46.
Whilst these things are being transacted in Asia, two proconsuls arrived almost together at Rome, from their provinces, with hopes of triumphing: Quintus Minucius, from Liguria, and Manius Acilius, from Aetolia.
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After hearing their services, the senate refused a triumph to Minucius, but, with great unanimity, decreed one to Acilius, and he rode through the city in triumph over king Antiochus and the Aetolians.
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In the procession were carried, two hundred and [p. 1704]thirty military ensigns; of unwrought silver, three thousand pounds' weight; of coin, one hundred and thirteen thousand Attic tetradrachms;1 and two hundred and forty-eight thousand2 cistophoruses;3 of chased silver vessels, a great number, and of great weight. He bore, also, the king's silver, furniture, and splendid wardrobe; golden crowns, presents from the allied states, forty-five; with spoils of all kinds. He led thirty-six prisoners of distinction, generals of the Aetolian and royal armies.
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Damocritus, the Aetolian general, a few days before, when he had escaped out of prison in the night, being overtaken by the guards on the bank of the Tiber, stabbed himself with a sword before he was seized. Nothing was wanted but the
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soldiers, to follow the general's chariot; in every other respect the triumph was magnificent, both in the grandeur of the procession and the fame of his achievements. Sad intelligence from Spain diminished the joy of
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this triumph, viz. that in an unsuccessful battle in the territory of the Bastitani, under the command of Lucius Aemilius, the proconsul, at the town of Lycon, there fell six thousand of the Roman army against the Lusitanians;
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and that the rest, being driven in a panic within their rampart, found it difficult to defend
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the camp, and had retreated, by forced marches, as if flying, into a friendly country. Such were the accounts from Spain. Lucius Aurunculeius, the praetor, introduced to the senate the deputies of Placentia and Cremona, in Cisalpine Gaul. When they complained of the want of colonists, some having been carried off by the casualties of war, others by sickness, and several having left the colonies, through disgust at the vicinity of the Gauls;
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on this, the senate decreed, that “Caius Laelius, the consul, if he thought proper, should enrol six thousand families, to be distributed
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among these colonies, and that Lucius Aurunculeius, the praetor, should appoint commissioners to conduct the colonists.” Accordingly, Marcus Atilius Serranus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, son of Publius, and Lucius Valerius Tappo, son of Caius, were nominated to that office.
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