Desiring therefore to fall upon them all
at once and unexpectedly, he sent for ten of the chief men from each
city, and ordered them to bring together, on a fixed day, all the gold
and silver which they had in their houses and temples. With each party
he sent, as if for this purpose, a guard of soldiers and a captain, who
was to pretend that he came to seek for and receive the money. But when
day broke, they all at the same time fell to sacking and plundering the
cities, so that, in one hour, a hundred and fifty thousand people were
reduced to slavery, and seventy cities plundered; yet from such ruin and
destruction as this, there resulted no more than eleven drachmae for
each soldier, while all mankind shuddered at this termination of the
war, that a whole nation should be cut to pieces to produce such a
pitiful present.
XXX. Aemilius, having performed this work, greatly against his real
nature, which was kind and gentle, proceeded to Oricum, and thence
crossed to Italy with his army. He himself sailed up the river Tiber in
the king's own ship of sixteen banks of oars, adorned with the arms of
the vanquished, and crowns of victory and crimson flags, so that all the
people of Rome came out in a body as if to a foretaste of the spectacle
of his triumphal entry, and walked beside his ship as she was gently
rowed up the river. But the soldiery, casting longing glances at the
king's treasure, like men who had not met with their deserts, were angry
and dissatisfied with Aemilius; for this reason really, though the
charge they openly put forward was that he was a harsh and tyrannical
ruler: so they showed no eagerness for the triumph.
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