Livy: Periochae 56-60

Decimus Iunius Brutus in Hispania Ulteriore feliciter adversus Gallaecos pugnavit. Dissimili eventu M. Aemilius Lepidus procos. adversus Vaccaeos rem gessit, clademque similem Numantinae passus est. Ad exsolvendum foederis Numantini religione populum Mancinus, cum huius rei auctor fuisset, deditus Numantinis non est receptus.

Lustrum a censoribus conditum est. Censa sunt civium capita CCCXVII milia DCCCCXXXIII.

Fulvius Flaccus cos. Vardeos in Illyrico subegit.

M. Cosconius praetor in Thracia cum Scordiscis prospere pugnavit.

Cum bellum Numantinum vitio ducum non sine pudore publico duraret, delatus est ultro Scipioni Africano a senatu populoque R. consulatus; quem cum illi capere ob legem, quae vetabat quemquam iterum consulem fieri, non liceret, sicut priori consulatu legibus solutus est.

Bellum servile in Sicilia ortum cum opprimi a praetoribus non potuisset, C. Fulvio cos. mandatum est. Huius belli initium fuit Eunus servus, natione Syrus, qui contracta agrestium servorum manu et solutis ergastulis iusti exercitus numerum implevit. Cleon quoque alter servus ad LXX milia servorum contraxit, et iunctis copiis adversus exercitum Romanum bellum saepe gesserunt.

In Hispania Ulterior, Decimus Junius Brutus successfully fought against the Gallaecians.Proconsul Marcus Aemilius Lepidus obtained different results against the Vaccaeans, against whom he suffered a defeat equal to that at Numantia. To release the nation from the ties of the treaty with Numantia, its instigator Mancinus was handed over to the Numantines, but  they did not accept him.

The censors performed the lustrum ceremony.  317,933 citizens were registered.

[135 BCE] Consul Fulvius Flaccus subdued the Vardaeans in Illyricum.

In Thrace, praetor Marcus Cosconius successfully fought against the Scordiscians.

[134] Because of the mistakes of the commanders, and to the shame of the state, the Numantine war dragged on, so the Senate and people of Rome offered the consulship to Scipio Africanus [Aemilianus]; and because he could not accept this because of the law, which forbade second consulships, the rulers were changes, just as it had happened during his previous consulate.

When the Servile War in Sicily could not be suppressed by the praetors, consul Gaius Fulvius was sent.  This war was started by a Syrian slave named Eunus, who gathered rural slaves, opened the workhouses, and expanded his band to the size of an army. Another slave, Cleon, gathered seventy thousand slaves, and the Roman army was frequently defeated when the slave armies had united.

Scipio Africanus Numantiam obsedit et corruptum licentia luxuriaque exercitum ad severissimam militiae disciplinam revocavit. Omnia deliciarum instrumenta recidit, duo milia scortorum a castris eiecit, militem cotidie in opere habuit et XXX dierum frumentum ad septenos vallos ferre cogebat. Aegre propter onus incedenti dicebat: "cum gladio te vallare scieris, vallum ferre desinito"; alii scutum parum habiliter ferenti, "amplius eum scutum iusto ferre, neque id se reprehendere, quando melius scuto quam gladio uteretur ". Quem militem extra ordinem deprehendit, si Romanus esset, vitibus, si extraneus, virgis cecidit. Iumenta omnia, ne exonerarent militem, vendidit. Saepe adversus eruptiones hostium feliciter pugnavit. Vaccaei obsessi liberis coniugibusque trucidatis ipsi se interemerunt.

Scipio amplissima munera missa sibi ab Antiocho, rege Syriae, cum celare aliis imperatoribus regum munera mos esset, pro tribunali accepturum se esse dixit omniaque ea quaestorem referre in publicas tabulas iussit; ex his se viris fortibus dona esse daturum. Cum undique Numantiam obsidione clusisset et obsessos fame videret urgeri, hostes qui pabulatum exierant, vetuit occidi, quia diceret velocius eos absumpturos frumenti quod haberent, si plures fuissent.

[133] Scipio Africanus [Aemilianus] besieged Numantia and restored the strictest discipline in an army that was corrupted by license and luxury. He forbade all tools of pleasure, expelled two thousand prostitutes from the camp, made the soldiers work every day, and ordered them to carry thirty days of food and seven stakes. To a man who carried it with difficulty, he said: "when you know how to make a wall from a sword, you can stop carrying the wall"; and to one who had difficulty with his shield, he said "although you are carrying a shield that is larger than prescribed, I don't blame you, because you know better how to manage a shield than to manage a sword". When a soldier was seen out of ranks, he had him beaten with vines when he was a Roman, or with rods if he was a foreigner. He sold all animals, so that they might not relieve the soldiers from their loads. He frequently fought successfully against enemy sallies. When the Vaccaeans were besieged, they massacred their children and wives and killed themselves.

Expensive presents were sent to Scipio by king Antiochus [VII] of Syria, and -although it was the habit of other commanders to hide royal presents- ordered to accept the gifts in front of the tribunal, and told the quaestors to enter the presents in the public accounts; from this, he would give presents to brave men. When he had locked up Numantia from all sides and noticed that the besieged suffered from hunger, he ordered that those enemies who went out to look for food should not be killed, because they would sooner exhaust their supplies if there were more of them.

Tib. Sempronius Gracchus trib. pleb. cum legem agrariam ferret adversus voluntatem senatus et equestris ordinis: nequis ex publico agro plus quam mille iugera possideret, in eum furorem exarsit ut M. Octavio collegae causam diversae partis defendenti potestatem lege lata abrogaret, seque et C. Gracchum fratrem et Appium Claudium socerum triumviros ad dividendum agrum crearet. Promulgavit et aliam legem agrariam, qua sibi latius agrum patefaceret, ut idem triumviri iudicarent, qua publicus ager, qua privatus esset. Deinde cum minus agri esset quam quod dividi posset sine offensa etiam plebis, quoniam eos ad cupiditatem amplum modum sperandi incitaverat, legem se promulgaturum ostendit, ut his qui Sempronia lege agrum accipere deberent pecunia, quae regis Attali fuisset, divideretur. (Heredem autem populum Romanum reliquerat Attalus, rex Pergami, Eumenis filius.)

Tot indignitatibus commotus graviter senatus, ante omnis T. Annius consularis. Qui cum in senatu in Gracchum perorasset, raptus ab eo ad populum delatusque plebi, rursus in eum pro rostris contionatus est.

Cum iterum trib. pleb. creari vellet Gracchus, auctore P. Cornelio Nasica in Capitolio ab optimatibus occisus est, ictus primum fragmentis subselli, et inter alios qui in eadem seditione occisi erant insepultus in flumen proiectus.

Res praeterea in Sicilia vario eventu adversus fugitivos gestas continet.

Against the wishes of the Senate and the equestrian order, the tribune of the plebs Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus carried a land bill: no one was to own more than one thousand iugera of public land. In a rage, Gracchus removed by a special enactment his colleague Marcus Octavius because he had defended the opposing point of view; and he had himself, his brother Gaius Gracchus, and his father-in-law Appius Claudius elected as members of a triumviral board to divide land. He carried another land bill (aimed at getting more land) that this board was to judge which land was owned by the state and which by private individuals. When there turned out to be less land than he could divide without incurring the wrath of the plebeians -Gracchus had made them so greedy that they hoped for a large amount- he announced that he would promote a law to divide the money that had been bequested by king Attalus [III] among those who would, according to his first law, have been given money.(King Attalus of Pergamon, the son of Eumenes [II], had made the Roman people his heir.)

The Senate, especially former consul Titus Annius, was very disturbed by these actions.When Annius had delivered a speech against Gracchus in the Senate, he was arrested by Gracchus and accused before the plebeians, and Annius now made a public speech against him.

When Gracchus wanted to be reelected as tribune, he was killed on the Capitol by the optimates, led by Publius Cornelius Nasica. Gracchus was first hit by a piece of a chair, and with those who perished in this fight, he was thrown in the river, without funeral.

It [book 68] also contains an account of actions with various outcomes against the Sicilian runaway slaves.

Numantini fame coacti ipsi se per vicem traicientes trucidaverunt, captam urbem Scipio Africanus delevit et de ea triumphavit XIIII anno post Carthaginem deletam.

P. Rupilius cos. in Sicilia cum fugitivis debellavit.

Aristonicus, Eumenis regis filius, Asiam occupavit, cum testamento Attali regis legata populo R. libera esse deberet. Adversus eum P. Licinius Crassus cos., cum idem pontifex max. esset (quod numquam antea factum erat), extra Italiam profectus proelio victus et occisus est.M. Perperna cos. victum Aristonicum in deditionem accepit.

Q. Pompeius Q. Metellus, tunc primum uterque ex plebe facti censores, lustrum condiderunt. Censa sunt civium capita CCCXVIII milia DCCCXXIII praeter pupillos, pupillas et viduas. Q. Metellus censor censuit ut cogerentur omnes ducere uxores liberorum creandorum causa. (Extat oratio eius, quam Augustus Caesar, cum de maritandis ordinibus ageret, velut in haec tempora scriptam in senatu recitavit.)

C. Atinius Labeo trib. pleb. Q. Metellum censorem, a quo in senatu legendo praeteritus erat, de saxo deici iussit; quod ne fieret, ceteri tribuni plebis auxilio tuerunt.

Cum Carbo trib. plebi rogationem tulisset, ut eumdem tribunum pleb., quotiens vellet, creare liceret, rogationem eius P. Africanus gravissima oratione dissuasit; in qua dixit Ti. Gracchum iure caesum videri. C. Gracchus contra suasit rogationem, sed Scipio tenuit.

Bella inter Antiochum, Syriae, et Phraaten, Parthorum regem, gesta nec magis quietae res Aegypti referuntur. Ptolemaeus (Euergetes cognominatus) ob nimiam crudelitatem suis invisus, incensa a populo regia clam Cypron profugit, et cum sorori eius Cleopatrae, quam filia eius virgine per vim compressa atque in matrimonium ducta repudiaverat, regnum a populo datum esset, infensus filium quem ex illa habebat in Cypro occidit caputque eius et manus et pedes matri misit.

Seditiones a triumviris Fulvio Flacco et C. Graccho et C. Papirio Carbone agro dividendo creatis excitatae. Cum P. Scipio Africanus adversaretur fortisque ac validus pridie domum se recepisset, mortuus in cubiculo inventus est. Suspecta fuit, tamquam ei venenum dedisset, Sempronia uxor hinc maxime quod soror esset Gracchorum cum quibus simultas Africano fuerat. De morte tamen eius nulla quaestio acta. Defuncto eo acrius seditiones triumvirales exarserunt.

C. Sempronius cos. adversus Iapydas primo male rem gessit, mox victoria cladem acceptam emendavit virtute Decimi Iuni Bruti (eius qui Lusitaniam subegerat).

Forced by starvation, the Numantines ran one another through and massacred themselves, and Scipio Africanus [Aemilianus] sacked the captured city, and celebrated a triumph in the fourteenth year after the destruction of Carthage.

[132] Consul Publius Rupilius defeated the Sicilian runaway slaves.

Aristonicus, the son of king Eumenes [in fact Attalus II Philadelphus], occupied Asia, which had been bequested to the Roman people and was supposed to be free. [131] Consul Publius Licinius Crassus, who was at the same time pontifex maximus (something that had never happened before), set out against him from Italy, but was defeated and killed in battle. [130] Consul Marcus Perperna, however, accepted the surrender of the defeated Aristonicus.

[129] The first two plebeian censors, Quintus Pompeius and Quintius Metellus, performed the lustrum ceremony. 318,823 citizens were registered, wards and widows not included. Censor Quintus Metellus suggested that everyone ought to be forced to marry to create more children. (His speech still exists, and was quoted in the Senate by the emperor Augustus as if it had recently been written, when he proposed a marriage law.)

Tribune Gaius Atinius Labeo ordered censor Quintus Metellus to be thrown from the [Tarpeian] rock, because he had not included him when he had revised the list of senators; the other tribunes assisted Metellus to prevent this.

When tribune [Gaius Papirius] Carbo proposed that someone could be tribune as often as he wished, Publius [Cornelius Scipio] Africanus [Aemilianus] argued against this law in a dignified speech, in which he said that Tiberius Gracchus appeared to be lawfully killed. Although Gaius Gracchus spoke for the proposal, Scipio won.

An account is given of the war between king Antiochus [VII] of Syria and Phraates [II] of the Parthians, and of the no less turbulent situation in Egypt. Ptolemy (surnamed Euergetes) was hated by his people because he was too cruel, and secretly fled to Cyprus when the people had set his palace afire; and when the kingdom was given by the people to his sister Cleopatra (whom he had divorced after he had raped and married her virgin daughter), he killed, in a fit of anger, the son she had given him, and sent the boy's head, hands, and feet to his mother.

Riots were exited by the board of three for the division of land, Fulvius Flaccus, Gaius Gracchus, and Gaius Papirius Carbo. Although he had returned home in good health, Publius [Cornelius] Scipio Africanus [Aemilianus] was found dead in his bed room after he had appeared in opposition on the former day. His wife was suspected of poisoning him, chiefly because Sempronia was the sister of the Gracchi, whom Africanus had opposing. Yet there was no prosecution of the case. After his death, the triumviral riots were exacerbated.

Consul Gaius Sempronius at first fought unsuccessfully against the Iapydians, but the defeat was compensated by a victory won through the qualities of Decimus Junius Brutus (the man who had subdued Lusitania).

L. Aurelius cos. bellantes Sardos subegit.

M. Fulvius Flaccus primus transalpinos Liguras domuit bello, missus in auxilium Massiliensium adversus Salluvios Gallos, qui fines Massiliensium populabantur.

L. Opimius praetor Fregellanos, qui defecerant, in deditionem accepit, Fregellas diruit.

Pestilentia in Africa ab ingenti lucustarum multitudine et deinde necatarum strage fuisse traditur.

Lustrum a censoribus conditum est. Censa sunt civium capita CCCXCIIII milia DCCXXXVI.

C. Gracchus, Tiberi frater, trib. plebis, eloquentior quam frater, perniciosas aliquot leges tulit, inter quas frumentariam, ut senis et triente frumentum plebi daretur; alteram legem agrariam quam et frater eius tulerat; tertiam, qua equestrem ordinem tunc cum senatu consentientem corrumperet, ut sescenti ex equite in curiam sublegerentur et, quia illis temporibus CCC tantum senatores erant, DC equites CCC senatoribus admiscerentur, id est ut equester ordo bis tantum virium in senatu haberet. Et continuato in alterum annum tribunatu legibus agrariis latis effecit ut complures coloniae in Italia deducerentur et una in solo dirutae Carthaginis, quo ipse triumvir creatus coloniam deduxit.

Praeterea res a Q. Metello cos. adversus Baleares gestas continet, quos Graeci Gymnesios appellant, quia aestatem nudi exigunt. Baleares a teli missu appellati aut a Balio, Herculis comite ibi relicto, cum Hercules ad Geryonem navigaret.

Motus quoque Syriae referuntur, in quibus Cleopatra Demetrium virum suum et Seleucum filium indignata quod occiso patre eius a se iniussu suo diadema sumpsisset, interemit.

[126] Consul Lucius Aurelius subdued rebellious Sardinians.

[125] Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, sent out to help the Massiliots against Gallic Salluvians living on the Massilian frontier, was the first to subdue Ligurians beyond the Alps.

Praetor Lucius Opimius accepted the surrender of the rebellious Fregellans and sacked Fregellae.

There is a reference to a plague of locusts in Africa and the large numbers of killed insects.

[124] The censors performed the lustrum ceremony. 394,736 citizens were registered.

[123] Tribune Gaius Gracchus, brother of Tiberius and a better orator, carried several dangerous laws, among which was one on the supply of grain, which was to be sold for six and one-third asses to the plebs; a land bill like that of his brother; and a third law, aimed at corrupting the equestrian order (which at that time was collaborating with the Senate), that six hundred knights should be added to the Senate. Because back then, there were only three hundred senators, and the six hundred knights and three hundred senators would be mixed, the equestrian order would have a majority of two to one in the Senate. After Gracchus had continued to a second tribuneship, he passed new land bills, which resulted in the founding of several colonies in Italy, and one in Carthage, of which he himself was one of the three founders. 

It [book 60] also contains an account of the war of Quintus [Caecilius] Metellus against those Balearans whom the Greeks call Gymnesios, because they are naked in the summer. The Balearans received their name from their missiles, or else from Balius, a companion of Hercules who was left behind when he sailed to Geryon.

A description is given of the situation in Syria, in which Cleopatra [Thea] first killed her husband Demetrius [II Nicator] and then her son Seleucus [V], because she hated him. After she had killed his father, he had accepted the diadem without her permission.