34.52
After
thus traversing Thessaly he went on through Epirus to Oricum, his starting
place for Italy. From this point the whole of his army was carried across to
Brundisium, and from Brundisium they marched through the whole length of
Italy to the City in what was almost a triumphal procession, of which the
captured spoils formed as large a part as the troops themselves. On his
reaching Rome the senate met outside the City to receive his report and they
gladly decreed the triumph he had so well earned. Its celebration lasted three
days. On the first day he had carried through the City the arms and armour
and the bronze and marble statues; those taken from Philip were more
numerous than those which he had secured in the various cities. On the
second day all the gold and silver, coined and uncoined, were borne in the
procession. There were 18,000 pounds of uncoined and unwrought silver
and 270 of silver plate, including vessels of every description, most of them
embossed and some exquisitely artistic. There were also some made of
bronze. In addition to these there were ten silver shields. Of the silver
coinage 84,000 were Attic pieces, known as tetrachma, each nearly equal in
weight to four denarii. The gold weighed 3714 pounds, including one shield
made entirely of gold, and there were 14,514 coins from Philip's mint. In the
third day's procession were carried 114 golden coronets, the gifts of various
cities, and before the victor's chariot went the sacrificial victims and many
noble prisoners and hostages, amongst the latter Philip's son Demetrius and
Armenes the son of the Lacedaemonian tyrant. Then came Quinctius himself
in his chariot followed by a long train of soldiers, as the whole of his army
had been brought back from the province. Each infantryman received a
largess of 250 ases, each centurion twice as much, and each cavalryman
treble the amount. A striking feature in the procession was furnished by
those who had been rescued from slavery, and who with shaven heads
followed their deliverer.
