with baggage animals and camp-followers, be brought to fight against an enemy who could quietly and deliberately place themselves in order of battle. While the generals were at variance, one of the horsemen called Numidians rode up bearing a letter from Otho, in which he ordered them not to waste any time, but to march against the enemy at once. On receiving this they started. Cæcina, hearing of their march, was much disquieted, abandoned his operations by the river, and proceeded to the camp. Here after Valens had got the men under arms, and had given them the watchword, he sent forward the best of the cavalry while the legions were taking up their respective positions in the line of battle.
XII. For some reason or other the men of Otho's vanguard conceived an idea that the generals of Vitellius intended to desert to their side: and so, when they came near to one another, they saluted the Vitellians and addressed them as friends and comrades. As the Vitellians made an angry and fierce response, the Othonians were discouraged, while their opponents imagined that they intended to desert. This incident at the first onset caused some confusion among the troops of Otho: and, besides this, everything was in disorder, for the baggage train was entangled among the ranks, and the line was broken in many places by the ditches and trenches with which the ground was intersected, so that the soldiers, in trying to avoid these obstacles, were forced to attack in detail, and in disorganised crowds. Two[646] legions alone, that named "Rapax" on the side of Vitellius, and "Adjutrix" on that of Otho, were able to find a level plain, upon which they deployed into a regular line of battle and fought front to front for a long time. Otho's soldiers were active and brave, but had never been in action before, while those of Vitellius had fought many battles, but were somewhat elderly and past their prime. At the first charge the Othonians drove them back, and captured their eagle, killing almost every man in the front rank; but the Vitellians, filled with shame and rage, charged in their turn, slew Orfidius, the legate in command of the legion, and took many standards.
The corps of gladiators, who were supposed to possess both courage and practice in close combat, were attacked by Alphenus Varus with the Batavians, who inhabit an island formed by the river Rhine, and who are the best horsemen in Germany. Few of the gladiators stood to receive their charge, but most of them fled towards the river, where they fell in with other bodies of the enemy, by whom they were entirely cut to pieces. The worst fight of all was made by the Prætorians, who did not even wait until the enemy reached them, but by their panic flight struck terror even into the unbroken troops through whose ranks they fled. Yet many of Otho's troops, after having conquered their immediate opponents, forced their way back through their victorious enemies to their own camp.
XIII. Of the generals, neither Proculus nor Paullinus dared to return with their men, but went off another way, fearing the soldiers, who already began to throw the blame of their defeat upon the generals.
Annius Gallus assumed the command of the soldiers as they assembled in the town of Bedriacum, and encouraged them by assurances that the battle had been a drawn one, and that in many cases they had beaten the enemy.
Marius Celsus called a meeting of the generals, and bade them take measures for the common good. He said that after so great a disaster and so much slaughter of their countrymen not even Otho himself, if he were a right-thinking man, would wish to make any further trial of fortune; since even Cato and Scipio, although they fought in defence of the liberty of Rome, were blamed for having wasted the lives of many brave men in Africa, by not yielding to Cæsar immediately after the battle of Pharsalia. All men, he urged, are equally liable to the caprices of fortune; but they have the advantage, even when defeated, of being able to form wise resolutions. By this reasoning Celsus convinced the generals: and when, on trying the temper of the soldiers, they found them desirous of peace, and Titianus himself bade them begin negotiations for agreement, Celsus and Gallus determined to go and discuss the matter with Cæcina and Valens. On their way they were met by some centurions, who informed them that Vitellius's army was already advancing, and that they had been sent on before by their generals to arrange terms of peace. Celsus spoke with approval of their mission, and bade them return and conduct him to Cæcina. It happened that when they drew near the army, Celsus was like to have lost his life: for the cavalry who formed the advance guard were the same who had been defeated in the ambuscade, and when they saw Celsus approaching, they set up a shout of rage and rode towards him. However the centurions stood before Celsus and kept them back; and as the other officers called to them to spare him Cæcina perceived that some disturbance was taking place and rode up. He quickly repressed the disorderly movement of the cavalry, greeted Celsus affectionately, and proceeded with him to Bedriacum.
Meanwhile Titianus had repented of having sent the embassy. He manned the walls of the camp with those soldiers who had recovered their spirits, and was encouraging the rest to fight. However, when Cæcina rode up and held out his hand no one resisted him, but some of the soldiers greeted his troops from the walls, and others opened the gates, came out and mingled with the new-comers. No violence was done to any one, but they all fraternised and shook each other by the hand, swore fealty to Vitellius and joined his army.
XIV. The above is the account which most eye-witnesses give of the battle, though they themselves admit that they do not know all the details of it because of the confusion which prevailed and the irregularity of the ground. Some time afterwards when I was journeying across the battlefield, Mestrius Florus, a man of consular rank, who had fought under Otho not from choice but from necessity, showed me an ancient temple, and related that after the battle he came there and saw so huge a pile of corpses, that those on the top were level with the pinnacles of the roof. He said that he could not discover himself or learn from any one else the cause of this heap; for though a greater slaughter of the vanquished is made in civil wars than in any others, because no quarter is given, as no use can be made of prisoners, yet it was hard to imagine how such a mass of carcasses came to be piled together on that spot.
XV. Otho, as is usual in such cases, first heard only confused rumours of how the battle went. When however wounded men came from the scene of action bringing the news of the defeat, not only his friends, as might be expected, bade him keep up his spirits and not despair, but his soldiers were wonderfully affected. None of them left him, or deserted to the enemy, and no one consulted his own safety when his chief despaired of his. All of them alike repaired to his quarters, and called him their emperor. When he came out to them, they fell at his feet and caught hold of his hands with shouts, and prayers, and tears, beseeching him not to desert them, or betray them to the enemy, but to make use of them to fight for him, body and soul, until their last breath. While all besought him thus, one of the common soldiers drew his sword, and crying, "Cæsar, this is what we are all prepared to do for you," stabbed himself. Otho, unmoved by any of these entreaties, gazed round upon them all with a calm and composed countenance, and said: "My comrades, your noble conduct and your loyal devotion make this a happier day to me than that on which you elected me your emperor. Yet do not deprive me of the still greater happiness of dying for so many and such noble friends. If I am worthy to be an emperor of Rome, I ought not to grudge my life to my country. I am aware that our enemy's victory is not decisive or crushing. News has reached me that the Moesian legions have already reached the Adriatic, and are not many days' march distant. Asia, Syria, Egypt, and the army engaged with the Jews are all on our side, while we have in our power both the senate, and the wives and children of our enemy. But we are not defending Italy from Hannibal, or Pyrrhus, or the Cimbri, but Romans are fighting against Romans, and our native land will suffer equally whichever side is victorious, for she must lose what the conqueror gains. Believe me, I pray you, that it is more to my honour to die than to reign: for I cannot imagine that if victorious I could do anything which would benefit the Romans so much as I can by giving my life to obtain peace and concord, and to save Italy from seeing another day such as this."
XVI. After speaking thus, he tore himself away from the soldiers, who tried to hold him back and bade him take courage. He ordered his friends and such senators as were present to leave his camp: and to those who were not present he sent similar orders, and also rescripts to the magistrates of the cities through which they would have to pass, that they might accomplish their journey[647] with honour and in safety. He next sent for his nephew Cocceius, who was still a youth, and bade him be of good cheer and not fear Vitellius, whose mother, children, and wife he himself had protected as carefully as if they had been members of his own family. He had wished, he said, to adopt the boy as his heir, but had put off doing so till the end of the war, meaning to make him his colleague if he succeeded, but not wishing to involve him in his own destruction if he failed. "My last charge to you," he continued, "is that you neither forget altogether nor yet remember too well that you have had a Cæsar for your uncle." Shortly after this interview Otho heard a shouting and disturbance outside his quarters; for the senators were preparing to depart, and the soldiers were threatening to murder them if they did so, and reproached them with deserting their emperor.
Otho, who feared for their lives, now came out a second time, no longer in a mild and supplicatory manner, but, frowning savagely, he cast so terrible a look upon the most turbulent of the rioters that they shrank away terrified and abashed.
XVII. Towards evening he became thirsty, and drank a little water: after which he spent a long time in examining the blades of two swords. At last he rejected one of them, and hid the other in his clothes. He now called together his servants, and distributed his money amongst them, not recklessly, as though he were dealing with property not his own, but giving them each various sums, carefully apportioned according to each man's deserts. When he sent them away he rested for the remainder of the night, and those about his bed-chamber noticed how soundly he slept. At daybreak he called to a freedman who had been entrusted with the management of the departure of the senators, and ordered him to learn what had happened to them. When he was told that they had left the camp, and had received every attention they could wish, he said, "Go now, and show yourself to the soldiers unless you wish to perish miserably at their hands; for they will suspect you of having assisted me to die."
When this man was gone, Otho held the sword upright with both his hands and fell upon it, dying with only one groan, which apprised those without of his fate. The wailing of his slaves was taken up by the whole of the camp and city. The soldiers noisily forced their way into his quarters and lamented over him with bitter grief, reproaching themselves for not having guarded their emperor, and prevented his dying for them.
None of Otho's bodyguard deserted him, although the enemy was drawing near, but after laying out his body, and erecting a funeral pile, they bore him to it, armed at all points; and happy was the man who could find a place among the bearers. Of the rest, some kissed his wounds, some pressed his hands, and some, who could not come near him, knelt as his body passed by them. Some, who had received no especial favours from Otho, and had nothing to fear from his successor, slew themselves after they had applied the torch to his funeral pile. It seems, indeed, that no king or despot ever was possessed with so frantic a desire to rule, as these men had to be ruled by Otho and to serve him; for their love for him did not cease with his life, but remained implanted in their breasts, causing them to regard Vitellius with the bitterest hatred. Of what followed from this I shall give an account in its proper place.
XVIII. After the remains of Otho were buried they erected over him a tomb which could offend no one either by its size or by the pomp of its inscription. When I was at Brixellum I myself saw a small monument on which was written in the Latin language "In memory of Marcus Otho."
Otho died in his thirty-seventh year, after a reign of three months.
Many good men, though they blamed his life, yet could not refrain from admiring his death; for though his life had been no better than that of Nero, his end was a far nobler one. When he was dead, Pollio, one of the two prefects, offended the soldiers by requiring them at once to swear fealty to Vitellius. Some of the senators were still left in Brixellum; and the soldiers, hearing of this, let them go with the exception of Virginius Rufus, whom they greatly embarrassed by coming to his house under arms, and bidding him either take the command of them or at any rate act as ambassador on their behalf. Virginius, who had refused the crown when it was offered him by a victorious army, thought that it would be the act of a madman to accept it from a beaten one. He feared, also, to go as an ambassador to the Germans, who thought that in time past he had forced them to do many things against their will.
Accordingly, he escaped from his house by a back door; and the soldiers, when they discovered that he was gone, took the oaths to the new emperor. They were pardoned by him, and were sent to serve with the troops under the command of Cæcina.
FOOTNOTES: [1] More properly Mandyria. This battle was fought in August B.C. 338, the same day as that of Chæronea. "Not long before the battle of Chæronea, the Tarentines found themselves so hard pressed by the Messapians, that they sent to Sparta, their mother city, to entreat assistance. The Spartan king, Archidamus, son of Agesilaus, perhaps ashamed of the nullity of his country since the Sacred War, complied with their prayer, and sailed at the head of a mercenary force to Italy.
How long his operations there lasted we do not know; but they ended by his being defeated and killed, near the time of the battle of Chæronea.
B.C. 338."--Grote, 'History of Greece,' part ii. chap. xcvii.
[2] See vol. ii., Life of Lysander, chap. xxx.
[3] See vol. ii., Life of Pyrrhus, chap. xxvi.
[4] See vol. i., Life of Lykurgus, chap. viii.
[5] Cf. note, vol. ii., Life of Lucullus, chap. xxxvi.
[6] Probably the celebrated temple of Poseidon at Tænarus. [Cape Matapan.]
[7] Borysthenes, also called Olbia, Olbiopolis, and Miletopolis, was a town situated at the junction of the Borysthenes and Hypania, near the Euxine sea. It was a colony of Miletus, and was the most important Greek city north of the Euxine.
[8] In Cyprus. Zeno was the founder of the Stoic school of Philosophy.
[9] The allusion is to a saying of Agis II., that "The Lacedæmonians never ask how many their enemies are, but where they are."
[10] Called Ladokea by Polybius, ii. chap. 3; and Pausanias viii. 44. 1.
[11] [Greek: mothakes] seem to have been children of Helots brought up as foster-brothers of young Spartans, and eventually emancipated, yet without acquiring full civic rights.--Liddell and Scott, s.v.
[12] The ancients always reclined at meals. See the article Triclinium in Smith's 'Dictionary of Antiquities.'
[13] The western harbour of Corinth.
[14] Who these Leukaspids were I do not know. White was the Argive colour, and in earlier times men with white shields are always spoken of as Argives. The celebrated Argyraspids, the silver-shielded regiment of Alexander, was destroyed by Antigonus I. after their betrayal of Eumenes; but this may have been a corps raised by Antigonus Doson in imitation of them.
[15] [Greek: krypteia] meant at Sparta a duty or discipline of the young men, who for a certain time prowled about, watching the country, and enduring hardships: intended to season them against fatigue, and, unless they are much belied, to reduce the number of the helots by assassination.--Liddell and Scott, s.v.
[16] This conversation Thirlwall conjectures to have been drawn from some sophistical exercise. 'History of Greece,' chap. lxii.
[17] Ptolemy Euergetes I.
[18] Ptolemy Philopator succeeded his father, Ptolemy Euergetes, B.C.
222.
[19] The sacred bull of Memphis was worshipped as a god by the Egyptians. There were certain signs by which he was recognised to be the god. At Memphis he had a splendid residence, containing extensive walks and courts for his amusement. His birthday, which was celebrated every year, was a day of rejoicing for all Egypt. His death was a season of public mourning, which lasted till another sacred bull was discovered by the priests.--Dr. Smith's Classical Dictionary, s.v. Agis.
[20] Plutarch calls the Lives of Agis and Kleomenes a History, though he says in his Life of Alexander (c. 1) that his object is not to write Histories ([Greek: historiai]) but Lives ([Greek: bioi]). But the Lives of the two Spartan reforming kings may consistently enough be called a History, when contrasted with the Lives of the two Roman reforming tribunes. Plutarch's notion of History as contrasted with Biography appears pretty plainly from the first chapter of his Life of Alexander.
A complete view of the events in the Lives of Alexander and Caius Julius Cæsar would have formed, according to his notion, a History; but he does not aim at this completeness: he selects out of the events of their lives such as best show the character of the men, whether the events be of great political importance or of none at all, and this method of treating the subject he calls a Life. I believe the word Biography is a modern invention. The distinction between History and Annals, though the words have sometimes been used indiscriminately (c. 3, notes), is clearly expressed by the Roman historian Sempronius Asellio, as quoted by Aulus Gellius (v. 18).
[21] Most of Plutarch's extant Lives run in parallels, whence they are entitled Parallel Lives. He compares a Greek with a Roman: thus he compares Alexander with Caius Julius Cæsar, and Demosthenes with Cicero.
The beginning of the Life of Tiberius Gracchus is somewhat abrupt, after Plutarch's fashion. He had no regular plan for beginning and ending his stories, and thus he avoids the sameness which is so wearisome in a Dictionary of Biography. The career of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus was the same, and accordingly Plutarch considers their lives as one; and he has found a parallel to them in two Spartan kings, who were also reformers, Agis IV. and Kleomenes III.
Agis became king of Sparta B.C. 244, and reigned only four years: his colleague in the first part of his reign was Leonidas II., and afterwards Kleombrotus. Agis attempted to restore the old institutions of Lykurgus which had fallen into disuse. Wealth had become accumulated in a few hands. He proposed to adjust the disputes between debtor and creditor by the short method of abolishing debts; and he proposed to restore the spirit of the old institutions by dividing all the lands in equal lots among the Spartan citizens, the chief class in the state; and by assigning lots also to the Perioeki, who were in the relation of subjects. He carried the project for the abolition of debts, but before he could accomplish the rest of his reforms, he was thrown into prison and strangled there. His grandmother and mother, both of whom had favoured his schemes of reform, were strangled at the same time. He was about twenty-four years of age when he died. His reform was not a revolution, but an attempt to restore the old constitution.
Kleomenes III., King of Sparta, reigned from B.C. 236 to B.C. 220. In the first part of his reign, the infant son of Agis IV., and afterwards Archidamus V., the brother of Agis IV., were his colleagues. Leonidas II., who had been deposed by Agis, had returned to Sparta during the absence of Agis on a military expedition, and he was most active in bringing about the death of Agis. Leonidas compelled the widow of Agis to marry his son Kleomenes, who was instructed by his wife in the views and designs of Agis. Thus Kleomenes also became a reformer, and attempted to restore the institutions of Lykurgus. But his measures were violent. He is charged with poisoning his infant colleague, the son of the widow whom he married, and with other wrongful acts. He was defeated at the head of the Spartan army by Antigonus in the great battle of Sellasia B.C. 222, and fled to Egypt, where he was kindly received by Ptolemæus III. (Euergetes) the king. Ptolemæus IV. (Philopator) the successor of Euergetes, put Kleomenes in prison, but he contrived to get out and attempted to make a revolution in Alexandria. Failing in the attempt Kleomenes killed himself. "In this manner," says Polybius, "fell Kleomenes; a prince whose manners were dexterous and insinuating, as his capacity in the administration of affairs was great: and who, to express his character in a word, was most admirably formed by nature both for a general and a king" (Polybius, v. c. 39; Hampton's Translation, v. chap.
4). Plutarch in his comparison of Agis and Kleomenes with Tiberius and Caius Gracchus, concludes that "Tiberius in virtue surpassed the rest, that the youth Agis was guilty of the fewest faults, and that in doing and daring Caius was much inferior to Kleomenes;" which appears to be a correct judgment.
[22] His complete name was Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. The Sempronia gens contained the families of the Atratini, Gracchi, and Pitiones. The Gracchi were plebeians, and the Atratini patricians: the order of the Pitiones is uncertain. The name of the Gracchi is best known from the political career of the two brothers, whose measures were the immediate cause of the civil disturbances which ended in the establishment of the Imperial power. Tiberius Gracchus, the father, was tribune of the plebs B.C. 187, consul B.C. 177 and a second time in B.C. 163: he was censor B.C. 169. Tiberius Gracchus had his first triumph in B.C. 178 for his victories over the Celtiberians in Spain while he was proprætor of Hispania Citerior, or that division of the Peninsula which was nearer to the Pyrenees (Liv. 41, c. 11). In his first consulship Gracchus had Sardinia assigned for his province, and he defeated the Sardinians in a great battle. He was continued in his province as proconsul, and he completely subdued the island (Liv. 41, c. 21), for which he had a triumph which appears to be commemorated by an extant medal (Rasche, _Lexicon Rei Numariæ_). Cicero numbers Tiberius among the Roman orators (_Brutus_, c. 20).
[23] Publius Cornelius Scipio defeated Hannibal at the battle of Zama in the territory of Carthage B.C. 202. He died B.C. 183 in his retirement at Liternum in Campania. Though Tiberius Gracchus, the father, was not on friendly terms with Scipio, yet during his tribunate B.C. 187 he prevented Scipio from being tried on certain frivolous charges brought against him by the tribunes, and owing to this interference of Gracchus, the greatest commander that Rome had yet seen, was allowed to spend the remainder of his days in quiet privacy. (Liv. 38, c. 50, &c.; Cicero, [24] This story of the snakes is told by Cicero in his treatise on Divination (i. 18, ii. 29). He says that Tiberius died a few days after he had let the female snake go, and he refers as his authority to a letter of Caius Gracchus to M. Pomponius:--"I wonder," says Cicero, "if the letting loose the female was to cause the death of Tiberius, and letting loose the male was to cause the death of Cornelia, that he let either of them go. For Caius does not say that the haruspices said any thing of what would happen if neither snake was let go." To the objection, that the death of Gracchus did follow the letting loose of the female snake, Cicero replies that he supposes he must have died of some sudden attack, and he adds that the haruspices are not so unlucky but that their predictions sometimes happen to come true.
[25] I do not know if this offer of King Ptolemæus is noticed by any other writer. It is not certain whether it was Ptolemæus VI. Philometor or his younger brother Ptolemæus VII. Euergetes II. Their two reigns lasted 64 years from B.C. 181 to B.C. 117. Philometor died B.C. 146 and was succeeded by Euergetes who died B.C. 117. The death of Tiberius Gracchus the father is not ascertained. He married his wife Cornelia after B.C. 183 and he was consul B.C. 163. His son Tiberius, who was killed B.C. 133, was not thirty years old at the time and therefore was born about B.C. 163. Caius, who was nine years younger, was born about B.C. 154. It is not known whether Caius was the youngest child of Cornelia. Ptolemæus Philometor went to Rome B.C. 163, being driven out of his kingdom by his younger brother Euergetes, and he was well received by the senate. His brother also made a journey to Rome in the following year, B.C. 162. In B.C. 154 Ptolemæus Euergetes was at Rome for the second time, and he obtained the aid of the senate against his brother. Both the brothers may have seen Cornelia at Rome, but probably during the lifetime of her husband. Scipio Africanus, the son-in-law of Cornelia, was sent on an embassy to Alexandria to Euergetes B.C. 143. An Egyptian king might wish to strengthen himself at Rome by an alliance with the illustrious families of the Gracchi and the Scipios; but it is impossible to determine which of these two kings was the suitor.
Philometor is spoken of as a mild and generous prince: Euergetes, who was also called Physcon, or Big-belly, was a cruel sensualist. The daughter of Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal, might well decline a marriage with him, and any Egyptian alliance would have been viewed as a degradation to a noble Roman matron. The portrait of Physcon is given in Rosellini's work on Egypt, from the ancient monuments, and he is very far from looking like a winning suitor. Kaltwasser assumes that it was Ptolemæus Philometor who made the offer to Cornelia; and he adds that he was also called Lathyrus; but this is a mistake; Lathyrus was the surname of Ptolemæus VIII. Soter II., the son of Physcon. He has not examined the chronology of these two kings.
[26] This was Publius Cornelius Scipio Æmilianus Africanus Minor. He was the son of L. Æmilius Paulus, the conqueror of Macedonia, and he was the adopted son of P. Cornelius Scipio, the son of the conqueror of Hannibal. According to the Roman usage in case of adoption, the son of Æmilius Paulus took the name of his adopted father, P. Cornelius Scipio, to which was added, according to the usage, the name of Æmilianus, which marked the gens to which he belonged by birth. It was after the destruction of Carthage that he acquired the additional name or title of Africanus, like his adoptive grandfather, from whom he is usually distinguished by the addition of the name Minor or younger. The daughter of Cornelia, whom he married, was named Sempronia. She was ugly and bore her husband no children, and they did not live harmoniously together.
(Appian, _Civil Wars_, i. 20.) As to the Roman names see the note on Marius, c. 1.
[27] The Greek name for Castor and Pollux, who were the sons of Jupiter and Leda. Pollux was a boxer, and Castor distinguished for his management of horses and as a runner. Their statues were generally placed side by side with their appropriate characters, to which Pluturch alludes.
[28] Plutarch uses the Greek word Bema ([Greek: bêma]), which is the name for the elevated stone station in the Pnyx from which the Athenian orators addressed the public assemblies. The place from which the Roman orators addressed the public assemblies was called the Rostra, or the beaks, because it was ornamented with the beaks of the ships which the Romans took from the people of Antium. (Liv. 8, c. 14.) The Rostra were in the Forum, and in a position between the Comitium and that part of the Forum which was appropriated to the meeting of the Roman tribes. (See Caius Gracchus, c. 5.)
[29] The history of this Athenian demagogue is in Thucydides, ii. &c.
The play of Aristophanes called "The Knights" ([Greek: Hippês]) is directed against him. By his turbulent oratory he acquired some distinction at Athens during the Peloponnesian war, after the death of [30] The MSS. have [Greek: delphinas], dolphins, which some critics would change to [Greek: delphikas], tables made at Delphi or in Delphic fashion. Plinius (_Nat. Hist._ 33, c. 11) speaks of these dolphins, though he does not say what they were. The alteration in the text is quite necessary. The dolphins were probably ornaments attached to some piece of furniture. Plutarch gives the value in drachmæ, the usual Greek silver coin, and the money of reckoning: the usual Roman money of reckoning was the sestertius. Plinius mentions the value of these dolphins at 5000 sestertii a pound, which would make 4 sestertii equivalent to a drachma. The drachma is reckoned at about 9-3/4_d._ and the sestertius at 2-1/4_d._ under the Republic.
[31] The original is literally "an instrument for practising the voice by which they raise sounds." Perhaps a musician may be able to interpret the passage, without explaining the instrument to be a pitch-pipe as some have done. Cicero (_De Orat._ iii. 60) tells the same story somewhat differently. He says that this Licinius was a lettered man (literatus homo), and that he used to stand behind Caius Gracchus, yet so as to be concealed, with an ivory pipe (fistula), when Gracchus was addressing the public assemblies; his duty was to produce a suitable note either for the purpose of rousing his master when his tone was too low or lowering his tone when it was too vehement. (See also Dion, [32] An augur was one who ascertained the will of the gods by certain signs, but more particularly the flights of birds. The institution of augurs was coeval with the Roman state, and as the augural ceremonial was essential to the validity of all elections, the body of augurs possessed great political influence. The college of augurs at this time consisted of nine members, who filled up the vacancies that occurred in their body. A member of the college held his office for life, and the places were objects of ambition to all the great personages in the state. They were not appropriated to a class of priests: they were held by persons who had no other priestly character. Cicero, for instance, was an augur. The Roman system of placing the highest religious offices not in the hands of a priestly class, but in the hands of persons who had held and might still hold civil offices, perhaps possessed some advantages. There are many valuable remarks on the Roman Auguria and Auspicia in Rubino, _Untersuchungen über Römische Verfassung_.
[33] Appius Claudius Pulcher was a member of the Claudia gens, and belonged to an old patrician family, which had long been opposed to all the pretensions of the plebeian order. He was consul B.C. 143. He did not long survive his son-in-law. Cicero (_Brutus_, 28) enumerates him among the orators of Rome; he observes that he spoke fluently, but with rather too much heat.
[34] The rank of Princeps Senatus was given at one time by the censors to the oldest of those who had filled the office of censor (Liv. 27, c.
11), but after the election of Q. Fabius Maximus mentioned in the passage of Livius, it was given to any person whom the censors thought most fit; and it was for the same person to be reappointed at each successive lustrum, that is, every five years. It was now merely an honorary distinction, though it had once been a substantive office. The title was retained under the Empire by the Emperors; and Princeps is the title by which Tacitus designates Augustus and his successor Tiberius.
The title has come down to us through the French language in the form of Prince.
Plutarch sometimes gives the Roman words in a Greek form, but he more usually translates them as well as he can, which he has done in this instance. The titles consular, censorian, prætorian, were the Roman names for designating a man who had been consul, censor, or prætor.
[35] Livius (38, c. 57) is one of those who tell the story of Scipio Africanus the elder giving his daughter Cornelia to Tiberius Gracchus the father. Plutarch has done best in following Polybius, who was intimate with the younger Africanus and had the best means of knowing the facts.
[36] I have retained this name for Africa as it is in Plutarch. The Greek name for the continent of Africa was Libya ([Greek: Libyê]), which the Romans also used. In the Roman writers Africa properly denotes the Roman province of Africa, which comprehended Carthage and a considerable territory; but it was common enough for the Romans to designate the whole continent by the name of Africa.
[37] Plutarch is here alluding to the campaign of Scipio in which he destroyed Carthage B.C. 146, whence he got the name of Africanus. It was usual for the Roman commanders to have with them a number of youths of good family who went to learn the art of war, and were trained under the eye of the general, to whose table and intimacy they were admitted according to their deserts. Thus Agricola, during his early service in Britain, was attached to the staff of Suetonius Paullinus. (Tacitus, _Agricola_, c. 5.) Those who were admitted to the intimacy and tent of the commander, were sometimes called Contubernales.
[38] Caius Fannius Strabo was quæstor in the consulship of Cn.
Calpurnius Piso and M. Popilius Lænas B.C. 139, and two years after he was prætor. He served in Africa under the younger Scipio Africanus, and in Spain under Fabius Maximus Servilianus. He was the son-in-law of Lælius, surnamed Sapiens, or the Prudent. He wrote an historical work which Cicero sometimes calls a History (_Brutus_, c. 26), and sometimes Annals (_Brutus_, c. 21; _De Oratore_, ii. 67). It is unknown what period his work comprised, except that it contained the history of the Gracchi. Cicero does not speak highly of his style, but Sallustius seems to commend his veracity (Lib. i. _Historiarum_).
Tiberius would be entitled to a mural crown (muralis corona), which was the reward of the soldier who first ascended the enemy's wall. Plutarch appears to mean that Fannius also received one. Livius (26, c. 48) mentions an instance of two mural crowns being given by Scipio (afterwards Africanus) at the capture of Nova Carthago (Carthagena) in Spain.