University of Virginia Library

“—Æmilius then proceeded to Italy, carrying with him the captive kings, Perseus and Gentius. He sailed up the Tiber in the royal galley, magnificently adorned, and on arriving at Rome demanded his triumph. Perseus and his family led as captives, added, in a Roman eye, to the splendour of the scene; though even Roman hearts were affected with sorrow at the example this afforded of human change and wretchedness. But the Consul himself was an instance equally striking. Of his two sons by his second wife, whom he designed to represent his own family, one, at the age of fourteen, died five days before the triumph; the other, aged twelve, three days after it. Æmilius in a speech he made to the Romans on this occasion, said,—‘Now the man who triumphed, and he who was led in chains, are on a par; but the children of Perseus are living—those of Æmilius are no more!” Aikin's Biography.