ABSTRACT

When he had thus completed the organisation of Thessaly, he marched through Epirus to Oricum, whence he planned to set sail. From Oricum all his troops were conveyed across to Brundisium. Thence they proceeded all the way through Italy to Rome in a virtual triumph, the captured articles forming as long a column as the troops which marched ahead of him. When they arrived in Rome, Quinctius was granted an audience with the senate outside the city for the narration of his achievements, and a well-deserved triumph was voted by the eager senators. The triumph lasted three days. On the first day the procession displayed the arms, weapons, and statues of bronze and marble, more of which had been captured from Philip than received from the cities of Greece; and on the second day the gold and silver, wrought, unwrought, and minted. Of unwroughted silver he had forty-three thousand two hundred and seventy pounds; of wrought silver there were many vases of all varieties, most of them embossed and some of remarkable workmanship; there were besides many fashioned from bronze, and in addition ten shields of silver. Of minted silver there were eighty-four thousand Attic coins called 'tetrachma', and the weight of silver in them is about equivalent to three denarii each. There were three thousand seven hundred and fourteen pounds of gold, one shield made completely of gold, and fourteen thousand five hundred and fourteen gold coins with the image of Philip upon them. On the third day one hundred and fourteen golden crowns, gifts from the cities, were carried past; the victims were in the procession, and in front of the chariot there were many noble prisoners and hostages, among whom were Demetrius, the son of King Philip, and the Spartan Armenes, son of the tyrant Nabis. After them Quinctius himself entered the city. Following the chariot were throngs of soldiers, since the whole army had been brought back from the province. Each of these received in the distribution two hundred and fifty asses for the infantry, twice that amount for the centurions, and thrice for the cavalry. A striking sight in the procession was furnished by the prisoners who had been released from slavery, following with shaven heads.4