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The consuls for the year had done nothing worth recording in Liguria; the enemy never took the field, so they confined themselves to devastating the country. They returned to Rome for the elections, and on the first day M. Claudius Marcellus and C. Sulpicius Galba were elected consuls. On the following day the election of praetors took place. Those elected were L. Julius, L. Apuleius Saturninus, A. Licinius Nerva, P. Rutilius Calvus, P. Quinctilius Varus and M. Fonteius. [2] The provinces assigned to them were the two home jurisdictions, the two Spanish provinces, Sicily and Sardinia. [3] This year was an intercalary one, the additional day being the one following the Terminalia (Feb. 23). One of the augurs, C. Claudius, died this year; the augurs chose T. Quinctius Flamininus in his place; Q. Fabius Pictor, a Flamen Quirinalis, also died. During the year Prusias went to Rome with his son Nicomedes. [4] He entered the City amid a large concourse, and proceeded through the streets to the tribunal of Q. Cassius the praetor, surrounded by a crowd of citizens. [5] Addressing the praetor, he said that he had come to pay reverence to the gods of the City, to salute the senate and citizens of Rome, and to congratulate them on their victory over Perseus and Gentius, and the extension of their sway by the subjugation of the Macedonians and Illyrians. [6] On the praetor informing him that the senate would grant him an audience on that day, if he wished it, he requested to be allowed two days in which to visit the temples of the gods and see the City and pay visits to his hosts and friends. [7] L. Cornelius Scipio, the quaestor who had been sent to meet him at Capua, was appointed to take him round, and a house in which he and his suite could find ample accommodation was hired for him. [8] Three days afterwards he attended a meeting of the senate. After congratulating them upon the victory, he enumerated his own services in the war, and asked permission to sacrifice ten full-grown victims in the Capitol in fulfilment of a vow, and one to Fortune at Praeneste; these vows had been made for the victory of Rome. He also requested that the alliance with him might be renewed, and that the district taken from Antiochus, which, as the Romans had not assigned it to any one, the Gauls had taken possession of, might be given to him. [9] Lastly, he commended his son to the care and protection of the senate. All who had commanded in Macedonia supported his requests, and, with one exception, they were all granted. [10] With regard to the land, however, he was told that a commission would be sent to investigate the question of ownership. If the territory belonged to Rome, and had not been granted to any one, they should consider that no one was more deserving of the grant than Prusias. [11] If, however, it should turn out not to have belonged to Antiochus and had, therefore, never been claimed by Rome, or should it prove to have been actually granted to the Gauls, Prusias must pardon them if the people of Rome were unwilling that anything should be granted to him to the injury of another. [12] To no one can a gift be grateful when he knows that the giver can take it away whenever he pleases. [13] The senate accepted the commendation of his son Nicomedes; the care with which the people of Rome protect the sons of friendly monarchs was shown in the case of Ptolemy, King of Egypt. [14] With this reply Prusias was dismissed. Presents of . . . sesterces were ordered to he made to him and 50 pounds of silver plate. [15] The senate also decided that presents should be made to Nicomedes of the same value as those made to Masinissa's son Masgaba, and that the victims for sacrifice and the other requisites, whether he wished to offer them at Rome or at Praeneste, should be supplied to the king at the public cost, as in the case of the magistrates. [16] From the fleet at Brundisium twenty warships were assigned to him for his use. [17] Till the king had reached the fleet thus presented to him, L Cornelius Scipio was to be his constant attendant, and was to defray all expenses incurred by him and his suite. They say that the king was wonderfully delighted with the kindness the people of Rome had shown towards him. [18] He refused to have any presents purchased for himself, but he ordered his son to accept what the Roman people gave him. This is what our historians say about Prusias. [19] Polybius alleges that the king was unworthy of his regal title; he was in the habit of meeting the ambassadors who were sent to him with his head shaved, and wearing a freedman's cap, speaking of himself as the manumitted slave of Rome, and wearing the distinctive dress of this class on that account. [20] At Rome, too, when he entered the senate-house, he prostrated himself and kissed the threshold and called the senators his protecting deities, with other expressions more degrading to himself than complimentary to those who heard him. After a stay of not more than thirty days in the City and the neighbourhood he left for his kingdom. [21] A war in Asia was begun (between Eumenes and the Gauls) . . .
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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