And no sooner had I dismissed this
foreboding about some misfortune being about to happen to the state,
than I met with this calamity in my own household, having during these
holydays had to bury my noble sons, one after the other, who, had they
lived, would alone have borne my name.
"Now therefore I fear no further great mischance, and am of good cheer;
for a sufficient retribution has been exacted from me for my successes,
and the triumpher has been made as notable an example of the uncertainty
of human life as the victim; except that Perseus, though conquered,
still has his children, while Aemilius, his conqueror, has lost his."
XXXVII. Such was the noble discourse which they say Aemilius from his
simple and true heart pronounced before the people. As to Perseus,
though he pitied his fallen fortunes and was most anxious to help him,
all he could do was to get him removed from the common prison, called
Carcer by the Romans, to a clean and habitable lodging, where, in
confinement, according to most authors, he starved himself to death; but
some give a strange and extraordinary account of how he died, saying
that the soldiers who guarded him became angry with him, and not being
able to vex him by any other means, they prevented his going to sleep,
watching him by turns, and so carefully keeping him from rest by all
manner of devices, that at last he was worn out and died.
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