2.
Next, envoys of several peoples from each of the Spains were presented to the senate.
[2]
After complaining of the greed and arrogance of Roman officials,1 they begged of the senate on bended knees that it would not permit them, its allies, to be more wretchedly despoiled and harassed than its enemies.
[3]
Since they complained of other acts of injustice also and it was in fact obvious that money had been extorted, the task was assigned to the praetor Lucius Canuleius, to whom Spain2 had been allotted, to assign for each man, from whom the Spaniards were seeking to recover money, five judges3 of senatorial rank and to permit the Spaniards to choose any advocates they might wish.
[4]
The decree of the senate was read to the envoys, who had been summoned to the senate-house, and they were ordered to name their advocates.
[5]
They named four, Marcus [p. 9]Porcius Cato,4 Publius Cornelius Scipio son of Gnaeus,5 Lucius Aemilius Paulus son of Lucius,6 and Gaius Sulpicius Gallus.
[6]
The case of Marcus Titinius, who had been praetor in Nearer Spain during the consulship of Aulus Manlius and Marcus Junius,7 was first taken up by a board of judges.8 The trial was twice adjourned, and at the third session the defendant was acquitted.
[7]
A dispute arose between the envoys of the two provinces; the peoples of Nearer Spain chose as advocates Marcus Cato and Publius Scipio, those of Farther Spain took Lucius Paulus and Sulpicius Gallus.
[8]
There were brought before judges by the peoples of the nearer province Publius Furius Philus, by those of the farther province Marcus Matienus9 ; the former had been praetor three years before, in the
[9??]
consulship of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Mucius, the latter had served two years before, when Lucius Postumius and Marcus Popilius were consuls.
[10]
Both were accused on most serious charges and the cases were adjourned; when the time came for a fresh trial, the defence reported that they had left Roman territory to go into exile. Furius went for his exile to Praeneste, Matienus to [p. 11]Tibur.10
[11]
There was a rumour that the advocates11 would not allow accusations against men of rank and influence; this suspicion was increased by Canuleius the praetor, who gave up this investigation, began to hold a levy, and then suddenly left for his province, so that no more men should be assailed by the Spaniards.
[12]
Though bygones were thus shrouded in silence, the senate voted for the future what the Spaniards had requested —that a Roman official should not set the price for grain, nor compel the Spaniards to sell their five-per-cent quotas12 at the price he wished, and that no officers should be placed over their towns to collect money.
1 On the overbearing attitude of Roman officials at this time, cf. below, vii-viii.
2 The two provinces recognized in 197 B.C. (XXXII. xxviii. 11 and the note) were combined during this war in order to leave one praetor free to command the fleet (171 B.C., XLII. xxxi. 9; presumably in 170; 168, XLIV. xvii. 9; in 167, the two provinces were again separated, XLV. xvi. 1).
3 Sometimes such a board was chosen by the parties to the case, either from their own number, or from a panel proposed by the magistrate in charge, but several inscriptions (e.g., C.I.L.2 I. 585, p. 460. xxxiv) mention choice of the arbiters by the magistrate. Recuperatores (literally “recoverers”) were usually concerned with a claim involving Romans vs. foreigners. As foreigners, the Spaniards had to be represented by Roman advocates.
4 He had benefited the province in 195 B.C. by establishing order and developing mining, cf. XXXIV. xxi. A speech in this case seems to have been once extant under the title Pro Hispanis de frumento (Charisius II. 198. 224 Keil) in which Cato attacked Publius Furius Philus, praetor of Nearer Spain in 174 B.C. (XLI. xxi. 3, cf. below, 8) for unjust valuation of grain received as tribute (Asconius on Cicero Divinatio in M. Caecilium 66, Cato accusavit . . . P. Furium pro iisdem (Lusitanis) propter iniquissimam aestimationem frumenti), cf. below, 12.
5 B.C. 171
6 Scipio had been praetor in Farther Spain in 193 B.C. (XXXIV. xliii. 7 records his assignment, XXXV. i. 3-12, his exploits), and Paulus had been in Farther Spain as praetor and propraetor from 191 to 189 B.C. (his assignment in XXXVI. ii. 6; his activities, XXXVII. lvii. 5-6).
7 In 178 B.C.; Titinius was also in Spain the following two years (XLI. ix. 3, xv. 11, xxvi. 1). A namesake was City Praetor in 178.
8 This is the earliest known trial of an official thus accused by provincials; previous complaints of like nature (cf. XXIX. xvi-xix, XXXIX. iii. 1-3, below, v) had been adjusted by the senate directly, or through the consuls.
9 Cf. XLI. xxviii. 5, where the first name is given as Gaius.
10 Polybius VI. xiv. 7 mentions these towns and Naples as asyla for exiles, and praises as a form of Roman moderation the institution of voluntary exile. In these private suits the exile was apparently not made official by the “ban of fire and water,” as in cases prosecuted by the state, cf. XXVI. iii. 12. Exiles automatically surrendered their Roman citizenship and took up that of the town in which they took refuge.
11 B.C. 171
12 Roman officials are forbidden to demand an arbitrary money-equivalent for grain furnished them, perhaps for their own use and that of their army; nor are they arbitrarily to set the price paid for the grain which the Spaniards were required to sell to the Romans, in order to help maintain the flow of grain to Italy. Whereas in Sicily tithes of grain constituted a tax traditional in the region and continued by the Romans, in Spain the tax (stipendium) paid to the Romans as overlords seems to have been in money, or perhaps in precious metals; the twentieths here mentioned were not a tax, but a compulsory sale, like the second tithe which might on occasion be required of Sicily. The size of the quota perhaps reflects the lesser fertility of Spain. Special levies of money and grain from Spain are mentioned in XXIX. iii. 5 (a punitive levy), XXX. iii. 2 (a war-levy for the army in Africa) and XXX. xxvi. 6 (perhaps the regular tax).
Livy. Books XLIII-XLV With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1951: published without copyright notice.
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