4. L.AemiliusPaulus, L. F. M. N., afterwards surnamed MACEDONICUS, was the son of No. 3, and the most distinguished member of his family. He
was born about B. C. 230 or 229, since at the time of his second
consulship, B. C. 168, he was upwards of sixty years of age. He was
one of the best specimens of the high Roman nobles. He inherited all the aristocratical
prejudices of his father, would not condescend to court and flatter the people for the offices
of the state, maintained with strictness severe discipline in the army, was deeply skilled in
the lore of the augurs, to whose college he belonged, and maintained throughout life a pure
and unspotted character, notwith-standing the temptations to which his integrity was exposed
on his conquest of Macedonia. His name is first mentioned in B. C.
194, when he was appointed one of the three commissioners for founding a colony at
Croton. Two years afterwards, B. C. 192, he was elected curule
aedile with M. Aemilius Lepidus, and possessed already so high a reputation that he carried
his election against twelve competitors, all of whom are said to have obtained the consulship
afterwards. His aedileship was distinguished for the zeal with which he prosecuted the pecuarii. In the following year, B. C. 191, he was
praetor, and obtained Further Spain as his province, whither he went with the title of
proconsul. Here he had to carry on war with the Lusitani. At first he was unsuccessful, being
defeated near Lyco, a town of the Bastetani, with a loss of 6000 of his men; but he
subsequently retrieved this misfortune by gaining a great victory over the enemy, by which
Spain was for a time rendered more tranquil. He returned to Rome in B. C.
189, and shortly afterwards became a candidate for the consulship. Several times,
however, did he sue in vain for this honour (comp. Liv. 39.32;
Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 56) ; and it was not till B.
C. 182 that he obtained the consulship along with Cn. Baebius Tamphilus. In the
following year, B. C. 181, Paulus was sent against the Ingauni, a
Ligurian people, who possessed a considerable naval power, with which they were in the habit
of plundering the merchantvessels as far as the Atlantic. These people he entirely subdued,
razed their fortifications, and carried off their shipping; and in consequence of his success
he obtained a triumph on his return to Rome.
For the next thirteen years Aemilius Paulus lived quietly at Rome, devoting most of his time
to the education of his children. During the latter part of this time Rome was at war with
Perseus, king of Macedonia; but as the Roman commanders had hitherto failed to
bring the contest to a conclusion, the people demanded a general of greater experience and
abilities, and unanimously pressed Paulus to undertake the conduct of the war. At first he was
not disposed to comply with their request, as he was upwards of sixty, and still remembered
with bitterness their former rejection of him at the consular comitia. But he yielded at
length to the general solicitation, and was accordingly elected consul a second time, B. C. 168, with C. Licinius Crassus. Age had not in the least impaired
his vigour or his faculties. He arrived at Macedonia early in the summer of this year, and on
the 22nd of June completely defeated the Macedonian monarch near Pydna. This battle decided
the war, and Perseus shortly afterwards surrendered himself and was brought to Paulus, who
treated him with great kindness and courtesy. A detailed account of this campaign is given
under PERSEUS. Paulus remained in Macedonia during the greater part
of the following year as proconsul, and in the course of B. C. 167
he made a journey through Greece, in which he redressed many grievances of which the states
complained, and made them various presents from the royal treasury. On his return to Macedonia
he held a court at Amphipolis, where he arranged the affairs of Macedonia, in conjunction with
ten Roman commissioners, whom the senate had despatched for the purpose, and passed sentence
upon the various parties that had espoused the cause of Perseus. He concluded the business by
the celebration of most splendid games, for which preparations had been making a long time
previously. But before leaving Greece, Paulus marched into Epeirus, where, in accordance with
a cruel command of the senate, he gave to his soldiers seventy towns to be pillaged, because
they had been in alliance with Perseus. He then straightway proceeded to Oricum, where he
embarked his troops, and crossed over to Italy.
Aemilius Paulus arrived in Italy towards the close of B. C. 167.
The booty which he brought with him from Macedonia, and which he paid into the Roman treasury,
was of enormous value; but the soldiers were indignant that they had obtained so small a share
in the plunder; and it was therefore not without considerable opposition that he obtained his
triumph. This triumph, which was celebrated at the end of November, B. C.
167, was the most splendid that Rome had yet seen; it lasted three days, and is
described at length by Plutarch. Before the triumphal car of Aemilius walked the captive
monarch of Macedonia and his children, and behind it were his two illustrious sons, Q. Fabius
Maximus and P. Scipio Africanus the younger, both of whom had been adopted into other
families. But the glory of the conqueror was clouded by family misfortune. At this very time
he lost his two younger sons; one, twelve years of age, died only five days before his
triumph, and the other, fourteen years of age, three days only after his triumph. The loss was
all the severer, since he had no other son left to carry his name down to posterity.
In B. C. 164 Paulus was censor with Q. Marcius Philippus, and died
in B. C. 160, after a long and tedious illness. The fortune he left
behind him was so small as scarcely to be sufficient to pay his wife's dowry. The "Adelphi" of
Terence was brought out at the funeral games exhibited in honour of Aemilius Paulus.
Aemilius Paulus was married twice. By his first wife, Papiria, the daughter of C. Papirius
Maso, consul B. C. 231, he had four children, who are given in the
preceding stemma. He afterwards divorced Papiria; and by his second wife, whose name is not
mentioned, he had two sons, whose death has been mentioned above, and a daughter, who was a
child at the time that her father was elected to his second consulship. [AEMILIA, No. 3.] (Plutarch, Life of Aemilius Paulus ;Liv. 34.45, 35.10, 24, 36.2, 37.46,
57. 39.56, 40.25_28, 34, 44.17__45.41, Epit.
46; Polyb. xxix.--xxxii.; Aur. Vict. de Vir. Ill. 56; V. Max. 5.10.2; Vell. 1.9, 10; Orelli, Onom. Tull. vol. ii. p. 16).