Paulus, Aemi'lius
3. L.
Aemilius Paulus., M. F. M. N. son of No. 2, was consul the first time, B. C. 219, with M. Livius Salinator.
He was sent against the Illyrians, who had risen again in arms tulder Demetrius of the island of Pharos in the Adriatic. Paulus conquered him without any difficulty : he took Pharos, reduced the strong-holds of Demetrius, and compelled the latter to fly for refuge to Philip, king of Macedonia. For these services Paulus obtained a triumph on his return to Rome; but he was notwithstanding brought to trial aloing with his colleague M. Livius Salinator, on the plea that they had not fairly divided the booty among the soldiers. Salinator was condemned, and Paulus escaped with difficulty. (
Plb. 3.16-
19,
4.37; Appian.
Illyr. 8;
Zonar. 8.20 ;
Liv. 22.3.5.) [DEMETRIUS, pp. 965, b., 966, a.]
In B. C. 216 Aemilius Paulus was consul a second time with C. Terentius Varro.
This was the year of the meremorable defeat at Cannae. [HANNIBAL, p. 336.] The battle was fought against the advice of Paulus; and he was one of the many distinguished Romans who perished in the engagement, refusing to fly from the field, when a tribune of the soldiers offered him his horse.
The heroism of his death is sung by Horace (
Hor. Carm. 1.12):--
animaeque magnae
Prodigum Paulum superante Poeno
Gratus insigni referam Camena.
(Comp.
Liv. 22.35-
49;
Plb. 3.107-
116.) Paulus was one of the Pontifices (
Liv. 23.21).
He was throughout his life a staunch adherent of the aristocracy, and was raised to his second consulship by the latter party to counterbalance the influence of the plebeian Terentius Varro.
He maintained all the hereditary principles of his party, of which we have an instance in the circumstance related by Valerius Maximus.
The senate always looked with suspicion upon the introduction of any new religious rites into the city, and accordingly gave orders in the (first) consulship of Paulus for the destruction of the shrines of Isis and Serapis, which had been erected at Rome.
But when no workman dared touch the sacred buildings the consul threw aside his praetexta, or robe of office, seized a hatchet, and broke the doors of one of the temples. (
V. Max. 1.3.3).
