I. The Thracian Attack on Delphi and the Expedition of "L. Scipio"
At some time in Olympiad 174 (84/83-81/80 B.C. ), an incursion of Thracians, of whom the Maedi appear to have made up the strongest contingent, was able to penetrate Greece as far as Delphi.[89] In Appian's Illyrica , we hear of an otherwise unattested campaign against the Maedi, Scordisci, and Dardani led by one L. Scipio in retaliation for an attack on Delphi. G. Daux's reconstruction has won general acceptance: the only L. Scipio active at the appropriate time is the Cinnan-Marian consul of 83; a praetorship in 86 would allow him to be proconsul in Macedonia and active there in 85 and 84, before his consulship in 83, when he opposed Sulla in Italy. The Thracian raid is thus dated to 84, and Scipio's campaign follows, still in the same year. Appian's reference to the passage of 32 years
is handily emended to 302 years, which conveniently brings us to one of the canonical dates for the Gallic sack of Rome.[90] E. Badian (placing the campaign, without explanation, in 85) first
spelled out the implications of this reconstruction for the history of Sulla's relations with the Senate during the Mithridatic campaign: L. Scipio, sent out by the Senate and thus "the Roman Government's representative," fought the same tribes that Sulla fought in the same year, without the two Romans coming to blows; before late in 85 Cinna and the Senate appear ready to cooperate with Sulla.[91]
There are difficulties that have thus far, it seems, escaped notice. Contra Badian, the Thracian raid, and thus "Scipio's" reprisal, cannot be dated before 84. Yet that makes the chronology very tight indeed: we need time in that single calendar year for the Thracians to penetrate into Greece (where was Scipio then?) and for Scipio to appear and respond with a strike into the territory of the Scordisci and yet return to Rome (apparently with his army, which he would hardly have left to Sulla) just ahead of Sulla, now in Greece, in time to take up the consulship for 83. What was the purpose of this extraordinary expedition? Whether it was to cooperate with Sulla or even to block him, why do we hear nothing of any contact between the two? Indeed, it is quite extraordinary that our relatively copious sources on the Mithridatic and Sullan civil wars never so much as mention this campaign, although Scipio and Sulla would on this reconstruction have been barely missing each other in their marches and countermarches in Greece and Macedonia during 85-84; while, on the other hand, our sole source for the campaign, Appian's Illyrica , makes no mention of Sulla or the Mithridatic wars. It is sobering that Appian is at his weakest and least informed in this particular book; and the introduction, where this reference appears, is the worst of a bad lot. Further, lists of the great conquerors of the Balkan tribes appear repeatedly in the epitomators of the Empire, yet L. Scipio is never found among them.[92]
The emendation of Appian's date of 32 to 302 years, positing that
refers to the Gallic capture of Rome, may seem to make such "easy and obvious sense" that it gives specious confidence.[93] The emendation does not stand on its own merits when it is viewed in the larger context of the Illyrica . In Appian's usage tia means "trial of strength";[94] since Appian has just in the previous
chapter described the first major dash between the "Celtic" (in his view) Cimbri and Romans, centering on the battle of Arausio in 105 (section 4),[95] it seems virtually certain that this campaign, not the capture of Rome in 386 (or 390), which he has not mentioned in this monograph, is to be understood as his reference point. The number may still be corrupt, but the proposed emendation is not attractive.
The supposed campaign of L. Scipio in 84 against the Maedi, Scordisci, and Dardani is therefore too problematic to be accepted. Nor is it easy to see, assuming that Appian is mistaken here, where precisely the confusion lies. Our other sources for the expansion of Roman power to the Danube are clear that after the Mithridatic War the first great push came under Ap. Claudius Pulcher in 77-76. Claudius, intriguingly, undertook an offensive against the Maedi and levied tribute on the Dardani, as Appian's "Scipio" is supposed to have done.[96] Subsequently (75-73) C. Scribonius Curio again fought the Dardani and became the first Roman to reach the Danube. As it happens, the Danube plays a role in the Scipio story as well, for Appian says that he drove the remnants of the Scordisci to settle on islands in the river.[97] Thirty-two years after Arausio brings us to 74 or 73. Although from C. Curio to L. Scipio is not the easiest of corruptions, it is far from implausible that such a slip occurred at some point in the transmission of the tradition.
In view of the great uncertainty about this supposed campaign, clearly little is gained by identifying the unknown Roman victor over "Galatae" whose campaign is commemorated in an inscribed epigram found in Magnesia (IG IX.2.1135) with L. Scipio.[98] Other candidates and dates from the end of the second century B.C. to the first century A.D. have been championed, and no useful resolution of the controversy seems in sight.[99]
How to make sense of Appian Illyrica remains an open question. But the Thracian expedition of "L. Scipio" has not yet earned a place in Roman
history.[100] Consequently, there is no hindrance to placing the Thracian expedition of the 174th Olympiad in a year subsequent to 84.[101] It would fit best after Sulla's departure from the East early in 83.