37.46
While
these events were occurring in Asia two of the proconsuls returned to Rome
-Q. Minucius from Liguria and Manius Acilius from Aetolia. They both
expected to enjoy a triumph, but when the senate had heard their account of
what they had done, they refused the request of Minucius and unanimously
granted a triumph to Acilius, and he rode into the City in celebration of his
victory over Antiochus and the Aetolians. There were carried in the
procession 230 of the enemy's standards, 3000 pounds of uncoined silver,
113,000 Attic tetrachmi, 249,000 cistophori, and numerous heavy vases of
embossed silver, as well as the silver household furniture and magnificent
apparel which had belonged to the king. There were also 45 golden crowns
presented by various allied cities, and a mass of spoils of every description;
36 prisoners of high rank, the generals of Antiochus and the Aetolians, were
also led in the conqueror's train. Damocritus, the Aetolian leader, had
escaped from prison a few nights previously, and the guards chased him to
the bank of the Tiber, where he stabbed himself before they could catch him.
One thing was lacking -soldiers to follow the commander's chariot. In every
other respect it was magnificent, both as a spectacle and as the celebration of
a splendid victory.
These triumphal rejoicings were marred by gloomy news from
Spain. Six thousand men of the Roman army, under the command of the
proconsul L. Aemilius, had fallen in an unsuccessful battle against the
Lusitanians near the town of Lyco; the survivors fled to their camp, which
they had difficulty in defending, and finally retreated by forced marches, as
though fleeing from the enemy, into friendly territory. Such was the report
received from Spain. A deputation arrived from Placentia and Cremona in
Gaul, and were introduced to the senate by L. Aurunculeius. They
complained of the scarcity of men; some had been carried off by the
casualties of war, others by illness, and some had left owing to the
annoyance from the Gauls in their neighbourhood. The senate decreed that
the consul C. Laelius should, if he approved, draw up a list of 6000 families
to be distributed between the two colonies, and L. Aurunculeius was to
nominate the commissioners for settling the new colonists. Those nominated
were M. Atilius Serranus, L. Valerius, P. F. Flaccus, L. Valerius and C. F.
Tappo.