Lucius Aemilius Paullus Macedonicus

The cruelty of those times is incredible.

When Rome finally conquered Greece, Paulus Aemilius was told by the Roman Senate to reward his soldiers for their toil by giving them the old kingdom of Epirus.

They sacked seventy cities, and carried off a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants as slaves.

How many they killed I know not, but in Aetolia they killed all the senators, five hundred and fifty in number.

Julius Caesar is usually acknowledged as the greatest of the Roman generals, but think about this list.

Before him came Corleianus, Catulus, Scipio Africanus, Aemilius Paulus, Scipio Aemilianus, Gaius Marius Sulla, and Pompey.

After Caesar, there was Marcus Agrippa, Tiberius, Drusus, Germanicus, Agricola, Trajan, and later Septimius Severus.

No, we're certainly bad generals.

The cruelty of those times is incredible.

When Rome finally conquered Greece, Paulus Aemilius was told by the Roman Senate to reward his soldiers for their toil by giving them the old kingdom of Epirus.

They sacked seventy cities and carried off a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants as slaves.

How many they killed I know not, but in Aetolia they killed all the senators, five hundred and fifty in number.

The cruelty of those times is incredible.

When Rome finally conquered Greece, Paulus Aemilius was told by the Roman Senate to reward his soldiers for their toil by giving them the old kingdom of Epirus.

They sacked seventy cities, and carried off a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants as slaves.

How many they killed I know not, but in Aetolia they killed all the senators, five hundred and fifty in number.

And although other writers say they also had a shield, I do not know, for the reasons given above, how the sarissae and the shield could exist together.

In addition to this, in the engagement that Paulus Aemilius had with Perseus, king of Macedonia, I do not remember a mention being made of shields, but only of the sarissae and the difficulty the Romans had in overcoming them.

So that I conjecture that a Macedonian phalanx was nothing else than a battalion of Swiss is today, who have all their strength and power in their pikes.

The Romans, in addition to the arms, ornamented the infantry with plumes, which things make the sight of an army beautiful to friends and terrible to the enemy.

The cruelty of those times is incredible.

When Rome finally conquered Greece, Paulus Aemilius was told by the Roman Senate to reward his soldiers for their toil by giving them the old kingdom of Epirus.

They sacked seventy cities, and carried off a hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants as slaves.

How many they killed I know not, but in Aetolia they killed all the senators, five hundred and fifty in number.

And although other writers say they also had a shield, I do not know, for the reasons given above, how the sarissi and the shield could exist together.

In addition to this, in the engagement that Paulus Aemilius had with Perseus, king of Macedonia, I do not remember mention being made of shields, but only of the sarissi and the difficulty the Romans had in overcoming them.

So that I conjecture that a Macedonian phalanx was nothing else than a battalion of Swiss is today, who have all their strength and power in their pikes.

The Romans, in addition to the arms, ornamented the infantry with plumes, which things make the sight of an army beautiful to friends and terrible to the enemy.

And after these, the most famous Apelles, so much esteemed and honoured by Alexander the Great for his talent, and the most ingenious investigator of slender and false favour, as Lucian shows us.

Even as almost all the excellent painters and sculptors were endowed by heaven, in nearly every case, not only with the adornment of poetry, as may be read of Pacuvius, but with philosophy besides, as may be seen in Metrodorus, who, being as well versed in philosophy as in painting, was sent by the Athenians to Paulus Aemilius to adorn his triumph, and remained with him to read philosophy to his sons.

The art of sculpture, then, was greatly exercised in Greece, and there appeared many excellent craftsmen, and among others Phidias, an Athenian, with Praxiteles and Polycletus, all very great masters.

while Lysippus and Praxiteles were excellent in sunk reliefs, and Pygmalion in reliefs in ivory, of whom there is a fable that by his prayers he obtained breath and spirit for the figure of a virgin that he made.