29.19
At the
close of the delegate's speech, Q. Fabius enquired whether they had laid their
complaints before Scipio. They stated in reply that they had sent a
deputation to him, but he was fully occupied with his preparations for war
and had either sailed or was going to sail in a very few days for Africa. They
had had proof of the high favour in which Pleminius stood with his
commander-in-chief, for after investigating the circumstances which led to
the dispute between him and the military tribunes Scipio had thrown the
tribunes into chains and allowed his subordinate to retain his command
though he was equally or even more guilty. They were then ordered to
withdraw, and in the discussion which followed both Pleminius and Scipio
were very severely handled by the leaders of the House, especially by
Quintus Fabius. He declared that Scipio was born to destroy all military
discipline. It was the same in Spain; more men had been lost there in mutiny
than in battle. His conduct was that of some foreign tyrant, first indulging the
licence of the soldiers and then punishing them. Fabius closed his attack with
the following drastic resolution: "I move that Pleminius be brought to Rome
to plead his cause in chains, and if the charges which the Locrians have
brought against him are substantiated, that he be put to death in prison and
his property confiscated. With regard to Publius Scipio, as he has left his
province without orders, I move that he be recalled, and that it be referred to
the tribunes of the plebs to bring in a bill before the Assembly to relieve him
of his command. As to the Locrians, I move that they be brought back into
the House, and that we assure them in reply to their complaint that the
senate and the people alike disapprove of what has been done, and that we
recognise them as good and trusty allies and friends. And, further, that their
wives and children and all that has been taken away from them be restored,
and that all the money abstracted from Proserpine's treasury be collected,
and double the amount put back. The question of expiation must be referred
to the pontifical college, who must decide what expiatory rites are to be
observed, what deities are to be propitiated and what victims are to be
sacrificed in cases where sacred treasures have been violated. The soldiers at
Locri must be transferred to Sicily and four Latin cohorts sent to garrison
the place." Owing to the heated debate between Scipio's supporters and
opponents the votes could not be collected that day. Not only had he to bear
the odium of Pleminius' criminal brutality towards the Locrians, but the
Roman commander was even taunted with his style of dress as being
un-Roman and even unsoldierly. It was asserted that he walked about the
gymnasium in a Greek mantle and Greek slippers and spent his time amongst
rhetoricians and athletes and that the whole of his staff were enjoying the
attractions of Syracuse and living a life of similar self-indulgence and
effeminacy. They had completely lost sight of Hannibal and the
Carthaginians; the entire army was demoralised and out of hand; like the one
formerly at Sucro or the one now at Locri, they were more dreaded by their
allies than by the enemy.