136 PLIXT 8 $ \TVH\L UiSTOIir. [Cook XXXIII. 



find that Lucius Scipio, in his triumphal procession, exhibited 

 one thousand four hundred pounds' weight of chased silver, 

 with golden vessels, the weight of which amounted to one 

 thousand five hundred pounds. This 57 took place in the year" 

 from the foundation of the City, 565. But that which in- 

 flicted a still more severe blow upon the Roman morals, was 

 the legacy of Asia, 58 which King Attalus M left to the state at 

 his decease, a legacy which was even more disadvantageous 

 than the victory of Scipio, 01 in its results. For, upon this 

 occasion, all scruple was entirely removed, by the eagerness 

 which existed at Rome, fur making purchases at the auction 

 of the king's effects. This took place in the year of the City, 

 022, the people having learned, durirg the fifty-seven years 

 that had intervened, not only to admire, but to covet even, 

 the opulence of foreign nations. The tastes of the Roman 

 people hod received, too, an immense impulse from the con- 

 quest of Achaia, 61 which, during this interval, in the year of 

 the City, 008, that nothing might be wanting, had introduced 

 both statues and pictures. The same epoch, too, that saw the 

 birth of luxury, witnessed the downfall of Carthage; so that, 

 by a fatal coincidence, the Roman people, at the same mo- 

 ment, both acquired a taste for vice and obtained a licen.se 

 for gratifying it. 



S>jine, too, of the ancients sought to recommend themselves 

 by this' love of excess ; for Caius Marius, after his victory over 

 the Cimbri, drank from a cantharus, 6 "' it is said, in imitation 

 of Father Liber j 63 Marius, that ploughman 01 of Arpinum, u 

 general who had risen from the ranks ! 05 



CHAP. 54. (12.) STATUES OF SILVER. 



It is generally believed, but erroneously, that silver was 



57 This passage is rejected by Sillig as a needless interpolation. 



5 * Asia Minor. 59 King of 1'tTgamiw. 



60 Over King Antiochus. 

 1 He alludes to the destruction of Corinth, by L. Mummius Achaicus. 



c2 A drinking cup with handles, sacred to Bacchus. See li.xxxiv. c. 25. 



r>3 Jlacchus. 



64 In allusion to the plebeian origin of C. Marius, who was born at thy 

 Tillage of Cereata, near Arpinum. It is more than prohahle that the 

 story that he hail worked as a common peasant for wages, was an invention 

 <f the faction of Sylla. 



u 4i llle arutor Arpinas, ct manipulam iraperator.'* 



