Plutarch
46-119 A.C.E - Wrote in Greek
Flamininus
Written 75 A.C.E.
Translated by John Dryden
Flamininus
(legendary, died 174 B.C.E.)
By Plutarch
What Titus Quintius [Flamininus], whom we select as a parallel to Philopoemen,
was in personal appearance, those who are curious may see by the brazen
statue of him, which stands in Rome near that of the great Apollo, brought
from Carthage, opposite to the Circus Maximus, with a Greek inscription
upon it. The temper of his mind is said to have been of the warmest both
in anger and in kindness, not indeed equally so in both respects; as in
punishing he was ever moderate, never inflexible; but whatever courtesy
or good turn he set about, he went through with it, and was as perpetually
kind and obliging to those on whom he had poured his favours, as if they,
not he, had been the benefactors; exerting himself for the security and
preservation of what he seemed to consider his noblest possessions, those
to whom he had done good. But being ever thirsty after honour, and passionate
for glory, if anything of a greater and more extraordinary nature were
to be done, he was eager to be the doer of it himself; and took more pleasure
in those that needed, than in those that were capable of conferring favours;
looking on the former as objects for his virtue, and on the latter as competitors
in glory.
The manuscripts generally write the name incorrectly-
Flaminius. Titus was the name by which he was commonly known to the Greeks
.
Rome had then many sharp contests going on, and her youth betaking
themselves early to the wars, learned betimes the art of commanding; and
Flamininus, having passed through the rudiments of soldiery, received his
first charge in the war against Hannibal, as tribune under Marcellus, then
consul. Marcellus, indeed, falling into an ambuscade, was cut off. But
Titus, receiving the appointment of governor, as well of Tarentum, then
retaken, as of the country about it, grew no less famous for his administration
of justice, than for his military skill. This obtained him the office of
leader and founder of two colonies which were sent into the cities of Narnia
and Cossa; which filled him with loftier hopes, and made him aspire to
step over those previous honours which it was usual first to pass through,
the offices of tribune of the people, praetor and aedile, and to level
his aim immediately at the consulship. Having these colonies, and all their
interest ready at his service, he offered himself as candidate; but the
tribunes of the people, Fulvius and [Manius] and their party, strongly
opposed him; alleging how unbecoming a thing it was that a man of such
raw years, one who was yet, as it were, untrained, uninitiated in the first
sacred rites and mysteries of government, should, in contempt of the laws,
intrude and force himself into the sovereignty.
Manius Curius is meant
.
However, the senate remitted it to the people's choice and suffrage;
who elected him (though not then arrived at his thirtieth year) consul
with Sextus Aelius. The war against Philip and the Macedonians fell to
Titus by lot, and some kind fortune, propitious at that time to the Romans,
seems to have so determined it; as neither the people nor the state of
things which were now to be dealt with were such as to require a general
who would always be upon the point of force and mere blows, but rather
were accessible to persuasion and gentle usage. It is true that the kingdom
of Macedon furnished supplies enough to Philip for actual battle with the
Romans; but to maintain a long and lingering war he must call in aid from
Greece; must thence procure his supplies; there find his means of retreat;
Greece, in a word, would be his resource for all the requisites of his
army. Unless, therefore, the Greeks could be withdrawn from siding with
Philip, this war with him must not expect its decision from a single battle.
Now Greece (which had not hitherto held much correspondence with the Romans,
but first began an intercourse on this occasion) would not so soon have
embraced a foreign authority, instead of the commanders she had been inured
to, had not the general of these strangers been of a kind, gentle nature,
one who worked rather by fair means than force; of a persuasive address
in all applications to others, and no less courteous and open to all addresses
of others to him; and above all bent and determined on justice. But the
story of his actions will best illustrate these particulars.
Titus observed that both Sulpicius and Publius, who had been his
predecessors in that command, had not taken the field against the Macedonians
till late in the year; and then, too, had not set their hands properly
to the war, but had kept skirmishing and scouting here and there for passes
and provisions, and never came to close fighting with Philip. He resolved
not to trifle away a year, as they had done, at home in ostentation of
the honour, and in domestic administration, and only then to join the army,
with the pitiful hope of protracting the term of office through a second
year, acting as consul in the first, and as general in the latter. He was,
moreover, infinitely desirous to employ his authority with effect upon
the war, which made him slight those home honours and prerogatives. Requesting,
therefore, of the senate, that his brother Lucius might act with him as
admiral of the navy, and taking with him to be the edge, as it were, of
the expedition three thousand still young and vigorous soldiers, of those
who, under Scipio, had defeated Asdrubal in Spain, and Hannibal in Africa,
he got safe into Epirus; and found Publius encamped with his army, over
against Philip, who had long made good the pass over the river Apsus, and
the straits there; Publius not having been able, for the natural strength
of the place, to effect anything against him. Titus therefore took upon
himself the conduct of the army, and, having dismissed Publius, examined
the ground. The place is in strength not inferior to Tempe, though it lacks
the trees and green woods, and the pleasant meadows and walks that adorn
Tempe. The Apsus, making its way between vast and lofty mountains which
all but meet above a single deep ravine in the midst, is not unlike the
river Peneus in the rapidity of its current and in its general appearance.
It covers the foot of those hills, and leaves only a craggy, narrow path
cut out beside the stream, not easily passable at any time for an army,
but not at all when guarded by an enemy.
There were some, therefore, who would have had Titus make a circuit
through Dassaretis, and take an easy and safe road by the district of Lyncus.
But he, fearing that if he should engage himself too far from the sea in
barren and untilled countries, and Philip should decline fighting, he might,
through want of provisions, be constrained to march back again to the seaside
without effecting anything, as his predecessor had done before him, embraced
the resolution of forcing his way over the mountains. But Philip, having
possessed himself of them with his army, showered down his darts and arrows
from all parts upon the Romans. Sharp encounters took place, and many fell
wounded and slain on both sides, and there seemed but little likelihood
of thus ending the war; when some of the men, who fed their cattle thereabouts,
came to Titus with a discovery, that there was a roundabout way which the
enemy neglected to guard: through which they undertook to conduct his army,
and to bring it, within three days at furthest, to the top of the hills.
To gain the surer credit with him, they said that Charops, son of Machatas,
a leading man in Epirus, who was friendly to the Romans, and aided them
(though, for fear of Philip, secretly), was privy to the design. Titus
gave their information belief, and sent a captain with four thousand foot
and three hundred horse; these herdsmen being their guides, but kept in
bonds. In the daytime they lay still under the covert of the hollow and
woody places, but in the night they marched by moonlight, the moon being
then at the full. Titus, having detached this party, lay quiet with his
main body, merely keeping up the attention of the enemy by some slight
skirmishing. But when the day arrived that those who stole round were expected
upon the top of the hill, he drew up his forces early in the morning, as
well the light-armed as the heavy, and, dividing them into three parts,
himself led the van, marching his men up the narrow passage along the bank,
darted at by the Macedonians and engaging, in this difficult ground, hand
to hand with his assailants; whilst the other two divisions on either side
of him threw themselves with great alacrity among the rocks. Whilst they
were struggling forward, the sun rose, and a thin smoke, like a mist, hanging
on the hills, was seen rising at a distance, unperceived by the enemy,
being behind them, as they stood on the heights; and the Romans, also,
as yet under suspense, in the toil and difficulty they were in, could only
doubtfully construe the sight according to their desires. But as it grew
thicker and thicker, blackening the air, and mounting to a greater height,
they no longer doubted but it was the fire-signal of their companions;
and, raising a triumphant shout, forcing their way onwards, they drove
the enemy back into the roughest ground; while the other party echoed back
their acclamations from the top of the mountain.
The Macedonians fled with all the speed they could make; there
fell, indeed, not more than two thousand of them; for the difficulties
of the place rescued them from pursuit. But the Romans pillaged their camp,
seized upon their money and slaves, and, becoming absolute masters of the
pass, traversed all Epirus; but with such order and discipline, with such
temperance and moderation, that, though they were far from the sea, at
a great distance from their vessels, and stinted of their monthly allowance
of corn, and though they had much difficulty in buying, they nevertheless
abstained altogether from plundering the country, which had provisions
enough of all sorts in it. For intelligence being received that Philip,
making a flight, rather than a march, through Thessaly, forced the inhabitants
from the towns to take shelter in the mountains, burnt down the towns themselves,
and gave up as spoil to his soldiers all the property which it had been
found impossible to remove, abandoning, as it would seem, the whole country
to the Romans, Titus was, therefore, very desirous, and entreated his soldiers
that they would pass through it as if it were their own, or as if a place
trusted into their hands; and, indeed, they quickly perceived, by the event,
what benefit they derived from this moderate and orderly conduct. For they
no sooner set foot in Thessaly, but the cities opened their gates, and
the Greeks, within Thermopylae, were all eagerness and excitement to ally
themselves with them. The Achaeans abandoned their alliance with Philip,
and voted to join with the Romans in actual arms against him; and the Opuntians,
though the Aetolians, who were zealous allies of the Romans, were willing
and desirous to undertake the protection of the city, would not listen
to proposals from them; but sending for Titus, intrusted and committed
themselves to his charge.
It is told of Pyrrhus, that when first, from an adjacent hill or
watchtower which gave him a prospect of the Roman army, he descried them
drawn up in order, he observed, that he saw nothing barbarian-like in this
barbarian line of battle, And all who came near Titus could not choose
but say as much of him, at their first view. For they who had been told
by the Macedonians of an invader, at the head of a barbarian army, carrying
everywhere slavery and destruction on his sword's point; when, in lieu
of such an one, they met a man, in the flower of his age, of a gentle and
humane aspect, a Greek in his voice and language, and a lover of honour,
were wonderfully pleased and attracted; and when they left him, they filled
the cities, wherever they went, with favourable feelings for him, and with
the belief that in him they might find the protector and assertor of their
liberties. And when afterwards, on Philip's professing a desire for peace,
Titus made a tender to him of peace and friendship, upon the condition
that the Greeks he left to their own laws, and that he should withdraw
his garrisons, which he refused to comply with, now after these proposals
the universal belief even of the favourers and partisans of Philip was,
that the Romans came not to fight against the Greeks, but for the Greeks
against the Macedonians.
Accordingly, all the rest of Greece came to peaceable terms with
him. But as he marched into Boeotia, without committing the least act of
hostility, the nobility and chief men of Thebes came out of their city
to meet him, devoted under the influence of Brachylles to the Macedonian
alliance, but desirous at the same time to show honour and deference to
Titus; as they were, they conceived, in amity with both parties. Titus
received them in the most obliging and courteous manner, but kept going
gently on, questioning and inquiring of them, and sometimes entertaining
them with narratives of his own, till his soldiers might a little recover
from the weariness of their journey. Thus passing on, he and the Thebans
came together into their city, not much to their satisfaction; but yet
they could not well deny him entrance, as a good number of his men attended
him in. Titus, however, now he was within, as if he had not had the city
at his mercy, came forward and addressed them, urging them to join the
Roman interest. King Attalus followed to the same effect. And he, indeed,
trying to play the advocate, beyond what it seems his age could bear, was
seized, in the midst of his speech, with a sudden flux or dizziness, and
swooned away; and, not long after, was conveyed by ship into Asia, and
died there. The Boeotians joined the Roman alliance.
But now, when Philip sent an embassy to Rome, Titus despatched
away agents on his part, too, to solicit the senate, if they should continue
the war, to continue him in his command, or if they determined an end to
that, that he might have the honour of concluding the peace. Having a great
passion for distinction, his fear was, that if another general were commissioned
to carry on the war, the honour even of what was passed would be lost to
him; and his friends transacted matters so well on his behalf, that Philip
was unsuccessful in his proposals, and the management of the war was confirmed
in his hands. He no sooner received the senate's determination, but, big
with hopes, he marched directly into Thessaly, to engage Philip; his army
consisting of twenty-six thousand men, out of which the Aetolians furnished
six thousand foot and four hundred horse. The forces of Philip were much
about the same number. In this eagerness to encounter, they advanced against
each other, till both were near Scotussa, where they resolved to hazard
a battle. Nor had the approach of these two formidable armies the effect
that might have been supposed, to strike into the generals a mutual terror
of each other; it rather inspired them with ardour and ambition; on the
Romans' part, to be the conquerors of Macedon, a name which Alexander had
made famous amongst them for strength and valour; whilst the Macedonians,
on the other hand, esteeming of the Romans as an enemy very different from
the Persians, hoped, if victory stood on their side, to make the name of
Philip more glorious than that of Alexander. Titus, therefore, called upon
his soldiers to play the part of valiant men, because they were now to
act their parts upon the most illustrious theatre of the world, Greece,
and to contend with the bravest antagonists. And Philip, on the other side,
commenced a harangue to his men, as usual before an engagement, and to
be the better heard (whether it were merely a mischance, or the result
of unseasonable haste, not observing what he did), mounted an eminence
outside their camp, which proved to be a burying-place; and much disturbed
by the despondency that seized his army at the unluckiness of the omen,
all that day kept in his camp, and declined fighting.
But on the morrow, as day came on, after a soft and rainy night,
the clouds changing into a mist filled all the plain with thick darkness;
and a dense foggy air descending, by the time it was full day, from the
adjacent mountains into the ground betwixt the two camps, concealed them
from each other's view. The parties sent out on either side, some for ambuscade,
some for discovery, falling in upon one another quickly after they were
thus detached, began the fight at what are called the Cynos Cephalae, a
number of sharp tops of hills that stand close to one another, and have
the name from some resemblance in their shape. Now many vicissitudes and
changes happening, as may well be expected, in such an uneven field of
battle, sometimes hot pursuit, and sometimes as rapid a flight, the generals
on both sides kept sending in succours from the main bodies, as they saw
their men pressed or giving ground, till at length the heavens clearing
up, let them see what was going on, upon which the whole armies engaged.
Philip, who was in the right wing, from the advantage of the higher ground
which he had, threw on the Romans the whole weight of his phalanx, with
a force which they were unable to sustain; the dense array of spears, and
the pressure of the compact mass overpowering them. But the king's left
wing being broken up by the hilliness of the place, Titus observing it,
and cherishing little or no hopes on that side where his own gave ground,
makes in all haste to the other, and there charges in upon the Macedonians;
who, in consequence of the inequality and roughness of the ground, could
not keep their phalanx entire, nor line their ranks to any great depth
(which is the great point of their strength), but were forced to fight
man for man under heavy and unwieldy armour. For the Macedonian phalanx
is like some single powerful animal, irresistible so long as it is embodied
into one, and keeps its order, shield touching shield, all as in a piece;
but if it be once broken, not only is the joint force lost, but the individual
soldiers also who composed it lose each one his own single strength, because
of the nature of their armour; and because each of them is strong, rather,
as he makes a part of the whole, than in himself. When these were routed,
some gave chase to the flyers, others charged the flanks of those Macedonians
who were still fighting, so that the conquering wing, also, was quickly
disordered, took to flight, and threw down its arms. There were then slain
no less than eight thousand, and about five thousand were taken prisoners;
and the Aetolians were blamed as having been the main occasion that Philip
himself got safe off. For whilst the Romans were in pursuit, they fell
to ravaging and plundering the camp, and did it so completely, that when
the others returned, they found no booty in it.
This bred at first hard words, quarrels, and misunderstandings
betwixt them. But, afterwards, they galled Titus more by ascribing the
victory to themselves, and prepossessing the Greeks with reports to that
effect; insomuch that poets, and people in general in the songs that were
sung or written in honour of the action, still ranked the Aetolians foremost.
One of the pieces most current was the following epigram:-
"Naked and tombless see, O passer-by,
The thirty thousand men of Thessaly,
Slain by the Aetolians and the Latin band,
That came with Titus from Italia's land;
Alas for mighty Macedon! that day,
Swift as a roe, King Philip fled away." This was composed by Alcaeus
in mockery of Philip, exaggerating the number of the slain. However, being
everywhere repeated, and by almost everybody, Titus was more nettled at
it than Philip. The latter merely retorted upon Alcaeus with some elegiac
verses of his own:-
"Naked and leafless see, O passer-by,
The cross that shall Alcaeus crucify." But such little matters extremely
fretted Titus, who was ambitious of a reputation among the Greeks; and
he therefore acted in all after-occurrences by himself, paying but very
slight regard to the Aetolians. This offended them in their turn; and when
Titus listened to terms of accommodation, and admitted an embassy upon
the proffers of the Macedonian king, the Aetolians made it their business
to publish through all the cities of Greece, that this was the conclusion
of all; that he was selling Philip a peace at a time when it was in his
hand to destroy the very roots of the war, and to overthrow the power which
had first inflicted servitude upon Greece. But whilst with these and the
like rumours the Aetolians laboured to shake the Roman confederates, Philip,
making overtures of submission of himself and his kingdom to the discretion
of Titus and the Romans, put an end to those jealousies, as Titus, by accepting
them, did to the war. For he reinstated Philip in his kingdom of Macedon,
but made it a condition that he should quit Greece, and that he should
pay one thousand talents; he took from him also all his shipping, save
ten vessels and sent away Demetrius, one of his sons, hostage to Rome;
improving his opportunity to the best advantage, and taking wise precautions
for the future. For Hannibal the African, a professed enemy to the Roman
name, an exile from his own country, and not long since arrived at King
Antiochus's court, was already stimulating that prince, not to be wanting
to the good fortune that had been hitherto so propitious to his affairs;
the magnitude of his successes having gained him the surname of the Great.
He had begun to level his aim at universal monarchy, but above all he was
eager to measure himself with the Romans. Had not, therefore, Titus, upon
a principle of prudence and foresight, lent an ear to peace, and had Antiochus
found the Romans still at war in Greece with Philip, and had these two,
the most powerful and warlike princes of that age, confederated for their
common interests against the Roman state, Rome might once more have run
no less a risk, and been reduced to no less extremities, than she had experienced
under Hannibal. But now, Titus opportunely introducing this peace between
the wars, despatching the present danger before the new one had arrived,
at once disappointed Antiochus of his first hopes and Philip of his
last.
When the ten commissioners, delegated to Titus from the senate,
advised him to restore the rest of Greece to their liberty, but that Corinth,
Chalcis, and Demetrias should be kept garrisoned for security against Antiochus;
the Aetolians on this, breaking out into loud accusations, agitated all
the cities, calling upon Titus to strike off the shackles of Greece (so
Philip used to term those three cities), and asking the Greeks whether
it were not matter of much consolation to them that, though their chains
weighed heavier, yet they were now smoother and better polished than formerly,
and whether Titus were not deservedly admired by them as their benefactor,
who had unshackled the feet of Greece, and tied her up by the neck; Titus,
vexed and angry at this, made it his request to the senate, and at last
prevailed in it, that the garrisons in these cities should be dismissed,
that so the Greeks might be no longer debtors to him for a partial, but
for an entire favour. It was now the time of the celebration of the Isthmian
games; and the seats around the racecourse were crowded with an unusual
multitude of spectators; Greece, after long wars, having regained not only
peace, but hopes of liberty, and being able once more to keep holiday in
safety. A trumpet sounded to command silence; and the crier, stepping forth
amidst the spectators, made proclamation, that the Roman senate and Titus
Quintius, the proconsular general, having vanquished King Philip and the
Macedonians, restored the Corinthians, Locrians, Phocians, Euboeans, Achaeans
of Phthiotis, Magnetians, Thessalians, and Perrhaebians to their own lands,
laws, and liberties; remitting all impositions upon them, and withdrawing
all garrisons from their cities. At first, many heard not at all, and others
not distinctly, what was said; but there was a confused and uncertain stir
among the assembled people, some wondering, some asking, some calling out
to have it proclaimed again. When, therefore, fresh silence was made, the
crier raising his voice, succeeded in making himself generally heard; and
recited the decree again. A shout of joy followed it, so loud that it was
heard as far as the sea. The whole assembly rose and stood up; there was
no further thought of the entertainment; all were only eager to leap up
and salute and address their thanks to the deliverer and champion of Greece.
What we often hear alleged, in proof of the force of human voices, was
actually verified upon this occasion. Crows that were accidentally flying
over the course fell down dead into it. The disruption of the air must
be the cause of it; for the voices being numerous, and the acclamation
violent, the air breaks with it and can no longer give support to the birds,
but lets them tumble, like one that should attempt to walk upon a vacuum;
unless we should rather imagine them to fall and die, shot with the noise
as a dart. It is possible, too, that there may be a circular agitation
of the air, which, like marine whirlpools, may have a violent direction
of this sort given to it from the excess of its fluctuation.
But for Titus; the sports being now quite at an end, so beset was
he on every side, and by such multitudes, that had he not, foreseeing the
probable throng and concourse of the people, timely withdrawn, he would
scarce, it is thought, have ever got clear of them. When they had tired
themselves with acclamations all about his pavilion, and night was now
come, wherever friends or fellow-citizens met, they joyfully saluted and
embraced each other, and went home to feast and carouse together. And there,
no doubt, redoubling their joy, they began to recollect and talk of the
state of Greece, what wars she had incurred in defence of her liberty,
and yet was never perhaps mistress of a more settled or grateful one than
this which other men's labours had won for her; almost without one drop
of blood, or one citizen's loss to be mourned for, she had this day had
put into her hands the most glorious of rewards, and best worth the contending
for. Courage and wisdom are, indeed, rarities amongst men, but of all that
is good, a just man it would seem is the most scarce. Such as Agesilaus,
Lysander, Nicias, and Alcibiades, knew how to play the general's part,
how to manage a war, how to bring off their men victorious by land and
sea; but how to employ that success to generous and honest purposes they
had not known. For should a man except the achievement at Marathon, the
sea-fight at Salamis, the engagements at Plataea and Thermopylae, Cimon's
exploits at Eurymedon, and on the coasts of Cyprus, Greece fought all her
battles against, and to enslave, herself; she erected all her trophies
to her own shame and misery, and was brought to ruin and desolation almost
wholly by the guilt and ambition of her great men. A foreign people, appearing
just to retain some embers, as it were, some faint remainders of a common
character derived to them from their ancient sires, a nation from whom
it was a mere wonder that Greece should reap any benefit by word or thought,
these are they who have retrieved Greece from her severest dangers and
distresses, have rescued her out of the hands of insulting lords and tyrants,
and reinstated her in her former liberties.
Thus they entertained their tongues and thoughts: whilst Titus
by his actions made good what had been proclaimed. For he immediately despatched
away Lentulus to Asia, to set the Bargylians free, Titillius to Thrace,
to see the garrisons of Philip removed out of the towns and islands there,
while Publius Villius set sail, in order to treat with Antiochus about
the freedom of the Greeks under him. Titus himself passed on to Chalcis,
and sailing thence to Magnesia, dismantled the garrisons there, and surrendered
the government into the people's hands. Shortly after, he was appointed
at Argos to preside in the Nemean games, and did his part in the management
of that solemnity singularly well; and made a second publication there
by the crier of liberty to the Greeks; and, visiting all the cities, he
exhorted them to the practice of obedience to law, of constant justice,
and unity, and friendship one towards another. He suppressed their factions,
brought home their political exiles; and, in short, his conquest over the
Macedonians did not seem to give him a more lively pleasure, than to find
himself prevalent in reconciling Greeks with Greeks; so that their liberty
seemed now the least part of the kindness he conferred upon
them.
The story goes, that when Lycurgus the orator had rescued Xenocrates
the philosopher from the collectors who were hurrying him away to prison
for non-payment of the alien tax, and had them punished for the licence
they had been guilty of, Xenocrates afterwards meeting the children of
Lycurgus, "My sons," said he, "I am nobly repaying your father for his
kindness; he has the praises of the whole people in return for it." But
the returns which attended Titus Quintius and the Romans, for their beneficence
to the Greeks, terminated not in empty praises only; for these proceedings
gained them, deservedly, credit and confidence, and thereby power, among
all nations, for many not only admitted the Roman commanders, but even
sent and entreated to be under their protection; neither was this done
by popular governments alone, or by single cities; but kings oppressed
by kings cast themselves into these protecting hands. Insomuch that in
a very short time (though perchance not without divine influence in it)
all the world did homage to them. Titus himself thought more highly of
his liberation of Greece than of any other of his actions, as appears by
the inscription with which he dedicated some silver targets, together with
his own shield, to Apollo at Delphi:-
"Ye Spartan Tyndarids, twin sons of Jove,
Who in swift horsemanship have placed your love,
Titus, of great Aeneas's race, leaves this
In honour of the liberty of Greece." He offered also to Apollo a golden
crown, with this inscription:-
"This golden crown upon thy locks divine,
O blest Latonia's son, was set to shine
By the great captain of the Aenean name.
O Phoebus, grant the noble Titus fame!
The same event has twice occurred to the Greeks in the city of
Corinth. Titus, then, and Nero again in our days, both at Corinth, and
both alike at the celebration of the Isthmian games, permitted the Greeks
to enjoy their own laws and liberty. The former (as has been said) proclaimed
it by the crier; but Nero did it in the public meeting-place from the tribunal,
in a speech which he himself made to the people. This, however, was long
after.
Titus now engaged in a most gallant and just war upon Nabis, that
most profligate and lawless tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, but in the end
disappointed the expectations of the Greeks. For when he had an opportunity
of taking him, he purposely let it slip, and struck up a peace with him,
leaving Sparta to bewail an unworthy slavery; whether it were that he feared,
if the war should be protracted, Rome would send a new general who might
rob him of the glory of it; or that emulation and envy of Philopoemen (who
had signalized himself among the Greeks upon all other occasions, but in
that war especially had done wonders both for matter of courage and counsel,
and whom the Achaeans magnified in their theatres, and put into the same
balance of glory with Titus), touched him to the quick; and that he scorned
that an ordinary Arcadian, who had commanded in a few encounters upon the
confines of his native district, should be spoken of in terms of equality
with a Roman consul, waging war as the protector of Greece in general.
But, besides, Titus was not without an apology too for what he did, namely,
that he put an end to the war only when he foresaw that the tyrant's destruction
must have been attended with the ruin of the other Spartans.
The Achaeans, by various decrees, did much to show Titus honour:
none of these returns, however, seemed to come up to the height of the
actions that merited them, unless it were one present they made him, which
affected and pleased him beyond all the rest; which was this. The Romans,
who in the war with Hannibal had the misfortune to be taken captives, were
sold about here and there, and dispersed into slavery; twelve hundred in
number were at that time in Greece. The reverse of their fortune always
rendered them objects of compassion; but more particularly, as well might
be, when they now met, some with their sons, some with their brothers,
others with their acquaintance; slaves with their free, and captives with
their victorious countrymen. Titus, though deeply concerned on their behalf,
yet took none of them from their masters by constraint. But the Achaeans,
redeeming them at five pounds a man, brought them altogether into one place,
and made a present of them to him, as he was just going on shipboard, so
that he now sailed away with the fullest satisfaction; his generous actions
having procured him as generous returns, worthy a brave man and a lover
of his country. This seemed the most glorious part of all his succeeding
triumph; for these redeemed Romans (as it is the custom for slaves, upon
their manumission, to shave their heads and wear felt hats) followed in
that habit in the procession. To add to the glory of this show, there were
the Grecian helmets, the Macedonian targets and long spears, borne with
the rest of the spoils in public view, besides vast sums of money; Tuditanus
says, 3,713 pounds weight of massy gold, 43,270 of silver, 14,514 pieces
of coined gold, called Philippics, which was all over and above the thousand
talents which Philip owed, and which the Romans were afterwards prevailed
upon, chiefly by the mediation of Titus, to remit to Philip, declaring
him their ally and confederate, and sending him home his hostage
son.
Shortly after, Antiochus entered Greece with a numerous fleet and
a powerful army, soliciting the cities there to sedition and revolt; abetted
in all and seconded by the Aetolians, who for this long time had borne
a grudge and secret enmity to the Romans, and now suggested to him, by
the way of a cause and pretext of war, that he came to bring the Greeks
liberty. When, indeed, they never wanted it less, as they were free already,
but, in lack of really honourable grounds, he was instructed to employ
these lofty professions. The Romans, in the interim, in the great apprehension
of revolutions and revolt in Greece, and of his great reputation for military
strength, despatched the consul Manius Acilius to take the charge of the
war, and Titus, as his lieutenant, out of regard to the Greeks: some of
whom he no sooner saw, but he confirmed them in the Roman interests; others,
who began to falter, like a timely physician, by the use of the strong
remedy of their own affection for himself, he was able to arrest in the
first stage of the disease, before they had committed themselves to any
great error. Some few there were whom the Aetolians were beforehand with,
and had so wholly perverted that he could do no good with them; yet these,
however angry and exasperated before, he saved and protected when the engagement
was over. For Antiochus, receiving a defeat at Thermopylae, not only fled
the field, but hoisted sail instantly for Asia. Manius, the consul, himself
invaded and besieged a part of the Aetolians, while King Philip had permission
to reduce the rest. Thus while, for instance, the Dolopes and Magnesians
on the one hand, the Athamanes and Aperantians on the other, were ransacked
by the Macedonians, and while Manius laid Heraclea waste, and besieged
Naupactus, then in the Aetolians' hands, Titus, still with a compassionate
care for Greece, sailed across from Peloponnesus to the consul: and began
first of all to chide him, that the victory should be owing alone to his
arms, and yet he should suffer Philip to bear away the prize and profit
of the war, and set wreaking his anger upon a single town, whilst the Macedonians
overran several nations and kingdoms. But as he happened to stand then
in view of the besieged, they no sooner spied him out, but they call to
him from their wall, they stretch forth their hands, they supplicate and
entreat him. At the time, he said not a word more, but turning about with
tears in his eyes, went his way. Some little while after he discussed the
matter so effectually with Manius, that he won him over from his passion,
and prevailed with him to give a truce and time to the Aetolians to send
deputies to Rome to petition the senate for terms of
moderation.
But the hardest task, and that which put Titus to the greatest
difficulty, was to entreat with Manius for the Chalcidians, who had incensed
him on account of a marriage which Antiochus had made in their city, even
whilst the war was on foot; a match noways suitable in point of age, he
an elderly man being enamoured with a mere girl; and as little proper for
the time, in the midst of a war. She was the daughter of one Cleoptolemus,
and is said to have been wonderfully beautiful. The Chalcidians, in consequence,
embraced the king's interests with zeal and alacrity, and let him make
their city the basis of his operations during the war. Thither, therefore,
he made with all speed, when he was routed and fled; and reaching Chalcis,
without making any stay, taking this young lady, and his money and friends
with him, away he sails to Asia. And now Manius's indignation carrying
him in all haste against the Chalcidians, Titus hurried after him, endeavouring
to pacify and to entreat him; and at length succeeded both with him and
the chief men among the Romans.
The Chalcidians, thus owing their lives to Titus, dedicated to
him all the best and most magnificent of their sacred buildings, inscriptions
upon which may be seen to run thus to this day: THE People DEDICATE THIS
GYMNASIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; so again: THE People CONSECRATE THE
DELPHINIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; and what is yet more, even in our
time, a priest of Titus was formerly elected and declared; and after sacrifice
and libation, they sing a set song, much of which for the length of it
we omit, but shall transcribe the closing verses-
"The Roman Faith, whose aid of yore
Our vows were offered to implore,
We worship now and evermore.
To Rome, to Titus, and to Jove,
O maidens, in the dances move.
Dances and Io-Paeans too
Unto the Roman Faith are due,
O Saviour Titus, and to you." Other parts of Greece also heaped honours
upon him suitable to his merits, and what made all those honours true and
real, was the surprising goodwill and affection which his moderation and
equity of character had won for him. For if he were at any time at variance
with anybody in matters of business, or out of emulation and rivalry (as
with Philopoemen, and again with Diophanes, when in office as general of
the Achaeans), his resentment never went far, nor did it ever break out
into acts; but when it had vented itself in some citizen-like freedom of
speech, there was an end of it. In fine, nobody charged malice or bitterness
upon his nature, though many imputed hastiness and levity to it; in general,
he was the most attractive and agreeable of companions, and could speak,
too, both with grace and forcibly. For instance, to divert the Achaeans
from the conquest of the isle of Zacynthus, "If," said he, "they put their
head too far out of Peloponnesus, they may hazard themselves as much as
a tortoise out of its shell." Again, when he and Philip first met to treat
of a cessation and peace, the latter complaining that Titus came with a
mighty train, while he himself came alone and unattended, "Yes," replied
Titus, "you have left yourself alone by killing your friends." At another
time, Dinocrates, the Messenian, having drunk too much at a merry-meeting
in Rome, danced there in woman's clothes, and the next day addressed himself
to Titus for assistance in his design to get Messene out of the hands of
the Achaeans. "This," replied Titus, "will be matter for consideration;
my only surprise is that a man with such purposes on his hands should be
able to dance and sing at drinking parties." When, again, the ambassadors
of Antiochus were recounting to those of Achaea the various multitudes
composing their royal master's forces, and ran over a long catalogue of
hard names, "I supped once," said Titus, "with a friend, and could not
forbear expostulating with him at the number of dishes he had provided,
and said I wondered where he had furnished himself with such a variety;
'Sir,' replied he, 'to confess the truth, it is all hog's flesh differently
cooked.' And so, men of Achaea, when you are told of Antiochus's lancers,
and pikemen, and foot-guards, I advise you not to be surprised; since in
fact they are all Syrians, differently armed."
After his achievements in Greece, and when the war with Antiochus
was at an end, Titus was created censor; the most eminent office, and,
in a manner, the highest preferment, in the commonwealth. The son of Marcellus,
who had been five times consul, was his colleague. These, by virtue of
their office, cashiered four senators of no great distinction, and admitted
to the roll of citizens all freeborn residents. But this was more by constraint
than their own choice; for Terentius Culeo, then tribune of the people,
to spite the nobility, spurred on the populace to order it to be done.
At this time, the two greatest and most eminent persons in the city, Africanus
Scipio and Marcus Cato, were at variance. Titus named Scipio first member
of the senate; and involved himself in a quarrel with Cato, on the following
unhappy occasion. Titus had a brother, Lucius Flamininus, very unlike him
in all points of character, and, in particular, low and dissolute in his
pleasures, and flagrantly regardless of all decency. He kept as a companion
a boy whom he used to carry about with him, not only when he had troops
under his charge, but even when the care of a province was committed to
him. One day at a drinking-bout, when the youngster was wantoning with
Lucius, "I love you, sir, so dearly," said he, "that preferring your satisfaction
to my own, I came away without seeing the gladiators, though I have never
seen a man killed in my life." Lucius, delighted with what the boy said,
answered, "Let not that trouble you; I can satisfy that longing," and with
that orders a condemned man to be fetched out of the prison, and the executioner
to be sent for, and commands him to strike off the man's head, before they
rose from table. Valerius Antias only so far varies the story as to make
it a woman for whom he did it. But Livy says that in Cato's own speech
the statement is that a Gaulish deserter coming with his wife and children
to the door, Lucius took him into the banqueting-room, and killed him with
his own hand, to gratify his paramour. Cato, it is probable, might say
this by way of aggravation of the crime; but that the slain was no such
fugitive, but a prisoner, and one condemned to die, not to mention other
authorities, Cicero tells us in his treatise on Old Age, where he brings
in Cato, himself, giving that account of the matter.
However, this is certain; Cato, during his censorship, made a severe
scrutiny into the senators' lives in order to the purging and reforming
the house, and expelled Lucius, though he had been once consul before,
and though the punishment seemed to reflect dishonour on his brother also.
Both of them presented themselves to the assembly of the people in a suppliant
manner, not without tears in their eyes, requesting that Cato might show
the reason and cause of his fixing such a stain upon so honourable a family.
The citizens thought it a modest and moderate request. Cato, however, without
any retraction or reserve, at once came forward, and standing up with his
colleague interrogated Titus as to whether he knew the story of the supper.
Titus answered in the negative, Cato related it, and challenged Lucius
to a formal denial of it. Lucius made no reply, whereupon the people adjudged
the disgrace just and suitable, and waited upon Cato home from the tribunal
in great state. But Titus still so deeply resented his brother's degradation,
that he allied himself with those who had long borne a grudge against Cato;
and winning over a major part of the senate, he revoked and made void all
the contracts, leases, and bargains made by Cato, relating to public revenues,
and also got numerous actions and accusations brought against him; carrying
on against a lawful magistrate and excellent citizens, for the sake of
one who was indeed his relation, but was unworthy to be so, and had but
gotten his deserts, a course of bitter and violent attacks, which it would
be hard to say were either right or patriotic. Afterwards, however, at
a public spectacle in the theatre, at which the senators appeared as usual,
sitting, as became their rank, in the first seats, when Lucius was spied
at the lower end, seated in a mean, dishonourable place, it made a great
impression upon the people, nor could they endure the sight, but kept calling
out to him to move, until he did move, and went in among those of consular
dignity, who received him into their seats.
This natural ambition of Titus was well enough looked upon by the
world whilst the wars we have given a relation of afforded competent fuel
to feed it; as, for instance, when after the expiration of his consulship,
he had a command as military tribune, which nobody pressed upon him. But
being now out of all employ in the government, and advanced in years, he
showed his defects more plainly; allowing himself, in this inactive remainder
of life, to be carried away with the passion for reputation, as uncontrollably
as any youth. Some such transport, it is thought, betrayed him into a proceeding
against Hannibal, which lost him the regard of many. For Hannibal, having
fled his country, first took sanctuary with Antiochus; but he, having been
glad to obtain a peace, after the battle in Phrygia, Hannibal was put to
shift for himself, by a second flight, and, after wandering through many
countries, fixed at length in Bithynia, proffering his service to King
Prusias. Every one at Rome knew where he was, but looked upon him, now
in his weakness and old age, with no sort of apprehension, as one whom
fortune had quite cast off. Titus, however, coming thither as ambassador,
though he was sent from the senate to Prusias upon another errand, yet
seeing Hannibal resident there, it stirred up resentment in him to find
that he was yet alive. And though Prusias used much intercession and entreaties
in favour of him, as his suppliant and familiar friend, Titus was not to
be entreated. There was an ancient oracle, it seems, which prophesied thus
of Hannibal's end:-
"Libyssan earth shall Hannibal inclose." He interpreted this to
be meant of the African Libya, and that he should be buried in Carthage;
as if he might yet expect to return and end his life there. But there is
a sandy place in Bithynia, bordering on the sea, and near it a little village
called Libyssa. It was Hannibal's chance to be staying here, and, having
ever from the beginning had a distrust of the easiness and cowardice of
Prusias, and a fear of the Romans, he had, long before, ordered seven underground
passages to be dug from his house, leading from his lodging and running
a considerable distance in various opposite directions, all undiscernible
from without. As soon, therefore, as he heard what Titus had ordered, he
attempted to make his escape through these mines; but finding them beset
with the king's guards, he resolved upon making away with himself. Some
say that, wrapping his upper garment about his neck, he commanded his servant
to set his knee against his back, and not to cease twisting and pulling
it till he had completely strangled him. Others say he drank bull's blood,
after the example of Themistocles and Midas. Livy writes that he had poison
in readiness, which he mixed for the purpose, and that, taking the cup
in his hand, "Let us ease," said he, "the Romans of their continual dread
and care, who think it long and tedious to await the death of a hated old
man. Yet Titus will not bear away a glorious victory, nor one worthy of
those ancestors who sent to caution Pyrrhus, an enemy, and a conqueror
too, against the poison prepared for him by traitors."
Thus various are the reports of Hannibal's death; but when the
news of it came to the senator's ears, some felt indignation against Titus
for it, blaming as well his officiousness as his cruelty; who when there
was nothing to urge it, out of mere appetite for distinction to have it
said that he had caused Hannibal's death, sent him to his grave when he
was now like a bird that in its old age has lost its feathers, and incapable
of flying, is let alone to live tamely without molestation.
They began also now to regard with increased admiration the clemency
and magnanimity of Scipio Africanus, and called to mind how he, when he
had vanquished in Africa the still then invincible and terrible Hannibal,
neither banished him his country, nor exacted of his countrymen that they
should give him up. At a parley just before they joined battle, Scipio
gave him his hand, and in the peace made after it, he put no hard article
upon him, nor insulted over his fallen fortune. It is told, too, that they
had another meeting afterwards, at Ephesus, and that when Hannibal, as
they were walking together, took the upper hand, Africanus let it pass,
and walked on without the least notice of it; and that then they began
to talk of generals, and Hannibal affirmed that Alexander was the greatest
commander the world had seen, next to him Pyrrhus, and the third was himself;
Africanus, with a smile, asked, "What would you have said, if I had not
defeated you?" "I would not then, Scipio," he replied, "have made myself
the third, but the first commander." Such conduct was much admired in Scipio,
and that of Titus, who had as it were insulted the dead whom another had
slain, was no less generally found fault with. Not but that there were
some who applauded the action, looking upon a living Hannibal as a fire,
which only wanted blowing to become a flame. For when he was in the prime
and flower of his age, it was not his body nor his hand that had been so
formidable, but his consummate skill and experience, together with his
innate malice and rancour against the Roman name, things which do not impair
with age. For the temper and bent of the soul remains constant, while fortune
continually varies; and some new hope might easily rouse to a fresh attempt
those whose hatred made them enemies to the last. And what really happened
afterwards does to a certain extent tend yet further to the exculpation
of Titus. Aristonicus, of the family of a common musician, upon the reputation
of being the son of Eumenes, filled all Asia with tumults and rebellion.
Then again, Mithridates, after his defeats by Sylla and Fimbria, and vast
slaughter as well among his prime officers as common soldiers, made head
again, and proved a most dangerous enemy, against Lucullus, both by sea
and land. Hannibal was never reduced to so contemptible a state as Caius
Marius; he had the friendship of a king, and the free exercise of his faculties,
employment and charge in the navy, and over the horse and foot, of Prusias;
whereas those who but now were laughing to hear of Marius wandering about
Africa, destitute and begging, in no long time after were seen entreating
his mercy in Rome, with his rods at their backs, and his axes at their
necks. So true it is, that looking to the possible future, we can call
nothing that we see either great or small; as nothing puts an end to the
mutability and vicissitude of things but what puts an end to their very
being. Some authors accordingly tell us that Titus did not do this of his
own head, but that he was joined in commission with Lucius Scipio, and
that the whole object of the embassy was to effect Hannibal's death. And
now, as we find no further mention in history of anything done by Titus,
either in war or in the administration of the government, but simply that
he died in peace, it is time to look upon him as he stands in comparison
with Philopoemen.
THE END
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