230 History of Nature. [BooK VII 



the most rare examples of human Felicity ; for besides the 

 most honourable Dignities, and the Surname of Macedonicus, 

 he was borne to the Funeral Pile by four Sons; one being 

 the Praetor, and the other three having been Consuls : of 

 which two had triumphed, and one had been Censor : which 

 remarkable things had happened to few. And yet in the 

 very flower of these Honours, as he was returning from the 

 Field, about Noon-day, he was seized by Catinius Labeo, 

 surnamed Macerio, a Tribune of the Commons, whom he by 

 virtue of his Censorship had expelled out of the Senate ; and 

 the Forum of the Capitol being empty, he took him away by 

 force to the Tarpeian Rock, with an intention to cast him 

 down headlong. A number came running about him of that 

 company which called him Father ; but, as was unavoidable 

 in so sudden a case, slowly, and as if attending a Funeral ; 

 with the absence also of a right to make Resistance, and 

 repel the inviolable Authority : so that he was likely to have 

 Perished even for his Virtue arid faithful Execution of his 

 Censorship, if there had not been one Tribune found, with 

 much difficulty, to step between and oppose himself; by 

 which means he was rescued, even from the utmost point of 

 Death. He lived afterwards by the liberality of other 

 Men : for all his Goods from that day forward wei-e devoted, 

 from his Condemnation : as if he had not suffered Punish- 

 ment enough to have his Neck so writhed, as that the Blood 

 was squeezed out at his Ears. And truly I would reckon it 

 among his Calamities, that he was an Enemy to the later 

 Africanus, even by the Testimony of Macedonicus himself. 

 These were his words to his Children : Go, my Sons, and 

 do honour to his Obsequies ; for the Funeral of a greater 

 Citizen ye will never see. And this he said to them, when 

 they had conquered Crete and the Balearic Islands, and had 

 worn the Diadem in triumph : being himself already entitled 

 Macedonicus. But if we consider that only injury offered to 

 him, who can justly deem him happy, being exposed to the 

 pleasure of his Enemy, far inferior to Africanus, and so to 

 come to confusion ? What were all his Victories to this one 

 Disgrace? What Honours and Chariots did not Fortune 



