§38.50.1plus crimina eo die quam defensio valuisset, ni altercationem in serum perduxissent.
On that day, the charges would have carried more weight than the defense, if they had not prolonged the dispute until late.
dimittitur senatus in ea opinione, ut negaturus triumphum fuisse videretur. §38.50.2postero die et cognati amicique Cn. Manlii summis opibus adnisi sunt, et auctoritas seniorum valuit, §38.50.3negantium exemplum proditum memoriae esse, ut imperator, qui devictis perduellibus, confecta provincia exercitum reportasset, sine curru et laurea privatus inhonoratusque urbem iniret.
The senate was dismissed in such a state of mind that it seemed likely to refuse the triumph. On the following day, both the relatives and friends of Gnaeus Manlius exerted themselves with all their might, and the authority of the elders also prevailed, as they argued that no precedent had been handed down to memory that a commander who, having utterly defeated the enemy and completed the business of his province, had brought back his army, should enter the city as a private citizen and without honor, without a chariot and laurel.
hic pudor malignitatem vicit, triumphumque frequentes decreverunt. §38.50.4oppressit deinde mentionem memoriamque omnem contentionis huius maius et cum maiore et clariore viro certamen ortum. §38.50.5P. Scipioni Africano, ut Valerius Antias auctor est, duo Q. Petillii diem dixerunt.
This sense of shame conquered their ill-will, and they decreed the triumph in large numbers. Then a greater conflict, arising with a greater and more illustrious man, swept away all mention and memory of this dispute. Against Publius Scipio Africanus, as Valerius Antias writes, the two Quintus Petillii appointed a day of trial.
id, prout cuiusque ingenium erat, interpretabantur. §38.50.6alii non tribunos plebis, sed universam civitatem, §38.50.7quae id pati posset, incusabant: duas maximas orbis terrarum urbes ingratas uno prope tempore in principes inventas, Romam ingratiorem, si quidem victa Carthago victum Hannibalem in exilium expulisset, §38.50.8Roma victrix victorem Africanum expellat.
People interpreted this according to each one's disposition. Some blamed not the tribunes of the plebs, but the entire state, which could tolerate such a thing: that the two greatest cities in the world had been found ungrateful to their leading men at almost the same time, Rome being the more ungrateful, since defeated Carthage had driven the defeated Hannibal into exile, while victorious Rome was expelling the victorious Africanus.
alii, neminem unum civem tantum eminere debere, ut legibus interrogari non possit; nihil tam aequandae libertatis esse quam potentissimum quemque posse dicere causam. §38.50.9quid autem tuto cuiquam, nedum summam rem publicam, permitti, si ratio non sit reddenda? qui ius aequum pati non possit, in eum vim haud iniustam esse. §38.50.10haec agitata sermonibus, donec dies causae dicendae venit.
Others argued that no single citizen ought to stand so high as not to be liable to be questioned by the laws; that nothing was so essential to equalizing liberty as that even the most powerful person should be able to plead his cause. For what could safely be entrusted to anyone, let alone the supreme administration of the state, if an account did not have to be rendered? Against one who could not tolerate equal justice, force was by no means unjust. These matters were discussed in conversations until the day for pleading his cause arrived.
nec alius antea quisquam nec ille ipse Scipio consul censorve maiore omnis generis hominum frequentia quam reus illo die in forum est deductus. §38.50.11iussus dicere causam sine ulla criminum mentione orationem adeo magnificam de rebus ab se gestis est exorsus, ut satis constaret neminem umquam neque melius neque verius laudatum esse. §38.50.12dicebantur enim ab eo eodem animo ingenioque, quo gesta erant, et aurium fastidium aberat, quia pro periculo, non in gloriam referebantur.
Neither had anyone else before, nor had Scipio himself as consul or censor, been escorted into the forum by a larger crowd of people of every kind than he was as an accused man on that day. Ordered to plead his cause, without any mention of the charges, he began so magnificent a speech about his own achievements that it was clear enough that no one had ever been praised either better or more truthfully. For they were spoken of by him with the same spirit and talent with which they had been performed, and there was no offensiveness to the ears, because they were referred to in view of his danger, not for his own glory.