Aemilius Paulus

For that deity has sufficiently used me and my afflictions to satisfy the divine displeasure at our successes, and she makes the hero of the triumph as clear an example of human weakness as the victim of the triumph; except that Perseus, even though conquered, has his children, while Aemilius, though conqueror, has lost his.

With such noble and lofty words, we are told, did Aemilius, from an unfeigned and sincere spirit, address the people.

But for Perseus, although he pitied him for his changed lot and was very eager to help him, he could obtain no other favour than a removal from the prison which the Romans called carcer to a clean place and kindlier treatment; and there, being closely watched, according to most writers the king starved himself to death. But some tell of a very unusual and peculiar way in which he died, as follows.

The soldiers who guarded his person found some fault with him and got angry at him, and since they could not vex and injure him in any other way, they prevented him from sleeping, disturbing his repose by their assiduous attentions and keeping him awake by every possible artifice, until in this way he was worn out and died.

Two of his children also died. But the third, Alexander, is said to have become expert in embossing and fine metal work; he also learned to write and speak the Roman language, and was secretary to the magistrates, in which office he proved himself to have skill and elegance.

To the exploits of Aemilius in Macedonia is ascribed his most unbounded popularity with the people, since so much money was then brought into the public treasury by him that the people no longer needed to pay special taxes until the times of Hirtius and Pansa, who were consuls during the first war between Antony and Octavius Caesar.[*](The so-called War of Mutina, in 43 B.C.; cf. the Cicero, xlv. 3-5. )