Regum et imperatorum apophthegmata

The Younger Scipio, they say, in the fifty-four years of his life bought nothing, sold nothing, built nothing, and left only thirty-three pounds of silver and two of gold in a great estate. So little he left, in spite of the fact that he was master of Carthage, and was the one among the generals who had made his soldiers richest. [*](Cf. Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9; Polybius, xviii. 35; Pliny, Natural History, xxxiii. 50 (141).)

He observed the precept of Polybius, and tried

While he was still a young man he had such repute for bravery and sagacity that when Cato the Elder was asked about the men in the army at Carthage, of whom Scipio was one, he said,

He, and he only, has wisdom; the rest are but fluttering shadows.

When he came to Rome from a campaign, the people called him to office, [*](The consulship in 147 B.C. Cf. Velleius Paterculus, i. 12. 3.) not by way of showing favour to him, but hoping through him to capture Carthage speedily and easily.

After he had passed the outer wall, the Carthaginians stoutly defended themselves in the citadel. He perceived that the sea lying between was not very deep, and Polybius advised him to scatter in it iron balls with projecting points, or else to throw into it planks full of spikes so that the enemy might not cross and attack the Roman ramparts. [*](Cf. Zonaras, ix. 29.) But Scipio said that it was ridiculous, after they were in possession of the walls and well within the city, to endeavour to avoid fighting the enemy. [*](An account of the capture of Carthage is given by Diodorus, xxxii. 23-25, and Appian, Roman History, the Punic Wars, xix. 127-132. Cf. also Valerius Maximus, iii. 7. 2.)

He found the city full of Greek statues and votive offerings, which had come from Sicily, and so

He would not allow either slave or freedman of his to take anything or even buy anything from the spoil, when everybody was engaged in looting and plundering. [*](Cf. Moralia, 97 C, and note e on p. 187.)

He was active in the support of Gaius Laelius, the dearest of his friends, when he was a candidate for the consulship, and he inquired of Pompey [*](Quintus Pompey, consul 141 B.C.) whether he also was a candidate. (It was reputed that Pompey was the son of a flute-player.) Pompey said that he was not a candidate, and offered to take Laelius about with him and help him in his canvass, and they, believing his words and waiting for his co-operation, were completely deceived. For it was reported that Pompey was himself going about and soliciting the citizens. The others were indignant, but Scipio laughed and said, It is because of our own stupidity; for, just as if we were intending to call not upon men but upon gods, we have been wasting any amount of time in waiting for a flute-player ! [*](Cf. Cicero, De amicitia, 21 (77).)

When Appius Claudius was his rival [*](In 142 B.C.) for the censorship, and asserted that he greeted all the Romans by name, while Scipio knew hardly one of them, Scipio said, You are quite right; for I have not taken such pains to know many as to be unknown to none. [*](Cf. Plutarch’s Life of Aemilius Paulus, chap. xxxviii. (275 C).)

He bade the people, inasmuch as they happened to be waging war against the Celtiberians, to send

After he was made censor, he deprived a young knight of his horse because, at the time when war was being waged against Carthage, this young man had given an expensive dinner for which he had ordered an honey-cake to be made in the form of the city, and, calling this Carthage, he set it before the company for them to plunder. When the young man asked the reason why he had been degraded, Scipio said, Because you plundered Carthage before I did!

Seeing Gaius Licinius coming before him, he said, I know that this man is guilty of perjury, but, since no one accuses him, I cannot myself be both accuser and judge. [*](Cf. Cicero, Oration for Cluentius, 48 (134); Valerius Maximus, iv. 1. 10.)

He was sent out by the Senate a third time for the purpose, as Cleitomachus [*](Poseidonius (instead of Cleitomachus) is found in Moralia, 777 A, and is also suggested by Athenaeus, 549 D.) says, of

Looking upon men’s arrogant acts and their acts of good order,[*](Homer, Od. xvii. 487. Scipio’s journeyings, beginning in 141 B.C., took him over most of the countries around the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.)

His one companion in his travels was a friend Panaetius, a philosopher, and there were five servants. When one of these died in a foreign land, he did not wish to buy another, and so sent for one from Rome. [*](Cf. Athenaeus, 273 A (-Polybius, Frag. 166, ed. Hultsch); Valerius Maximus, iv. 3. 13.)

Inasmuch as the Numantians seemed invincible in battle and had vanquishedany generals, the people made Scipio consul the second time [*](In 134 B.C.) for this war. When many were eager to enlist for the campaign, the Senate intervened, on the ground that Italy would be unprotected. Moreover, they would not allow him to take money from what was already on hand, but set aside for his use the revenues from taxes not yet due. Scipio said that he did not need monev, for his own and that of his friends would be sufficient; but in regard to the soldiers he did find fault. [*](Cf. Appian, Roman History, the Wars in Spain, xiv. 84.) For he said that the war was a hard war; if it was owing to the bravery of the enemy that they had been vanquished so many times, then it was hard because it was against such men; if it was owing to the want of bravery in their own citizens, then it was hard because it must be conducted with such men.

When he arrived at the camp, and found there much disorder, licentiousness, superstition, and luxury, he straightway drove out the soothsayers, diviners, and panders, and issued orders to send

He detected in the baggage carried by the pack-animals of Memmius, a military tribune, wine coolers set with precious stones, the work of Thericles, [*](A famous Corinthian potter.) and said to him, By such conduct you have made yourself useless to me and your country for thirty days, [*](Presumably the period of his disgrace and punishment.) but useless to yourself for your whole lifetime. [*](Cf. Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 1. 1.)

When another man showed him a shield beautifully ornamented, he said, A fine shield, young sir; but it is more fitting that a Roman rest his hopes in his right hand rather than in his left. [*](So in Aelian, Varia Historia, xi. 9. Slightly variant versions are to be found in Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 4; Frontinus, Strategemata, iv. 1. 5; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Another carrying a timber for the palisade said that it was awfully heavy. Very likely, said Scipio, for you put more trust in this wood than in your sword. [*](Cf. Polyaenus, Strategemata, viii. 16. 3; Livy, Epitome of Book lvii.)

Observing the recklessness of the enemy, he said that he himself was buying security with time; for a good general, like a physician, needed to operate with steel only as a last resort. [*](Cf. Aulus Gellius, xiii. 3. 6, where Scipio quotes a similar aphorism of his father’s.) Nevertheless he attacked at the proper time and routed the Numantians. [*](Appian relates that Numantia was reduced by systematic siege (Wars in Spain, 89 ff.).)