siers; for they are all Syrians, only distinguished by the trifling arms they bear." After these great actions in Greece, and the conclusion of the war with Antiochus, Flaminius was created censor. This is the chief dignity in the state, and the crown, as it were, of all its honours. He had for colleague the son of Marcellus, who had been five times consul. They expelled four senators, who were men of no great note; and they admitted as citizens all who offered, provided that their parents were free. But they were forced to this by Terentius Culeo, a tribune of the people, who in opposition to the nobility, procured such orders from the commons. Two of the greatest and most powerful men of those times, Scipio Africanus and Marcus Cato, were then at variance with each other. Flaminius appointed the former of these president of the senate, as the first and best man in the commonwealth; and with the latter he entirely broke on the following unhappy occasion: Titus had a brother named Lucius Quinctius Flaminius, unlike him in all respects, but quite abandoned in his pleasures, and regardless of decorum. This Lucius had a favourite boy whom he carried with him, even when he commanded armies and governed provinces. One day, as they were drinking, the boy, making his court to Lucius, said, I love you so tenderly, that, preferring your satisfaction to my own, I left a show of gladiators to come to you, though I have never seen a man killed.” Lucius, delighted with the flattery, made answer,-"If that be all, you need not be in the least uneasy, for I shall soon satisfy your longing." He immediately ordered a convict to be brought from the prison, and having sent for one of his lictors, commanded him to strike off the man's head, in the room where they were carousing. Valerius Antias writes, that this was done to gratify a mistress. And Livy relates, from Cato's writings, that a Gaulish deserter, being at the door with his wife and children, Lucius took him into the banqueting-room, and killed him with his own hand; but it is probable that Cato said this to aggravate the charge. For that the person killed was not a deserter, but a prisoner, and a condemned one too, appears from many writers, and particularly from Cicero, in his treatise on Old Age, where he introduces Cato himself giving that account of the matter. Upon this account, Cato, when he was censor, and set himself to remove all obnoxious persons from the senate, expelled Lucius, though he was of consular dignity. His brother thought this proceeding reflected dishonour upon himself; and they both went into the assembly in the form of suppliants, and besought the people with tears, that Cato might be obliged to assign his reason for fixing such a mark of disgrace VOL. II. -2 H 21 upon so illustrious a family. The request appeared reasonable. Cato, without the least hesitation, came out, and standing up with his colleague, interrogated Titus, whether he knew any thing of that feast. Titus answering in the negative, Cato related the affair, and called upon Lucius to declare upon oath whether it was not true. As Lucius made no reply, the people determined the vote of infamy to be just, and conducted Cato home with great honour from the tribunal. Titus, greatly concerned at his brother's misfortune, leagued with the inveterate enemies of Cato, and gaining a majority in the senate, quashed and annulled all the contracts, leases, and bargains which Cato had made, relating to the public revenues, and stirred up many and violent prosecutions against him. But I know not whether he acted well, or agreeably to good policy, in thus becoming a mortal enemy to a man who had only done what became a lawful magistrate and a good citizen, for the sake of one, who was a relation indeed, but an unworthy one, and who had met with the punishment he deserved. Some time after, however, the people being assembled in the theatres to see the shows, and the senate seated, according to custom, in the most honourable place, Lucius was observed to go in an humble and dejected manner, and sit down upon one of the lowest benches. The people could not bear to see this, but called out to him to go up higher, and ceased not until he went to the consular bench, who made room for him. The native ambition of Flaminius was applauded, while it found sufficient matter to employ itself upon in the wars we have given account of. And his serving in the army as a tribune, after he had been consul, was regarded with a favourable eye, though no one required it of him; but when he was arrived at an age that excused him from all employments, he was blamed for indulging a violent passion for fame, and a youthful impetuosity in that inactive season of life. To some excess of this kind seems to have been owing his behaviour with respect to Hannibal,* at which the world was much offended. For Hannibal, having fled his country, took refuge first at the court of Antiochus. But Antiochus, after he had lost the battle of Phrygia, gladly accepting conditions of peace, Hannibal was again forced to fly; and, after wandering through * Flaminius was no more than forty-four years of age, when he went ambassador to Prusias. It was not, therefore, an unseasonable desire of a public character, or extravagant passion for fame, which was blamed in him on this occasion, but an unworthy persecution of a great, though unfortunate We are inclined, however, to think, that he had secret instructions from the senate for what he did; for it is not probable, that a man of his mild and humane disposition would choose to hunt down an old unhappy warrior; and Plutarch confirms this opinion afterwards. man. many countries, at length settled in Bithynia, and put himself under the protection of Prusias. The Romans knew this per.. fectly well, but they took no notice of it, considering him now as a man enfeebled by age, and overthrown by fortune. But Flaminius, being sent by the senate upon an embassy to Prusias about other matters, and seeing Hannibal at his court, could not endure that he should be suffered to live. And though Prusias used much intercession and entreaty in behalf of a man who came to him as a suppliant, and lived with him under the sanction of hospitality, he could not prevail. It seems, there was an ancient oracle, which thus prophesied concerning the end of Hannibal: Libyssan earth shall hide the bones of Hannibal. He, therefore, thought of nothing but ending his days at Carthage, and being buried in Lybia. But in Bithynia there is a sandy place near the sea, which has a small village in it called Libyssa. In this neighbourhood Hannibal lived. But having always been apprised of the timidity of Prusias, and distrusting him on that account, and dreading withal the attempts of the Romans, he had, some time before, ordered several subterraneous passages to be dug under his house, which were continued a great way under ground, and terminated in several different places, but were all undiscernible without. As soon as he was informed of the orders which Flaminius had given, he attempted to make his escape by those passages; but finding the king's guards at the outlets, he resolved to kill himself. Some say, he wound his cloak about his neck, and ordered his servant to put his knees upon his back, and pull with all his force, and not to leave twisting, till he had quite strangled him. Others tell us, that, like Themistocles and Midas, he drank bull's blood. But Livy writes, that having poison in readiness, he mixed it for a draught; and taking the cup in his hand,-"Let us deliver the Romans," said he, "from their cares and anxieties, since they think it too tedious and dangerous to wait for the death of a poor hated old man. Yet shall not Titus gain a conquest worth envying, or suitable to the generous proceedings of his ancestors, who sent to caution Pyrrhus, though a victorious enemy, against the poison that was prepared for him." Thus Hannibal is said to have died. When the news was brought to the senate, many in that august body were highly displeased. Flaminius appeared too officious and cruel in his precautions to procure the death of Hannibal, now tamed by his misfortunes, like a bird, that through age had lost its tail and feathers, and suffered to live so. And, as he had no or ders to put him to death, it was plain, that he did it out of a passion for fame, and to be mentioned in after-times as the destroyer of Hannibal.* On this occasion they recollected, and admired more than ever the humane and generous behaviour of Scipio Africanus; for when he had vanquished Hannibal in Africa, at a time when he was extremely formidable, and deemed invincible, he neither insisted on his banishment, nor demanded him of his fellow-citizens; but, as he had embraced him at the conference which he had with him before the battle; so, after it, when he settled the conditions of peace, he offered not the least affront or insult to his misfortunes. It is reported, that they met again at Ephesus; and Hannibal, as they walked together, taking the upper hand, Africanus suffered it, and walked on without the least concern. Afterwards, they fell into conversation about great generals; and Hannibal asserted that Alexander was the greatest general the world had ever seen, that Pyrrhus was the second, and himself the third. Scipio smiled at this, and said,-"But what rank would you have placed yourself in, if I had not conquered you?" "O, Scipio!" said he, "then I would not have placed myself the third, but the first.' The generality admiring this moderation of Scipio, found the greater fault with Flaminius, for taking the spoils of an enemy whom another man had slain. There were some, indeed, who applauded the thing, and observed,-"That while Hannibal lived, they must have looked upon him as a fire, which wanted only to be blown into a flame; that when he was in the vigour of his age, it was not his bodily strength, or his right hand, which was so dreadful to the Romans, but his capacity and experience, together with his innate rancour and hatred to their name; and that these are not altered by age; for the native disposition still overrules the manners; whereas fortune, far from remaining the same, changes continually, and, by new hopes, invites those to new enterprises who were ever at war with us in their hearts. And the subsequent events contributed still more to the justification of Flaminius. For, in the first place, Aristonicus, the son of a harper's daughter, on the strength of his being reputed the natural son of Eumenes, filled all Asia with tumult and rebellion; and, in the next place, Mithridates, after such strokes as he had met with from Sylla and Fimbria, and so terrible a destruction among his troops and officers, rose up stronger * If this was really the motive of Flaminius, and nothing of a political tendency entered into this dastardly destruction of that great general, it would hardly be possible for all the virtues, all the triumphs of the Romans. to redeem him from the infamy of so base an action. than ever against Lucullus, both by sea and land. Indeed, Hannibal was never brought so low as Caius Marius had been; for Hannibal enjoyed the friendship of a king, from whom he received liberal supplies, and with whose officers, both in the navy and army, he had important connections; whereas, Marius was a wanderer in Africa, and forced to beg his bread. But the Romans, who had laughed at his fall, soon after bled, in their own streets, under his rods and axes, and prostrated themselves before him. So true it is, that there is nothing either great or little at this moment, which is sure to hold so in the days to come; and that the changes we have to experience, only terminate with our lives. For this reason some tell us, that Flaminius did not do this of himself, but that he was joined in commission with Lucius Scipio, and that the sole purpose of their embassy was to procure the death of Hannibal. As we have no account after this, of any political or military act of Flaminius, and only know that he died in his bed, it is time to come to the comparison. FLAMINIUS AND PHILOPMEN COMPARED If we consider the extensive benefits which Greece received from Flaminius, we shall find that neither Philopomen, nor other Grecians more illustrious_than Philopomen, will stand the comparison with him. For the Greeks always fought against Greeks; but Flaminius, who was not of Greece, fought for that country. And at a time when Philopomen, unable to defend his fellow-citizens, who were engaged in a dangerous war, passed over into Crete, Flaminius having vanquished Philip in the heart of Greece, set cities and whole nations free. If we examine into their battles, it will appear, that Philopomen, while he commanded the Achæan forces, killed more Greeks, than Flaminius in asserting the Grecian cause killed Macedonians. As to their failings, ambition was the fault of Flaminius, and obstinancy that of Philopomen. The former was passionate and the latter implacable. Flaminius left Philip in his royal dignity, and pardoned the Ætolians; whereas Philopomen, |