50 The accusations that day would have been more powerful than the defence, had they not prolonged the debate to a late hour; for the senate adjourned in a mood likely to refuse the triumph. Next day the relations and friends of Cneius Manlius exerted their utmost efforts in his behalf; and the opinion of the elder senators prevailed, who asserted, that there was no instance on record of a commander who had subdued the enemy, completed the business of his province, and brought home his army, entering the city as a private citizen, without honours, and without the chariot and laurel. This feeling of shame overcame their prejudices against him, and a great majority voted for his triumph. A greater contest which was set on foot against a greater and more illustrious personage, suppressed all mention and memory of this struggle. The two Petillii, as Valerius Antias writes, instituted a prosecution against Publius Scipio Africanus. Men construed this according to their different dispositions; some did not blame the plebeian tribunes, but the public in general, that could suffer such a process to be carried on. They observed, that “the two greatest states in the world proved, nearly at the same time, ungrateful to their chief commanders; but Rome the more ungrateful of the two, because Carthage was subdued when she sent the vanquished Hannibal into exile; whereas Rome, when victorious, was for banishing the conqueror Africanus.” Others asserted, that “no one citizen ought to stand so high above the rest, as not to be made answerable to the laws for his conduct: for nothing contributed so much towards the equalization of liberty, as that the most powerful might be brought to trial. For how could any charge, especially the administration of government, be safely intrusted to any man, if he were not liable to be called to an account? That force was not unjustly used against him who could not bear an equality of rights.” These subjects were discussed in conversation, until the day of trial came. Never was either any other person, or Scipio himself, when consul or censor, escorted to the forum by a more numerous multitude of all kinds, than he was on that day when he appeared to answer the charge against him. When ordered to make his defence, without taking any notice of the facts laid to his charge, he delivered so magnificent a speech concerning his exploits, that it was universally agreed, that no man had been ever praised either to more advantage or with more truth. For his achievements were described with the same ardent spirit and powerful genius with which they had been performed; and his auditors felt no disgust, because his acts were mentioned to meet the peril, and not for ostentation.
51 The plebeian tribunes, in order to procure credit to their present accusations, introduced the old imputations of his luxurious style of living in his winter quarters at Syracuse, and the tumult raised by Pleminius at Locri. They then brought forward against him the charge of receiving money, grounded on suspicion, not on proof. They alleged, that “his son, being taken prisoner, was restored without ransom; and that, in every other instance, Scipio was courted by Antiochus, as if peace and war with Rome were at his sole disposal. He had acted towards the consul, in his province, as dictator, not as lieutenant-general; nor had he gone thither with any other view than that this might appear to Greece and Asia, and all the kings and nations eastward, which had been long since the settled conviction of Spain, Gaul, Sicily, and Africa, that he alone was the head and pillar of the Roman empire; that a state which was mistress of the world, lay sheltered under the shade of Scipio; and that his nods were equivalent to decrees of the senate, and orders of the people.” They attack by envy, as much as they can, him out of the reach of dishonour. The pleading having lasted till night, the trial was adjourned to another day. When that came, the tribunes took their seat in the rostrum at the dawn of day. The accused being summoned, came, with a numerous train of friends and dependents, through the middle of the assembly, to the rostrum; and, silence being made, he said—“Tribunes of the people, and you, Romans, on the anniversary of this day I fought a pitched battle in Africa, with Hannibal and the Carthaginians, with good fortune and success. As, therefore, it is but decent that a stop be put, for this day, to litigation and wrangling, I will immediately go to the Capitol, there to return my acknowledgments to Jupiter the supremely good and great, to Juno, Minerva, and the other deities presiding over the Capitol and citadel, and will give them thanks for having, on this day, and at many other times, endowed me both with the will and ability to perform extraordinary services to the commonwealth. Such of you also, Romans, as it suits, come with me and beseech the gods that you may have commanders like myself; since, from my seventeenth year to old age, you have always anticipated my years with honours, and I, your honours with services.” Accordingly, he went up from the rostrum to the Capitol; and, at the same time, the whole assembly turned about and followed him; insomuch, that at last even the clerks and messengers left the tribunes, not one remaining, except the slaves who attended them, and the crier, who was in the habit of summoning the accused from the rostrum. Scipio, attended by the whole body of the Roman people, went round all the temples of the gods, not only in the Capitol, but throughout the whole city. This day was almost more famous owing to the favour of the Romans towards him, and their high estimation of his real greatness, than that on which he rode through Rome in triumph over king Syphax and the Carthaginians.
52 It was, however, the last day that shone with lustre on Publius Scipio. For, as he could foresee nothing but the prosecutions of envy, and continual disputes with the tribunes, the trial being adjourned to a future day, he retired to the territory of Liternum, with a fixed determination not to attend the trial. His spirit was by nature too lofty, and habituated to such an elevated course of fortune, that he did not know how to act the part of an accused person, or stoop to the humble deportment of men pleading their cause. When the day came, and he began to be summoned in his absence, Lucius Scipio pleaded in his excuse that sickness was the reason of his absence. Which excuse the tribunes, who were the prosecutors, would not admit, but insisted that he did not come to plead his cause, owing to the same arrogance with which he had left the trial, the tribunes of the people, and the general assembly; and followed by the very men whom he had robbed of the right of passing sentence on him, together with their freedom of suffrage, had exhibited a triumph over the Roman people, and made a secession, the same day, from the tribunes to the Capitol. “You have therefore,” said they, “the due reward of that thoughtless conduct. You are, yourselves, forsaken by him under whose lead and direction you forsook us. And so much is our spirit daily on the decline, that although, seventeen years ago, when he was at the head of an army and fleet, we had resolution enough to send plebeian tribunes and an ædile into Sicily to take him into custody, and bring him home to Rome; yet we dare not now send to compel him, though a private citizen, to come from his country-seat to stand his trial.” The tribunes of the commons, being appealed to by Lucius Scipio, came to the following determination: that “since the excuse of sickness was pleaded” it was their judgment that this excuse should be admitted, and that the day of trial should be adjourned by their colleagues.”
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