37.58
The
prosecutors demanded a fine of 100,000 ases. The discussion which ensued
extended over two sittings of the Assembly; at the third, the defendant had
already withdrawn from his candidature, and as the people refused to vote
on the fine the tribunes abandoned all further proceedings. T. Quinctius
Flamininus and M. Claudius Marcellus were elected censors. L. Aemilius
Regillus, who had inflicted the decisive defeat on Antiochus' naval
commander, was received about this time by the senate in the temple of
Apollo outside the City. After hearing his statement of what he had done,
with what large hostile fleets he had engaged and how many of their ships he
had either sunk or captured, the senate unanimously accorded him a naval
triumph. He celebrated his triumph on February 1st, and in the procession
were carried 49 golden crowns, 34,200 Attic tetrachmas and 132,300
"cistophori " -a far less amount of specie than might have been expected in a
triumph over the king. This was followed by public thanksgivings ordered by
the senate for the successful conduct of affairs in Spain by L. Aemilius. Not
long afterwards L. Scipio arrived in the City. Not to be outdone by his
brother Africanus in the matter of surnames, he wanted to be called
"Asiaticus." He enlarged upon his services in the senate and also before the
Assembly. Some people alleged that the war had loomed larger in the
popular view than its real difficulty warranted; it had been brought to a close
in one memorable battle and the glory of that victory had been shorn of its
splendour at Thermopylae. But rightly judged the battle at Thermopylae was
won over the Aetolians much more than over the king, for with what
proportion of his total strength did he fight there? In the battle in Asia the
whole power of Asia was in the field, the massed forces were drawn from
every nation to the furthest limits of the East.
