History of Rome

​The time for the consular elections was now approaching; and since M. Aemilius, to whose lot that charge had fallen, was unable to attend them, C. Flaminius came to Rome. Sp. Postumius Albinus and Q. Marcius Philippus were elected consuls by him.

​Next, T. Maenius, P. Cornelius Sulla, C. Calpurnius Piso, M. Licinius Lucullus, C. Aurelius Scaurus, and L. Quinctius Crispinus were made praetors. At the very end of the year, ​when the magistrates had already been elected, on the third day before the Nones of March, Cn. Manlius Vulso triumphed over the Gauls who inhabit Asia.

​The reason for his triumphing so late was to avoid pleading his cause under the Petillian law before the praetor Q. Terentius Culleo, and being consumed by the fire of another’s trial, in which L. Scipio had been condemned, ​with the judges being so much more hostile towards him than towards Scipio, because rumor had brought the report that the military discipline, which had been severely maintained by Scipio, had been ruined by his successor himself with every kind of license.

​Nor were those things the only source of infamy which were reported to have been done in the province, far from people’s eyes, but still more those which were daily seen among his soldiers.

​For the origin of foreign luxury was imported into the city by the Asiatic army. They first brought to Rome bronze-plated couches, expensive bed-covers, hangings and other textiles, and what were then considered magnificent furniture, single-legged tables and sideboards.

​Then female lute-players and harpists and other festive entertainments of games were added to banquets; the banquets themselves also began to be prepared with greater care and expense. Then the cook, ​who to the ancients had been the cheapest slave, both in valuation and in use, began to rise in value, and what had been a mere service began to be regarded as an art. Yet those things which were then seen were scarcely even the seeds of future luxury.