29.20
Though there was sufficient truth in these
charges to give them an air of probability, Q. Metellus carried the majority
with him. Whilst agreeing with the rest of Fabius' speech, he dissented from
what he said about Scipio. Scipio, he said, had only the other day been
chosen by his fellow-citizens, young as he was, to command the expedition
which was to recover Spain, and after he had recovered it, was elected
consul to bring the Punic War to a close. All hopes were now centered in
him as the man who was destined to subjugate Africa and rid Italy of
Hannibal. How, he asked, could they with any propriety order him to be
peremptorily recalled, like another Q. Pleminius, without being heard in his
defence, especially when the Locrians admitted that the cruelties of which
they complained took place at a time when Scipio was not even on the spot
and when nothing could be definitely brought against him, beyond undue
leniency or shrinking from cruelty in sparing his subordinate officers? He
moved a resolution that M. Pomponius, the praetor to whom Sicily had been
allotted, should depart for his province in three days' time; that the consuls
should select at their discretion ten members of the senate who would
accompany the praetor, as well as two tribunes of the plebs and one of the
aediles. With these as his assessors he should conduct an investigation, and if
the acts of which the Locrians complained should prove to have been done
under the orders or with the consent of Scipio, they should order him to quit
his province. If he had already landed in Africa, the tribunes and the aedile
with two of the ten senators whom the praetor considered fittest for the task
should proceed thither, the tribunes and the aedile to bring Scipio back and
the two senators to take command of the army until a fresh general arrived.
If on the other hand M. Pomponius and his ten assessors ascertained that
what had been done was neither by the orders nor with the concurrence of
Scipio, he was to retain his command and carry on the war as he proposed.
This resolution proposed by Metellus was adopted by the senate, and the
tribunes of the plebs were asked to arrange which of them should accompany
the praetor. The pontifical college was consulted as to the necessary
expiations for the desecration and robbery of Proserpine's temple. The
plebeian tribunes who accompanied the praetor were M. Claudius Marcellus
and M. Cincius Alimentus. A plebeian aedile was assigned to them so that in
case Scipio refused to obey the praetor or had already landed in Africa, the
tribunes might, by virtue of their sacrosanct authority, order the aedile to
arrest him and bring him back with them. They decided to go to Locri first
and then on to Messana.
