39.42
In
Further Spain matters were quiet as the strength of the Lusitanians was
broken in the last war. In Hither Spain A. Terentius besieged and took the
town of Corbio belonging to the Suessetani and sold the prisoners. After this
Hither Spain was also quiet through the winter. The late praetors returned to
Rome, and the senate unanimously decreed a triumph to each of them. C.
Calpurnius celebrated his triumph over the Lusitanians and the Celtiberi; 83
golden crowns and 12,000 pounds of silver were carried in the procession. A
few days later L. Quinctius Crispinus triumphed over the same nations and a
similar amount of gold and silver was carried in his procession. The censors
M. Porcius and L. Valerius, amidst many forebodings, revised the roll of the
senate. They removed seven names, including that of a man of consular rank,
L. Quinctius Flamininus, distinguished for his high birth and the offices he
had held. There is said to have been an old regulation that the censors should
commit to writing their reasons for excluding any from the senate. There are
extant some incriminating speeches which Cato delivered against those
whom he removed from the roll of the senate or the register of the equites,
but by far the most damaging is the one he made against L. Quinctius. If
Cato had delivered this speech as accuser before the name was erased and
not as censor after he had erased it, not even his brother T. Quinctius, had he
been censor at the time, could have kept him on the roll.
Amongst other charges he brought up against him was the
following. He had persuaded by huge bribes a Carthaginian boy named
Philip, an attractive and notorious catamite, to accompany him into Gaul.
This boy in petulant wantonness used very often to reproach the consul for
having carried him away from Rome just before the exhibition of gladiators,
in order that he might put a high price upon his compliance with the consul's
passions. It happened that while they were banqueting and heated with wine
a message was brought in that a Boian noble had come as a refugee with his
children and wanted to see the consul in order to obtain from him personally
a promise of protection. He was brought into the tent and began to address
the consul through an interpreter. In the middle of his speech the consul
turned to his paramour and said: "As you have given up the show of
gladiators, would you like to see this Gaul die?" Hardly meaning what he
said, the boy assented. The consul seized a naked sword hanging above him
and struck the Gaul, who was still speaking, on the head. He turned to flee,
imploring the protection of the Roman People and of those who were
present, when the consul ran his sword through him.
