Lucius Cornelius Scipio the consul, having as lieutenant Publius Scipio Africanus, (who had declared that he would be his brother’s lieutenant if the province of Greece was decreed to him, when that province appeared likely to be assigned to Caius LÆlius, who had great influence in the senate,) set out to wage war against Antiochus, and was the first Roman general that ever passed over into Asia. Æmilius Regillus, with the assistance of the Rhodians, fought successfully against the royal fleet of Antiochus at Myonnesus. The son of Africanus, having been taken by Antiochus, was sent back to his father. Manius Acilius Glabrio triumphed over Antiochus, whom he had driven out of Greece, and over the Ætolians. Antiochus being subsequently conquered by Lucius Cornelius Scipio, with the aid of Eumenes, son of Attalus, and king of Pergamus, peace was granted to him on these terms—that he should evacuate all the provinces on this side Mount Taurus. The kingdom of Eumenes, through whose assistance Antiochus had been conquered, was enlarged. Some states were granted to the Rhodians too, who also had assisted them. The colony of Bononia was founded. Æmilius Regillus, who had conquered the admirals of Antiochus in a naval engagement, triumphed. Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who had brought the war with Antiochus to a conclusion, was called Asiaticus, attaining to an equality with his brother by this surname.

1 Lucius Cornelius Scipio and Caius LÆlius being consuls, no business, after the duties of religion, was transacted in the senate prior to that of the Ætolians. Not only their ambassadors were urgent, because they had a truce of a short period, but they were aided by Titus Quinctius also, who had then returned to Rome from Greece. The Ætolians, as being persons to whom there was more hope in the mercy of the senate than in their cause, acted suppliantly, weighing their by-gone services against their recent misconduct. But when present, they were importuned by questions of the senators, wringing from them an acknowledgment of their guilt rather than replies, and when ordered to depart from the senate, they caused a great contest. Resentment had more power in their case than compassion; for the senate were incensed against them not merely as enemies, but as an uncivilized and unsocial race. After it had been contested several days, it was at last resolved, that peace should neither be granted nor refused. Two conditions were offered them, either that they should yield to the senate unconditional power over them, or pay one thousand talents,1 and have the same friends and enemies. To them, desirous to elicit in what things they should give to the senate unconditional power over them, no positive answer is given; but being thus dismissed, without having concluded a peace, they were ordered to quit the city that very day, and Italy within fifteen days. They then began to debate concerning the provinces for the consuls. Both of these wished for Greece. LÆlius had a powerful interest in the senate; and when the senate had ordered that the consuls should either cast lots for the provinces, or settle them between themselves, he observed, that they would act with more propriety in leaving that matter to the wisdom of the senators, than to the decision of lot. To this Scipio, an answer being given that he would take advice how he ought to act, having spoken to his brother alone, and having been desired by him to leave it unhesitatingly to the senate, answered his colleague that he would do what he recommended. When this plan, either original or supported by precedents of a record now lost by antiquity, being referred to the senate, had aroused them by the expectation of a contest, Publius Scipio Africanus said, that “if they decreed that province to his brother, Lucius Scipio, he would go along with him, as his lieutenant-general.” This proposal being received with universal approbation, put an end to all dispute. The senate were well pleased to make the trial, whether king Antiochus should have more effectual aid in the vanquished Hannibal, or the Roman consul and legions in his conqueror Africanus; and they almost all voted Greece to Scipio, and Italy to LÆlius. The prÆtors then cast lots for their provinces: Lucius Aurunculeius obtained the city jurisdiction; Cneius Fulvius, the foreign; Lucius Æmilius Regillus, the fleet; Publius Junius Brutus, the Tuscans; Marcus Tuccius, Apulia and Bruttium; and Caius Atinius, Sicily.

2 Then to the consul to whom the province of Greece had been decreed, in addition to the army which he was about to receive from M. Acilius, (but they were two legions,) three thousand Roman foot and one hundred horse, and of the Latin confederates five thousand foot and two hundred horse, are added as a reinforcement; and it was further ordered, that if, when he arrived in his province, he would judge it conducive to the public interest, he should be at liberty to carry over the army into Asia. To the other consul was decreed an army entirely new; two Roman legions, and of the Latin confederates fifteen thousand foot and six hundred horse. Quintius Minucius was ordered to remove his forces out of Liguria (for he had written, that the province was completely subdued, and that the whole nation of the Ligurians had surrendered) into the country of the Boians, and to give up the command to Publius Cornelius, proconsul. The two city legions, enlisted the year before, about to be brought home from the country in which Cornelius had fined the conquered Boians, were assigned to Marcus Tuccius, prÆtor, together with fifteen thousand foot and six hundred horse, of the Latin confederates, to occupy Apulia and Bruttium. Orders were given to Aulus Cornelius, a prÆtor of the preceding year, who occupied Bruttium with an army, that if the consul judged it proper, he should transport his legions into. Ætolia, and give them to Manius Acilius, provided the latter was inclined to remain there; but if Acilius wished to come to Rome, that then Aulus Cornelius should stay in Ætolia with that army. It was resolved that Caius Atinius Labeo should receive from Marcus Æmilius the province of Sicily, and the army there; and should, if he deemed it proper, enlist in the province itself two thousand foot and one hundred horse, for a reinforcement. Publius Junius Brutus was ordered to raise a new army for Tuscany, consisting of one Roman legion, and ten thousand foot of the allies and Latin nation, and four hundred horse. Lucius Æmilius, whose province was the sea, was ordered to receive from Marcus Junius, prÆtor of the former year, twenty ships of war, with their crews, and himself to enlist one thousand marines and two thousand foot soldiers, with which ships and soldiers he was to sail to Asia, and receive the command of the fleet from Caius Livius. To the governors of the two Spains and Sardinia, their command is prolonged for a year, and the same armies were decreed them. Sicily and Sardinia were, this year, assessed in two-tenths of their corn. All the corn from Sicily was ordered to be carried into Ætolia, to the army there; of that to be collected from Sardinia, one-half to Rome, and the other half into Ætolia, for the same use as the corn from Sicily.

3 It was judged proper, that, previous to the departure of the consuls for their provinces, the prodigies should be expiated under the direction of the pontiffs. The temple of Juno Lucina, at Rome, was struck by lightning in such a manner, that the summit and the folding-doors were much damaged. At Puteoli, the wall and a gate were struck by lightning in several parts, and two men killed. It was clearly proved, that, at Nursia, in the midst of a calm, a tempest suddenly burst forth; and there also two freemen were killed. The Tusculans reported, that a shower of earth fell in their country; and the Reatines, that a mule brought forth, young in theirs. These prodigies were expiated, and the Latin festival was celebrated a second time, because the flesh-meat, which ought to be given to the Laurentians, had not been given them. There was also a supplication made on account of those religious fears; the decemvirs gave directions from the books, to which of the gods it should be performed. Ten free-born youths, and ten virgins, all of whom had their fathers and mothers living, were employed in that ceremony; and the decemvirs sacrificed sucklings by night. Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus, before he left the city, erected an arch on the Capitol, facing the road by which we ascend to it, with seven gilded statues and two horses, and placed two marble cisterns in the front of the arch. During that period, forty-three of the principal Ætolians, among whom were Damocritus and his brother, were brought to Rome by two cohorts, sent by Manius Acilius, and were thrown into the prison called LautumiÆ, or the quarry. Lucius Cornelius the consul ordered the cohorts after that to return to the army. Ambassadors came from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, king and queen of Egypt, congratulating the Romans because the consul Manius Acilius had driven king Antiochus out of Greece, and advising that they should carry over their army into Asia. For “all places, not only in Asia, but also in Syria, were filled with consternation; and the king and queen of Egypt would be prepared to do those things which the senate should direct.” Thanks were returned to the king and queen, and presents were ordered to be made to the ambassadors, four thousand asses2 to each.

4 The consul Lucius Cornelius, having finished what was necessary to be done at Rome, gave public notice, in an assembly of the people, that the soldiers, whom he himself had enlisted for a reinforcement, and those who were in Bruttiurn with Aulus Cornelius, proprÆtor, should all meet him at Brundusium on the ides of July. He likewise appointed three lieutenants-general, Sextus Digitius, Lucius Apustius, and Caius Fabricius Luscinus; who were to bring together ships from all parts of the sea-coast to Brundusium; and now, every thing being ready, he set out from the city in his military robe of state. About five thousand volunteers of the Romans and allies, who had served out their campaigns, under the command of Publius Africanus, attended the consul at his departure, and gave in their names. At the time in which the consul set out to the war during the celebration of the Apollinarian games, on the fifth day before the ides of July, though the sky was serene, the light was obscured in the middle of the day, when the moon passed beneath the orb of the sun. L. Æmilius Regillus, to whom the sea had fallen as his province, set out at the same time. To Lucius Aurunculeius this business was assigned by the senate, that he should build thirty quinqueremes and twenty triremes, because there was a report that Antiochus, since the engagement at sea, was fitting out a much larger fleet. The Ætolians, after the ambassadors brought back word from Rome that there was no hope of peace, although their whole sea-coast, which was opposite to Peloponnesus, was ravaged by the AchÆans, regarding the danger more than their losses, seized on Mount Corax, in order to shut up the pass against the Romans; for they had no doubt that they would return in the beginning of spring to the siege of Naupactum. It appeared better to Acilius, who knew that this was expected, to attempt a thing that was not anticipated, and to lay siege to Lamia; for the garrison had been reduced by Philip almost to a state of desperation; and being then off their guard, because they feared no such attempt, might be surprised by himself. Marching from Elatia, he formed his first encampment in the enemy’s country, on the banks of the river Sperchius, and decamping thence in the night, he at break of day attacked the town with a line of troops that encircled it.

5 As is usual in an unexpected affair, great consternation and tumult ensued; yet the besieged, with greater resolution than any one could suppose them capable of under such a sudden alarm, when the men fought, and the women brought weapons of every kind, and stones, to the walls, defended the city for that day, although the scaling ladders were raised against the walls. About mid-day, Acilius, the signal for retreat being given, drew off his men to their camp. After their bodies were refreshed by food and rest, before he dismissed the meeting in the PrÆtorium, he gave them notice, “to be ready and under arms before day; and that they were not to return to their tents until the city should be taken.” Next day, at the same hour as before, having began the assault in a greater number of places, as not only the strength, but also the weapons, and above all, the courage of the garrison began to fail, he took the town in the space of a few hours. One half of the spoil found there was sold in parcels; the other was divided among the soldiers; and a council was held to determine what he should next undertake. No one approved of going against Naupactum, while the pass at Corax was occupied by the Ætolians. That, however, the summer campaign might not be an idle one, and that the Ætolians might not through his supineness possess the peace that they could not obtain from the senate, Acilius resolved to besiege Amphissa; his army was led thither from Heraclea by Œta. Having encamped under the walls, he proceeded to attack the town, not by general assault, as at Lamia, but by regular approaches. The ram was brought up to the walls in many places at once; and though these were shaken by it, yet the townsmen never attempted to provide or contrive any sort of defence against such a description of mechanism. All their hope was in arms and courage. By frequent sallies they much annoyed not only the advanced guards of the Romans, but even those who were employed at the works and machines.

6 However, the wall was broken down in many places, when word was brought, that his successor, having landed his army at Apollonia, was coming through Epirus and Thessaly. The consul came with thirteen thousand foot and five hundred horse. He had already arrived at the Malian bay; and after that, to his messengers sent forward to Hypata, to order a surrender of the city, this response was given, that they would do nothing except by the common consent of the Ætolians: that the siege of Hypata might not detain him while Amphissa was not yet recovered, having sent forward his brother Africanus, he leads his forces to Amphissa. A little before their arrival, the towns-people having abandoned the city, for it was now, for the most part, stripped of its walls; all, armed and unarmed, retired into the citadel, which they deemed an impregnable fortress. The consul pitched his camp at the distance of about six miles from the town; and thither came ambassadors from the Athenians, addressing, first, Publius Scipio, who preceded the main body as before mentioned, and afterwards the consul, with earnest supplications in favour of the Ætolians. They received a milder answer from Africanus, who, wishing for an honourable pretext for relinquishing the Ætolian war, was directing his views towards Asia and king Antiochus, and had recommended to the Athenians to persuade, not only the Romans, but the Ætolians likewise, to prefer peace to war. By the advice of the Athenians a numerous embassy of the Ætolians came speedily from Hypata, and the discourse of Africanus, whom they addressed first, augmented their hopes of peace; for he mentioned, that “many nations and states, first in Spain, and afterwards in Africa, had thrown themselves on his protection; and that, in all of them, he had left greater monuments of clemency and kindness than of military prowess.” The business seemed to be concluded, when the consul, on being applied to, repeated the very same answer with which they had been driven off by the senate. When the Ætolians were thunderstruck at this, as if they had never heard it before, (for they now perceived that no progress was made either from the Athenian embassy or the favourable reply of Africanus,) they said that they wished to consult their countrymen on the affair.

7 They then returned to Hypata, nor were their plans cleared of difficulties. For they had no means of paying the thousand talents; and, in case of an unconditional submission, they dreaded lest cruelty should be inflicted on their persons. They, therefore, ordered the same ambassadors to return to the consul and Africanus, and to request, that if they meant in reality to grant them peace, and not merely to amuse them with a prospect of it, frustrating the hopes of the wretched, they would either remit some part of the money required to be paid, or order that the unconditional submission should not extend to their persons. Nothing was accomplished whereby the consul might change his resolution; and that embassy, also, was dismissed without effect. The Athenian ambassadors accompanied them. And Echedemus, their principal in the embassy, recalled to hope the Ætolians, dejected by so many repulses, and deploring with unavailing lamentations the hard fate of their nation—by advising them to request a suspension of arms for six months, in order that they might send an embassy to Rome. He urged that “the delay could add nothing to their present calamities, which were already severe in the extreme; but that, if time intervened, their present calamities might be alleviated by many chances. Agreeably to this advice of Echedemus, the same ambassadors were sent again; who, making their first application to Publius Scipio, obtained, through him, from the consul, a suspension of arms for the time they desired: and the siege of Amphissa being raised, Manius Acilius, the army being delivered to the consul, left the province; and the consul returned from Amphissa into Thessaly, with intention of leading his troops into Asia through Macedonia and Thrace. Here Africanus said to his brother, Lucius Scipio, “I also, Lucius Scipio, approve of the route which you adopt. But the whole matter rests on the inclinations of Philip; for if he be faithful to our government, he will afford us a passage, and provisions and all things which support and aid an army on a long march. But if he should fail in this, you will find no safety in any part of Thrace. In my opinion, therefore, the king’s disposition ought in the first place to be discovered. He will be best tested if the person who shall be sent will come suddenly upon him, doing nothing by a preconcerted plan.” Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, a young man, the most active of all the youths at that time, being selected for this purpose, by means of relays of horses, and travelling with almost incredible expedition, made good the journey from Amphissa, whence he had been despatched, to Pella, on the third day. The king was sitting at a banquet, and was far gone in his cups: that very relaxation of mind removed all suspicion of any intention of changing his measures. His guest was kindly entertained for the present; and next day he saw provisions in abundance already prepared for the army, bridges made over rivers, and roads fortified where the passage was difficult. As he was bringing back this intelligence, with the same speed which he had used in coming, he met the consul at Thaumaci. From this the army rejoicing, marched with more certain and greater hopes into Macedon, where all things were prepared. On their arrival, the king received them with royal magnificence, and accompanied them on their march. Much pleasantry and good humour appeared in him, which recommended him much to Africanus, a man who, as he was unparalleled in other respects, was not averse to courteousness unaccompanied by luxury. Passing from this not only through Macedon, but also through Thrace, they arrived at the Hellespont, Philip escorting them and making every preparation.

8 Antiochus, after the sea-fight at Corycus, when he had the whole winter disengaged to carry on his preparations by land and water, was chiefly intent on the refitting of his ships, lest he should be entirely excluded from the sea. It occurred to him that he had been defeated when the Rhodian fleet was absent; if this fleet were present in an engagement, (and the Rhodians would certainly not be guilty of being late a second time,) he required a vast number of ships to equal the fleet of the enemy, in the strength of their crews and size of their vessels. For this reason, he sent Hannibal into Syria, to bring in the Phoenician navy, and gave orders to Polyxenidas, that, the more unsuccessfully affairs had been managed before, the more diligently he should now repair the ships which he had, and procure others. He himself passed the winter in Phrygia, calling in auxiliaries from every quarter. He had even sent for that purpose to GallogrÆcia. The people of that country were then more warlike than at present, retaining the Gallic spirit, as the generation which had emigrated thither was not yet extinct. He had left his son Seleucus with an army in Æolia, to keep in obedience the maritime cities, which on one side Eumenes from Pergamus, on the other, the Romans from PhocÆa and ErythrÆ, were soliciting to revolt. The Roman fleet, as mentioned before, wintered at CanÆ; thither, about the middle of the season, came king Eumenes, with two thousand foot and one hundred horse. He, when he affirmed that vast quantities of spoil might be brought off from the enemy’s country round Thyatira; by his persuasions, prevailed on Livius to send with him five thousand soldiers. Those that were sent within a few days carried off an immense booty.

9 Meanwhile a sedition broke out at PhocÆa, in consequence of some endeavouring to bring over the multitude to the party of Antiochus. The winter quarters of the ships were burdensome: the tribute was burdensome, because five hundred gowns with five hundred tunics were exacted from them: the scarcity of corn was also galling, on account of which the ships also and garrison of Rome evacuated the place. The faction which laboured in their assemblies to draw the commonalty over to Antiochus, was now freed from all apprehension: the senate, and higher ranks, were of opinion that they should persevere in the alliance with Rome. But the advisers of a revolt had greater influence with the multitude. The Rhodians, the earlier in proportion to their having been too late in the former summer, sent in the vernal equinox, as commander of their fleet, with thirty-six ships, the same Pausistratus. At this time Livius, with thirty ships and seven quadriremes, which king Eumenes had brought with him, was on his passage from CanÆ to the Hellespont, in order to prepare every thing necessary for the transportation of the army, which he expected to come by land. He first brought his fleet into the harbour called the AchÆan; whence he went up to Ilium, and having offered sacrifice to Minerva, gave a kind reception to the embassies from the states in the neighbourhood, from ElÆus, Dardanum, and RhetÆum, surrendering their respective states to him. Then he sailed to the entrance of the Hellespont; and, leaving ten ships stationed opposite to Abydos, he crossed over to Europe with the rest of the fleet, to attack Sestos. As the troops were advancing up to the walls, first of all inspired priests of Cybele,3 in their solemn dress, met them before the gate. These said, that, “by order of the mother of the gods, they, the immediate servants of the goddess, were come to pray the Roman commander to spare the walls and the city.” None of them was injured; and, presently, the whole senate and the magistrates came out to surrender the place. The fleet then sailed over to Abydos; where when, their minds being sounded by conferences, no peaceable answer was given, they prepared themselves for a siege.

10 While these transactions are carried on at the Hellespont, Polyxenidas, the commander of the king’s fleet, (but he was an exile from Rhodes,) having heard that the ships of his countrymen had sailed from home, and that Pausistratus, who commanded them, had, in a public speech, uttered several haughty and contemptuous expressions respecting him, and having conceived a particular jealousy against him, considered nothing else, night or day, than that by his acts he should refute his boastful words. He sent a person, who was known to him, to say, that “if it were allowed, he would be of great service to Pausistratus, and to his native country; and that he might be restored by Pausistratus to his country.” When Pausistratus, in surprise, asked by what means such things could be effected; and pledged his faith to the other, at his request, that he would either concur in the execution of the design, or bury it in silence; the emissary then told him, that “Polyxenidas would deliver into his hands, either the whole of the king’s fleet or the greater part of it; and as a reward, he stipulated for nothing more, than a return to his native country.” The importance of the business had this effect, that he neither believed nor despised his proposition. He sailed to Panormus, in the Samian territory, and stopped there in order to examine thoroughly the business which was proposed to him. Messengers passed rapidly from both parties, nor was confidence inspired into Pausistratus until, in the presence of his messenger, Polyxenidas wrote, with his own hand, an engagement that he would perform all that he had promised, and sent the tablets sealed with his own seal. By such a pledge as this, he thought that the traitor was completely engaged to him. For, “that he who lived under a king would never act so absurdly as to give evidence of guilt against himself, attested by his own signature.” The method of conducting the pretended plot was then settled: Polyxenidas said that “he would neglect every kind of preparation; that he would not keep any considerable numbers on board, either of rowers or mariners; that he would haul up on land some of the ships, under pretence of refitting them; would send away others into the neighbouring ports, and keep a few at sea before the harbour of Ephesus; which, if circumstances made it necessary to come out, he would expose to a battle.” The negligence which Pausistratus heard that Polyxenidas was about to use in his fleet, he himself immediately practised. Part of his ships he sent to Halicarnassus to bring provisions, another part to the city of Samos, while he himself waited at Panormus, that he might be ready when he should receive the signal of attack from the traitor. Polyxenidas encouraged his mistake by counterfeiting neglect; hauled up some ships, and, as if he intended to haul up others, put the docks in repair; he did not call the rowers from their winter quarters to Ephesus, but assembled them secretly at Magnesia.

11 By chance one of Antiochus’s soldiers, when he had come to Samos on account of private business, being seized as a spy, is brought to Panormus to the admiral. This man, it is uncertain whether through fear or treachery towards his countrymen, disclosed all things to him, inquiring what was going on at Ephesus: that the fleet lay in harbour, fully equipped and ready for sea; that all the rowers had been sent to Magnesia (at Sipylus); that very few of the ships had been hauled on land; that the docks were shut, and that never was the business of the fleet conducted with greater diligence. But the mind of Pausistratus, prepossessed by misplaced confidence and vain hopes, caused these things not to be attended to as true. Polyxenidas, having fully adjusted all his measures, having called in the rowers from Magnesia, and launched hastily the ships that were in dock, by night, after wasting the day not so much in preparation as because he was unwilling that the fleet should be seen going to sea, set sail after sun-set with seventy decked ships, and, the wind being contrary, put into the harbour of Pygelia before daylight. Where when he had rested during the day, for the same reason as before, he passed over, in the night to the nearest part of the Samian territory. From this place, having ordered a certain Nicander, a chief pirate, to sail with five decked ships to Palinurus, and thence to lead his armed men by the shortest road through the fields towards Panormus, and so to come behind the enemy; he himself, in the mean time, with his fleet in two divisions, in order that it might command the mouth of the harbour on both sides, proceeded to Panormus. Pausistratus was at first confused for a little, as the thing was unexpected; but afterwards, being an old soldier, having quickly regained his courage, and judging that the enemy would be more easily repelled by land than by sea, he marched his armed forces in two bodies to the promontories, which, by their heads projecting into the deep, formed the harbour; under the impression that he could easily repel the enemy by weapons on both sides, from the two promontories. When the sight of Nicander on the land had disconcerted this undertaking, having suddenly changed his design, he ordered all to go on board the ships. Then truly a great confusion arose among soldiers and sailors alike, and a sort of flight to the ships took place, when they perceived themselves surrounded by land and sea at the same time. Pausistratus supposed that the only way of safety was to force through the narrow entrance of the port, and push out into the open sea; and after that he saw his men embarked, ordering the rest to follow, he himself the first, with ship urged vigorously by the oars, pressed to the mouth of the harbour. Just as his ship was clearing the entrance, Polyxenidas, with three quinqueremes, surrounded it. The vessel, shattered by their beaks, sunk; the crew were overwhelmed with weapons, and, among them, Pausistratus, fighting gallantly, was slain. Of the rest of the ships, some were taken outside of the harbour, some within, and others by Nicander, while they were putting off from the shore. Only five Rhodian and two Coan ships effected an escape, a passage being made for them through the thick of the enemy, by the terror of shining flames; for they carried before them, on two poles projecting from their prows, a great quantity of fire contained in iron vessels. The galleys of ErythrÆ, after meeting not far from Samos the Rhodian ships, then flying, which they were coming to succour, bore away to the Romans in the direction of the Hellespont. About the same time, Seleucus got possession of PhocÆa by treachery, one gate being opened by the sentinels. Cyme, with the other cities on that coast, revolted to him through fear.

12 Whilst these events are taking place in Æolis, after Abydos, which was defended by a garrison of the king’s troops, had sustained a siege of several days, all parties then grew weary of the struggle, and the magistrates, with the permission of Philotas, the commander of the garrison, began to treat with Livius, concerning the terms on which they should surrender the city. Because they could not agree whether the king’s troops should march out with their arms, or without them, this question protracted the matter. When the intelligence of the destruction of the Rhodians interrupted them, treating of these things, the matter was dropped. For Livius, fearing lest Polyxenidas, elated by his recent success in such an important enterprise, might surprise the fleet which lay at CanÆ, instantly abandoned the siege of Abydos and the guard of the Hellespont, and drew out the ships that were in dock at CanÆ, and Eumenes came to ElÆa. Livius, with the whole fleet, to which he had joined two triremes of Mitylene, sailed to PhocÆa; but, having learned that this place was held, by a strong garrison of the king’s troops, and that the camp of Seleucus was not far distant, he ravaged the sea-coast, hastily conveying on board the booty, which consisted chiefly of men, and waiting only until Eumenes, with his fleet, came up, he endeavours to reach Samos. Among the Rhodians, the news of their misfortune excited, at first, both consternation, and the greatest grief, at the same time. For, besides the loss of their ships and soldiers, they had lost the flower and strength of their youth; many young men of distinction having been induced, among other motives, by the character of Pausistratus, which was deservedly very high among his countrymen. Afterwards, because they had been circumvented by treachery, and by a countryman of their own, above all men, their grief was changed into anger. They sent out ten ships immediately, and, in a few days, ten more, Eudamus being commander of all; who, though far inferior to Pausistratus in warlike qualifications, they supposed would be a more cautious leader, as he was not of so high a spirit. The Romans, and king Eumenes, put in their fleet, first, at ErythrÆ; and, having staid there one night, they, on next day, reached Corycus, a promontory in Teios. When they intended to pass over hence, to the nearest part of the Samian territory; not waiting for the rising of the sun, from which the pilots could learn the state of the weather, they exposed themselves to the varying storm. About the middle of the passage, the wind changing from north-east to north, they began to be tossed about on the sea, stormy with billows.

13 Polyxenidas, taking it for granted that the enemy would go to Samos to join the Rhodian fleet, set sail from Ephesus, and stopped first at Myonnesus, from whence he crossed over to the island which they call Macris; in order that, when the enemy’s fleet should sail by, he might be able to attack, with advantage, either any ships that straggled from the main body, or might attack the rear of the fleet itself. After that he saw the fleet dispersed by the storm, first of all he thought this a good opportunity to attack it; but, in a little time, the wind increasing and raising a heavy sea, because he could not possibly come up with them, he steered to the island of Æthalia, that, from thence, he might next day fall on the ships, as they made for Samos, from the main sea. A small number of Roman vessels, just as it grew dark, got into a desert harbour on the Samian coast; the rest, after being tossed about all night, ran into the same harbour. Then when it was learned from the country people, that the enemy’s fleet lay at Æthalia, a consultation was held whether they should attack them immediately, or wait for that of the Rhodian fleet. The attack being deferred, for so they resolved, they sailed away to Corycus, whence they had come. Polyxenidas also, having kept his station for some time, without effecting any thing, returned to Ephesus. On this the Roman ships, the sea being clear of the enemy, sailed to Samos. The Rhodian fleet came to the same place after a few days. And that it might appear that they were only waiting for this, they immediately sailed away to Ephesus, that they should either decide it in a naval contest, or, in case the enemy should decline a battle, to extort from them a confession of fear, which would have the best effect on the minds of the states of Asia. They lay opposite the entrance of the harbour, with the fleet formed in a line abreast of it, but none came out against them; the fleet being divided, one part lay at anchor before the mouth of the harbour, the other landed a body of soldiers. Andronicus, a Macedonian, who was in garrison at Ephesus, then made a sally against them, driving off great booty from the widely-deserted country; when they came near the walls, he stripped them of the greatest part of their plunder, and drove them down to the shore and their ships. On the day following, the Romans, having laid an ambuscade about the middle of the way, marched in a body to the city, in order to entice the Macedonians out of the gates. Then, when that same fear had deterred any one from coming out, the Romans returned to their ships. And the enemy avoiding a contest by land or sea, the fleet sailed back to Samos, whence it came. The prÆtor then detached two Rhodian triremes, and two belonging to the Italian allies, under the command of Epicrates, a Rhodian, to guard the strait of Cephallenia. Hybristas, a LacedÆmonian, at the head of a band of young Cephallenians, infested it with piracies; and the passage was shut against the convoys from Italy.

14 Epicrates met, at PirÆus, Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who was on his way to take the command of the fleet. On hearing of the defeat of the Rhodians, as he had only two quinqueremes, he carried back with him to Asia Epicrates and his four ships. Some undecked vessels of the Athenians followed him. He crossed the Ægean Sea to Chios. To which place came, in the middle of the night, Timasicrates, a Rhodian, with two quadriremes from Samos, and, being presented to Æmilius, he told him that he was despatched for the purpose of convoying him in safety, because the king’s ships, by frequent excursions from the Hellespont and Abydos, rendered the sea on that coast dangerous to transports. Two Rhodian quadriremes met Æmilius on his passage from Chios to Samos, being sent by Livius to attend him, and king Eumenes with two quinqueremes met him. Æmilius, after he arrived at Samos, as soon as he had received the command of the fleet from Livius, and duly performed the usual sacrifices, called a council. Here, Caius Livius, whose opinion was first asked, said, that “no one could give advice with more sincerity than he, who recommended to another what himself would do in the same case. That he had intended to sail with the whole fleet to Ephesus; to take with him ships of burden, heavily laden with ballast, and to sink them in the entrance of the harbour. That the narrow passage might be shut up with less difficulty on this account, because the mouth of the port was like a river, long and narrow, and full of shoals. By this expedient he was about to cut off the enemy’s communication with the sea, and render their fleet useless.”

15 This plan was not approved by any of the council. King Eumenes asked, “What then? when, by sinking the ships, they should have barred the pass to the sea, their own fleet being at liberty, would they depart from the place to bear aid to the allies, and strike terror into their enemies? or whether, with no less ardour, they would block up the port with their whole force? For, if they should withdraw, who could doubt that the enemy would weigh up the masses that were sunk, and open the port with less labour than it had cost to shut it? But if, after all, they were to remain there, what advantage would accrue from the harbour being closed? Nay, on the contrary, the enemy enjoying a safe haven, and an opulent city, furnished, at the same time, with every thing from Asia, would pass the summer at their ease, while the Romans, exposed in the open sea to winds and waves, and in want of every accommodation, must continue on guard, without intermission; and would be themselves tied down, and hindered from doing any thing that ought to be done, rather than to keep the enemy shut up.” Eudamus, commander of the Rhodian fleet, rather showed his disapprobation of the plan proposed, than proposed himself what he thought should be done. Epicrates, the Rhodian, advised, “not to think of Ephesus for the present, but that a part of the fleet should be sent to Lycia, and that Patara, the metropolis of that nation, should be brought into a treaty of alliance. This would conduce to two important purposes: first, the Rhodians, owing to peace being established in the countries opposite to their island, could apply the whole of their strength to the care of the war against Antiochus; and then the fleet which the enemy were fitting out in Lycia, would be blocked up, and prevented from joining Polyxenidas.” This plan influenced the most. Nevertheless, it was determined that Regillus should sail, with the entire fleet, to the harbour of Ephesus, to strike terror into the enemy.

16 Caius Livius was sent to Lycia, with two Roman quinqueremes, four Rhodian quadriremes, and two open vessels of Smyrna; being ordered to proceed, first, to Rhodes, and to communicate all his designs to the government there. The states which he passed in his way, Miletus, Myndus, Halicarnassus, Cnidus, and Cous, diligently executed his orders. When he came to Rhodes, he explained, to the persons in authority, the business on which he was sent, and, at the same time, desired their opinion. All approving his design, and three quadriremes being added to that fleet which he had, he set sail for Patara. The wind being favourable at first, carried them very near the city, and they were in hopes of effecting something by surprise. After that, the wind veering, the sea had begun to roll in heavy waves, they persevered at their oars until they reached the land; but there was no safe anchorage there, nor could they ride in the road, as the sea was rough, and night was coming on. They, therefore, sailed past the city, to the port of Phoenicus, which was not quite two miles distant, and which afforded shelter from the violence of the waves, but high cliffs overlooked it, which the towns-people, joined by the king’s troops which were in garrison, immediately seized. Livius, though the landing-places were rugged and difficult, sent against them a party of the auxiliaries, composed of IssÆans, and light infantry of Smyrna. These (whilst they were skirmishing with missile weapons, and in slight attacks on the few who were there at first, rather than engaging in battle) supported the contest sufficiently well. After that greater numbers flocked thither from the city, and at length, the whole multitude pouring out, fear seized Livius, not only that the auxiliaries might be cut off, but that the ships would be in danger from the land. In consequence he led out to the engagement, not only the soldiers, but the marines, and even the crowd of rowers, armed with such weapons as each could find. After all, however, the fight was doubtful; and, besides a considerable number of soldiers, Lucius Apustius fell in this disorderly combat. At last, the Lycians were routed, and driven within their gates; and the Romans, with a bloody victory, returned to their ships. They then proceeded to the gulf of Telmissus, which washes Caria on one side, and Lycia on the other, where all thoughts of any further attempt on Patara were laid aside, the Rhodians were sent home, and Livius, sailing along the coast of Asia, crossed over to Greece, that he might have a meeting with the Scipios, who were at that time in Thessaly, and then take his passage to Italy.

17 Æmilius, although he himself had been driven off from Ephesus by a storm, and had returned to Samos without effecting any thing, after he knew that the expedition to Lycia was dropped, and that Livius had gone to Italy, having thought it disgraceful that Patara should be attacked in vain, resolved to go thither and attack the city with his utmost force. Having sailed past Miletus, and the rest of the coast of the allies, he made a descent in the bay of BargyllÆ, with the design of reducing Jassus. A garrison of the king’s troops held the city, and the Romans made hostile depredations on all the country round. He then sent persons to confer with the magistrates and principal inhabitants, and sound their dispositions. After they answered that nothing was in their power, he advanced to lay siege to the city. There were, with the Romans, some exiles from Jassus, who, in a body, earnestly importuned the Rhodians “not to suffer an unoffending city, which was as well a neighbouring one as also connected with them in consanguinity, to be ruined. They themselves were banished for no other cause than their faithful attachment to the Romans; and those who remained in the place were held in subjection by the same force by which they had been expelled. The wish of the people of Jassus was one, to escape from a state of slavery under the king.” The Rhodians, moved by their entreaties, and calling in the assistance of king Eumenes, by representing, at the same time, their own connexions with them, and also the unfortunate condition of the city, which was kept in bondage by the king’s garrison, prevailed on Æmilius to drop the siege. Departing hence, and coasting along the shore of Asia, the other places being at peace, they arrived at Loryma, a port opposite to Rhodes. Here, at head-quarters, a private conversation arises first among the tribunes of the soldiers, and afterwards reached the ears of Æmilius, that the fleet was going off to a distance from Ephesus, from the war which concerned themselves; so that the enemy, being left behind, without control, might safely make whatever attempts they pleased against so many states of the allies, in their neighbourhood. These remarks moved Æmilius; and calling the Rhodians to him, he asked them, whether the whole fleet could lie in the harbour of Patara: when they answered that it could not, furnished with an excuse for laying aside the design, he sailed back to Samos.

18 In the mean time Seleucus, son of Antiochus, who had kept his army in Ætolia, through the whole of the winter employed, partly, in succouring his allies, partly, in ravaging the lands of those whom he could not seduce to his side, resolved to make an incursion on the territory of king Eumenes, while he, at a great distance from home, was assisting the Romans and Rhodians, in attacks on the maritime parts of Lycia. He advanced with hostile standards, first, to ElÆa; afterwards, the design of besieging it being given up, having wasted the country in a hostile manner, he led his army to lay siege to Pergamus, the capital and principal fortress of the kingdom. Attalus, at first, posting advanced guards outside the city, and sending out parties of cavalry and light infantry, harassed rather than withstood the enemy. But, after some time, having discovered, in slight skirmishes, that he was not a match for the enemy in any respect, he drew back his men within the fortifications, and then the city began to be besieged. About this time, Antiochus, leaving Apamea with a vast army compounded of various nations, encamped first at Sardis, and afterwards took post at a small distance from the camp of Seleucus, at the head of the river Caicus. The most formidable part of his force was a body of four thousand Gauls, procured for hire: these, with a few others intermixed, he detached, with orders to waste utterly the country about Pergamus. When news of these transactions arrived at Samos, Eumenes being thus recalled by a war in his own dominions, sailed with his fleet to ElÆa; and finding there, in readiness, some light troops of horse and foot, he took them for an escort, and proceeded directly to Pergamus, before the enemy could be apprized of his arrival, or could put themselves in motion. Then again skirmishes began to take place in the sallies, Eumenes undoubtedly shrinking from the risk of a decisive engagement. In a few days after the combined fleet of the Romans and Rhodians came from Samos to ElÆa, to support the king. When information was brought to Antiochus that these had landed troops at ElÆa, and that so many fleets were assembled in one harbour, and at the same time heard that the consul, with his army, was already in Macedonia, and that the things that were necessary for the passage of the Hellespont were being prepared, he judged that now was the time for negotiation, before he should be pressed on sea and land at once; and with this view he chose for his camp a rising ground opposite to ElÆa. Leaving there all the infantry, with his cavalry, amounting to six thousand, he went down into the plains, which lay under the walls of the town, having despatched a herald to Æmilius, to acquaint him that he wished to treat of peace.

19 Æmilius sent to Pergamus for Eumenes, and desiring the Rhodians to be present, held a council on the message. The Rhodians were not averse to a pacification; but Eumenes affirmed that “it was not honourable to treat of peace at that time, nor could an end be put to the thing.” “For,” said he, “how can we, shut up as we are, within our walls, and besieged, with honour accept terms of peace? Or to whom shall that treaty be valid, which we shall conclude, without the presence of the consul, without a vote of the senate, and without an order of the Roman people? For, let me ask, supposing the matter concluded by you, would you immediately go home to Italy, and carry away your fleet and army, or would you wait to know the consul’s determination on the case; what the senate should decree, or the people order? It remains therefore that you must stay in Asia, that your troops being led back again into winter quarters, the war being given over, must exhaust the allies in furnishing provisions; and then, if it seem fit to those who have the power of determining, we must begin the whole war anew, which we are able, with the aid of the gods, to finish before winter, if no relaxation from our present vigorous movements is made by delay.” This opinion prevailed; and the answer given to Antiochus was, that they could not treat of peace before the arrival of the consul. Antiochus, peace being tried for in vain, ravaged, first, the territory of ElÆa, then that of Pergamus; and, leaving there his son Seleucus, marched in a hostile manner to Adramyttium, whence he proceeded to a rich tract of country called the Plain of Thebes, a city celebrated in one of Homer’s poems; and in no other place in Asia did the king’s soldiers find such a plenty of booty. At the same time, Æmilius and Eumenes also, sailing round with the fleet, came to Adramyttium, to protect the city.

20 By chance, at this time, one thousand foot with one hundred horse came to ElÆa from Achaia, Diophanes being commander of all these forces; whom, on their landing, persons, sent by Eumenes to meet them, conducted by night to Pergamus. Veterans they all were, well skilled in war; and their commander was a disciple of Philopoemen, the most consummate general among the Greeks in that age. They set apart two days to give rest to the men and horses, and, at the same time, to view the posts of the enemy, and to learn at what places, and what times, they advanced and retired. The king’s troops generally approached to the foot of the hill on which the town stands; so that the plundering in the rear was unimpeded, as not a man ever sallied out, even to throw darts from a distance, against their guards. After that they were once driven in, and with fear confined themselves within the walls, a contempt for them arises among the king’s troops, and consequently negligence. The greater number did not keep their horses either saddled or bridled; while few remained under arms, and in the ranks; the rest, slipping away, had scattered themselves every where over the entire plain, some diverting themselves with youthful sports and amusements, others eating in the shade, and some even stretched on the ground asleep. Diophanes, having observed all these particulars from the lofty city of Pergamus, ordered his men to take arms, and to be ready at a particular gate. He himself went to Attalus, and told him that he intended to attack the out-posts of the enemy. Attalus giving his consent with reluctance, as he saw that one hundred horse must fight against six hundred, one thousand foot against four thousand, Diophanes then marched out of the gate, and took post at a small distance from the enemy’s guard, waiting his opportunity. Both the people in Pergamus thought that it was madness rather than daring, and the enemy, after observing his party for a short time, as soon as they saw no movement among them, did not change their usual negligence, ridiculing moreover the smallness of their number. Diophanes for a long time kept his men quiet, as if they had been brought out merely for the purpose of looking about them; but as soon as he perceived that the enemy had quitted their ranks, ordering the infantry to follow as fast as they could, he himself, with his own troop, led the way at the head of the cavalry, and pushing on, with all possible speed, made a sudden charge on the enemy’s party, while a shout was raised by every horseman and footman at once. Not only were the men so attacked terrified, but the horses also; and when they broke their collars, they caused great confusion and tumult throughout. A few of the horses, indeed, stood unaffrighted; but even these the troopers could not easily saddle, or bridle, or mount; for the AchÆans struck much greater terror than would be supposed from so small a party of horse. But now the infantry, in due order and preparation, assailed the enemy, dispersed through their own negligence, and almost half asleep; and slaughter and flight ensued in every part of the plain. Diophanes pursued the runaways as far as he could with safety, and then returned into garrison, after acquiring very great honour for the AchÆan nation; for not only the men, but also the women, had been spectators from the walls of Pergamus.

21 Next day the enemy’s guard, in more regular and orderly condition, pitched their camp five hundred paces farther from the city, and the AchÆans marched out at nearly the same time as before, and to the same place. During many hours, both parties intently awaited the assault, as if it were about to take place immediately. When it was not far from sun-set, the usual time of their returning to the main camp, the king’s troops, forming in close order, began to retire in a body, arranged for a march rather than for a battle. Diophanes did not stir until they were out of sight; and then he rushed on their rear-guard with the same vehemence as before, and again excited such dismay and confusion, that, though the hindmost were put to the sword, not one of them halted to fight; they were driven into their camp in confusion, and scarcely observing any order in their march. These daring exertions of the AchÆans obliged Seleucus to decamp, and quit the territory of Pergamus. Antiochus, having learned that the Romans and Eumenes were come to protect Adramyttium, made no attempt on that city, but ravaged the country adjoining. He afterwards reduced PerÆa, a colony of Mityleneans; Cotton, Corylenus, Aphrodisias, and Crene, were all taken at the first assault. He then returned through Thyatira to Sardis. Seleucus, remaining on the sea-coast, was a terror to one party, a protection to the other. The Roman fleet, with Eumenes and the Rhodians, retired, first to Mitylene, and then to ElÆa, whence they had set out. On their way to PhocÆa, they put in at an island called Bachius; it is near the city of PhocÆa; and when they had plundered the temples and statues, which they had before spared, (for the island was surpassingly adorned with them,) they then passed over to the city. When they, having divided the quarters among themselves, assaulted it, and saw that it could not be taken by arms and scaling-ladders, without regular works; after that a reinforcement of three thousand soldiers, sent by Antiochus, had got into the city, they immediately broke up the siege, and the fleet retired to the island, without having effected any thing more than the devastation of the enemy’s country in the neighbourhood.

22 It was then resolved that Eumenes should return home, and make every necessary preparation for the passage of the consul and his army over the Hellespont; and that the Roman and Rhodian fleets should sail back to Samos, and remain stationed there, that Polyxenidas might not make any movement from Ephesus. The king returned to ElÆa, the Romans and Rhodians to Samos. There, Marcus Æmilius, brother of the prÆtor, died. After his obsequies were performed, the Rhodians sailed, with thirteen of their own ships, one Coan, and one Cnidian quinquereme, to Rhodes, in order that they might take up a position there, against a fleet which was reported to be coming from Syria. Two days before the arrival of Eudamus and the fleet from Samos, another fleet of thirteen ships, under the command of Pamphilidas, had been sent out against the same Syrian fleet; and taking with them four ships, which had been left to protect Caria, they relieved from blockade DÆdala, and several other fortresses of PerÆa, which the king’s troops were besieging. It was determined that Eudamus should put to sea directly, and an addition of six undecked ships was made to his fleet. He accordingly set sail; and using all possible expedition, overtook the first squadron at a port called Magiste, from whence they proceeded in one body to Phaselis, resolving to wait there for the enemy.

23 Phaselis stands on the confines of Lycia and Pamphylia; it projects far into the sea, and is the first land seen by persons coming from Cilicia to Rhodes, and from hence ships can be seen at a great distance. For this reason, chiefly, this place was made choice of, that they may lie in the way of the enemy’s fleet. But in consequence of the unwholesomeness of the place, and of the season of the year, (for it was now the middle of summer,) and of the unusual stench, diseases began to spread with violence, particularly among the rowers, an event which they did not foresee. And having left the place from fear of this pestilence, when they were sailing by the Pamphylian bay, their fleet putting into port at the river Eurymedon, they hear from the people of Aspendus, that the enemy are now at Sida. The king’s fleet had been the slower in its passage, the season of the EtesiÆ being opposed to them, for this is the periodical time for the north-west winds. The Rhodians had thirty-two quadriremes and four triremes. In the king’s fleet were thirty-seven ships of the larger rates; among which were three of seven, and four of six banks of oars; and besides these, ten triremes. They discovered too, from some watch-tower, that the Rhodians were at hand. Both fleets, at the dawn of the next day, moved out of port, as if resolved to come to an immediate engagement; and, as soon as the Rhodians passed the promontory that stretches into the deep from Sida, they descried the enemy, and were observed by them. On the king’s side, Hannibal had the command of the left squadron, which stretched away seaward; Apollonius, one of the nobles, had the command of the right, and they had their ships already formed in a line a-head. The Rhodians approached in a long line. First was the admiral’s ship, with Eudamus in it; Chariclitus brought up the rear; and Pamphilidas commanded the centre division. When Eudamus saw the enemy’s line formed and ready for battle, he pushed out towards the main, ordering the ships that followed to form, regularly, as they came up, in line of battle. This caused confusion at first; for he had not stretched out to the main far enough for the line of all the ships to form in the direction of the land, and he himself hurrying on with precipitation, with only five ships, engaged with Hannibal; the rest, having received orders to form their line, did not come up. The rear division had no room left for it next to the land; and, while they were in disorder, the fight was already begun on the right against Hannibal.

24 But the goodness of their ships, and the expertness of their men in nautical business, quickly freed the Rhodians from all embarrassment. They pushed out hastily towards the main, and each made room next the land for the one immediately behind; and when any made a stroke with its beak against a ship of the enemy, it either shattered its prow, or swept off its oars; or passing by it in the clear space between the vessels, made an attack on its stern. One of the king’s seven-banked ships being sunk with one stroke, by a Rhodian vessel of much smaller size, discouraged them very much. Therefore the right wing of the enemy was now undoubtedly verging to flight. Hannibal, in the open sea, by means chiefly of his superior number of ships, pressed hard on Eudamus, who surpassed him in every other respect: and he would have surrounded him were it not that, on the signal being given from the admiral’s fleet, (by which it is usual to collect together the fleet when dispersed,) all the ships which had conquered on the right wing came speedily to bear aid to their own party. This made Hannibal himself, with all his division, betake themselves to flight; while the Rhodians could not pursue, because their rowers being most of them sick, were therefore the sooner wearied. When they were recruiting their strength with food on the sea where they brought to, Eudamus, observing the enemy towing, by means of their open vessels, several damaged and crippled ships, and seeing little more than twenty that were going off uninjured, commanded silence from the castle of the commander’s ship, and then called out, “Arise, and feast your eyes with an extraordinary sight.” They all started up, and perceiving the disorderly flight of the enemy, cried out, almost with one voice, that they ought to pursue. Eudamus’s ship was bulged in many places; he therefore ordered Pamphilidas and Chariclitus to pursue as far as they should think it safe. They, accordingly, pursued for a considerable time: but after that Hannibal make-in close to the land, fearing to be wind-bound on an enemy’s coast, they steered back to Eudamus, and with difficulty towed to Phaselis a captured seven-banked ship, which had been damaged in the beginning of the engagement. They then sailed home to Rhodes, not so much exulting in their victory as blaming one another because the entire fleet had not been taken or sunk, when it could have been done. Hannibal, disheartened by the loss of this one battle, did not even then dare to sail past the coast of Lycia, though he wished to join the king’s main fleet as soon as possible. And that this action might not be unimpeded, the Rhodians sent Chariclitus with twenty ships of war to Patara and the harbour of Megiste. They then ordered Eudamus, with seven of the largest vessels belonging to the fleet which he had commanded, to rejoin the Romans at Samos, and to endeavour by every argument, and by all his influence, to prevail on the Romans to besiege Patara.

25 Now first of all the intelligence of the victory, and subsequently the arrival of the Rhodians, caused great joy to the Romans, and it appeared to them that if that anxiety was taken away from the Rhodians, they would when at leisure render the seas of that country safe. But the march of Antiochus from Sardis did not allow them to quit the guard of Ionia and Æolia, lest the maritime cities should be crushed by his arms. However, they sent Pamphilidas, with four decked ships, to join the fleet which was at Patara. Antiochus not only collected aids from the states that lay around, but also sent to Prusias, king of Bithynia, ambassadors and letters, in which he inveighed against the pressing of the Romans into Asia. “They were coming,” he said, “to abolish all kingly governments; so that there should be no empire in any part of the world, save that of Rome. Philip and Nabis were subdued: he was the third object of attack. Thus the conflagration would spread, without interruption, from one to another, as each lay nearest to the one last ruined, until it enveloped them all. From him there was but one step to Bithynia, now that Eumenes had submitted to voluntary servitude.” Though Prusias was greatly affected by these observations, his mind was relieved from all such doubts by a letter from Scipio, the consul, and still more so by one from his brother Africanus, who, besides urging the invariable practice of the Roman people of augmenting, by every honourable addition, the grandeur of kings in alliance with them, by instances taken from his own family, induced Prusias to earn their friendship. “The petty chieftains in Spain,” he said, “who had been received into alliance, he had left kings. Masinissa he had not only re-established in his father’s kingdom, but had put him in possession of that of Syphax, by whom he had been formerly dethroned: so that he was, at the present, not only by far the most powerful of all the kings in Africa, but equal, both in dignity and strength, to any monarch in any part of the world. Philip and Nabis, avowed enemies, were conquered in war by Titus Quintius; nevertheless, they were left in possession of their kingdoms. Philip even had the tributes remitted to him last year, and his son, who was a hostage, restored. Through the indulgence of the Roman commanders, he had also got possession of several states beyond the boundaries of Macedonia. As to Nabis, he might have remained in the same honourable rank, had not first his own madness, and afterwards the treachery of the Ætolians, brought him to ruin.” The king’s resolution was especially confirmed after that Caius Livius, who had commanded the fleet as prÆtor, came to him as ambassador from Rome, and informed him how much better hope the Romans had of success than Antiochus; and how much more sacred and lasting an alliance with them would be.

26 Antiochus, after he lost the hope of an alliance with Prusias, went from Sardis to Ephesus, to review the fleet which was fitted out, and lay there ready, for several months; rather because he saw it impossible, with his land forces, to make any stand against the Roman army and its commanders, the two Scipios, than that his naval force by itself had ever been tried by him successfully, or afforded at this juncture any great or well-grounded confidence. Yet there was an incentive to hope on the present occasion; for he had heard that a large portion of the Rhodian fleet was at Patara, and that king Eumenes had gone to the Hellespont, with all his ships, to meet the consul. Besides, the destruction of the Rhodian fleet at Samos, on an opportunity prepared by treachery, inspired some degree of confidence. Relying on these things, he sent Polyxenidas with orders to try, at all events, the fortune of a naval engagement; while he himself marched his land forces to Notium. This town, which belongs to Colophon, stands close to the sea, and is distant about two miles from Old Colophon. He wished to get this city into his power, because it was so near to Ephesus that nothing could be done there, on sea or land, that was not open to the view of the Colophonians, and, through them, instantly made known to the Romans; and he had no doubt that the latter, having heard of the siege, would bring their fleet from Samos to the relief of an ally, which would give Polyxenidas an opportunity of coming to action. He therefore began to lay regular siege to the city, making his approaches at the same time on the two sides next the sea; in both places he joined his engines and mounds to the wall, and brought up the rams under covered galleries. By which dangers the Colophonians being terrified, sent envoys to Lucius Æmilius, at Samos, imploring the protection of the prÆtor and people of Rome. His lying so long inactive at Samos offended Æmilius, thinking nothing more improbable than that Polyxenidas, whom he had twice challenged in vain to fight, should ever offer him battle; and he considered it as dishonourable, that the fleet of Eumenes should assist the consul in conveying the legions into Asia, that he should be fettered by bearing to the besieged Colophon an assistance destined to have an uncertain end. Eudamus, the Rhodian, (who had before prevailed upon him to stay at Samos, when he wished to go to the Hellespont,) with all the other officers, pressed him to comply, representing “how much more eligible it would be, either to relieve confederates from a siege, or to vanquish that fleet which he had vanquished before, and to take from the enemy the entire possession of the sea, than, deserting his allies, and delivering Asia to Antiochus by land and sea, to depart from his own part of the war to the Hellespont, when the fleet of Eumenes was sufficient for that station.”

27 They accordingly, having set sail from Samos in quest of provisions, their stock being consumed, were preparing to pass over to Chios. Samos served as a granary to the Romans, and thither all the store-ships sent from Rome directed their course. When they had sailed round from the city to the back of the island, which looks northward towards Chios and ErythrÆ, and were preparing to cross over, the prÆtor is informed by a letter, that a vast quantity of corn had arrived at Chios, from Italy; but that the vessels laden with wine were detained by storms. At the same time accounts were received, that the people of Teos had furnished large supplies of provisions to the king’s fleet, and had promised five thousand vessels of wine. On this the prÆtor immediately changed his course, and steered away to Teos, resolved either to make use of the provisions prepared for the enemy, with the consent of the inhabitants, or to treat them as foes. When they had turned their prows to the land, about fifteen vessels appeared in sight near Myonnesus, which the prÆtor at first supposed to belong to the king’s fleet, and hastened to pursue. It appeared afterwards, that they were piratical cutters and galleys. They, having ravaged the sea-coast of Chios, returning with booty of every kind, betook themselves to flight when they saw the fleet on the open sea. They had much the advantage in swiftness, their galleys being lighter and constructed for the purpose, and were nearer the land; therefore before the fleet could overtake them, they made their escape to Myonnesus. And the prÆtor, unacquainted with the place, followed in expectation of forcing their ships from it out of the harbour. Myonnesus is a promontory between Teos and Samos. It consists of a hill rising from a pretty large base to a sharp top, in the shape of an obelisk. From the land it has access by a narrow path towards the sea, cliffs undermined by the waves terminate it, so that in some places the superimpending rocks project beyond the vessels that lie at anchor. The ships not daring to approach lest they should be exposed to the weapons of the pirates, who stood above on the cliffs, wasted the day to no purpose. At length, after they had desisted from this useless undertaking a little before night, they the next day reached Teos. Here the prÆtor, after mooring in the port at the back of the city, which the inhabitants call GerÆsticum, sent out the soldiers to ravage the land about the city.

28 The Teians, as these ravages passed under their eyes, sent deputies to the Roman commander, carrying fillets, and other badges of suppliants. And when they were exculpating their state from every hostile act or word against the Romans, he strongly charged them with “having assisted the enemy’s fleet with provisions, and with having promised a quantity of wine to Polyxenidas.” He further told them, that “if they would furnish the same supplies to the Roman fleet, he would recall his troops from plundering; otherwise, he would treat them as enemies.” When the deputies carried back this distressing answer, the people were summoned to an assembly by the magistrates, to consult on what they should do. It happened that Polyxenidas, who had sailed with the king’s fleet from Colophon, after he heard that the Romans had left Samos and pursued the pirates to Myonnesus, and that they were laying waste the lands of the Teians, and that their fleet lay in the harbour of GerÆsticus, cast anchor, in a retired harbour of an island called by the sailors Macris, opposite to Myonnesus. Then from his neighbouring position, exploring what his enemies were doing, at first he was in great hopes of vanquishing the Roman fleet here, in like manner as he had vanquished the Rhodian at Samos, by besetting the narrow entrance at the mouth of the port. Nor is the nature of the place unlike: by the promontories advancing towards each other, the harbour is enclosed in such a manner, that two ships can scarcely go out together. Polyxenidas intended to seize this narrow pass in the night; and, while ten ships stood at each of the promontories, to attack, from the right and left, both sides of the enemy’s fleet sailing out, having landed his armed men from the fleet, as he had done at Panormus, to overpower the Romans on land and sea at once. And this design would not have been formed by him in vain, had it not appeared to the Romans better for receiving the provisions, when the Teians had promised to execute their commands, that the fleet should pass into that harbour, which is before the city. It is said, also, that Eudamus, the Rhodian, had pointed out the fault of the outer harbour, when two ships broke their oars locked together in the narrow entrance. Among other motives, this too induced the prÆtor to remove his fleet, because there was danger from the land, as Antiochus kept his camp not far from it.

29 When the fleet was brought round to the city, all being ignorant of the approach of the enemy, both soldiers and sailors went on shore to divide the provisions, and the wine particularly, among the ships; when, about mid-day, a peasant happened to be brought before the prÆtor, who told him, that the enemy’s fleet was lying at the island of Macris these two days; and that, a little while ago, some of them were observed to be in motion, as if preparing to sail. Greatly alarmed at this unexpected event, the prÆtor ordered the trumpets to sound, to call in such as might have straggled into the country, and sent the tribunes into the city, to hasten the soldiers and sailors on board. The confusion was not less than if the place were on fire, or taken by an enemy; some running to call out the men; others hurrying to the ships, while the orders of the officers were confounded by irregular shouts, amid which the trumpets raised their din, until at length the crowd collected at the ships. Here scarcely could each know his own ship, or make his way through the tumult; and the disorder would probably have been productive of much mischief, on land and sea had not Æmilius, in the commander’s ship, sailed out first into the main; where, receiving those following, he put each into its own place, so as to form a line abreast: and Eudamus, with the Rhodian fleet, waited at the shore, that the men might be embarked without confusion, and that every ship might leave the harbour as soon as it was ready. By these means, the foremost division formed under the eye of the prÆtor, while the rear was brought up by the Rhodians; and then the whole line, in as regular order as if within sight of the foe, advanced into the open sea. They were between Myonnesus and the promontory of Corycus, when they first got sight of the enemy. The king’s fleet, which was coming in a long line, with only two vessels abreast, then formed themselves in order of battle, stretching out their left division so far, as that it might enclose the right of the Romans. When Eudamus, who commanded in the rear, perceived that the Romans could not form an equal front, but were just on the point of being surrounded, he pushed up his ships. They were Rhodians, by far the fastest sailers of any of the fleet; and having filled up the deficiency in the extent of the line, he opposed his own ship to the commander’s, on board of which was Polyxenidas.

30 Now the entire fleets in every part were engaged in action. On the side of the Romans eighty ships were fighting, of which twenty-two were Rhodian. The enemy’s fleet consisted of eighty-nine ships, and they had of the largest rates, three of six, and two of seven banks. In the strength of the vessels, and valour of the soldiers, the Romans had greatly the advantage of the king’s party, as had the Rhodians in the activity of their vessels, the skill of the pilots, and the dexterity of the rowers. However, those which carried fire before them were the greatest terror to the enemy: and what was the sole cause of their preservation when they were surrounded at Panormus, proved here the principal means of victory. For when the king’s ships, through fear of the fire, had turned aside, in order to avoid at the same time encountering the enemy’s prow with their own, they could not strike their antagonist with the beaks, but exposed the side of their ships to his strokes; and if any did venture an encounter, it was immediately overspread with the fire that was poured in; while the men were more alarmed at the fire than the battle. However, the bravery of the soldiers, as is generally the case, chiefly availed in deciding the battle. For the Romans, having broke through the centre of the enemy’s line, tacked about and fell upon the rear of the division which was engaged with the Rhodians; and, in an instant of time, both Antiochus’s centre division, and the ships on the left, were surrounded and sunk. The squadron on the right, which was still entire, was terrified rather by the disaster of their friends, than by any immediate danger threatening themselves; but, when they saw the others surrounded, and Polyxenidas’s ship deserting its associates, and sailing away, having quickly hoisted their topsails, they betook themselves to flight, (and they steering for Ephesus had a favourable wind,) having lost forty-two ships in that battle; of which thirteen struck, and fell into the hands of the Romans; the rest were burned or sunk. Two Roman ships were shattered, and several were much damaged. One Rhodian vessel was taken by an extraordinary casualty; for, on its striking a Sidonian ship with its beak, its anchor, thrown out by the force of the shock, caught fast hold of the other’s prow with its fluke, as if it were a grappling-iron thrown in. Great confusion ensuing thereon, when the Rhodians, who wished to disengage themselves from the enemy, pulled back, its cable being dragged forcibly, and at the same time entangled with the oars, swept off one side of them. The very ship, which, when struck, had grappled with it, took the Rhodian galley in its weakened state. The naval battle at Myonnesus was fought principally in this manner.

31 By which Antiochus being terrified, because, as he was driven from the possession of the sea, he despaired of being able to defend his distant possessions, ordered the garrison to be withdrawn from Lysimachia, which plan was ill devised, as the event subsequently proved, lest it should be there cut off by the Romans. As it was easy for him, not only to defend Lysimachia from the first attack of the Romans, but to protract the siege through the whole winter; and by thus prolonging the time, to reduce the besiegers to the extremity of want; and in the mean time try the hope of peace, as opportunities should present themselves. But, after the defeat at sea, he not only gave up Lysimachia, but even raised the siege of Colophon, and retired to Sardis. Here, bending all his thoughts to one single object, that of meeting the enemy in the field, he sent into Cappadocia, to Ariarathes, to request assistance, and to every other place within his power, to collect forces. Æmilius Regillus, after his victory at sea, proceeded to Ephesus, having drawn up his ships before the harbour, when he had extorted from the enemy a final acknowledgment of their having surrendered the dominion of the sea, sailed to Chios, to which he had directed his course from Samos, before the sea-fight. As soon as he had refitted the ships that had been damaged in the battle, he sent off Lucius Æmilius Scaurus, with thirty others, to the Hellespont, to transport the army; and decorating the Rhodian vessels with naval spoils, and allowing them a part of the booty, he ordered them to return home. The Rhodians energetically took the lead, and proceeded to assist in transporting the consul’s forces, and when they had completed that service also, then at length returned to Rhodes. The Roman fleet sailed from Chios to PhocÆa. This city stands at the bottom of a bay, and is of an oblong shape. The wall encompasses a space of two miles and a half in length, and then contracts on both sides into a very narrow wedge-like form, which place they call Lampter (or the light-house). The breadth here extends one thousand two hundred paces; and a tongue of land stretching out about a mile into the sea, divides the bay nearly in the middle, as if with a line; where it is connected with the main land by a narrow isthmus, it has two very safe harbours, turned to each side. The one that fronts the south they call Naustathmos, (the station for ships,) from the circumstance of its being capable of containing a vast number of ships; the other is close to Lampter.

32 When the Roman fleet had taken possession of these very safe harbours, the prÆtor thought proper, before he attempted the fortifications, either by escalade or works, that persons should be sent to sound the disposition of the magistrates and principal people in the place: when he saw them obstinate, he determined to attack the city in two places at the same time. One part was thinly occupied by private dwellings, temples of the gods occupying a great deal of the ground. In that part first, having brought up the battering-ram, he began to shake the wall and towers; and when the multitude within ran thither to defend that spot, the battering-rams were applied in the other quarter, and the walls were now knocked down in both places. On the fall of which, when some of the Roman soldiers were making an assault over the scattered masses of ruins, others attempted to scale walls; the townsmen made such an obstinate resistance, as plainly showed that they had a firmer dependence on their arms and courage, than on their fortifications. The prÆtor, compelled by the danger of the soldiers, sounded a retreat, that he might not expose them incautious to his opponents, maddened with despair and rage. The fighting being ended, the besieged did not, even then, think of rest; but all hastened from every quarter, to strengthen the walls, and to raise new ones in the place of those that had been demolished. While they were busily employed in this manner, Quintus Antonius, being sent by the prÆtor, came to them, who, after having blamed their obstinacy, assured them that “the Romans were more anxious than they were themselves that the battle should not be carried on to the destruction of the city. If they would desist from their madness, Æmilius would allow them to capitulate on the same terms on which they had formerly surrendered to Caius Livius.” When they heard this, having taken five days’ time to deliberate, and having in the mean time tried the hope of aid from Antiochus, after that the ambassadors sent to the king had brought back word that there was no aid in him, they opened their gates, stipulating that they should suffer nothing hostile. When the troops were marching into the city, and the prÆtor had proclaimed that it was his pleasure that the surrendered townsmen should be spared, there arose an universal clamour, “that it was shameful that the PhocÆans, who had never been faithful to any alliance, and had always been bitter in enmity, should escape with impunity.” After which words, as if a signal had been given by the prÆtor, they ran, in parties, every way, to plunder the city. Æmilius, at first, began to resist, and call them back, saying, that “towns taken by storm, and not such as surrendered, were plundered; and that, even with regard to the former, the determination lay with the commander, not with the soldiers.” But rage and avarice were too strong for his authority; wherefore, despatching heralds through all parts of the city, he ordered, that all persons of free condition should come to him in the forum, that they should not be injured: and in all things which were in his power, the promise of the prÆtor was observed. He restored to them their city, their lands, and their laws; and, as the winter now approached, he chose the harbour of PhocÆa for his fleet to pass the winter in.

33 About the same time it was announced to the consul, as he was marching along the frontiers of the Ænians and Maronites, that the king’s fleet was conquered at Myonnesus, and that Lysimachia was evacuated by its garrison. This latter event gave much more satisfaction than even the success at sea; especially after they came thither, and were hospitably received in the city, filled with provisions of all sorts, as if provided for the arrival of the army; when, in besieging the city, they had anticipated extreme want and hardship. There they made a halt for a few days, that the baggage and sick might overtake them, who, overcome by diseases, or the length of the way, had been left behind in all the forts of Thrace. When all had joined, they began again their march through the Chersonese, and arrived at the Hellespont; where every thing requisite for their passage having been previously got ready, by the care of king Eumenes, they crossed over, without confusion, as if to friendly shores, no one opposing, and the ships putting in at several different places. This raised to a high degree the spirits of the Romans, who saw the passage into Asia left open to them; which thing they supposed would cost them a severe struggle. They afterwards remained encamped a considerable time at the Hellespont, because it happened to be a period too holy for marching, during which the sacred shields are moved. The same festival had separated Publius Scipio from the army, as the religious ceremony was more incumbent on him, because he was one of the Salian priests; and he himself was a source of delay, till he overtook the rest of the army.

34 In the mean time an ambassador came from Antiochus to the camp,—Heraclides, a Byzantian, having mandates concerning peace. The delay and tardiness of the Romans gave him great hope that this might be attained; for he had imagined, that as soon as they set foot in Asia, they would advance in a rapid march against the king. He resolved, however, not to address himself to the consul until he had first applied to Publius Scipio, and instructions to that effect were given him by the king. In him he had the greatest hope, besides that his greatness of soul, and the fulness of his glory, tended very much to make him inclined to peace, and it was known to all nations what sort of a conqueror he had been, both in Spain and afterwards in Africa; and also because his son was then a prisoner with Antiochus. Where, and when, and by what accident he became a prisoner, is, like very many other things, not ascertained among writers. Some say, that in the beginning of the war, as he was going from Chalcis to Oreum, he was intercepted by some of the king’s ships; others, that after the army came into Asia, he was sent with a troop of Fregellans to Antiochus’s camp, to gain intelligence; that on the cavalry sallying out against him, he retreated, and having fallen from his horse in the confusion, he was together with two horsemen, overpowered, and thus conducted to the king. This however is fully ascertained, that if peace had still subsisted with the Romans, and likewise a personal friendship between the king and the Scipios, the young man could not have been treated and courted with greater kindness than he was. When the ambassador, for these reasons, had waited the arrival of Publius Scipio, as soon as he came he applied to the consul, and requested that he should hear his instructions.

35 A full council being assembled, audience was given to the ambassador, who said, that, “though many embassies about peace had already been sent backwards and forwards, without producing any effect, yet he conceived strong hopes of obtaining it, because the former ambassadors had obtained nothing. For the objects of contention in those discussions were Smyrna and Lampsacus, Alexandria in the Troad, and Lysimachia in Europe. Of these, the king had already ceded Lysimachia, that they might not say that he possessed any thing in Europe; and those cities which lay in Asia, he was now ready to deliver up as well as any others, which the Romans might wish to render independent of the king’s government, because they belonged to their party. The king was also willing to pay to the Roman people half the expense of the war.” These were the conditions of peace. The rest of his discourse was, “that, mindful of human affairs, they should use with moderation their own good fortune, and not press too severely on the misfortune of others; that they should limit their empire by Europe; that single acquisitions could be made with more ease than that necessary for holding them collectively. But if they would wish to take away some part of Asia, provided that they would define it by indisputable limits, the king, for the sake of peace and harmony, would willingly suffer his own moderate temper to be overcome by the insatiableness of the Romans.” These concessions, which appeared to the ambassador of great moment towards obtaining a peace, the Romans deemed trifling. They thought it just, that “the king should defray the whole expense occasioned by the war, because it was through his fault that it was begun. And that, not only Ionia and Æolia ought to be evacuated by the king’s troops, but as all Greece had been set free, so all the cities of that nation in Asia should also be free. That this could be effected in no other way, than by Antiochus relinquishing the possession of that part of Asia on the hither side of Mount Taurus.”

36 The ambassador, after he came to the conclusion that he could obtain no reasonable terms in the council, tried to influence the mind of Publius Scipio in private (for such were his orders). First of all he told him that the king would restore him his son without a ransom; and then, as ignorant of the disposition of Scipio as he was of the Roman manners, he promised an immense weight of gold, and, excepting the title of king, an absolute partnership in the sovereignty, if through his means he should obtain a peace. To which Scipio answered, “I am the less surprised that you are ignorant of the Romans in general, and of me, to whom you have been sent, when I see that you are unacquainted with the situation even of the person from whom you come. You ought to have kept Lysimachia to prevent our entering the Chersonese, or to have opposed us at the Hellespont to hinder our passing into Asia, if you meant to ask peace from us as from people solicitous about the issue of war. But after leaving the passage into Asia open, and receiving not only a bridle, but also a yoke, what negotiation on an equality has been left you, when you must submit to orders? I shall consider my son as a very great gift from the munificence of the king; I pray to the gods that my circumstances may never require others, my mind certainly never will require any. For such an act of generosity to me he shall find me grateful, if for a personal favour he will accept a personal return of gratitude. In my public capacity, I will neither accept from him nor give him any thing. All that I can give at present is sincere advice. Go then, and desire him in my name, to cease hostilities, and to refuse no terms of peace.” These words had no effect on the king, who thought that the chance of war would be comparatively safe, since terms were dictated to him already as if he were totally vanquished. Laying aside, therefore, for the present, all farther mention of peace, he turned his whole attention to the preparations for war.

37 The consul having made every preparation for the execution of his designs, when he had quitted the post where he lay, marched first to Dardanus, and then to Rhoeteum; from both states the people came out in crowds to meet him. He then advanced to Troy, and having pitched his camp in the plain which is under the walls, when he had gone up to the city and into the citadel, he offered sacrifices to Minerva, the guardian of the citadel; the Trojans, by every act and expression of respect, showing themselves proud of the Romans being descended from them, and the Romans expressing their delight in their origin. The army marching thence, arrived, on the sixth encampment, at the source of the Caicus. To this place also king Eumenes came. He at first endeavoured to bring back his fleet from the Hellespont to ElÆa, for the winter; subsequently, when by adverse winds he could not, for several days, pass the promontory of Lectos, that he might not be absent at the commencement of operations, he landed and came, with a small body of men, by the shortest road to the Roman camp. From the camp he was sent home to Pergamus, to hasten supplies of provisions; and when the corn was delivered to the persons whom the consul had ordered to receive it, he returned to the same camp. The plan was, provisions for several days being prepared, to march hence against the enemy, before the winter should prevent them. The king’s camp was near Thyatira; and Antiochus, hearing there that Publius Scipio had fallen sick and was conveyed to ElÆa, sent ambassadors to conduct his son to him. As this present was highly grateful to the mind of the father, so was the satisfaction which it gave no less salutary to his body. At length, being sated with the embraces of his son, he said to the ambassadors, “Tell the king that I return him thanks; that at present I can make him no other requital than my advice; which is, not to come to an engagement, until he shall have heard that I have rejoined the army.” Although sixty-two thousand foot, and more than twelve thousand horse, inspired the king at times with hopes in the result of a battle; yet, moved by the advice of so great a man as Scipio, in whom, when he considered the uncertainty of the events of war, he placed safety in any reverse of fortune, he retired, and having crossed the Phrygian river, pitched his camp near Magnesia, which is at Sipylus. And lest, if he wished to prolong the time, the Romans might attack his works, he drew round it a fosse six cubits deep and twelve broad, and on the outside surrounded the fosse with a double rampart: on the inside bank, he raised a wall flanked with towers at small distances, by which the enemy could easily be prevented from crossing the fosse.

38 The consul, thinking that the king was still in the neighbourhood of Thyatira, came down by continued marches on the fifth day into the Hyrcanian plains. Then when he heard that the other had departed, he followed his track, and pitched his camp on the hither side of the Phrygian river, at the distance of four miles from the enemy. Here, a body of about one thousand horse, (the greatest part of whom were GallogrÆcians, the rest Dahans, and archers on horseback, of other nations intermixed,) passing the river with great tumult, made an attack on the advanced Roman guards. First of all they threw into confusion those unprepared; then, when the contest continued longer, and the number of the Romans increased, as succours were easily sent from the neighbouring camp, the king’s troops, becoming weary and unable to withstand superior numbers, endeavoured to retreat; but, before they could reach the river, very many were killed on the bank, by the enemy pressing on their rear. For two days after there was quiet, neither party passing the river. On the third, the Romans passed it with their whole force, and encamped at the distance of about two miles and a half from the enemy. While they were employed in measuring and fortifying the camp, a body of the king’s troops, consisting of three thousand chosen horse and foot, approached with great rapidity and violence. The party on guard, though much inferior in number, (being only two thousand,) without calling off any of the soldiers from the fortifying of the camp, sustained the combat with equal success at first, and, in the progress of the contest, repulsed the enemy, killing a hundred, and taking about the same number. During the four ensuing days, both armies stood in order of battle, before their respective camps. On the fifth, the Romans advanced into the middle of the plain, but Antiochus did not stir; so that his rear was not so far as a thousand feet from his rampart.

39 The consul, after perceiving that he declined the contest, called a council next day, and asked their opinion, “how he ought to act if Antiochus would not give him an opportunity of engaging. For the winter was at hand, and he must either keep the soldiers in camp; or, if they chose to retire to winter quarters, defer the business of the war until summer.” The Romans never despised any enemy so much. The assembly on every side called on him to lead on immediately, and make use of the present ardour of the troops; who, as if the business were not to fight against so many thousands, but to slaughter an equal number of cattle, were ready to force their way, through trenches and ramparts, into the camp, if the enemy would not come out to battle. Cneius Domitius was sent to discover the nature of the ground, and on what side the enemies’ rampart could be approached; after he returned with a full account of every particular, it was resolved that the camp should next day be moved nearer to the enemy. On the third day, the standards were carried forward into the middle of the plain, and the soldiers began to form line. Antiochus, thinking that he could hesitate no longer, lest, by declining a battle, he should damp the courage of his men, and add to the confidence of the enemy, drew out his forces in person, advancing only so far from the enemy’s camp as to make it apparent that he was willing to come to an engagement. The Roman line was nearly uniform throughout with respect to both men and armour. There were two Roman legions, and two brigades of allies and Latins, each containing five thousand four hundred men. The Romans formed the centre, the Latins the wings. The spearmen composed the first line, the first-rank men the second, and the veterans closed the rear. Beyond this, which formed as it were the regular line of battle, the consul formed on the right of it, and in one continued line, the auxiliary troops of Eumenes, intermixed with AchÆan targeteers, making about three thousand foot; beyond these he posted somewhat less than three thousand horse, of which, eight hundred belonged to Eumenes; all the rest of the cavalry were Roman: and in the extremity of the line he placed bodies of Trallians and Cretans, equal in number, who were composed of five hundred men each. His left wing did not appear to require such supports, because a river and steep banks flanked it. However, four troops of horse were posted there. This was the whole amount of the Roman force, besides two thousand Macedonians and Thracians, who had, as volunteers, accompanied the army. These were left to guard the camp. They placed sixteen elephants behind the veterans, in reserve. For besides that they were not supposed capable of withstanding the great number of the king’s elephants, which were no less than fifty-four, the African elephants are not able to cope with an equal number of Indians, either because they are inferior to them in size, (in which the Indian have much the advantage,) or in unyielding courage.

40 The king’s line was more chequered with troops of many nations, dissimilar both in their persons and armour. There was a body of sixteen thousand men armed after the manner of the Macedonians, which were called a phalanx. This formed the centre, and was divided in front into ten parts. These parts were separated by two elephants placed between each two; the line of soldiers was thirty-two ranks deep from point to rear. This was the main strength of the king’s army, and it exhibited a formidable sight, both in the other particulars of its appearance, and in the elephants towering so high among the soldiers. They were of huge bulk, and the caparisons of their foreheads and crests, and the towers fixed on their backs, with four armed men standing on each tower, besides the managers of the beasts, gave them a terrific appearance. On the right side of the phalanx, he placed five hundred GallogrÆcian horsemen. To these he joined three thousand horsemen clad in complete armour, whom they call Cataphracti, or mailed. To these were added a brigade of near a thousand horse, which they called Agema. They were Medes, all picked men, with a mixture of horsemen from many other nations in that part of the world. Adjoining these, a body of sixteen elephants was placed in reserve. On the same side, a little farther on towards the wing, was the royal cohort; these were called Argyraspides4], from the kind of armour which they wore. Next to these stood one thousand two hundred Dahan bowmen on horseback; then, three thousand light infantry, part Cretans and part Trallians, the number of each being equal; adjoining these, were two thousand five hundred Mysian archers. Four thousand CyrtÆan slingers and ElymÆan archers mixed together covered the flank of the wing. Next to the left flank of the phalanx, stood one thousand five hundred GallogrÆcian horse, and two thousand Cappadocians, (which were sent by king Ariarathes,) wearing the same kind of armour; then, auxiliaries of all kinds mixed together, two thousand seven hundred; then, three thousand mailed horsemen; then, one thousand other horsemen, being a royal cohort, equipped with lighter coverings for themselves and their horses, but, in other respects, not unlike the rest; they were mostly Syrians, with a mixture of Phrygians and Lydians. In the front of this body of cavalry were the chariots armed with scythes, and a kind of camels called dromedaries. These were ridden by Arabian archers, who carried thin swords four cubits long, that they might be able to reach the enemy from so great a height. Then followed another multitude, like that in the right wing,—first, Tarentines; then, two thousand five hundred GallogrÆcian horsemen; then, one thousand new Cretans, and one thousand five hundred Carians and Cilicians, armed in the same manner; then, an equal number of Trallians, with three thousand targeteers (these were Pisidians, Pamphylians, and Lycians); then came brigades of CyrtÆans and ElymÆans, equal to the auxiliaries placed on the right wing, and sixteen elephants, separated by a small interval. The king himself was in the right wing; the command of the left he gave to his son Seleucus, and Antipater, the son of his brother; the centre was intrusted to three, Minio, Zeuxis, and Philip, the master of the elephants.

41 A morning mist, which as the day advanced rose up in clouds, spread a general darkness; and the moisture issuing from it, and coming from the southward, wetted every thing, This circumstance, which was scarcely any inconvenience to the Romans, was very disadvantageous to the king’s troops. For the indistinctness of the light did not take away from the Romans the view of all parts of their line, since it was of moderate length; and the moisture tended but little to blunt their swords and javelins, as they were almost all heavy-armed troops. The king’s soldiers, as the line was so extensive, could not even see their wings from the centre, much less could those at the extremities see one another; and then, the moisture relaxed the strings of their bows, their slings, and the thongs of their javelins. Besides, the armed chariots, by means of which Antiochus had trusted utterly to disorder the enemy’s line, turned the terror of their operations on their owners. The manner in which they were armed was this: from the yoke, on both sides of the pole, they had lances5 ten cubits long, projecting like horns, to transfix any thing that came in their way. At each extremity of the yoke, two scythe-blades projected, one on a line with the yoke, the other on its lower side, pointing to the ground; the former to cut through any thing that might come within its reach on the side, the other to catch such as fell, or endeavoured to go under it. At each extremity of the axle of the wheels, two scythe-blades were fastened in the same manner. The king, as we mentioned before, had placed the chariots so armed in the front, because if they were placed in the rear, or between the ranks, they must be driven through their own soldiers. Which when Eumenes saw, not being ignorant of the method of opposing them, and knowing that aid of that sort might be rendered as dangerous to one side as the other, if an opponent should cast terror into the horses, rather than attack them in a regular battle, ordered the Cretan bowmen, and slingers, and javelin-bearers, with some troops of horse, not in a body, but scattering themselves as widely as possible, to rush forwards, and pour weapons on them from all sides at once. This storm, as it were, partly by the wounds made by the missile weapons thrown from every quarter, and partly by the discordant shouts raised, so terrified the horses, that immediately, as if unbridled, they galloped about at random. The light infantry, the lightly-accoutred slingers, and the active Cretans, quickly evaded their encounter. The horsemen, following them, increased the tumult and the terror of the horses and camels, which were likewise affrighted, the clamour being multiplied and increased by the rest of the crowd of bystanders. By these means, the chariots were driven out of the ground between the two lines. When this fruitless mimicry of war was over, both parties gave the signal, and advanced to a regular engagement.

42 But that futile affair was soon the cause of real loss. For the auxiliaries in reserve, which were posted next, being terrified at the turn and disorder of the chariots, betook themselves to flight, leaving all exposed as far as the post of the mailed horsemen; to whom when the Roman cavalry, after dispersing the reserves, approached, they did not sustain their first onset. Some fled, and others, being delayed by the weight of their coverings and armour, were put to the sword. The whole left wing then gave way, and the auxiliaries, posted between the cavalry and the phalanx, being thrown into confusion, the terror spread even to the centre. Here the ranks were broken, and by the flying soldiers rushing in between them, the use of their long spears, called by the Macedonians sarissas, was hindered. The Roman legions advanced and discharged their javelins among them in disorder. Even the elephants, standing in the way, did not deter the Roman soldiers, who had learned by experience in the African wars, both to evade the onset of the animal, and, getting at one side of it, either to ply it with darts, or, if they could come near enough, to wound its sinews with their swords. The front of the centre was now almost crushed, and the reserve, being surrounded, was attacked on the rear, when the Romans perceived their troops in another quarter flying, and heard shouts of dismay almost close to their camp. For Antiochus, who commanded the right wing, having observed that the enemy, through confidence in the river, had placed no reserve there, except four troops of horse, and that these, keeping close to the infantry, left an open space on the bank of the river, made a charge on them, with a body of auxiliaries and mailed horsemen. He not only attacked them in front, but having surrounded the wing in the direction of the river, pressed them in flank also; until the routed cavalry first, and then the infantry that were next them, fled with precipitation to the camp.

43 Marcus Æmilius, a military tribune, son of Marcus Lepidus, who, in a few years after, became chief pontiff, had the charge of the camp. He, when he saw the troops flying, went out, with his whole guard, to meet them. He ordered them, first, to halt, and then to return to the fight; at the same time upbraiding them with cowardice and disgraceful flight. He then proceeded to threats,—that if they did not obey his orders, they would rush blindly on their own destruction. At last he gave orders to his own men to kill the foremost of the runaways, and with sword-wounds to drive the crowd of fugitives back against the enemy. The greater fear now overcame the less. Compelled by the danger on either side, they first halted, and then returned to the encounter, and Æmilius, with his guard, consisting of two thousand men of distinguished valour, gave a vigorous check to the furious pursuit of Antiochus. At the same time, Attalus, the brother of Eumenes, came up in good time with two hundred horse from the right wing, by which the left of the enemy had been routed, at the beginning of the engagement, as soon as he observed the flight of his friends on the left, and the tumult near the camp. When Antiochus saw those men renewing the fight, whom, but just before, he had seen running away, and another large body advancing from the camp, with a third from the line, he turned his horse to flight. The Romans, thus victorious in both wings, advanced over heaps of slain, (which had been raised principally in the centre, where the strength of the bravest men and the armour by its weight had prevented flight,) to plunder the camp. The horsemen of Eumenes first, and then the rest of the cavalry, pursued the enemy through all parts of the plain, and killed the hindmost as they overtook them. But the fugitives suffered more severe loss by the chariots, elephants, and camels intermixed, and by their own disorderly crowd; for, after they once broke their ranks, they rushed, as if blind, one upon another, and were trodden to death by the trampling of the beasts. In the camp also there was great slaughter committed, rather greater than even in the field; for the flight of the first generally tended to the camp. The guard, through confidence in the great number of these, defended their works with the more obstinacy. The Romans having been stopped at the gates and rampart, which they had expected to take at the first rush, when they did at length break through, actuated by rage, made the more dreadful carnage.

44 Up to fifty thousand foot and three thousand horse are said to have been killed that day; one thousand four hundred taken, with fifteen elephants and their drivers. Of the Romans, many were wounded, but no more than three hundred foot and twenty-four horsemen killed; and of the troops of Eumenes, twenty-five. That day the victors, after plundering the enemy’s camp, returned with great store of booty to their own. On the day following, they stripped the bodies of the slain, and collected the prisoners. Ambassadors came from Thyatira and Magnesia, near Sipylus, with a surrender of those cities. Antiochus fled, with very few attendants; but greater numbers collecting about him on the road, he arrived at Sardis, with a tolerable body of soldiers, about the middle of the night. Then when he heard that his son Seleucus and several of his friends had gone on to Apamea, he likewise at the fourth watch set out for Apamea with his wife and daughter, having committed to Zeno the command of the city, and having placed Timon over Lydia; which being disregarded, ambassadors are sent to the consul, by the unanimous voice of the citizens and soldiers who were in the garrison.

45 About this time deputies came from Tralles, from Magnesia on the Masander, and from Ephesus, to surrender those cities. Polyxenidas had quitted Ephesus, as soon as he heard or the battle; and, sailing with the fleet as far as Patara, in Lycia, where, through fear of the Rhodian fleet stationed at Megiste, he landed, and, with a small retinue, pursued his journey, by land, into Syria. The several states of Asia placed themselves under the protection of the consul and the dominion of the Roman people. He was now at Sardis, whither Publius Scipio came from ElÆa, as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue of travelling. Shortly after, a herald from Antiochus solicited through Publius Scipio, and obtained from the consul, permission for the king to send ambassadors. In a few days’ time, Zeuxis, who had been governor of Lydia, and Antipater, the king’s nephew, arrived. These, having first had a meeting with Eumenes, whom they expected to find most averse to peace, on account of old disputes, and seeing him better disposed than they or the king could have hoped, addressed themselves then to Publius Scipio, and through him to the consul: and a numerously attended council being granted to them at their request to declare their commission, Zeuxis said, “we have not any thing to propose ourselves, but rather to inquire from you, Romans, by what atonements we can expiate the error of our king, and obtain pardon and peace from our conquerors. You have ever pardoned, with the greatest magnanimity, vanquished kings and nations. With how much greater and more placable spirit ought you to act now, after your late victory, which has made you masters of the whole world! You ought now, like deities laying aside all disputes with mortal beings, to protect and spare the human race.” It had been determined, before the ambassadors came, what answer should be given them; and it was agreed that Africanus should deliver it. He is said to have spoken thus: “Of those things that are in the gift of the immortal gods, we, Romans, possess as much as the gods have been pleased to bestow. In every state of fortune we have had, and have, the same spirit for this, under the sway of our reason: prosperity has never elated, nor adversity depressed it. Of the truth of this, (to omit other instances,) I might produce your friend Hannibal as a convincing proof: but I can appeal to yourselves. We now conquerors offer to you conquered the same conditions which we offered to you when on an equal footing, at the time that you made proposals of peace, after we crossed the Hellespont, before we beheld the king’s camp or army, when the chance of war was equal and the issue uncertain. Resign all pretensions in Europe, and cede that part of Asia which lies on this side of Mount Taurus. Then, towards the expenses of the war, ye shall pay fifteen thousand talents of Euboea;6 five hundred immediately, two thousand five hundred when the senate and people of Rome shall have ratified the peace, and one thousand annually for twelve years after. It likewise pleases us, that four hundred talents be paid to Eumenes, and the quantity of corn remaining unpaid, of what was due to his father. When we shall have settled these articles, it will be a sort of pledge, that we may consider it certain that you will perform them, if you give twenty hostages such as we shall choose. But it never will be clear to us that the Roman people will enjoy peace where Hannibal shall be. Him, therefore, we demand, above all. Ye shall also deliver up Thoas, the Ætolian, the fomenter of the Ætolian war, who armed you against us by the assurances of their support, and them by assurances of yours; and, together with him, Mnesilochus, the Acarnanian, and Philo, and Eubulidas, of Chalcis. The king will now make peace under worse circumstances on his side, because he makes it later than he might have done. If he now causes any delay, let him consider, that it is more difficult to pull down the majesty of kings from the highest to the middle stage, than it is to precipitate it from the middle to the lowest.” The ambassadors were sent by the king with these instructions, that they should accede to any terms of peace. It was resolved, therefore, that ambassadors should be sent to Rome. The consul distributed his army in winter quarters at Magnesia, on the MÆander, Tralles, and Ephesus. A few days after, the king brought the hostages to Ephesus to the consul; the ambassadors also, who were to go to Rome, arrived. Eumenes set out for Rome at the same time with the king’s ambassadors, and they were followed by embassies from all the states of Asia.

46 Whilst these things are being transacted in Asia, two proconsuls arrived almost together at Rome, from their provinces, with hopes of triumphing: Quintus Minucius, from Liguria, and Manius Acilius, from Ætolia. After hearing their services, the senate refused a triumph to Minucius, but, with great unanimity, decreed one to Acilius, and he rode through the city in triumph over king Antiochus and the Ætolians. In the procession were carried, two hundred and thirty military ensigns; of unwrought silver, three thousand pounds’ weight; of coin, one hundred and thirteen thousand Attic tetradrachms;7 and two hundred and forty-eight thousand8 cistophoruses;9 of chased silver vessels, a great number, and of great weight. He bore, also, the king’s silver, furniture, and splendid wardrobe; golden crowns, presents from the allied states, forty-five; with spoils of all kinds. He led thirty-six prisoners of distinction, generals of the Ætolian and royal armies. Damocritus, the Ætolian general, a few days before, when he had escaped out of prison in the night, being overtaken by the guards on the bank of the Tiber, stabbed himself with a sword before he was seized. Nothing was wanted but the soldiers, to follow the general’s chariot; in every other respect the triumph was magnificent, both in the grandeur of the procession and the fame of his achievements. Sad intelligence from Spain diminished the joy of this triumph, viz. that in an unsuccessful battle in the territory of the Bastitani, under the command of Lucius Æmilius, the proconsul, at the town of Lycon, there fell six thousand of the Roman army against the Lusitanians; and that the rest, being driven in a panic within their rampart, found it difficult to defend the camp, and had retreated, by forced marches, as if flying, into a friendly country. Such were the accounts from Spain. Lucius Aurunculeius, the prÆtor, introduced to the senate the deputies of Placentia and Cremona, in Cisalpine Gaul. When they complained of the want of colonists, some having been carried off by the casualties of war, others by sickness, and several having left the colonies, through disgust at the vicinity of the Gauls; on this, the senate decreed, that “Caius LÆlius, the consul, if he thought proper, should enrol six thousand families, to be distributed among these colonies, and that Lucius Aurunculeius, the prÆtor, should appoint commissioners to conduct the colonists.” Accordingly, Marcus Atilius Serranus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, son of Publius, and Lucius Valerius Tappo, son of Caius, were nominated to that office.

47 Not long after, as the time of the consular elections drew nigh, the consul, Caius LÆlius, came home to Rome from Gaul. He not only enrolled the colonists, according to a decree of the senate, passed in his absence, as a supplement to Cremona and Placentia, but proposed,—and, on his recommendation, the senate voted,—that two new colonies should be established in the lands which had belonged to the Boians. At the same time arrived a letter from the prÆtor, Lucius Æmilius, containing intelligence of the sea-fight that took place at Myonesus, and of Lucius Scipio the consul having transported his army into Asia. A supplication for one day was decreed, on account of the naval victory, and another, for the second day, in order that, as the Roman army had then for the first time pitched a camp in Asia, this circumstance might turn out prosperous and happy. The consul was ordered to sacrifice twenty of the greater victims on occasion of each supplication. The election of consuls was then held with a warm contest. Marcus Æmilius Lepidus sought the office under general censure, for having, in order to sue for the office, left his province of Sicily without having asked the senate for permission to do so. Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, Cneius Manlius Vulso, and Marcus Valerius Messala, were his competitors for the office. Fulvius alone was elected consul, since the rest could not make up the number of centuries; and the next day, rejecting Lepidus, (for Messala had declined,) he declared Cneius Manlius his colleague. Then were chosen prÆtors, two of the name of Quintus Fabius, Labeo and Pictor, (the latter of whom had in that year been inaugurated flamen quirinalis,) Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, Spurius Posthumius Albinus, Lucius Plautius HypsÆus, and Lucius BÆbius Dives.

48 Valerius Antias says, that at the time when Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Cneius Manlius Vulso were consuls, a rumour prevailed strongly at Rome, and was received as almost certain, that the consul, Lucius Scipio, and with him Publius Africanus, had been invited by the king to a conference, under pretence of restoring young Scipio, and were both seized, and that when the leaders were thus made prisoners, the enemy’s army was immediately led up to the Roman camp, that this was stormed, and the forces entirely cut off; that in consequence of this, the Ætolians had taken courage and refused to obey orders; and that several of their principal men had gone into Macedonia, Dardania, and Thrace, to hire auxiliaries; that Aulus Tarentius Varro, and Marcus Claudius Lepidus, had been sent by Aulus Cornelius, proprÆtor, from Ætolia, to carry this intelligence to Rome. To this story Valerius annexed that the Ætolian ambassadors were asked in the senate this question among others, from whom they had heard that the Roman generals were made prisoners by king Antiochus in Asia, and the army cut off; and that the Ætolians answered, that they had been informed of it by their own ambassadors, who were with the consul. As I have no other authority for this report, it has neither been confirmed in my opinion, nor has it been overlooked as groundless.

49 When the Ætolian ambassadors were brought to an audience of the senate, although their cause and their circumstances required, that they, by an ample confession, should suppliantly seek pardon for what was either their misfortune or their fault, yet having begun with enumerating their services to the Roman people, and talking reproachfully of their own valour in the war with Philip, they offended the ears of the senators by the insolence of their discourse. By calling up old and forgotten matters, they brought the affair to this, that the memory of many more injuries than services done by that nation occurred to the minds of the senate; and that they, who needed compassion, provoked anger and hatred. They were asked by one senator whether they yielded the disposal of themselves to the Roman people; then, by another, whether they would have the same allies and enemies as the Roman people: when they gave no answer, they were ordered to withdraw from the senate-house. The whole senate then, almost with one voice, cried out, that “the Ætolians were still entirely devoted to Antiochus; and that on that solitary hope their spirits depended. Wherefore the war ought to be carried on against such decided enemies, and their haughty spirits tamed.” Another circumstance inflamed the resentment of the senate, because that, in the very moment in which they were soliciting peace from the Romans, they were making war on Dolopia and Athamania. A decree of the senate was passed, on the motion of Manius Acilius, who had defeated Antiochus and the Ætolians, that “the Ætolian ambassadors should be ordered to leave the city that day, and quit Italy within fifteen days.” Aulius Terentius Varro was appointed to escort them on the road; and a threatening notice was given to them, that, “if any embassy from the Ætolians should thenceforth come to Rome, unless with the permission of the general who might be in command of that province, and with a Roman deputy, all such would be treated as enemies.”—In this manner were the Ætolians dismissed.

50 The consuls then consulted the senate concerning the provinces; and it was resolved that they should cast lots for Ætolia and Asia. To him who should obtain by lot Asia, was assigned the army which Lucius Scipio then had; and, as a reinforcement, four thousand Roman foot and two hundred horse, and of the allies and Latins eight thousand foot and four hundred horse: with which force he was to carry on the war with Antiochus. To the other consul was decreed the army in Ætolia; and he was allowed to raise, for a reinforcement, the same number of natives and allies as his colleague. The same consul was likewise ordered to equip and take with him the ships that had been fitted out the year before; and not only to wage war with the Ætolians, but also to pass over into the island of Cephallenia. Instructions were given to the same consul, that if he could do it to the advantage of the republic, he should come home to Rome to hold the elections; for, besides that the annual magistrates were to be replaced, it was resolved that censors also should be created; and if any particular business should detain him, he was then to acquaint the senate, that he could not attend at the time of the elections. Ætolia fell by lot to Marcus Fulvius; Asia, to Cneius Manlius. The prÆtors then cast lots, and Spurius Postumius Albinus obtained the city and foreign jurisdiction; Marcus Sempronius Tuditanus, Sicily; Quintus Fabius Pictor, the priest of Romulus, Sardinia; Quintus Fabius Labeo, the fleet; Lucius Plautius HypsÆus, Hither Spain; Lucius BÆbius Dives, Farther Spain. One legion, and the squadron which was then in Sicily, were decreed for that province; and it was ordered that the new prÆtor should levy on the Sicilians two tenths of the corn; one of which he was to send into Asia, the other into Ætolia. It was also ordered, that the same impost should be collected in Sardinia, and the corn sent to the same armies as the Sicilian corn. A reinforcement was given to Lucius BÆbius, for Spain, one thousand Roman foot and fifty horse, with six thousand Latin foot and two hundred horse. To Plautius HypsÆus, for the Hither Spain, were assigned one thousand Roman foot, and two thousand Latins, with two hundred horse; so that with these supplies the two Spains should have each a legion. In the case of the magistrates of the preceding year, the command was prolonged to Caius LÆlius for a year, with his present army, and to Publius Junius, the proprÆtor in Etruria, with the army which, was then in the province, and Marcus Tuccius, the proprÆtor in Bruttium and Apulia.

51 Before the prÆtors went into their provinces, a dispute arose between Publius Licinius, chief pontiff, and Quintus Fabius Pictor, priest of Romulus; such as had happened in the recollection of their fathers, between Lucius Metellus and Postumius Albinus. Metellus, who was chief pontiff at the time, had detained, for the performance of the business of religion, Albinus, the consul, who was setting out with his colleague, Caius Lutatius, to the fleet at Sicily; and now Publius Licinius detained the prÆtor Fabius from going to Sardinia. The matter was agitated in stormy debates, both in the senate and before the commons: authoritative commands were issued on both sides, pledges were seized, fines imposed, the tribunes applied to, and appeals made to the people. At last religion prevailed, so that the flamen obeyed the order of the pontiff; and the fines were remitted by order of the people. The senate by their authority prevented the prÆtor when attempting to abdicate the magistracy through anger at the loss of his province, and decreed that he should dispense justice among foreigners. The levies being finished in a few days, (for the soldiers to be enlisted were not many,) the consuls and prÆtors repaired to their provinces. Then a report of the transactions in Asia spread vaguely without an author; and in a few days after, certain information, and a letter from the general, arrived at Rome; which occasioned joy, not so much from recent fear, (for they had ceased to fear him who was conquered in Ætolia,) as from former fame; because by them commencing this war he was considered as a very formidable enemy, both on account of his own strength and because he had Hannibal to direct the business of the war. The senate determined that no change should be made in their sending the consul into Asia, and that no diminution of his forces should take place through apprehension of a war with the Gauls.

52 In a short time after, Marcus Aurelius Cotta, deputy from Lucius Scipio, with ambassadors from king Antiochus and king Eumenes, and the Rhodian delegates, arrived at Rome. Cotta, first in the senate, and then by their order in the assembly of the people, stated the services which were performed in Asia. Then a supplication for three days was decreed, and forty victims of the greater kinds ordered to be sacrificed. Then audience was given first to Eumenes. He, when he had briefly returned thanks to the senate, “because they had relieved him and his brother from a siege, and protected his kingdom from the unjust attacks of Antiochus” and had congratulated them “because they had carried on affairs successfully by sea and land, and because they had utterly routed, driven out of his camp, and expelled king Antiochus, first from Europe, and then from all Asia on this side of Mount Taurus;” then said “he preferred that they should learn his own deserts from their generals and deputies, rather than from his mouth.” All being pleased with his discourse, and desiring him to tell frankly, bashfulness being for the present laid aside, “what recompence he thought proper to be given by the senate and people of Rome;” assuring him that “the senate were inclined to act with greater zeal and more abundant liberality, if possible, according to his deserts.” To this the king answered, “if the choice of rewards were offered him by others, if only permission to consult the Roman senate were given to him, he would have availed himself of the advice of that most noble body, lest he might appear to have been either immoderate in his desires or shameless in his requests. But now, when they themselves were the donors, it was much more proper that their munificence towards him and his brothers should be regulated by their own judgment.” The senate were not discouraged by this answer from desiring him to speak; and when there had been a long contest of kindness on one side, and reserve on the other, whilst they deferred to one another with a politeness not more mutual than insuperable, Eumenes departed from the senate-house. The senate persisted in their resolution so far as to say, “that it was absurd that the king should not know with what hopes or request he came. That he himself best knew what would be suitable to his own dominions. He was much better acquainted with Asia than were the senate. That he ought to be called back and compelled to state what were his wishes and sentiments.”

53 The king, being brought back by the prÆtor into the senate-house, and desired to speak freely, began thus: “Conscript fathers. I should have persevered in being silent, but that I knew you would presently call in the Rhodian ambassadors, and that when they had been heard, the necessity of speaking would be imposed on me. And this my speech will be the more difficult on this account, because their demands will be of such a nature, that they will appear not only to make no demands which may be contrary to my interests, but not even to request any thing which may be intimately connected with themselves. For they will plead the cause of the Grecian states, and allege that they ought to be set free; which point being gained, to whom is it doubtful that they will alienate from us not only those states which shall be liberated, but likewise our ancient tributaries; and that after having bound them under so great an obligation, they will keep them under the denomination of allies, in reality subject to their government and entirely at their disposal? And, if it pleases the gods, while they will aspire to this so great power, they will pretend that this is no way connected with them; they will only say, that it is becoming you and conformable to your past conduct. You must be cautious, therefore, lest this speech deceive you; and lest by an unfair distribution, you not only depress some of your allies too much, while you exalt others beyond measure, but also put those who bore arms against you in a better state than your allies and friends. As to what regards myself in other cases, I should prefer to appear to any one to have yielded within the limit of my right, rather than to have struggled too obstinately in maintaining it; but in a contest of friendship and good-will towards you, and of the respect to be paid to you, I cannot with any patience bear to be outdone. This was the principal inheritance that I received from my father; who, of all the inhabitants of Asia and Greece, was the first who embraced your friendship; and this he maintained with constant and invariable fidelity to the last hour of his life. Nor did he display merely a faithful and kind inclination towards you, but was actively engaged in all the wars which you waged in Greece, whether on land or sea; he aided you with all kinds of provisions in such a manner, that not one of your allies could vie with him in any respect; and finally, while he was exhorting the Boeotians to an alliance with you, having fainted in the middle of his discourse, he shortly expired. In his steps have I trodden; and though I could not surpass the warmth of his wishes, and his zeal in courting your friendship—for these could not be exceeded—yet fortune, the times, Antiochus, and the war waged in Asia, afforded me occasions of surpassing him in real acts and merits, and valuable services. Antiochus, king of Asia, and of a part of Europe, offered me his daughter in marriage; offered to restore immediately the states that had revolted from us, and gave great hopes of enlarging my dominions, if I would have carried on war in conjunction with him against you. I will not boast on this account, because I was guilty of no trespass against you; but I will rather mention those instances of conduct which are worthy of the very early friendship between our house and you. I assisted your commanders with forces by land and sea, so that not one of your allies can stand in competition with me. I supplied them with provisions by land and sea. I was present in all the naval engagements which are fought in many places; and I never was sparing of my labour and danger. I underwent a siege, the most dreadful suffering that can occur in war, being shut up in Pergamus, in the utmost danger both of my kingdom and of my life. Afterwards when liberated from the siege, although in one part Antiochus, in another Seleucus, were encamped about the citadel of my kingdom, having deserted my own affairs, I went with my whole fleet to the Hellespont, to meet your consul Lucius Scipio, to assist in transporting his army. From the time that the army came over into Asia, I never quitted the consul; no Roman soldier was more regular in his attendance in your camp, than I and my brothers. No expedition, no cavalry action, was undertaken without me. In the field I took that post, and I maintained that ground, in which the consul wished me to be. I do not intend, conscript fathers, to say who in that war can be compared to me in services towards you. I would not hesitate to compare myself to any of those nations or kings whom you hold in great honour. Masinissa was your enemy before he became your ally; nor did he repair to you with his auxiliaries when his kingdom was safe; but dethroned, exiled, and stripped of all his forces, he fled for refuge to your camp with one troop of horse. Nevertheless, because he faithfully and diligently adhered to your cause in Africa, against Syphax and the Carthaginians, you not only restored him to the throne of his father, but by adding to his domain the most opulent part of the kingdom of Syphax, rendered him the most potent of all the kings in Africa. What reward then, and what honour are we worthy of at your hands, who have never been foes, but always allies? My father, myself, my brothers, have carried arms in your cause by sea and land, not only in Asia, but in countries remote from our home; in Peloponnesus, in Boeotia, in Ætolia, during the wars with Philip, and Antiochus, and the Ætolians. Some one may say, what therefore do you demand? Conscript fathers, since I must obey you when you desire me to explain my wishes: if you have removed Antiochus beyond the mountains of Taurus with the intention of holding those countries yourselves, I wish for no other people to settle near me, no other neighbours than you; nor could I hope that my kingdom would be rendered safer or firmer by any other event. But if your purpose is to retire hence, and withdraw your armies, I may venture to affirm, that not one of your allies is more deserving than I am of possessing what you have acquired. But then it will be a glorious act to liberate states that are in slavery. I agree that it will, provided they have committed nothing hostile against you. But if they took part with Antiochus, is it not much more becoming your wisdom and equity, to consult the interest of your well-deserving friends than that of your enemies?”

54 The king’s speech was pleasing to the senate, and it was very evident that they would do all things liberally, and with a desire to serve him. As one of the Rhodian ambassadors was absent, an embassy from Smyrna was next introduced, which was briefly disposed of. When the SmyrnÆans were highly complimented because they had resolved to endure the last extremities rather than surrender to the king, the Rhodians were next introduced. The chief of their embassy, after stating the commencement of their friendship with the Roman people and merits of the Rhodians, first in the war with Philip, and afterwards in that with Antiochus, said: “Conscript fathers, there is nothing in the whole course of our affairs that gives us more trouble and uneasiness than that we should have a debate with Eumenes; with whom alone, of all the kings in the world, each of us as individuals has a private tie of hospitality, and, what weighs more with us, our state has a public one. But, conscript fathers, it is not our own inclinations that disunite us, but the nature of circumstances which exercise an all-powerful influence, so that we, being free ourselves, plead the cause of other men’s freedom; while kings wish to have all things subservient and subject to their command. Yet, be that as it may, our respect towards the king is an obstacle to us, rather than that the debate is intricate, or likely to give you perplexity in your deliberations. For if no honour could be otherwise paid to the king, your friend and ally, who has merited highly in this very war, and concerning whose reward the consideration is, unless you should deliver free states into his power, the deliberation would be a difficult one, lest you should either send away a king, your friend, without due honour, or depart from your own institutions, and sully now, by the servitude of so many states, the glory which you have acquired in the war with Philip. But from this necessity of diminishing either your gratitude towards your friend, or your own glory, fortune completely frees you. For, through the bounty of the gods, your victory is not more glorious than it is rich, so that it can easily acquit you of that just as a debt. Lycaonia, both the Phrygias, with Pisidia, the Chersonese, and the adjoining parts of Europe, are all in your power; and any one of these, given to the king, can double his dominions; but if they were all conferred upon him, they would set him on a level with the greatest of kings. You have it, therefore, in your power to enrich your allies with the prizes of the war; and, not to depart from your usual line of policy, and to remember what motive you assigned as your cause of war, formerly against Philip, latterly against Antiochus; what you performed on the conquest of Philip; what is now desired and expected from you, not so much because you have done it before, as because it becomes you to do it. For different persons look on different circumstances as specious and plausible motives for taking up arms. Some go to war to get possession of land, some of villages, some of towns, some of ports, and some of the sea-coast. Such things you never coveted, when you had them not; and you cannot covet them now, when the whole world is under your dominion. You ever fought for your dignity and glory, in the sight of the whole human race, which long since has learned to respect your name and empire next to that of the immortal gods. And to procure and acquire these was an arduous task. I know not whether it may be more difficult to retain them. You have undertaken to defend from the slavery of kings the liberty of a nation the most ancient and most highly distinguished, both by the fame of its exploits, and by universal praise for politeness and learning; it becomes you to make this patronage of an entire nation, received under your care and protection, perpetual. The cities standing on the original soil, are not more Grecian than their colonies, which formerly migrated thence into Asia; nor has change of country changed either their race or manners. Every state among us has ventured to contend in a respectful contest, in every good quality and virtue, with its parents and founders. Most of you have visited the cities in Greece, and those in Asia. We are surpassed in no other circumstance than that we are too far distant from you. We hear that the inhabitants of Marseilles (who, if nature, implanted, as it were, in their bosoms, could be overcome by the genus of the soil, would ere this have been rendered savage, by the many barbarous tribes surrounding them) are deservedly held in as high honour and esteem by you as if they were inhabitants of the very centre of Greece. For they have preserved, not only the sound of the language, the mode of dress, and the habit; but, above all, the manners, the laws, and a mind pure and untainted by contagion from their neighbours. The boundary of your empire, at present, is Mount Taurus. Nothing within that line ought to be thought remote. To whatever extent your arms have reached, let justice, emanating from Rome, spread. Let barbarians, with whom the commands of masters have always served instead of laws, have kings, in which government they delight; the Greeks endure their own fortune; they have a spirit like your own. They too, in former times, grasped at empire by their internal strength. They now pray that empire may remain to eternity where it is at present. They consider it sufficient that their liberty should be defended by your arms, since they are unable to protect it by their own. But it is objected, that some of their states sided with Antiochus. So did others, before, with Philip; so did the Tarentines with Pyrrhus. Not to enumerate other nations, Carthage enjoys liberty and its own laws. Consider, conscript fathers, how much you owe to this example, set by yourselves. You will surely make up your mind to refuse to the ambition of Eumenes, what you refused to your own most just resentment. With what brave and faithful exertions we, Rhodians, have assisted you, both in this late war, and in all the wars that you have waged in that part of the world, we leave to your own judgment. We now, in peace, offer you such advice, that if you conform to it, all the world will judge that you used your victory with more honour to yourselves, than that with which you gained it.” Their arguments seemed well adapted to the Roman grandeur.

55 After the Rhodians, the ambassadors of Antiochus were called. These, after the common practice of petitioners for pardon, acknowledged the king’s error, and besought the conscript fathers to deliberate, mindful rather of their own mercy than of the misconduct of the king, who had suffered enough and more than enough of punishment; in fine, to ratify, by their authority, the peace granted by their general, Lucius Scipio, with the conditions on which he had given it. The senate voted, that the peace should be observed; and the people, a few days after, ordered it. The treaty was concluded in the Capitol with Antipater, chief of the embassy, and son of the brother of king Antiochus. Then the other embassies from Asia were heard, to all of whom was returned the same answer, that “the senate, in conformity with the usage of their ancestors, would send ten ambassadors to examine and adjust the affairs of Asia. That the general plan was to be this: that the places on this side of Mount Taurus, which had been within the limits of the realm of Antiochus, should be assigned to Eumenes, excepting Lycia and Caria, as far as the river MÆander; and that these last-mentioned should become the property of the Rhodians. That the other states of Asia, which had been tributary to Attalus, should likewise pay tribute to Eumenes; and such as had been tributary to Antiochus, should be free and independent.” They appointed ten ambassadors, Quintus Minucius Rufus, Lucius Furius Purpureo, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Appius Claudius Nero, Cneius Cornelius Merula, Marcus Junius Brutus, Lucius Aurunculeius, Lucius Æmilius Paulus, Publius Cornelius Lentulus, and Publius Ælius Tubero.

56 To these full instructions were given to decide whatever required an examination of the place. Concerning the general plan the senate voted: that “all Lycaonia, both the Phrygias, and Mysia, the royal forests, and Lydia, and Ionia, excepting those towns which had been free on the day whereon the battle was fought with Antiochus, and excepting by name Magnesia at Sipylus; then the city of Caria, called also Hydrela, and the territory of Hydrela, stretching towards Phrygia, and the forts and villages on the river MÆander, and likewise the towns, excepting such as had been free before the war, and excepting by name, Telmissus, and the fort of Telmissium, and the lands which had belonged to Ptolemy of Telmissus; all these which are written above, were ordered to be given to king Eumenes. Lycia was given to the Rhodians, excepting the same Telmissus, and the fort of Telmissium, with the lands which had belonged to Ptolemy of Telmissus; these were withheld both from Eumenes and the Rhodians. To the latter was given also that part of Caria which lies beyond the river MÆander nearest to the island of Rhodes, with its towns, villages, forts, and lands, extending to Pisidia, excepting those towns which had been in a state of freedom on the day before that of the battle with Antiochus.” The Rhodians, after returning thanks for these favours, mentioned the city of Soli in Cilicia, “the inhabitants of which,” they said, “as well as themselves, derived their origin from Argos; and, in consequence of this relation, a brotherly affection subsisted between the two states. They, therefore, requested the senate, as an extraordinary favour, to exempt that city from subjection to the king.” The ambassadors of Antiochus were called in, and the matter was proposed to them, but their consent could not be obtained; Antipater appealing to the treaty, in opposition to which, not only Soli, but Cilicia was sought by the Rhodians, and they were passing the summits of Taurus. The Rhodians being summoned again before the senate, the fathers, after they had stated how earnestly the king’s ambassador opposed the measure, added that “if the Rhodians were of opinion that the affair particularly affected the dignity of their state, the senate would try by all means to overcome the obstinacy of the ambassadors.” Hereupon the Rhodians, with greater warmth than before, returned thanks, and declared, that they would rather give way to the arrogance of Antipater, than afford any reason for disturbing the peace. So no change was made with respect to Soli.

57 During the time in which these things were transacted, deputies from Marseilles announced that Lucius BÆbius, the prÆtor, on his way into his province of Spain, had been surrounded by the Ligurians; that a great part of his retinue being slain, he himself, wounded, had made his escape, without his lictors, and with but few attendants, to Marseilles, and in three days after expired. The senate, on hearing of this misfortune, decreed, that Publius Junius Brutus, who was the proprÆtor in Etruria, having delivered the province and army to whichsoever of the lieutenants he should think proper, should go himself into Farther Spain, which was to be his province. This decree of the senate and a letter was sent by the prÆtor, Spurius Posthumius, into Etruria; and Publius Junius, the proprÆtor, set out for Spain, in which province, long before a successor could arrive, Lucius Æmilius Paulus, who afterwards with great glory conquered king Perseus, though he had carried on matters unsuccessfully the year before, having raised an army by a hasty levy, fought a pitched battle with the Lusitanians. The enemy were routed, and put to flight; eighteen thousand were killed, three thousand three hundred taken, and their camp stormed. The fame of this victory made matters more tranquil in Spain. In the same year, on the third day before the calends of January, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Marcus Atilius Serranus, and Lucius Valerius Tappo, triumvirs, settled a Latin colony at Bononia, according to a decree of the senate. Three thousand men were led to that place. Seventy acres were given to each horseman, fifty to each of the other colonists. The land had been taken from the Boian Gauls, who had formerly expelled the Tuscans.

58 In the same year, many distinguished men strove for the censorship; and this business, as if it furnished in itself insufficient grounds for dispute, gave rise to another contest of a much more violent nature. The candidates were, Titus Quintius Flamininus, Publius Cornelius Scipio, son of Cneius, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, Marcus Porcius Cato, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, and Manius Acilius Glabrio, who had defeated Antiochus and the Ætolians at ThermopylÆ. The favour of the people inclined to the last in particular, because he had given many largesses, by which he had bound a great number of men to him. When so many nobles could ill brook that a man of no family should be so much preferred to them, Publius Sempronius Gracchus and Caius Sempronius Rutilus, tribunes of the people, commenced a prosecution against him, on a charge, that he had neither exhibited in his triumph, nor lodged in the treasury, a large part of the royal treasure, and of the booty taken in the camp of Antiochus. The depositions of the lieutenants-general and military tribunes were at variance. Beyond all the other witnesses, Marcus Cato was remarkable, whose authority, acquired by the uniform tenor of his life, the fact of his being a candidate diminished. He, when a witness, affirmed, that he had not observed, in the triumph, the gold and silver vessels which, on the taking of the camp, he had seen among the other spoils of the king. At last Glabrio declared, that he declined the election, chiefly to throw odium on Cato; since he, a candidate of an origin as humble as his own, by an abominable perjury, attacked that which men of noble birth bore with silent indignation. A fine of one hundred thousand asses10 was proposed to the people against him. Twice there was a contest on the subject. On the third hearing, as the accused had declined the election, and the people were unwilling to vote about the fine, the tribunes also dropped the business. The censors elected were, Titus Quintius Flamininus and Marcus Claudius Marcellus.

59 At the same time, when an audience of the senate, in the temple of Apollo outside the city, was granted to Lucius Æmilius Regillus, who, with the fleet, had defeated the admiral of king Antiochus; after hearing the recital of his services, with what great fleets of the enemy he had engaged, how many of their ships he had sunk or taken, a naval triumph was voted him by the unanimous consent of the fathers. He triumphed on the calends of February. In this procession were carried forty-nine golden crowns; the quantity of money was by no means so great considering the appearance of the triumph over the king, being only thirty-four thousand seven hundred Attic tetradrachms,11 and one hundred and thirty-two thousand three hundred cistophoruses.12 Supplications were then performed, by order of the senate, in consideration of the successful services to the state, achieved in Spain by Lucius Æmilius Paulus. Not long after, Lucius Scipio arrived in the city; and, that he might not be inferior to his brother in point of a surname, he chose to be called Asiaticus. He spoke largely of his services both before the senate and a general assembly. There were some who judged that the war was greater by fame than by real difficulty; for it was terminated entirely by one memorable engagement; and that the glory of that victory had been stripped of its bloom at ThermopylÆ. But, to any person judging impartially, it must appear, that the light at ThermopylÆ was with the Ætolians, rather than with the king. For with how small a portion of his own strength did Antiochus engage in that battle! whereas, in the other, in Asia, the strength of the whole Asiatic continent stood combined; for he had collected auxiliaries of all nations from the most remote quarters of the east. Justly, therefore, were the greatest possible honours paid to the immortal gods, for having rendered a most important victory easy in the acquisition; and a triumph was decreed to the commander. He triumphed in the intercalary month, the day before the calends of March; which triumph was greater in the display to the eye than that of Africanus his brother, yet if we recall to our memory the circumstances, and estimate the dangers and difficulty, it was no more to be compared to it, than if you would contrast one general with the other, Antiochus with Hannibal. He carried, in his triumph, military standards, two hundred and thirty-four; models of towns, one hundred and thirty-four; elephants’ teeth, one thousand two hundred and thirty; crowns of gold, two hundred and twenty-four: pounds-weight of silver, one hundred and thirty-seven thousand four hundred and twenty; Attic tetradrachms, two hundred and twenty-four thousand;13 cistophoruses, three hundred and thirty-one thousand and seventy;14 gold pieces, called Philippians, one hundred and forty thousand;15 silver vases, all engraved, to the amount of one thousand four hundred and twenty-four pounds’ weight; of golden vases, one thousand and twenty-four pounds’ weight; and of the king’s generals, governors, and officers at court, thirty-two were led before his chariot. Twenty-five denariuses16 were given to each of his soldiers, double that sum to a centurion, triple it to a horseman; and after the triumph, their pay and allowance of corn were doubled. He had already doubled them after the battle in Asia. He triumphed about a year after the expiration of his consulship.

60 Cneius Manlius, the consul, arrived in Asia, and Quintus Fabius Labeo, the prÆtor, reached the fleet, nearly at the same time. The consul did not want reasons for war against the Gauls; the sea was subjected to the Romans since the conquest of Antiochus. It appeared best to Quintus Fabius, considering to what thing in particular he should apply himself, lest he might seem to have had a province in which there was no employment, to sail over to the island of Crete. The Cydonians were engaged in war against the Gortynians and Gnossians; and a great number of Roman and Italian captives were said to be in slavery in different parts of the island. Having sailed with the fleet from Ephesus, as soon as he touched the shore of Crete, he despatched orders to all the states to cease from hostilities, and to search each of them for the captives in its own cities and territory, and bring them to him; also, to send ambassadors to him, to treat of matters belonging alike to the Romans and Cretans. These orders had little influence on the Cretans. Excepting the Gortynians, none of them restored the captives. Valerius Antias relates, that as many as four thousand captives were restored out of the whole island, because the Cretans feared his threats of war; and that this was deemed a sufficient reason for Fabius obtaining from the senate a naval triumph, although he performed no other exploit. From Crete Fabius returned to Ephesus: having despatched three ships from the latter place to the coast of Thrace, he ordered the garrisons of Antiochus to be withdrawn from Ænos and Maronea, that these cities might be left at liberty.