28.27
After
the usher had obtained silence he made the following speech: "I never
supposed that I should want words in which to address my army, not that I
ever trained myself to speak rather than to act, but that having lived a camp
life from boyhood I have learnt to understand the soldier's character. As to
what I am to say to you now, words and ideas alike fail me; I do not even
know by what title I am to address you. Am I to call you Roman citizens -you who have revolted against your country? Can I call you soldiers when
you have renounced the authority and auspices of your general, and broken
the solemn obligations of your military oath? Your appearance, your
features, your dress, your demeanour I recognise as those of my
fellow-countrymen, but I see that your actions, your language, your designs,
your spirit and temper are those of your country's foes. What difference is
there between your hopes and aims and those of the Ilergetes and the
Lacetanians? And yet they chose men of kingly rank, Mandonius and
Indibilis, to lead them in their madness, whilst you delegated the auspices
and the supreme command to Atrius, an Umbrian, and Albius, a man from
Cales. Do tell me, soldiers, that you did not all join in that or approve of its
being done. I will gladly believe that only a few were guilty of such insensate
folly, if you assure me that this is so. For the crime is of such a nature that
had it involved the whole army it could only have been expiated by a
frightful sacrifice.
"It is painful for me to speak thus, opening up, as it were, wounds,
but unless they are handled and probed they cannot be healed. After the
expulsion of the Carthaginians from Spain I did not believe that there were
anywhere people who wished me dead, such had been my conduct towards
friends and enemies alike. And yet, alas so greatly was I mistaken that even
in my own army the report of my death was not only credited but eagerly
looked for. I would not for a moment wish to lay this to the charge of you
all, for if I thought that the whole of my army wished for my death, I would
die here before your eyes. My life would have no attraction for me if it were
hateful to my fellow-countrymen and my soldiers. But every multitude is like
the sea which left to itself is naturally motionless, till winds and gales excite
it. So it is with calm and storms amongst you, the cause and origin of your
madness is to be found in your ringleaders, who infected you with their
frenzy. For you do not seem even now to be aware to what lengths of folly
you have gone or what criminal recklessness you have been guilty of towards
me, towards your country, your parents and your children, towards the gods
who were witnesses of your military oath, towards the auspices under which
your served, towards the traditions of the army and the discipline of our
ancestors, towards the majesty inherent in supreme authority. About myself I
prefer to be silent; you may have lent a thoughtless rather than a willing ear
to the report of my death; I may be a man whose rule might be naturally
expected to prove irksome to his army. But your country -what has it
deserved of you that you should make common cause with Mandonius and
Indibilis for its betrayal? What have the Roman people done that you should
deprive the tribunes whom they elected of their authority, and bestow it on
private individuals? And not content with having such men for tribunes you,
a Roman army, have transferred the fasces of your commander to men who
never possessed a single slave to be at their command! The headquarters tent
was occupied by an Albius and an Atrius; at their doors the trumpet
sounded; to them you went for orders; they were seated on P. Scipio's
tribunal; the lictor was in attendance and cleared the way before them; in
front of them the axes and fasces were borne! When there is a shower of
stones, or buildings are struck by lightning, or animals produce monstrous
offspring, you consider these things as portents. We have here a portent
which no victims, no intercessions can expiate but the blood of those who
have dared such an awful crime.
