University of Virginia Library

41.7

The two commanders in Spain now celebrated their triumph; first, Sempronius Gracchus for his victory over the Celtiberi and their allies, and on the following day L. Postumius over the Lusitanians and the adjacent tribes. In Gracchus' procession were borne 40,000 pounds of silver, in that of Postumius 20,000. Each of the legionaries received 25 denarii, the centurions twice and the cavalry three times as much, and the allied troops received the same. The consul, M. Junius, came about this time to Rome for the elections. Two tribunes of the plebs, Papirius and Licinius, put a multitude of questions to him in the senate about what had happened in Histria, and then they brought him before the Assembly. The consul explained that he had not been in that province more than eleven days and he, like them, only knew by report what had happened in his absence. Then they asked "why in that case A. Manlius had not come to Rome, rather than Junius, that he might explain to the people of Rome why he had left the province of Gaul, which had been allotted to him, for Histria. When did the senate make a decree or the Assembly an order for that war? 'Well,' you may say, 'granting that the war was undertaken on his personal responsibility, still it was conducted with courage and prudence.' On the contrary it is impossible to say whether its inception is the more flagitious or its conduct the more reckless. Two pickets were surprised by the Histrians, a Roman camp was taken and what troops were in the camp were cut to pieces; all the rest threw away their arms and fled in disorder to the sea and the ships, the consul himself above all. He will have to account for all this as an ordinary citizen, since he will not do so as consul."