V
Ante tempus excisae Numantiae praeclara in Hispania militia D.Bruti fuit, qui penetratis omnibus Hispaniae gentibus ingenti vi hominum urbiumque potitus numero, aditis quae vix audita erant, Gallaeci cognomen meruit. Et ante eum paucis annis tam severum illius Q.Macedonici in his gentibus imperium fuit, ut, cum urbem Contrebiam nomine in Hispania oppugnaret, pulsas praecipiti loco quinque cohortes legionarias eodem protinus subire iuberet, facientibusque omnibus in procinctu testamenta, velut ad certam mortem eundum foret, non deterritus proposito, quem moriturum miserat militem victorem recepit: tantum effecit mixtus timori pudor spesque desperatione quaesita. Hic virtute ac severitate facti, at Fabius Aemilianus Pauli exemplo disciplina in Hispania fuit clarissimus.
[5] (1) In Spain, even before the destruction of Numantia, Decimus Brutus had conducted a brilliant campaign in which he penetrated to all the peoples of the country, took a great number of men and cities and, by extending his operations to regions which hitherto had scarcely been heard of, earned for himself the cognomen of Gallaecus.
(2) A few years before in this same country Quintus Macedonicus had exercised command as general with a discipline of remarkable rigour. For instance, in an assault upon a Spanish town called Contrebia he ordered five legionary cohorts, which had been driven down from a steep escarpment, forthwith to march up it again. (2) Though the soldiers were making their wills on the battlefield, as though they were about to march to certain death, he was not deterred, but afterwards received the men, whom he sent forth to die, back in camp victorious. Such was the effect of shame mingled with fear, and of a hope born of despair. Macedonicus won renown in Spain by the uncompromising bravery of this exploit; Fabius Aemilianus, following the example of Paulus on the other hand, by the severity of his discipline.
VI
Decem deinde interpositis annis, qui Ti.Gracchum, idem Gaium fratrem eius occupavit furor, tam virtutibus eius omnibus quam huic errori similem, ingenio etiam eloquentiaque longe praestantiorem. Qui cum summa quiete animi civitatis princeps esse posset, vel vindicandae fraternae mortis gratia vel praemuniendae regalis potentiae eiusdem exempli tribunatum ingressus, longe maiora et acriora petens dabat civitatem omnibus Italicis, extendebat eam paene usque Alpis, dividebat agros, vetabat quemquam civem plus quingentis iugeribus habere, quod aliquando lege Licinia cautum erat, nova constituebat portoria, novis coloniis replebat provincias, iudicia a senatu transferebat ad equites, frumentum plebi dari instituerat; nihil immotum, nihil tranquillum, nihil quietum, nihil denique in eodem statu relinquebat; quin alterum etiam continuavit tribunatum. Hunc L.Opimius consul, qui praetor Fregellas exciderat, persecutus armis unaque Fulvium Flaccum, consularem ac triumphalem virum, aeque prava cupientem, quem C.Gracchus in locum Tiberii fratris triumvirum nominaverat, eumque socium regalis adsumpserat potentiae, morte adfecit. Id unum nefarie ab Opimio proditum, quod capitis non dicam Gracchi, sed civis Romani pretium se daturum idque auro repensurum proposuit. Flaccus in Aventino armatos ac pugnam ciens cum filio maiore iugulatus est; Gracchus profugiens, cum iam comprehenderetur ab iis, quos Opimius miserat, cervicem Euporo servo praebuit, qui non segnius se ipse interemit, quam domino succurrerat. Quo die singularis Pomponii equitis Romani in Gracchum fides fuit, qui more Coclitis sustentatis in ponte hostibus eius, gladio se transfixit. Ut Ti. Gracchi antea corpus, ita Gai mira crudelitate victorum in Tiberim deiectum est.
[6] (1) After an interval of ten years the same madness which had possessed Tiberius Gracchus now seized upon his brother Gaius, who resembled him in his general virtues as well as in his mistaken ambition, but far surpassed him in ability and eloquence. (2) Gaius might have been the first man in the state had he held his spirit in repose; but, whether it was with the object of avenging his brother’s death or of paving the way for kingly power, he followed the precedent which Tiberius had set and entered upon the career of a tribune. His aims, however, were far more ambitious and drastic. He was for giving the citizenship to all Italians, extending it almost to the Alps, (3) distributing the public domain, limiting the holdings of each citizen to five hundred acres as had once been provided by the Licinian law, establishing new customs duties, filling the provinces with new colonies, transferring the judicial powers from the senate to the equites, and began the practice of distributing grain to the people. He left nothing undisturbed, nothing untouched, nothing unmolested, nothing, in short, as it had been. Furthermore he continued the exercise of his office for a second term.
(4) The consul, Lucius Opimius, who, as praetor, had destroyed Fregellae, hunted down Gracchus with armed men and put him to death, slaying with him Fulvius Flaccus, a man who, though now entertaining the same distorted ambitions, had held the consulship and had won a triumph. Gaius had named Flaccus triumvir in the place of his brother Tiberius and had made him his partner in his plans for assuming kingly power. (5) The conduct of Opimius was execrable in this one respect, that he had proposed a reward to be paid for the head, I will not say of a Gracchus, but of a Roman citizen, and had promised to pay it in gold. (6) Flaccus, together with his elder son, was slain upon the Aventine while summoning to battle his armed supporters. Gracchus, in his flight, when on the point of being apprehended by the emissaries of Opimius, offered his neck to the sword of his slave Euporus. Euporus then slew himself with the same promptness with which he had given assistance to his master. On the same day Pomponius, a Roman knight, gave remarkable proof of his fidelity to Gracchus; for, after holding back his enemies upon the bridge, as Cocles had done of yore, he threw himself upon his sword. The body of Gaius, like that of Tiberius before him, was thrown into the Tiber by the victors, with the same strange lack of humanity.
VII
Hunc Ti.Gracchi liberi, P.Scipionis Africani nepotes, viva adhuc matre Cornelia, Africani filia, viri optimis ingeniis male usi, vitae mortisque habuere exitum: qui si civilem dignitatis concupissent modum, quidquid tumultuando adipisci gestierunt, quietis obtulisset res publica. Huic atrocitati adiectum scelus unicum. Quippe iuvenis specie excellens necdum duodevicesimum transgressus annum immunisque delictorum paternorum, Fulvii Flacci filius, quem pater legatum de condicionibus miserat, ab Opimio interemptus est. Quem cum haruspex Tuscus amicus flentem in vincula duci vidisset, quin tu hoc potius, inquit, facis? Protinusque inliso capite in postem lapideum ianuae carceris effusoque cerebro expiravit. Crudelesque mox quaestiones in amicos clientesque Gracchorum habitae sunt. Sed Opimium, virum alioqui sanctum et gravem, damnatum postea iudicio publico memoria istius saevitiae nulla civilis prosecuta est misericordia. Eadem Rupilium Popiliumque, qui consules asperrime in Tiberii Gracchi amicos saevierant, postea iudiciorum publicorum merito oppressit invidia. Rei tantae parum ad notitiam pertinens interponetur. Hic est Opimius, a quo consule celeberrimum Opimiani vini nomen; quod iam nullum esse spatio annorum colligi potest, cum ab eo sint ad te, M.Vinici, consulem anni centum et quinquaginta. Factum Opimii, quod inimicitiarum quaesita erat ultio, minor secuta auctoritas, et visa ultio privato odio magis quam publicae vindictae data. In legibus Gracchi inter perniciosissima numerarim, quod extra Italiam colonias posuit. Id maiores, cum viderent tanto potentiorem Tyro Carthaginem, Massiliam Phocaea, Syracusas Corintho, Cyzicum ac Byzantium Mileto, genitali solo, diligenter vitaverant et civis Romanos ad censendum ex provinciis in Italiam revocaverant. Prima autem extra Italiam colonia Carthago condita est. Subinde Porcio Marcioque consulibus deducta colonia Narbo Martius.
[7] (1) Such were the lives and such the deaths of the sons of Tiberius Gracchus, and the grandsons of Publius Scipio Africanus, and their mother Cornelia, the daughter of Africanus, still lived to witness their end. An ill use they made of their excellent talents. Had they but coveted such honours as citizens might lawfully receive, the state would have conferred upon them through peaceful means all that they sought to obtain by unlawful agitations.
(2) To this atrocity was added a crime without precedent. The son of Fulvius Flaccus, a youth of rare beauty who had not yet passed his eighteenth year and was in no way involved in the acts of his
father, when sent by his father as an envoy to ask for terms, was put to death by Opimius. An Etruscan soothsayer, who was his friend, seeing him dragged weeping to prison, said to him, “Why not rather do as I do?” At these words he forthwith dashed out his brains against the stone portal of the prison and thus ended his life.
(3) Severe investigations, directed against the friends and followers of the Gracchi, followed. But when Opimius, who during the rest of his career had been a man of sterling and upright character, was afterwards condemned by public trial, his conviction aroused no sympathy on the part of the citizens because of the recollection of his cruelty in this instance. (4) Rupilius and Popilius, who, as consuls, had prosecuted the friends of Tiberius Gracchus with the utmost severity, deservedly met at a later date with the same mark of popular disapproval at their public trials.
I shall insert here a matter hardly relevant to these important events. (5) It was this same Opimius from whose consulship the famous Opimian wine received its name. That none of this wine is now in existence can be inferred from the lapse of time, since it is one hundred and fifty years, Marcus Vinicius, from his consulship to yours.
(6) The conduct of Opimius met with a greater degree of disapproval because it was a case of seeking revenge in a private feud, and this act of revenge was regarded as having been committed rather in satisfaction of a personal animosity than in defence of the rights of the state.
(7) In the legislation of Gracchus I should regard as the most pernicious his planting of colonies outside of Italy. This policy the Romans of the older time had carefully avoided; for they saw how much more powerful Carthage had been than Tyre, Massilia than Phocaea, Syracuse than Corinth, Cyzicus and Byzantium than Miletus, — all these colonies, in short, than their mother cities — and had summoned all Roman citizens from the provinces back to Italy that they might be enrolled upon the census lists. (8) The first colony to be founded outside of Italy was Carthage. Shortly afterwards the colony of Narbo Martius was founded, in the consulship of Porcius and Marcius.
VIII
Mandetur deinde memoriae severitas iudiciorum. Quippe C.Cato consularis, M.Catonis nepos, Africani sororis filius, repetundarum ex Macedonia damnatus est, cum lis eius HS. quattuor milibus aestimaretur: adeo illi viri magis voluntatem peccandi intuebantur quam modum, factaque ad consilium dirigebant et quid, non in quantum admissum foret, aestimabant. Circa eadem tempora M. C.Metelli fratres uno die triumphaverunt. Non minus clarum exemplum et adhuc unicum Fulvii Flacci, eius qui Capuam ceperat, filiorum, sed alterius in adoptionem dati, in collegio consulatus fuit; adoptivus in Acidini Manlii familiam datus. Nam censura Metellorum patruelium, non germanorum fratrum fuit, quod solis contigerat Scipionibus. Tum Cimbri et Teutoni transcendere Rhenum, multis mox nostris suisque cladibus nobiles. Per eadem tempora clarus eius Minucii, qui porticus, quae hodieque celebres sunt, molitus est, ex Scordiscis triumphus fuit.
[8] (1) I must next record the severity of the law courts in condemning for extortion in Macedonia Gaius Cato, an ex-consul, the grandson of Marcus Cato, and son of the sister of Africanus, though the claim against him amounted to but four thousand sesterces. But the judges of that day looked rather at the purpose of the culprit than at the measure of the wrong, applying to actions the criterion of intention and weighing the character of the sin and not the extent of it.
(2) About the same time the two brothers Marcus and Gaius Metellus celebrated their triumphs on one and the same day. A coincidence equally celebrated which still remains unique, was the conjunction in the consulship of the sons of Fulvius Flaccus, the general who had conquered Capua, but one of these sons, however, had passed by adoption into the family of Acidinus Manlius. As regards the joint censorship of the two Metelli, they were cousins, not brothers, a coincidence which had happened to the family of the Scipios alone.
(3) At this time the Cimbri and Teutons crossed the Rhine. These peoples were soon to become famous by reason of the disasters which they inflicted upon us and we upon them. About the same time took place the famous triumph over the Scordisci of Minucius, the builder of the porticoes which are famous even in our day.
IX
Eodem tractu temporum nituerunt oratores Scipio Aemilianus Laeliusque, Ser.Galba, duo Gracchi, C.Fannius, Carbo Papirius; nec praetereundus Metellus Numidicus et Scaurus, et ante omnes L. Crassus et M. Antonius: quorum aetati ingeniisque successere C. Caesar Strabo, P. Sulpicius; nam Q. Mucius iuris scientia quam proprie eloquentiae nomine celebrior fuit. Clara etiam per idem aevi spatium fuere ingenia in togatis Afranii, in tragoediis Pacuvii atque Accii, usque in Graecorum ingeniorum comparationem evecti, magnumque inter hos ipsos facientis operi suo locum, adeo quidem, ut in illis limae, in hoc paene plus videatur fuisse sanguinis, celebre et Lucilii nomen fuit, qui sub P. Africano Numantino bello eques militaverat. Quo quidem tempore iuvenes adhuc Iugurtha ac Marius sub eodem Africano militantes in iisdem castris didicere, quae postea in contrariis facerent. Historiarum auctor iam tum Sisenna erat iuvenis, sed opus belli civilis Sullanique post aliquot annos ab eo seniore editum est. Vetustior Sisenna fuit Caelius, aequalis Sisennae Rutilius Claudiusque Quadrigarius et Valerius Antias. Sane non ignoremus eadem aetate fuisse Pomponium sensibus celebrem, verbis rudem et novitate inventi a se operis commendabilem.
[9] (1) At this same period flourished the illustrious orators Scipio Aemilianus and Laelius, Sergius Galba, the two Gracchi, Gaius Fannius, and Carbo Papirius. In this list we must not pass over the names of Metellus Numidicus and Scaurus, and above all of Lucius Crassus and Marcus Antonius. (2) They were followed in time as well as in talents by Gaius Caesar Strabo and Publius Sulpicius. As for Quintus Mucius, he was more famous for his knowledge of jurisprudence than, strictly speaking, for eloquence.
(3) In the same epoch other men of talent were illustrious: Afranius in the writing of native comedy, in tragedy Pacuvius and Accius, a man who rose into competition even with the genius of the Greeks, and made a great place for his own work among theirs, with this distinction, however, that, while they seemed to have more polish, Accius seemed to possess more real blood. (4) The name of Lucilius was also celebrated; he had served as a knight in the Numantine war under Publius Africanus. At the same time, Jugurtha and Marius, both still young men, and serving under the same Africanus, received in the same camp the military training which they were later destined to employ in opposing camps. (5) At this time Sisenna, the author of the Histories, was still a young man. His works on the Civil Wars and the Wars of Sulla were published several years later, when he was a relatively old man. (6) Caelius was earlier than Sisenna, while Rutilius, Claudius Quadrigarius and Valerius Antias were his contemporaries. Let us not forget that at this period lived Pomponius, famed for his subject matter, though untutored in style, and noteworthy for the new kind of composition which he invented.
X
Prosequamur nota severitatem censorum Cassii Longini Caepionisque, qui abhinc annos centum quinquaginta tris Lepidum Aemilium augurem, quod sex milibus HS. aedes conduxisset, adesse iusserunt. At nunc si quis tanti habitet, vix ut senator agnoscitur: adeo natura a rectis in prava, a pravis in vitia, a vitiis in praecipitia pervenitur. Eodem tractu temporum et Domitii ex Arvernis et Fabii ex Allobrogibus victoria fuit nobilis; Fabio Pauli nepoti ex victoria cognomen Allobrogico inditum. Notetur Domitiae familiae peculiaris quaedam et ut clarissima, ita artata numero felicitas. Septem ante hunc nobilissimae simplicitatis iuvenem, Cn. Domitium, fuere, singuli omnes parentibus geniti, sed omnes ad consulatum sacerdotiaque, ad triumphi autem paene omnes pervenerunt insignia.
[10] (1) Let us now go on to note the severity of the censors Cassius Longinus and Caepio, who summoned before them the augur Lepidus Aemilius for renting a house at six thousand sesterces. This was a hundred and fifty-three years ago. Nowadays, if any one takes a residence at so low a rate he is scarcely recognized as a senator. Thus does nature pass from the normal to the perverted, from that to the vicious, and from the vicious to the abyss of extravagance.
Complete Works of Velleius Paterculus Page 44