194 
pliny's katueal history. 
[Book VII, 
degraded ; and who, as if that had not satiated his vengeance, 
still farther wreaked his malice upon him, hy throwing a 
rope around his neck,^^ and twisting it with such extreme 
violence that the blood flowed from out of his ears.^^ And 
for my part, too, I should look upon it as in the number of his 
misfortunes, to have been the enemy of the second Africanus ; 
indeed, Macedonicus, in this instance, bears testimony against 
himself; for he said to his sons, Go, my children, render 
the last duties to Scipio ; you will never witness the funeral 
of a greater citizen than him and this speech he made to 
his sons, one of whom had already acquired the surname of 
Balearicus, and another of Diadematus,^ he himself at the time 
bearing that of Macedonicus. 
Now, if we take into account the above injury alone, can 
any one justly pronounce that man happy, whose life was thus 
endangered by the caprice of an enemy, and that enemy, be- 
sides, not an Africanus ? What victories over enemies could 
possibly be counterbalanced by such a price as this ? What 
honours, what triumphs, did not Eortune cancel, in suffering a 
censor to be dragged through the middle of the city — indeed, 
that was his only resource for gaining time^— dragged to that 
ties, to some god or goddess ; after which it could not, under ordinary- 
circumstances, be recovered, whether the sentence was revoked or not. 
Cicero had been capitally condemned through the instrumentality of 
Clodius, and obliged to fly from Rome. 
It was a common expression among the Romans, for a person, " ob- 
torto coUo ad praetorem trahi," "to be dragged to the praetor with his 
neck wrenched;" and we meet with it repeatedly in the writings of 
Plautus. It would appear that it was customary for the lictors or officers 
of justice to seize criminals in a peculiar manner, perhaps with a rope, and 
with the exercise of great violence, whatever their rank. 
According to the remark of Dalechamps, it appears to have been not 
unusual with the Roman magistrates, when resistance was offered to their 
order, to seize the party by the throat, as is here stated to have been done 
by Labeo. — B. 
1 There has been considerable difficulty in ascertaining the names which 
should be given to the sons of Metellus, as the MSS. differ, and there ap~ 
pears to be no means of coming to any accurate decision, by a reference to 
other authorities. The essential circumstance, however, is, that two of the 
sons had obtained the honour of a triumph, and had acquired appropriate 
surnames. — B. Metellus Diadematus has l3een much confounded with his 
cousin, Metellus Dalmaticus. Diadematus was so called, from his wearing, 
for a long time, a bandage round his forehead, in consequence of an ulcer. 
He was consul B.C. 117. 
2 By being dragged, and not proceeding willingly, in order to gain time 
