Note 37 — LIFE OF TIBERIUS GRACCHUS.

Plutarch is here alluding to the campaign of Scipio in which he destroyed Carthage B.C. 146, whence he got the name of Africanus. It was usual for the Roman commanders to have with them a number of youths of good family who went to learn the art of war, and were trained under the eye of the general, to whose table and intimacy they were admitted according to their deserts. Thus Agricola, during his early service in Britain, was attached to the staff of Suetonius Paullinus. (Tacitus, Agricola, c. 5.) Those who were admitted to the intimacy and tent of the commander, were sometimes called Contubernales.