Aemilius Paulus
229-160 B.C.
by Plutarch
Written ca. 75 A.D.
ALMOST all agree that the Aemilii were one of the ancient and
patrician houses in Rome; and those authors who affirm that King
Numa was pupil to Pythagoras tell us that the first who gave name
to his posterity was Mamercus, the son of Pythagoras, who, for
his grace and address in speaking, was called Aemilius. Most of
this race that have risen through their merit to reputation also
enjoyed good fortune: and even the misfortune to Lucius Paulus at
the battle of Cannae gave testimony to his wisdom and valour. For
not being able to persuade his colleague not to hazard the
battle, he, though against his judgment, joined with him in the
contest, but was no companion in his flight: on the contrary,
when he that was so resolute to engage deserted him in the midst
of danger he kept the field and died fighting. This Aemilius had
a daughter named Aemilia, who was married to Scipio the Great,
and a son Paulus, who is the subject of my present history.
In his early manhood, which fell at a time when Rome was
flourishing with illustrious characters, he was distinguished for
not attaching himself to the studies usual with the young men of
mark of that age, nor treading the same paths to fame. For he did
not practise oratory with a view to pleading causes, nor would he
stoop to salute, embrace, and entertain the vulgar, which were
the usual insinuating arts by which many grew popular. Not that
he was incapable of either, but he chose to purchase a much more
lasting glory by his valour, justice, and integrity, and in these
virtues he soon oustripped all his equals.
The first honourable office he aspired to was that of aedile,
which he carried against twelve competitors of such merit that
all of them in process of time were consuls. Being afterwards
chosen into the number of priests called augurs, appointed
amongst the Romans to observe and register divinations made by
the flight of birds or prodigies in the air, he so carefully
studied the ancient customs of his country, and so thoroughly
understood the religion of his ancestors, that this office which
was before only esteemed a title of honour and merely upon that
account sought after, by this means rose to the rank of one of
the highest arts, and gave a confirmation to the correctness of
the definition, which some philosophers have given of religion,
that it is the science of worshipping the gods. When he performed
any part of his duty, he did it with great skill and utmost care,
making it, when he was engaged in it, his only business, not
omitting any one ceremony, or adding the least circumstance, but
always insisting, with his companions of the same order, even on
points that might seem inconsiderable, and urging upon them, that
though they might think the Deity was easily pacified, and ready
to forgive faults of inadvertency, yet any such laxity was a very
dangerous thing for a commonwealth to allow; because no man ever
began the disturbance of his country's peace by a notorious
breach of its laws; and those who are careless in trifles give a
precedent for remissness in important duties. Nor was he less
severe in requiring and observing the ancient Roman discipline in
military affairs; not endeavouring, when he had the command, to
ingratiate himself with his soldiers by popular flattery, though
this custom prevailed at that time amongst many, who, by favour
and gentleness to those that were under them in their first
employment, sought to be promoted to a second; but, by
instructing them in the laws of military discipline with the same
care and exactness a priest would use in teaching ceremonies and
dreadful mysteries, and by severity to such as transgressed and
contemned those laws, he maintained his country in its former
greatness, esteeming victory over enemies itself but as an
accessory to the proper training and disciplining of the
citizens.
Whilst the Romans were engaged in war with Antiochus the Great,
against whom their most experienced commanders were employed,
there arose another war in the west, and they were all up in arms
in Spain. Thither they sent Aemilius, in the quality of praetor,
not with six axes, which number other praetors were accustomed to
have carried before them, but with twelve; so that in his
praetorship he was honoured with the dignity of a consul. He
twice overcame the barbarians in battle, thirty thousand of whom
were slain: successes chiefly to be ascribed to the wisdom and
conduct of the commander, who by his great skill in choosing the
advantage of the ground, and making the onset at the passage of a
river, gave his soldiers an easy victory. Having made himself
master of two hundred and fifty cities, whose inhabitants
voluntarily yielded, and bound themselves by oath to fidelity, he
left the province in peace, and returned to Rome, not enriching
himself a drachma by the war. And, indeed, in general, he was but
remiss in making money; though he always lived freely and
generously on what he had, which was so far from being excessive,
that after his death there was barely enough left to answer his
wife's dowry.
His first wife was Papiria, the daughter of Maso, who had
formerly been consul. With her he lived a considerable time in
wedlock, and then divorced her, though she had made him the
father of noble children; being mother of the renowned Scipio and
Fabius Maximus. The reason of this separation has not come to our
knowledge; but there seems to be a truth conveyed in the account
of another Roman's being divorced from his wife, which may be
applicable here. This person being highly blamed by his friends,
who demanded, Was she not chaste? was she not fair? was she not
fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them, Whether it was not
new? and well made? Yet, added he, none of you can tell where it
pinches me. Certain it is, that great and open faults have often
led to no separation; while mere petty repeated annoyances,
arising from unpleasantness or incongruity of character, have
been the occasion of such estrangement as to make it impossible
for man and wife to live together with any content.
Aemilius, having thus put away Papiria, married a second wife, by
whom he had two sons, whom he brought up in his own house,
transferring the two former into the greatest and the most noble
families of Rome. The elder was adopted into the house of Fabius
Maximus, who was five times consul; the younger by the son of
Scipio Africanus, his cousin-german, and was by him named Scipio.
Of the daughters of Aemilius, one was married to the son of Cato,
the other to Aelius Tubero, a most worthy man, and the one Roman
who best succeeded in combining liberal habits with poverty. For
there were sixteen near relations, all of them of the family of
the Aelii, possessed of but one farm, which sufficed them all,
whilst one small house, or rather cottage, contained them, their
numerous offspring, and their wives; amongst whom was the
daughter of our Aemilius, who, although her father had been twice
consul, and had twice triumphed, was not ashamed of her husband's
poverty, but proud of his virtue that kept him poor. Far
otherwise it is with the brothers and relations of this age, who,
unless whole tracts of land, or at least walls and rivers, part
their inheritances, and keep them at a distance, never cease from
mutual quarrels. History suggests a variety of good counsel of
this sort, by the way, to those who desire to learn and improve.
To proceed: Aemilius, being chosen consul, waged war with the
Ligurians, or Ligustines, a people near the Alps. They were a
bold and warlike nation, and their neighbourhood to the Romans
had begun to give them skill in the arts of war. They occupy the
further parts of Italy ending under the Alps, and those parts of
the Alps themselves which are washed by the Tuscan sea and face
toward Africa, mingled there with Gauls and Iberians of the
coast. Besides, at that time they had turned their thoughts to
the seas and sailing as far as the Pillars of Hercules in light
vessels fitted for that purpose, robbed and destroyed all that
trafficked in those parts. They, with an army of forty thousand,
waited the coming of Aemilius, who brought with him not above
eight thousand, so that the enemy was five to one when they
engaged; yet he vanquished and put them to flight, forcing them
to retire into their walled towns, and in this condition offered
them fair conditions of accommodation; it being the policy of the
Romans not utterly to destroy the Ligurians, because they were ...
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