44.16
The
next thing was a despatch from the consul Q. Marcius, which was read in the
senate, describing his march over the mountains and his invasion of
Macedonia. Supplies had been accumulated there and drawn from other
places against the winter, and he had received from the Epirots 20,000 modii
of wheat and 10,000 of barley on the understanding that the money for that
corn should be paid to their agents in Rome. Clothing for the soldiers would
have to be sent from Rome; about 200 horses were needed, mainly for the
Numidians; he had no chance of getting them in the country where he was.
The senate made an order that everything should be carried out in
accordance with the consults requirements. The praetor C. Sulpicius
contracted for the supply of 6000 togas, 30,000 tunics and 200 horses to be
transported to Macedonia and delivered to the consul, subject to his
approval. He also paid the Epirot representatives for the corn and introduced
to the senate Onesimus the son of Pytho, a Macedonian of high rank, who
had always urged peaceful counsels on the king and advised him to keep up
the custom, which his father Philip had observed to the last days of his life,
of reading over twice daily the text of his treaty with Rome, or if he could
not always do so, to do it frequently. When he saw that he could not deter
him from war, he gradually withdrew himself on various pretexts from
attendance on the king so that he might not be involved in proceedings
which he did not approve of. At last, when he found that he had aroused
suspicion and that now and again charges of treason were brought against
him, he went over to the Romans and became extremely useful to the consul.
On his introduction to the senate he mentioned these circumstances,
and the senate made an order for him to be formally enrolled amongst the
allies, quarters and free hospitality to be provided for him, 200 jugera of the
State domain in the Tarentine district to be allotted to him, and a house to be
purchased for him in Tarentum. The praetor C. Decimius was charged with
the execution of this order. On December 13 the censors revised the roll of
burgesses more strictly than on the last occasion. Many of the equites were
degraded; amongst them P. Rutilius who, as tribune of the plebs, had shown
so much bitterness in prosecuting them. He was now expelled from his tribe
and registered among the aerarii. On a resolution of the senate, half the
proceeds of the year's revenue was assigned to them by the quaestor for the
construction of public works. Out of the sum allotted to him Tiberius
Sempronius purchased for the State the dwelling-house of P. Africanus
behind the "Old Shops" by the statue of Vertumnus, together with the
butchers' stalls and the booths adjoining. He also signed a contract for the
construction of the building afterwards known as the Basilica Sempronia.
