_, _expeditae cohortes_, and even _expeditae
legiones_.]

[Footnote 52: Called _Supplicatio_.]

[Illustration: Scipio Africanus.]

CHAPTER XVIII.

INTERNAL HISTORY OF ROME DURING THE MACEDONIAN AND SYRIAN WARS. CATO AND
SCIPIO.

The conquests of the Romans in the East had exercised a most pernicious
influence upon the national character. They were originally a hardy,
industrious, and religious race, distinguished by unbending integrity
and love of order. They lived with great frugality upon their small
farms, which they cultivated with their own hands; but they were stern
and somewhat cruel, and cared little or nothing for literature and the
arts. Upon such a people the sudden acquisition of wealth produced its
natural effects. They employed it in the gratification of their
appetites, and in coarse sensual pleasures. Some of the Roman nobles,
such as Scipio Africanus, Flamininus (the conqueror of Philip), and
others, acquired a love for Greek literature and art; but the great mass
of the nation imitated only the vices of the Greeks. Cooks, who had
formerly been the cheapest kind of slaves at Rome, now became the most
valuable. A love of luxury and a general depravity gradually spread
through all classes of society. A striking instance of the growing
licentiousness of the times was brought to light in B.C. 186. It was
discovered that the worship of Bacchus had been introduced from Southern
Italy into Rome and other towns, and that secret societies were formed,
which, under the cloak of this worship, indulged in the most abominable
vices. A stringent inquiry was made into these practices; the most
guilty were put to death; and a decree of the Senate was passed,
forbidding the worship of Bacchus in Rome and throughout Italy.

Another circumstance will illustrate the manners of the times. L.
Flamininus, the brother of the conqueror of Philip, and Consul in B.C.
192, took with him into Cisalpine Gaul a beautiful Carthaginian boy, to
whom he was attached. The youth complained of leaving Rome just before
the exhibition of the games of the gladiators. Shortly after reaching
the province, when Flamininus was feasting with his favorite, a Boian
chief came into the Consul's tent to implore his protection. Flamininus
seized this opportunity to please the boy, and, telling him that he
should be rewarded for not seeing the gladiators, he ordered an
attendant to stab the Gaul, that his favorite might enjoy the dying
ag