40.  To this the consul answered, that “neither had the province of Liguria fallen to his lot, nor had he waged war with the Ligurians, nor did he demand a triumph over them.  He confidently hoped, that in a short time Quintus Minucius, after completing their reduction, would demand and obtain a well-deserved triumph.  For his part, he demanded a triumph over the Boian Gauls, whom he had conquered in battle and had driven out of their camp; of whose whole nation he had received an absolute submission within two days after the fight; and from whom he had brought home hostages to secure peace in future.  But there was another circumstance, of much greater magnitude:  he had slain in battle so great a number of Gauls, that no commander, before him, ever met in the field so many thousands, at least of the Boians.  Out of fifty thousand men, more than one-half were killed, and many thousands made prisoners; so that the Boians had now remaining only old men and boys.  Could it, then, be a matter of surprise to any one, that a victorious army, which had not left one enemy in the province, should come to Rome to attend the triumph of their consul?  And if the senate should choose to employ the services of these troops in another province also, which of the two kinds of treatment could it be supposed would make them enter on a new course of danger and another laborious enterprise with the greater alacrity; the paying them the reward of their former toils and dangers without defalcation; or, the sending them away, with the prospect, instead of the reality, when they had once been disappointed in their first expectation?  As to what concerned himself personally, he had acquired a stock of glory sufficient for his whole life, on that day, when the senate adjudged him to be the best man (in the state), and commissioned him to give a reception to the Idaean Mother.  With this inscription (though neither consulship nor triumph were added) the statue of Publius Scipio Nasica would be sufficiently honoured and dignified.”  The unanimous senate not only gave their vote for the triumph, but by their influence prevailed on the tribune to desist from his protest.  Publius Cornelius, the consul, triumphed over the Boians.  In this procession he carried, on Gallic waggons, arms, standards, and spoils of all sorts; the brazen utensils of the Gauls; and, together with the prisoners of distinction, he led a train of captured horses.  He deposited in the treasury a thousand four hundred and seventy golden chains; and besides these, two hundred and forty-five pounds’ weight of gold; two thousand three hundred and forty pounds’ weight of silver, some unwrought, and some formed in vessels of the Gallic fashion, not without beauty; and two hundred and thirty-four thousand denarii.[1] To the soldiers who followed his chariot, he distributed three hundred and twenty-five asses[2] each, double to a centurion, triple to a horseman.  Next day, he summoned an assembly, and after expatiating on his own services, and the ill-treatment shown him by the tribune who wanted to entangle him in a way which did not belong to him, in order to defraud him of the fruits of his success, he absolved the soldiers of their oath and discharged them.