History of Rome

​Then, upon Ser. Sulpicius referring the question as to whom they wished to conduct the inquiry under the Petillian law, the senators ordered Q.

​Terentius Culleo. To this praetor — who was so friendly to the Cornelian family that those who record that P. Scipio died and was buried at Rome (for there is also that report) have handed down to memory that he, wearing the felt cap of a freedman just as he had gone in the triumph, also walked before the bier at the funeral, and gave sweet wine to those who followed the funeral to the Porta Capena, because he had been recovered from the enemy in Africa by Scipio among other captives, ​or else so hostile to him that on account of a notable feud he was chosen above all others by that faction which was opposed to the Scipios to conduct the inquiry —;

​however, before this praetor, whether too favorable or hostile, L. Scipio was immediately made a defendant. At the same time, the names of his legates, ​A. and L. Hostilius Cato, and C. Furius Aculeo, the quaestor, were both reported and accepted; and, so that all things might seem touched by a conspiracy of embezzlement, two scribes also and an attendant. L. Hostilius, the scribes, and the attendant, before judgment was passed on Scipio, were acquitted; Scipio, the legate A. Hostilius, and C. Furius were condemned:

​on the charge that, in order that a more favorable peace might be granted to Antiochus, Scipio had received six thousand pounds of gold and four hundred and eighty of silver more than ​he had paid into the treasury, A. Hostilius eighty pounds of gold and four hundred and three of silver, and Furius the quaestor one hundred and thirty pounds of gold and two hundred of silver.

​These sums of gold and silver I found recorded in the works of Antias. In the case of L. Scipio, I should indeed prefer that there be a copyist’s error rather than a writer’s lie in the total sum of gold and silver;

​for it is more likely that the weight of silver was greater than that of gold, and that the fine was assessed at four million rather than twenty-four million sesterces, ​all the more because they relate that the account of so great a sum was also demanded from P. Scipio himself in the senate, ​and when he had ordered his brother Lucius to bring the book of that account, ​while the senate was looking on, he tore it to pieces with his own hands, being indignant that, although he had brought two thousand million into the treasury, an account of four million should be demanded from him.

​From the same confidence of spirit, when the quaestors did not dare to draw money from the treasury contrary to the law, he demanded the keys and said that he, who had caused it to be closed, would open the treasury.