Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 45
Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

38. "Indeed the state of my own feelings is different, when I picture myself speaking before the army, than it was previously, when my speech was directed toward the people of the city. [2] For what do you mean, soldiers? Is there anyone in Rome except Perseus who does not want the triumph over Macedonia to be celebrated? And are you not ready to tear such an objector to pieces with the same hands with which you conquered the Macedonians? He who prevents you from entering the city in triumph would have prevented you from winning the victory, had he been able. [3] You are wrong, soldiers, if you suppose that a triumph is an honour only to the general, and not also to the soldiers and to the Roman People as a whole. [4] It is not the glory of Paulus alone which is at stake in this matter.

[p. 381] "Furthermore, many who did not secure a triumph¹ from the senate celebrated their triumph on the Alban Mount. No one can deprive Lucius Paulus of the glory of bringing the Macedonian war to an end any more than he can deprive Gaius Lutatius of credit for the First Punic War, or Publius Cornelius of that for the Second, or the others who have more recently celebrated triumphs. [5] A triumph will make Lucius Paulus neither greater nor less as a general; [6] rather it is the reputation of the soldiers and that of the Roman People as a whole which is at stake in this matter, in the first place that Rome may not gain a reputation for a jealous and ungrateful spirit toward her most distinguished citizens, and seem in this respect to be imitating the people of Athens who in their envy buffet their leading men. [7] Enough of a crime was committed by your ancestors against Camillus —though they wronged him before his recovery of the city from the Gauls; enough was done by yourselves against Publius Africanus. Let us blush that the home and abode of the conqueror of Africa was at Liternum, and that it is at Liternum that his tomb is displayed.² [8] Let Lucius Paulus rival these men in glory, but let him not be their equal in suffering injustice at your hands.

[9] "Let therefore this disgrace be in the first place blotted out —a disgrace odious before other peoples, and harmful to ourselves. For who would want to emulate either Africanus or Paulus in a city so ungrateful and so hostile to excellence? [10] If there were no question of disgrace, and only glory were at stake, what possible triumph does not embody the glory of the Roman name which we all share? [11] Are the many triumphs which have been celebrated over the Gauls, [p. 383]over the Spaniards, over the Carthaginians spoken of³ as pertaining merely to the generals themselves, or to the Roman People? Just as triumphs are celebrated, not merely over Pyrrhus or Hannibal, but over the people of Epirus or Carthage, so not Manius Curius or Publius Cornelius alone,⁴ but the Romans celebrated the triumph. [12] Soldiers indeed are directly interested in the matter, for they too are crowned with laurel, while each man is adorned with the decorations he has been given; they parade through the city invoking the spirit of Triumph by name and singing their own praises and those of their general. [13] If on some occasion the soldiers are not brought back from the field for the triumph, they grumble; and yet even on such an occasion they believe that they are included in the triumph, though absent, because the victory has been won by their hands. [14] If someone should ask you, soldiers, for what purpose you were transported to Italy, and were not dismissed at once when your mission had been completed, if he should ask why you had come to Rome in complete military units, why you were lingering here and were not dispersing, each to his own home, what would you answer but that you wished to be seen celebrating your triumph? Certainly you yourselves ought to have wanted to make a public appearance as conquerors.