t the Macedonian phalanx, so
arranged matters as to show that for him the evil was overshadowed by
the good, and that his private sorrows were eclipsed by the successes of
the state, lest he should detract from the importance and glory of the
victory. He buried the first child, and immediately afterwards
triumphed, as we have said: and when the second died after the triumph,
he assembled the people and addressed them, not so much in the words of
one who needs consolation, as of one who would console his countrymen,
who were grieved at his misfortunes. He said, that he never had feared
what man could do to him, but always had feared Fortune, the most fickle
and variable of all deities; and in the late war she had been so
constantly present with him, like a favouring gale, that he expected now
to meet with some reverse by way of retribution. "In one day," said he,
"I crossed the Ionian sea from Brundisium to Corcyra; on the fifth day I
sacrificed at Delphi; in five more I entered upon my command in
Macedonia, performed the usual lustration of the army; and, at once
beginning active operations, in fifteen days more I brought the war to a
most glorious end. I did not trust in my good fortune as lasting,
because every thing favoured me, and there was no danger to be feared
from the enemy, but it was during my voyage that I especially feared
that the change of fortune would befall me, after I had conquered so
great a host, and was bearing with me such spoils and even kings as my
captives. However, I reached you safe, and saw the city full of gladness
and admiration and thanksgiving, but still I had my suspicions about
Fortune, knowing that she never bestows any great kindness unalloyed and
without exacting retribution for it. And no sooner had I dismissed this
foreboding about some misfortune being about to happen to the state,
than I met with this calamity in my own household, having during these
holydays had to bury my noble sons, one after the other, who, had they
lived, would alone have borne my name.

"Now therefore I fear no further great mischance, and am of good cheer;
for a sufficient retribution has been exacted from me for my successes,
and the triumpher has been made as notable an example of the uncertainty
of human life as the victim; except that Perseus, though conquered,
still has his children, while Aemilius, his conqueror, has lost his."

XXXVII. Such was the noble discourse which they say Aemilius from his