BOOK VII. xLiii. 141-XLIV. 143 



abundantly rebutted by a single accidcntal mis- 

 fortune : inasmuch as this Metellus passed an old 

 age of bhndness, having lost his sight in a fire when 

 saving the statue of Pallas from the temple of Vesta, 

 a memorable purpose but disastrous in its result. 

 Conscquently though he must not be pronounced 

 unhappy, still he cannot be called happy. The 

 nation bestowed on him a privilege given to no one 

 else since the foundation of time, permission to ride 

 to the senate-house in a chariot whenever he went 

 to a meeting of the senate — a great and highly 

 honourable privilege, but one that was bestowed on 

 him as a substitute for sight. 



XLIV. The son of this Metellus who made those 

 remarks about his father is also counted among the 

 exceptional instances of human happiness. Besides 

 receiving an abundance of high honours and thc 

 surname of Macedonicus, he was borne to the tomb 

 by four sons, one a praetor, three ex-consuls (tAvo 

 winners of triumphs), one an ex-censor — things that 

 even separately have fallen to few men's lot. Never- 

 theless at the very height of his distinguishcd career, 

 when coming back from the Field at midday, the 

 market place and Capitol being empty, he was 

 carried off to the Tarpeian Rock by Gaius Atinius 

 Labeo, surnamed Macerio, tribune of the plebs, 

 whorn when censor he had ejected from the senate, 

 with ihe intcntion of hurhng him down the chiF; 

 the numerous company of persons who called him 

 their father did it is true hasten to his aid, but as was 

 inevitable in this sudden emergency, too late and 

 as if coming for his funeral, and as he had not 

 the right to resist and to repel tlie hallowed person 

 of a tribune his virtue and his strictness would have 



601 



