38.48
"The
greater the distance to which Antiochus was removed, the more tyrannically
did the Gauls lord it over Asia; by his removal you added whatever lands lie
on this side the Taurus to their dominion, not your own. But you say,
'Assuming this to be true, the Gauls once despoiled Delphi, but though it was
the one oracle common to all mankind, and the central spot in the whole
world, the Romans did not on that account declare or commence war against
them.' I should certainly have thought that there was a considerable
difference between the conditions existing when Greece and Asia had not yet
passed under your suzerainty, as far as regards your interest and concern in
their affairs, and the conditions prevailing now; when you have fixed the
Taurus as the frontier of your dominion; when you are giving to the cities
liberty and immunity from tribute; when you are enlarging the territories of
some and depriving others of their land by way of punishment or imposing
tribute: when you are extending, diminishing, giving, taking away kingdoms,
and making it your one care that they shall keep the peace both on land and
sea. Would you consider that the liberty of Asia would not have been secure
had not Antiochus withdrawn his garrisons, which were remaining quietly in
their quarters, and do you suppose that your gifts to Eumenes would be safe
or the cities retain their freedom as long as the armies of the Gauls were
roaming far and wide?
"But why do I use these arguments, as though I had made the
Gauls into enemies and had not found them such already? I appeal to you, L.
Scipio, whose valour and good fortune alike I prayed to the immortal gods -and not in vain -to grant me, when I succeeded to your command; I appeal
to you, P. Scipio, who though subordinate to your brother the consul, still
possessed both with him and the army all the authority of a colleague; and I
ask you whether you know that there were legions of Gauls in the army of
Antiochus; whether you saw that they were posted at either end of his line,
for there his main strength seemed to be; whether you fought with them as
regular enemies, and killed them and brought their spoils home. And yet the
war which the senate had decreed and the people ordered was a war against
Antiochus, not against the Gauls. Yes, but I hold that the decree and order
included those who had formed part of his army, and amongst these -with
the exception of Antiochus with whom Scipio had concluded peace and with
whom you ordered a special treaty to be made -all who bore arms on his
behalf were our enemies. The Gauls above all supported his cause, as did
also some petty kings and tyrants. With the others, however, I made peace
and compelled them to make an expiation for their misdoings proportionate
to the dignity of your empire, and I tried to influence the Gauls, if haply their
innate ferocity could be mitigated. When I saw that they remained
untameable and implacable, I thought they ought to be coerced by force of
arms.
"Now that I have cleared myself of the charge of wanton
aggression, I have to account for my conduct of the war. On this topic I
should feel perfect confidence in my case, even if I were pleading not before
the Romans but before the Carthaginian senate, where it is said that their
generals are crucified, even when successful, if their strategy has been faulty.
But this State has recourse to the gods at the commencement and during the
conduct of all its business, because it will not have those matters which the
gods have approved of open to any man's censure, and when it decrees
special thanksgivings or a triumph, employs the solemn formula: 'Whereas he
has managed the affairs of the Republic with success and good fortune.' If,
then, renouncing all assertion of my own merits as arrogant and
presumptuous, I were to demand on behalf of my own good fortune and that
of my army, in having crushed so powerful a nation without any loss, that
honours should be paid to the immortal gods, and that I, myself, should go
up in triumph to the Capitol, from whence I started after my vows and
prayers had been duly offered, would you refuse this to me and to the
immortal gods as well?
