Livy, writing in Rome under Augustus, continues his History of Rome. This is Book 38. In the last book, Lucius Scipio beat King Antiochus at Magnesia in western Asia Minor (today’s Turkey). The Peace of Apamea took from the king Europe and Asia this side of the Taurus, loaded him with a fine, and left friends like Eumenes of Pergamum and Rhodes to hold the new map while Rome still claimed it was only protecting, not ruling.

Now consul Gnaeus Manlius Vulso — one of two officials elected to run Rome for a year — goes after the Galatians, Celts of central Asia Minor who raid that order. He wins, then comes home accused of greed dressed as security. Triumph debates turn into a trial of character. The Senate judges a commander’s glory and the stain on it. Client kings learn Roman factions as they once learned Seleucid moods. Luxury in the baggage train confirms Cato’s old fears. Livy uses Galatia to teach the land and a worry together: whether public war now fills private coffers.