412 FLAinXINUS.

■what reall}^ happened afterwards does to a certain extent tend yet further to the exculpation of Titus. Aristonicus, of the family of a common musician, upon the reputation of being the son of Eumenes, filled all Asia with tu- mults and rebelHon. Then again, Mithridates, after his defeats by Sylla and Fimbria, and vast slaughter, as well among his prime ofl&cers as common soldiers, made head again, and proved a most dangerous enemy, against Lu- cuUus, both by sea and land. Hannibal was never re- duced to so conteniptible a state as Caius Marius ; he had the friendship of a king, and the free exercise of his fac- idties, employment and charge in the navy, and over the horse and foot, of Pinasias ; whereas those who but now were laughing to hear of Marius wandering about Africa, destitute and begging, in no long time after were seen enti'eating his mercy in Rome, with his rods at their backs, and his axes at their necks. So true it is, that looking to the possible future, we can call nothing that we see either great or small ; as nothing puts an end to the mutabUity and vicissitude of things, but what puts an end to their very being. Some authors accordingly tell us, that Titus did not do this of his own head, but that he was joined in commission with Lucius Scipio, and that the whole object of the embassy was, to effect Hannibal's death. And now, as we find no further mention in his- tory of any thing done by Titus, either in war or in the administration of the government, but simply that he died in peace ; it is time to look upon him as he stands in fjomparison with Philopoemen.