Livy:
The Trial of Scipio, Hero of the 2nd Punic War (187 b.c.)
All discussion and even recollection of this dispute were
lost in
the outbreak of a more serious controversy with a greater and more
distinguished man. We are told on the authority of Valerius Antias that the
two Petillii instituted proceedings against Publius Scipio Africanus.
Men put
different interpretations on this according to their various dispositions.
Some blamed, not the tribunes only, but the whole body of citizens, for
letting such a thing be possible; the two greatest cities in the world, they
said, had proved themselves, almost at the same time, ungrateful to their
foremost men. Rome was the more ungrateful of the two, for whilst Carthage
after her defeat drove the defeated Hannibal into exile, Rome would banish
the victorious Scipio in the hour of her victory. Others again took the
ground that no single citizen should stand on such an eminence that he could
not be required to answer according to law. Nothing contributed more towards
maintaining liberty for all than the power of putting the most powerful
citizen on his trial. What business, it was asked not to mention the supreme
interests of the State could be entrusted to any man, if he had not to
render an account for it? If a man cannot submit to laws which are the same
for all, no force which may be employed against him is unlawful. So the
matter was discussed until the day of trial came.
Never before had anyone, even Scipio himself when he was
consul or censor, been surrounded by a greater concourse of people of all sorts
and conditions than on the day when he was conducted into the Forum to make his
defence. When he was called upon
to plead, he made no allusion whatever to the charges brought against him,
but spoke of the services he had rendered in such a lofty tone that it was
universally felt that no man had ever deserved higher or truer praise. He
described his actions in the spirit and temper in which he had performed
them, and he was listened to without any impatience because they were
recounted not in self glorification but in self defence.
The Charges Lodged by the Tribunes of the Plebs
(38.51)
In order to support the charges they were bringing against him, the tribunes
brought up the old story of his luxurious living in his winter quarters in
Syracuse and the disturbance created by Pleminius at Locri. They then went
on to accuse him of having received bribes, more on grounds of suspicion
than by direct proof; they alleged that his son who was taken prisoner was
restored to him without ransom; that Antiochus had in every way tried to
ingratiate himself with Scipio as though peace and war with Rome were solely
in his hands; that Scipio had behaved towards the consul in his province as
dictator rather than subordinate; that he had gone out with no other object
than to make clear to Greece and Asia and all the kings and nationalities in
the East what had long been the settled conviction of Spain and Gaul and
Sicily and Africa, that he alone was the head and mainstay of Roman
sovereignty; that under Scipio's shadow the mistress city of the world lay
sheltered and that his nod took the place of the decrees of the senate and
the orders of the people. No stigma of disgrace could be fastened upon him,
so they did their utmost to excite popular odium against him. As the
speeches went on till night, the proceedings were adjourned.
When the next day for the hearing came, the tribunes took
their seats on the Rostra at
daybreak. The defendant was summoned, and passing through the middle of the
Assembly accompanied by a large body of friends and clients, stood before
the Rostra. Silence having been called he spoke as follows:
"Tribunes of the plebs, and you, Quirites, this is the anniversary of the
day on which I fought with success and good fortune a pitched battle against
Hannibal and the Carthaginians. It is therefore only right and fitting that
on this day all pleas and actions should be suspended. I am going at once to
the Capitol and the Citadel to make my devotions to Jupiter Optimus Maximus,
and Juno and Minerva and all the other tutelar deities of the Capitol and
the Citadel, and to offer up thanksgivings to them for having given me as on
this day the wisdom and the strength to do the Republic exceptional service.
Those of you, Quirites, who are at liberty to do so, come with me. You have
always from my seventeenth year down to this period of my old age advanced
me to honours before I was of the age for them, and I have always
forestalled your honours by my services; then pray now to the gods that you
may always have leaders like me." From the Rostra he went straight up to
the
Capitol, and the whole Assembly turning their backs on the tribunes followed
him; even the secretaries and apparitors left the tribunes; there was no one
with them except their attendant slaves and the usher who used to stand at
the Rostra and call the defendants. Scipio not only went up to the Capitol;
he visited all the temples throughout the City, accompanied by the Roman
people. The enthusiasm of the citizens and their recognition of his real
greatness made that day almost a more glorious one for him than when he
entered the City in triumph after his victories over Syphax and the
Carthaginians.
Scipio’s Decision - Retirement 38.52
This splendid day was the last day of brightness for Scipio. He saw before
him envious attacks and contests with the tribunes, and so after a somewhat
lengthy adjournment had been agreed upon, he retired to Liternum, firmly
resolved not to appear in his defence. His spirit was too high, his mind too
great; he had all through held a position too lofty to allow him to accept
the position of a defendant or submit to the humiliation of having to plead
his cause. When the day arrived and his name was called, L. Scipio
apologised for his absence on the ground of ill health. The prosecuting
tribunes did not accept the excuse and gave out that his refusal to appear
was dictated by the same spirit of pride and arrogance in which he had left
the seat of judgment and the tribunes and the Assembly. Surrounded by the
very men whom he had deprived of the right and liberty of passing sentence
upon him, and dragging them after him like prisoners of war, he had
celebrated a triumph over the people of Rome and had made a secession on
that day from the tribunes to the Capitol. "So now," they continued,
"you
have the due reward of your folly; the man at whose instigation and under
whose leadership you deserted us, has now deserted you. So low is our
courage falling day by day, that the man whom seventeen years ago we dared
to send tribunes to Sicily to apprehend, whilst he had an army and a fleet
at his command, that man we dare not now, though he is only a private
citizen, fetch from his country house to stand his trial." L. Scipio
appealed to the tribunes of the plebs as a body, and they passed the
following resolution: "If illness be pleaded as an excuse, it is our
pleasure that this excuse be accepted, and our colleagues must again adjourn
the day of trial."
Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was one of the tribunes.
He
was a political opponent of Scipio, and had forbidden his colleagues to add
his name to their resolution. It was generally expected that he would give a
more severe sentence, but he drew up a resolution in the following terms:
"Since L. Scipio has pleaded illness as the reason for his
brother's
absence, I hold that to be sufficient excuse, and will not allow P. Scipio
to be put on his trial before his return to Rome; even then, if he appeals
to me, I will support him in any effort to avoid a trial. Scipio has by the
common consent of gods and men attained such a lofty position through his
own acts and the honours which the Roman people have conferred upon him,
that for him to stand beneath the Rostra as a defendant, and have
to listen
to the insults of young men, would be a greater ignominy for the people of
Rome than for him."
He followed this up by an
indignant speech: Is Scipio, the conqueror of
Africa, to stand at your feet, tribunes? Was it for this that he broke and
routed four armies in Spain under the most famous generals that Carthage
possessed? Was it for this that he captured Syphax and crushed Hannibal,
made Carthage tributary to us, removed Antiochus beyond the Taurus for his
brother Lucius allowed him to share his glory was it simply that he might
succumb to the two Petillii, and that you might claim the palm of victory
over Publius Africanus. Will you allow the claim, citizens? Will illustrious
men never either through their own merits or the honours you confer, reach a
safe, and if I may say so, a sacred asylum where their old age may rest, if
not venerated, at least inviolate?" His resolution and the speech which
followed it had their effect upon the other tribunes, even upon the
prosecutors, who said that they would deliberate as to what their right and
duty demanded. After the Assembly broke up, a meeting of the senate was
held. Here a most hearty vote of thanks to Tiberius Gracchus was passed by
the whole order, especially the men of consular rank and the elder senators,
for having placed the interests of the State before his own private
feelings, and the Petillii were taunted with wanting to shine by darkening
another's reputation and enrich themselves by a triumph over Africanus.
After this nothing more was said about proceedings against
Scipio. He passed
his life at Liternum without any wish to return to the City, and it is said
that on his death bed he gave orders that he should be buried and his
monument set up there, so that there might be no funeral rites performed for
him by his ungrateful country. He was an extraordinary man, more
distinguished, however in the arts of war than in those of peace. The
earlier part of his life was more brilliant than the later; as a young man
he was constantly engaged in war; with advancing years the glory of his
achievements faded, and there was nothing to call forth his genius. What
additional lustre did his second consulship confer as compared with his
first, or even his censorship? What further distinction did he gain during
his subordinate command in Asia, rendered useless through bad health and
saddened by the misfortune which overtook his son? Then, again, after his
return he was under the necessity of either standing his trial or of
absenting himself from his native city. Still, he alone won the unique glory
of bringing the war with Carthage to a close, the greatest and most serious
war that the Romans have ever waged.
Continuing Enmity – M. Porcius Cato “the Elder” 38.54
With the death of Africanus the courage of his enemies rose. The foremost of
these was M. Porcius Cato, who even during Scipio's lifetime was
constantly
belittling his greatness, and it was at his instigation, it was thought,
that the Petillii attacked him whilst he was alive. After his death they
introduced into the Assembly the following motion: "Touching the money
which
was seized, confiscated and exacted from Antiochus and his subjects, is it
your will and pleasure, Quirites, that in respect of such money as has not
been accounted for to the State, the City praetor Servius Sulpicius shall
consult the senate as to which of the acting praetors it shall appoint to
investigate the matter?" The two Mummii, Quintus and Lucius,
interposed
their veto to this proposal; they considered that where money had not been
accounted for to the State, it was only right and proper that the senate
should conduct such investigation as it always had done previously. The
Petillii accused the nobility and the despotic power which the Scipios
possessed over the senate. L. Furius Purpurio, a man of consular rank,
one
of the ten commissioners, thought that the inquiry ought to go further. By
way of damaging his enemy Cn. Manlius, he suggested that it ought to
include
not only the amount taken from Antiochus, but all that had been taken from
other kings and nations.