Most of these men being persons of distinguished families, their fate made a great noise and excited universal pity. But Fortune had a third act in this bloody drama in reserve for Philip, in which the young princes plotted against each other; and their quarrels being referred to him, he was forced to choose between becoming the murderer of his sons and living the rest of his life in dread of being murdered by them in his old age; and to decide which of the two he had the greater reason to fear. Tortured day and night by these anxieties, the miseries and perturbations of his spirit lead to the inevitable reflection that the wrath of heaven fell upon his old age for the sins of his previous life: which will be rendered still more evident by what remains to be told.... Just when his soul was stung to madness by these circumstances, the quarrel between his sons blazed out: Fortune, as it were of set purpose, bringing their misfortunes upon the scene all at one time....
Fragment referring to the military sham fight in which Perseus and Demetrius quarrelled, B. C. 182. See Livy, 40, 6. The Macedonians make offerings to Xanthus as a hero, and perform a purification of the army with horses fully equipped....
11. “One should not merely read tragedies, tales, and histories, but should understand and ponder over them. In all of them one may learn that whenever brothers fall out and allow their quarrel to go any great length, they invariably end not only by destroying themselves but in the utter ruin Part of a speech of Philip to his two sons after the quarrel at the manœuvres. See Livy, 40, 8.of their property, children, and cities; while those who keep their self-love within reasonable bounds, and put up with each other’s weaknesses, are the preservers of these, and live in the fairest reputation and fame. I have often directed your attention to the kings in Sparta, telling you that they preserved the hegemony in Greece for their country just so long as they obeyed the ephors, as though they were their parents, and were content to reign jointly. But directly they in their folly tried to change the government to a monarchy, they caused Sparta to experience every misery possible. Finally, I have pointed out to you as an example the case of Eumenes and Attalus; showing you that, though they succeeded to but a small and insignificant realm, they have raised it to a level with the best, simply by the harmony and unity of sentiment, and mutual respect which they maintained towards each other. But so far from taking my words to heart, you are, as it seems to me, whetting your angry passions against each other....”
12. Philopoemen rose129 and proceeded on his way, though he was oppressed at once by illness and the weight of years,The death of Philopoemen, B. C. 183, or perhaps early in B. C. 182. being now in the seventieth year of his age. Conquering his weakness, however, by the force of his previous habits he reached Megalopolis, from Argos, in one day’s journey....
Philopoemen was murdered by the Messenians, who had abandoned the league and were at war with it. See Livy, 39, 49-50. He was captured, when Achaean Strategus, by the Messenians and poisoned. Thus, though second to none that ever lived before him in excellence, his fortune was less happy; yet in his previous life he seemed ever to have enjoyed her favour and assistance. But it was, I suppose, a case of the common proverb, “a man may have a stroke of luck, but no man can be lucky always.” We must, therefore, call our predecessors fortunate, without pretending that they were so invariably—for what need is there to flatter Fortune by a meaningless and false compliment? It is those who have enjoyed Fortune’s smiles in their life for the longest time, and who, when she changes her mind, meet with only moderate mishaps, that we must speak of as fortunate....
Philopoemen was succeeded by Lycortas,130 ... and though he had spent forty years of an active careerCharacter of Philopoemen. He is succeeded by Lycortas as Strategus. in a state at once democratic and composed of many various elements, he had entirely avoided giving rise to the jealousy of the citizens in any direction: and yet he had not flattered their inclinations, but for the most part had used great freedom of speech, which is a case of very rare occurrence....
Character of Hannibal, who poisoned himself at the court of Prusias, B. C. 183. See Livy, 39, 1. 13. An admirable feature in Hannibal’s character, and the strongest proof of his having been a born ruler of men, and having possessed statesmanlike qualities of an unusual kind, is that, though he was for seventeen years engaged in actual warfare, and though he had to make his way through numerous barbaric tribes, and to employ innumerable men of different nationalities in what appeared desperate and hazardous enterprises, he was never made the object of a conspiracy by any of them, nor deserted by any of those who had joined him and put themselves under his command....
14. Publius Scipio, in the course of an active career in an aristocratic state, secured such popularity with the multitude Character of P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus, whose death Polybius places in this year, but according to Livy wrongly, who assigns it to the previous year (39, 52.) and such credit with the Senate, that when some one took upon himself to bring him to trial before the people in the manner usual at Rome, and produced many bitter accusations against him, he came forward and said nothing but that “It ill became the Roman people to listen to accusations against P. Cornelius Scipio, to whom his accusers owed it that they had the power of speech at all.” At this the populace dispersed, and quitting the assembly, left the accuser alone.... Once when there was a sum of money required in the Senate for some pressing business, and the quaestor, on the ground of a legal difficulty, refused to open the treasury on that particular day, Scipio said that “he would take the keys himself and open it; for he was the cause of the treasury being locked at all.” And again, when some one in the Senate demanded an account of the money which he had received from Antiochus before the treaty for the pay of his army, he said that he had the ledger, but that he ought not to be called to account by any one. But on his questioner persisting, and urging him to produce it, he bade his brother bring it. When the schedule was brought, he held it out in front of him, and tearing it to pieces in the sight of everybody bade the man who asked for it seek it out of these fragments, and he demanded of the rest “How they could ask for the items of the expenditure of these three thousand talents, and yet no longer ask for an account of how and by whose agency the fifteen thousand talents which they received from Antiochus came into the treasury, nor how it is that they have become masters of Asia, Libya, and Iberia?” This speech not only made a strong impression on the rest, but also reduced the man who demanded the account to silence.
These anecdotes have been related by me for the double purpose of enhancing the fame of the departed, and of encouraging future generations in the paths of honour....
15. For my part, I never concur with those who indulge their anger against men of their own blood to the length of not only depriving them of the year’s harvest when at war with them, but even of cutting down their trees and destroying their buildings, and of leaving them no opportunity for repentance. Such proceedings seem to me to be rank folly. For, while they imagine that they are dismaying the enemy by the devastation of their territory, and the deprivation of their future as well as their present means of getting the necessaries of life, they are all the while exasperating the men, and converting an isolated ebullition of anger into a lasting hatred....
16. Lycortas the Achaean Strategus crushed the spirits of the Messenians in the war.Lycortas, the successor of Philopoemen, compels the Messenians to sue for peace, B.C. 183-182. Up to this time the populace at Messene had been afraid of their magistrates; but now at length, relying on the protection of the enemy, some of them plucked up courage to break silence and to say that the time was come to send an embassy to negotiate a peace. Deinocrates and his colleagues, being no longer able to face the people under this storm of popular odium, yielded to circumstances and retired to their own houses. Thereupon the people, acting under the advice of the older men, and especially under that of Epaenetus and Apollodorus, the ambassadors from Boeotia,—who, having arrived some time before to negotiate a peace, happened fortunately to be at that time at Messene,—appointed and despatched envoys, begging forgiveness for their transgressions. The Achaean Strategus, having summoned his colleagues131 to council, and given the envoys a hearing, answered that “There was but one way in which the Messenians could reconcile themselves to the league, and that was by at once surrendering to him the authors of the revolt and of the murder of Philopoemen, leave the rest to the authority of the league assembly, and at once receive a garrison into their citadel.” When this message was announced to the Messenian populace, those who had long been bitterly opposed to the authors of the war were ready enough to surrender them and to arrest them; while the rest, being persuaded that they would not be severely dealt with by the Achaeans, readily consented to submit the general question to the decision of the assembly. But what chiefly induced them to unanimously accept the proposal was, that they in fact had no choice in the matter. The Strategus accordingly at once took over the citadel and marched his peltasts into it; and then, taking some picked troops with him, entered the city; and having summoned a meeting of the people, addressed them in terms befitting the occasion, promising that “they would never have reason to repent having committed themselves to the honour of the Achaeans.” The general question of what was to be done he thus referred to the league,—for it happened conveniently that the Achaeans were just then reassembling at Megalopolis for the second Congress,132—but of those who were guilty of the disturbances,Summer B.C. 182. he ordered all such as were actually implicated in the summary execution of Philopoemen to put an end to their own lives....
17. The Messenians were reduced by their own folly to the brink of ruin, but were restored toAbia, Thuria, and Pharae make a separate league. their former position in the league by the magnanimity of Lycortas and the Achaeans. But the towns of Abia, Thuria, and Pharae during these transactions abandoned their connection with Messene, and, setting up a pillar engraved with a treaty of alliance between themselves, formed a separate league. When the Romans were informed that the Messenian war had turned out successfully for the Achaeans, without taking any account of their previous declaration they gave a different answer to the same ambassadors, asserting that they had taken measures to prevent any one from conveying arms or corn from Italy into Messene. By this they showed clearly that, so far from avoiding or disregarding the affairs of foreign nations not directly concerning themselves, they were, on the contrary, annoyed at everything not being referred to them and carried out in accordance with their opinion.
When the ambassadors arrived in Sparta with their answer, the Achaean Strategus as soon as he had settledAchaean meeting at Sicyon. the Messenian business, summoned a congress at Sicyon, and on its assembling, proposed a resolution for the reception of Sparta into the league, alleging that “The Romans had declined the arbitration which had previously been offered to them in regard to this city,—for they had answered that they had now no concern with any of the affairs of Sparta. Those, however, at present in power at Sparta were desirous of being admitted to the privileges of the league. Therefore he advised that they should admit the town; for this would be advantageous in two ways: first, because they would be thus admitting men who had remained unshaken in their loyalty to the league; and secondly, because they would not be admitting those of the old exiles, who had behaved with ingratitude and impiety towards them, to any share of their privileges; but by confirming the measures of those who had excluded them, would at the same time be showing, with God’s help, due gratitude to the latter.” With these words Lycortas exhorted the Achaeans to receive the city of Sparta into the league. But Diophanes and some others attempted to put in a word for the exiles, and urged the Achaeans “Not to join in pressing heavily upon these banished men; and not to be influenced by a mere handful of men to strengthen the hands of those who had impiously and lawlessly expelled them from their country.”
18. Such were the arguments employed on either side. The Achaeans, after listening to both,Sparta admitted to the league. decided to admit the city, and accordingly the agreement was engraved on a tablet, and Sparta became a member of the Achaean league: the existing citizens having agreed to admit such of the old exiles as were not considered to have acted in a hostile spirit against the Achaeans. After confirming this arrangement the Achaeans sent Bippus of Argos and others as ambassadors to Rome, to explain to the Senate what had been done in the matter. The Lacedaemonians also sent Chaeron and others; while the exiles too sent a mission led by Cletis Diactorius133 to oppose the Achaean ambassadors in the Senate.
1. The ambassadors from the Spartan exiles and from the Achaeans arrived in Rome simultaneously with those of Eumenes, king Ariarathes,Embassies at Rome from the Achaeans, the Spartan exiles, Eumenes of Pergamus, Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, and Pharnaces, king of Pontus, B.C. 182. and Pharnaces; and the Senate attended to these latter first. A short time previously a report had been made to the Senate by Marcus,134 who had been despatched on a mission respecting the war that had broken out between Eumenes and Pharnaces, speaking highly of the moderation of Eumenes in every particular, and the grasping temper and insolence of Pharnaces. The Senate accordingly did not require any lengthened arguments; but, after listening to the ambassadors, answered that they would once more send legates to examine more minutely into the points in dispute between the kings. Then came in the ambassadors from the Lacedaemonian exiles, and with them the ambassadors from the citizens actually in the city; and after giving them a long hearing, the Senate expressed no disapproval of what had been done, but promised the exiles to write to the Achaeans on the subject of their restoration to their country. Some days afterwards, Bippus of Argos and his colleagues, sent by the Achaeans, entered the Senate with a statement as to the restoration of order in Messene; and the Senate, without showing displeasure at any part of the arrangement, gave the ambassadors a cordial reception....
2. When the ambassadors of the Spartan exiles arrived in the Peloponnese from Rome with a letter from the Senate to the Achaeans,Terms granted to the Messenians. desiring that measures should be taken for their recall and restoration to their country, the Achaeans resolved to postpone the consideration of the question until their own ambassadors should return. After making this answer, they caused the agreement between themselves and the Messenians to be engraved on a tablet: granting them, among other favours, a three years’ remission of taxes, in order that the damage done to their territory should fall upon the Achaeans equally with the Messenians.The request of the Spartan exiles refused. But when Bippus and his colleagues arrived from Rome, and reported that the letter in regard to the exiles was not due to any strong feeling on the part of the Senate, but to the importunity of the exiles themselves, the Achaeans voted to make no change....
3. Mount Haemus is close to the Pontus, the most extensive and loftiest of the ranges in Thrace,M. Haemus. Livy, 46, 21. which it divides into two nearly equal parts, from which a view of both seas may be obtained....135
4. In Crete there was the beginning of great troubles set in motion, if one should speak of “a beginning of troubles” in Crete:Crete in B.C. 182. See bk. 22, ch. 19. for owing to the persistency of civil wars and the acts of savagery practised against each other, beginning and end are much the same in Crete; and what appears to some people to be an incredible story is a spectacle of everyday occurrence there....
5. Having come to terms with each other, Pharnaces, Attalus, and the rest returned home.End of the war between Eumenes and Pharnaces, which the former had undertaken to support his father-in-law Ariarathes. See Livy, 38, 39, B.C. 182-181. While this was going on, Eumenes had recovered from his illness, and was staying at Pergamus; and when his brother arrived to announce the arrangements that had been made, he approved of what had been done, and resolved to send his brothers to Rome: partly because he hoped to put and end to the war with Pharnaces by means of their mission, and partly because he wished to introduce his brothers to his own private friends at Rome, and officially to the Senate. Attalus and his brother were eager for this tour; and when they arrived in Rome the young men met with a cordial reception from everybody in private society, owing to the intimacies which they had formed during the Roman wars in Asia, and a still more honourable welcome from the Senate, which made liberal provision for their entertainment and maintenance, and treated them with marked respect in such conferences as it had with them. Thus, when the young men came formally before the Senate, and, after speaking at considerable length of the renewal of their ancient ties of friendship with Rome and inveighing against Pharnaces, begged the Senate to adopt some active measures to inflict on him the punishment he deserved, the Senate gave them a favourable hearing, and promised in reply to send legates to use every possible means of putting an end to the war....
6. About the same time king Ptolemy, wishing to make friends with the Achaean league,Ptolemy Epiphanes sends a present to the Achaeans. Lycortas, Polybius, and Aratus sent to return thanks, B.C. 181. sent an ambassador to them with an offer of a fleet of ten penteconters fully equipped; and the Achaeans, thinking the present worthy of their thanks, for the cost could not be much less than ten talents, gladly accepted the offer. Having come to this resolution, they selected Lycortas, Polybius, and Aratus, son of Aratus of Sicyon, to go on a mission to the king, partly to thank him for the arms which he had sent on a former occasion,Bk. 22, ch. 12. and partly to receive the ships and make arrangements for bringing them across. They appointed Lycortas, because, as Strategus at the time that Ptolemy renewed the alliance, he had worked energetically on the king’s side; and Polybius, though below the legal age for acting as ambassador,136 because his father has been ambassador at the renewal of the alliance with Ptolemy, and had brought the present of arms and of money to the Achaeans;Ptolemy Epiphanes poisoned in B.C. 181. and Aratus, similarly, on account of his former intercourse with the king. However, this mission never went after all as Ptolemy died just at this time....
7. There was at this time in Sparta a man named Chaeron, who in the previous year had been on an embassy to Rome,Chaeron’s malversations at Sparta. a man of ready wit and great ability in affairs, but still young, in a humble position of life, and without the advantages of a liberal education. By flattering the mob, and starting questions which no one else had the assurance to move, he soon acquired a certain notoriety with the people. The first use he made of his power was to confiscate the land granted by the tyrants to the sisters, wives, mothers, and children of the exiles, and to distribute it on his own authority among the poor without any fixed rule or regard to equality. He next squandered the revenue, using the public money as though it were his own, without the authority of law, public decree, or magistrate. Annoyed at these proceedings, certain men managed to get themselves appointed auditors of the treasury in accordance with the laws. Seeing this, and conscious of his maladministration of the government, Assassination of Apollonides. Chaeron sent some men to attack Apollonides, the most illustrious of the auditors, and the most able to expose his embezzlements, who stabbed him to death in broad daylight as he was coming from the bath. Upon this being reported to the Achaeans, and the people expressing great indignation at what had been done, the Strategus at once started for Sparta; and when he arrived there he brought Chaeron to trial for the murder of Apollonides, and having condemned him, threw him into prison. He then incited the remaining auditors to make a real investigation into the public funds, and to see that the relations of the exiles got back the property of which Chaeron had shortly before deprived them....
8. In Asia king Pharnaces, once more treating the reference to Rome with contempt, sent LeocritusWinter of B.C. 181-180. in the course of the winter with ten thousand men to ravage Galatia, while he himself at the beginning of spring collected his forces and invaded Cappadocia. Spring of B.C. 180. When Eumenes heard of it, he was much enraged at Pharnaces thus breaking through the terms of the agreement to which he was pledged, but was compelled to retaliate by acting in the same way.Eumenes enters Cappadocia. When he had already collected his forces, Attalus and his brother landed from their voyage from Rome, and the three brothers, after meeting and interchanging views, marched out at once with the army. But on reaching Galatia they found Leocritus no longer there;Two Galatian chiefs. and when Carsignatus and Gaesotorius, who had before embraced the cause of Pharnaces, sent them a message desiring that their lives might be spared, and promising that they would do anything that might be required of them, they refused the request on the ground of the treachery of which they had been guilty,Calpitus in Galatia (?). Parnassus, a town on the Halys. and advanced with their full force against Pharnaces; and having performed the distance from Calpitus to the river Halys in five days, they reached Parnassus in six more, and being there joined by Ariarathes, the king of the Cappadocians, with his own army, they entered the territory of the Mocissians.Mocissus, N. of the Halys. Just as they had pitched their camp, news came that the ambassadors from Rome had arrived to effect a pacification. When the heard this, Eumenes sent his brother Attalus to receive them; while he devoted himself to doubling the number of his troops, and improving them to the utmost: partly with a view to prepare them for actual service, and partly to impress the Romans with the belief that he was able to defend himself against Pharnaces, and beat him in war.
9. When the Roman legates arrived and urged the putting an end to the war, Eumenes and Ariarathes professed to be ready to obey;The Roman legates arrive and undertake to negotiate. but begged the Romans to bring them, if possible, to an interview with Pharnaces, that they might see fully from what was said in their own presence how faithless and cruel a man Pharnaces was; and, if this proved to be impossible, to take a fair and impartial view of the controversy and decide it themselves. The legates replied that they would do everything that was in their power and was consistent with honour; but they required the kings to remove their army from the country: for it was inconsistent that, when they were there with proposals for a peace, operations of war should be going on and mutual acts of hostility be committed. Eumenes and his ally yielded to this representation, and immediately marched off in the direction of Galatia. The Roman legates then visited Pharnaces, and first demanded that he should meet Eumenes and Ariarathes in a conference, as that would be the surest way of settling the affair; but when he expressed repugnance to that measure, and absolutely refused to do so, the Romans at once perceived that he plainly thought himself in the wrong, and distrusted his own cause; but, being anxious in any and every way to put an end to the war, they continued to press him until he consented to send plenipotentiaries to the coast, to conclude a peace on such terms as the legates might command.The negotiation fails. When these plenipotentiaries, the Roman legates, and Eumenes and Ariarathes met, the latter showed themselves ready to consent to any proposal for the sake of concluding a peace. But the envoys of Pharnaces disputed every point, and did not hold even to what they had once accepted, but continually brought forward some fresh demand, and altered their mind again and again. The Roman legates, therefore, quickly came to the conclusion that they were wasting their labour, as Pharnaces could not be induced to consent to the pacification. The conference accordingly having come to nothing, and the Roman legates having left Pergamum, and the envoys of Pharnaces having gone home, the war went on, The Rhodians engaged in putting down a rising of the Lycians. See Bk. 22, ch. 5. Eumenes and his allies proceeding in their preparations for it. Meanwhile, however, the Rhodians earnestly requested Eumenes to help them; and he accordingly set out in great haste to carry on a war against the Lycians....
10. This year the Achaean Strategus Hyperbatus brought before the assembly the question of the letterB.C. 180. Debate in the Achaean assembly on the Roman despatch. from Rome as to the recall of the Lacedaemonian exiles. Lycortas and his party recommended that no change should be made, on the ground that “The Romans had only acted as they were bound to do in listening to the petition of men who, on the face of it, were deprived of their rights, so far as that petition seemed reasonable; but when they were convinced that of a petition some points were impossible, and others such as to inflict great disgrace and damage upon their friends, it had never been their custom to insist upon them peremptorily, or force their adoption. So in this case also, if it were shown to them that the Achaeans by obeying their letter would be breaking their oaths, their laws, and the provisions engraved on the tablets, the very bonds of our league, they will retract their orders, and will admit that we are right to hesitate and to ask to be excused from carrying out its injunctions.” Such was the speech of Lycortas. But Hyperbatus and Callicrates advised submission to the letter, and that they should hold its authority superior to law or tablet or anything else. Such being the division of opinion, the Achaeans voted to send ambassadors to the Senate, to put before it the points contained in the speech of Lycortas. Callicrates of Leontium, Lydiades of Megalopolis, and Aratus of Sicyon were forthwith nominated for this mission, and were despatched with instructions to this effect. But on their arrival at Rome Callicrates went before the Senate, and, so far from addressing it in accordance with his instructions, he on the contrary entered upon an elaborate denunciation of his political opponents; and, not contented with that, he undertook to rebuke the Senate itself.
11. For he said that “The Romans were themselves responsible for the Greeks neglecting their letters and orders instead of obeying them.Callicrates, instead of obeying his instructions, denounces his opponents, and persuades the Senate that their interference is necessary. For in all the democratic states of the day there were two parties,—one recommending obedience to the Roman rescripts, and holding neither law nor tablet nor anything else to be superior to the will of Rome; the other always quoting oaths and tablets, and exhorting the people to be careful about breaking them. Now the latter policy was by far the most popular in Achaia, and the most influential with the multitude; consequently the Romanisers were discredited and denounced among the populace—their opponents glorified. If then the Senate would give some sign of their interest in the matter, the leaders, in the first place, would quickly change to the Romanising party, and, in the next place, would be followed by the populace from fear. But if this were neglected by the Senate, the tendency towards the latter of the two parties would be universal, as the more creditable and honourable in the eyes of the populace. Thus it came about that at that very time certain statesmen, without any other claims whatever, had obtained the highest offices in their own cities, merely from coming forward to speak against the rescripts of the Senate, with the view of maintaining the validity of the laws and decrees made in the country. If then the Senate was indifferent about having their rescripts obeyed by the Greeks, by all means let it go on as it is now doing. But if the Senate wished that its orders should be carried out, and its rescripts be despised by no one, it must give serious attention to that subject. If it did not do so, he knew only too well that the exact opposite of the Senate’s wishes would come about, as in fact had already been the case. For but lately, in the Messenian disturbance, though Quintus Marcius had taken many precautions to prevent the Achaeans adopting any measures with regard to the Messenians without the consent of the Romans, they had disobeyed that order; had voted the war on their own authority; had not only wasted the whole country in defiance of justice, but had in some cases driven its noblest citizens into exile, and in others put them to death with every extremity of torture, though they had surrendered, and were guilty of no crime but that of appealing to Rome on the points in dispute. Again, too, though the Senate had repeatedly written to order the restoration of the Lacedaemonian exiles, the Achaeans were so far from obeying, that they had actually set up an engraved tablet, and made a sworn agreement with the men actually in possession of the city that these exiles should never return. With these instances before their eyes, the Romans should take measures of precaution for the future.”
12. After delivering a speech in these words, or to this effect, Callicrates left the Senate-house. He was followed by the envoys of the exiles, who retired after delivering a short address, stating their case, and containing some of the ordinary appeals to pity.The Romans adopt the policy of raising a party in Greece against the Achaean league. The Senate was persuaded that much of what Callicrates had said touched the interests of Rome, and that it was incumbent upon it to exalt those who supported its own decrees, and to humble those who resisted them. It was with this conviction, therefore, and at this time that it first adopted the policy of depressing those who in their several states took the patriotic and honourable side, and promoting those who were for appealing to its authority on every occasion, right or wrong. The result of which was that gradually, as time went on,the Senate had abundance of flatterers, but a great scarcity of genuine friends. However, on this occasion the Senate did not write about the restoration of the exiles to the Achaeans only, but also to the Aetolians, Epirotes, Athenians, Boeotians, and Acarnanians, calling them all as it were to witness, in order to break down the power of the Achaeans. Moreover, they added to their answer, without saying a word to his colleagues, a remark confined entirely to Callicrates himself, that “everybody in the various states should be as Callicrates.” This man accordingly arrived in Greece with his answer, in a great state of exultation, little thinking that he had become the initiator of great miseries to all the Greeks, but especially to the Achaeans. This nation had still at that time the privilege of dealing on something like equal terms with Rome, because it had kept faith with her from the time that it had elected to maintain the Roman cause, in the hour of her greatest danger—I mean during the wars with Philip and Antiochus.... The league, too, had made progress in material strength and in every direction from the period from which my history commences; but the audacious proceeding of Callicrates proved the beginning of a change for the worse....
The Romans having the feelings of men, with a noble spirit and generous principles, commiserate all who have met with misfortunes, and show favour to all who fly to them for protection; but directly any one claims anything as of right, on the ground of having been faithful to their alliance, they at once draw in and correct their error to the best of their ability. Thus then Calibrates, who had been sent to Rome to plead for the rights of the Achaeans, acted in exactly the opposite spirit; and dragging in the subject of the Messenian war, on which the Romans themselves had made no complaint, returned to Achaia to overawe the people with the threat of the hostility of Rome. Having therefore by his official report frightened and dismayed the spirits of the populace, who were of course ignorant of what he had really said in the Senate, he was first of all elected Strategus,B.C. 180-179. and, to make matters worse, proved to be open to bribery; and then, having got the office, carried out the restoration of the Lacedaemonian and Messenian exiles.137...
13. Philopoemen and Aristaenus, the Achaeans, were unlike both in character and policy.Comparison between the characters of Philopoemen and Aristaenus. Philopoemen was formed by nature in body and mind for the life of a soldier, Aristaenus for a statesman and debater. In politics they differed in this, that whereas during the periods of the wars with Philip and Antiochus, Roman influence had become supreme in Greece, Aristaenus directed his policy with the idea of carrying out with alacrity every order from Rome, and sometimes even of anticipating it. Still he endeavoured to keep up the appearance of abiding by the laws, and did, in fact, maintain the reputation of doing so, only giving way when any one of them proved to plainly militate against the rescripts from Rome. But Philopoemen accepted, and loyally performed, all Roman orders which were in harmony with the laws and the terms of their alliance; but when such orders exceeded these limits, he could not make up his mind to yield a willing obedience, but was wont first to demand an arbitration, and to repeat the demand a second time; and if this proved unavailing, to give in at length under protest, and so finally carry out the order....
14. Aristaenus used to defend his policy before the Achaeans by some such arguments as these:The view of Aristaenus on the right attitude towards Rome. “It was impossible to maintain the Roman friendship by holding out the spear and the herald’s staff together. If we have the resolution to withstand them face to face, and can do so, well and good. But if Philopoemen himself does not venture to assert this,(138)... why should we lose what is possible in striving for the impossible? There are but two marks that every policy must aim at—honour and expediency. Those to whom honour is a possible attainment should stick to that, if they have political wisdom; those to whom it is not must take refuge in expediency. To miss both is the surest proof of unwisdom: and the men to do that are clearly those who, while ostensibly consenting to obey orders, carry them out with reluctance and hesitation. Therefore we must either show that we are strong enough to refuse obedience, or, if we dare not venture even to suggest that, we must give a ready submission to orders.”
15. Philopoemen, however, said that “People should not suppose him so stupid as not to be ablePhilopoemen’s answer in defence of his policy. to estimate the difference between the Achaean and Roman states, or the superiority of the power of the latter. But as it is the inevitable tendency of the stronger to oppress the weaker, can it be expedient to assist the designs of the superior power, and to put no obstacle in their way, so as to experience as soon as possible the utmost of their tyranny? Is it not, on the contrary, better to resist and struggle to the utmost of our power?... And if they persist in forcing their injunctions upon us,138... and if, by reminding them of the facts we do something to soften their resolution, we shall at any rate mitigate the harshness of their rule to a certain extent; especially as up to this time the Romans, as you yourself say, Aristaenus, have always made a great point of fidelity to oaths, treaties, and promises to allies. But if we at once condemn the justice of our own cause, and, like captives of the spear, offer an unquestioning submission to every order, what will be the difference between the Achaeans and the Sicilians or Capuans, who have been notoriously slaves this long time past? Therefore it must either be admitted that the justice of a cause has no weight with the Romans, or, if we do not venture to say that, we must stand by our rights, and not abandon our own cause, especially as our position in regard to Rome is exceedingly strong and honourable. That the time will come when the Greeks will be forced to give unlimited obedience, I know full well. But would one wish to see this time as soon or as late as possible? Surely as late as possible! In this, then, my policy differs from that of Aristaenus. He wishes to see the inevitable arrive as quickly as possible, and even to help it to come: I wish to the best of my power to resist and ward it off.”
From these speeches it was made clear that while the policy of the one was honourable, of the other undignified, both were founded on considerations of safety. Wherefore while both Romans and Greeks were at that time threatened with serious dangers from Philip and Antiochus, yet both these statesmen maintained the rights of the Achaeans in regard to the Romans undiminished; though a report found its way about that Aristaenus was better affected to the Romans than Philopoemen....
1. Tiberius Gracchus destroyed three hundred cities of the Celtiberes.139...
B. C. 179. Coss.
Q. Fulvius, L.
Manlius.
The ex-praetors
Ti. Sempronius
Gracchus and L.
Postumius were
still in Spain,
where they had
been since B.C.
182. Livy, 40, 1,
44.
Renewed war of
Eumenes and
Ariarathes upon
Pharnaces. See
bk. 24, chs. 8, 9.
2. The attack upon him being sudden and
formidable, Pharnaces was reduced to submit
to almost any terms; and on his sending an
embassy, Eumenes and Ariarathes immediately
accepted his proposals, and sent ambassadors
to Pharnaces in return. When this had been
repeated several times, the pacification was
concluded on the following terms: “Eumenes,
Prusias, and Ariarathes, shall maintain perpetual
peace with Pharnaces and Mithridates.
“Pharnaces shall not enter Galatia on any pretence.
“Such treaties as exist between Pharnaces and Gauls are hereby rescinded.
“Pharnaces shall likewise evacuate Paphlagonia, after restoring the inhabitants whom he had previously expelled, with their shields, javelins, and other equipment.
“Pharnaces shall restore to Ariarathes all territory of which he has deprived him, with the property thereon and the hostages.
“He shall restore Tium by the Pontus, which some timeSee bk. 5, ch. 77. before was given freely and liberally by Eumenes to Prusias.
“Pharnaces shall restore, without ransom, all prisoners of war and all deserters.
“He shall repay to Morzius and Ariarathes, in lieu of all money and treasure taken from them, the sum of nine hundred talents, and shall add thereto three hundred talents for Eumenes towards the expenses of the war.
“Mithridates, the Satrap of Armenia, shall also pay three hundred talents, because he attacked Ariarathes in defiance of the treaty with Eumenes.
“The persons included under this treaty are, of the princes in Asia, Artaxias, lord of the greater part of Armenia, and Acusilochus: of those in Europe, Gatalus the Sarmatian: of the autonomous peoples, the Heracleotes, the Mesembrians in the Chersonese, and the Cyzicenes.”
The number and quality of hostages to be given by Pharnaces was also specified. The armies of the several parties then marched away, and thus was concluded the war of Eumenes and Ariarathes against Pharnaces.
Philip V. died at Amphipolis towards the end of B.C. 179. His last days were embittered by remorse for the death of his son Demetrius, whose innocence had been demonstrated to him. He wished to leave his crown to Antigonus, the son of Echecrates and nephew of Antigonus Doson, in order to punish his elder son Perseus for his treachery in securing his brother’s death. But Philip died suddenly before this could be secured, and Perseus succeeded him without opposition. See Livy, 40, 55-57.
3. Having renewed the alliance with Rome, Perseus immediately began intriguing in Greece.The opening of the reign of Perseus. He invited back into Macedonia absconding debtors, condemned exiles, and those who had been compelled to leave their country on charges of treason. He caused notices to be put up to that effect at Delos, Delphi, and the temple of Athena at Iton,140 offering not only indemnity to all who returned, but also the restoration of the property lost by their exile. Such also as still remained in Macedonia he released from their debts to the Royal exchequer, and set free those who had been confined in fortresses upon charges of treason. By these measures he raised expectations in the minds of many, and was considered to be holding out great hopes to all the Greeks. Nor were other parts of his life and habits wanting in a certain royal magnificence. His outward appearance was striking, and he was well endowed with all the physical advantages requisite for a statesman. His look and mien were alike dignified and such as became his age. He had moreover avoided his father’s weakness for wine and women, and not only drank moderately at dinner himself, but was imitated in this respect by his intimates and friends. Such was the commencement of the reign of Perseus....
When king Philip had become powerful and had obtained supremacy over the Greeks, he showedPhilip V. in misfortune. the most utter disregard of faith and principle; but when the breeze of fortune again set against him, his moderation was as conspicuous in its turn. But after his final and complete defeat, he tried by every possible expedient to consolidate the strength of his kingdom.
4. After despatching the consuls Tiberius and Claudius B. C. 177. Coss. C. Claudius Pulcher, Ti. Sempronius Gracchus.against the Istri and Agrii,141 the Senate towards the end of summer transacted business with the ambassadors that had come from the Lycians. They had not arrived at Rome until the Lycians had been completely conquered, but they had been despatched a considerable Embassy from Lycia against Rhodes. See bk. 24, ch. 9.time before. For the people of Xanthus in Lycia, when about to embark upon the war, had sent Nicostratus and others to Achaia and Rome as ambassadors: who coming to Rome at that time moved many of the Senators to pity them, by laying before them the oppressiveness of the Rhodians and their own danger; and at length induced the Senate to send envoys to Rhodes to declare that “On inspecting the record of the arrangements made by the ten commissioners in Asia, when settling the dominions of Antiochus, it appeared that the Lycians had been given to the Rhodians, not as a gift, but rather as friends and allies.” But many were still dissatisfied with this solution of the matter. For the Romans seemed to wish, by thus pitting Rhodes against Lycia, to exhaust the accumulations and treasures of the Rhodians, because they had heard of the recent conveyance of the bride of Perseus by the Rhodians, and of their grand naval review. For shortly before this the Rhodians had been holding, with great splendour and elaboration of equipment, a review of all vessels belonging to them; the fact being that a vast quantity of timber for shipbuilding had been presented to them by Perseus.Laodice, daughter of Seleucus IV. Livy, 42, 12. Moreover he had presented a gold tiara to each of the rowers on the upper bench in the ship that had brought him his bride Laodice.142...
5. When the envoys from Rome reached Rhodes and announced the decrees of the Senate,Excitement at Rhodes; and a fresh determination of the Lycians to assert independence. there was a great excitement in the island, and much confused discussion among the leading politicians. They were much annoyed at the allegation that the Lycians had not been given them as a gift but as allies; for having just satisfied themselves that the Lycian war was successfully concluded, they saw the commencement of fresh trouble for themselves growing up. For no sooner had the Romans arrived and made this announcement to the Rhodians, than the Lycians began a fresh revolt, and showed a determination of fighting to the last extremity for autonomy and freedom. However, after hearing the Roman envoys, the Rhodians made up their minds that the Romans had been deceived by the Lycians, and forthwith appointed Lycophron to lead an embassy to offer an explanation to the Senate. And the state of affairs was such that there was momentary expectation of a fresh rising of the Lycians....
6. When the Rhodian envoys arrived in Rome the Senate, after listening to their address, deferred its answer.Rhodian question deferred. Meanwhile the Dardanian envoys came with reports as to the number of the Bastarnae, the size of their men, and their courage in the field. Reports of the intrigues of Perseus. See Livy, 41, 19, B. C. 176-175. They gave information also of the treacherous practices of Perseus and the Gauls, and said that they were more afraid of him than of the Bastarnae, and therefore begged the help of the Romans. The report of the Dardani being supported by that of the Thessalian envoys who arrived at that time, and who also begged for help, the Senators determined to send some commissioners to see with their own eyes the truth of these reports; and they accordingly at once appointed and despatched Aulus Postumius, accompanied by some young men....
Seleucus Philopator, whom we last heard of as king of Syria, was assassinated by one of his nobles—Heliodorus—in the twelfth year of his reign. Antiochus his younger brother had been a hostage at Rome, and being, according to agreement, exchanged in B.C. 175 for Philopator’s son Demetrius, he was returning to Syria. At Athens, on his journey home, he heard of the death of Seleucus, and the attempt of Heliodorus to usurp the kingdom. By the help of Eumenes Heliodorus was expelled and Antiochus installed, to the satisfaction of the people, who gave him at first the surname of Epiphanes. He is the Antiochus Epiphanes whose cruelties are recorded in the books of the Maccabees. He died mad at Tabae in Persia, B.C. 164. See 31, 11. For the following extract preserved by Athenaeus, see the translation of Livy, 41, 19.
1. Antiochus Epiphanes, nicknamed from his actions Epimanes (the Madman), would sometimes steal from the court,Antiochus Epiphanes, B.C. 175-164. avoiding his attendants, and appear roaming wildly about in any chance part of the city with one or two companions. His favourite place to be found was the shops of the silversmiths or goldsmiths, chatting and discussing questions of art with the workers in relief and other artists; at another time he would join groups of the people of the town and converse with any one he came across, and would drink with foreign visitors of the humblest description. Whenever he found any young men carousing together he would come to the place without giving notice, with fife and band, like a rout of revellers, and often by his unexpected appearance cause the guests to rise and run away. He would often also lay aside his royal robes, and, putting on a tebenna,143 go round the market-place as though a candidate for office, shaking hands and embracing various people whom he intreated to vote for him, sometime as aedile, and sometimes as tribune. And when he got the office and took his seat on an ivory curule chair, after the fashion of the Romans, he heard law cases which came on in the agora, and decided them with the utmost seriousness and attention. This conduct was very embarrassing to respectable people, some of whom regarded him as a good natured easy-going man, and others as a madman. In regard to making presents, too, his behaviour was on a par with this. Some he presented with dice made of gazelle horn, some with dates, others with gold. There were even instances of his making unexpected presents to men whom he met casually, and whom he had never seen before. In regard to public sacrifices and the honours paid to the gods, he surpassed all his predecessors on the throne; as witness the Olympieium at Athens and the statues placed round the altar at Delos. He used also to bathe in the public baths, when they were full of the townspeople, pots of the most expensive unguents being brought in for him; and on one occasion on some one saying, “Lucky fellows you kings, to use such things and smell so sweet!” without saying a word to the man, he waited till he was bathing the next day, and then coming into the bath caused a pot of the largest size and of the most costly kind of unguent called stactè to be poured over his head, so that there was a general rush of the bathers to roll themselves in it; and when they all tumbled down, the king himself among them, from its stickiness, there was loud laughter....
The events of the years B.C. 174, 173, 172, which gradually led up to the war with Perseus, to be described in the twenty-seventh book, were briefly these:—
In B.C. 174 Perseus forced the Dolopes, who had appealed against him to Rome, to submit to his authority. After this successful expedition he marched through Central and Northern Greece, visiting Delphi, where he stayed three days, Phthiotid Achaia, and Thessaly. He carefully abstained from inflicting any damage in the districts through which he passed, and tried to gain the confidence of the various states. In the same year he made friendly advances to the Achaeans, who had forbidden any Lacedaemonian to enter their territory, by offering to restore their fugitive slaves. But in spite of the exertions of Xenarchus the Strategus, the Achaeans refuse to make any change (Livy, 41, 22-24).
The same year saw also commotions in Aetolia, which were settled by five Roman commissioners: and in Crete, on the old score of the status of the Lycians. Q. Minucius was sent to settle this also (Livy, 41, 25).
In B.C. 173 Perseus entered on still more active intrigues in Greece, and in spite of the wildest scandals that were afloat as to his tyranny, he gained a powerful hold in Aetolia, Thessaly, and Perrhaebia. The Senate accordingly sent Marcellus to Aetolia and Achaia, and App. Claudius to Thessaly, to inquire into the facts; and a commission of five into Macedonia, with directions to proceed afterwards to Alexandria (Livy, 42, 5, 6).
In B.C. 172 king Eumenes visited Rome and urged the Senate to take measures in time to counteract the attempts of Perseus; warning them that he had already obtained strong hold upon the Boeotians and Aetolians, and had an inexhaustible recruiting ground in Thrace. That everywhere he had secured the death or exile of the partisans of Rome, and was overrunning in arms Thessaly and Perrhaebia (Livy, 42, 11-13).
The Senate, already inclined to listen to these representations, was still more inclined to do so by the defiant tone of Harpalus, the representative of king Perseus; by the attempted assassination of Eumenes by emissaries of Perseus at Delphi on his home journey; by receiving a report from Greece from C. Valerius confirming the speech of Eumenes; and lastly by the confession of one L. Rammius of Brundisium, that he had been requested to poison certain Roman envoys who were accustomed to stay at his house on their journeys to and from Macedonia and Greece (Livy, 42, 15-17).
War was now determined on for the next year, and the praetor ordered to enroll troops. And Eumenes also, now recovered from the wounds of the assassins, made preparations to join in the struggle (Livy, 42, 18-27).
In B.C. 171, fresh legions having been enrolled, and an army of sixteen thousand infantry and eight hundred cavalry ordered to Macedonia, envoys appeared from Perseus demanding the reason. The Senate would not allow them to enter the Pomoerium, but received them in the temple of Bellona: and after listening to a report from Sp. Cavilius that Perseus had, among other acts of hostility, taken cities in Thessaly and entered Perrhaebia in arms, the Senate answered the Macedonian envoys that any complaint they had to make must be made to the consul, P. Licinius, who would presently be in Macedonia, but that they must not come into Italy again (Livy, 42, 36).
A few days afterwards five commissioners were sent into Greece, who distributed the districts to be visited among themselves: Servius and Publius Lentulus and Lucius Decimius were to go to Cephallenia, the Peloponnese, and the west coast generally; Q. Marcius and Aulus Atilius to Epirus, Aetolia, Thessaly, and thence to Boeotia and Euboea, where they were to meet the Lentuli. Meanwhile a letter from Perseus, demanding the cause of their coming and of the presence of troops in Macedonia, was received and left unanswered. After visiting the districts assigned to them, in the course of doing which Marcius and Atilius had met Perseus on the river Peneus, and granted him a truce to enable him to send envoys to Rome (Marcius knowing well that the Romans were not yet fully prepared for war144), the commissioners reached their destination at Chalcis, where the earlier events narrated in the following extracts occurred (Livy, 42, 36-43).
1. At this time Lases and Callias arrived at the head of an embassy from the Thespians, and Ismenias145 from Neon.B.C. 171. Coss. P. Licinius Crassus, C. Cassius Longinus. Lases and his colleagues offered to put their city wholly into the hands of the Romans; Ismenias proposed to submit all the cities of Boeotia as one nation to the discretion of the commissioners. The Roman commissioners at Chalcis: ambassadors from Thespiae and Neon of Boeotia. But this latter proposal was diametrically opposed to the policy of Marcius and his colleagues. What suited that policy best was to split up Boeotia into separate cities: and they therefore received Lases and his party, as well as the envoys from Chaeronea and Lebadea, and all who came from single cities, with great favour and lavish courtesy; but treated Ismenias with ostentatious neglect and coldness. Some of the exiles146 also attacked Ismenias and were very near stoning him to death, and would have done so if he had not saved himself by taking refuge through the door147 of the chamber where the commissioners were sitting.Thebes. At the same period there were disturbances and party contests at Thebes. One party were for committing the town unconditionally to Rome; but the Coroneans and Haliartians flocked to Thebes and vehemently maintained that they ought to maintain the alliance with Perseus. For a time neither of the two parties showed any disposition to give in to each other; but when Olympichus of Coronea set the example of changing sides and asserting that they ought to cleave to the Romans, a great change and revolution came over the feelings of the populace. First, they compelled Dicetas to go on an embassy to Marcius and the other commissioners to excuse them for their alliance with Perseus. Next, they expelled Neon and Hippias, crowding to their houses, and bidding them go and make their own defence for the terms that they had made; for they were the men who had negotiated the alliance. When these men had left the town, the people immediately collected into the assembly and first voted honours and gifts to the Romans, and then ordered the magistrates to push on the alliance. Last of all they appointed ambassadors to hand over the city to the Romans and to restore their exiles.
2. Whilst these things were being accomplished at Thebes, the exiles in Chalcis appointed PompidesThe cause of the exiles’ triumph at Chalcis. to state their grievances against Ismenias, Neon, and Dicetas. The bad policy of these men being manifest, and the Romans lending their support to the exiles, Hippias and his party were rendered so odious that they were in danger of falling victims to the fury of the populace, until the Romans, by checking the assaults of the mob, secured them a certain degree of safety.
When the Theban envoys arrived, bringing with them to the commissioners the decrees and honours I have mentioned,Dissolution of the Boeotian league, B.C. 171. a rapid change passed over the face of things in each of the towns, for they were separated by a very narrow interval from each other. The commissioners with Marcius received the Theban envoys, complimented their town and counselled them to restore the exiles, and bade the several towns send embassies to Rome submitting themselves individually and unreservedly to the protection of the Romans. Their policy, therefore, of splitting up the league of the Boeotian towns, and of destroying the popularity of the Macedonian royal house with the Boeotian populace having thus completely succeeded, the commissioners sent for Servius Lentulus from Argos, and leaving him in charge at Chalcis went themselves to the Peloponnese; while Neon a few days afterwards retired to Macedonia; and Ismenias and Dicetas, being thrown at once into prison, shortly afterwards put an end to their lives. Thus it came about that the Boeotians, who had for a long period of years, and through many strange vicissitudes, maintained a national league, by now rashly and inconsiderately adopting the cause of Perseus, and giving way to an outburst of unreasoning excitement, were entirely disintegrated and split up into separate cities.
When Aulus and Marcius arrived at Argos, after communication with the council of the Achaean league,The Commissioners in the Peloponnese. they called upon Archon the Strategus to despatch a thousand men to Chalcis, to garrison the town until the arrival of the Romans; an order which Archon readily obeyed. Having thus settled affairs in Greece during the winter, and met Publius Lentulus and his two colleagues, the commissioners sailed back to Rome....
3. Meanwhile Tiberius Claudius and Aulus Postumius had been engaged on a visitation of the islands and Greek cities in Asia,The Rhodians prepare to co-operate with Rome. and had spent the longest time in Rhodes; though the Rhodians at that time did not require any supervision, for the prytanis that year was Agesilochus, a man of high rank, who had once been on an embassy to Rome. Even before the legates came, as soon as it became clear that the Romans intended to go to war with Perseus he had urged his people to throw in their fortunes with those of Rome; and, among other things, had counselled them to repair forty ships, in order that, if any occasion for using them should arise, it should not find them still in the midst of preparations, but ready to answer to the call and to carry out their resolve at once. By stating these facts to the Roman envoys, and showing them the preparations visibly progressing, he let them return to Rome in a high state of satisfaction with Rhodes....
4. After the conferences had been held between the Roman envoys and the Greeks, Perseus drew upPerseus sends a circular despatch to the Greek States. a despatch containing a statement of his case, and the arguments employed on either side; partly from an idea that he would thus be shown to have the superiority of right on his side, and partly because he wished to test the feelings of the several states.The reply of the Rhodians. Copies of this despatch he sent to the other states by his ordinary letter-carriers; but to Rhodes he sent also Antenor and Philip as ambassadors, who, on their arrival in the island, handed over the document to the magistrates, and a few days afterwards entered the Council chamber and urged the Rhodians “To remain neutral for the present and watch what happened; and, if the Romans attacked Perseus in violation of the treaty, to endeavour to mediate. For this was the interest of all, and pre-eminently of the Rhodians, who more than most peoples desired equality and freedom of speech, and were ever the protectors, not only of their own liberty, but of that of the rest of Greece also; and therefore ought to be proportionally careful to provide and guard against a policy of an opposite tendency.” These and similar arguments of the envoys found favour with the Rhodian people. But, as they were already pledged to an attitude of friendship to Rome, the influence of the upper classes so far prevailed that, though a friendly reception was given to the Macedonian envoys, they demanded in their formal answer that Perseus should not ask them to take any measure which would involve the appearance of hostility to Rome. Antenor and his colleagues would not accept this reply, but with thanks for the kindness of their general reception, sailed back to Macedonia....
5. Being informed that some of the cities of Boeotia remained faithful to him, Perseus sent Alexander on a mission to them.Mission of Perseus to Boeotia. On his arrival in Boeotia, Alexander was obliged to abstain from visiting any of the cities except Coronea, Thisbae,148 and Haliartus, finding that they offered him no facilities for securing close relations. But he entered those three towns and exhorted their inhabitants to cling to their loyalty to the Macedonians. They received his words with enthusiasm, and voted to send ambassadors to Macedonia. Alexander accordingly returned to the king and reported the state of things in Boeotia. A short time afterwards the ambassadors arrived, desiring the king to send aid to the cities which favoured the Macedonian cause; for the Thebans were oppressing them severely,Truce made with Q. Marcius. See Livy, 42, 43, B.C. 171. because they would not agree with them and side with Rome. But Perseus replied that he was precluded by the truce from sending any aid to any one; but he begged them to resist the Thebans to the best of their power, and yet not to go to war with the Romans, but to remain neutral....
6. When the report of the commissioners from Asia concerning Rhodes and the other states had been made at Rome,War is decided upon at the expiration of the truce. the Senate called in the ambassadors of Perseus, Solon and Hippias: who endeavoured to argue the whole case and to deprecate the anger of the Senate; and particularly to defend their master on the subject of the attempt upon the life of Eumenes.Attempted assassination of Eumenes at Delphi. Livy, 42, 16, B.C. 172. When they had finished all they had to urge, the Senate, which had all the while been resolved on war, bade them depart forthwith from Rome; and ordered all other Macedonians also that happened to be staying in the country to quit Italy within thirty days. The Senate then called upon the Consuls to act at once and see that they moved in good time....
7. Caius Lucretius149 being at anchor off Cephallenia, wrote a letter to the Rhodians, requesting them to despatch some ships,Politics at Rhodes. and entrusted the letter to a certain trainer named Socrates. This letter arrived at Rhodes in the second six months of the Prytany of Stratocles. The Romanising party. When the question came on for discussion, Agathagetus, Rhodophon, Astymedes, and many others were for sending the ships and taking part in the war from the first, without any further pretence; but Deinon and Polyaratus, The Macedonian party.though really displeased at the favour already shown to Rome, now for the present used the case of Eumenes as their pretext, and began by that means to alienate the feelings of the populace. There had in fact been a long standing feeling of suspicion and dislike in the minds of the Rhodians against Eumenes, dating from the time of his war with Pharnaces; when, Jealousy of Eumenes. upon king Eumenes blockading the entrance of the Hellespont to prevent ships sailing into the Pontus, the Rhodians had interfered with his design and thwarted him. This ill-feeling had again been recently exasperated during the Lycian war on the question of certain forts, and a strip of territory on the frontier of the Rhodian Peraea, which was being damaged by some of Eumenes’s subjects. These incidents taken together made the Rhodians ready to listen to anything against the king. Seizing on this pretext, the party of Deinon tried to discredit the despatch, asserting that it did not come from the Romans but from Eumenes, who wished to involve them on any possible pretext in a war, and bring expense and perfectly unnecessary suffering upon the people. In support of their contention they put forward the fact that the man who brought the letter was some obscure trainer or another; and asserted that the Romans were not accustomed to employ such messengers, but were rather inclined to act with unnecessary care and dignity in the despatch of such missives. When they said this they were perfectly aware that the letter had really been written by Lucretius: their object was to persuade the Rhodian people to do nothing for the Romans readily, but rather to perpetually make difficulties, and thus give occasions for offence and displeasure to crop up between the two nations. For their deliberate purpose was to alienate Rhodes from the Roman friendship, and to join it to that of Perseus, by every means in their power. Their motives for thus clinging to Perseus were that Polyaratus, who was ostentatious and vain, had become heavily in debt; and that Deinon, who was avaricious and unscrupulous, had from the first relied on increasing his wealth by getting presents from princes and kings. These speeches having been delivered, the Prytanis Stratocles rose, and, after inveighing at some length against Perseus, and speaking with equal warmth in praise of the Romans, induced the people to confirm the decree for the despatch of the ships. Forthwith six quadriremes were prepared, five of which were sent to Chalcis under the command of Timagoras, and the other under the command of another Timagoras to Tenedos. This latter commander fell in at Tenedos with Diophanes, who had been despatched by Perseus to Antiochus, and captured both him and his crew. All such allies as arrived with offers of help by sea Lucretius thanked warmly, but excused from taking part in this service, observing that the Romans had no need of naval support....