this man, the Corinthian Timoleon, son of Timodemus. They have pa.s.sed a vote to honour him for all future time with festival matches in music, horse and chariot races, and gymnastics, because, after having put down the despots, subdued the foreign enemy, and recolonized the greatest among the ruined cities, he restored to the Sicilian Greeks their const.i.tution and laws."[A]

[Footnote A: Grote.]

They buried him in the market-place, and afterwards surrounded the spot with a colonnade, and built a palastra in it for the young men to practise in, and called it the Timoleonteum; and, living under the const.i.tution and laws which he established, they pa.s.sed many years in prosperity.

LIFE OF AEMILIUS.

II.[A] Most writers agree that the Aemilian was one of the most n.o.ble and ancient of the patrician families of Rome. Those who tell us that King Numa was a pupil of Pythagoras, narrate also that Mamercus, the founder of this family, was a son of that philosopher, who for his singular grace and subtlety of speech was surnamed Aemilius. Most of the members of the family who gained distinction by their valour, were also fortunate, and even the mishap of Lucius Paullus at Cannae bore ample testimony to his prudence and valour. For since he could not prevail upon his colleague to refrain from battle, he, though against his better judgment, took part in it, and disdained to fly; but when he who had begun the contest fled from it, he stood firm, and died fighting the enemy. This Aemilius had a daughter, who married Scipio the Great, and a son who is the subject of this memoir. Born in an age which was rendered ill.u.s.trious by the valour and wisdom of many distinguished men, he eclipsed them all, though he followed none of the studies by which young men were then gaining themselves a reputation, but chose a different path. He did not practise at the bar, nor could he bring himself to court the favour of the people by the greetings, embraces, and professions of friendship to which most men used to stoop to obtain popularity. Not that he was by nature unfitted for such pursuits; but he considered it better to gain a reputation for courage, justice, and truth, in which he soon outshone his contemporaries.

[Footnote A: In Sintenis's text the chapter with which this life usually begins is prefixed to the Life of Timoleon.]

III. The first honourable office for which he was a candidate was that of aedile, for which he was elected against twelve others, who, they say, all afterwards became consuls. When chosen a priest of the college of Augurs, whom the Romans appoint to watch and register the omens derived from the flight of birds, or the signs of the heavens, he so carefully applied himself to learning the ancient customs and religion of his ancestors, that the priesthood, hitherto merely considered as an empty t.i.tle of honour and sought after for that reason only, became regarded as the sublimest craft of all, confirming the saying of the philosophers, that holiness consists in a knowledge of how to serve the G.o.ds. Under him everything was done with both zeal and skill. He neglected all other duties, when engaged upon these, neither omitting any part nor adding any, arguing with his companions, when they blamed him for his care about trifles, that though a man might think that heaven was merciful and forgiving of negligences, yet that habitual disregard and overlooking of such points was dangerous for the state, seeing that no one ever begins till some flagrant breach of the law to disturb the const.i.tution, but those who are careless of accuracy in small things soon begin to neglect the most important. He was no less severe in exacting and maintaining military discipline than with religious observances, never forgetting the general in the demagogue, nor, as many then did, endeavouring to make his first command lead to a second by indulgence and affability to his troops, but, like a priest expounding mysteries, he carefully taught them everything requisite for a campaign, and, by his severity to the careless and disobedient, restored the former glory to his country; for he seemed to think victory over the enemy was merely a subordinate incident in the great work of disciplining his fellow-citizens.

IV. When the Romans were at war with Antiochus the Great, and all their most experienced generals were employed against him, there arose another war in the west of Europe, in consequence of revolutionary movements in Spain. Aemilius was appointed commander to conduct this war, not with six lictors only, like ordinary generals, but twelve, so as to give him consular authority. He defeated the barbarians in two pitched battles, with a loss of nearly thirty thousand. The credit of this exploit belongs peculiarly to the general, who made such use of the advantage of the ground, and the ford over a certain river, as to render victory an easy matter for his soldiers. He also took two hundred and fifty cities, which opened their gates to him. Having established a lasting peace in his province he returned to Rome, not having gained a penny by his command. For he was careless of money-making, though he spent his fortune without stint; and it was so small, that after his death it hardly sufficed to make up the dower of his wife.

V. He married Papiria, the daughter of Papirius Maso, a consular; and after living with her for a considerable time, divorced her, though he had by her an ill.u.s.trious family, for she was the mother of the renowned Scipio, and of Fabius Maximus. No reason for their separation has come down to us, but there is much truth in that other story about a divorce, that some Roman put away his wife; and his friends then blamed him, saying, "Is she not chaste? is she not beautiful? is she not fruitful?"

He, stretching out his shoe, said, "Is it not beautiful? is it not new?

But none of you can tell where it pinches me. In fact, some men divorce their wives for great and manifest faults, yet the little but constant irritation which proceeds from incompatible tempers and habits, though unnoticed by the world at large, does gradually produce between married people breaches which cannot be healed."

So Aemilius put away Papiria, and married again. By his second marriage he had two sons, whom he kept at home, but those by the former marriage he had adopted into the greatest and n.o.blest families of Rome, the elder into that of Fabius Maximus, who had five times been consul, while the younger was treated by Scipio Africa.n.u.s as his cousin, and took the name of Scipio.

Of his two daughters, one married a son of Cato, the other Aelius Tubero, an excellent man, who supported his poverty more gloriously than any other Roman. There were sixteen in the family, all Aelii; and one small house and estate sufficed for them all, with their numerous offspring and their wives, among whom was the daughter of our Aemilius, who, though her father had twice been consul and twice triumphed, was not ashamed of the poverty of her husband, but was proud of the virtue that kept him poor. But nowadays brothers and kinsmen, unless their inheritances be divided by mountain ranges, rivers, and walls like fortifications, with plenty of s.p.a.ce between them, quarrel without ceasing. These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.

VI. Aemilius, when elected consul, marched against the sub-Alpine Ligurians, called by some Ligustines, a brave and spirited nation, and from their nearness to Rome, skilled in the arts of war. Mixed with the Gauls, and the Iberians of the sea coast, they inhabit the extremity of Italy where it dies away into the Alps, and also that part of the Alps which is washed by the Tuscan Sea, opposite the Libyan coast. At this time they took also to seafaring, and, sailing forth in small piratical ships, they plundered and preyed upon commerce as far as the columns of Heracles. On Aemilius's approach they opposed him, forty thousand strong; but he, with only eight thousand, attacked five-fold his own numbers, put them to rout, and having chased them into their fastnesses, offered them reasonable and moderate terms; for it was not the Roman policy utterly to exterminate the Ligurian race, but to leave them as an outwork to protect Italy against the constant movements of the Gaulish tribes.

Trusting in Aemilius they surrendered all their ships and their cities into his hands. He did the cities no hurt, or at most destroyed the walls, and restored them to the owners, but he carried off all the ships, leaving them nothing larger than a six-oared boat; while he set free the numerous captives which they had taken both by sea and land, among whom were some Roman citizens. These were his glorious exploits in that consulship. Afterwards he frequently let his desire for re-election be seen, and once became a candidate, but as he failed and was pa.s.sed over, he thenceforth remained in retirement, occupying himself with religious matters, and teaching his children not only the Roman education in which he himself had been brought up, but also the Greek, and that more carefully. For not only were the grammarians, philosophers, and orators Greek, but also the sculptors and painters, and the young men kept Greeks to manage their horses and hounds, and instruct them in hunting. Aemilius, unless hindered by public business, always was present at the exercises and studies of his sons, and was the kindest father in Rome.

VII. This was the period during which the Romans, who were at war with Perseus, King of Macedon, complained of their generals, whose ignorance and cowardice had led to the most disgraceful and ridiculous failure, and to the sustaining of much more loss than they inflicted. They, who had just driven Antiochus, called the Great, out of Asia Minor, beyond Taurus, and restricted him to Syria, making him glad to purchase peace at the price of fifteen thousand talents; who, a little before, had crushed Philip in Thessaly, and set free the Greeks from the power of Macedon; and who had also utterly subdued Hannibal himself, a man whose daring and immense resources rendered him far more dangerous an opponent than any king, thought that it was not to be borne that Perseus should wage war as if he were on equal terms with the Roman people, and that, too, with only the remnants of his father's routed forces; for they did not know that Philip, after his defeat, had greatly increased the power and efficiency of the Macedonian army. To explain which, I shall briefly relate the story from the beginning.

VIII. Antigonus, who was the most powerful of the generals and successors of Alexander, and who obtained for himself and his family the t.i.tle of king, had a son named Demetrius, whose son was Antigonus, called Gonatas. His son again was named Demetrius, who, after reigning some short time, died, leaving a son Philip, a mere boy in years.

Fearing disturbance during his minority, the Macedonian n.o.bles made Antigonus, a cousin of the deceased, Regent and commander-in-chief, a.s.sociating with him in this office the mother of Philip. Finding him a moderate and useful ruler, they soon gave him the t.i.tle of king. He had the soubriquet of Doson, as though he were only a promiser, not a performer of his engagements. After this man, Philip came to the throne, and, while yet a boy, distinguished himself in all that becomes a king, so as to raise men's hopes that he might restore the empire of Macedon to its ancient glory, and be alone able to check the power of Rome, which now menaced the whole world. Defeated in a great battle at Scotussa by t.i.tus Flamininus, he bent to the storm, surrendered all that he had to the Romans, and was thankful for mild treatment. Afterwards, chafing at his subordinate position, and thinking that to reign dependent on the pleasure of the Romans was more worthy of a slave who cares only for sensual pleasure, than of a man of spirit, he gave his whole mind up to preparations for war, and secretly and unscrupulously collected materials for it. Of the cities in his kingdom, he allowed those on the sea-coast and the main roads to fall into partial decay, so that his power might be despised, while he collected great forces in the interior. Here he filled all the outposts, fortresses, and cities with arms, money, and men fit for service, and thus trained the nation for war, yet kept his preparations secret. In his a.r.s.enals were arms for thirty thousand men; eight million medimni of corn were stored in his fortresses, and such a ma.s.s of treasure as would pay an army of ten thousand men for ten years. But before he could put all these forces in motion and begin the great struggle, he died of grief and remorse, for he had, as he admitted, unjustly put his other son Demetrius to death on the calumnies of one far worse than he was. Perseus, the survivor, inherited his father's hatred of the Romans with his kingdom, but was not of a calibre to carry out his designs, as his small and degraded mind was chiefly possessed by avarice. He is said not even to have been legitimate, but that Philip's wife obtained him when a baby from his real mother, a midwife of Argos, named Gnathaina, and palmed him off upon her husband. And this seems to have been one reason for her putting Demetrius to death, for fear that if the family had a legitimate heir, this one's b.a.s.t.a.r.dy would be discovered.

IX. However, low-born and low-minded though he was, yet having by the force of circ.u.mstances drifted into war, he held his own and maintained himself for a long time against the Romans, defeating generals of consular rank with great armies, and even capturing some of them.

Publius Licinius, who first invaded Macedonia, was defeated in a cavalry engagement, with a loss of two thousand five hundred brave men killed, and six hundred prisoners. Perseus next by a sudden attack made himself master of the Roman naval station at Oreus, took twenty store ships, sunk the rest, which were loaded with grain, and took also four quinqueremes.[A] He fought also a second battle, in which he drove back the consular general Hostilius, who was trying to invade Macedonia near Elimiae; and when he tried to steal in through Thessaly, he again offered battle, which the Roman declined. As an accessory to the war he now made a campaign against the Dardans, as if affecting to despise the Romans and to be at leisure. Here he cut to pieces ten thousand of the barbarians, and carried off much plunder. He also had secret negotiations with the Gauls who dwell near the Ister, called Basternae, a nation of warlike hors.e.m.e.n, and by means of Genthius their king he endeavoured to induce the Illyrians to take part in the war. There was even a report that the barbarians had been induced by his bribes to march through the southern part of Gaul beside the Adriatic, and so invade Italy.

[Footnote A: Ships of war with five banks of oars.]

X. The Romans, when they learnt all this, determined that they would disregard political influence in their choice of a general, and choose some man of sense and capable of undertaking great operations. Such a one was Paulus Aemilius, a man of advanced age, being about sixty years old, but still in full vigour of body, and surrounded by kinsmen, grown-up sons, and friends, who all urged him to listen to the appeal of his country and be consul. He at first treated the people with little respect, and shunned their eager professions of zeal, on the plea that he did not wish for the command; but as they waited on him daily, and called for him to come into the forum and shouted his name, he was at length prevailed upon. When a candidate, he seemed to enter the field not with a view to getting office, but to giving victory and strength in battle to his fellow-citizens; with such zeal and confidence did they unanimously elect him consul for the second time, not permitting lots to be cast for provinces by the two consuls, as is usual, but at once decreeing to him the management of the Macedonian war. It is said that when he was named general against Perseus, he was escorted home in triumph by the people _en ma.s.se_, and found his daughter Tertia, who was quite a little child, in tears. He embraced her, and asked her why she was crying; and she, throwing her arms round him and kissing him, said, "Do you not know, father, that our Perseus is dead?" meaning a little dog which she had brought up, which was so named. Aemilius said, "May this bring good luck, my daughter: I accept the omen." This story Cicero the orator tells in his book on Divination.