The CDPD Public Domain Collection for CDTV 3/CDPDIII.bin/books/plutarch/flamininus

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                                      75 AD
                                   FLAMININUS
                                 230?-174 B.C.
                                  by Plutarch
                           translated by John Dryden
FLAMININUS

  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