ABSTRACT
While Lucilius, dwelling aloof in the domain of philosophy, wrote his satires in peace, the life of Scipio Aemilianus, which had begun under such favourable auspices, and had for long been so happy, ended in tragedy. One morning of the year 129 he was found dead on his bed, very probably murdered. For Rome was in the midst of a social revolution ; the Gracchi had commenced a war to the death against the aristocracy. Men like Scipio, fundamentally honest but lacking boldness and anxious above all to maintain the happy mean, incurred the anger of both parties alike. It was no longer a time for Xenophon’s noble ideal and the amiable eclecticism of Panaetios.
