38.55
Ser.
Sulpicius next consulted the senate as to who was to conduct the inquiry,
and they fixed upon Q. Terentius Culleo. There are some writers who assert
that this praetor was so attached to the family of the Cornelii that at the
funeral -they say he died and was buried in Rome -he preceded the bier
wearing a cap of liberty just as though he were marching in a triumphal
procession, and at the Porta Capena he distributed wine sweetened with
honey to those who followed the body, because amongst the other captives
in Africa he had been delivered by Scipio. Another account is that he was
hostile to the family; that, knowing this, the party opposed to the Scipios
selected him as the one man to conduct the inquiry. However this may be, it
was before this praetor, whether biassed in favour of or against the
defendant, that L. Scipio was at once put on his trial. The names of his
divisional commanders, Aulus and Lucius Hostilius Cato, were also given in
to the praetor, and entered by him, as well as that of the quaestor C. Furius
Aculeo; and that his whole staff might appear to be associated in the
embezzlement, his two secretaries and his marshal were also included.
Lucius Hostilius, the secretaries and the marshal were all acquitted before
Scipio's case was heard. He, together with A. Hostilius and C. Furius, were
found guilty -Scipio, of having received 6000 pounds of gold and 480 of
silver over and above what he had brought into the treasury; and Hostilius
was convicted of having similarly embezzled 80 pounds of gold and 403 of
silver; the quaestor was found guilty of having received 130 pounds of gold
and 200 of silver. These are the amounts I find as stated by Antias. In the
case of L. Scipio, I should prefer to regard these figures as a mistake on the
part of the copyist, rather than a false assertion of the author, for the weight
of the silver was in all probability greater than that of the gold, and the fine
was more likely to be fixed at 400,000 than at 2,400,000 sesterces, especially
as it is stated that this was the sum for which Publius Scipio was asked to
account in the senate. It is also recorded that when he had told his brother
Lucius to fetch his account-book, he tore it up with his own hands while the
senate was looking on, and indignantly protested against an account for
400,000 sesterces being demanded of him after he had brought into the
treasury 2,000,000. He is further stated to have shown the same
self-confidence in demanding the keys of the treasury, when the quaestors
did not venture to bring the money out as against the law, and declaring that
as it was through him it was shut, so he would open it.