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.