History of Rome (Complete)

by Livy

Terentius, in reply, read the resolution carried by the Petillii, the decision of the senate and the sentence passed upon L. Scipio. He declared that unless the sum stated in the judgment were restored to the treasury, there was no other course open to him but to order him to be arrested and taken to prison. The tribunes retired for consultation and shortly afterwards C. Fannius, in the name of all his colleagues except Gracchus, declared that they would not intervene to prevent the praetor from exercising his authority. T. Gracchus gave his decision thus: He would not oppose the action of the praetor in recovering the sum in question from the sale of Lucius Scipio’s property, but that as to L. Scipio himself, a man who had conquered the most prosperous and wealthy monarch in the world; who had carried the dominion of Rome to the utmost limits of the world; who had bound King Eumenes, the Rhodians, and so many other cities in Asia under obligations to Rome; who had led first in triumph, and then to prison, so many enemy commanders - this man he would not allow to lie in prison and in chains amongst the enemies of Rome. He then ordered him to be released. His decision was greeted with such enthusiasm by those who heard it, and there was such general delight at the news of Scipio’s release, that it seemed hardly possible that these were the same people before whom the sentence against him had lately been pronounced.