[Sidenote:  FRAG.  LXXVII] (Par.) Caepio[42] effected nothing worthy of mention against the foe, but brought much serious harm to his own men, so that he ran the risk of being killed by them.  He treated them all, but especially the cavalry, with such harshness and cruelty that a vast number of most unseemly jokes and stories passed current about him during the nights; and the more he grew vexed at it, the more jests did they make and endeavor to infuriate him.  When what was going on became known and no one could be found guilty—­though he suspected it was the doing of the cavalry—­as he could fix the responsibility upon no one single man he became angry at all of them, and commanded them, six hundred in number, accompanied only by their grooms, to cross the river by which they were encamped and bring wood from the mountain on which Viriathus was bivouacking.  The danger was manifest to all, and the tribunes and lieutenants begged him not to destroy them.  The cavalry waited for a little to see if he would listen to the others, and when he would not yield, they deemed it unworthy to supplicate him, as he was most eager for them to do, but choosing rather to perish utterly than to speak a respectful word to him, they started on the mission assigned.  The horsemen of the allies and other volunteers accompanied them.  They crossed the river, cut the wood, and threw it in all around the general’s quarters, intending to burn them down.  And he would have perished in the flames, if he had not fled away in time.  (Valesius, p. 618.)

[Footnote 42:  Q.  Servilius Caepio (consul B.C. 140).]

[Sidenote:  FRAG.  LXXVIII] [Sidenote:  B.C. 139 (a.u. 615)] (Par.) Popilius so terrified Viriathus that the latter sent to him about peace immediately and before they had tried any battle at all, killed some of the leaders of the rebels whose surrender had been demanded by the Romans—­among these his father-in-law, though commanding his own force, was slaughtered—­and delivered up the rest, all of whose hands the consul cut off.  And he would have agreed to a complete truce, if their weapons had not been demanded in addition:  with this condition neither he nor the rest of the throng would comply.[43] (Ursinus, p. 383.)

[Footnote 43:  Adopting Reiske’s conjecture [Greek:  hypomeinai epsesen] in place of the MS. [Greek:  hypomeinai epoieses].]

(BOOK 23, BOISSEVAIN.)

[Sidenote:  FRAG.  LXXIX] [Sidenote:  B.C. 136 (a.u. 618)] (Par.) The Romans received the Numantine ambassadors on their arrival outside the walls, to the end that their reception might not seem to imply a ratification of the truce.  However, they sent gifts of friendship notwithstanding, not wishing to deprive them of the hope of possibly coming to terms.  Mancinus and his followers told of the necessity of the compact made and the number of the saved, and stated that they still held all of their former possessions in Spain.  They besought their