Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
address in speaking, was called Aemilius. Most of this race that have
risen through their merit to reputation, also enjoyed good fortune; and
even the misfortune of Lucius Paulus at the battle of Cannae, gave
testimony to his wisdom and valor. For, not being able to persuade his
colleague not to hazard the battle, he, though against his judgment,
joined with him in the contest, but was no companion in his flight: on
the contrary, when he that was so resolute to engage deserted him in the
midst of danger, he kept the field, and died fighting. This Aemilius had
a daughter named Aemilia, who was married to Scipio the Great, and a son
Paulus, who is the subject of my present history.
In his early manhood, which fell at a time when Rome was flourishing with
illustrious characters, he was distinguished for not attaching himself to
the studies usual with the young men of mark of that age, nor treading
the same paths to fame. For he did not practice oratory with a view to
pleading causes, nor would he stoop to salute, embrace, and entertain the
vulgar, which were the usual insinuating arts by which many grew popular.
Not that he was incapable of either, but he chose to purchase a much more
lasting glory by his valor, justice, and integrity, and in these virtues
he soon outstripped all his equals.
The first honorable office he aspired to was that of aedile, which he
carried against twelve competitors of such merit, that all of them in
process of time were consuls. Being afterwards chosen into the number of
priests called augurs, appointed amongst the Romans to observe and
register divinations made by the flight of birds or prodigies in the air,
he so carefully studied the ancient customs of his country, and so
thoroughly understood the religion of his ancestors, that this office,
which was before only esteemed a title of honor and merely upon that
account sought after, by his means rose to the rank of one of the highest
arts, and gave a confirmation to the correctness of the definition which
some philosophers have given of religion, that it is the science of
worshiping the gods. When he performed any part of his duty, he did it
with great skill and utmost care, making it, when he was engaged in it,
his only business, not omitting any one ceremony, or adding the least
circumstance, but always insisting, with his companions of the same
order, even on points that might seem inconsiderable, and urging upon
them, that though they might think the deity was easily pacified, and
ready to forgive faults of inadvertency, yet any such laxity was a very
dangerous thing for a commonwealth to allow: because no man ever began
the disturbance of his country's peace by a notorious breach of its laws;
and those who are careless in trifles, give a precedent for remissness in
important duties. Nor was he less severe, in requiring and observing the
ancient Roman discipline in military affairs; not endeavoring, when he
had the command, to ingratiate himself with his soldiers by popular
flattery, though this custom prevailed at that time amongst many, who, by
favor and gentleness to those that were under them in their first
employment, sought to be promoted to a second; but, by instructing them
in the laws of military discipline with the same care and exactness a
priest would use in teaching ceremonies and dreadful mysteries, and by
severity to such as transgressed and contemned those laws, he maintained
his country in its former greatness, esteeming victory over enemies
itself but as an accessory to the proper training and disciplining of the
citizens.
Whilst the Romans were engaged in war with Antiochus the Great, against
whom their most experienced commanders were employed, there arose another
war in the west, and they were all up in arms in Spain. Thither they
sent Aemilius, in the quality of praetor, not with six axes, which number
other praetors were accustomed to have carried before them, but with
twelve; so that in his praetorship he was honored with the dignity of a
consul. He twice overcame the barbarians in battle, thirty thousand of
whom were slain: successes chiefly to be ascribed to the wisdom and
conduct of the commander, who by his great skill in choosing the
advantage of the ground, and making the onset at the passage of a river,
gave his soldiers an easy victory. Having made himself master of two
hundred and fifty cities, whose inhabitants voluntarily yielded, and
bound themselves by oath to fidelity, he left the province in peace, and
returned to Rome, not enriching himself a drachma by the war. And,
indeed, in general, he was but remiss in making money; though he always
lived freely and generously on what he had, which was so far from being
excessive, that after his death there was but barely enough left to
answer his wife's dowry.
His first wife was Papiria, the daughter of Maso, who had formerly been
consul. With her he lived a considerable time in wedlock, and then
divorced her, though she had made him the father of noble children; being
mother of the renowned Scipio, and Fabius Maximus. The reason of this
separation has not come to our knowledge; but there seems to be a truth
conveyed in the account of another Roman's being divorced from his wife,
which may be applicable here. This person being highly blamed by his
friends, who demanded, Was she not chaste? was she not fair? was she
not fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them, Whether it was not new?
and well made? Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it pinches
me. Certain it is, that great and open faults have often led to no
separation; while mere petty repeated annoyances, arising from
unpleasantness or incongruity of character, have been the occasion of
such estrangement as to make it impossible for man and wife to live
together with any content.
Aemilius, having thus put away Papiria, married a second wife, by whom he
had two sons, whom he brought up in his own house, transferring the two
former into the greatest and most noble families of Rome. The elder was
adopted into the house of Fabius Maximus, who was five times consul; the
younger, by the son of Scipio Africanus, his cousin-german, and was by
him named Scipio.
Of the daughters of Aemilius, one was married to the son of Cato, the
other to Aelius Tubero, a most worthy man, and the one Roman who best
succeeded in combining liberal habits with poverty. For there were
sixteen near relations, all of them of the family of the Aelii, possessed
of but one farm, which sufficed them all, whilst one small house, or
rather cottage, contained them, their numerous offspring, and their
wives; amongst whom was the daughter of our Aemilius, who, although her
father had been twice consul, and had twice triumphed, was not ashamed
of her husband's poverty, but proud of his virtue that kept him poor.
Far otherwise it is with the brothers and relations of this age, who,
unless whole tracts of land, or at least walls and rivers, part their
inheritances, and keep them at a distance, never cease from mutual
quarrels. History suggests a variety of good counsel of this sort, by
the way, to those who desire to learn and improve.
To proceed: Aemilius, being chosen consul, waged war with the Ligurians,
or Ligustines, a people near the Alps. They were a bold and warlike
nation, and their neighborhood to the Romans had begun to give them skill
in the arts of war. They occupy the further parts of Italy ending under
the Alps, and those parts of the Alps themselves which are washed by the
Tuscan sea and face towards Africa, mingled there with Gauls and Iberians
of the coast. Besides, at that time they had turned their thoughts to
the sea, and sailing as far as the Pillars of Hercules in light vessels
fitted for that purpose, robbed and destroyed all that trafficked in
those parts. They, with an army of forty thousand, waited the coming of
Aemilius, who brought with him not above eight thousand, so that the
enemy was five to one when they engaged; yet he vanquished and put them
to flight, forcing them to retire into their walled towns, and in this
condition offered them fair conditions of accommodation; it being the
policy of the Romans not utterly to destroy the Ligurians, because they
were a sort of guard and bulwark against the frequent attempts of the
Gauls to overrun Italy. Trusting wholly therefore to Aemilius, they
delivered up their towns and shipping into his hands. He, at the utmost,
razed only the fortifications, and delivered their towns to them again,
but took away all their shipping with him, leaving them no vessels bigger
than those of three oars, and set at liberty great numbers of prisoners
they had taken both by sea and land, strangers as well as Romans. These
were the acts most worthy of remark in his first consulship.
Afterwards he frequently intimated his desire of being a second time
consul, and was once candidate; but, meeting with a repulse and being
passed by, he gave up all thought of it, and devoted himself to his
duties as augur, and to the education of his children, whom he not only
brought up, as he himself had been, in the Roman and ancient discipline,
but also with unusual zeal in that of Greece. To this purpose he not
only procured masters to teach them grammar, logic, and rhetoric, but had
for them also preceptors in modeling and drawing, managers of horses and
dogs, and instructors in field sports, all from Greece. And, if he was
not hindered by public affairs, he himself would be with them at their
studies, and see them perform their exercises, being the most
affectionate father in Rome.
This was the time, in public matters, when the Romans were engaged in war
with Perseus, king of the Macedonians, and great complaints were made of
their commanders, who, either through their want of skill or courage,
were conducting matters so shamefully, that they did less hurt to the
enemy than they received from him. They that not long before had forced
Antiochus the Great to quit the rest of Asia, to retire beyond Mount
Taurus, and confine himself to Syria, glad to buy his peace with fifteen
thousand talents; they that not long since had vanquished king Philip in
Thessaly, and freed the Greeks from the Macedonian yoke; nay, had
overcome Hannibal himself, who far surpassed all kings in daring and
power,—thought it scorn that Perseus should think himself an enemy fit to
match the Romans, and to be able to wage war with them so long on equal
terms, with the remainder only of his father's routed forces; not being
aware that Philip after his defeat had greatly improved both the strength
and discipline of the Macedonian army. To make which appear, I shall
briefly recount the story from the beginning.
Antigonus, the most powerful amongst the captains and successors of
Alexander, having obtained for himself and his posterity the title of
king, had a son named Demetrius, father to Antigonus, called Gonatas, and
he had a son Demetrius, who, reigning some short time, died and left a
young son called Philip. The chief men of Macedon, fearing great
confusion might arise in his minority, called in Antigonus, cousin-german
to the late king, and married him to the widow, the mother of Philip. At
first they only styled him regent and general, but, when they found by
experience that he governed the kingdom with moderation and to general
advantage, gave him the title of king. This was he that was surnamed
Doson, as if he was a great promiser, and a bad performer. To him
succeeded Philip, who in his youth gave great hopes of equaling the best
of kings, and that he one day would restore Macedon to its former state
and dignity, and prove himself the one man able to check the power of the
Romans, now rising and extending over the whole world. But, being