Naturalis Historia

C. Plinius Caecilius

Hoc a re p. tribui solebat iniuria caesis, sicut aliis et P. Iunio, Ti. Coruncanio, qui ab Teuta Illyriorum regina interfecti erant. Non omittendum videtur, quod annales adnotavere, tripedaneas iis statuas in foro statutas; haec videlicet mensura honorata tunc erat. Non praeteribo et Cn. Octavium ob unum SC. verbum. Hic regem Antiochum daturum se responsum dicentem virga, quam tenebat forte, circumscripsit priusque, quam egrederetur circulo illo, responsum dare coegit. In qua legatione interfecto senatus statuam poni iussit quam oculatissimo loco eaque est in rostris.

It was the custom for the state to confer this honour on those who had been wrongfully put to death, as among others Publius Junius and Titus Coruncanius, who had been killed by Teuta the Queen of the Illyrians. It would seem not to be proper to omit the fact noted by the annals that the statues of these persons, erected in the forum, were three feet in height, showing that this was the scale of these marks of honour in those days. I will not pass over the case of Gnaeus Octavius also, because of a single word that occurs in a Decree of the Senate. When King Antiochus IV said he intended to answer him, Octavius with the stick he happened to be holding in his hand drew a line all round him and compelled him to give his answer before he stepped out of the circle. And as Octavius was killed while on this embassy, the senate ordered a statue to be erected to him in the spot most eyed and that statue stands on the Platform.

Reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of the Loeb Classical Library from C. Plinius Caecilius: Natural History (Volume IX. Books 33-35), Loeb Classical Library Vol. 394, translated by H. Rackham, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, © 1952, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Loeb Classical Library ® is a registered trademark of the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

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