Book LIX.
The Numantines reduced to the extremity of distress by famine, put themselves to death.
Scipio having taken the city, destroys it and triumphs in the fourteenth year after the
destruction of Carthage. [Y.R. 620. B.C. 132.] The consul, Publius Rupilius, puts an end
to the war with the slaves in Sicily. Aristonicus, the son of king Eumenes, invades and
seizes Asia; which having been bequeathed to the Roman people by Attalus, ought to be
free. The consul, Publius Licinius Crassus, who was also chief priest, marches against him
out of Italy, (which never was done before,) engages
[p. 2185] with him
in battle, is beaten and slain. Marcus Peperna, the consul, subdued Aristonicus. Quintus
Metellus and Quintus Pomponius, the first plebeians who were ever both at one time elected
censors, closed the lustrum; the number of citizens amounted to three hundred and thirteen
thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, besides orphans and widows. [Y.R. 621. B.C. 131.]
Quintus Metellus gives his opinion, that every man should be compelled to marry, in order
to increase the population of the state. His speech upon the occasion is still extant, and
so exactly does it apply to the present times, that Augustus Cesar read it in the senate
upon occasion of his pro- posing to release marriage from all restraints on account of the
difference of rank. Caius Atinius Labeo, tribune of the people, orders the censor, Quintus
Metellus, to be thrown from the Tarpeian rock for striking him out of the list of the
senate; but the other tribunes interfere and protect him. [Y.R. 622. B.C. 130.] Quintus
Carbo, the plebeian tribune, proposes a law that the people might have the power of
re-electing the same tribune as often as they please: Publius Africanus argues against the
proposition in a speech of great energy, in which he asserts that Tiberius Gracchus was
justly put to death. Gracchus supports the proposed law; but Scipio prevails. War was
waged between Antiochus, king of Syria, and Phraates, king of Parthia, nor does the record
show that greater tranquillity existed in Egypt. Ptolemy, surnamed Evergetes, being
detested on account of his cruelty by his subjects, who set his palace on fire, escaped to
Cyprus, and when the people conferred the kingdom upon his sister Cleopatra, whom he had
divorced, after having first ravished and then married her daughter; he being enraged,
murders the son he had by her at Cyprus, and sent his head and limbs to the mother. [Y.R.
623. B.C. 129.] Seditions were excited by Fulvius Flaccus, Caius Gracchus, and Caius
Carbo, appointed to carry into execution the Agrarian law: these were opposed by Publius
Scipio Africanus, who going home at night in perfect health, was found dead in his chamber
the next morning. His wife, Sempronia, sister of the Gracchuses, with whom Scipio was at
enmity, was strongly suspected of having given him poison: no inquiry however was made
into the matter. Upon his death the popular seditions blaze out with great fury. Caius
Sempronius, the consul, fought the Iapidae, at first unsuccessfully, but soon repairs all
his losses by a signal victory, gained by the valour of Junius Brutus, the conqueror of
Lusitania.
