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45. When peace had been secured by land and sea, Scipio embarked his army and crossed over to Lilybaeum in Sicily. [2] Then after sending a large part of the army by sea, he himself, making his way through Italy,1 which was exulting in peace no less than in the victory, while not cities only poured out to do him honour, but crowds of rustics also were blocking the roads, reached Rome and rode into the city in the most distinguished of all triumphs.2 [3] He brought into the treasury one hundred and twenty-three thousand pounds weight of silver. To [p. 539]his soldiers he distributed four hundred asses apiece3 out of the booty. The death of Syphax withdrew him rather from the eyes of spectators than from the glory of the triumphing general. [4] He had died not long before at Tibur, to which he had been transferred from Alba.4 Nevertheless his death attracted attention because he was given a state funeral.5 Polybius, an authority by no means to be despised, relates that this king was led in the triumphal procession.6 [5] Following Scipio as he triumphed was Quintus Terentius Culleo7 wearing the liberty cap; and for all the rest of his life, as was fitting, he honoured in Scipio the giver of his freedom. [6] As for the surname Africanus, whether his popularity among the soldiers, or fickle favour of the people first gave it currency I am unable to state, or whether it began with the flattery of his intimates, as did the surname Felix for Sulla and Magnus for Pompey in the time of our fathers. [7] What is certain is that he was the first general to be distinguished by the name of a nation conquered by him. Later, following his example men who were by no means his equals in their victories gained outstanding inscriptions for their masks8 and glorious surnames for their families.

1 He may have landed at Puteoli. The time is probably the autumn of 201 B.C.

2 No details are furnished by Polybius either; XVI. xxiii (one exception below, § 5). For picturesque descriptions see Appian Pun. 66; Silius Ital. XVII. 625-654, at the very end of the poem. So dramatic an arrangement had not commended itself to Livy as he wrote the final paragraph of his ten books on the Hannibalic War.

3 B.C. 201

4 Alba Fucens; xvii. 2 and note.

5 So Val. Max. V. i. 16.

6 And so (from a different source) Val. Max. VI. ii. 3; Polybius l.c. § 6; Tacitus Ann. XII. 38; Silius Ital. l. c. 629 f. Officially the triumph was over Hannibal, the Poeni and Syphax; XXXVIII. xlvi. 10. Here for the very first time Livy mentions Polybius. Cf. XXXIII. x. 10 (non incertum auctorem), where a statement of his is preferred.

7 Cf. p. 533 and n. 2.

8 In wall-cases (armaria) usually, each mask provided with its own titulus.

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load focus Latin (W. Weissenborn, H. J. Müller, 1884)
load focus English (Rev. Canon Roberts, 1912)
load focus Latin (Robert Seymour Conway, Stephen Keymer Johnson, 1935)
load focus English (Cyrus Evans, 1850)
load focus Latin (Frank Gardener Moore, Professor Emeritus in Columbia University, 1949)
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  • Commentary references to this page (13):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.49
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.8
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.3
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.23
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.23
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.47
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.46
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.52
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.52
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.51
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.38
  • Cross-references to this page (17):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Miles
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Polybius
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Syphax
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Q. Terentius Culleo
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Tibur
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Triumphi
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Africanum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Alba Longa
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Alba
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, P. Cornelius P. F. Scipio
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), LEMBUS
    • A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890), TRIUMPHUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ALBA FUCENSIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TIBUR
    • Smith's Bio, Albi'nus
    • Smith's Bio, Cu'lleo
    • Smith's Bio, Syphax
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (5):
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