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It is not easy to understand why a man should thus choose to perpetuate his own disgrace in an enduring form and material. Such a statue was certainly no ornament to the city; but experience shows that statues are not set up as ornaments, but for some other reasons, which we cannot always discover.

CHAPTER VII.

NUMANTIA.

B.C. 136-132.

PHILUS, so far as we know, did nothing in Spain, and his successor the consul Q. Calpurnius Piso (B.c. 135) did not attack Numantia. He wasted some of the lands about Pallantia, and left the country to pass the winter in the milder climate of Carpetania.

The Romans were weary of the long war in Spain, and they looked about for a general who was fit to lead their armies. They might have found one sooner, but there stood in the way, as Livy's Epitome reports it, an enactment that no man should be consul twice within ten years. Some modern writers in quoting the Epitome omit the words within ten years (intra decem annos), and so the rule would be absolute that no man could be elected consul twice. In the early periods of the republic we find instances both of consuls and tribunes being frequently re-elected. Livy (iii. 21) reports a resolution of the Senate of the year B.C. 460, which declared that it was against the interest of the state that either tribunes or other magistrates should be re-elected, but this did not settle the matter, for magistratus, both consuls, and consular tribunes and tribuni plebis were re-elected. In B.C. 342 Livy reports that he found in some authorities that a Plebiscitum was enacted, that no man should hold the same magistratus within ten years, and forty-five years after that date he alludes to the existence of such a law. In the second Punic war the law was suspended from necessity; but the suspension only continued so long as it was necessary to

secure good commanders. It is conjectured that some time before the destruction of Carthage the enactment was made stricter, and it was declared conformably to Livy's Epitome, as some read it, that no man should be re-elected to a magistratus. In confirmation of this reading of the Epitome two passages are cited from the grammarians, which contain a few words from a speech of Cato the censor, apparently in support of such a lex, that no man should be elected consul twice (ne quis consul bis fieret; ne quis iterum consul fiat). Consistently with this we find no instance of a man being twice consul from Scipio's second consulship to the second consulship of C. Marius.

In B.C. 147 Scipio had been elected consul to conduct the war against Carthage though he was only in his thirty-eighth year and had not attained the age which the Lex Villia or Annalis required in a candidate for the consulship. Scipio was elected consul for B.C. 134 a second time without seeking the office, and his colleague was C. Fulvius Flaccus. As more than ten years had passed since he was consul for the first time, the enactment as to the ten years would not apply to him, and thus it seems conclusively settled that a man at this time was not re-eligible to the consulship. As far as we can discover the reason of this rule, it was not so much the fear of a citizen usurping power and destroying the constitution, as the mutual jealousy of the nobles and of all those who aspired to the highest honours of the state. Every man of noble family expected to be consul some time, and the reelection of a man better than himself or of a plebeian candidate would spoil his prospects. The Romans did not elect Scipio in violation of the law, which would have been a revolutionary act quite opposed to Roman notions of respect for constitutional rules. To render him eligible he was exempted from the restrictions of the law by a special enactment. "Legibus solutus est,' as the Romans expressed it, which means that a man is exempted from the provisions of a certain Lex or certain Leges. Appian has here made a great mistake. He says that Scipio at the time of his second election was below the age required in a consul; but this was only the case when he was elected for B.c. 147, and on that

occasion also he was 'legibus solutus.' When it was necessary, the Romans knew how to find the man whom they wanted and to make general rules bend to circumstances. Appian's conception of the way in which Scipio's second election was managed is very confused, and he appears not to have understood it.

The Senate gave the province of Spain to Scipio, and sent his colleague to look after the slave war in Sicily. All the rest of the empire was quiet. There had been disturbance in Macedonia, but it was checked by a victory which the praetor M. Cosconius gained over the Scordisci. The Senate would not allow Scipio to raise any new soldiers from those whose names were on the muster rolls: they said that men were wanted elsewhere; and it is likely enough that the supply of men was falling short, for the Spanish wars had for many years been devouring the children of Italy, and men were wanted for the slave war in Sicily. It is probable too that the Senate were afraid to take any more conscripts for the Spanish war, which had been so disastrous and was unpopular. It was true too that there were still soldiers in Spain, and a general was wanted there rather than men. Nor, it is said, did the Senate supply Scipio with any money except by giving him orders on the revenues which were not due, which probably means that he was empowered to draw on the Publicani in Spain. He was permitted however to take volunteers from any of the states and kings in alliance with Rome. He also took his own clients and friends from Rome to the number of five hundred, whom he formed into one company and named it the band of friends. It was in fact a body guard, which he needed for the difficult work that he had to accomplish before he could act against the enemy. Scipio raised in all about four thousand men, whom he gave to his quaestor, Fabius Buteo, the son of Scipio's brother Q. Fabius Maximus to conduct to Spain after him. Scipio set out immediately with a few men and hurried to his Spanish army, which was entirely disorganized. He knew well that he must be the master of his own men and reduce them to discipline, before he could conquer the enemy. Scipio's predecessors in Spain had destroyed the efficiency of the army by allowing

the Roman discipline to be relaxed. The war had often been conducted contrary to those principles which long experience and good sense had established among the Romans. Machiavelli in his seven books on the Art of War has explained what these principles are, by which a prudent general saves his own men and defeats the enemy. If we may form a conclusion from the space occupied in Livy's Epitome (57) with the notice of Scipio's reforms, the original must have contained several chapters on the severe measures which he adopted to restore discipline. Appian also has taken the pains to collect from his authorities many curious particulars on this matter. Scipio began by driving away all the merchants who followed the camp, for these were the men who helped to corrupt the soldiers by the sale of articles of luxury. He cleared the camp of two thousand women, who followed the army. They were prostitutes and we may assume, Spanish women. It is certain that the Romans never allowed Italian women to accompany their soldiers on foreign expeditions. He sent off the soothsayers also and the men who superintended sacrifices, for the soldiers after their numerous defeats had become superstitious and frequently consulted these cunning knaves. He ordered the waggons to be sold with all the useless things which were carried in them, and the beasts of burden too, except such as he allowed to be retained; for he rightly considered that an army could not be efficient, when it was encumbered with things which belonged to the men. Each soldier was allowed for his cooking a spit, a metal pot and a single cup. Their food was meat boiled and roasted. He allowed no bedsteads in the army. The men lay on hard mats, and Scipio set the example himself. On their marches they had been used to ride on mules, but Scipio dismounted them all, asking what was the use of a soldier who could not walk. Those who used baths and were rubbed with oil were compelled to do it themselves without the help of slaves. The general had a rough tongue and was fond of sharp sayings and jokes. He told his men that mules had no hands and must therefore be rubbed down by others, but men could rub themselves. He exercised his soldiers in marching, fording rivers and in hard

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