h he took,
but carried off all the money and other property, and let the statues
remain, quoting the proverb: "Let us," said he, "leave the Tarentines
their angry gods." They blamed Marcellus's proceedings as being
invidious for Rome, because he had led not only men, but also gods as
captives in his triumph, and also because the people, who before this
were accustomed either to fight or to till the ground, and were
ignorant of luxury and indolent pleasures, like the Herakles of
Euripides,

"Unpolished, rough, but skilled in useful arts,"

were made by Marcellus into idle, babbling connoisseurs of the fine
arts, and wasted the greater part of the day in talk about them. He,
however, prided himself upon this even before Greeks, saying that he
had taught the ignorant Romans to prize and admire the glories of
Greek art.

XXII. Marcellus, whose enemies opposed his claim to a triumph, on the
ground that the campaign in Sicily was not completely finished, and
that he did not deserve a third triumph, so far gave way as to lead
the greater triumphal procession as far as the Alban Mount, and only
to enter the city in the lesser form which the Greeks call _euan_, and
the Romans an _ovation_. The general conducts this, not, as in the
triumph, riding in a chariot and four with a crown of laurel, and with
trumpets sounding before him, but walking on foot in low shoes
surrounded by flute players, and crowned with myrtle, so as to look
unwarlike and joyous rather than terrible. And this is a great proof
to me that in old times it was the manner and not the importance of
the things achieved that settled the form of triumph. Those generals
who had gained their point by battle and slaughter probably made their
entry in that martial and terrible fashion, having, as is customary in
lustrations of armies, crowned the men and wreathed their arms with
abundance of laurel: whereas the generals who without an appeal to
arms had settled matters satisfactorily by negotiation and persuasive
eloquence, were given by custom this peaceful and festive entry into
the city. For the flute is a peaceful instrument, and the myrtle is
the favorite plant of Aphrodite, who above all the gods hates violence
and war. This form of triumph is called ovation, not from the cry of
"Evan," as most people think, for the other also is accompanied with
shouts and songs, but the word had been twisted by the Greeks into one
that has a meaning in their language, an