Kitap 45
37
Then Servilius began: "How great a commander L. Aemilius has shown himself may be estimated, if by nothing else, at all events by this simple fact, that though he had in his camp such mutinous and fickle soldiers, and a man so notorious for his impulsiveness and power of rousing a multitude bent on mischief by his eloquence, yet he never had a mutiny in his camp. The same stern exercise of authority, which they now detest, kept them as a united body. Held fast by the ancient discipline, they neither uttered a seditious word nor acted in a seditious way. As to Servilius Galba, if he wished to make his first essay, and give us a specimen of his eloquence by accusing L. Paulus, he ought not to have stood in the way of his triumph, if for no other reason at least for this, that the senate had judged it just and right. He ought to have waited till the morrow of his triumph, when he would see him as a private citizen and would be able to indict him before a magistrate, or at a later time, as soon as he himself had taken up the duties of a magistrate, he could impeach his enemy and prosecute him before the Assembly. In that way Lucius Paulus would have been rewarded by a triumph for having done his duty in conducting a war so gloriously, and would have been punished for anything he had done unworthy of his former reputation and his newly-acquired glory. But see! He could not say anything against his conduct as a citizen or his character as a man, so he tried to besmirch his reputation. Yesterday afternoon he asked for a whole day in which to bring his accusations against L. Paulus; he took up what was left of the day-four hours-with his speech. What man has ever been placed upon his trial, so steeped in guilt that the crimes of his life could not be recounted in that number of hours? What, however, did he bring up which L. Paulus, were he on his trial, would wish to deny?
