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The conqueror of Perseus,[1] became master of the Macedonian kingdom, in which, apart from other booty and riches, were found more than six thousand talents of gold and silver in the treasuries; but he, so far from coveting any of these things, did not even want to look at them and left the handling of the above-mentioned items to others -- this despite the fact that his own personal life was not affluent, but on the contrary rather meagre. At any rate when he died, not long after the war, and his natural sons Publius Scipio and Quintus Maximus[2] wanted to return to his wife[3] her pherne -- that is, dowry[4] -- of 25 talents, they found it so hard to raise the money that they could not even have done so without selling off the household contents and the slaves and some real-estate with them. So the finest proof of his integrity was what he left behind at his death. For the man who had brought into Rome from Spain more gold than any of his contemporaries, who had become master of the enormous treasuries of Macedonia, ended his own life in such a state that [his sons] could not discharge the pherne to his wife without selling some of the family real-estate.

*leu/kios *ai)mi/lios, o( *perse/a nikh/sas, ku/rios geno/menos th=s *makedo/nwn basilei/as, e)n h(=| th=s a)/llhs xwri\s kataskeuh=s kai\ xorhgi/as e)n au)toi=s eu(re/qh toi=s qhsauroi=s a)rguri/ou kai\ xrusi/ou plei/w tw=n e(cakisxili/wn tala/ntwn, ou)x oi(=on e)pequ/mhse tou/twn tino/s, a)ll' ou)d' au)to/pths e)boulh/qh gene/sqai, di' e(te/rwn de\ to\n xeirismo\n e)poih/sato tw=n proeirhme/nwn, kai/toi kata\ to\n i)/dion bi/on ou) peritteu/wn th=| xorhgi/a|, to\ d' e)nanti/on e)llei/pwn ma=llon. metalla/cantos gou=n au)tou= to\n bi/on ou) polu\ kato/pin tou= pole/mou, boulhqe/ntes oi( kata\ fu/sin ui(oi/, *po/plios *skipi/wn kai\ *ko/i+ntos *ma/cimos, a)podou=nai th=| gunaiki\ th\n fernh/n, h)/goun proi=ka, k# ta/lanta kai\ e#, e)pi\ tosou=ton e)dusxrhsth/qhsan, w(s ou)d' ei)s te/los e)dunh/qhsan, ei) mh\ th\n e)ndouxi/an a)pe/donto kai\ ta\ sw/mata kai\ su\n tou/tois kai/ tinas tw=n kth/sewn. ka/lliston ou)=n shmei=on kate/lipe th=s e(autou= proaire/sews a)poqanw/n. o( ga\r plei=ston me\n tw=n kaq' au(to\n e)c *)ibhri/as xruso\n ei)s th\n *(rw/mhn metenhnoxw/s, megi/stwn de\ qhsaurw=n ku/rios geno/menos e)n *makedoni/a| toiou=ton a)pe/lipe to\n i)/dion bi/on w(/ste mh\ du/nasqai th\n fernh\n th=| gunaiki\ dialu=sai pa=san e)k tw=n e)pi/plwn, ei) mh\ tw=n e)ggei/wn tina\s prosape/doto kth/sewn.

Drawn from two sections of Polybius, 18.35.4-6 and (from "So the finest proof") 31.22.1-4; see also n.4 below. On L. Aemilius Paullus the younger (died 160 BCE) see generally OCD(4) p.21.
[1] In the Third Macedonian War.
[2] P. Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus and, the elder of the two, Q. Fabius Maximus Aemilianus.
[3] Name unknown. (Not their mother, Papiria.)
[4] A mini-gloss from phi 224.

Catharine Roth (set status) on 23 November 2003@00:52:42.
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