38.47
This
was the substance of what Furius and Aemilius said. I understand that
Manlius spoke to the following effect: "Formerly, senators, it was the
tribunes of the plebs who usually opposed those who claimed a triumph. I
am grateful to them for having conceded this much to me, either personally
or in acknowledgment of the greatness of my services, that they not only
showed by their silence their approval of my being thus honoured, but were
even ready, if necessary, to recommend it to the senate. It is amongst the ten
commissioners that I find my opponents, those whom our ancestors assigned
to their commanders for the purpose of gathering the fruits of their victories
and enhancing their glory. L. Furius and L. Aemilius forbid me to enter the
triumphal chariot; they snatch the victor's wreath from my brow; these very
men whom I was going to call as witnesses to what I have done, had the
tribunes opposed my triumph. I envy no man his honours, senators. Only the
other day when the tribunes of the plebs were trying to prevent the triumph
of Q. Fabius Labeo, strong and determined as they were, you overawed
them by your authority. His enemies laid it to his charge, not that he had
fought an unjust war, but that he had never even seen an enemy. Still he
enjoyed his triumph. I, who have fought so many pitched battles with
100,000 of our fiercest enemies, who have killed or taken prisoners 40,000,
who have stormed two of their camps, who have left all the country this side
the Taurus more peaceable than the land of Italy -I am not only being
defrauded of my triumph, but actually have to defend myself before you
against the accusations of my commissioners.
"You have noticed, senators, that they bring a double charge
against me; that I ought not to have made war on the Gauls, and that I
conducted it in a rash and imprudent way. 'The Gauls,' they say, 'were not
hostile to us, but you wantonly attacked them while they were quietly
carrying out your orders.' I am not going to ask you, senators, to judge the
Gauls who inhabit those countries from what you know of the savagery
common to the race, and their deadly hatred to the name of Rome. Keep out
of sight the infamous and hateful character of the race as a whole and judge
those men by themselves. I wish Eumenes, I wish all the cities of Asia were
here, and that you were hearing their complaints rather than the charges I am
bringing. Send commissioners to visit all the cities of Asia and find out which
has delivered them from the heavier thraldom, the removal of Antiochus
beyond the Taurus or the subjugation of the Gauls. Let them bring back
word how often the fields of those people have been devastated, how often
they and all their property have been carried off, with hardly a chance of
ransoming the captives, and knowing that human victims were being
sacrificed and their children immolated. Let me tell you that your allies paid
tribute to the Gauls, and would have been paying it now, though freed from
the rule of Antiochus, if it had not been put a stop to by me.
