" As he
spoke, he opened his clothes, and showed his breast with an incredible
number of scars upon it; then turning to Galba, who had made some
remarks not very decent "You laugh," said he, "at these other marks: but
I glory in them before my countrymen, for I got them by riding, night
and day, in their service. But come, bring them to vote; I will go
amongst them and follow them all to the poll, that I may know those who
are cowardly and ungrateful, and like rather to be ruled by a demagogue
than by a true general."
XXXII. These words are said to have caused such remorse and repentance
among the soldiers, that all the tribes voted Aemilius his triumph. It
is said to have been celebrated thus. The people, dressed in white
robes, looked on from platforms erected in the horse course, which they
call the Circus, and round the Forum, and in all other places which gave
them a view of the procession. Every temple was open, and full of
flowers and incense, and many officials with staves drove off people who
formed disorderly mobs, and kept the way clear. The procession was
divided into three days. The first scarcely sufficed for the display of
the captured statues, sculptures, and paintings, which were carried on
two hundred and fifty carriages. On the following day the finest and
most costly of the Macedonian arms and armour were borne along in many
waggons, glittering with newly burnished brass and iron, and arranged in
a carefully studied disorder, helmets upon shields, and corslets upon
greaves, with Cretan targets, Thracian wicker shields and quivers mixed
with horses' bits, naked swords rising out of these, and the long spears
of the phalanx ranged in order above them, making a harmonious clash of
arms, as they were arranged to clatter when they were driven along, with
a harsh and menacing sound, so that the sight of them even after victory
was not without terror.
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