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[1] Consules praetoresque cum idibus Martiis magistratum inissent prouincias sortiti sunt. L. Lentulo Italia, P. Uillio Macedonia, praetoribus L. Quinctio urbana, Cn. Baebio Ariminum, L. Ualerio Sicilia, L. Uillio Sardinia euenit. Lentulus consul nouas legiones scribere iussus, Uillius a P. Sulpicio exercitum accipere: in supplementum eius quantum militum uideretur ut scriberet ipsi permissum.
[1] The consuls and praetors, when on the Ides of March they had entered upon their magistracy, apportioned the provinces by lot. To L. Lentulus came Italy, to P. Villius Macedonia; among the praetors, to L. Quinctius the urban jurisdiction, to Cn. Baebius Ariminum, to L. Valerius Sicily, to L. Villius Sardinia fell. The consul Lentulus was ordered to enroll new legions; Villius to receive the army from P. Sulpicius: permission was granted to him to enroll as many soldiers as might seem good for its reinforcement.
To the praetor Baebius the legions which the consul C. Aurelius had held were thus decreed, that he should retain them until the consul should succeed him with a new army; in Gaul, when he had arrived, all the soldiers discharged from service were to be sent home except five thousand of the allies: with these it would be sufficient for the province around Ariminum to be held. The commands were prorogued to the praetors of the previous year—C. Sergius, that he should see to the assigning of land to the soldiers who for many years had done stipends in Spain, Sicily, and Sardinia; Q. Minucius, that in the Bruttii he should likewise complete the investigations concerning the conspiracies which, as praetor, he had conducted with good faith and care, and that those whom, found guilty of sacrilege, he had sent in chains to Rome, he should send to Locri for punishment, and that he should see to it that whatever had been taken from the shrine of Proserpina be replaced with expiations. The Latin Feriae were renewed by decree of the pontiffs, because envoys from Ardea had complained in the senate that on the Alban Mount the meat, as is customary, had not been given to them by the Latins.
From Suessa it was reported that two gates and the stretch of wall between them had been struck from the sky; and envoys from Formiae [reported] the temple of Jupiter, likewise the Ostians the temple of Jupiter, and the Veliternans the temples of Apollo and Sancus, and that in the temple of Hercules a lock of hair had sprouted; and from Bruttium it was written by Q. Minucius, the propraetor, that a foal with five feet, and three chicken chicks with three feet apiece had been born. Letters were brought from Macedonia by P. Sulpicius, the proconsul, in which, among other things, it was written that a laurel had sprung up on the stern of a warship. Because of earlier prodigies the senate had decreed that the consuls should sacrifice with greater victims to whichever gods should seem proper; on account of this one prodigy the haruspices were called into the senate, and in accordance with their response a public supplication for one day was proclaimed to the people, and religious rites were performed at all the sacred couches.
[2] Carthaginienses eo anno argentum in stipendium impositum primum Romam aduexerunt. Id quia probum non esse quaestores renuntiauerant experientibusque pars quarta decocta erat, pecunia Romae mutua sumpta intertrimentum argenti expleuerunt. Petentibus deinde ut, si iam uideretur senatui, obsides sibi redderentur, centum redditi obsides; de ceteris, si in fide permanerent, spes facta.
[2] The Carthaginians that year for the first time brought to Rome the silver imposed for stipend. Because the quaestors had reported that it was not of good quality and, when assayed, a fourth part had boiled off, with money borrowed at Rome they made up the loss of the silver. Then, upon their requesting that, if it now seemed good to the senate, hostages be returned to them, one hundred hostages were returned; for the rest, hope was held out, if they remained in good faith.
At the petition of those same people, whose hostages were not being returned, that they be transferred from Norba, where they were rather inconveniently situated, to another place, it was granted that they pass to Signia and Ferentinum. Likewise, at the request of the Gaditani, it was remitted that a prefect not be sent to Gades, contrary to what had been agreed with them when they came into the faith of the Roman People with Lucius Marcius Septimus. And when the legates of the Narnians complained that they did not have colonists up to the required number and that certain persons, not of their own stock, mixed in, were conducting themselves as colonists, for these matters the consul Lucius Cornelius was ordered to appoint a board of three men (triumvirs).
[3] Rebus quae Romae agendae erant perfectis consules in prouincias profecti. P. Uillius in Macedoniam cum uenisset, atrox seditio militum iam ante inritata nec satis in principio compressa excepit. Duo milia ea militum fuere, quae ex Africa post deuictum Hannibalem in Siciliam, inde anno fere post in Macedoniam pro uoluntariis transportata erant.
[3] With the affairs which had to be transacted at Rome completed, the consuls set out to their provinces. When P. Villius had come into Macedonia, a savage sedition of the soldiers—already earlier incited and not sufficiently repressed at the outset—met him. They were two thousand of those soldiers who, out of Africa after Hannibal had been vanquished, had been transported to Sicily, and from there about a year later to Macedonia as “volunteers.”
They denied that this had been done by their own will: that, refusing, they had been put aboard the ships by the tribunes. But however it was, whether the military service had been enjoined or undertaken, it had been exhausted, and it was fair that some end to soldiering be made. For many years they had not seen Italy; they had grown old under arms in Sicily, Africa, Macedonia; they were now worn out with toil and work, bloodless from so many wounds received.
The consul said that the cause for petitioning for discharge seemed probable, if it were sought with modesty: but that for sedition neither that nor any other was a sufficiently just cause. Therefore, if they were willing to remain at the standards and obey the command, he would write to the senate about their discharge; by modesty rather than by pertinacity they would more easily obtain what they wanted.
[4] Thaumacos eo tempore Philippus summa ui oppugnabat aggeribus uineisque et iam arietem muris admoturus erat. Ceterum incepto absistere eum coegit subitus Aetolorum aduentus, qui Archidamo duce inter custodias Macedonum moenia ingressi nec nocte nec die finem ullum erumpendi nunc in stationes, nunc in opera Macedonum faciebant. Et adiuuabat eos natura ipsa loci.
[4] At that time Philip was assaulting Thaumacus with utmost force, with siege-mounds and vineae, and was now about to bring a battering-ram up to the walls. However, a sudden arrival of the Aetolians compelled him to desist from his undertaking: under Archidamus as leader, having entered the walls through the Macedonians’ watches, they made no end either by night or by day of sallying—now upon the pickets, now upon the works—of the Macedonians. And the very nature of the place was aiding them.
For Thaumaci, to one going from the Pylae and the Maliac Gulf through Lamia, are set on a high place in the very passes, overhanging what they call the Hollow of Thessaly; and to one traversing the rugged places and the roads entangled with the flexures of the valleys, when one has come to this city, suddenly, as a vast sea, so the whole plain is laid open, so that you can hardly with your eyes bound the fields lying beneath: from that marvel they are called Thaumaci. Nor is the city safe by its elevation alone, but because, the rock having been cut away on every side, it is placed upon cliffs. These difficulties, and the fact that the prize was not quite worthy of so great labor and peril, brought it about that Philip desisted from his undertaking.
[5] Ibi ceteri quidem data quanticumque quiete temporis simul animos corporaque remiserant; Philippum quantum ab adsiduis laboribus itinerum pugnarumque laxauerat animum, tanto magis intentum in uniuersum euentum belli curae angunt, non hostes modo timentem qui terra marique urgebant, sed nunc sociorum, nunc etiam popularium animos, ne et illi ad spem amicitiae Romanorum deficerent et Macedonas ipsos cupido nouandi res caperet. Itaque et in Achaiam legatos misit, simul qui ius iurandum—ita enim pepigerant quotannis iuraturos in uerba Philippi—exigerent, simul qui redderent Achaeis Orchomenon et Heraean et Triphylian Eleis <ademptam, Megalopolitis> Alipheran, contendentibus nunquam eam urbem fuisse ex Triphylia sed sibi debere restitui, quia una esset ex iis quae ad condendam Megalen polin ex concilio Arcadum contributae forent. Et cum Achaeis quidem per haec societatem firmabat: <ad> Macedonum animos cum Heracliden amicum maxime inuidiae sibi esse cerneret, multis criminibus oneratum in uincla coniecit ingenti popularium gaudio.
[5] There the rest, indeed, with whatever quiet of time had been given, together relaxed minds and bodies; but Philip—in proportion as the continual labors of marches and battles had loosened his spirit—was all the more, intent upon the overall event of the war, tormented by cares, fearing not only the enemies who pressed him by land and sea, but now the minds of the allies, now even those of his own people, lest they too should defect to the hope of Roman friendship, and a desire of innovating affairs seize the Macedonians themselves. Accordingly he sent envoys both into Achaea, at once to exact the oath—for thus they had bargained, that they would swear every year to the words of Philip—and at once to restore to the Achaeans Orchomenus and Heraea and the Triphylian Aliphera taken from the Eleans <ademptam, Megalopolitis>, the Megalopolitans contending that that city had never been of Triphylia but ought to be restored to themselves, because it was one of those which had been contributed by decree of the Arcadians for founding Megalopolis. And with the Achaeans indeed through these measures he was strengthening the alliance: <to> the minds of the Macedonians, since he perceived that Heraclides, a friend, was most of all a cause of envy to himself, he cast him, loaded with many charges, into chains, to the huge joy of the populace.
He prepared for war—if ever before others, then at that time—with great care, and drilled in arms both the Macedonians and the mercenary soldiers; and at the beginning of spring, with Athenagoras, he sent all foreign auxiliaries and whatever was of the light-armed into Chaonia through Epirus to seize the passes which are at Antigonea—the Greeks call them Stena. He himself, a few days later, following with a heavier column, when he had inspected the entire situation of the region, judged the place most suitable for fortifying to be along the river Aous. This flows between mountains, one of which the inhabitants call Meropus, the other Asnaus, through a narrow valley, providing a scant path along the bank.
He orders Athenagoras, with the light-armed, to hold and fortify Asnaus; he himself pitched camp on Meropus. Where the cliffs were sheer, a picket of a few armed men held the post; where things were less secure, in some places he strengthened them with ditches, in others with a rampart, in others with towers. A great force of artillery too was stationed in suitable spots, so that by missiles they might keep the enemy at a distance.
[6] Consul per Charopum Epiroten certior factus quos saltus cum exercitu insedisset rex, et ipse, cum Corcyrae hibernasset, uere primo in continentem trauectus ad hostem ducere pergit. Quinque milia ferme ab regiis castris cum abesset, loco munito relictis legionibus ipse cum expeditis progressus ad speculanda loca postero die consilium habuit, utrum per insessum ab hoste saltum, quamquam labor ingens periculumque proponeretur, transitum temptaret, an eodem itinere quo priore anno Sulpicius Macedoniam intrauerat, circumduceret copias. Hoc consilium per multos dies agitanti ei nuntius uenit T. Quinctium consulem factum sortitumque prouinciam Macedoniam maturato itinere iam Corcyram traiecisse.
[6] The consul, made informed through Charops the Epirote which passes the king had occupied with his army, he himself, after wintering at Corcyra, at the first of spring conveyed across to the mainland, proceeds to lead against the enemy. When he was about five miles from the royal camp, leaving the legions in a fortified position, he himself, advancing with the light troops to reconnoiter the localities, on the following day held a council whether he should attempt a crossing through the pass occupied by the enemy—although vast toil and danger were set before him—or should conduct his forces around by the same route by which in the previous year Sulpicius had entered Macedonia. As he was agitating this plan for many days, a messenger came to him that T. Quinctius had been made consul and had drawn by lot the province of Macedonia, and, with his journey hastened, had already crossed over to Corcyra.
Valerius Antias relates that Villius entered the pass, because by the straight road he had been unable, with all approaches occupied by the king; that he followed the valley through which the river Aous is borne down the middle; that, a bridge having been made rapidly, he crossed to the bank on which the royal camp was and engaged in battle in line of battle; that the king was routed and put to flight and stripped of his camp; that 12,000 of the enemy were slain in that battle, 2,200 captured, and 132 military standards and 230 horses taken; that a temple also was vowed to Jupiter in that battle, if the affair should be conducted prosperously. The rest of the Greek and Latin authors, whose Annals indeed I have read, report that nothing memorable was done by Villius, and that the war, intact, was received by the succeeding consul, T. Quinctius.
[7] Dum haec in Macedonia geruntur, consul alter L. Lentulus, qui Romae substiterat, comitia censoribus creandis habuit. Multis claris petentibus uiris creati censores P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus et P. Aelius Paetus. Ii magna inter se concordia et senatum sine ullius nota legerunt et portoria uenalicium Capuae Puteolisque, item Castrum portorium, quo in loco nunc oppidum est, fruendum locarunt colonosque eo trecentos—is enim numerus finitus ab senatu erat- adscripserunt et sub Tifatis Capuae agrum uendiderunt.
[7] While these things were being transacted in Macedonia, the other consul, L. Lentulus, who had remained at Rome, held the comitia for creating censors. With many distinguished men seeking the office, the censors elected were P. Cornelius Scipio Africanus and P. Aelius Paetus. They, in great concord between themselves, both enrolled the senate without a mark upon anyone, and farmed out the customs on slave-sales at Capua and Puteoli, likewise the Castrum portorium, in which place there is now a town, for enjoyment of the revenues, and they enrolled colonists there to the number of 300 —for that number had been fixed by the senate- and sold land at Capua under the Tifata hills.
About the same time, L. Manlius Acidinus, departing from Spain, having been prohibited by P. Porcius Laeca, tribune of the plebs, from returning in an ovation, when he had obtained it from the senate, entered the city as a private citizen and brought into the treasury six thousand pounds of silver and about thirty pounds of gold. In the same year Cn. Baebius Tamphilus, who had received the province of Gaul from C. Aurelius, consul of the previous year, having rashly entered the borders of the Insubrian Gauls, was nearly surrounded with his whole army; he lost more than six thousand seven hundred soldiers: so great a disaster was received from that war which had already ceased to be feared. This matter summoned the consul L. Lentulus from the city; who, when he came into the province, full of tumult, and had received a panic-stricken army, after assailing the praetor with many reproaches, ordered him to depart from the province and go back to Rome.
Nor did the consul himself achieve anything memorable, having been recalled to Rome for the sake of the elections; and these very elections were being impeded by Marcus Fulvius and Manius Curius, tribunes of the plebs, because they did not allow Titus Quinctius Flamininus to seek the consulship straight from the quaestorship: already the aedileship and the praetorship were being disdained, and noble men, giving a proof of themselves, were not aiming at the consulship through the steps of honors, but by overleaping the middle they were making the highest continuous with the lowest. The matter passed from the contest in the Campus to the Senate. The Fathers decreed that whoever sought an office which it was permitted by the laws for him to take, it was fair that the power be granted of being elected in whatever popular assembly he wished.
[8] Sex. Aelius Paetus T. Quinctius Flamininus consules magistratu inito senatum in Capitolio cum habuissent, decreuerunt patres ut prouincias Macedoniam atque Italiam consules compararent inter se sortirenturue: utri eorum Macedonia euenisset, in supplementum legionum tria milia militum Romanorum scriberet et trecentos equites, item sociorum Latini nominis quinque milia peditum, quingentos equites; alteri consuli nouus omnis exercitus decretus. L. Lentulo prioris anni consuli prorogatum imperium uetitusque aut ipse prouincia decedere prius aut ueterem deducere exercitum quam cum legionibus nouis consul uenisset.
[8] Sextus Aelius Paetus and Titus Quinctius Flamininus, consuls, after entering upon their magistracy and having held the senate on the Capitol, the Fathers decreed that the consuls should arrange between themselves or cast lots for the provinces Macedonia and Italy: whichever of them Macedonia had fallen to, he should enroll, as a supplement to the legions, three thousand Roman infantry and three hundred cavalry, likewise of the allies of the Latin name five thousand foot and five hundred horse; for the other consul an entirely new army was decreed. For Lucius Lentulus, the consul of the previous year, his imperium was prolonged, and he was forbidden either to leave his province himself earlier or to lead away the old army before the consul should have come with the new legions.
The consuls drew lots for the provinces: to Aelius fell Italy, to Quinctius Macedonia. The praetors drew lots: L. Cornelius Merula the urban jurisdiction, M. Claudius Sicily, M. Porcius Sardinia, C. Helvius Gaul. A levy then began to be held; for, besides the consular armies, the praetors too had been ordered to enroll soldiers— for Marcellus for Sicily four thousand foot of the allies and of the Latin name and three hundred horse; for Cato for Sardinia, from the same kind of soldiers, two thousand foot and two hundred horse— on condition that both those praetors, when they had come into their provinces, should discharge the old infantry and cavalry.
Then the consuls introduced into the Senate the legates of King Attalus. After they had set forth that the king, with his fleet and with all his forces by land and sea, was aiding the Roman cause and had, energetically and obediently, up to that day done whatever the Roman consuls commanded, they said they feared that it would no longer be permitted him to furnish that aid on account of King Antiochus: for Antiochus had invaded the kingdom of Attalus, left vacant of naval and terrestrial garrisons. And so Attalus begs the Conscript Fathers, if they wish to use his fleet and his service in the Macedonian war, to send themselves a garrison for the safeguarding of his kingdom; if they do not wish that, to allow him to return with his fleet and the remaining forces to defend his own.
The senate ordered answer to be given thus to the legates: that, because King Attalus had aided the Roman commanders with his fleet and other forces, that was pleasing to the senate; that they themselves would neither send auxiliaries to Attalus against Antiochus, an ally and friend of the Roman people, nor retain Attalus’s auxiliaries beyond what was convenient for the king; that the Roman people has always dealt with others’ affairs at others’ discretion; and that both the beginning and the end are in the power of those who wish the Romans to be assisted by their own help; that they would send envoys to Antiochus to announce that the Roman people employs the services of Attalus and of his ships and soldiers against Philip, the common enemy; that he would do what is gratifying to the senate if he refrains from the realm of Attalus and desists from war; that it is equitable that kings who are allies and friends of the Roman people keep peace among themselves as well.
[9] Consulem T. Quinctium ita habito dilectu ut eos fere legeret qui in Hispania aut Africa meruissent spectatae uirtutis milites, properantem in prouinciam prodigia nuntiata atque eorum procuratio Romae tenuerunt. De caelo tacta erant uia publica Ueis, forum et aedes Iouis Lanuui, Herculis aedes Ardeae, Capuae murus et turres et aedes quae Alba dicitur; caelum ardere uisum erat Arreti; terra Uelitris trium iugerum spatio cauerna ingenti desederat; Suessae Auruncae nuntiabant agnum cum duobus capitibus natum et Sinuessae porcum <cum> humano capite. Eorum prodigiorum causa supplicatio unum diem habita, et consules rebus diuinis operam dederunt placatisque diis in prouincias profecti sunt: Aelius cum Heluio praetore in Galliam; exercitumque ab L. Lentulo acceptum, quem dimittere debebat, praetori tradidit, ipse nouis legionibus quas secum adduxerat bellum gesturus; neque memorabilis rei quicquam gessit.
[9] The consul T. Quinctius, after holding a levy in such fashion that he chose for the most part those soldiers who had served in Spain or Africa, men of proven valor, was, though hastening to his province, detained at Rome by prodigies reported and their expiation. The public road at Veii, the forum and the temple of Jupiter at Lanuvium, the temple of Hercules at Ardea, at Capua the wall and towers and the temple which is called the Alba, had been struck by lightning; the sky was seen to be on fire at Arretium; at Velitrae the ground had sunk down into a vast chasm over a space of three iugera; at Suessa Aurunca they reported a lamb born with two heads, and at Sinuessa a pig with a human head. On account of those prodigies a supplicatio was held for one day, and the consuls gave attention to the divine rites; and, the gods appeased, they set out to their provinces: Aelius, with the praetor Helvius, into Gaul; and the army received from L. Lentulus, which he was bound to discharge, he handed over to the praetor, he himself intending to wage war with the new legions which he had brought with him; nor did he achieve anything of memorable matter.
T. Quinctius, the other consul, after he had crossed from Brundisium earlier than previous consuls were wont, secured Corcyra with eight thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry. From Corcyra he crossed in a quinquereme to the nearest part of Epirus and hastened by forced marches to the Roman camp. Thence, Villius being dismissed, after delaying a few days until the forces from Corcyra might overtake him, he took counsel whether he should try to force a passage straight along the road through the enemy’s camp, or, without even attempting a matter of such toil and peril, should enter Macedonia rather by a safe circuit through the Dassaretii and Lyncus; and that plan would have prevailed, had he not feared that, when he had withdrawn farther from the sea and let the enemy slip from his hands, if the king should wish, as he had done before, to protect himself by wildernesses and forests, the summer would be drawn out without any result.
[10] Diesque quadraginta sine ullo conatu sedentes in conspectu hostium absumpserant. Inde spes data Philippo est per Epirotarum gentem temptandae pacis; habitoque concilio delecti ad eam rem agendam Pausanias praetor et Alexander magister equitum consulem et regem, ubi in artissimas ripas Aous cogitur amnis, in conloquium adduxerunt. Summa postulatorum consulis erat: praesidia ex ciuitatibus rex deduceret; iis quorum agros urbesque populatus esset, redderet res quae comparerent; ceterorum aequo arbitrio aestimatio fieret.
[10] And they had spent forty days, sitting without any attempt, in the sight of the enemy. Then hope was given to Philip, through the nation of the Epirotes, for attempting peace; and, a council having been held, men chosen for carrying out that business—Pausanias the praetor and Alexander the master of horse—brought the consul and the king into a parley where the river Aous is forced into very narrow banks. The sum of the consul’s demands was this: that the king withdraw the garrisons from the cities; that to those whose fields and cities he had ravaged he restore the property which could be found; for the rest, a valuation should be made by equitable arbitration.
Philip replied that the condition of some cities was different from that of others: those which he had taken himself he would liberate; those which had been handed down to him from his ancestors he would not depart from in their hereditary and just possession. If any war‑disasters were complained of by those cities with which war had been waged, he would make use of an arbitrator whom they wished, from among the peoples with whom peace had stood for both sides. The consul said that for that, indeed, there was no need of an arbitrator or judge: for whom is it not apparent that the injury arose from him who had first brought in arms, and that Philip, not provoked to war by any, had been the first to inflict violence upon all?
Then, when it was being discussed which cities were to be liberated, the consul named the Thessalians first of all. At this the king was so inflamed with indignation that he cried out, ‘What more grievous would you impose upon the conquered, Titus Quinctius?’ and so he rushed out of the conference; and it was scarcely restrained that they did not join battle with missiles, since they had been separated by the river flowing between. On the following day, through excursions from the outposts, first on a plain sufficiently open for that, many light skirmishes were engaged; then, as the king’s troops withdrew into narrow and craggy places, the Romans too, inflamed with eagerness for the contest, penetrated even there.
On their side there were order and military discipline and a kind of arms, apt for covering bodies; on the enemy’s side, the positions and catapults and ballistae, arranged on almost all the crags as if on a wall. With many wounds received here and there, and when also, as in a pitched battle, several had fallen, night put an end to the fight.
[11] Cum in hoc statu res esset, pastor quidam a Charopo principe Epirotarum missus deducitur ad consulem. Is se in eo saltu qui regiis tum teneretur castris armentum pascere solitum ait omnes montium eorum anfractus callesque nosse. Si secum aliquos consul mittere uelit, se non iniquo nec perdifficili aditu super caput hostium eos educturum.
[11] When matters were in this state, a certain shepherd, sent by Charops, prince of the Epirotes, is conducted to the consul. He says that in that mountain-pass, which was then held by the royal camp, he was accustomed to pasture a herd of cattle, and that he knows all the windings and by-paths of those mountains. If the consul should wish to send some men with him, he would lead them by an approach neither disadvantageous nor very difficult to a position over the enemy’s head.
When the consul heard these things, he sends to Charopus to make inquiry whether he judged that one ought to trust sufficiently, in so great a matter, the rustic; Charopus orders it to be reported that he should believe on this condition: that everything be rather in his own power than in the other’s. Since he wished more to believe than he dared and bore a spirit mingled with joy and fear, moved by the authority of Charopus he decided to try the hope offered; and, to avert the king from suspicion, on the next two days he did not cease to provoke the enemy, with forces disposed on every side and fresh men succeeding into the place of the wearied. Thence he hands over 4,000 chosen infantry and 300 cavalry to a tribune of soldiers.
He orders the cavalry to be led as far as the places will allow: when it has come to ground trackless for horse, the cavalry is to be stationed on some plain, the foot-soldiers to go by the way which the guide points out; when, as he promises, it has been reached above the enemy’s head, to give a signal by smoke, and not to raise a shout before he could suppose, upon a signal received from himself, that the battle had been begun. He orders the marches to be made by night—and by chance the moon was all-night—: in the daytime to take time for food and rest. The guide, laden with promises among the tribes, should good faith stand, he nevertheless hands over in bonds to the tribune.
[12] Interim die tertio cum uerticem quem petierant Romani cepisse ac tenere se fumo significarent, tum uero trifariam diuisis copiis consul ualle media cum militum robore succedit, cornua dextra laeuaque admouet castris; nec segnius hostes obuiam eunt. Et dum auiditate certaminis prouecti extra munitiones pugnant, haud paulo superior est Romanus miles et uirtute et scientia et genere armorum: postquam multis uolneratis interfectisque recepere se regii in loca aut munimento aut natura tuta, uerterat periculum in Romanos temere in loca iniqua nec faciles ad receptum angustias progressos. Neque impunita temeritate inde recepissent sese, ni clamor primum ab tergo auditus, dein pugna etiam coepta amentes repentino terrore regios fecisset.
[12] Meanwhile, on the third day, when the Romans by smoke signified that they had seized and were holding the summit they had sought, then indeed, with the forces divided three ways, the consul advances by the middle valley with the strength of the soldiery, and he brings the right and left wings up to the camp; nor do the enemies go to meet them with less briskness. And while, carried forward by avidity for combat, they fight outside the fortifications, the Roman soldier is by no small degree superior both in valor and in skill and in the kind of arms: after many had been wounded and killed, the king’s men withdrew into places safe either by fortification or by nature; the danger had turned upon the Romans, who had rashly advanced into unfavorable ground and into narrow passes not easy for a retreat. Nor would they have withdrawn themselves thence with their rashness unpunished, if a shout first heard from the rear, and then even a battle begun, had not made the royal troops mad with sudden terror.
Some were scattered into flight; others, rather because a place for flight was lacking than because there was spirit enough for fighting, when they had halted, were circumvented with the enemy pressing both from the front and from the rear. The whole army could have been destroyed if the victors had pursued the fugitives; but the horsemen were impeded by the narrowness and the asperity of the places, the foot-soldiers by the heaviness of their arms. The king at first fled headlong and without respect; then, after advancing a distance of 5 miles, since from the unfavorableness of the terrain he suspected, as indeed was the case, that the enemy could not follow, he halted on a certain mound and sent his men through all the ridges and valleys to collect into one those dispersed.
With not more than two thousand men lost, all the remaining multitude, as if following some signal, when they had come together into one body, make for Thessaly in a crowded column. The Romans, pursuing as far as it was safe, cutting down and despoiling the slain, plunder the royal camp, which was of difficult access even without defenders; and that night they remained in their own camp.
[13] Postero die consul per ipsas angustias quas inter ualle se flumen insinuat hostem sequitur. Rex primo die ad castra Pyrrhi peruenit; locus quem ita uocant est in Triphylia terrae Molottidis. Inde postero die—ingens iter agmini, sed metus urgebat—in montes Lyncon perrexit.
[13] On the next day the consul follows the enemy through the very defiles where the river insinuates itself between the valley. The king on the first day reached the camp of Pyrrhus; the place which they so call is in Triphylia of the land of the Molottis. Thence on the following day—an enormous march for the column, but fear was pressing—he proceeded into the Lynci mountains.
The Epirotes themselves are interposed between Macedonia and Thessaly: the side which inclines toward Thessaly looks eastward; on the north it is opposed by Macedonia. They are clad with frequent forests; the highest ridges have broad fields and perennial waters. There, with a standing camp maintained for several days, the king fluctuated in mind whether he should at once withdraw into his kingdom or whether he could pre-empt Thessaly.
The judgment inclined to let the column descend into Thessaly, and he made for Tricca by the nearest borders; thence he hurriedly traversed the cities that met him. He drove from their seats those people who could follow, and he was burning the towns. To the owners the right was granted to take with them of their own things whatever could be carried; the rest was the soldier’s prey. Nor was there anything left that they could suffer more cruelly from an enemy than what they were suffering from their allies.
Even while doing these things, these were bitter to Philip; but he wished at least to snatch the bodies of his allies from a land soon to be the enemy’s. Thus the towns were laid waste: Phacium <P>iresiae, Euhydrium, Eretria, Palaepharsalus. When he made for Pherae he was shut out, and since the situation required delay if he wished to storm it and there was no time, the attempt being dropped he crossed over into Macedonia; for there was a report that the Aetolians too were approaching.
They, on hearing of the battle that had been fought around the river Aous, after first laying waste the nearest places around Sperchias and Macran, which they call Comen, then crossed over into Thessaly and took C <t>imenes and Angeias at the first assault. From Metropolis, while they were ravaging the fields, they were driven back when the townsmen mustered to defend the walls. Thence attacking Callithera, they more stubbornly withstood a similar assault of the townsmen; and, after those who had sallied out were driven back within the walls, content with that victory—since there was scarcely any hope at all of storming the place—they withdrew.
From there they storm and plunder the villages Teuma and Celathara; Acharras they received upon surrender. Xyniae were deserted by their cultivators from a like fear. This column, exiled from their seats, fell upon a garrison which was being led to Thaumacum, in order that the foraging for grain might be safer: an ill-ordered and unarmed multitude, a mingled and unwarlike crowd, was cut down by the armed men; the deserted Xyniae are plundered.
[14] Ceterum Amynander, quia suo militi parum fidebat, petito a consule modico praesidio cum Gomphos peteret, oppidum protinus nomine Phaecam, situm inter Gomphos faucesque angustas quae ab Athamania Thessaliam dirimunt, ui cepit. Inde Gomphos adortus <est>, et per aliquot dies summa ui tuentes urbem, cum iam scalas ad moenia erexisset, eo dem<um> metu perpulit ad deditionem. Haec traditio Gomphorum ingentem terrorem Thessalis intulit.
[14] Moreover Amynander, because he trusted his own soldiery too little, having requested from the consul a moderate garrison, while he was making for Gomphi, at once took by force a town named Phaeca, situated between Gomphi and the narrow passes which divide Thessaly from Athamania. Thence he attacked Gomphi <est>, and, though they were defending the city with utmost force for several days, when he had already set ladders to the walls, he at last drove them by that fear to surrender. This surrender of Gomphi brought immense terror upon the Thessalians.
Next surrendered those who hold Argenta and those who hold Pherinium and Timara and Lygynas and Strymon and Lampsus, and other nearby, equally ignoble forts. While the Athamanians and the Aetolians, the fear of the Macedonians having been removed, out of another’s victory make their own booty, and Thessaly, uncertain from three armies at once whom to believe an enemy and whom an ally, is being ravaged, the consul, crossing by the passes which the flight of the enemy had opened into the region of Epirus, although he knows well to which party the Epirotes had shown favor, Charops the prince excepted, nevertheless, because he sees that, out of a concern also for making amends, they are earnestly doing what has been ordered, he judges them rather by their present than by their past disposition and by that very facility of pardon wins their minds for the future. Then, messengers having been sent to Corcyra that the transport-ships should come into the Ambracian gulf, he himself, advancing by moderate marches, on the fourth day pitched camp on Mount Cercetius, Amynander having been summoned thither with his auxiliaries, not so much in need of his forces as to have guides into Thessaly.
[15] Primam urbem Thessaliae Phaloriam est adgressus. Duo milia Macedonum in praesidio habebat, qui primo summa ui restiterunt, quantum arma, quantum moenia tueri poterant; sed oppugnatio continua, non nocte non die remissa, cum consul in eo uerti crederet ceterorum Thessalorum animos si primi uim Romanam non sustinuissent, uicit pertinaciam Macedonum. Capta Phaloria legati a Metropoli et a Cierio dedentes urbes uenerunt: uenia iisdem petentibus datur; Phaloria incensa ac direpta est.
[15] He attacked Phaloria, the first city of Thessaly. It had two thousand Macedonians in garrison, who at first resisted with utmost force, so far as their arms, so far as the walls could protect; but a continuous assault, relaxed neither by night nor by day—since the consul believed that the spirits of the rest of the Thessalians would turn upon this, if the first did not withstand the Roman force—overcame the stubbornness of the Macedonians. Phaloria having been taken, envoys came from Metropolis and from Cierium, surrendering their cities: pardon is granted to them seeking the same; Phaloria was burned and plundered.
From there he made for Aeginium; when he had seen that that place, even with a modest garrison, was secure and nearly inexpugnable, after hurling a few missiles at the nearest outpost he turned the column toward the region of the Gomphi. And having descended into the plains of Thessaly, since now everything was lacking for the army, because he had spared the fields of the Epirotes, after first exploring whether the transport ships had made Leucas or the Ambracian Gulf, he sent cohorts by turns to Ambracia to grain-gather; and the route from Gomphi to Ambracia, though impeded and difficult, is yet very short in distance. Within a few days, therefore, with supplies conveyed from the sea, the camp was filled with an abundance of all things.
Thence he set out for Atrax. It lies about ten miles from Larisa; its people are sprung from Perrhaebia; the city is situated upon the river Peneus. The Thessalians were in no panic at the first arrival of the Romans; and Philip, just as he did not dare to advance himself into Thessaly, so, with a standing camp pitched within Tempe, would send garrisons, as opportunities offered, to whatever place was being tested by the enemy.
[16] Sub idem fere tempus quo consul aduersus Philippum primum in Epiri faucibus posuit castra, et L. Quinctius frater consulis, cui classis cura maritimaeque orae imperium mandatum ab senatu erat, cum duabus quinqueremibus Corcyram trauectus, postquam profectam inde classem audiuit nihil morandum ratus, cum ad Samen insulam adsecutus esset, dimisso <C.> Liuio, cui successerat, tarde inde ad Maleum trahendis plerumque remulco nauibus quae cum commeatu sequebantur peruenit. A Maleo iussis ceteris quantum maxime possent maturare sequi ipse tribus quinqueremibus expeditis Piraeum praecedit accepitque naues relictas ibi ab L. Apustio legato ad praesidium Athenarum. Eodem tempore duae ex Asia classes profectae, una cum Attalo rege—eae quattuor et uiginti quinqueremes erant—, Rhodia altera uiginti nauium tectarum; Acesimbrotus praeerat.
[16] At about the same time at which the consul first pitched camp against Philip in the passes of Epirus, Lucius Quinctius, the consul’s brother, to whom the care of the fleet and the imperium over the maritime shore had been entrusted by the senate, after being carried across to Corcyra with two quinqueremes, when he heard that the fleet had set out from there, thinking that there must be no delay, having overtaken it at the island of Same, after dismissing <C.> Livius, whom he had succeeded, thence slowly reached Malea, the ships that were following with the supply-convoy for the most part being dragged by tow-rope. From Malea, ordering the rest to make all possible haste to follow, he himself with three unencumbered quinqueremes went on ahead to Piraeus and received the ships left there by the legate L. Apustius for the protection of Athens. At the same time two fleets had set out from Asia, one with King Attalus—these were 24 quinqueremes—, the other Rhodian, of 20 decked ships; Acesimbrotus was in command.
These fleets, having joined around the island of Andros, from there crossed over to Euboea, which lies at a small remove by a narrow strait. First they devastated the fields of the Carystians; then, when Carystus seemed secure with a garrison hastily sent from Chalcis, they approached Eretria. To the same place also L. Quinctius came, with those ships which had been at the Piraeus, on hearing of the arrival of King Attalus, having given orders that each ship from his own fleet, as it arrived, should make for Euboea.
Eretria was being besieged with the utmost force; for the ships of the three conjoined fleets were carrying with them artillery of every kind and machines for the destruction of cities, and the countryside was supplying materials in abundance for setting in motion new works. The townsmen at first defended the walls not slackly; then, wearied and with several wounded, when they also saw a part of the wall overturned by the enemy’s works, <. . .ut. . .> they inclined toward surrender. But there was a garrison of Macedonians—whom they feared no less than the Romans—and Philocles, the king’s prefect, was sending messengers from Chalcis that he would be present in time if they should sustain the siege.
This hope, mingled with fear, time was forcing them to prolong beyond what they wished or were able; then, after they learned that Philocles had been repulsed and, in alarm, had fled back to Chalcis, they at once sent envoys to Attalus, seeking his pardon and his good faith. While, intent on the hope of peace, they more sluggishly perform the duties of war, and only on that sector where the wall had been shattered—neglecting the rest—they set armed pickets, Quinctius by night, launching an assault from the quarter that was least suspected, took the city by ladders. The entire multitude of the townsfolk, with wives and children, fled into the citadel, and then came to surrender.
[17] Carystus inde repetita, unde priusquam e nauibus copiae exponerentur omnis multitudo urbe deserta in arcem confugit. Inde ad fidem ab Romano petendam oratores mittunt. Oppidanis extemplo uita ac libertas concessa est: Macedonibus nummi treceni in capita statutum pretium est et ut armis traditis abirent.
[17] Carystus was then revisited; before the forces were disembarked from the ships, the whole multitude, the city deserted, fled into the citadel. Thence they send envoys to seek faith from the Roman. To the townsmen life and liberty were granted at once: for the Macedonians a price of 300 coins per head was fixed, and that, their arms having been handed over, they should depart.
Redeemed at this sum, unarmed they were transported into Boeotia. The naval forces, with two famous cities of Euboea captured within a few days, having rounded Sunium, the promontory of Attic land, made for Cenchreae, the emporium of the Corinthians. Meanwhile the consul experienced a siege of <Atrax> longer and more atrocious than anyone’s expectation, and the enemy were resisting precisely where he had least believed.
For he had believed that all the labor would lie in tearing down the wall: if he had opened an approach for armed men into the city, there would be from there flight and a slaughter of the enemy, such as is wont to happen when cities are captured; but after a part of the wall had been knocked down by the battering rams, and armed men had crossed over into the city through the very ruins, that was the beginning, as it were, of a new and intact task. For the Macedonians who were in garrison, both many and select, thinking that even an outstanding glory was theirs if they should defend the city by arms and virtue rather than by its walls, packed close in several ranks inward with their battle line made firm, when they sensed that the Romans were crossing the ruins, drove them out through a place obstructed and difficult for a retreat. The consul, bearing that ill with difficulty, and thinking that this disgrace pertained not only to a delay in the storming of a single city but to the sum of the whole war—because it generally hung upon the moments of very small things—after clearing the ground which had been heaped with the wreckage of the half-ruined wall, advanced a tower of enormous height, carrying a great force of armed men on multiple stories, and he kept sending out cohorts in turn under the standards, that they might, if they could, break through by force the wedge of the Macedonians—the phalanx, they themselves call it.
But, given the narrowness of the place—the interval of the demolished wall not opening widely—the kind of arms and of fighting was more apt to the enemy. When, packed together, the Macedonians had set before themselves spears of enormous length, then, as against a tortoise constructed by the density of shields, after the Romans had in vain hurled their pila and had drawn their swords, they could neither come to closer engagement nor cut down the pikes; and if they had gashed or broken any, the shaft, with the fragment itself sharp, filled out, among the points of the intact spears, as it were a palisade. Besides, the unbroken part of the wall on either side provided safe protection for the flanks, and there was no need either to yield ground from a long stretch or to deliver charges—things which are wont to throw the ranks into disorder.
There also came a fortuitous thing to strengthen their spirits; for when the tower was being driven over a rampart of soil too little densified, one wheel, having sunk into a deeper rut, so inclined the tower that it presented to the enemy the appearance of collapsing, and produced a mad trepidation in the armed men standing aloft.
[18] Cum parum quicquam succederet, consul minime aequo animo comparationem militum generisque armorum fieri patiebatur, simul nec maturam expugnandi spem nec rationem procul a mari et in euastatis belli cladibus locis hibernandi ullam cernebat. Itaque relicta obsidione, quia nullus in tota Acarnaniae atque Aetoliae ora portus erat qui simul et omnes onerarias quae commeatum exercitui portabant caperet et tecta ad hibernandum legionibus praeberet, Anticyra in Phocide in Corinthium uersa sinum ad id opportunissime sita uisa, quia nec procul Thessalia hostiumque locis aberat et ex aduerso Peloponnesum exiguo maris spatio diuisam, ab tergo Aetoliam Acarnaniamque, ab lateribus Locridem ac Boeotiam habebat. Phocidis primo impetu Phanoteam sine certamine cepit.
[18] Since hardly anything was succeeding, the consul, with very ill equanimity, would not allow a comparison of the soldiers and the kind of arms to be made; at the same time he discerned neither any ripe hope of taking the place by storm nor any plan at all for wintering far from the sea and in regions laid waste by the devastations of war. And so, the siege being abandoned, because there was no harbor on the whole coast of Acarnania and Aetolia that at once both could receive all the transports which were carrying supply for the army and could provide roofs for the legions to winter under, Anticyra in Phocis, facing toward the Corinthian Gulf, seemed most opportunely situated for that purpose, because it was not far from Thessaly and the enemy’s districts, and, opposite, the Peloponnese was divided by a small span of sea, while at its back it had Aetolia and Acarnania, and on its flanks Locris and Boeotia. Of Phocis he took Phanotea at the first onset without a contest.
Anticyra offered not much delay in the assault. From there Ambrysus and Hyampolis were recovered. Daulis, because it is set on a lofty mound, could be taken neither by ladders nor by works: by provoking with missiles those who were in garrison, when they had drawn them out to excursions (sallies), by in turn fleeing and pursuing, and with light combats without effect, they brought them to such negligence and contempt that, mingled with the fugitives as they ran into the gate, the Romans made an assault.
[19] Elatiam obsidenti consuli rei maioris spes adfulsit, Achaeorum gentem ab societate regia in Romanam amicitiam auertendi. Cycliadan principem factionis ad Philippum trahentium res expulerunt; Aristaenus, qui Romanis gentem iungi uolebat, praetor erat. Classis Romana cum Attalo et Rhodiis Cenchreis stabat parabantque communi omnes consilio Corinthum oppugnare.
[19] While the consul was besieging Elatea, a hope of a greater affair shone forth—of diverting the nation of the Achaeans from the royal alliance into Roman friendship. Circumstances had expelled Cycliadas, the leader of the faction drawing them toward Philip; Aristaenus, who wished the nation to be joined to the Romans, was praetor. The Roman fleet, together with Attalus and the Rhodians, was lying at Cenchreae, and by a common counsel all were preparing to assault Corinth.
He therefore judged it best, before they undertook that matter, that legates be sent to the nation of the Achaeans, promising that, if they should defect from the king to the Romans, they would assign Corinth to the ancient council of the nation. With the consul as author, legates were sent to the Achaeans by his brother L. Quinctius and by Attalus and the Rhodians and the Athenians. At Sicyon a council was granted to them.
But the disposition of minds among the Achaeans was not by any means very simple: Nabis the Lacedaemonian, a grave and continual enemy, was terrifying them; they shuddered at Roman arms; they were bound by the benefactions of the Macedonians, both old and recent; they held the king himself suspect on account of his cruelty and perfidy, nor, judging from those things which he was then doing for the moment, did they perceive that he would be a heavier master after the war. And they were ignorant not only of what each man would say in the senate of his own city or in the common councils of the nation in support of his opinion, but not even when thinking with themselves was it sufficiently settled what they wished or what they thought best. To men thus uncertain, when the envoys had been introduced, the power of speaking was granted.
First the Roman legate L. Calpurnius, then the envoys of King Attalus, after them the Rhodians, discoursed; then leave to speak was granted to Philip’s envoys; last the Athenians, to refute the sayings of the Macedonians, were heard. They inveighed against the king well-nigh most atrociously, for none had suffered either more or things so bitter. And that assembly, under the setting of the sun, the day consumed by the perpetual orations of so many envoys, was dismissed.
[20] Postero die aduocatur concilium; ubi cum per praeconem, sicut Graecis mos est, suadendi si quis uellet potestas a magistratibus facta esset nec quisquam prodiret, diu silentium aliorum alios intuentium fuit. Neque mirum si, quibus sua sponte uolutantibus res inter se repugnantes obtorpuerant quodam modo animi, eos orationes quoque insuper turbauerant utrimque quae difficilia essent promendo admonendoque per totum diem habitae. Tandem Aristaenus praetor Achaeorum, ne tacitum concilium dimitteret, 'ubi' inquit 'illa certamina animorum, Achaei, sunt, quibus in conuiuiis et circulis, cum de Philippo et Romanis mentio incidit, uix manibus temperatis?
[20] On the following day the council is convened; where, when through the herald, as is the custom among the Greeks, permission to persuade, if anyone wished, had been granted by the magistrates and no one came forward, there was for a long time a silence, men looking at one another. Nor is it a wonder if, to those whose minds, of their own accord rolling over matters at variance with one another, had in a certain way grown benumbed, the speeches too, moreover, on both sides—delivered through the whole day—which were difficult in setting forth and in admonishing, had thrown them into turmoil. At last Aristaenus, praetor of the Achaeans, lest he dismiss the council in silence, said: “Where, Achaeans, are those contests of spirit, in which at banquets and in circles, when mention of Philip and the Romans occurs, you scarcely keep your hands restrained?”
Now, with the council convoked for this one matter, when you have heard the words of the legates from both sides, when the magistrates report, when the herald calls to speak in advocacy, you have fallen mute. If not the care for the common safety, can not even the allegiances which have inclined your minds to this or that side force a voice from anyone? Especially since no one is so dull as to be unable to know that now is the occasion for speaking and urging what each either wishes or deems best, before we decree anything: once it has been decreed, then by all, even by those to whom it previously was displeasing, it will have to be defended as good and expedient. This exhortation of the praetor not only drew forth no single person to advise, but did not move even a mutter or murmur of an assembly so great, gathered from so many peoples.
[21] Tum Aristaenus praetor rursus: 'non magis consilium uobis, principes Achaeorum, deest quam lingua; sed suo quisque periculo in commune consultum non uult. Forsitan ego quoque tacerem, si priuatus essem: nunc praetori uideo aut non dandum concilium legatis fuisse aut non sine responso eos dimittendos esse; respondere autem nisi ex uestro decreto qui possum? Et quoniam nemo uestrum qui in hoc concilium aduocati estis pro sententia quicquam dicere uult aut audet, orationes legatorum hesterno die <ut> pro sententiis dictas percenseamus, perinde ac non postulauerint quae e re sua essent sed suaserint quae nobis censerent utilia esse.
[21] Then Aristaenus the praetor again: 'no more is counsel lacking to you, princes of the Achaeans, than a tongue; but each man does not wish, at his own peril, to deliberate for the common interest. Perhaps I too would be silent, if I were a private man: now I see that for the praetor either the council ought not to have been given to the legates, or they must not be dismissed without an answer; but how can I respond except from your decree? And since none of you, who have been summoned into this council, wishes or dares to say anything by way of opinion, let us review the speeches of the legates of yesterday <ut> as opinions delivered, just as though they had not demanded what was to their own advantage but had advised what they judged to be useful for us.'
The Romans, the Rhodians, and Attalus seek our alliance and friendship and judge it fair that, in the war which they wage against Philip, they be aided by us. Philip reminds us of the alliance with him and of the oath, and now demands that we stand with him, now says he is content if we do not take part with arms. Does it occur to no one why those who are not yet allies ask for more than the ally?
This comes about neither from Philip’s modesty nor from the Romans’ impudence, Achaeans: fortune both gives confidence to petitioners and takes it away. Of Philip we see nothing except his legate; the Roman fleet stands at Cenchreae, carrying before it the spoils of the cities of Euboea; we see the consul and his legions, separated by a small stretch of sea, ranging through Phocis and Locris: do you marvel why Cleomedon, Philip’s legate, has only just now acted diffidently in urging that we take up arms for the king against the Romans? He, if from that same treaty and oath, the religious obligation of which he was imposing on us, we should ask him that Philip defend us both from Nabis and the Lacedaemonians and from the Romans, would find not only no garrison with which to protect us, but not even anything to answer us—no more, by Hercules, than Philip himself in the previous year, who, by promising that he would wage war against Nabis, when he tried to draw off our youth from here into Euboea, after he saw that we neither voted that garrison for him nor were willing to be entangled in the Roman war, forgetful of that alliance which he now vaunts, left us to be ravaged and plundered by Nabis and the Lacedaemonians.
And to me indeed the oration of Cleomedon seemed least consistent with itself. He was belittling the Roman war and was saying that its event would be the same as that of the earlier war which they waged with Philip. Why, then, does he, absent, seek our aid rather than, being present, protect us, old allies, at once from Nabis and the Romans?
Either by force or by fear or by will. If by his own will he has left so many allies to be despoiled by enemies, who can refuse that the allies also consult for themselves? If through fear, let him also pardon us who are afraid; if, vanquished by arms, he has yielded, shall we Achaeans sustain Roman arms, Cleomedon, which you Macedonians did not sustain?
Or should we rather believe you that the Romans are not now conducting the war with greater forces nor strength than they did before, rather than look at the facts themselves? They helped the Aetolians then with a fleet; they waged the war neither with a consular leader nor with an army; the maritime cities of Philip’s allies were then in terror and tumult; the inland regions were so safe from Roman arms that Philip ravaged the Aetolians, who were imploring in vain the aid of the Romans. But now, the Romans, having finished the Punic War, which for sixteen years they endured, as it were, within the very vitals of Italy, have not sent a garrison to the Aetolians as they fight, but they themselves, the leaders of the war, have brought arms against Macedonia by land and sea at once. Already a 3rd consul is prosecuting the war with utmost force.
Sulpicius, having engaged in Macedonia itself, routed and put the king to flight, having depopulated the most opulent part of his realm: now Quinctius stripped from his camp one who was holding the passes of Epirus, relying on the nature of the place, on fortifications, and on his army; pursuing him as he fled into Thessaly, he took by storm the royal garrisons and his allied cities almost in the very sight of the king himself. 'Let it not be true what the Athenian envoy just now discoursed about the cruelty, avarice, and lust of the king; let those crimes which in the land of Attica have been committed against the gods above and below pertain nothing to us, still less those which the Cians and the Abydenes, who are far away from us, have suffered; let us ourselves, if you wish, forget our own wounds—the slaughters and the plunderings of goods committed at Messene in the middle of the Peloponnesus, and our guest-friend Chariteles at Cyparissia, against all law and divine right, slain almost at the banquet itself, and Aratus the father and the son, Sicyonians—though he was even wont to call the unhappy old man “father”—killed, and the wife of the son carried off into Macedonia for the sake of lust; let the other defilements of maidens and matrons be consigned to oblivion. Let there be no issue with Philip, at fear of whose cruelty you have all fallen mute—for what other cause of keeping silence is there, when you are called into council?—: let us suppose the dispute to be with Antigonus, a most mild and most just king and most well-deserving of us all; would he demand that we do that which could not be done?
The Peloponnesus is a peninsula, adhering to the continent by the narrow jaws of the Isthmus, open to nothing and more opportune than to naval warfare. If one hundred covered ships and fifty lighter open ones and thirty Issaean lembi should begin to devastate the maritime shore and to assault cities exposed almost upon the very beaches, shall we, forsooth, take refuge in inland cities, as though we were not being consumed by a war intestine and clinging in our very vitals? When on land Nabis and the Lacedaemonians, and at sea the Roman fleet, shall press us, whence shall we implore <us> the royal alliance and the garrisons of the Macedonians? Or shall we ourselves with our own arms defend against the Roman enemy the cities that will be besieged?
For indeed we have excellently protected Dyme in the prior war. Other men’s disasters provide examples enough for us: let us not seek in what way we may be an example to others. 'Do not, because the Romans of their own accord seek friendship, disdain that which ought to be desired by you and sought with the utmost effort.
Driven, to be sure, by fear and caught in a foreign land, because they wish to lie hidden under the shadow of your aid, they flee into your alliance so that they may be received in your ports and make use of your provisions. They hold the sea in their power; whatever lands they approach they immediately make part of their own dominion; what they ask, they can compel. Because they wish to have spared you, they do not allow you to commit yourselves to a course that would be the cause of your perishing. For what Cleomedon just now was pointing out to you as the middle and safest path of counsel—that you should be quiet and abstain from arms—that is not a middle way but no way at all.
For indeed, apart from the fact that the Roman alliance is for you either to be accepted or to be spurned, what else—if we have favor nowhere stable, as though we had waited for the outcome in order to apply our counsels to Fortune—shall we be but the prey of the victor? Do not, if that which ought to be sought with every vow is offered unasked, disdain it. Not as today it is permitted to you to choose either, will it always be permitted thus: neither often nor for long will the same occasion return.
You have long wished more than you have dared to liberate yourselves from Philip. Without your toil and danger, those who would vindicate you into liberty have crossed the sea with great fleets and armies. If you spurn these men as allies, you are scarcely of sane mind; but it is necessary that you have them either as allies or as enemies.
[22] Secundum orationem praetoris murmur ortum aliorum cum adsensu, aliorum inclementer adsentientes increpantium; et iam non singuli tantum sed populi uniuersi inter se altercabantur. Tum inter magistratus gentis- damiurgos uocant, decem numero creantur—certamen nihilo segnius quam inter multitudinem esse. Quinque relaturos de societate Romana se aiebant suffragiumque daturos; quinque lege cautum testabantur ne quid quod aduersus Philippi societatem esset aut referre magistratibus aut decernere concilio ius esset.
[22] After the praetor’s oration a murmur arose, some with assent, others harshly rebuking the assenting; and now not individuals only but the whole peoples were wrangling among themselves. Then among the magistrates of the nation—
damiurgi they call them—ten in number are created—the contest being by no means less keen than among the multitude. Five said that they would bring a motion regarding Roman societas and would cast their vote; five attested that it was provided by law that there was no right either for the magistrates to propose or for the council to decree anything which was against the societas of Philip.
That day too was consumed with quarrels. One day of the lawful council still remained; for on the third the law ordered that a decree be made; and for that day the parties blazed to such a heat that scarcely did parents restrain themselves from their own children. There was a certain Pisias of Pellene: he had a son, a damiurgus, by the name Memnon, of the party which was forbidding that the decree be recited and that the votes be called.
He for a long time adjured his son to allow the Achaeans to be consulted for the common safety and not, by his pertinacity, to drive the whole nation to destruction; and after his prayers were making little progress, having sworn that he would kill him with his own hand and would regard him not as a son but as an enemy, by threats he prevailed upon him to join on the next day with those who were bringing the motion forward. When these, being more numerous, proposed it, with almost all the peoples without doubt approving the report and openly declaring what they were going to decree, the Dymaeans and the Megalopolitans and certain of the Argives, before the decree was made, arose and left the council, and no one wondered at it or disapproved. For Antigonus had restored the Megalopolitans, driven out by the Lacedaemonians within the memory of their grandfathers, to their fatherland; and for the Dymaeans, who had lately been captured and plundered by the Roman army, when Philip had ordered that they be ransomed wherever they were in servitude, he had restored not liberty only but even their homeland; moreover the Argives, besides believing that the kings of the Macedonians take their origin from themselves, were for the most part bound to Philip also by private guest-friendships and familial amity.
[23] Ceteri populi Achaeorum cum sententias perrogarentur, societatem cum <Attalo> ac Rhodiis praesenti decreto confirmarunt: cum Romanis, quia iniussu populi non poterat rata esse, in id tempus quo Romam mitti legati possent dilata est; in praesentia tres legatos ad L. Quinctium mitti placuit et exercitum omnem Achaeorum ad Corinthum admoueri captis Cenchreis iam urbem ipsam Quinctio oppugnante. Et hi quidem e regione portae quae fert Sicyonem posuerunt castra. Romani <in> Cenchreas uersam partem urbis, Attalus traducto per Isthmum exercitu ab Lechaeo alterius maris portu oppugnabant, primo segnius, sperantes seditionem intus fore inter oppidanos ac regium praesidium.
[23] When the votes of the rest of the Achaean peoples were taken, they confirmed by a present decree an alliance with Attalus and the Rhodians; with the Romans—because without an order of the people it could not be binding—it was deferred to that time when envoys could be sent to Rome. For the present it was decided that three ambassadors be sent to L. Quinctius and that the whole army of the Achaeans be brought up to Corinth, Cenchreae having already been seized and Quinctius attacking the city itself. And these indeed pitched camp over against the gate that leads to Sicyon. The Romans were attacking the part of the city that faces Cenchreae, while Attalus, after leading his army across the Isthmus, was attacking from Lechaeum, the harbor of the other sea—at first more sluggishly, hoping there would be a sedition within between the townsfolk and the royal garrison.
Afterwards, when all with one mind—the Macedonians defending it as a common fatherland, and the Corinthians allowing Androsthenes, the commander of the garrison, to exercise authority over them no otherwise than as a citizen and as one created by their suffrage—then all hope for the <op>besiegers lay in force and arms and in works. On all sides embankments, with approach by no means easy, were brought up to the walls. On the side which the Romans were attacking, a battering-ram had torn down a good portion of the wall; into that place, because it had been stripped of its defense, when the Macedonians ran together to protect it with arms, a fierce battle arose between them and the Romans.
And at first the Romans were easily driven back by the multitude; then, with the auxiliaries of the Achaeans and of Attalus taken on, they were equalizing the contest, and there was no doubt that they would easily have driven the Macedonians and Greeks from their position. There was a great multitude of Italian deserters, part from Hannibal’s army, from fear of punishment by the Romans, had followed Philip, part—naval allies—having lately left the fleets, had crossed over to the hope of a more honorable military service: despair of safety, if the Romans had conquered, was inflaming these men to frenzy rather than to audacity. There is a promontory over against Sicyon of Juno, which they call Acraea, running out into the deep; the crossing thence to Corinth is about seven miles.
Thither Philocles, the king’s prefect, he himself, led one thousand five hundred soldiers through Boeotia; there were ready from Corinth lembi to carry that garrison, once taken aboard, across to Lechaeum. Attalus was the proposer, after the works had been set on fire, of abandoning the assault at once; Quinctius persisted more pertinaciously in the enterprise. He too, however, when he sees royal garrisons posted before all the gates and that the onset of those sallying out could not easily be withstood, yielded to Attalus’s opinion.
[24] Dum haec ab nauali exercitu geruntur, consul in Phocide ad Elatiam castris positis primo conloquiis rem per principes Elatensium temptauit. Postquam nihil esse in manu sua et plures ualidioresque esse regios quam oppidanos respondebatur, tum simul ab omni parte operibus armisque urbem est adgressus. Ariete admoto cum quantum inter <duas> turres muri erat prorutum cum ingenti fragore ac strepitu nudasset urbem, simul et cohors Romana per apertum recenti strage iter inuasit, et ex omnibus oppidi partibus relictis suis quisque stationibus in eum qui premebatur impetu hostium locum concurrerunt.
[24] While these things were being done by the naval army, the consul, with camp pitched in Phocis at Elateia, at first tried the matter by conferences through the leading men of the Elateians. After it was answered that nothing was in their power and that the king’s partisans were more numerous and stronger than the townsmen, then at once he attacked the city from every quarter with works and with arms. When, the battering-ram having been brought up, as much of the wall as was between the two towers had been thrown down, with a vast crash and clamor he had laid the city bare; at the same time a Roman cohort rushed in by the open way through the fresh wreckage, and from all parts of the town, each having left his own stations, they ran together to the place which was being pressed by the enemy’s assault.
At the same time the Romans were both surmounting the ruins of the wall and bringing ladders to the standing ramparts; and while the contest had diverted the eyes and minds of the enemy to one quarter, in several places the wall is taken by ladders and armed men crossed over into the city. When this tumult was heard, the terrified enemies, abandoning the place which they in close order were defending, all fled into the citadel, the unarmed crowd also following. Thus the consul gains possession of the city; which having been sacked, after men were sent into the citadel to promise life to the king’s men if they should wish to depart unarmed, and liberty to the Elatensians, and a pledge having been given to these terms, after a few days he recovers the citadel.
[25] Ceterum aduentu in Achaiam Philoclis regii praefecti non Corinthus tantum liberata obsidione sed Argiuorum quoque ciuitas per quosdam principes Philocli prodita est temptatis prius animis plebis. Mos erat comitiorum die primo uelut ominis causa praetores pronuntiare Iouem Apollinemque et Herculem: additum lege erat ut his Philippus rex adiceretur. Cuius nomen post pactam cum Romanis societatem quia praeco non adiecit, fremitus primo multitudinis ortus, deinde clamor subicientium Philippi nomen iubentiumque legitimum honorem usurpare, donec cum ingenti adsensu nomen recitatum est.
[25] However, upon the arrival into Achaia of Philocles, the royal prefect, not Corinth only was freed from the siege, but the city of the Argives too was betrayed to Philocles by certain principals, the minds of the plebs having first been tested. It was the custom, on the first day of the comitia, as a matter of omen, for the praetors to proclaim Jupiter and Apollo and Hercules; it had been added by law that to these King Philip be appended. Because, after an alliance had been concluded with the Romans, the herald did not add his name, at first a murmur of the multitude arose, then a shout from those supplying Philip’s name and ordering that the legitimate honor be observed, until with immense assent the name was read out.
On the confidence of this favor, Philocles, having been summoned, by night seizes the hill overhanging the city—they call that citadel Larisa—and, a garrison having been posted there, when at daybreak he advanced with hostile standards toward the forum lying beneath the citadel, a drawn-up battle line met him from the opposite side. The garrison was of the Achaeans, recently imposed, about five hundred picked youths from all the cities; Aenesidemus of Dyme was in command. To these an orator was sent from the royal prefect to order them to withdraw from the city—for they were not a match even for the townsmen alone, who felt the same as the Macedonians, much less with the Macedonians joined to them, whom not even the Romans had withstood at Corinth—at first this moved neither the leader nor themselves at all; after a little, when they saw also the Argives armed, coming in a great column from the other side, perceiving certain destruction, yet they seemed ready to undergo every hazard, if the leader had been more pertinacious.
Aenesidemus, lest the flower of the Achaeans’ youth be lost together with the city, having bargained from Philocles that it be permitted to them to depart, himself did not withdraw from the place where he had stood, armed with a few clients (retainers). A messenger was sent by Philocles to ask what he wanted for himself. With nothing stirred, only, as he stood with his shield cast before him, he replied that, armed, he would die in the garrison of the city entrusted to him.
Then, at the order of the prefect, missiles were hurled by the Thracians, and all were slain. And after the alliance between the Achaeans and the Romans had been concluded, the two most noble cities, Argos and Corinth, were in the king’s power. These were the things that summer accomplished by the Romans in Greece, by land and by sea.
[26] In Gallia nihil sane memorabile ab Sex. Aelio consule gestum. Cum duos exercitus in prouincia habuisset, unum retentum quem dimitti oportebat, cui L. Cornelius proconsul praefuerat—ipse ei C. Heluium praetorem praefecit—, alterum quem in prouinciam adduxit, totum prope annum Cremonensibus Placentinisque cogendis redire in colonias, unde belli casibus dissipati erant, consumpsit.
[26] In Gaul nothing truly memorable was accomplished by the consul Sex. Aelius. As he had two armies in the province—one retained which ought to have been dismissed, which L. Cornelius, as proconsul, had commanded (he himself put C. Heluius, the praetor, in charge of it)—the other which he brought into the province, he spent nearly the whole year in compelling the Cremonese and the Placentines to return to their colonies, from which they had been scattered by the chances of war.
Just as Gaul was quiet beyond expectation in that year, so around the city a nearly servile tumult was stirred up. The hostages of the Carthaginians were being kept at Setia: with them, as with the children of leading men, there was a great number of slaves; their number was increased, seeing that from the recent African war, and by the Setians themselves, several captive slaves of that nation had been bought from the booty. When they had formed a conspiracy, men were sent from that number to incite the servile gangs, first in the Setian countryside, then around Norba and Circeii; with everything now sufficiently prepared, they had decided to attack the people intent upon the spectacle of the games which were to be at Setia almost the next day, and, Setia seized through slaughter and sudden tumult, to occupy Norba and Circeii; the slaves <non potueret>.
Information of this so foul a matter was brought to Rome to L. Cornelius Lentulus, the urban praetor. Two slaves came to him before daybreak and set forth in order everything that had been done and what was going to be done. These having been ordered to be kept under guard at home, the praetor, the senate having been called together and having been instructed as to what the informers were bringing, being ordered to set out to seek and to suppress that conspiracy, departed with five legates and compelled those whom he met in the fields—after administering the military oath—to take up arms and follow.
With this emergency levy, with nearly two thousand men under arms, he came to Setia, all being unaware whither he was proceeding. There, the leaders of the conspiracy having been swiftly apprehended, a flight of the slaves from the town took place. Then, having sent out through the fields those who would track down <profugos . . .>. The service was outstanding of two slave informers and of one freeborn man.
To him the Fathers ordered 100,000 asses to be given; to the slaves 25,000 asses each and freedom: their price was paid to their masters from the treasury. Not long after, from the remnants of the same conspiracy it was reported that the slave-bands were about to seize Praeneste. Thither L. Cornelius the praetor set out, and upon nearly 500 men who were in that guilt he inflicted punishment.
The state was in fear that the hostages and captives of the Carthaginians were engineering these things. And so at Rome watches were maintained through the streets, and the lesser magistrates were ordered to go around them, and the triumvirs of the prison and of the Lautumiae were ordered to keep a more stringent guard; and with respect to the Latin Name letters were sent by the praetor, that both the hostages be kept in private custody and no permission of going forth into public be given, and that the captives, bound with shackles of not less than ten pounds in weight, be in no custody other than that of the public prison.
[27] Eodem anno legati ab rege Attalo coronam auream ducentum quadraginta sex pondo in Capitolio posuerunt gratiasque senatui egere quod Antiochus legatorum Romanorum auctoritate motus finibus Attali exercitum deduxisset. Eadem aestate equites ducenti et elephanti decem et tritici modium ducenta milia ab rege Masinissa ad exercitum qui in Graecia erat peruenerunt. Item ex Sicilia Sardiniaque magni commeatus et uestimenta exercitui missa.
[27] In the same year legates from King Attalus placed in the Capitol a golden crown weighing 246 pounds and gave thanks to the senate because Antiochus, moved by the authority of the Roman legates, had withdrawn his army from the borders of Attalus. In the same summer 200 horsemen and 10 elephants and 200,000 modii of wheat from King Masinissa arrived to the army which was in Greece. Likewise from Sicily and Sardinia great supplies and clothing were sent to the army.
Sicily was held by Marcus Marcellus, Sardinia by Marcus Porcius Cato—upright and blameless, yet considered more severe in restraining usury; and the moneylenders were put to flight from the island, and the expenses which the allies had been accustomed to make for the display of the praetors were curtailed or abolished. Sextus Aelius, consul, when he had returned to Rome from Gaul for the sake of the elections, declared elected as consuls Gaius Cornelius Cethegus and Quintus Minucius Rufus.
Two days later the elections of the praetors were held. In that year for the first time six praetors were elected, as the provinces were now increasing and the empire spreading more widely; and these were elected: L. Manlius Volso, C. Sempronius Tuditanus, M. Sergius Silus, M. Helvius, M. Minucius Rufus, L. Atilius—Sempronius and Helvius among them were plebeian aediles—; the curule aediles were Q. Minucius Thermus and Ti. Sempronius Longus. The Roman Games that year were renewed four times.
[28] C. Cornelio et Q. Minucio consulibus omnium primum de prouinciis consulum praetorumque actum. Prius de praetoribus transacta res quae transigi sorte poterat: urbana Sergio, peregrina iurisdictio Minucio obtigit; Sardiniam Atilius, Siciliam Manlius, Hispanias Sempronius citeriorem, Heluius ulteriorem est sortitus. Consulibus Italiam Macedoniamque sortiri parantibus L. Oppius et Q. Fuluius tribuni plebis impedimento erant, quod longinqua prouincia Macedonia esset neque ulla alia res maius bello impedimentum ad eam diem fuisset quam quod uixdum incohatis rebus in ipso conatu gerendi belli prior consul reuocaretur: quartum iam annum esse ab decreto Macedonico bello; quaerendo regem et exercitum eius Sulpicium maiorem partem anni absumpsisse; Uillium congredientem cum hoste infecta re reuocatum; Quinctium rebus diuinis Romae maiorem partem anni retentum ita gessisse tamen res ut, si aut maturius in prouinciam uenisset aut hiems magis sera fuisset, potuerit debellare: nunc prope in hiberna profectum ita comparare dici bellum ut, nisi successor impediat, perfecturus aestate proxima uideatur.
[28] In the consulship of C. Cornelius and Q. Minucius, first of all business was done concerning the provinces of the consuls and praetors. First the matter concerning the praetors, which could be settled by lot, was transacted: the urban jurisdiction fell to Sergius, the peregrine jurisdiction to Minucius; Atilius drew Sardinia, Manlius Sicily, Sempronius the Hither Spain, Helvius the Farther. As the consuls were preparing to draw lots for Italy and Macedonia, L. Oppius and Q. Fulvius, tribunes of the plebs, were an impediment, on the ground that Macedonia was a far-off province, and that no other thing had been a greater impediment to the war up to that day than that, with matters scarcely begun, in the very attempt at conducting the war, the earlier consul was recalled: that it was now the fourth year since the decree for the Macedonian war; that Sulpicius had consumed the greater part of the year seeking the king and his army; that Villius, as he was engaging with the enemy, had been recalled with the business unfinished; that Quinctius, detained at Rome for the greater part of the year by sacred rites, nevertheless conducted affairs in such a way that, if either he had come earlier into the province or the winter had been more late, he could have ended the war: that now, having set out almost for winter-quarters, he is said to be arranging the war so that, unless a successor hinders him, he seems likely to finish it by the next summer.
By these orations they prevailed to the point that the consuls declared they would be under the authority of the senate, if the tribunes of the plebs would do the same. With both sides permitting free consultation, the Fathers decreed Italy as the province to both consuls, and they prorogued the imperium of T. Quinctius until a successor should come by decree of the senate. For the consuls two legions apiece were decreed, and that they should wage war with the Cisalpine Gauls who had defected from the Roman People.
For Quinctius a reinforcement for Macedonia was decreed: 6,000 infantry, 300 cavalry, and 3,000 of the naval allies. L. Quinctius Flamininus was ordered to be in command of the same fleet which he had been commanding. To the praetors for the Spains there were given 8,000 infantry apiece of the allies and of the Latin name, and 400 cavalry each, with orders to discharge the veteran soldiery from the Spains; and they were ordered to delimit the line by which the Farther and the Hither province should be preserved.
[29] Priusquam consules praetoresque in prouincias proficiscerentur, prodigia procurari placuit, quod aedes Uolcani Summanique Romae et quod Fregenis murus et porta de caelo tacta erant, et Frusinone inter noctem lux orta, et Aefulae agnus biceps cum quinque pedibus natus, et Formiis duo lupi oppidum ingressi obuios aliquot laniauerant, Romae non in urbem solum sed in Capitolium penetrauerat lupus. C. Atinius tribunus plebis tulit ut quinque coloniae in oram maritimam deducerentur, duae ad ostia fluminum Uolturni Liternique, una Puteolos, una ad Castrum Salerni: his Buxentum adiectum; trecenae familiae in singulas colonias iubebantur mitti. Tresuiri deducendis iis, qui per triennium magistratum haberent, creati M. Seruilius Geminus Q. Minucius Thermus Ti. Sempronius Longus.
[29] Before the consuls and praetors set out to their provinces, it was resolved that the prodigies be expiated: namely, that the temples of Vulcan and Summanus at Rome, and that at Fregenae a wall and a gate had been struck by lightning; and that at Frusino a light arose during the night; and that at Aefula a two-headed lamb with five feet was born; and that at Formiae two wolves, having entered the town, had torn to pieces several they met; at Rome a wolf had penetrated not only into the city but into the Capitol. Gaius Atinius, tribune of the plebs, brought a proposal that five colonies be planted on the sea-coast: two at the mouths of the rivers Volturnus and Liternus, one at Puteoli, one at Castrum Salerni; to these Buxentum was added; thirty families were ordered to be sent to each colony. Triumvirs for leading them out, to hold the magistracy for three years, were appointed: Marcus Servilius Geminus, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Tiberius Sempronius Longus.
With the levy and the other divine and human matters which had to be transacted by themselves completed, both consuls set out into Gaul: Cornelius by a direct road to the Insubres, who were then in arms, the Cenomani having been taken on; Q. Minucius turned his march to the left of Italy toward the lower sea, and, leading the army to Genua, began the war against the Ligurians. The towns Clastidium and Litubium, both Ligurian, and two communities of the same nation, the Celeiates and the Cerdiciates, surrendered themselves; and already all on this side of the Po, except the Boii of the Gauls and the Ilvates of the Ligurians, were under dominion: fifteen towns, twenty thousand men, were said to be those who had surrendered. Thence he led the legions into the country of the Boii.
[30] Boiorum exercitus haud ita multo ante traiecerat Padum iunxeratque se Insubribus et Cenomanis, quod ita acceperant coniunctis legionibus consules rem gesturos ut et ipsi conlatas in unum uires firmarent. Postquam fama accidit alterum consulem Boiorum urere agros, seditio extemplo orta est: postulare Boi ut laborantibus opem uniuersi ferrent, Insubres negare se sua deserturos. Ita diuisae copiae Boisque in agrum suum tutandum profectis Insubres cum Cenomanis super amnis Minci ripam consederunt.
[30] Not so long before, the army of the Boii had crossed the Po and had joined itself to the Insubres and the Cenomani, because they had received it thus: that, with their legions conjoined, the consuls would conduct the affair, so that they too, by forces gathered into one, might strengthen them. After a report arrived that one of the consuls was burning the fields of the Boii, sedition arose at once: the Boii demanded that all together bring help to those in distress; the Insubres said that they would not abandon their own. Thus, the forces having been divided, and the Boii having set out to protect their own territory, the Insubres with the Cenomani took position on the bank of the river Mincio.
Below that place two miles, the consul Cornelius likewise pitched his camp on the same river. Thence, by sending into the villages of the Cenomani and to Brixia, which was the head of the tribe, when he had fully ascertained that the youth were in arms not by the authority of the elders, and that the Cenomani had not joined themselves to the defection of the Insubres by public counsel, having summoned the chiefs to himself he began to do and to contrive this: that the Cenomani should secede from the Insubres and, the standards having been lifted, either return home or go over to the Romans. And indeed this could not be obtained: to this extent a pledge of faith was given to the consul, that in the battle-line they would either be quiet, or, if there were any opportunity, aid the Romans.
The Insubres were unaware that these terms had thus been agreed; yet there was, beneath, a certain suspicion in their minds that the faith of their allies was wavering. Therefore, when they had led them out into the battle-line, they did not dare to entrust to them either wing, lest, if they should slacken by guile, they tilt the whole affair; they placed them behind the standards in the reserves. At the beginning of the battle the consul vowed a temple to Juno Sospita, if on that day the enemies should be routed and put to flight: a clamor was raised by the soldiers that they would make the consul a partaker of the fulfillment of his vow, and an impetus against the enemies was made.
The Insubres did not withstand the first onset. Some also assert that, with the Cenomani suddenly attacking their rear in the very contest, a two-front tumult was occasioned, and that in the midst 35,000 of the enemy were cut down, 5,200 taken alive, among them Hamilcar, commander of the Carthaginians, who had been the cause of the war; 130 military standards and over 200 wagons. Many towns of the Gauls, which had followed the defection of the Insubres, surrendered themselves to the Romans.
[31] Minucius consul primo effusis populationibus peragrauerat fines Boiorum, deinde, ut relictis Insubribus ad sua tuenda receperant sese, castris se tenuit acie dimicandum cum hoste ratus. Nec Boi detrectassent pugnam, ni fama Insubres uictos allata animos fregisset; itaque relicto duce castrisque dissipati per uicos sua quisque ut defenderent, rationem gerendi belli hosti mutarunt. Omissa enim spe per unam dimicationem rei decernendae rursus populari agros et urere tecta uicosque expugnare coepit.
[31] The consul Minucius at first had traversed the borders of the Boii with lavish depredations; then, when, leaving the Insubres, they had withdrawn to protect their own, he kept to camp, thinking that the enemy must be fought in pitched line. Nor would the Boii have declined the fight, had not a report brought that the Insubres had been beaten broken their spirits; and so, leaving their leader and their camp, scattered through the villages, each man to defend his own, they changed, for the foe, the method of waging the war. For, the hope of deciding the matter by a single engagement laid aside, he began again to ravage the fields, to burn the dwellings, and to storm the villages.
During those same days Clastidium was set on fire. Thence against the Ligustine Ilvates, who alone were not submitting, the legions were led. That people also, when it heard that the Insubres had been conquered in pitched battle, and that the Boii had been so terrified that they did not dare to attempt the hope of a contest, came into subjection.
[32] Hiems iam eo tempore erat, et cum T. Quinctius capta Elatia in Phocide ac Locride hiberna disposita haberet, Opunte seditio orta est. Factio una Aetolos, qui propiores erant, altera Romanos accersebat. Aetoli priores uenerunt; sed opulentior factio exclusis Aetolis missoque ad imperatorem Romanum nuntio usque in aduentum eius tenuit urbem.
[32] It was now winter at that time, and when T. Quinctius, Elatea having been taken, had his winter quarters disposed in Phocis and Locris, a sedition arose at Opus. One faction was summoning the Aetolians, who were nearer, the other the Romans. The Aetolians came first; but the more opulent faction, with the Aetolians shut out and a messenger sent to the Roman imperator, held the city right up to his arrival.
A royal garrison was holding the citadel, nor could they be induced either by the Opuntians to withdraw from there or compelled by the authority of the Roman commander. The reason for the delay in not assaulting them at once was that a herald had come from the king seeking a place and time for a conference. This was conceded to the king reluctantly, not that Quinctius did not desire the war to appear brought to a close partly by arms, partly by conditions; for he did not yet know whether a successor would be sent to him from the new consuls, or whether—something he had enjoined his friends and relatives to strive for with the utmost force—his imperium would be prolonged. And he believed a conference would be suitable, so that it might be free for him to incline the affair either toward war if he remained, or toward peace if he departed.
In the Malian Gulf near Nicaea they chose a shore. Thither the king came from Demetrias with five lembi and one rostrate ship: with him were two princes of the Macedonians and an Achaean exile, a distinguished man, Cycliadas. With the Roman imperator were King Amynander, and Dionysodorus, envoy of Attalus, and Acesimbrotus, prefect of the Rhodian fleet, and Phaeneas, prince of the Aetolians, and two Achaeans, Aristaenus and Xenophon.
Among these, the Roman, having advanced <ad> the farthest edge of the shore, while the king had stepped forward onto the prow of a ship lying at anchor, said, 'It would be more convenient, if you were to come onto land, that we might speak from close by and hear each other in turn.' When the king denied that he would do this, Quinctius said, 'Whom, pray, do you fear?' To this he, with a haughty and royal spirit: 'No one, for my part, do I fear except the immortal gods; but I do not trust the good faith of all those whom I see around you, and least of all the Aetolians.' 'As to that,' said the Roman, 'the danger is equal for all who meet an enemy for a conference, if there be no good faith.' 'Not, however,' he said, 'Titus Quinctius, is the reward of perfidy equal, if fraud be employed, for Philip and for Phaeneas; for the Aetolians would not with equal difficulty substitute another praetor in Phaeneas’s place as the Macedonians would a king in mine.'
[33] Secundum haec silentium fuit, cum Romanus eum aequum censeret priorem dicere qui petisset conloquium, rex eius esse priorem orationem qui daret pacis leges, non qui acciperet; tum Romanus: simplicem suam orationem esse; ea enim se dicturum quae ni fiant nulla sit pacis condicio. Deducenda ex omnibus Graeciae ciuitatibus regi praesidia esse, captiuos et transfugas sociis populi Romani reddendos, restituenda Romanis ea Illyrici loca quae post pacem in Epiro factam occupasset, Ptolomaeo Aegypti regi reddendas urbes quas post Philopatoris Ptolomaei mortem occupauisset. Suas populique Romani condiciones has esse; ceterum et socium audiri postulata uerum esse.
[33] After these things there was silence, while the Roman judged it fair that he should speak first who had sought the colloquy; the king held that the prior oration belonged to him who gave the laws of peace, not to him who received them. Then the Roman said that his oration was simple; for he would state those things which, unless they be done, there is no condition of peace. The king’s garrisons must be withdrawn from all the cities of Greece; captives and deserters must be returned to the allies of the Roman People; those places of Illyricum which he had occupied after the peace made in Epirus must be restored to the Romans; to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, the cities must be returned which he had occupied after the death of Ptolemy Philopator. These were his and the Roman People’s conditions; moreover, it was right that the demands of the allies also be heard.
The envoy of King Attalus demanded that the ships and captives which had been taken off Chios in a naval battle, and that the Nicephorium and the temple of Venus, which he had despoiled and laid waste, be restored as though unimpaired; the Rhodians were reclaiming the Peraea—
a region of the mainland opposite the island, of their ancient jurisdiction—and were demanding that garrisons be withdrawn from Iasos and from Bargyliae and from the city of the Euromenians, and on the Hellespont from Sestos and Abydos, and that Perinthus be restored to the Byzantines in the ancient formula of law, and that all the emporia and harbors of Asia be set free. The Achaeans were reclaiming Corinth and Argos. When Phaeneas, praetor of the Aetolians, had requested nearly the same things as the Romans—that he withdraw from Greece and that the cities which had once been of their right and dominion be returned to the Aetolians—his speech was taken up by Alexander, the leading man of the Aetolians, a man eloquent, for an Aetolian.
He says that he has for a long time kept silent, not because he thinks anything is being transacted by this colloquy, but lest he interrupt any of the allies while speaking: nor does Philip treat of peace with good faith, nor has he ever waged wars with true virtue. In colloquies he lies in wait and tries to capture; in war he does not meet on a level field nor fight with standards joined, but, as he flees, he sets cities on fire and plunders them, and, when beaten, he corrupts the prizes of the victors. But the ancient kings of the Macedonians were not such, but were accustomed to fight by battle-line, to spare cities as much as they could, in order that they might hold a more opulent dominion.
For as to those whose possession is being contested, to be stripping them, leaving to himself nothing except war—what policy is that? Philip, in the previous year, devastated more allied cities in Thessaly than all who have ever been enemies of Thessaly. From the Aetolians themselves he has taken away more as an ally than as an enemy: he occupied Lysimachia after the praetor and the Aetolian garrison were driven out; Cius, likewise a city under their dominion, he utterly overthrew and destroyed; by the same fraud he holds Thebes of Phthia, Echinus, Larisa, Pharsalus.
[34] Motus oratione Alexandri Philippus nauem ut exaudiretur propius terram adplicuit. Orsum eum dicere, in Aetolos maxime, uiolenter Phaeneas interfatus non in uerbis rem uerti ait: aut bello uincendum aut melioribus parendum esse. 'apparet id quidem' inquit Philippus 'etiam caeco', iocatus in ualetudinem oculorum Phaeneae; et erat dicacior natura quam regem decet, et ne inter seria quidem risu satis temperans.
[34] Moved by Alexander’s oration, Philip brought the ship nearer to the land so that he might be heard. When he had begun to speak, chiefly against the Aetolians, Phaeneas, breaking in violently, said that the matter did not turn on words: either they must win by war or obey their betters. 'That indeed is apparent,' said Philip, 'even to a blind man,' joking at the ill-health of Phaeneas’s eyes; and he was by nature more facetious than befits a king, and not even amid serious business did he sufficiently restrain his laughter.
Then he began to be indignant that the Aetolians, as though they were Romans, were ordering that he withdraw from Greece, they who could not say within what boundaries Greece is; for in Aetolia itself the Agraeans, the Apodoti, and the Amphilochi, which are a very great part of them, are not Greece. 'Or do they have a just complaint because I did not abstain from their allies, when they themselves, as by law, observe this ancient custom, that against their own allies, with only the public authority removed, they allow their youth to serve as soldiers, and very often opposing battle lines have Aetolian auxiliaries on each side?' Nor did I take Cius by storm, but I aided Prusias, an ally and friend, while he was besieging it; and I vindicated Lysimachia from the Thracians, but because necessity for this war turned me away from its guard, the Thracians have it.
And to the Aetolians, these things; but to Attalus and the Rhodians I owe nothing by right: for the beginning of the war arose not from me but from them. Yet for the sake of the honor of the Romans I will restore both Peraea to the Rhodians and the ships to Attalus together with the captives who shall appear. As for the restoration of the Nicephorium and the temple of Venus, what shall I answer to those demanding that these be restored, except that, in the only way in which felled woods and groves can be restored, I will provide the care and expense of planting—since it pleases kings, in their mutual dealings, to demand and to respond to such things.' The last part of his speech was against the Achaeans, in which, beginning from the merits of Antigonus first, then from his own toward that nation, he ordered their decrees to be recited, embracing all divine and human honors, and he cast in their teeth the recent decree by which they had defected from him; and, having vehemently inveighed against their perfidy, he nevertheless said that he would render Argos back to them: about Corinth he would deliberate with the Roman commander and at the same time inquire of him whether he judges it equitable that he withdraw from those cities which he holds as taken by himself by the right of war, or even from those which he had received from his ancestors.
[35] Parantibus Achaeis Aetolisque ad ea respondere, cum prope occasum sol esset, dilato in posterum diem conloquio Philippus in stationem ex qua profectus erat, Romani sociique in castra redierunt. Quinctius postero die ad Nicaeam—is enim locus placuerat—ad constitutum tempus uenit: Philippus nullus usquam nec nuntius ab eo per aliquot horas ueniebat, et iam desperantibus uenturum repente apparuerunt naues. Atque ipse quidem cum tam grauia et indigna imperarentur inopem consilii diem se consumpsisse deliberando aiebat: uolgo credebant de industria rem in serum tractam ne tempus dari posset Achaeis Aetolisque ad respondendum, et eam opinionem ipse adfirmauit petendo ut submotis aliis, ne tempus altercando tereretur et aliqui finis rei imponi posset, cum ipso imperatore Romano liceret sibi conloqui.
[35] While the Achaeans and Aetolians were preparing to respond to those demands, since the sun was near setting, the colloquy was deferred to the following day; Philip returned to the outpost from which he had set out, the Romans and their allies to camp. On the next day Quinctius came to Nicaea— for that place had been approved—at the appointed time: Philip was nowhere, nor did even a messenger from him come for several hours, and when they were now despairing that he would come, suddenly ships appeared. And he himself indeed said that, since such grave and unworthy things were being imposed, he had, being at a loss for counsel, spent the day in deliberation; people generally believed that the matter had been dragged on deliberately into a late hour so that time might not be given to the Achaeans and Aetolians for responding, and he confirmed that opinion himself by requesting that, with the others removed, lest time be wasted in wrangling and so that some end might be put to the matter, he be allowed to confer with the Roman emperor himself.
At first that was not accepted, lest the allies seem to be excluded from the conference; then, since he would by no means desist from requesting it, by the counsel of all the Roman emperor, with Appius Claudius, tribune of soldiers, the rest having been removed, advanced to the far edge of the shore: the king went ashore with the two whom he had employed the day before. There, when they had spoken for some time in private, what Philip reported to his own is less well ascertained; Quinctius reported the following to the allies: that he yielded to the Romans the whole coast of Illyricum, that he would send back deserters and, if there are any, captives; to Attalus the ships and, with them, the captured naval comrades; to the Rhodians the region which they call the Peraea, that he would not yield Iasus and Bargyliae; to the Aetolians that he would restore Pharsalus and Larisa, that he would not restore Thebes; to the Achaeans that he would yield not Argos only but Corinth as well. The fixing of the parts to which he would yield or would not yield was pleasing to none of all: for in these more was lost than acquired, nor ever, unless he should withdraw the garrisons from all Greece, would the causes of strife be lacking.
[36] Cum haec toto ex concilio certatim omnes uociferarentur, ad Philippum quoque procul stantem uox est perlata. Itaque a Quinctio petit ut rem totam in posterum diem differret: profecto aut persuasurum se aut persuaderi sibi passurum. Litus ad Thronium conloquio destinatur.
[36] While from the whole council all were vociferating these things in rivalry, the voice was borne even to Philip, standing at a distance. Therefore he requested of Quinctius that he defer the whole matter to the next day: assuredly either he would persuade, or he would allow himself to be persuaded. The shore at Thronium is appointed for the colloquy.
Thereupon the meeting was convened early. There Philip first begged both Quinctius and all who were present not to wish to disturb the hope of peace, and finally he petitioned for time in which he might send legates to Rome to the senate: either he would obtain peace on those conditions, or he would accept whatever laws of peace the senate should lay down. This by no means pleased the rest: for nothing else, they said, was being sought than delay and deferment for collecting forces; Quinctius said that this would indeed have been true if it were summer and the season for conducting affairs: now, with winter imminent, nothing would be lost by granting a span for sending legates; for neither would anything of those things which they themselves had stipulated with the king be valid without the authority of the senate, and the authority of the senate could be ascertained, while winter itself afforded the quiet necessary to war.
To this opinion the other princes of the allies also conceded; and an armistice having been granted for two months, it was resolved that they too should send single envoys to the senate for full instruction, lest it be taken in by the king’s fraud; an addition was made to the armistice-pact that the royal garrisons in Phocis and Locris be withdrawn at once. And Quinctius himself, along with the envoys of the allies, sent Amynander, king of the Athamanians, to add a show to the legation, and Q. Fabius—he was the son of Quinctius’s wife’s sister—and Q. Fulvius and Ap. Claudius.
[37] Ut uentum Romam est, prius sociorum legati quam regis auditi sunt. Cetera eorum oratio conuiciis regis consumpta est: mouerunt eo maxime senatum demonstrando maris terrarumque regionis eius situm ut omnibus appareret si Demetriadem in Thessalia, Chalcidem in Euboea, Corinthum in Achaia rex teneret, non posse liberam Graeciam esse et ipsum Philippum non contumeliosius quam uerius compedes eas Graeciae appellare. Legati deinde regis intromissi; quibus longiorem exorsis orationem breuis interrogatio cessurusne iis tribus urbibus esset sermonem incidit, cum mandati sibi de iis nominatim negarent quicquam.
[37] When they came to Rome, the envoys of the allies were heard before the king’s. The rest of their speech was consumed with invective against the king: they especially moved the senate by demonstrating the situs of sea and land in that region, so that it was apparent to all that, if the king held Demetrias in Thessaly, Chalcis in Euboea, and Corinth in Achaia, Greece could not be free, and that Philip himself not more insultingly than truly called them the fetters of Greece. Then the king’s envoys were admitted; and as they were beginning a longer oration, a brief question cut short the discourse—whether he would cede those three cities—since they denied that any mandate had been given them concerning them by name.
Thus, with the peace left unaccomplished, the royal envoys were dismissed: to Quinctius the free arbitrament of peace and war was permitted. When it was sufficiently apparent to him that the senate was not weary of war, he too, more avid of victory than of peace, neither thereafter granted Philip a colloquy nor said he would admit any legation other than one which should announce a withdrawal from all Greece.
[38] Philippus cum acie decernendum uideret et undique ad se contrahendas uires, maxime de Achaiae urbibus, regionis ab se diuersae, et magis tamen de Argis quam de Corintho sollicitus, optimum ratus Nabidi eam Lacedaemoniorum tyranno uelut fiduciariam dare ut uictori sibi restitueret, si quid aduersi accidisset ipse haberet, Philocli, qui Corintho Argisque praeerat, scribit ut tyrannum ipse conueniret. Philocles praeterquam quod iam ueniebat cum munere adicit, ad pignus futurae regi cum tyranno amicitiae, filias suas regem Nabidis filiis matrimonio coniungere uelle. Tyrannus primo negare aliter urbem eam se accepturum nisi Argiuorum ipsorum decreto accersitus ad auxilium urbis esset, deinde, ut frequenti contione non aspernatos modo sed abominatos etiam nomen tyranni audiuit, causam se spoliandi eos nactum ratus, tradere ubi uellet urbem Philoclen iussit.
[38] Philip, since he saw that it had to be decided by a pitched battle and that forces were to be drawn in to him from every side—chiefly from the cities of Achaia, a region divergent from him, and yet more anxious about Argos than about Corinth—judged it best to give that city, as it were in fiduciary trust, to Nabis, the tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, so that he might restore it to him, if he were the victor, but if anything adverse befell, he himself should have it. He writes to Philocles, who had charge of Corinth and Argos, that he himself should meet the tyrant. Philocles, besides the fact that he was already coming with the gift, adds, as a pledge of the future friendship between the king and the tyrant, that the king wishes to join his daughters in marriage to the sons of Nabis. The tyrant at first declared that he would not accept that city otherwise than if, by a decree of the Argives themselves, he were summoned to the aid of the city; then, when he heard in a crowded assembly that not only was the name of tyrant spurned but even abominated, thinking he had found a pretext for despoiling them, he ordered Philocles to hand over the city wherever he should wish.
Nocturnally, all being unaware, the tyrant was admitted into the city; at first light all the higher positions were occupied and the gates closed. A few of the leading men having slipped away in the first tumult, the fortunes of those absent were despoiled; from those present gold and silver were taken away, and enormous sums of money were imposed. Those who did not hesitate to contribute were dismissed without contumely and without laceration of their bodies; those on whom there was suspicion of concealing or holding anything back were, in servile fashion, lacerated and tortured to extort it.
[39] Postquam in potestate Argiuorum ciuitas erat, nihil eius memor tyrannus a quo eam ciuitatem et in quam condicionem accepisset, legatos Elatiam ad Quinctium et <ad> Attalum Aeginae hibernantem mittit qui nuntiarent Argos in potestate sua esse: eo si ueniret Quinctius ad conloquium, non diffidere sibi omnia cum eo conuentura. Quinctius ut eo quoque praesidio Philippum nudaret cum adnuisset se uenturum, mittit ad Attalum ut ab Aegina Sicyonem sibi occurreret; ipse ab Anticyra decem quinqueremibus quas iis forte ipsis diebus L. Quinctius frater eius adduxerat ex hibernis Corcyrae Sicyonem tramisit. Iam ibi Attalus erat; qui cum tyranno ad Romanum imperatorem, non Romano ad tyrannum eundum diceret, in sententiam suam Quinctium traduxit ne in urbem ipsam Argos iret.
[39] After the city was in the power of the Argives, the tyrant, mindful in no respect of the man by whom he had received that city and in what condition he had received it, sends legates to Elatea to Quinctius and to Attalus, wintering at Aegina, to announce that Argos was in his power: if Quinctius should come there for a colloquy, he did not doubt that everything would be agreed with him. Quinctius, in order there too to strip Philip of support, when he had assented that he would come, sends to Attalus to meet him from Aegina at Sicyon; he himself from Anticyra crossed over to Sicyon with ten quinqueremes which in those very days L. Quinctius, his brother, had brought from the winter quarters at Corcyra. Attalus was already there; and, as he declared that it was the tyrant who should go to the Roman commander, not the Roman to the tyrant, he brought Quinctius over to his opinion, that he should not go into the city of Argos itself.
Not far from the city of Mycenae a place is so named; in that place it was agreed that they should meet. Quinctius came with his brother and a few military tribunes, Attalus with his royal retinue, and Nicostratus, praetor of the Achaeans, with a few auxiliaries. There they found the tyrant awaiting them with all his forces.
The tyrant advanced armed with armed satellites into about the middle of the intervening field; Quinctius, unarmed, with his brother and two military tribunes, and the king likewise unarmed, was flanked by the praetor of the Achaeans and one of the purple-clad courtiers. The beginning of the discourse arose from the tyrant’s excuse, that he had come to the conference himself armed and surrounded by armed men, when he saw the Roman commander and the king unarmed; for he said that it was not they he feared, but the Argive exiles. Then, when it began to be negotiated about the conditions of friendship, the Roman demanded two things: one, that he end the war with the Achaeans; the other, that he send auxiliaries with him against Philip.
[40] De Argis quoque disceptatio ab Attalo rege est mota, cum fraude Philoclis proditam urbem ui ab eo teneri argueret, ille ab ipsis Argiuis se defenderet accitum. Contionem rex Argiuorum postulabat ut id sciri posset, nec tyrannus abnuere; sed deductis ex urbe praesidiis liberam contionem non immixtis Lacedaemoniis declaraturam quid Argiui uellent praeberi debere dicebat rex: tyrannus negauit deducturum. Haec disceptatio sine exitu fuit.
[40] A dispute about Argos too was set in motion by King Attalus, since he charged that, by the treachery of Philocles, the betrayed city was being held by him by force; he, for his part, defended himself as having been summoned by the Argives themselves. The king demanded an assembly of the Argives so that this could be known, nor did the tyrant refuse; but the king said that, with the garrisons withdrawn from the city, a free assembly—without Lacedaemonians intermingled—ought to be afforded, which would declare what the Argives wanted: the tyrant said he would not withdraw them. This dispute came to no outcome.
They departed from the colloquy, six hundred Cretans having been given by the tyrant to the Roman, and a truce for four months having been made between Nicostratus, praetor of the Achaeans, and the tyrant of the Lacedaemonians. From there Quinctius set out for Corinth and approached the gate with a cohort of Cretans, in order that it might appear to Philocles, the prefect of the city, that the tyrant had defected from Philip; Philocles himself also came to the Roman commander for a conference, and, when urged to cross over at once and hand the city over, replied in such a way that he seemed to have put the matter off rather than refused it. From Corinth Quinctius crossed to Anticyra, and from there sent his brother to sound out the Acarnanian people.
Attalus set out from Argos to Sicyon. There the city augmented the king’s ancient honors with new honors; and the king, in addition to his having once redeemed for them the sacred field of Apollo with a great sum of money, then also, lest he pass by an allied and friendly city without some munificence, gave as a gift ten talents of silver and ten thousand medimni of grain; and so he returned to the ships at Cenchreae. And Nabis, with the garrison at Argos strengthened, returned to Lacedaemon; since he himself had despoiled the men, he sent his wife back to Argos to despoil the women.