Aemilius Paulus   

battle, thirty thousand of whom were slain: successes chiefly to be
ascribed to the wisdom and conduct of the commander, who by his great
skill in choosing the advantage of the ground, and making the onset
at the passage of a river, gave his soldiers an easy victory. Having
made himself master of two hundred and fifty cities, whose inhabitants
voluntarily yielded, and bound themselves by oath to fidelity, he
left the province in peace, and returned to Rome, not enriching himself
a drachma by the war. And, indeed, in general, he was but remiss in
making money; though he always lived freely and generously on what
he had, which was so far from being excessive, that after his death
there was barely enough left to answer his wife's dowry.
His first wife was Papiria, the daughter of Maso, who had formerly
been consul. With her he lived a considerable time in wedlock, and
then divorced her, though she had made him the father of noble children;
being mother of the renowned Scipio and Fabius Maximus. The reason
of this separation has not come to our knowledge; but there seems
to be a truth conveyed in the account of another Roman's being divorced
from his wife, which may be applicable here. This person being highly
blamed by his friends, who demanded, Was she not chaste? was she not
fair? was she not fruitful? holding out his shoe, asked them, Whether
it was not new? and well made? Yet, added he, none of you can tell
where it pinches me. Certain it is, that great and open faults have
often led to no separation; while mere petty repeated annoyances,
arising from unpleasantness or incongruity of character, have been
the occasion of such estrangement as to make it impossible for man
and wife to live together with any content.
Aemilius, having thus put away Papiria, married a second wife, by
whom he had two sons, whom he brought up in his own house, transferring
the two former into the greatest and the most noble families of Rome.
The elder was adopted into the house of Fabius Maximus, who was five
times consul; the younger by the son of Scipio Africanus, his cousin-german,
and was by him named Scipio.
Of the daughters of Aemilius, one was married to the son of Cato,
the other to Aelius Tubero, a most worthy man, and the one Roman who
best succeeded in combining liberal habits with poverty. For there
were sixteen near relations, all of them of the family of the Aelii,
possessed of but one farm, which sufficed them all, whilst one small
house, or rather cottage, contained them, their numerous offspring,
and their wives; amongst whom was the daughter of our Aemilius, who,
although her father had been twice consul, and had twice triumphed,
was not ashamed of her husband's poverty, but proud of his virtue
that kept him poor. Far otherwise it is with the brothers and relations
of this age, who, unless whole tracts of land, or at least walls and
rivers, part their inheritances, and keep them at a distance, never
cease from mutual quarrels. History suggests a variety of good counsel
of this sort, by the way, to those who desire to learn and improve.
To proceed: Aemilius, being chosen consul, waged war with the Ligurians,
or Ligustines, a people near the Alps. They were a bold and warlike
nation, and their neighbourhood to the Romans had begun to give them
skill in the arts of war. They occupy the further parts of Italy ending
under the Alps, and those parts of the Alps themselves which are washed
by the Tuscan sea and face toward Africa, mingled there with Gauls
and Iberians of the coast. Besides, at that time they had turned their
thoughts to the seas and sailing as far as the Pillars of Hercules
in light vessels fitted for that purpose, robbed and destroyed all
that trafficked in those parts. They, with an army of forty thousand,
waited the coming of Aemilius, who brought with him not above eight
thousand, so that the enemy was five to one when they engaged; yet
he vanquished and put them to flight, forcing them to retire into
their walled towns, and in this condition offered them fair conditions
of accommodation; it being the policy of the Romans not utterly to
destroy the Ligurians, because they were a sort of guard and bulwark
against the frequent attempts of the Gauls to overrun Italy. Trusting
wholly therefore to Aemilius, they delivered up their towns and shipping