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"Triumphs have been celebrated over Philip, this man's father, and over Antiochus; both were on the throne at the time. Shall there be no triumph over Perseus carried off as a prisoner and brought here with his children? [2] Now, if while Anicius and Octavius were ascending the Capitol in their chariot, clad in gold and purple, L. Paulus standing as an ordinary citizen in the crowd were to ask them: 'Whom do you, L. Anicius and Cn. Octavius, think more deserving of a triumph, me or yourselves?' I think they would for very shame descend from their chariot and hand over their insignia of triumph to him. [3] Would you rather, Quirites, see Gentius led in triumph than Perseus? Would you rather see a triumph over an episode of the war than over the war itself? The legions from Illyria will enter the City in triumph wearing their laurel wreaths; so will the seamen of the fleet. [4] Are the legions from Macedonia going to watch the triumph of others after their own has been denied? What will become of the royal booty, the spoils of such a rich victory? Where will the many thousands of arms and armour stripped from the bodies of the slain be stored? [5] Are they to be sent back to Macedonia? Where are the statues of gold and marble and ivory to go, the paintings, the embroidery, the mass of gold and silver plate, the immense sum of money that belonged to the king? [6] Will they be carried away to the treasury by night as though they were the proceeds of a robbery? Yes, and the greatest spectacle of all, a monarch once most famous and most wealthy, now a prisoner, where is he to be shown to the victorious people? [7] Most of us remember the crowds that gathered to see the captive king Syphax, who played a subordinate part in the Punic war; Perseus, a captive monarch, and his sons Philip and Alexander-names borne by mighty monarchs-are they to be kept out of the sight of the citizens? [8] All men's eyes are yearning to watch L. Paulus, consul now for the second time, the conqueror of Greece, entering the city in his chariot. [9] It was for this that we made him consul that he might bring to an end a war which to our infinite shame had been dragging on for four years. Are we going to deny a triumph to the man to whom, when the ballot had allotted him the province, we destined with prescient minds victory and a triumph, as we watched him leave the City? [10] Are we going to defraud not him alone but the gods as well? Your ancestors invoked them when they started upon any great enterprise, and they invoked them also when they had carried it through. [11] When a consul or a praetor goes to his province with his lictors, wearing the paludamentum, he recites prayers in the Capitol; when the war is over and he returns as victor in triumph to the Capitol, he carries up the gifts which are their due to the same deities to whom he offered the prayers. [12] Not the least important part of the procession is the victims which precede the chariot, so that all may see that the commander is coming back to offer thanks to the gods for the successes they have vouchsafed to the commonwealth. [13] All those victims which he has destined for his triumphal procession you had better go and sacrifice for yourselves, each where and when he chooses. Are those solemn banquets to which the senators sit down, not in any private house nor in any unconsecrated public building, but in the Capitol itself-are they, I ask, intended to gratify men or to honour the gods, and are you going to interfere with them at the bidding of Servius Galba? [14] Will the City gates be closed against L. Paulus' triumph? Is Perseus, the king of the Macedonians, with his children and all the other prisoners, the spoils of Macedonia, to be left in the Circus Flaminius? [15] Is L. Paulus to go to his house like an ordinary citizen returning home from the country, whilst you, centurion and legionary, march wearing the decorations which Paulus has bestowed upon you? "Listen to the decree of the senate, rather than to the romancing of Servius Galba. [16] Listen to this that I am saying, rather than to him. He has learnt nothing but speech-making, and that only to insult and calumniate. I have fought three-and-twenty times in answer to challenges; from all whom I encountered I carried off the spoils. My body is covered with honourable scars, every one received in front." It is said that he then stripped himself and explained in what war each had been received. [17] While making this display he uncovered what ought to be concealed, and a swelling in the groin evoked laughter amongst those nearest to him. [18] He then continued: "This which you are laughing at I got from sitting on horseback night and day, and I am no more ashamed of this than of my other scars; it has never hindered me from serving the commonwealth faithfully, either at home or on the field of battle. As an old soldier I have often shown this body of mine, hacked with the sword, to the young ones. [19] Let Galba strip and show his smooth skin with not a scar upon it. "Tribunes, call back, if you please, the tribes to vote . . . ."
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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