Livy: AB VRBE CONDITA LIBRI

[1] Principio ueris, quod hiemem eam, qua haec gesta sunt, insecutum est, ab Roma profectus Q. Marcius Philippus consul cum quinque milibus * * * , quod in supplementum legionum secum traiecturus erat, Brundisium peruenit. M. Popilius consularis et alii pari nobilitate adulescentes tribuni militum in Macedonicas legiones consulem secuti sunt. per eos dies et C. Marcius Figulus praetor, cui classis prouincia euenerat, Brundisium uenit; et simul ex Italia profecti Corcyram altero die, tertio Actium, Acarnaniae portum, tenuerunt.

[1] At the beginning of the spring, which followed the winter in which these things were done, Quintus Marcius Philippus the consul set out from Rome with five thousand * * * , which he was going to carry across with him as a supplement to the legions, and he arrived at Brundisium. Marcus Popilius, a man of consular rank, and other young men of equal nobility, as military tribunes, followed the consul to the Macedonian legions. In those same days Gaius Marcius Figulus the praetor, to whom the province of the fleet had fallen, came to Brundisium; and, setting out from Italy at the same time, on the second day they made Corcyra, on the third Actium, a port of Acarnania.

inde consul ad Ambraciam egressus itinere terrestri petit Thessaliam; praetor superato Leucata Corinthium sinum inuectus et Creusae relictis nauibus terra et ipse per mediam Boeotiam--diei unius expedito iter est--Chalcidem ad classem contendit. castra eo tempore A. Hostilius in Thessalia circa Palaepharsalum habebat, sicut nulla re bellica memorabili gesta, ita ad ~iunctam militarem disciplinam ab effusa licentia formato milite et sociis cum fide cultis et ab omni genere iniuriae defensis. audito successoris aduentu cum arma uiros equos cum cura inspexisset, ornato exercitu obuiam uenienti consuli processit.

thence the consul, having disembarked at Ambracia, sought Thessaly by a land route; the praetor, Leucate having been rounded, carried into the Corinthian Gulf, and at Creusa, with the ships left, he too by land through the middle of Boeotia--it is a journey of one day when expedited--pressed on to Chalcis to the fleet. at that time A. Hostilius had his camp in Thessaly around Palaepharsalus, and just as nothing memorable had been done in war, so too the military discipline, conjoined again from unbridled license, had been formed in the soldiery, and the allies had been cultivated with good faith and defended from every kind of injury. on hearing of the arrival of his successor, after he had with care inspected arms, men, and horses, with the army arrayed he advanced to meet the consul as he came.

et primus eorum congressus ex dignitate ipsorum ac Romani nominis, et in rebus deinde gerendis--proconsul enim ad exercitum <mansit>-<summa concordia fuit>. paucis post diebus consul contionem apud milites habuit. orsus a parricidio Persei perpetrato in fratrem, cogitato in parentem, adiecit post scelere partum regnum ueneficia, caedes, latrocinio nefando petitum Eumenen, iniurias in populum Romanum, direptiones sociarum urbium contra foedus; ea omnia quam diis quoque inuisa essent, sensurum in exitu rerum suarum: fauere enim pietati fideique deos, per quae populus Romanus ad tantum fastigii uenerit. uires deinde populi Romani, iam terrarum orbem conplectentis, cum uiribus Macedoniae, exercitus cum exercitibus conparauit: quanto maiores Philippi Antiochique opes non maioribus copiis fractas esse?

and their first meeting was in keeping with the dignity of themselves and of the Roman name, and then in the conduct of affairs—for the proconsul with the army <remained>-<there was the utmost concord>. a few days later the consul held an address before the soldiers. beginning from the parricide by Perseus perpetrated against his brother, contemplated against his father, he added that, after a kingdom gotten by crime, there had been poisonings, slaughters, Eumenes assailed by nefarious brigandage, injuries against the Roman people, plunderings of allied cities contrary to the treaty; how hateful all those things were even to the gods he would feel in the outcome of his affairs: for the gods favor piety and good faith, through which the Roman people has come to so great a summit. then he compared the forces of the Roman people, now embracing the circle of lands, with the forces of Macedonia, army with armies: how much greater the resources of Philip and Antiochus had been, yet had been broken without larger forces?

[2] Huius generis adhortatione accensis militum animis consultare de summa gerendi belli coepit. eo et C. Marcius praetor a Chalcide classe accepta uenit. placuit non ultra morando in Thessalia tempus terere, sed mouere extemplo castra atque inde pergere in Macedoniam, et praetorem dare operam, ut eodem tempore classis quoque inuehatur hostium litoribus.

[2] By an exhortation of this sort having inflamed the soldiers’ spirits, he began to consult about the overall conduct of the war. To that place also came C. Marcius, the praetor, from Chalcis, after assuming command of the fleet. It was resolved not to waste time by delaying any longer in Thessaly, but to move the camp at once and from there advance into Macedonia, and that the praetor should take pains that at the same time the fleet likewise be brought in against the enemy shores.

praetore dimisso consul menstruum <frumentum> iusso milite secum ferre profectus decumo post die, quam exercitum acceperat, castra mouit; et unius diei progressus iter conuocatis itinerum ducibus cum exponere in consilio iussisset, qua quisque ducturus esset, summotis iis, quam potissimum <uiam> peteret, rettulit ad consilium. aliis per Pythoum placebat uia, aliis per Cambunios montes, qua priore anno duxerat Hostilius consul, aliis praeter Ascuridem paludem. restabat aliquantum uiae communis; itaque in id tempus, quo prope diuortium itinerum castra posituri erant, deliberatio eius rei differtur.

the praetor having been dismissed, the consul, with the soldiers ordered to carry with them the monthly <grain> ration, set out, and on the tenth day after he had received the army he moved camp; and, after an advance of one day’s march, with the guides of the routes summoned, when he had ordered them to set forth in council by which way each would lead, once they were removed he referred to the council which <way> he should especially aim for. to some the road through Pythoum was pleasing, to others through the Cambunian mountains, the route by which Hostilius the consul had led the previous year, to others along the Ascuridian marsh. a considerable stretch of common road still remained; and so the deliberation of that matter was deferred to the time when they were going to pitch camp near the parting of the ways.

in Perrhaebiam inde ducit, et inter Azorum et Dolichen statiua habuit ad consulendum rursus, quam potissimum capesseret uiam. per eosdem dies Perseus cum adpropinquare hostem sciret, quod iter petiturus esset, ignarus, omnis saltus insidere praesidiis statuit. in iugum Cambuniorum montium--Uolustana ipsi uocant--decem milia leuis armaturae ~iuuenum cum duce Asclepiodoto mittit; ad castellum, quod super Ascuridem paludem erat--Lapathus uocatur locus--, Hippias tenere saltum cum duodecim milium Macedonum praesidio iussus.

thence he leads into Perrhaebia, and between Azorus and Doliche he held standing-quarters to consult again which way he should most especially take. during those same days Perseus, since he knew the enemy was approaching, but was ignorant which route he would aim to take, resolved to occupy all the passes with garrisons. onto the ridge of the Cambunian mountains--Volustana they themselves call it--he sends ten thousand light-armed ~youths with the leader Asclepiodotus; to the fort which was above the Ascurid marsh--Lapathus the place is called--, Hippias was ordered to hold the pass with a garrison of twelve thousand Macedonians.

ipse cum reliquis copiis primo circa Dium statiua habuit; deinde adeo inops consilii, ut obtorpuisse uideretur, cum equitibus expeditis litore nunc Heracleum, nunc Philam percurrebat, eodem inde cursu Dium repetens.

he himself, with the remaining forces, at first had his stationary camp around Dium; then, so devoid of counsel that he seemed to have gone numb, with unencumbered horsemen he kept coursing along the shore now to Heracleum, now to Phila, from there in the same run returning to Dium.

[3] Interim consuli sententia stetit eo saltu ducere, ubi propter Ottolobum dux regius castra <habebat>. praemitti tamen quattuor milia armatorum ad loca opportuna praeoccupanda placuit, qui<bus> praepositi sunt M. Claudius, Q. Marcius consulis filius. confestim et uniuersae copiae sequebantur. ceterum adeo ardua et aspera et confragosa fuit <uia>, ut praemissi expediti biduo quindecim milium passuum aegre itinere confecto castra posuerint.

[3] Meanwhile, the consul’s resolve stood to lead by that pass where, near Ottolobus, the royal commander had his camp. Nevertheless, it pleased them to send forward four thousand armed men to pre‑occupy advantageous positions, over whom M. Claudius and Q. Marcius, the consul’s son, were placed. Immediately the entire forces also were following. But the road was so steep and rough and broken that the unencumbered troops sent ahead, having with difficulty completed in two days a march of 15 miles, pitched camp.

Dierum, quem cepere, locum appellant. inde postero die septem milia progressi, tumulo haud procul hostium castris capto, nuntium ad consulem remittunt peruentum ad hostem esse; loco se tuto et ad omnia opportuno consedisse; [ut] quantum extendere iter posset, consequeretur. sollicito consuli et propter itineris difficultatem, quod ingressus erat, et eorum uicem, quos paucos inter media praesidia hostium praemiserat, nuntius ad Ascuridem paludem occurrit.

They call the place which they seized “Dierum.” From there, on the next day, having advanced seven miles, after taking a mound not far from the enemy’s camp, they send back a messenger to the consul that they had come up to the enemy; that they had taken their seat in a place safe and convenient for all purposes; [that] he should follow so far as he could extend his march. To the anxious consul—both on account of the difficulty of the route which he had entered upon, and on account of the plight of those few whom he had sent ahead amid the enemy’s outposts—a messenger met him at the Ascurid marsh.

addita igitur et ipsi fiducia est, coniunctisque copiis castra tumulo, qui tenebatur, qua aptissimum ad loci naturam erat, sunt adclinata. non hostium modo castra, quae paulo plus mille passuum aberant, sed omnis regio ad Dium et Philam oraque maris late patente ex tam alto iugo prospectu oculis subicitur. quae res accendit militi animos, postquam summam belli ac regias omnis copias terramque hostilem tam e propinquo conspexerunt.

accordingly his own confidence too was increased, and, the forces having been joined, the camp was leaned against the hill that was held, where it was most apt to the nature of the place. not only the enemy’s camp, which was a little more than 1,000 paces away, but the whole region toward Dion and Phila and the shores of the sea, lying widely open, from so high a ridge by the prospect was brought under their eyes. this thing inflamed the spirits of the soldiery, after they beheld the decisive issue of the war and all the royal forces and the hostile land from so close at hand.

itaque cum alacres, protinus duceret ad castra hostium, consulem hortarentur, dies unus fessis labore uiae ad quietem datus est. tertio die parte copiarum ad praesidium castrorum relicta consul ad hostem ducit.

And so, since, eager that he lead them straightway to the enemy’s camp, they were urging the consul, one day was given to those weary with the labor of the road for rest. On the third day, with part of the forces left as a garrison for the camp, the consul led toward the enemy.

[4] Hippias nuper ad tuendum saltum ab rege missus erat; qui ex quo castra Romana in tumulo conspexit, praeparatis ad certamen animis suorum uenienti agmini consulis obuius fuit. et Romani expediti ad pugnam exierant, et hostes leuis armatura erat, promptissimum genus ad lacessendum certamen. congressi igitur extemplo tela coniecerunt; multa utrimque uolnera temerario incursu et accepta et inlata; pauci utriusque partis ceciderunt.

[4] Hippias had recently been sent by the king to guard the pass; and when he caught sight of the Roman camp on the hill, with the spirits of his men prepared for the contest, he went to meet the consul’s approaching column. And the Romans had gone out unencumbered, ready for battle, and the enemies were light-armed, the most prompt kind for provoking a contest. Having met, therefore, at once they hurled their missiles; many wounds on both sides, through a rash charge, were both received and inflicted; few of either party fell.

inritatis in posterum diem animis maioribus copiis atque infestius concursum <est; decreuissentque de summa> belli, si loci satis ad explicandam aciem fuisset; <sed> iugum montis in angustum dorsum cuneatum uix ternis ordinibus armatorum in fronte patuit. itaque paucis pugnantibus cetera multitudo, praecipue qui grauium armorum erant, spectatores pugnae stabant; leuis armatura etiam per anfractus iugi procurrere et ab lateribus cum leui armatura conserere per iniqua atque aequa loca pugnam poterat. pluribus ea die uolneratis quam interfectis proelium nocte diremptum est.

with spirits provoked for the next day, a clash was made with larger forces and more hostilely <was joined; and they would have decided about the main issue> of the war, if there had been enough space to deploy the battle line; <but> the ridge of the mountain, wedged into a narrow back, scarcely lay open in front for three ranks of armed men. therefore, with a few fighting, the rest of the multitude, especially those of the heavy arms, stood as spectators of the battle; the light-armed could even run forward through the windings of the ridge and from the flanks could engage the light-armed in battle through uneven as well as level places. with more wounded than slain on that day, the battle was broken off by night.

Tertio die egere consilio Romanus imperator; nam neque manere in iugo inopi neque regredi sine flagitio atque etiam periculo, si cedenti ex superioribus locis <in>staret hostis, poterat; nec aliud restabat quam audacter commissum pertinaci audacia, quae prudens interdum in exitu est, corrigere. uentum quidem erat eo, ut, si hostem similem antiquis Macedonum regibus habuisset consul, magna clades accipi potuerit. sed cum ad Dium per litora cum equitibus uagaretur rex et ab duodecim milibus prope clamorem et strepitum pugnantium audiret, nec auxit copias integros fessis summittendo neque ipse, quod plurimum intererat, certamini adfuit, cum Romanus imperator, maior sexaginta annis et praegrauis corpore, omnia militaria munera ipse inpigre obiret.

On the third day the Roman commander held council; for he could neither stay on a ridge lacking resources nor retreat without disgrace and even danger, if the enemy pressed upon one retreating from the higher positions; nor did anything remain except to correct a bold commitment with stubborn audacity, which sometimes in the outcome is prudent. It had indeed come to this point that, if the consul had had an enemy like the ancient kings of the Macedonians, a great calamity might have been incurred. But since the king was roaming along the shores near Dion with his cavalry and from about twelve miles away heard the shouting and din of those fighting, he neither augmented his forces by sending in fresh men to relieve the weary nor was he himself present at the combat, which mattered most, while the Roman commander, more than sixty years old and very heavy in body, himself tirelessly discharged all the military duties.

egregie ad ultimum in audaciter commisso perseuerauit et Popilio relicto in custodia iugi per inuia transgressurus praemissis, <qui> repurgarent iter, Attalum et Misagenem cum suae gentis utrumque auxiliaribus praesidio esse saltum aperientibus iubet; ipse equites impedimentaque prae se habens cum legionibus agmen cogit.

He persevered admirably to the end in the boldly undertaken enterprise, and, with Popilius left in custody of the ridge, being about to cross through pathless places, after sending ahead men to clear the way, he orders Attalus and Misagenes, each with auxiliaries of his own nation, to be a protection for those opening the pass; he himself, having the cavalry and the baggage before him, drives the column with the legions.

[5] Inenarrabilis labor descendentibus cum ruina iumentorum sarcinarumque. progressis uixdum quattuor milia passuum nihil optabilius esse quam redire, qua uenerant, si possent. hostilem prope tumultum agmini elephanti praebebant, qui, ubi ad inuia uenerant, deiectis rectoribus cum horrendo stridore pauorem ingentem, equis maxime, incutiebant, donec traducendi eos ratio inita est.

[5] Ineffable labor for those descending, with the collapse of the pack-animals and of the baggage. Having advanced scarcely four miles, nothing was more desirable than to return by the route by which they had come, if they could. The elephants were supplying to the column a tumult almost like that of an enemy; when they had come to the pathless places, with their drivers cast down, with a horrendous screeching they were instilling immense fear—especially in the horses—until a method for leading them across was devised.

per procliue sumpto fastigio longi duo ualidi asseres ex inferiore parte in terra defigebantur, distantes inter se paulo plus, quam quanta beluae latitudo est; in eos transuerso incumbente tigno as<ses> tricenos longi pedes, ut pons esset, iniungebantur humusque insuper iniciebatur. modico deinde infra interuallo similis alter pons, dein tertius et plures ex ordine, qua rupes abscisae erant, fiebant. solido procedebat elephantus in pontem; cuius priusquam in extremum <pro>cederet, succisis asseribus conlapsus pons usque <ad> alterius initium pontis prolabi eum leniter cogebat.

On a downhill slope, once an incline had been taken, two long stout beams were fixed in the ground from the lower side, set at a distance from each other a little more than the beast’s breadth; upon them, with a cross-beam resting transversely, beams thirty feet long were joined on, to make a bridge, and soil was thrown on top. Then, a short interval farther down, a second similar bridge, then a third, and several more in sequence were made where the cliffs were cut sheer. The elephant would advance onto a solid bridge; and before he could proceed to its extremity, the beams having been cut, the collapsed bridge would gently force him to slide down as far as the beginning of the next bridge.

alii elephanti pedibus insistentes, alii clunibus subsidentes prolabebantur. ubi planities altera pontis excepisset eos, rursus simili ruina inferioris pontis deferebantur, donec ad aequiorem uallem peruentum est. paulo plus septem milia <eo> die Romani processerunt; minimum pedibus itineris confectum.

some elephants, standing firm on their feet, others settling down on their haunches, were sliding forward. when the next level stretch of the bridge had received them, again by a similar collapse of the lower bridge they were carried down, until a more level valley was reached. a little more than seven miles the Romans advanced that day; the least part of the route was accomplished on foot.

plerumque prouoluentes se simul cum armis aliisque oneribus cum omni genere uexationis processerunt, adeo <ut> ne dux quidem et auctor itineris infitiaretur parua manu deleri omnem exercitum potuisse. nocte ad modicam planitiem peruenerunt; nec, quam infestus is locus esset saeptus undique, circumspiciendi spatium fuit uix tandem ex insperato stabilem ad insistendum nanctis locum. postero quoque die in tam caua ualle opperiri Popilium ac relictas cum eo copias necesse fuit; quos et ipsos, cum ab nulla parte hostis terruisset, locorum asperitas hostiliter uexauit.

for the most part, rolling themselves forward together with their arms and other burdens, they advanced with every kind of vexation, to such a degree that not even the leader and author of the march would deny that the whole army could have been obliterated by a small force. By night they reached a modest plain; nor was there space for surveying how hostile that place was, fenced in on every side, when at last, beyond expectation, they found a stable place to stand. On the following day as well it was necessary to wait in so hollow a valley for Popilius and the troops left with him; and these too, although from no quarter had an enemy frightened them, the asperity of the terrain vexed in hostile fashion.

tertio die coniunctis copiis eunt per saltum, quem incolae Callipeucen appellant. quarto inde die per aeque inuia, sed adsuetudine peritius et meliore cum spe, quod nec hostis usquam apparebat et mari adpropinquabant, degressi in campos inter Heracleum et Libethrum posuerunt castra [peditum], quorum pars maior tumulos tenebat. ibi <pedes tendebat>. uallo campi quoque partem, ubi eques tenderet, amplectebantur.

on the third day, with forces conjoined, they go through a pass, which the inhabitants call Callipeuce. on the fourth day from there, through equally trackless places, but more skillful by habituation and with better hope, because nowhere did an enemy appear and they were approaching the sea, having descended into the plains between Heracleum and Libethrum they pitched a camp [of the foot-soldiers], the greater part of whom was holding the hillocks. there <the infantry was pitching camp>. with a rampart they were also encompassing a part of the plain, where the cavalry might encamp.

[6] Lauanti regi dicitur nuntiatum hostis adesse. quo nuntio cum pauidus exiluisset e solio, uictum se sine proelio clamitans proripuit; et subinde per alia atque <alia> pauida consilia et imperia trepidans duos ex amicis, Pellam alterum, ut, quae ad Phacum pecunia deposita erat, <in mare proiceret, Thessalonicam alterum, ut naualia incenderet, misit; Asclepiodotum et Hippiam, quique cum iis erant,> ex praesidiis reuocat omnisque aditus aperit bello. ipse ab Dio auratis statuis omnibus raptis, ne praeda hosti essent, incolas eius loci demigrare Pydnam cogit, et, quae temeritas consulis uideri potuisset, quod eo processisset, unde inuito hoste regredi nequiret, eam non inconsultam audaciam fecit.

[6] It is said to have been reported to the king while he was bathing that the enemy was at hand. At this message, when in fear he had leapt out from the bath, crying out that he was conquered without a battle, he rushed away; and presently, fluttering through one fearful counsels and commands after another, he sent two of his friends—one to Pella, that the money which had been deposited at Phacus <to throw into the sea; the other to Thessalonica, to set the dockyards on fire, he sent; Asclepiodotus and Hippias, and those who were with them,> he recalls from the garrisons, and he opens all approaches to war. He himself, after snatching from Dion all the gilded statues, lest they be booty for the enemy, compels the inhabitants of that place to move down to Pydna; and what might have seemed the consul’s temerity—that he had advanced to a point whence he could not retreat without the enemy’s leave—he made that audacity not ill-advised.

duos enim saltus, per quos inde euadere possent, habebant Romani, unum per Tempe in Thessaliam, alterum in Macedoniam praeter Dium; quae utraque regiis tenebantur praesidiis. itaque si sua intrepidus defendens primam speciem adpropinquantis terroris sustinuisset, neque receptus Romanis per Tempe in Thessaliam neque commeatibus peruehendis ea patuisset iter. sunt enim Tempe saltus, etiamsi non bello fiat infestus, transitu difficilis.

for the Romans had two passes by which they could from there escape: one through Tempe into Thessaly, the other into Macedonia past Dium; and both were held by royal garrisons. And so, if, defending his own intrepidly, he had withstood the first appearance of the approaching terror, neither would a retreat have been open to the Romans through Tempe into Thessaly, nor would that route have lain open for the conveying of supplies. For the Tempe pass, even if it be not made infested by war, is difficult for transit.

nam praeter angustias per quinque milia, qua exiguum iumento onusto iter est, rupes utrimque ita abscisae sunt, ut despici uix sine uertigine quadam simul oculorum animique possit. terret et sonitus et altitudo per mediam uallem fluentis Penei amnis. hic locus tam suapte natura infestus per quattuor distantia loca praesidiis regiis fuit insessus.

for besides the narrowness over 5 miles, where there is scant passage for a pack‑laden beast, the cliffs on both sides are so cut sheer that one can scarcely look down without a certain vertigo at once of eyes and of mind. The sound and the depth of the river Peneus, flowing through the middle of the valley, also terrify. This place, so hostile by its very nature, was occupied by royal garrisons at 4 points set apart.

unum in primo aditu ad Gonnum erat, alterum <in> Condylo, castello inexpugnabili, tertium circa Lapathunta, quem Characa appellant, quartum uiae ipsi, qua et media et angustissima ualles est, <in>positum, quam uel decem armatis tueri facile est. intercluso per Tempe simul aditu commeatibus, simul reditu ipsis, montes, per quos descenderant, repetendi erant. quod, ut furto fefellerant, ita propalam tenentibus superiora cacumina hostibus non poterant; et experta difficultas spem omnem incidisset.

one was at the first approach toward Gonnum, another <in> Condylus, an inexpugnable castle, a third around Lapathunta, which they call Characa, a fourth set <in> place upon the road itself, where the valley is both at its middle and at its narrowest, which even ten men under arms can easily defend. with the approach through Tempe shut off at once for the provisions-convoys and at once for their own return, the mountains by which they had descended had to be regained. which, just as they had eluded by stealth, so openly they could not, the enemy holding the higher summits; and the difficulty once experienced would have lopped away all hope.

supererat nihil aliud in temere commisso quam in Macedoniam ad Dium per medios euadere hostis; quod, nisi di mentem regi ademissent, <et> ipsum ingentis difficultatis erat. nam cum Olympi radices montis paulo plus quam mille passuum ad mare relinquant spatium, cuius dimidium loci occupat ostium late restagnans Baphyri amnis, partem planitiae aut Iouis templum aut oppidum tenet, relicum perexiguum fossa modica ualloque claudi poterat, et saxorum ad manum siluestrisque materiae tantum erat, ut uel murus obici turresque excitari potuerint. quorum nihil cum dispexisset caecata mens subito terrore, nudatis omnibus praesidiis patefactisque bello ad Pydnam refugit.

nothing else remained, once the gamble had been rashly engaged, than to make an escape into Macedonia to Dion through the very midst of the enemy; and this itself, unless the gods had taken the king’s mind away, was of enormous difficulty. for since the roots of Mount Olympus leave a space a little more than 1,000 paces to the sea, of which half the area is occupied by the mouth of the Baphyrus river, broadly standing in backwater, part of the plain is held either by the temple of Jupiter or by the town; the remaining very small strip could be enclosed by a modest ditch and rampart, and there was so much stone at hand and woodland material that even a wall could have been thrown up and towers raised. of none of this did his mind, blinded by sudden terror, take account; with all the garrisons stripped bare and the country laid open to war, he fled back to Pydna.

[7] Consul plurimum et praesidii et spei cernens in stultitia et segnitia hostis, remisso nuntio ad Sp. Lucretium Larisam, ut castella relicta ab hoste circa Tempe occuparet, praemisso Popilio ad explorandos transitus circa Dium, postquam patere omnia in omnis partes animaduertit, secundis castris peruenit ad Dium metarique sub ipso templo, ne quid sacro in loco uiolaretur, iussit. ipse urbem ingressus, sicut non magnam, ita exornatam publicis locis et multitudine statuarum munitamque egregie, uix satis credere in tantis rebus sine causa relictis non aliquem subesse dolum. unum diem ad exploranda circa omnia moratus castra mouet; satisque credens in Pieria frumenti copiam fore, eo die ad amnem nomine Mityn processit.

[7] The consul, discerning very much both of safeguard and of hope in the enemy’s stupidity and sluggishness, sent back a messenger to Spurius Lucretius at Larisa, to occupy the forts left by the enemy around Tempe; and, having sent ahead Popilius to explore the passes around Dion, after he observed that everything lay open in all directions, he reached Dion after two marches and ordered the camp to be marked out beneath the very temple, so that nothing in the sacred place might be violated. He himself entered the city and, although it was not large, yet it was adorned with public places and a multitude of statues and was excellently fortified; he could scarcely quite believe, with such great things left without cause, that some trick was not lurking beneath. Having stayed one day to explore everything around, he moves the camp; and, believing sufficiently that in Pieria there would be an abundance of grain, that day he advanced to a river by the name Mityn.

postero die progressus Agassas urbem tradentibus sese ipsis recepit; et ut reliquorum Macedonum animos sibi conciliaret, obsidibus contentus sine praesidio relinquere se iis urbem inmunesque ac suis legibus uicturos est pollicitus. progressus inde diei iter ad Ascordum flumen posuit castra; et quantum procederet longius a Thessalia, eo maiorem rerum omnium inopiam sentiens, regressus ad Dium est dubitatione omnibus exempta, quid intercluso ab Thessalia patiendum fuisset, cui procul inde abscedere tutum non esset. Perseus coactis in unum omnibus copiis ducibusque increpare praefectos praesidiorum, ante omnes Asclepiodotum atque Hippiam; ab his dicere claustra Macedoniae tradita Romanis esse; cuius culpae reus nemo iustius quam ipse fuisset.

On the next day, advancing, he accepted the surrender of the city of Agassae from the inhabitants themselves; and, to conciliate the spirits of the remaining Macedonians to himself, content with hostages he promised that he would leave the city to them without a garrison, and that they would be immune and live by their own laws. Advancing thence a day’s march, he pitched camp at the river Ascordus; and the farther he proceeded from Thessaly, feeling the greater scarcity of all things, he returned to Dium, with all doubt removed as to what would have had to be endured when cut off from Thessaly, from which it would not be safe to withdraw far. Perseus, with all his forces gathered into one, began to inveigh against the prefects of the garrisons, above all Asclepiodotus and Hippias; he declared that by these men the barriers of Macedonia had been delivered to the Romans; yet of this fault no one more justly than he himself was the culprit.

consuli postquam ex alto conspecta classis spem fecit cum commeatu naues uenire--ingens enim caritas annonae ac prope inopia erat--, ab inuectis iam portum audit onerarias naues Magnesiae relictas esse. incerto inde, quidnam agendum foret--adeo sine ulla ope hostis, quae adgrauaret, cum ipsa difficultate rerum pugnandum erat--, peropportune litterae a Sp. Lucretio adlatae sunt castella se, quae super Tempe essent et circa Philan, tenere omnia frumentique in iis et aliarum in usum rerum copiam inuenisse.

After the fleet, sighted from the open sea, gave the consul hope that ships were coming with provisions—for there was an enormous dearness of the grain-supply and almost a dearth—, from those already brought into harbor he hears that the cargo-ships had been left at Magnesia. Uncertain then what ought to be done—so much, even without any aid from the enemy to aggravate it, was there a need to fight against the sheer difficulty of affairs—, most opportunely letters were brought from Sp. Lucretius stating that he held all the forts which were above Tempe and around Phila, and had found in them an abundance of grain and a supply of other things for use.

[8] His magno opere laetus consul ab Dio ad Philan ducit, simul ut praesidium eius firmaret, simul ut militi frumentum, cuius tarda subuectio erat, diuideret. ea profectio famam haudquaquam secundam habuit. nam alii metu recessisse eum ab hoste ferebant, quia manenti in Pieria proelio dimicandum foret, alii ignarum, belli quae in dies fortuna nouaret, ut opperientibus sese rebus, emisisse de manibus ea, quae mox repeti non possent.

[8] At this the consul, greatly rejoicing, leads from Dium to Phila, both to strengthen its garrison and to distribute grain to the soldiery, the bringing-up of which was slow. That departure had a repute by no means favorable. For some were reporting that he had withdrawn from the enemy from fear, because, if he remained in Pieria, a battle would have to be fought; others that, ignorant of what the fortune of war might alter from day to day, as though affairs were waiting upon him, he had let slip from his hands things which soon could not be recovered.

simul enim cessit possessione Dii, excitauit hostem, ut tunc tandem sentiret recuperanda esse, quae prius culpa amissa forent. audita enim profectione consulis regressus Dium, quae disiecta ac uastata ab Romanis erant, reficit, pinnas moenium decussas reponit, ab omni parte muros firmat; deinde quinque milia passuum ab urbe citra ripam Elpei amnis castra ponit, amnem ipsum transitu perdifficilem pro munimento habiturus. fluit ex ualle Olympi montis, aestate exiguus, hibernis idem incitatus pluuiis et supra rupes ingentis gurgites facit et infra prorutam in mare euoluendo terram praealtas uoragines cauatoque medio alueo ripas utrimque praecipitis.

for at the same time as he relinquished possession of Dio, he excited the enemy, so that then at last he might realize that there must be recovered the things which previously had been lost through fault. for, on hearing of the consul’s departure, he returned to Dium, restores what had been scattered and ravaged by the Romans, replaces the battlements of the walls that had been cut down, strengthens the walls on every side; then, five miles from the city on this side of the bank of the Elpeus River, he pitches camp, intending to have the river itself, very difficult to cross, as a fortification. it flows from a valley of Mount Olympus, scant in summer, the same in winter, stirred by rains, makes above, over the rocks, huge whirlpools; and below, by rolling out into the sea the earth torn down, it forms very deep chasms, and, its channel hollowed in the middle, [it has] precipitous banks on both sides.

hoc flumine saeptum iter hostis credens extrahere relicum tempus aestatis in animo habebat.

The enemy, believing the route to be hedged in by this river, had in mind to protract the remaining time of summer.

Inter haec consul a Phila Popilium cum duobus milibus armatorum Heracleum mittit. abest a Phila quinque milia ferme passuum, media regione inter Dium Tempeque in rupe amni inminente positum.

Meanwhile the consul sends Popilius from Phila with two thousand armed men to Heracleum. It is nearly five miles distant from Phila, in the middle region between Dium and Tempe, set upon a cliff overhanging the river.

[9] Popilius priusquam armatos muris admoueret, misit, qui magistratibus principibusque suaderent, fidem clementiamque Romanorum quam uim experiri mallent. nihil ea consilia mouerunt, quia ignes ad Elpeum ex regiis castris apparebant. tum terra marique--et classis adpulsa ab litore stabat--simul armis, simul operibus machinisque oppugnari coepti.

[9] Popilius, before he moved the armed men up to the walls, sent envoys to urge the magistrates and leading men that they should prefer to experience the good faith and clemency of the Romans rather than force. Those counsels moved nothing, because fires at the Elpeus were visible from the royal camp. Then by land and sea--and the fleet, brought in close, was standing off the shore--they began to be assailed both by arms and by works and engines.

iuuenes etiam quidam Romani ludicro circensi ad usum belli uerso partem humillimam muri ceperunt. mos erat tum, nondum hac effusione inducta bestiis omnium gentium circum conplendi, uaria spectaculorum conquirere genera; nam semel quadrigis, semel desultore misso uix unius horae tempus utrumque curriculum conplebat. inter cetera sexageni ferme iuuenes, interdum plures apparatioribus ludis, armati inducebantur.

Some Roman youths as well, with the circus spectacle turned to the use of war, seized the very lowest section of the wall. It was the custom then—before this profusion had been introduced of filling the circus with beasts of all nations—to seek out various genera of spectacles; for once the quadrigae had been sent in, once the desultor had been sent in, both courses scarcely filled the space of a single hour. Among the rest, about sixty youths—sometimes more at more fully equipped games—were introduced, armed.

horum inductio ex parte simulacrum decurrentis exercitus erat, ex parte elegantioris [exercitus] quam militaris artis propiorque gladiatorium armorum usum. cum alios decursu edidissent motus, quadrato agmine facto, scutis super capita densatis, stantibus primis, secundis summissioribus, tertiis magis et quartis, postremis etiam genu nixis, fastigatam, sicut tecta aedificiorum sunt, testudinem faciebant. hinc quinquaginta ferme pedum spatio distantes duo armati procurrebant comminatique inter se, ab ima in summam testudinem per densata scuta cum euasissent, nunc uelut propugnantes per oras extremae testudinis, nunc in media inter se concurrentes, haud secus quam stabili solo persultabant.

the induction of these was in part a simulacrum of a running army, in part of a more elegant [army] than of military art, and closer to the use of gladiatorial arms. when they had exhibited other movements by a charge, with a square column formed, with shields packed above their heads, the first rank standing, the second more lowered, the third more and the fourth, the last even with a knee set, they made a sloped tortoise, like the roofs of buildings. then two armed men, at a space of about fifty feet apart, ran forward, threatening one another; when they had climbed from the lowest to the top of the tortoise over the packed shields, now as if fighting from the battlements along the edges of the outermost tortoise, now meeting one another in the middle, they leapt about no differently than on stable ground.

huic testudo similis <humil>limae parti muri admota. cum armati superstantes subissent, propugnatoribus muri fastigio altitudinis aequabantur; depulsisque iis in urbem duorum signorum milites transcenderunt. id tantum dissimile fuit, quod et in fronte extremi et ex lateribus soli non habebant super capita elata scuta, ne nudarent corpora, sed proiecta pugnantium more.

A testudo like this was brought up to the lowest part of the wall. When armed men standing on top had climbed up, they were matched in height to the defenders at the summit of the wall; and when these had been driven back, soldiers of two standards crossed over into the city. This alone was different: that those at the very front edge and on the flanks alone did not have their shields raised above their heads, lest they lay their bodies bare, but had them projected forward in the manner of fighters.

ita nec ipsos tela ex muro missa subeuntis laeserunt et testudini iniecta imbris in modum lubrico fastigio innoxia ad imum labebantur. et consul capto iam Heracleo castra eo promouit, tamquam Dium atque inde summoto rege in Pieriam etiam progressurus. sed hiberna iam praeparans uias commeatibus subuehundis ex Thessalia muniri iubet et eligi horreis opportuna loca tectaque aedificari, ubi deuersari portantes commeatus possent.

Thus neither did the missiles sent from the wall injure those advancing beneath, and those cast upon the testudo, in the manner of a shower, slid harmlessly down to the bottom along the slick pitch. And the consul, Heracleum now taken, moved his camp there, as though about to advance to Dium and thence, the king removed, even into Pieria. But as he was already preparing winter-quarters, he orders the roads for conveying supplies to be secured from Thessaly, and that suitable places be selected for granaries and buildings to be constructed, where those carrying supplies might lodge.

[10] Perseus tandem <a> pauore eo, quo attonitus fuerat, recepto animo malle imperiis suis non obtemperatum esse, cum trepidans gazam in mare deici Pellae, Thessalonicae naualia iusserat incendi. Andronicus Thessalonicam missus traxerat tempus, id ipsum, quod accidit, paenitentiae relinquens locum. incautior Nicias Pellae proiciendo pecuniae partem, quae fuerat <ad> Phacum; sed in re emendabili uisus lapsus esse, quod per urinatores omnis ferme extracta est.

[10] Perseus at length, <a> his spirit recovered from that panic in which he had been thunder‑struck, preferred that his commands had not been obeyed, since, in his alarm, he had ordered the treasure to be thrown into the sea at Pella and the dockyards at Thessalonica to be set on fire. Andronicus, sent to Thessalonica, had spun out the time, leaving room for repentance for that very thing which came to pass. Nicias was more incautious at Pella, by throwing away a portion of the money, which had been <ad> Phacus; but he was thought to have slipped in a remediable matter, because almost all of it was extracted by divers.

tantusque pudor regi pauoris eius fuit, ut urinatores clam interfici iusserit, deinde Andronicum quoque et Nician, ne quis tam dementis imperii conscius existeret. inter haec C. Marcius cum classe ab Heracleo Thessalonicam profectus et agrum pluribus locis expositis per litora armatis late uastauit et procurrentes ab urbe secundis aliquot proeliis trepidos intra moenia conpulit. iamque ipsi urbi terribilis erat, cum dispositis omnis generis tormentis non uagi modo circa muros, temere adpropinquantes, sed etiam qui in nauibus erant, saxis tormento emicantibus percutiebantur.

and such great shame to the king for that panic was, that he ordered the divers to be put to death in secret, then Andronicus as well and Nicias, lest anyone should exist conscious of so demented a command. meanwhile C. Marcius, with a fleet setting out from Heracleum to Thessalonica, widely ravaged the countryside, after disembarking armed men at many places along the coasts, and, in several successful battles, drove those rushing out from the city, panic‑stricken, back within the walls. and now he was terrible to the city itself, since, with engines of every kind deployed, not only were the wanderers around the walls, rashly approaching, struck by stones darting out from the engines, but even those who were on the ships.

reuocatis igitur in naues militibus omissaque Thessalonicae oppugnatione Aeniam inde petunt. quindecim milia passuum ea urbs abest, aduersus Pydnam posita, fertilis agro. peruastatis finibus eius legentes oram Antigoneam perueniunt.

Therefore, with the soldiers recalled onto the ships and the assault on Thessalonica abandoned, they then make for Aenia. That city is 15 miles distant, situated opposite Pydna, fertile in soil. After thoroughly ravaging its borders, coasting along the shore they arrive at Antigonea.

ibi egressi in terram primo et uastarunt agros passim et aliquantum praedae contulerunt ad naues. dein palatos eos adorti Macedones, mixti pedites equitesque, fugientes effuse ad mare persecuti quingentos ferme occiderunt et non minus ceperunt. nec aliud quam ultima necessitas, cum recipere se tuto ad naues prohiberentur, animos militum Romanorum simul desperatione alia salutis simul indignitate inritauit.

there they disembarked onto land at first and laid waste the fields everywhere and carried a fair amount of booty to the ships. then the Macedonians, foot and horse mingled, assailed them while they were scattered, and, pursuing them as they fled headlong to the sea, killed about 500 and took no fewer captive. nor was it anything other than the last necessity, when they were prevented from retiring safely to the ships, that provoked the spirits of the Roman soldiers, both by desperation of any other safety and by the indignity.

redintegrata in litore pugna est; adiuuere, qui in nauibus erant. ibi Macedonum ducenti ferme caesi, par numerus captus. ab Antigonea classis profecta ad agrum Pallenensem escensionem ad populandum fecit.

the battle was renewed on the shore; those who were on the ships gave aid. there about 200 of the Macedonians were cut down, an equal number captured. the fleet, having set out from Antigonea, made a disembarkation upon the Pallenian countryside for plundering.

finium is ager Cassandrensium erat, longe fertilissimus omnis orae, quam praeteruecti fuerant. ibi Eumenes rex uiginti tectis nauibus ab Elaea profectus obuius fuit et quinque missae a Prusia rege tectae naues.

that land belonged to the Cassandrenians, by far the most fertile of all the coast which they had sailed past. there King Eumenes, having set out from Elaea with twenty covered ships, came to meet them, and five covered ships sent by King Prusias.

[11] Hac uirium accessione animus creuit praetori, ut Cassandream oppugnaret. condita est a Cassandro rege in ipsis faucibus, quae Pallenensem agrum ceterae Macedoniae iungunt, hinc Toronaico, hinc Macedonico saepta m<ari>. eminet namque in altum lingua, in qua sita est, nec minus quam ~inaltus magnitudine Atho mons excurrit, obuersa in regionem Magnesiae duobus inparibus promunturiis, quorum maiori Posideum est nomen, minori Canastraeum. diuisis partibus oppugnare adorti.

[11] With this accession of forces the praetor’s spirit grew, to the point that he would attack Cassandrea. It was founded by King Cassander in the very jaws which join the Pallenian field to the rest of Macedonia, shut in on this side by the Toronaic, on that by the Macedonic sea. For the tongue on which it is set juts out into the deep, and Mount Athos runs out in magnitude no less lofty, facing toward the region of Magnesia with two unequal promontories, of which the larger has the name Posideum, the smaller Canastraeum. Having divided the tasks, they began to assault it.

Romanus ad Clitas, quas uocant, munimenta, ceruis etiam obiectis, ut uiam intercluderet, a Macedonico ad Toronaicum mare perducit. ab altera parte euripus est; inde Eumenes oppugnabat. Romanis in fossa conplenda, quam nuper obiecerat Perseus, plurimum erat laboris.

The Roman carried the works up to the fortifications which they call the Clitae, with “stags” (chevaux-de-frise) also set in front, so as to interclude the way, leading them from the Macedonian to the Toronaic sea. On the other side there is a euripus (a strait); from there Eumenes was attacking. For the Romans there was very great labor in filling the ditch which Perseus had lately thrown up.

ibi quaerenti praetori, quia nusquam cumuli apparebant, quo regesta e fossa terra foret, monstrati sunt fornices: non ad eandem crassitudinem, qua ueterem murum, sed simplici laterum ordine structos esse. consilium igitur cepit transfosso pariete iter in urbem patefacere. fallere autem ita se posse, si muros a parte alia scalis adortus tumultu iniecto in custodiam eius loci propugnatores urbis auertisset.

there, as the praetor inquired, because nowhere did mounds appear to show where the earth taken from the ditch had been heaped, arches were pointed out: they had been built not to the same thickness as the old wall, but with a single course of bricks. He therefore resolved, with the wall bored through, to open a way into the city. And that he could thus deceive them, if, having assailed the walls with ladders on another side and raising an uproar, he should divert the city’s defenders to the guard of that spot.

erant in praesidio Cassandreae praeter non contemnendam iuuentutem oppidanorum octingenti Agrianes et duo milia Penestarum Illyriorum, a Pleurato inde missi, bellicosum utrumque genus. his tuentibus muros, cum subire Romani summa ui niterentur, momento temporis parietes fornicum perfossi urbem patefecerunt. quod si, qui inrumperent, armati fuissent, extemplo cepissent.

In the garrison of Cassandrea, besides the not-to-be-despised youth of the townsmen, there were 800 Agrianians and 2,000 Illyrian Penestae, sent thence by Pleuratus—both races bellicose. With these guarding the walls, while the Romans were striving with utmost force to come up, in a moment of time, the walls of the vaults having been pierced through, they opened the city. And if those who burst in had been armed, they would have taken it at once.

hoc ubi perfectum esse opus militibus nuntiatum est, clamorem alacres gaudio repente tollunt, alii parte alia in urbem inrupturi.

when this work had been reported to the soldiers as completed, they, with alacrity in their joy, suddenly raise a clamor, others, from another quarter, about to irrupt into the city.

[12] Hostis primum admiratio cepit, quidnam sibi repentinus clamor uellet. postquam patere urbem accepere praefecti praesidii Pytho et Philippus, pro eo, qui occupasset adgredi, opus factum esse rati, cum ualida manu Agrianum Illyriorumque erumpunt Romanosque, qui alii aliunde coibant conuocabanturque, ut signa in urbem inferrent, inconpositos atque inordinatos fugant persecunturque ad fossam, in quam conpulsos ruina cumulant. sescenti ferme ibi interfecti, omnesque prope, qui inter murum fossamque deprensi erant, uolnerantur.

[12] At first astonishment seized the enemy as to what the sudden clamor might mean for them. After the prefects of the garrison, Pytho and Philip, learned that the city lay open, thinking the work had been done to attack in favor of whoever had occupied first, they erupt with a strong band of Agrianians and Illyrians, and they rout the Romans—who were gathering, some from one place, some from another, and were being called together to bear the standards into the city—disorganized and out of order, and they pursue them to the fosse, where, driven in, they heap them up in ruin. About six hundred were slain there, and nearly all who were caught between the wall and the fosse are wounded.

ita suo ipse conatu perculsus praetor segnior ad alia factus consilia erat. et ne Eumeni quidem simul a mari simul a terra adgredienti quidquam satis procedebat. placuit igitur utrique custodiis firmatis, ne quod praesidium ex Macedonia intromitti posset, quoniam uis aperta non processisset, operibus moenia oppugnare.

Thus the praetor himself, struck by his own attempt, had become more sluggish toward other counsels. And not even for Eumenes, assailing at once from the sea and from the land, did anything proceed satisfactorily. Therefore it pleased both, with the guards strengthened, lest any garrison from Macedonia be admitted, since open force had not succeeded, to attack the walls by siege-works.

haec parantibus iis decem regii lembi ab Thessalonica cum delectis Gallorum auxiliaribus missi, cum in salo stantes hostium naues conspexissent, ipsi obscura nocte, simplici ordine, quam poterant proxime litus tenentes, intrarunt urbem. huius noui praesidii fama absistere oppugnatione simul Romanos regemque coegit. circumuecti promunturium ad Toronen classem appulerunt.

While they were preparing these things, ten royal lembi sent from Thessalonica with chosen auxiliaries of the Gauls, when they had caught sight of the enemy’s ships riding in the open sea, themselves, in the dark night, in single order, keeping as close to the shore as they could, entered the city. The report of this new garrison compelled both the Romans and the king at once to desist from the assault. Having coasted around the promontory, they brought the fleet to land at Torone.

eam quoque oppugnare adorti, ubi ualida defendi manu animaduerterunt, inrito incepto Demetriadem petunt. ibi cum adpropinquantes repleta moenia armatis uidissent, praeteruecti ad Iolcon classem appulerunt, inde agro uastato Demetriadem quoque adgressuri.

Having undertaken to besiege that as well, when they perceived that it was being defended by a strong hand, the attempt proving abortive they made for Demetrias. There, when, as they approached, they saw the walls filled with armed men, having sailed past they brought the fleet in to Iolcus; from there, with the countryside devastated, they were about to attack Demetrias also.

[13] Inter haec et consul, ne segnis sederet tantum in agro hostium, M. Popilium cum quinque milibus militum ad Meliboeam urbem oppugnandam mittit. sita est in radicibus Ossae montis, qua parte in Thessaliam uergit, opportune inminens super Demetriadem. primus aduentus hostium perculit incolas loci; collectis deinde <ab> necopinato pauore animis discurrunt armati ad portas ac moenia, qua suspecti aditus erant, spemque extemplo inciderunt capi primo impetu posse.

[13] Meanwhile, too, the consul, lest he sit idle merely in the enemy’s country, sends Marcus Popilius with five thousand soldiers to attack the city of Meliboea. It is situated at the roots of Mount Ossa, on the side which inclines into Thessaly, conveniently overhanging Demetrias. The first arrival of the enemy struck the inhabitants of the place; then, their spirits gathered back from the unlooked-for panic, the armed men run to the gates and the walls where approaches were suspect, and straightway the Romans conceived the hope that it could be taken at the first onset.

obsidio igitur parabatur, et opera <ad> oppugnationem fieri coepta. Perseus cum audisset simul Meliboeam a consulis exercitu oppugnari, simul classem Iolci stare, <ut> inde Demetriadem adgrederetur, Euphranorem quendam ex ducibus cum delectis duobus milibus Meliboeam mittit. eidem imperatum, ut, si a Meliboea summouisset Romanos, Demetriadem prius occulto itinere intraret, quam ab Iolco ad urbem castra mouerent Romani.

Therefore a siege was being prepared, and works <for> the assault began to be made. When Perseus had heard both that Meliboea was being attacked by the consul’s army and that the fleet stood at Iolcus, <in order> to attack Demetrias from there, he sends a certain Euphranor, one of the commanders, to Meliboea with two thousand picked men. The same man was instructed that, if he should have driven the Romans from Meliboea, he should enter Demetrias first by a hidden route, before the Romans should move their camp from Iolcus to the city.

et ab oppugnatoribus Meliboeae, cum in superioribus locis repente apparuisset, cum trepidatione multa relicta opera sunt <ignisque> iniectus. ita a Meliboea abscessum est. Euphranor soluta unius urbis obsidione Demetriadem extemplo ducit.

and by the besiegers of Meliboea, when he had suddenly appeared on the higher ground, the works were abandoned in much panic and <fire> was thrown in. thus there was a withdrawal from Meliboea. Euphranor, the siege of one city lifted, immediately leads to Demetrias.

nocte moenia <intrat tantamque fiduciam incolentibus fecit, ut non moenia> modo, sed agros etiam confiderent se a populationibus tueri posse; et eruptiones in uagos populatores non sine uolneribus hostium factae sunt. circumuecti tamen moenia sunt praetor et rex, situm urbis contemplantes, si qua parte temptare aut opere aut ui possent. fama fuit per Cydantem Cretensem et Antimachum, qui Demetriadi praeerat, tractatas inter Eumenen et Persea condiciones amicitiae.

by night he enters the walls <and he created such confidence in the inhabitants that not the walls> only, but even the fields they trusted they could protect from depredations; and sorties against the roving depredators were made not without wounds to the enemy. nevertheless the praetor and the king rode around the walls, contemplating the site of the city, to see by what part they might attempt it, either by works or by force. there was a rumor that through Cydas the Cretan and Antimachus, who was in command at Demetrias, terms of friendship had been negotiated between Eumenes and Perseus.

ab Demetriade certe abscessum est. Eumenes ad consulem nauigat; gratulatus<que>, quod prospere Macedoniam intrasset, Pergamum in regnum abit. Marcius Figulus praetor parte classis in hiberna Sciathum missa cum reliquis nauibus Oreum Euboeae petit, eam urbem aptissimam ratus, unde exercitibus, qui in Macedonia quique in Thessalia erant, mitti commeatus possent.

certainly there was a withdrawal from Demetrias. Eumenes sails to the consul; and, having offered congratulations<que> that he had entered Macedonia successfully, he departs to Pergamum into his kingdom. The praetor Marcius Figulus, with part of the fleet sent into winter quarters at Sciathus, makes for Oreus in Euboea with the remaining ships, thinking that city most suitable from which supplies could be sent to the armies that were in Macedonia and in Thessaly.

de Eumene rege longe diuersa tradunt. si Ualerio Antiati credas, nec classe adiutum ab eo praetorem esse, cum saepe eum litteris accersisset, tradit, nec cum gratia ab consule profectum in Asiam, indignatum, quod, ut iisdem castris tenderet, permissum non fuerit; ne ut equites quidem Gallos, quos secum adduxerat, relinqueret, impetrari ab eo potuisse. Attalum fratrem eius et remansisse apud consulem, et sinceram eius fidem aequali tenore egregiamque operam in eo bello fuisse.

about King Eumenes they hand down far different accounts. If you believe Valerius Antias, he relates that the praetor was not aided by him with the fleet, although he had often summoned him by letters; nor did he set out to Asia from the consul in good favor, being indignant because it had not been permitted that he pitch in the same camp; not even that he leave behind the Gallic horsemen, whom he had brought with him, could be obtained from him. Attalus, his brother, both remained with the consul, and his sincere fidelity was of even tenor, and his service in that war was outstanding.

[14] Dum bellum in Macedonia geritur, legati Transalpini ab regulo Gallorum--Balanus ipsius traditur nomen; gentis ex qua fuerit, non traditur--Romam uenerunt pollicentes ad Macedonicum bellum auxilia. gratiae ab senatu actae muneraque missa, torquis aureus duo pondo et paterae aureae quattuor pondo, equus phaleratus armaque equestria. secundum Gallos Pamphylii legati coronam auream ex uiginti milibus Philippeorum factam in curiam intulerunt, petentibusque iis, ut id donum in cella Iouis optimi maximi ponere et sacrificare in Capitolio liceret, permissum; benigneque amicitiam renouare uolentibus legatis responsum et binum milium aeris singulis missum munus.

[14] While the war in Macedonia was being waged, Transalpine envoys came to Rome from a petty king of the Gauls—Balanus is reported as his name; the tribe from which he was is not reported—promising auxiliaries for the Macedonian war. Thanks were voted by the Senate and gifts were sent: a golden torque weighing two pounds, and golden paterae weighing four pounds; a caparisoned horse and cavalry arms. After the Gauls, envoys of the Pamphylians brought into the Curia a golden crown made from twenty thousand Philippei, and when they asked that it be permitted to place that gift in the cella of Jupiter Best and Greatest and to sacrifice on the Capitol, it was granted; and a gracious answer was given to the envoys wishing to renew friendship, and a gift of 2,000 asses in bronze was sent to each.

tum ab rege Prusia et paulo post ab Rhodiis de eadem <re> longe aliter disserentes legati auditi sunt. utraque legatio de pace reconcilianda cum rege Perseo egit. Prusiae preces magis quam postulatio fuere, profitentis et ad id tempus se cum Romanis stetisse et, quoad bellum foret, staturum; ceterum cum ad se a Perseo legati uenissent de finiendo cum Romanis bello, eis pollicitum deprecatorem apud senatum futurum; petere, si possent inducere in animum, ut finiant iras, se quoque ingratia reconciliatae pacis ponerent.

Then envoys from King Prusias, and a little later from the Rhodians, were heard, discoursing in very different fashion about the same matter. Both embassies treated of a peace to be reconciled with King Perseus. Prusias’s pleas were prayers rather than a demand: he declared that up to that time he had stood with the Romans, and, so long as there was war, would stand; but that when envoys had come to him from Perseus about ending the war with the Romans, he had promised them that he would be an intercessor before the senate. He asked that, if they could bring themselves to end their anger, they would place him too in favor by the peace thus reconciled.

haec regii legati. Rhodii superbe commemoratis <meritis suis> erga populum Romanum et paene uictoriae, utique de Antiocho rege, maiore parte ad se uindicata, adiecerunt: cum pax inter Macedonas Romanosque esset, sibi amicitiam cum rege Perseo coeptam; eam se inuitos, nullo eius in se merito, quoniam ita Romanis uisum sit in societatem se belli trahere, interrupisse. tertium se annum multa eius incommoda belli sentire mari intercluso; inopem insulam esse nec, nisi maritimis iuuetur commeatibus, colendam.

These were the statements of the king’s legates. The Rhodians, after superbly recounting their own services toward the Roman people and claiming for themselves almost the victory—especially that over King Antiochus—in its greater part, added this: when there was peace between the Macedonians and the Romans, they had begun a friendship with King Perseus; that they, unwilling, with no desert on his part toward them, had broken it off, since it had seemed good to the Romans to draw them into an alliance of war. For the third year, with the sea shut off, they were feeling many hardships of that war; their island was needy, and could not be cultivated unless it were aided by maritime supplies.

itaque cum id ultra pati non possent, legatos alios ad Persea in Macedoniam misisse, qui ei denuntiarent Rhodiis placere pacem eum conponere cum Romanis; se Romam eadem nuntiatum missos. per quos stetisset, quo minus belli finis fieret, aduersus eos quid sibi faciendum esset, Rhodios consideraturos esse. <ne> nunc quidem haec sine indignatione legi audiriue posse certum habeo; inde existimari potest, qui habitus animorum audientibus ea patribus fuerit.

and so, since they could not endure that any further, they had sent other envoys to Perseus in Macedonia to give notice to him that it pleased the Rhodians that he compose peace with the Romans; that they themselves had been sent to Rome to announce the same. The Rhodians would consider what ought to be done by them against those at whose instance it had stood that the end of the war should not be effected. not even now, I am certain, can these things be read or heard without indignation; from that it can be estimated what the animus of the Fathers was as they listened to these statements.

[15] Claudius nihil responsum auctor est, tantum senatus consultum recitatum, quo Caras et Lycios liberos esse iuberet populus Romanus litterasque extemplo ad utramque gentem [sciret indicatum] mitti; qua audita re principem legationis, cuius magniloquentiam uix curia paulo ante ceperat, corruisse. alii responsum esse tradunt, populum Romanum et principio eius belli haud uanis auctoribus conpertum habuisse Rhodios cum Perseo rege aduersus rem publicam suam occulta consilia inisse, et, <si> id ante dubium fuisset, legatorum paulo ante uerba ad certum redegisse, et plerumque ipsam se fraudem, etiamsi initio cautior fuerit, detegere. Rhodios nunc in orbe terrarum arbitria belli pacisque agere; Rhodiorum nutu arma sumpturos positurosque Romanos esse.

[15] Claudius is the authority that no answer was given, only that a senatorial decree was read, by which the Roman People ordered the Carians and Lycians to be free, and that letters be sent at once to each nation [that it be made known]; and, when this was heard, the leader of the embassy—whose magniloquence the Curia had scarcely contained a little before—collapsed. Others report that there was an answer: that the Roman People, both at the beginning of that war, on no vain authorities, had ascertained that the Rhodians, with King Perseus, had entered into occult counsels against their commonwealth; and, <if> that had previously been doubtful, the words of the envoys a little before had reduced it to certainty; and that for the most part fraud itself, even if at the beginning it had been more cautious, reveals itself. The Rhodians are now acting as arbiters of war and peace in the circle of lands; at the nod of the Rhodians the Romans would take up and lay down arms.

iam non deos foederum testis, sed Rhodios habituros. itane tandem? nisi pareatur iis exercitusque de Macedonia deportentur, uisuros esse, quid sibi faciendum sit?

that they will now have not the gods as witnesses of treaties, but the Rhodians. Is it so, then? Unless obedience be paid to them and the armies be removed from Macedonia, they will see what they have to do.

quid Rhodii uisuri sint, ipsos scire. populum certe Romanum deuicto Perseo, quod prope diem sperent fore, uisurum, ut pro meritis cuiusque in eo bello ciuitatis gratiam dignam referat. munus tamen legatis in singulos binum milium aeris missum est, quod ii non acceperunt.

what the Rhodians will see, they themselves know. The Roman people, certainly, with Perseus defeated—which they hope will be before long—will see to it that, according to the merits of each city in that war, it returns gratitude worthy of them. Nevertheless a gift was sent to the envoys, two thousand asses apiece, which they did not accept.

[16] Litterae deinde <re> citatae Q. Marcii consulis sunt, quemadmodum saltu superato in Macedoniam transisset: ibi et ex aliis locis commeatus se prospectos in hiemem habere et ab Epirotis uiginti milia modium tritici, decem hordei sumpsisse, ut pro eo frumento pecunia Romae legatis eorum curaretur. uestimenta militibus ab Roma mittenda esse; equis ducentis ferme opus esse, maxime Numidi<cis>, nec sibi in his locis ullam copiam esse. senatus consultum, ut ea omnia ex litteris consulis fierent, factum est.

[16] Then the letters of the consul Q. Marcius were read out, how, the pass having been surmounted, he had crossed into Macedonia: there, both there and from other places, he had supplies provided for the winter, and that he had taken from the Epirotes 20,000 modii of wheat and 10,000 of barley, with the understanding that for that grain money at Rome should be arranged for their envoys. Clothing for the soldiers had to be sent from Rome; about 200 horses were needed, especially Numidian ones, and in those regions he himself had no supply at all. A senatorial decree was passed that all those things be done in accordance with the consul’s letter.

C. Sulpicius praetor sex milia togarum, triginta tunicarum, equos ducentos deportanda in Macedoniam praebendaque arbitratu consulis locauit et legatis Epirotarum pecuniam pro frumento soluit et Onesimum, Pythonis filium, nobilem Macedonem, in senatum introduxit. is pacis semper auctor regi fuerat monueratque, sicut pater eius Philippus institutum usque ad ultimum uitae diem seruarat cotidie, bis in die foederis icti cum Romanis perlegendi, ut eum morem, si non semper, crebro tamen usurparet. postquam deterrere eum a bello nequiit, primo subtrahere sese per alias atque alias <causas>, ne interesset iis, quae non probabat, coepit; postremo, cum suspectum se esse cerneret et proditionis interdum crimine insimulari, ad Romanos transfugit <et> magno usui consuli fuit.

C. Sulpicius, the praetor, let out contracts for six thousand togas, thirty thousand tunics, and two hundred horses to be transported into Macedonia and furnished at the consul’s discretion; he also paid to the envoys of the Epirotes the money for the grain, and introduced Onesimus, son of Python, a noble Macedonian, into the senate. He had always been an advocate of peace to the king and had advised that, just as his father Philip had maintained the practice up to the last day of his life of reading through twice each day the treaty struck with the Romans, he too should, if not always, yet frequently employ that custom. After he could not deter him from war, at first he began to withdraw himself on one pretext after another, so as not to be present at those things which he did not approve; finally, when he perceived that he was suspected and at times was charged with the crime of treason, he defected to the Romans and was of great use to the consul.

ea introductus in curiam cum memorasset, senatus in formulam sociorum eum referri iussit, locum, lautia praeberi, agri Tarentini, qui publicus populi Romani esset, ducenta iugera dari, et aedes Tarenti emi. uti ea curaret, C. Decimio praetori mandatum. censum idibus Decembribus seuerius quam ante habuerunt: multis equi adempti, inter quos P. Rutilio, qui tribunus plebis eos uiolenter accusarat; tribu quoque is motus et aerarius factus.

He, when introduced into the curia and after he had recalled these matters, the senate ordered to be entered on the roll of allies, that a place and sumptuous entertainment be provided, that 200 iugera of the Tarentine land, which was public property of the Roman people, be granted, and that a house be bought at Tarentum. To see to these things, a mandate was given to the praetor Gaius Decimius. They held the census on the Ides of December more strictly than before: from many the equus publicus was taken away, among them Publius Rutilius, who, as tribune of the plebs, had violently accused them; he too was removed from his tribe and made an aerarian.

ad opera publica facienda cum eis dimidium ex uectigalibus eius anni attributum ex senatus consulto a quaestoribus esset, Ti. Sempronius ex ea pecunia, quae ipsi attributa erat, aedes P. Africani pone Ueteres ad Uortumni signum lanienasque et tabernas coniunctas in publicum emit basilicamque faciendam curauit, quae postea Sempronia appellata est.

since for the making of public works half of the revenues of that year had been assigned by decree of the senate through the quaestors, Tiberius Sempronius, from that money which had been assigned to himself, bought for the public the house of Publius Africanus behind the Old Shops by the statue of Vortumnus, and the shambles and the adjoining shops, and he took care for a basilica to be built, which afterwards was called the Sempronia.

[17] Iam in exitu annus erat, et propter Macedonici maxime belli curam in sermonibus homines habebant, quos in annum consules ad finiendum tandem id bellum crearent. itaque senatus consultum factum est, ut Cn. Seruilius primo quoque tempore ad comitia habenda ueniret. senatus consultum Sulpicius praetor ad consulem <misit, litterasque allatas a consule> post paucos dies recitauit, quibus <in> ante diem * * <comitia edixit: se ante eum diem> in urbem uenturum.

[17] Now the year was at its exit, and because of especial concern for the Macedonian war people had in their conversations whom they would choose as consuls for the next year to bring that war at last to an end. And so a senatorial decree was passed that Cn. Seruilius should come at the earliest time to hold the comitia. Sulpicius the praetor sent the senatorial decree to the consul, and a few days later read out letters that had been brought from the consul, in which <for> the day “ante diem * *” <he proclaimed the comitia: that before that day> he would come into the city.

et consul maturauit et comitia eo die, qui dictus erat, sunt perfecta. consules creati L. Aemilius Paulus iterum, quarto decumo anno postquam primo consul fuerat, et C. Licinius Crassus. praetores postero die facti Cn. <Baebius> Tampilus, L. Anicius Gallus, Cn. Octauius, P. Fonteius Balbus, M. Aebutius Helua, C. Papirius Carbo.

and the consul made haste, and the elections on the day that had been proclaimed were completed. The consuls elected were L. Aemilius Paulus, again, in the fourteenth year after he had first been consul, and C. Licinius Crassus. The praetors elected on the following day were Cn. <Baebius> Tampilus, L. Anicius Gallus, Cn. Octavius, P. Fonteius Balbus, M. Aebutius Helva, C. Papirius Carbo.

omnia ut maturius agerentur, belli Macedonici stimulabat cura. itaque designatos extemplo sortiri placuit prouincias, ut, cum, utri Macedonia consuli cuique praetori classis euenisset, sciretur, ii iam inde cogitarent pararentque, quae bello usui forent, senatumque consulerent, si qua <de> re consulto opus esset. Latinas, ubi magistratum inissent, quod per religiones posset, primo quoque tempore fieri placere, ne quid consulem, cui eundum in Macedoniam esset, teneret.

The concern for the Macedonian war was spurring that everything be transacted more speedily. And so it was resolved that the designates should forthwith draw lots for the provinces, in order that, when it was known to which of the consuls Macedonia had fallen and to which praetor the fleet, they from that point might consider and prepare the things that would be of use for the war, and consult the senate, if there were need of deliberation about any matter. As for the Latin Festival, when they should have entered upon magistracy, it was decided that it be held at the earliest time that could be done in view of religious scruples, lest anything detain the consul who had to go to Macedonia.

his decretis, consulibus Italia et Macedonia, praetoribus praeter duas iurisdictiones in urbe classis et Hispania et Sicilia et Sardinia prouinciae nominatae sunt. consulum Aemilio Macedonia, Licinio Italia euenit. praetores Cn. Baebius urbanam, L. Anicius peregrinam et si quo senatus censuisset, Cn. Octauius classem, P. Fonteius Hispaniam, <M. Aebutius Siciliam,> C. Papirius Sardiniam est sortitus.

With these decrees, for the consuls Italy and Macedonia, for the praetors, besides the two jurisdictions in the city, the provinces of the fleet and Spain and Sicily and Sardinia were designated. Of the consuls, Macedonia fell to Aemilius, Italy to Licinius. The praetors drew by lot: Cn. Baebius the urban jurisdiction, L. Anicius the peregrine jurisdiction and, wherever the senate should have resolved, Cn. Octavius the fleet, P. Fonteius Spain, <M. Aebutius Sicily,> C. Papirius Sardinia.

[18] Extemplo apparuit omnibus non segniter id bellum L. Aemilium gesturum, praeterquam quod ~aliis uir erat, etiam quod dies noctesque intentus ea sola, quae ad id bellum pertinerent, animo agitabat. iam omnium primum a senatu petit, ut legatos in Macedoniam mitterent ad exercitus uisendos classemque et conperta referenda, quid aut terrestribus aut naualibus copiis opus esset; praeterea ut explorarent copias regias, quantum possent, qua prouincia nostra, qua hostium foret; utrum intra saltus castra Romani haberent, an iam omnes angustiae exsuperatae, et in aequa loca peruenissent; qui fideles nobis socii, qui dubii suspensaeque ex fortuna fidei, qui certi hostes uiderentur; quanti praeparati commeatus, et unde terrestri itinere, unde nauibus subportarentur; quid ea aestate terra marique rerum gestum esset: ex his bene cognitis certa in futurum consilia capi posse. senatus Cn. Seruilio consuli negotium dedit, ut tris in Macedoniam, quos L. Aemilio uideretur, legaret.

[18] Immediately it became apparent to all that L. Aemilius would conduct that war not sluggishly, not only because he was a man unlike the others, but also because, intent day and night, he revolved in mind only those things which pertained to that war. Now first of all he asked from the senate that they send legates into Macedonia to inspect the armies and the fleet and to report what they had ascertained—what need there was of either terrestrial or naval forces; furthermore, that they reconnoiter the royal forces, as far as they could, in what region ours, in what the enemy’s would be; whether the Romans had their camp within the passes, or whether all the narrows had now been surmounted and they had reached level ground; which allies seemed faithful to us, which doubtful and with loyalty hanging on fortune, which seemed certain enemies; how great the prepared supplies, and whence by land-route, whence by ships they were being brought up; what had been done that summer on land and sea: from these things well learned, sure counsels for the future could be taken. The senate gave the business to the consul Cn. Servilius to commission three legates into Macedonia, such as should seem good to L. Aemilius.

legati biduo post profecti Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, A. Licinius Nerua, L. Baebius.

The envoys set out two days later: Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, Aulus Licinius Nerva, Lucius Baebius.

Bis in exitu anni eius lapidatum esse nuntiatum est, <semel> in Romano agro, semel in Ueienti. bis nouemdiale sacrum factum est. sacerdotes eo anno mortui sunt P. Quinctilius Uarus flamen Martialis et M. Claudius Marcellus decemuir; in cuius locum Cn. Octauius suffectus.

Twice, at the close of that year, it was reported that stones had rained down, <once> in the Roman countryside, once in the Veientine. Twice the novendial rite was performed. The priests who died that year were P. Quinctilius Varus, flamen of Mars, and M. Claudius Marcellus, decemvir; in whose place Cn. Octavius was appointed.

et iam magnificentia crescente notatum est ludis circensibus P. Corneli Scipionis Nasicae et P. Lentuli aedilium curulium sexaginta tres Africanas et quadraginta ursos et elephantos lusisse.

and already, with magnificence increasing, it was recorded that at the circus games of P. Cornelius Scipio Nasica and P. Lentulus, curule aediles, sixty-three African panthers, forty bears, and elephants had performed.

[19] L. Aemilio Paulo C. Licinio consulibus, idibus Martiis, principio insequentis anni, cum in expectatione patres fuissent, maxime quidnam consul de Macedonia, cuius ea prouincia esset, referret, nihil se habere Paulus, quod referret, nondum <cum> legati redissent, dixit. ceterum Brundisi legatos iam esse, bis ex cursu Dyrrachium reiectos. cognitis mox, quae nosci prius in rem esset, relaturum; id fore intra perpaucos dies.

[19] Under the consulship of Lucius Aemilius Paulus and Gaius Licinius, on the Ides of March, at the beginning of the following year, while the senators had been in expectation—especially as to what the consul would report concerning Macedonia, which was his province—Paulus said that he had nothing which he could report, since the legates had not yet returned. Moreover, that the legates were already at Brundisium, having twice been driven back to Dyrrhachium from their passage. When he had learned shortly what it would be to the point to know first, he would bring the matter before the house; that this would be within a very few days.

et ne quid profectionem suam teneret, pridie idus Apriles Latinis esse constitutam diem. sacrificio rite perfecto et se et Cn. Octauium, simul senatus censuisset, exituros esse. C. Licinio collegae suo fore curae se absente, ut, si qua parari mittique ad id bellum opus sit, parentur mittanturque.

and, lest anything should detain his departure, the day for the Latin Festival had been appointed for the day before the Ides of April. With the sacrifice duly performed, both he and Gnaeus Octavius, as soon as the senate should have decreed, would set out. Gaius Licinius, his colleague, would take care, in his absence, that, if anything ought to be prepared and sent for that war, it be prepared and sent.

interea legationes exterarum nationum audiri posse. primi Alexandrini legati ab Ptolemaeo <et Cleo>patra regibus uocati sunt. sordidati, barba et capillo promisso, cum ramis oleae ingressi curiam procubuerunt, et oratio quam habitus fuit miserabilior.

Meanwhile, the legations of foreign nations could be heard. The first to be called were the Alexandrian legates, summoned by Ptolemy <and Cleo>patra, the kings. In sordid garb, with beard and hair grown long, having entered the curia with branches of olive, they prostrated themselves, and their speech was more miserable than their appearance.

Antiochus Syriae rex, qui obses Romae fuerat, per honestam speciem maioris Ptolemaei reducendi in regnum, bellum cum minore fratre eius, qui tum Alexandriam tenebat, gerens et ad Pelusium nauali proelio <superior> fuerat et tumultuario opere ponte per Nilum facto transgressus cum exercitu obsidione ipsam Alexandream terrebat, nec procul abesse, quin poteretur regno opulentissimo, uidebatur. ea legati querentes orabant senatum, ut opem regno regibusque amicis impigre ferrent. ea merita populi Romani in Antiochum, eam apud omnes reges gentesque auctoritatem esse, ut, si legatos misissent, qui ei nuntiarent non placere senatui sociis regibus bellum fieri, extemplo abscessurus a moenibus Alexandreae abducturusque exercitum in Syriam esset.

Antiochus, king of Syria, who had been a hostage at Rome, under the honorable pretext of restoring the elder Ptolemy to his kingdom, while waging war against his younger brother, who at that time held Alexandria, had been superior in a naval battle at Pelusium, and, after a makeshift work— a bridge built over the Nile— had crossed with his army and was terrifying Alexandria itself with a siege; he seemed not far from being able to possess himself of that most opulent kingdom. Complaining of these things, the envoys begged the senate to bring help energetically to the kingdom and to the allied kings. Such were the services of the Roman people toward Antiochus, such their authority among all kings and nations, that, if they should send envoys to announce that it did not please the senate that war be made upon allied kings, immediately he would withdraw from the walls of Alexandria and would lead his army back into Syria.

quod si cunctentur facere, breui extorres regno Ptolemaeum et Cleopatram Romam uenturos, cum pudore quodam populi Romani, quod nullam opem in ultimo discrimine fortunarum tulissent. moti patres precibus Alexandrinorum extemplo C. Popilium Laenatem et C. Decimium et C. Hostilium legatos ad finiendum inter reges bellum miserunt. prius Antiochum, dein Ptolemaeum adire iussi et nuntiare, ni absistatur bello, per utrum stetisset, eum non pro amico nec pro socio habituros esse.

that, if they should hesitate to do this, shortly Ptolemy and Cleopatra, exiles from the kingdom, would come to Rome, with a certain shame to the Roman people, because they had brought no aid in the last crisis of their fortunes. Moved by the prayers of the Alexandrians, the senators at once sent Gaius Popilius Laenas and Gaius Decimius and Gaius Hostilius as legates to bring the war between the kings to an end. They were ordered to approach Antiochus first, then Ptolemy, and to announce that, unless hostilities were discontinued, whichever of the two it depended on, him they would hold neither as friend nor as ally.

[20] His intra triduum simul cum legatis Alexandrinis profectis legati ex Macedonia quinquatribus ultimis adeo expectati uenerunt, ut, nisi uesper esset, extemplo senatum uocaturi consules fuerint. postero die senatus fuit legatique auditi sunt. ii nuntiant maiore periculo quam emolumento exercitum per inuios saltus in Macedoniam inductum.

[20] Within three days after these had set out together with the Alexandrian legates, legates from Macedonia arrived—so eagerly expected on the last days of the Quinquatrus that, had it not been evening, the consuls would at once have called the senate. On the next day the senate sat and the legates were heard. They report that the army has been led into Macedonia through trackless passes with greater peril than emolument.

Pieriam, quo processisset, regem tenere; castra castris prope ita conlata esse, ut flumine Elpeo interiecto arceantur. neque regem pugnandi potestatem facere, nec nostris uim ad cogendum esse. hiemem etiam insuper rebus gerendis interuenisse.

that the king holds Pieria, to which he had proceeded; that the camps have been brought almost so close, camp to camp, that, with the river Elpeus interposed, they are kept apart. that the king does not grant the power of fighting, nor have our men the force to compel him. winter, moreover, has intervened in the conducting of affairs.

in otio militem ali, nec plus quam VI <dierum> frumentum habere. Macedonum dici triginta milia armatorum esse. si Ap. Claudio circa Lychnidum satis ualidus exercitus foret, potuisse eum ancipiti bello distinere regem: nunc et Appium, et <quod> cum eo praesidii sit, in summo periculo esse, nisi propere aut iustus exercitus eo mittatur, aut illi inde deducantur.

to feed the soldier in idleness, and to have grain for not more than 6 days. It is said that there are 30,000 armed men of the Macedonians. If near Lychnidus Appius Claudius had a strong enough army, he could have held the king engaged with a two-front war; now both Appius, and whatever garrison is with him, are in utmost danger, unless either a regular army is promptly sent there, or they are led away from there.

ad classem se ex castris profectos sociorum naualium partem morbo audisse absumptam, partem, maxime qui ex Sicilia fuerint, domos suas abisse, et homines nauibus deesse; qui sint, neque stipendium accepisse neque uestimenta habere. Eumenen classemque eius, tamquam uento adlatas naues, sine causa et uenisse et abisse; nec animum eius regis constare satis uisum. sicut omnia de Eumene dubia, <ita> Attali egregie constantem fidem nuntiabant.

they reported that they themselves had set out from the camp to the fleet; that part of the naval allies had, they heard, been consumed by disease, part—especially those who were from Sicily—had gone off to their own homes, and that the ships lacked men; those who were there had neither received stipend nor had garments. That Eumenes and his fleet, like ships borne in by the wind, had both come and gone without cause; nor did the resolve of that king seem sufficiently steady. Just as everything concerning Eumenes was doubtful, so they announced the excellently constant fidelity of Attalus.

[21] Legatis auditis tunc de bello referre sese L. Aemilius dixit. senatus decreuit, ut in octo legiones parem numerum tribunorum consules et populus crearent; creari autem neminem eo anno placere, nisi qui honorem gessisset. tum ex omnibus tribunis militum uti L. Aemilius in duas legiones in Macedoniam, quos eorum uelit, eligat, et ut sollemni Latinarum perfecto L. Aemilius consul, Cn. Octauius praetor, cui classis obtigisset, in prouinciam proficiscantur.

[21] With the legates heard, then L. Aemilius said that he would report about the war. The senate decreed that, for eight legions, an equal number of tribunes should be created by the consuls and the people; moreover, it was their pleasure that no one be created in that year except one who had borne office. Then, out of all the military tribunes, let L. Aemilius, for the two legions in Macedonia, choose whichever of them he wishes; and, the solemnity of the Latin festival completed, let L. Aemilius the consul and Cn. Octavius the praetor, to whom the fleet had fallen by lot, set out to the province.

additus est his tertius L. Anicius praetor, cuius inter peregrinos iurisdictio erat; eum in prouinciam Illyricum circa Lychnidum Ap. Claudio succedere placuit. dilectus cura C. Licinio consuli inposita. is septem milia ciuium Romanorum et equites ducentos scribere iussus et sociis nominis Latini septem milia peditum imperare, quadringentos equites, et Cn. Seruilio Galliam obtinenti prouinciam litteras mittere, ut sescentos equites conscriberet.

a third was added to these, L. Anicius, praetor, whose jurisdiction was among foreigners; it was decided that he should succeed Ap. Claudius in the province of Illyricum around Lychnidus. The care of the levy was imposed upon C. Licinius the consul. He was ordered to enroll 7,000 Roman citizens and 200 cavalry, and to levy from the allies of the Latin name 7,000 infantry, 400 cavalry, and to send letters to Cn. Servilius, who was holding the province of Gaul, to enroll 600 cavalry.

hunc exercitum ad collegam primo quoque tempore mittere in Macedoniam iussus; neque in ea prouincia plus quam duas legiones esse; eas repleri, ut sena milia peditum, trecenos haberent equites; ceteros pedites <equites>que in praesidiis disponi. qui eorum idonei ad militandum non essent, dimitti. decem praeterea milia peditum imperata sociis et octingenti equites.

he was ordered to send this army to his colleague into Macedonia at the earliest possible time; and that in that province there be no more than two legions; that these be replenished, so as to have six thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry apiece; the rest of the foot and horse to be stationed in garrisons. those of them who were not fit for soldiering were to be discharged. moreover, ten thousand infantry were required of the allies, and eight hundred cavalry.

id praesidii additum Anicio praeter duas legiones, quas portare in Macedoniam est iussus, quina milia peditum et ducenos habentes, trecenos equites. et in classem quinque milia naualium socium sunt scripta. Licinius consul duabus legionibus obtinere prouinciam iussus; eo addere sociorum decem milia peditum et sescentos equites.

That reinforcement was added for Anicius, besides the two legions which he was ordered to convey into Macedonia, each having five thousand infantry and two hundred, and three hundred cavalry. And for the fleet five thousand of the naval allies were enrolled. Licinius the consul was ordered to hold the province with two legions; to that to add ten thousand allied infantry and six hundred horse.

[22] Senatus consultis perfectis L. Aemilius consul e curia in contionem processit orationemque talem <habuit>: 'animaduertisse uideor, Quirites, maiorem mihi sortito Macedoniam prouinciam gratulationem factam, quam cum aut consul sum renuntiatus, aut quo die magistratum inii, neque id ob aliam causam, quam quia bello in Macedonia, quod diu trahitur, existimastis dignum maiestate populi Romani exitum per me inponi posse. deos quoque huic fauisse sorti spero eosdemque in rebus gerendis adfuturos esse. haec partim ominari, partim sperare possum; illud adfirmare pro certo audeo, me omni ope adnisurum esse, <ne> frustra uos hanc spem de me conceperitis.

[22] With the senatorial decrees completed, Lucius Aemilius the consul proceeded from the curia into the assembly and delivered such an oration <habuit>: 'I seem to have noticed, Quirites, that a greater congratulation has been made to me when Macedonia fell to me by lot as my province than either when I was proclaimed consul or on the day I entered upon the magistracy; nor for any other cause than because, in the war in Macedonia, which has been long drawn out, you have judged that an outcome worthy of the majesty of the Roman People can be imposed by me. I hope, too, that the gods have favored this lot and that these same gods will be present in the conduct of affairs. These things I can partly take as an omen, partly hope; this I dare to affirm as certain: that I will strive with every effort, <lest> you have conceived this hope about me in vain.

quae ad bellum opus sunt et senatus decreuit, et, quoniam extemplo proficisci placet neque ego in mora sum, C. Licinius collega, uir egregius, aeque enixe parabit ac si ipse id bellum gesturus esset. uos quae scripsero senatui ac uobis, <iis modo credite et cauete ru>mores credulitate uestra alatis, quorum auctor nemo extabit. nam nunc quidem, quod uulgo fieri, hoc praecipue bello, animaduerti, nemo tam famae contemptor est, cuius non debilitari animus possit.

the things that are needed for war the senate has decreed; and, since it is pleasing that I set out at once and I am not in delay, Gaius Licinius my colleague, an outstanding man, will with equal earnestness make the preparations as if he himself were going to wage that war. as for what I shall write to the senate and to you, <only to those believe and beware ru>mors that by your credulity you give wings to, of which no author will appear. for now indeed—what commonly happens—I have observed, in this war especially, that no one is so a despiser of report that his spirit cannot be weakened.

in omnibus circulis atque etiam, si dis placet, in conuiuiis sunt, qui exercitus in Macedoniam ducant, ubi castra locanda sint sciant, quae loca praesidiis occupanda, quando aut quo saltu intranda Macedonia, ubi horrea ponenda, qua terra, mari subuehantur commeatus, quando cum hoste manus conserendae, quando quiesse sit melius. nec, quid faciendum sit, modo statuunt, sed, quidquid aliter, quam ipsi censuere, factum est, consulem ueluti dicta die accusant. haec magna impedimenta res gerentibus <sunt:> neque enim omnes tam firmi et constantis animi contra aduersum rumorem esse possunt, <quam> Q. Fabius fuit, qui suum imperium minui per uanitatem populi maluit, quam secunda fama male rem publicam gerere.

In all circles, and even—if it please the gods—at banquets, there are those who would lead armies into Macedonia; they know where camps ought to be pitched, which places should be seized with garrisons, when, and by what pass, Macedonia should be entered, where storehouses ought to be set, by what routes—by land or by sea—supplies should be conveyed, when to join battle with the enemy, and when it is better to rest. Nor do they merely determine what must be done; but whatever has been done otherwise than as they themselves decreed, they arraign the consul as though on the appointed day. These are great impediments to those conducting operations; for not all can be of so firm and constant a mind against adverse rumor as Q. Fabius was, who preferred that his imperium be diminished through the people’s vanity rather than to manage the commonwealth badly with favorable report.

non sum is, Quirites, qui non existumem admonendos duces esse: immo eum, qui de sua unius sententia omnia gerat, superbum iudico magis quam sapientem. quid ergo est? primum a prudentibus et proprie rei militaris peritis et usu doctis monendi imperatores sunt; deinde ab iis, qui intersunt gerendis <rebus, qui> loca, qui hostem, qui temporum opportunitatem uident, qui in eodem uelut nauigio participes sunt periculi.

I am not the sort, Quirites, who does not think that generals must be admonished; rather, I judge the man who conducts everything by his own single judgment to be haughty rather than wise. What then? First, commanders are to be advised by the prudent and by those properly skilled in the military art and instructed by experience; next, by those who are engaged in the conducting of <affairs, who> see the terrain, who see the enemy, who see the opportunity of the times, who are, as it were, partners in danger in the same ship.

itaque si quis est, qui, quod e re publica sit, suadere se mihi in eo bello, quod gesturus sum, confidat, is ne deneget operam rei publicae et in Macedoniam mecum ueniat. naue, equo, tabernaculo, uiatico etiam a me iuuabitur; si quem id facere piget <et> otium urbanum militiae laboribus praeoptat, e terra ne gubernauerit. sermonum satis ipsa praebet urbs; <iis> loquacitatem suam contineat: nos castrensibus consiliis contentos futuros esse sciat.' ab hoc contione, Latinis, quae pridie kal.

Therefore, if there is anyone who trusts that he can advise me what is for the Republic’s advantage in that war which I am going to wage, let him not refuse his service to the Republic and let him come with me into Macedonia. He will be aided by me with a ship, a horse, a tent, and even travel money (viaticum); but if anyone is reluctant to do that <et> prefers urban leisure to the labors of military service, let him not steer from the shore. The city itself provides talk enough; <iis> let him confine his loquacity: let him know that we will be content with counsels of the camp.' From this assembly, to the Latins, which on the day before the Kalends.

Apriles fuerunt, in monte sacrificio rite perpetrato protinus inde et consul et praetor Cn. Octauius in Macedoniam profecti sunt. traditum memoriae est maiore quam solita frequentia prosequentium consulem celebratum, ac prope certa spe ominatos esse homines, finem esse Macedonico bello maturumque reditum cum egregio triumpho consulis fore.

when it was the April Kalends, after the sacrifice had been duly performed on the hill, immediately from there both the consul and the praetor, Cn. Octauius, set out for Macedonia. it is handed down to memory that the consul was celebrated with a greater than the usual throng of those accompanying, and that men, with almost certain hope, took the omen that the Macedonian war would have an end and that the consul’s return with an outstanding triumph would be speedy.

[23] Dum haec in Italia geruntur, Perseus quod iam inchoatum perficere, quia inpensa pecuniae facienda erat, non inducebat in animum, ut Gentium Illyriorum regem sibi adiungeret, hoc, postquam intrasse saltum Romanos et adesse discrimen ultimum belli animaduertit, non ultra differendum ratus, cum <per> Hippiam legatum trecenta argenti talenta pactus esset, ita ut obsides ultro citroque darentur, Pantauchum misit ex fidissimis amicis ad ea perficienda. Meteone Labeatidis terrae Pantauchus regi Illyrio occurrit; ibi et iusiurandum ab rege et obsides accepit. missus et a Gentio est legatus nomine Olympio, qui iusiurandum a Perseo obsidesque exigeret.

[23] While these things were being done in Italy, Perseus—though the plan had already been begun—did not bring himself to complete it, since a disbursement of money had to be made, namely to attach to himself Gentius, king of the Illyrians; but after he perceived that the Romans had entered the mountain pass and that the ultimate crisis of the war was at hand, thinking it should no longer be deferred, having through the legate Hippias agreed upon three hundred talents of silver, on condition that hostages be given reciprocally, he sent Pantauchus, one of his most trustworthy friends, to bring these matters to completion. At Meteon in the land of the Labeatidae Pantauchus met the Illyrian king; there he received both an oath from the king and hostages. A legate was also sent by Gentius, named Olympio, to exact an oath and hostages from Perseus.

cum eodem ad pecuniam accipiendam missi sunt; et auctore Pantaucho, qui Rhodum legati cum Macedonibus irent, Parmenio et Morcus destinantur. quibus ita mandatum, ut iureiurando obsidibusque et pecunia accepta tum demum Rhodum proficiscerentur: duorum simul regum nomine incitari Rhodios ad bellum Romanum posse. adiunctam ciuitatem, penes quam unam tum rei naualis gloria esset, nec terra nec mari spem relicturam Romanis.

with that same man they were sent to receive the money; and, with Pantauchus as proposer, in order that envoys might go to Rhodes together with the Macedonians, Parmenio and Morcus are designated. To them it was thus mandated: that, the oath and hostages and the money received, then at last they should set out for Rhodes; that in the name of two kings at once the Rhodians could be incited to the Roman war. That state, once joined to them, in whose hands alone at that time was the glory of naval power, would leave the Romans no hope either on land or at sea.

uenientibus Illyriis Perseus ab Elpeo amni ex castris cum omni equitatu profectus ad Dium occurrit. ibi ea, quae conuenerant, circumfuso agmine equitum facta, quos adesse foederi sanciendo cum Gentio societatis uolebat rex, aliquantum eam rem ratus animorum iis adiecturam. et obsides in conspectu omnium dati acceptique; et Pellam ad thensauros regios missis, qui pecuniam acciperent, qui Rhodum irent cum Illyriis legatis Thessalonicae conscendere iussi.

As the Illyrians were coming, Perseus, having set out from the camp at the river Elpeus with all the cavalry, met them at Dium. There the things that had been agreed were carried out, with the array of horsemen poured round about, whom the king wished to be present for the sanctioning of the treaty of alliance with Gentius, thinking that this would add somewhat to their spirits. And hostages were given and taken in the sight of all; and, men having been sent to Pella to the royal treasuries to receive the money, those who were to go to Rhodes with the Illyrian envoys were ordered to embark at Thessalonica.

ibi Metrodorus erat, qui nuper ab Rhodo uenerat, auctoribusque Dinone et Polyarato, principibus ciuitatis eius, adfirmabat Rhodios paratos ad bellum esse. is princeps iunctae cum Illyriis legationis datus est.

there Metrodorus was, who had lately come from Rhodes, and, on the authority of Dinon and Polyaretus, the principals of that city, he affirmed that the Rhodians were ready for war. He was appointed chief of the legation joined with the Illyrians.

[24] Eodem tempore et ad Eumenen et ad Antiochum communia mandata, quae subicere condicio rerum poterat: natura inimica inter se esse liberam ciuitatem et regem. singulos populum Romanum adgredi et, quod indignum sit, regum uiribus reges oppugnare. Attalo adiutore patrem suum oppressum; Eumene adiuuante et quadam ex parte etiam Philippo, patre suo, Antiochum oppugnatum; in se nunc et Eumenen et Prusian armatos esse.

[24] At the same time there were also common mandates sent to both Eumenes and Antiochus, such as the condition of affairs could suggest: that by nature a free commonwealth and a king are mutually inimical. That the Roman people attacks each singly, and—what is unworthy—assails kings with the forces of kings. With Attalus as helper his father had been overpowered; with Eumenes aiding, and in some measure even Philip—his father—Antiochus had been assailed; against himself now both Eumenes and Prusias are armed.

si Macedoniae regnum sublatum foret, proxumam Asiam esse, quam iam ex parte sub specie liberandi ciuitates suam fecerint, deinde Syriam. iam Prusiam Eumeni honore praeferri, iam Antiochum uictorem ab Aegypto, praemio belli, arceri. haec cogitantem prouidere iubebat, ut aut ad pacem secum faciendam conpelleret Romanos aut perseuerantes in bello iniusto communes duceret omnium regum hostes.

if the kingdom of Macedonia were removed, Asia was next—which already in part, under the pretext of liberating the cities, they had made their own—then Syria. Already Prusias was being set before Eumenes in honor; already Antiochus, a victor from Egypt, was being kept away from the prize of the war. In view of these things, he was instructing him, as he considered them, to take forethought: either to compel the Romans to make peace with him, or, if they persevered in an unjust war, to reckon them the common enemies of all kings.

ad Antiochum aperta mandata erant; ad Eumenen per speciem captiuorum redimendorum missus legatus erat; <re> uera occultiora quaedam agebantur, quae in praesentia inuisum quidem et suspectum Romanis Eumenen falsis grauioribus<que criminibus onerarunt;> proditor enim ac prope hostis habitus, dum inter se duo reges captantes fraude et auaritia certant. Cydas erat Cretensis, ex intimis Eumenis. hic prius ad Amphipolim cum Chimaro quodam populari suo, militante apud Persea, inde postea ad Demetriadem semel cum Menecrate quodam, iterum cum Antimacho, regiis ducibus, sub ipsis moenibus urbis conlocutus fuerat.

to Antiochus the mandates were open; to Eumenes a legate had been sent under the guise of redeeming captives; <re> truly some more occult matters were being transacted, which for the present made Eumenes odious indeed and suspect to the Romans, and loaded him with false and rather graver charges;> for he was held a traitor and almost an enemy, while the two kings between themselves, grasping by fraud and avarice, contended. Cydas was a Cretan, one of Eumenes’s intimates. He had earlier at Amphipolis, with a certain Chimarus, his compatriot, serving with Perseus, and then afterwards at Demetrias—once with a certain Menecrates, a second time with Antimachus, royal commanders—conferred under the very walls of the city.

Herophon quoque, qui tum missus est, duabus ad eundem Eumenen iam ante legationibus functus erat. quae conloquia occulta et legationes infames quidem erant, sed, quid actum esset quidue inter reges conuenisset, ignorabatur. res autem ita sese habuit.

Herophon also, who was sent at that time, had already before discharged two embassies to that same Eumenes. These secret colloquies and embassies were indeed infamous, but what had been done and what had been agreed between the kings was unknown. The matter, however, stood thus.

[25] Eumenes neque fauit uictoriae Persei, neque bello eam iuuare <in> animo habuit, non tam quia paternae inter eos inimicitiae erant, quam ipsorum odiis inter se accensae: non ea regum aemulatio, ut aequo animo Persea tantas apisci opes tantamque gloriam, quanta Romanis uictis eum manebat, Eumenes uisurus fuerit. cernebat et Persea iam inde ab initio belli omni modo spem pacis temptasse et in dies magis, quo propior admoueretur terror, nihil neque agere aliud neque cogitare; Romanos quoque, quia traheretur diutius spe ipsorum bellum, et ipsos duces et senatum, non abhorrere a finiendo tam incommodo ac difficili bello. hac utriusque partis uoluntate explorata, quod fieri etiam sua sponte taedio ualidioris, metu infirmioris credebat posse, in eo suam operam uenditare conciliandae gratia pacis cupiit.

[25] Eumenes neither favored the victory of Perseus, nor had it in mind to assist it in war, not so much because paternal enmities existed between them as because hatreds between the men themselves had been inflamed: the rivalry of kings was not such that Eumenes would with an equal mind be about to see Perseus acquire so great resources and so great glory as awaited him if the Romans were conquered. He discerned also that Perseus, from the very beginning of the war, had in every way attempted the hope of peace, and more with each day, the nearer the terror drew up, did and thought nothing else; and that the Romans too, because the war was being dragged out longer than they themselves had hoped, both the commanders themselves and the senate, were not averse to ending so troublesome and difficult a war. With this will of both parties ascertained—what he believed could even come about of its own accord, by the weariness of the stronger and the fear of the weaker—he desired therein to peddle his services, for the sake of winning favor, in the conciliation of peace.

nam modo ne iuuaret bello Romanos terra marique, modo pacis patrandae cum Romanis paciscebatur mercedem: ne bello interesset, mille <talenta, ut pacem conciliaret, mille> et quingenta. in utrumque non fidem modo se, sed obsides quoque dare paratum esse ostendebat. Perseus ad rem inchoandam promptissimus erat cogente metu et de obsidibus accipiendis sine dilatione agebat, conueneratque, ut accepti Cretam mitterentur.

for now he was stipulating not to aid the Romans in war by land and sea, now he was bargaining a fee for the procuring of peace with the Romans: for not being involved in the war, one thousand and five hundred. In each case he showed himself prepared to give not only his pledge but hostages as well. Perseus, with fear compelling him, was most prompt to set the matter in motion, and he was pressing without delay about receiving the hostages; and it had been agreed that, once received, they should be sent to Crete.

ubi ad pecuniae mentionem uentum erat, ibi haesitabat; et utique alteram [in] tanti nominis regibus turpem ac sordidam et danti et magis accipienti mercedem esse aiebat; in spem Romanae pacis non recusare inpensam, sed eam pecuniam perfecta re daturum, interea Samothracae in templo depositurum. ea insula cum ipsius dicionis esset, uidere Eumenes nihil interesse, <ibi> an Pellae pecunia esset; id agere, ut partem aliquam praesentem ferret. ita nequiquam inter se captati nihil praeter infamiam mouerunt.

when it came to a mention of money, there he hesitated; and in any case he said that a payment [in] kings of so great a name was shameful and sordid, both for the one giving and still more for the one receiving, as a bribe; for the hope of Roman peace he did not refuse the expense, but would give that money when the matter was perfected, meanwhile he would deposit it in the temple at Samothrace. since that island was under his own jurisdiction, Eumenes saw that it made no difference, <there> or at Pella, where the money was; he was working to the end that he should bring some portion on the spot. thus, having tried in vain to ensnare one another, they effected nothing except infamy.

[26] Nec haec tantum Persei per auaritiam est dimissa res, cum pecunia soluta aut pacem habere per Eumenen, quae uel parte regni redimenda esset, aut deceptus protrahere inimicum mercede onustum et hostes merito ei Romanos posset facere; sed et ante Genti regis parata societas et tum Gallorum effusorum per Illyricum ingens oblatum <auxilium> auaritia dimissum est. ueniebant decem milia equitum, par numerus peditum et ipsorum iungentium cursum equis et in uicem prolapsorum equitum uacuos capientium ad pugnam equos. hi pacti erant eques denos praesentes aureos, pedes quinos, mille dux eorum.

[26] Nor was this the only affair of Perseus let slip through avarice: when, the money having been paid, he could either have peace through Eumenes—which ought to have been bought back even at the price of a part of the kingdom—or, having deceived him, prolong an enemy burdened with a bribe, and could deservedly make the Romans enemies to him (Eumenes); but also the alliance earlier prepared with King Gentius, and then the great <aid> offered of Gauls pouring out through Illyricum, was dismissed by avarice. There were coming ten thousand horsemen, an equal number of foot, and men who would yoke their running to the horses and, in turn, when the horsemen slipped down, would seize for the fight the empty horses. These had bargained for pay: a horseman ten present gold pieces each, a foot-soldier five, a thousand for their leader.

uenientibus his Perseus ab Elpeo ex castris profectus obuiam cum dimidia copiarum parte denuntiare per uicos urbesque, quae uiae propinquae sunt, coepit, ut commeatus expedirent, frumenti, uini, pecorum ut copia esset. ipse equos phalerasque et sagula donum principibus ferre et paruom auri, quod inter paucos diuideret, multitudinem credens trahi spe posse. ad Almanam urbem peruenit et in ripa fluminis Axi posuit castra.

As these were coming, Perseus, having set out from the Elpeus from the camp to meet them with half his forces, began to give notice through the villages and cities that are near the road to expedite supplies, so that there might be abundance of grain, wine, and cattle. He himself was carrying as a gift for the principal men horses, trappings and military short cloaks, and a small amount of gold to divide among a few, believing that the multitude could be drawn by hope. He reached the city of Almana and pitched camp on the bank of the river Axius.

circa Desudabam in Maedica exercitus Gallorum consederat, mercedem pactam opperiens. eo mittit Antigonum, ex purpuratis unum, qui iuberet multitudinem Gallorum ad Bylazora--Paeoniae is locus est--castra mouere, principes ad se uenire frequentes. septuaginta quinque milia ab Axio flumine et castris regis aberant.

around Desudaba in Maedica the army of the Gauls had encamped, awaiting the stipulated pay. Thither he sends Antigonus, one of the purpurati (purple-clad courtiers), to order the multitude of the Gauls to move their camp to Bylazora—this place is in Paeonia—and for the princes to come to him in numbers. They were 75 miles from the river Axios and from the king’s camp.

haec mandata ad eos cum pertulisset Antigonus adiecissetque, per quantam omnium praeparatam cura regis copiam ituri forent quibusque muneribus principes aduenientes uestis, argenti equorumque excepturus rex esset, de his quidem se coram cognituros respondent, illud, quod praesens pepigissent, interrogant, ecquid aurum, quod in singulos pedites equitesque diuidendum esset, secum aduexisset. cum ad id nihil responderetur, Clondicus, regulus eorum, 'abi, renuntia ergo' inquit 'regi, nisi aurum obsidesque accepissent, nusquam inde Gallos longius uestigium moturos.' haec relata regi cum esset, aduocato consilio cum, quid omnes suasuri essent, appareret, ipse pecuniae quam regni melior custos institit de perfidia et feritate Gallorum disserere, multorum iam ante cladibus experta: periculosum esse tantam multitudinem in Macedoniam accipere, <ne> grauiores eos socios habeant quam hostes Romanos. quinque milia equitum satis esse, quibus et uti ad bellum possent, et quorum multitudinem ipsi non timeant.

When Antigonus had carried these commands to them and had added with how great a force, prepared by the king’s care, they would be going, and with what gifts for the arriving leaders the king would be ready to present clothing, silver, and horses, they reply that of these matters they would learn in person; but as to that which they had agreed upon at the time, they ask whether he had brought with him any gold to be divided to each foot-soldier and horseman. When nothing was answered to that, Clondicus, their regulus, said, “Go, then, report to the king: unless they receive the gold and hostages, the Gauls will not move a step farther from there.” When these things had been reported to the king, and, the council having been called, it was apparent what all were going to advise, he himself—a better guardian of money than of the kingdom—insisted on discoursing about the perfidy and ferocity of the Gauls, already tested by many disasters before: that it was dangerous to admit so great a multitude into Macedonia, lest they have them as allies heavier than the Roman enemies. Five thousand horsemen were enough, both to be usable for the war and such that they themselves would not fear their numbers.

[27] Apparebat omnibus mercedem timeri nec quicquam aliud; sed cum suadere consulenti nemo auderet, remittitur Antigonus, qui nuntiaret quinque milium equitum opera tantum uti regem, non tenere multitudinem aliam. quod ubi audiuere barbari, ceterorum quidem fremitus fuit indignantium se frustra excitos sedibus suis; Clondicus rursus interrogat, ecquid ipsis quinque milibus, quod conuenisset, numeraret? cum aduersus id quoque misceri ambages cerneret, inuiolato fallaci nuntio, quod uix sperauerat ipse posse contingere, retro ad Histrum perpopulati Threciam, qua uicina erat uiae, redierunt.

[27] It was apparent to all that the pay was what was feared, and nothing else; but since no one dared to advise the one consulting, Antigonus is sent back to announce that the king would use only the service of 5,000 horsemen, and would not keep any other multitude. When the barbarians heard this, there was a murmuring among the rest, indignant that they had been roused from their seats to no purpose; Clondicus again asks whether for those 5,000 he would count out what had been agreed. When he perceived that evasions were being mixed in against that too, with the deceitful envoy left inviolate—what he himself had scarcely hoped could happen—they returned back to the Ister (Danube), after thoroughly plundering Thrace where it lay adjacent to the road.

quae manus, quieto sedente rege ad Elpeum aduersus Romanos, <per> Perrhaebiae saltum in Thessaliam traducta non agros tantum nudare populando potuit, ne quos inde Romani commeatus expectarent, sed ipsas excindere urbes tenente ad Elpeum Perseo Romanos, ne urbibus sociis opitulari possent. ipsis quoque Romanis de se cogitandum fuisset, quando neque manere amissa Thessalia, unde exercitus alebatur, potuissent, neque progredi, cum ex aduerso castra Macedonum <essent. hoc amisso auxilio Perseus animos Macedonum,> qui ea pependerant spe, haud mediocriter debilitauit.

which force, with the king sitting quiet at the Elpeus against the Romans, <through> the Perrhaebian pass having been led across into Thessaly, was able not only to strip the fields by ravaging, so that the Romans would not look for any supplies from there, but to raze the cities themselves, Perseus holding the Romans at the Elpeus, so that they could not succor the allied cities. the Romans themselves too would have had to take thought for themselves, since they could neither remain, Thessaly having been lost, whence the army was fed, nor advance, since opposite the camp of the Macedonians <were. with this aid lost Perseus debilitated the spirits of the Macedonians,> who had hung upon that hope, not to a moderate degree.

eadem auaritia Gentium regem sibi alienauit. nam cum trecenta talenta Pellae missis a Gentio numerasset, signare eos pecuniam passus <est;> inde decem talenta ad Pantauchum missa, eaque praesentia dari regi iussit; reliquam pecuniam signatam Illyriorum signo portantibus suis praecipit, paruis itineribus ueherent, dein cum ad finem Macedoniae uentum esset, subsisterent ibi ac nuntios ab se opperirentur. Gentius exigua parte pecuniae accepta cum adsidue <a> Pantaucho ad lacessendos hostili facto Romanos stimularetur, M. Perpennam et L. Petilium legatos, qui tum forte ad eum uenerant, in custodiam coniecit.

the same avarice alienated King Gentius from him. For when he had counted out at Pella three hundred talents to the emissaries sent by Gentius, he allowed them to seal the money <est;>; then he sent ten talents to Pantauchus, and ordered that these be given to the king as ready money; he directed his bearers to carry the remaining money, sealed with the Illyrians’ seal, by short stages, and then, when the border of Macedonia was reached, to halt there and await messengers from himself. Gentius, having received only a small part of the money, and as he was continually being goaded <a> Pantauchus to provoke the Romans by a hostile act, threw into custody the envoys Marcus Perperna and Lucius Petilius, who by chance had come to him at that time.

hoc audito Perseus contraxisse eum necessitatem ratus ad bellandum utique cum Romanis, ad reuocandum, qui pecuniam portabat, misit, uelut nihil aliud agens, quam ut quanta maxima posset praeda ex se uicto Romanis reseruaretur. et ab Eumene Herophon ignotis, quae occulte acta erant, redit. de captiuis actum esse et ipsi euolgauerant et Eumenes consulem uitandae suspicionis causa certiorem fecit.

On hearing this, Perseus, thinking that he had contracted a necessity to wage war in any case with the Romans, sent to recall the man who was carrying the money, as though doing nothing else than that as great a booty as possible might be reserved for the Romans from himself when conquered. And Herophon returns from Eumenes, ignorant of the things which had been done covertly. That negotiations had been conducted about the captives both they themselves had made public, and Eumenes, for the sake of avoiding suspicion, informed the consul.

[28] Perseus post reditum ab Eumene Herophontis spe deiectus Antenorem et Callippum praefectos classis cum quadraginta lembis--adiectae ad hunc numerum quinque pristes erant--Tenedum mittit, ut inde sparsas per Cycladas insulas naues, Macedoniam cum frumento petentes, tutarentur. Cassandreae deductae naues in portus primum, qui sub Atho monte sunt, <in>de Tenedum placido mari cum traiecissent, stantis in portu Rhodias apertas naues Eudamumque, praefectum earum, inuiolatos atque etiam benigne appellatos dimiserunt. cognito deinde in latere altero quinquaginta onerarias suarum stantibus in ostio portus Eumenis rostratis, quibus Damius praeerat, inclusas esse, circumuectus propere ac summotis terrore hostium nauibus, onerarias datis, qui prosequerentur, decem lembis in Macedoniam mittit, ita ut in tutum prosecuti redirent Tenedum.

[28] Perseus, after Herophon’s return from Eumenes, his hope in Herophon cast down, sends Antenor and Callippus, prefects of the fleet, to Tenedos with forty lembi—five pristes were added to this number—to protect the ships scattered through the Cyclades islands that were seeking Macedonia with grain. The ships were brought down at Cassandrea first into the harbors that are under Mount Athos; from there, when they had crossed over to Tenedos with the sea calm, finding the Rhodian open ships riding in port and Eudamus, their commander, they let them go unharmed and even greeted them kindly. Then, on learning that on the other side fifty of their transports were shut in at the mouth of the harbor by Eumenes’s beaked ships, which Damius commanded, he quickly sailed around and, the enemy ships driven off by terror, he sends the transports into Macedonia, assigning ten lembi to escort them, with the understanding that, after escorting them into safety, they should return to Tenedos.

nono post die ad classem iam ad Sigeum stantem redierunt. inde Subota--insula est interiecta Elaeae et Chio--traiciunt. forte postero die, quam Subota classis tenuit, quinque et triginta naues, quas hippagogus uocant, ab Elaea profectae cum equitibus Gallis equisque Phanas promunturium Chiorum petebant, unde transmittere in Macedoniam possent.

on the ninth day thereafter they returned to the fleet now lying at Sigeum. Thence they cross to Subota--an island set between Elaea and Chios--. By chance, on the following day, on which the fleet held Subota, thirty-five ships, which they call hippagogae (horse-transports), having set out from Elaea with Gallic cavalrymen and horses, were making for Phanae, a promontory of the Chians, whence they could cross over into Macedonia.

Attalo ab Eumene mittebantur. has naues per altum ferri cum ex specula signum datum Antenori esset, profectus ab Subotis inter Erythrarum promunturium Chiumque, qua artissimum fretum est, iis occurrit. nihil minus credere praefecti Eumenis, quam Macedonum classem in illo uagari mari: nunc Romanos esse, nunc Attalum aut remissos aliquos ab Attalo ex castris Romanis Pergamum petere.

They were being sent to Attalus by Eumenes. As these ships were being borne over the deep, when from the watchtower a signal had been given to Antenor, setting out from Subota he met them between the promontory of the Erythraeans and Chios, where the strait is narrowest. Least of all did Eumenes’s prefects believe that the Macedonian fleet was roaming in that sea: now they thought it was the Romans, now Attalus, or some persons sent back by Attalus from the Roman camp, making for Pergamum.

sed cum iam adpropinquantium forma lemborum haud dubia esset et concitatio remorum derectaeque in se prorae hostis adpropinquare aperuissent, tunc iniecta trepidatio est. cum resistendi spes nulla esset inhabilique nauium genere et Gallis uix quietem ferentibus in mari, pars eorum, qui propiores continentis litori erant, in Erythraeam enarunt, pars uelis datis ad Chium naues eiecere relictisque equis effusa fuga urbem petebant. sed propius urbem lembi accessuque commodiore cum exposuissent armatos, partim in uia fugientes Gallos adepti Macedones ceciderunt, partim ante portam exclusos.

but when already the appearance of the approaching lembi was not in doubt, and the rapid agitation of the oars and the prows directed straight at them had revealed that the enemy was drawing near, then panic was thrown among them. since there was no hope of resisting, with the kind of ships ill-suited, and the Gauls scarcely able to endure the sea even in calm, a part of them, who were closer to the shore of the mainland, swam to Erythraea; a part, with sails given, drove their ships ashore toward Chios, and, leaving the horses behind, in unbridled flight were making for the city. but the lembi, being nearer the city and with a more convenient approach, when they had put armed men ashore, the Macedonians cut down some of the Gauls, overtaking them on the road as they fled, and some, shut out before the gate.

clauserant enim Chii portas ignari, qui fugerent aut sequerentur. octingenti ferme Gallorum occisi, ducenti uiui capti; equi pars in mari fractis nauibus absumpti, parti neruos succiderunt in litore Macedones. uiginti eximiae equos formae cum captiuis eosdem decem lembos, quos ante miserat, Antenor deuehere Thessalonicam iussit et primo quoque tempore ad classem reuerti; Phanis se eos expectaturum.

for the Chians had shut the gates, unaware who were fleeing or who were pursuing. About 800 of the Gauls were slain, 200 taken alive; some of the horses were lost in the sea when the ships were broken up, and for some the Macedonians cut the sinews on the shore. Antenor ordered the same 10 lembi which he had sent before to convey to Thessalonica 20 horses of exceptional beauty together with the captives, and to return to the fleet at the earliest opportunity; he would await them at Phanae.

triduum ferme classis ad urbem <stetit>. Phanas inde progressi sunt et spe celerius regressis decem lembis euecti Aegaeo mari Delum traiecerunt.

For nearly three days the fleet by the city <stood>. From there Phanas set out, and, the ten skiffs having returned sooner than hoped, they put to sea and crossed the Aegean Sea to Delos.

[29] Dum haec geruntur, legati Romani, C. Popilius et C. Decimius et C. Hostilius, a Chalcide profecti tribus quinqueremibus Delum cum uenissent, lembos ibi Macedonum quadraginta et quinque regis Eumenis quinqueremis inuenerunt. sanctitas templi insulaeque inuiolatos praestabat omnes. itaque permixti Romanique et Macedones et Eumenis nauales socii [et] in templo indutias religione loci praebente uersabantur.

[29] While these things were being transacted, the Roman legates, Gaius Popillius and Gaius Decimius and Gaius Hostilius, having set out from Chalcis, when they came to Delos in three quinqueremes, found there forty-five Macedonian lembi and five quinqueremes of King Eumenes. The sanctity of the temple and of the island was ensuring that all were inviolate. And so, mingled together, Romans and Macedonians and the naval allies of Eumenes [and] were spending time in the temple, the religion of the place affording a truce.

Antenor, Persei praefectus, cum aliquas alto praeferri onerarias naues ex speculis significatum foret, parte lemborum ipse insequens, parte per Cyclades disposita, praeterquam si quae Macedoniam peterent, omnes aut supprimebat aut spoliabat naues. quibus poterat Popilius <aut suis> aut Eumenis nauibus succurrebat; sed <e>uecti nocte binis aut ternis plerumque lembis Macedones fallebant. per id fere tempus legati Macedones Illyriique simul Rhodum uenerunt, quibus auctoritatem addidit non lemborum modo aduentus passim per Cycladas atque Aegaeum uagantium mare, sed etiam coniunctio ipsa regum Persei Gentique et fama cum magno numero peditum equitumque uenientium Gallorum.

Antenor, prefect of Perseus, when it had been signaled from the lookouts that some cargo ships were being carried along on the deep, with part of the skiffs he himself pursuing, part stationed through the Cyclades, except for such as were making for Macedonia, would either stop or despoil all ships. Popilius, so far as he could, came to their aid either with his own or with Eumenes’s ships; but the Macedonians, putting out by night in skiffs two or three at a time, for the most part eluded them. About this same time Macedonian and Illyrian envoys together came to Rhodes, and to their authority there was added not only the arrival of skiffs wandering everywhere through the Cyclades and the Aegean Sea, but also the very conjunction of the kings Perseus and Gentius, and the report of Gauls coming with a great number of infantry and cavalry.

et iam cum accessissent animi Dinoni ac Polyarato, qui Persei partium erant, non benigne modo responsum regibus est, <sed> palam pronuntiatum bello finem se auctoritate sua inposituros esse; itaque ipsi quoque reges aequos adhiberent animos ad pacem accipiendam.

and now, when public sentiment had gone over to Dinon and Polyaratus, who were of Perseus’s party, not only was an ungracious answer returned to the kings, but it was openly proclaimed that they would impose an end to the war by their own authority; and so the kings too should bring equable minds to the acceptance of peace.

[30] Iam ueris principium erat nouique duces in prouincias uenerant, consul Aemilius in Macedoniam, Octauius Oreum ad classem, Anicius in Illyricum, cui bellandum aduersus Gentium <erat. Gentius> patre Pleurato, rege Illyriorum, et matre Eurydica genitus fratres duos, Platorem utroque parente, Carauantium matre eadem natum, habuit. hoc propter ignobilitatem paternam minus suspecto Platorem occidit et duos amicos eius, Ettritum et Epicadum, impigros uiros, quo tutius regnaret.

[30] It was now the beginning of spring, and new commanders had come into their provinces: the consul Aemilius into Macedonia, Octavius to the fleet at Oreus, Anicius into Illyricum, for whom there was to be war against Gentius. Gentius, born of his father Pleuratus, king of the Illyrians, and his mother Eurydice, had two brothers—Plator, by both parents, and Caravantius, born of the same mother. As this latter was less suspected on account of his paternal ignobility, Gentius killed Plator and two of his friends, Ettritus and Epicadus, energetic men, that he might reign more safely.

fama fuit Monuni, Dardanorum principis, filiam Etutam pacto fratri eum inuidisse, tamquam his nuptiis adiungenti sibi Dardanorum gentem; et simillimum id uero fecit ducta ea uirgo Platore interfecto. grauis deinde dempto <a> fratre metu popularibus esse coepit; et uiolentiam insitam ingenio intemperantia uini accendebat. ceterum, sicut ante dictum est, ad Romanum incitatus bellum Lissum omnis copias contraxit.

there was a rumor that Monuni, prince of the Dardanians, begrudged his daughter Etuta, pledged by pact to his brother, as though by these nuptials he were joining to himself the Dardanian nation; and he made that very like the truth by taking the maiden to wife after Plator had been slain. then, the fear from his brother removed, he began to be burdensome to his countrymen; and intemperance of wine was kindling the violence inborn in his temperament. but, as was said before, incited to a Roman war, he concentrated all his forces to Lissus.

quindecim milia armatorum fuerunt. inde fratre in Cauiorum gentem ui aut terrore subigendam cum mille peditibus et quinquaginta equitibus misso, ipse ad Bassaniam urbem quinque milia ab Lisso ducit. socii erant Romanorum; itaque per praemissos nuntios prius temptati obsidionem pati quam dedere sese maluerunt.

there were fifteen thousand armed men. then, his brother having been sent into the tribe of the Cavii to be subjugated by force or by terror with one thousand infantry and fifty cavalry, he himself leads five miles from Lissus to the city of Bassania. they were allies of the Romans; and so, first sounded out through messengers sent ahead, they preferred to endure a siege rather than to surrender themselves.

Carauantium in Cauiis Durnium oppidum aduenientem benigne accepit; Carauandis, altera urbs, exclusit; et agros eorum <cum> effuse uastaret, aliquot palati milites agrestium concursu interfecti sunt. iam et Ap. Claudius adsumptis ad eum exercitum, quem habebat, Bullinorum et Apolloniatium et Dyrrachinorum auxiliis profectus ex hibernis circa Genusum amnem castra habebat, audito foedere inter Persea et Gentium et legatorum uiolatorum iniuria accensus, bellum haud dubie aduersus eum gesturus. Anicius praetor eo tempore Apolloniae auditis, quae in Illyrico gererentur, praemissisque ad Appium litteris, ut se ad Genusum opperiretur, triduo et ipse in castra uenit et ad ea, quae habebat, auxilia <e> Parthinorum iuuentute <adiunctis> duobus milibus peditum et equitibus ducentis--peditibus Epicadus, equitibus Algalsus praeerat--parabat ducere in Illyricum, maxime ut Bassanitas solueret obsidione.

Durnium, a town among the Caui, kindly received Caravantius as he arrived; Carauandis, the other city, shut him out; and <while> he was laying waste their fields in a lavish manner, several straggling soldiers were killed by a concourse of countryfolk. Meanwhile Appius Claudius also, having added to the army he had the auxiliaries of the Bullini, the Apolloniates, and the Dyrrachini, having set out from winter quarters, was encamped around the Genusus river; on hearing of the treaty between Perseus and Gentius and inflamed by the outrage against the violated ambassadors, he was without doubt going to wage war against him. The praetor Anicius at that time at Apollonia, when he heard what was being done in Illyricum and, having sent letters ahead to Appius that he should wait for him at the Genusus, in three days came into the camp himself; and to the forces he had, with reinforcements <from> the youth of the Parthini <added>, two thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry—Epicadus was in command of the infantry, Algalsus of the cavalry—he was preparing to lead into Illyricum, chiefly to free the Bassaniates from the siege.

tenuit impetum eius fama lemborum uastantium maritimam oram. octoginta erant lembi, auctore Pantaucho missi a Gentio ad Dyrrachinorum et Apolloniatium agros populandos. tum classis ad * * * * * to eo tradiderunt se.

The report of skiffs devastating the maritime shore checked his attack. There were eighty skiffs, sent by Gentius at the instigation of Pantauchus to pillage the fields of the Dyrrachinians and the Apolloniates. Then the fleet to * * * * * to surrendered themselves to him.

[31] Deinceps et urbes regionis eius idem faciebant, adiuuante inclinationem animorum clementia <in> omnis et iustitia praetoris Romani. ad Scodram inde uentum est, quod belli caput erat, non eo solum, quod Gentius eam sibi ceperat uelut regni totius arcem, sed etiam quod Labeatium gentis munitissima longe est et difficilis aditu. duo cingunt eam flumina, Clausal a latere urbis, quod in orientem patet, praefluens, Barbanna ab regione occidentis, ex Labeatide palude oriens.

[31] Next the cities of that region were doing the same, the inclination of their minds being aided by the clemency toward all and the justice of the Roman praetor. Thence they came to Scodra, which was the head of the war, not only because Gentius had taken it to himself as the citadel of the whole kingdom, but also because it is by far the most strongly fortified of the nation of the Labeates and difficult of access. Two rivers gird it: the Clausula, flowing past the side of the city which lies open toward the east, and the Barbanna from the western quarter, rising from the Labeatid marsh.

hi duo amnes confluentes incidunt ~Oriundi flumini, quod ortum ex monte Scordo, multis et aliis auctum aquis, mari Hadriatico infertur. mons Scordus, longe altissimus regionis eius, ab oriente Dardanicam subiectam habet, a meridie Macedoniam, ab occasu Illyricum. quamquam munitum situ naturali oppidum erat gensque id tota Illyriorum et rex ipse tuebatur, tamen praetor Romanus, quia prima successerant prospere, fortunam totius rei principia secuturam esse ratus et repentinum ualiturum terrorem, instructo exercitu ad moenia succedit.

these two rivers, confluently meeting, fall into the river ~Oriundus, which, having its origin from Mount Scordus, increased by many other waters, is carried into the Hadriatic Sea. Mount Scordus, by far the loftiest of that region, has Dardania lying beneath it to the east, Macedonia to the south, Illyricum to the west. Although the town was fortified by its natural site, and the whole nation of the Illyrians and the king himself were guarding it, nevertheless the Roman praetor, because the first attempts had prospered, thinking that the fortune of the whole affair would follow its beginnings and that sudden terror would be effective, advanced with the army drawn up to the walls.

quod si clausis portis muros portarumque turris dispositi armati defendissent, uano cum incepto moenibus pepulissent Romanos: nunc porta egressi proelium loco aequo maiore animo commiserunt quam sustinuerunt. pulsi enim et fuga conglobati, cum ducenti amplius in ipsis faucibus portae cecidissent, tantum intulerunt terrorem, ut oratores extemplo ad praetorem mitteret Gentius Teuticum et Bellum, principes gentis, per quos indutias peteret, ut deliberare de statu rerum suarum posset. triduo in hoc dato, cum castra Romana quingentos ferme passus ab urbe abessent, nauem conscendit et flumine Barbanna nauigat in lacum Labeatum, uelut secretum locum petens ad consultandium, sed, ut apparuit, falsa spe excitus Carauantium fratrem multis milibus armatorum <co>actis ex ea regione, in quam missus erat, aduentare.

If, with the gates shut, the armed men, arrayed on the walls and on the towers of the gates, had defended, they would have driven the Romans from the walls with a vain attempt; but as it was, having gone out by the gate, they joined battle on level ground with greater spirit than they could sustain. For, driven back and massed together in flight, when more than two hundred had fallen in the very jaws of the gate, they inspired such terror that Gentius at once sent to the praetor envoys, Teuticus and Bellus, leading men of the tribe, through whom he might seek a truce, so that he could deliberate about the state of his affairs. A period of three days having been granted for this, when the Roman camp was about 500 paces from the city, he boarded a ship and sails by the river Barbanna into Lake Labeatus, as if seeking a secluded place for consultation, but, as it appeared, stirred by a false hope that his brother Caravantius, with many thousands of armed men gathered from the region into which he had been sent, was approaching.

qui postquam euanuit rumor, tertio post die nauem eandem secundo amni Scodram demisit; praemissisque nuntiis, ut sibi appellandi praetoris potestas fieret, copia facta in castra uenit. et principium orationis ab accusatione stultitiae orsus suae, postremo ad preces lacrimasque effusus, genibus praetoris accidens in potestatem sese dedit. primo bonum animum habere iussus, ad cenam etiam inuitatus in urbem ad suos redit.

who, after the rumor had evaporated, on the third day thereafter sent the same ship down to Scodra with the favoring stream; and, messengers having been sent ahead so that leave might be afforded him for addressing the praetor, permission having been granted he came into the camp. and beginning his speech with an accusation of his own stupidity, at last, poured out into prayers and tears, falling at the praetor’s knees he surrendered himself into his power. at first bidden to take good heart, and even invited to dinner, he returns into the city to his own.

et cum praetore eo die honorifice est epulatus, deinde in custodiam C. Cassio tribuno militum traditus, uix gladiatorio accepto, decem talentis, ab rege rex, ut in eam fortunam recideret.

and when he had feasted honorably that day with the praetor, then he was handed over into custody to Gaius Cassius, tribune of the soldiers—scarcely with a gladiatorial fee received, ten talents—king from king, to fall back into that fortune.

[32] Anicius Scodra recepta nihil prius quam requisitos Petilium Perpennamque legatos ad se duci iussit. quibus splendore suo restituto Perpennam extemplo mittit ad conprehendendos amicos cognatosque regis; qui Meteonem, Labeatium gentis urbem, profectus Etleuam uxorem cum filiis duobus, Scerdilaedo Pleuratoque, et Carauantium fratrem Scodram in castra adduxit. Anicius bello Illyrico intra triginta dies perfecto nuntium uictoriae Perpennam Romam misit et post dies paucos Gentium regem ipsum cum parente, coniuge ac liberis ac fratre aliisque principibus Illyriorum hoc unum bellum prius perpetratum quam coeptum Romae auditum est.

[32] Anicius, Scodra having been recovered, ordered as his very first act that the legates Petilius and Perpenna, once tracked down, be led to him. Their splendor having been restored, he straightway sends Perpenna to apprehend the friends and kinsmen of the king; and he, having set out for Meteon, a city of the Labeatian tribe, brought Etleva the wife with her two sons, Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus, and Caravantius the brother, to Scodra into the camp. Anicius, the Illyrian war having been completed within thirty days, sent Perpenna to Rome with news of the victory; and, after a few days, the king Gentius himself with his parent, his wife and children and his brother and other princes of the Illyrians—this one war was heard at Rome to have been perpetrated before it was begun.

Quibus diebus haec agebantur, Perseus quoque in magno terrore erat propter aduentum simul Aemili noui consulis, quem cum ingentibus minis aduentare audiebat, simul Octaui praetoris. nec minus terroris a classe Romana et periculo maritumae orae habebat. Thessalonicae Eumenes et Athenagoras praeerant cum paruo praesidio duorum milium caetratorum.

In the days in which these things were being transacted, Perseus too was in great terror because of the arrival both of Aemilius, the new consul—whom he heard was approaching with huge menaces—and likewise of the praetor Octavius. Nor did he have less terror from the Roman fleet and the danger to the maritime shore. At Thessalonica, Eumenes and Athenagoras were in command with a small garrison of two thousand caetrati.

eo et Androclen praefectum mittit iussum sub ipsis naualibus castra habere. Aenean mille equites <et> Creon Antigonensis missi ad tutandam maritumam oram, ut, quocumque litore adplicuisse naues hostium audissent, extemplo ferrent agrestibus opem. quinque milia Macedonum missa ad praesidium Pythoi et Petrae, quibus praepositi erant Histiaeus et Theogenes et Midon.

Thither also he sends Androcles the prefect, ordered to keep a camp under the very dockyards. To Aenea a thousand cavalry and Creon of Antigonea were sent to guard the maritime shore, so that, on whatever coast they heard the enemy’s ships had made landfall, they might at once bring aid to the country people. Five thousand Macedonians were sent for the garrison of Pytho and Petra, over whom Histaeus and Theogenes and Midon were placed.

his profectis ripam munire Elpei fluminis adgressus est, quia sicco alueo transiri poterat. huic <rei> ut omnis multitudo uacaret, feminae ex propinquis urbibus coactae cibaria in castra adferebant; miles iussus ex propinquis siluis benigne * * * * .

With these having set out, he set about fortifying the bank of the Elpeus River, because it could be crossed by its channel being dry. So that the whole multitude might be free for this matter, women from the neighboring cities, having been gathered, were bringing provisions into the camp; the soldiery, under orders, from the neighboring woods generously * * * * .

[33] * * conferre, postremo sequi se utrarios ad mare, quod minus trecentos passus aberat, iussit et in litore alios alibi modicis interuallis fodere. montes ingentis altitudinis spem faciebant, eo magis quia nullos apertos emergerent riuos, occultos contineri latices, quorum uenae in mare permanantes undae miscerentur. uix diducta summa harena erat, cum scaturrig<in>es turbidae primo et tenues emicare, dein liquidam multamque fundere aquam uelut deum dono coeperunt.

[33] * * to bring together, and finally he ordered the water-skin carriers to follow him to the sea, which was less than 300 paces away, and on the shore that others should dig here and there at modest intervals. Mountains of enormous altitude offered hope, all the more because no open streams were emerging, that hidden waters were contained, whose veins, continuing into the sea, were mingled with the waves. Scarcely had the topmost sand been parted when bubbling springs, at first turbid and thin, began to spurt forth, then to pour out limpid and abundant water, as if by a gift of the gods.

aliquantum ea quoque res duci famae et auctoritatis apud milites adicit. iussis deinde militibus expedire arma ipse cum tribunis primisque ordinibus ad contemplandos transitus <processit, qua> descensus facilis armatis, qua in ulteriorem ripam minime inicus ascensus esset. his satis exploratis illa quoque <nouauit;> primum, ut ordine ac sine tumultu omnia in agmine ad nutum imperiumque ducis fierent, prouidit: ubi omnibus simul pronuntiaretur, quid fieret, neque omnes exaudirent, incerto imperio accepto alios ab se adicientes plus eo, quod imperatum sit, alios minus facere; clamores deinde dissonos oriri omnibus locis, et prius hostes quam ipsos, quid paretur, scire.

That matter also adds somewhat to the leader in reputation and authority among the soldiers. With the soldiers then ordered to ready their arms, he himself, with the tribunes and the first ranks, went forward to contemplate the crossings , where a descent would be easy for armed men, and where an ascent to the farther bank would be least unfriendly. With these points sufficiently explored, he also introduced the following first, he provided that everything in the column be done in order and without tumult, at the nod and command of the leader: for when it should be proclaimed to all at once what was to be done, and not all should hear distinctly, with an uncertain command received, some, adding from themselves, would do more than what had been ordered, others less; then discordant shouts would arise in all places, and the enemies would know what was being prepared sooner than they themselves.

placere igitur tribunum militum primo pilo legionis secretum edere imperium, illum et dein singulos proximo cuique in ordine centurioni dicere, quid opus facto sit, siue a primis signis ad nouissimum agmen, siue ab extremis ad primos perferundum imperium sit. uigiles etiam nouo more scutum in uigiliam ferre uetuit: non enim in pugnam uigilem ire, ut armis utatur, sed ad uigilandum, ut, cum senserit hostium aduentum, recipiat se excitetque ad arma alios. scuto prae se erecto stare galeatos; deinde, ubi fessi sint, innixos pilo, capite super marginem scuti posito sopitos stare, ut fulgentibus armis procul conspici ab hoste possint, ipsi nihil prouideant.

therefore it pleased that the military tribune should issue the secret command first to the primus pilus of the legion, and that he, and then each in turn, should tell to the centurion nearest to him in rank what needed to be done, whether the command had to be carried from the foremost standards to the rearmost column, or from the extremities to the front. he also, by a new custom, forbade the sentries to bring a shield to the watch: for the watchman does not go into battle, to use arms, but to keep watch, so that, when he has sensed the advent of the enemy, he may withdraw himself and rouse others to arms. with the shield set up before them the helmeted men stand; then, when they grow weary, leaning on the spear, with the head placed over the edge of the shield, they stand asleep, so that, with their arms shining, they can be seen from afar by the enemy, while they themselves take no thought at all.

stationum quoque morem mutauit. armati omnes, et frenatis equis equites, diem totum perstabant; id cum aestiuis diebus urente adsiduo sole fieret, tot horarum aestu et languore ipsos equosque fessos integri saepe adorti hostes uel pauci plures uexabant. itaque ex matutina statione ad meridiem decedi et in postmeridianam succedere alios iussit; ita numquam fatigatos recens hostis adgredi poterat.

He also changed the custom of the stations. All under arms, and the horsemen with bridled horses, used to stand fast the whole day; when this was being done on summer days, with the continual sun burning, through the heat and languor of so many hours both they themselves and their horses grew weary, and fresh enemies, having often attacked, would harass them—indeed even a few would vex many. Therefore he ordered that from the morning station there be a withdrawal at noon, and that others should succeed for the postmeridian; thus a fresh enemy could never attack men when worn out.

[34] Haec cum ita fieri placere contione aduocata pronuntiasset, adiecit urbanae contioni conuenientem orationem: unum imperatorem in exercitu prouidere et consulere, quid agendum sit, debere, nunc per se, nunc cum iis, quos aduocauerit in consilium; qui non sint aduocati, eos nec palam nec secreto iactare consilia sua. militem haec tria curare debere, corpus ut quam ualidissimum et pernicissimum habeat, arma apta, cibum paratum ad subita imperia; cetera scire de se dis immortalibus et imperatori suo curae esse. in quo exercitu milites consultent, imperator rumoribus uulgi circumagatur, ibi nihil salutare esse.

[34] When, after an assembly had been called, he had proclaimed that it was his pleasure that these things be done thus, he added an address fitting for an urban assembly: that there ought to be one commander in the army to provide and to consult what must be done, now by himself, now with those whom he has called into council; that those who have not been called should not air their counsels either openly or in secret. A soldier ought to attend to these three things: that he keep his body as strong and as agile as possible, his arms suitable, and his food prepared for sudden commands; let him know that the rest, as regards himself, are the concern of the immortal gods and of his commander. In whatever army the soldiers take counsel and the commander is swung about by the rumors of the crowd, there is nothing salutary there.

se, quod sit officium imperatoris, prouisurum, ut bene gerendae rei occasionem iis praebeat: illos nihil, quid futurum sit, quaerere, ubi datum signum sit, tum militarem nauare <operam debere.> ab his praeceptis contionem dimisit, uolgo etiam ueteranis fatentibus se illo primum die, tamquam tirones, quid agendum esset in re militari, didicisse. non sermonibus tantum his, cum quanto adsensu audissent uerba consulis, ostenderunt, sed rerum praesens effectus erat. neminem totis mox castris quietum uideres: acuere alii gladios, alii galeas bucculasque [scutorum], alii loricas tergere, alii aptare corpori arma experirique sub his membrorum agilitatem, quatere alii pila, alii micare gladiis mucronemque intueri, ut facile quis cerneret, ubi primum conserendi manum cum hoste data occasio esset, aut uictoria egregia aut morte memorabili finituros bellum.

that he, as pertains to the duty of a general, would provide to offer them an occasion for conducting the affair well; that they should inquire nothing about what is going to happen—when the signal has been given, then they ought to devote military <service.> From these precepts he dismissed the assembly, with even the veterans commonly confessing that on that first day, as though recruits, they had learned what must be done in the military art. They showed not only by these speeches, with how great assent they had listened to the consul’s words, but there was an immediate effect in deeds. You would see no one quiet soon in the whole camp: some sharpening swords, others helmets and the bosses [of the shields], others polishing cuirasses, others fitting arms to the body and testing under them the agility of their limbs, some brandishing javelins, others making their swords flash and gazing at the point, so that one could easily discern that, as soon as an opportunity was given for engaging hand to hand with the enemy, they would finish the war either with illustrious victory or with memorable death.

Perseus quoque, cum aduentu consulis simul et ueris principio strepere omnia mouerique apud hostes uelut nouo bello cerneret, mota a Phila castra in aduersa ripa posita, nunc ad contemplanda opera sua circumire ducem haud dubie transitus speculant<em, nunc * * * * * * Roma>norum esse.

Perseus too, when at the arrival of the consul together with the beginning of spring he perceived that everything was resounding and being moved among the enemies as if by a new war, the camp having been moved from Phila and positioned on the opposite bank, now saw the leader going around to contemplate his works, undoubtedly watching for crossings; now * * * * * * to be of the Roma>ns.

[35] Quae res Romanis auxit animos. Macedonibus regique eorum haud mediocrem attulit terrorem. et primo supprimere in occulto famam eius rei est conatus, missis, qui Pantauchum inde uenientem adpropinquare castris uetarent.

[35] This matter increased the spirits of the Romans. To the Macedonians and their king it brought no moderate terror. And at first the king tried to suppress the report of this affair in secret, sending men to forbid Pantauchus, coming from there, to approach the camp.

sed iam et pueri quidam uisi ab suis erant inter obsides Illyrios ducti, et quo quaeque accuratius celantur, eo facilius loquacitate regiorum ministrorum emanant.

but already even certain boys had been seen by their own people, led among the Illyrian hostages; and the more accurately things are concealed, the more easily they emanate through the loquacity of the royal ministers.

Sub idem tempus Rhodii legati in castra uenerunt cum isdem de pace mandatis, quae Romae ingentem iram patrum excitauerant. multo iniquioribus animis a castrensi consilio auditi sunt. itaque cum <alii legatos in uincula coniciendos censerent,> alii praecipites sine responso agendos e castris, pronuntiauit <consul> post diem quintum decimum se responsum daturum.

At about the same time the Rhodian legates came into the camp with the same mandates about peace, which at Rome had aroused immense anger among the Fathers. They were heard by the council of the camp with minds much more unfavorable. And so, while <some were of the opinion that the legates should be thrown into chains,> others that they should be driven headlong from the camp without an answer, the <consul> announced that on the fifteenth day he would give an answer.

interim, ut appareret, quantum pacificantium Rhodiorum auctoritas ualuisset, consultare de ratione belli gerendi coepit. placebat quibusdam et maxime minoribus natu per Elpei ripam munitionesque uim facere: confertis et uno <agmine impetum> facientibus resistere Macedonas non posse, ex tot castellis aliquanto altioribus ac munitioribus, quae ualidis praesidiis insedissent, priore anno deiectos. aliis placebat Octauium cum classe Thessalonicam petere et populatione maritumae orae distringere copias regias, ut altero ab tergo se ostendente bello circumactus ad interiorem partem regni tuendam nudare aliqua parte transitus Elpei cogeretur.

Meanwhile, in order that it might appear how much the authority of the peace‑making Rhodians had availed, the consul began to consult about the method of conducting the war. It pleased some, and especially the younger men, to use force along the bank of the Elpeus and against the fortifications: that, with their ranks massed and making an attack in one column <agmine impetum>, the Macedonians would be unable to resist—who the previous year had been driven out from so many forts somewhat higher and more strongly fortified, which they had held with strong garrisons. Others approved that Octavius with the fleet should make for Thessalonica and, by a devastation of the maritime coast, distract the royal forces, so that, with a second war showing itself at his back, being wheeled around to defend the interior part of the kingdom, he might be compelled to strip in some part the crossings of the Elpeus.

ipsi natura et operibus inexsuperabilis ripa uidebatur, et praeterquam quod tormenta ubique disposita essent, missilibus etiam melius et certiore ictu hostis uti audierat. alio spectabat mens tota ducis; dimissoque consilio Perrhaebos mercatores Coenum et Menophilum, notae iam sibi et fidei et prudentiae homines, accersitos secreto percunctatur, quales ad Perrhaebiam transitus sint. cum loca non iniqua esse dicerent, praesidiis autem regiis obsideri, spem cepit, si nocte inprouiso ualida manu adgressus necopinantis esset, deici praesidia posse: iacula enim et sagittas et cetera missilia in tenebris, ubi, quid petatur, procul prouideri nequeat, inutilia esse; gladio comminus geri rem in permixta turba, quo miles Romanus uincat.

To him the bank seemed insuperable by nature and by works, and besides the fact that artillery had been set everywhere, he had heard that the enemy also used missiles better and with a surer hit. The whole mind of the leader was directed elsewhere; and, the council having been dismissed, he secretly summons the Perrhaebian merchants Coenus and Menophilus, men already known to him for both fidelity and prudence, and inquires what sort of passes there are to Perrhaebia. When they said the places were not unfavorable, but were beset by royal garrisons, he conceived the hope that, if by night he attacked unexpectedly with a strong force men off their guard, the garrisons could be dislodged: for javelins and arrows and the other missiles are useless in the darkness, where what is aimed at cannot be foreseen from afar; the matter is carried on with the sword at close quarters, in a commingled crowd, wherein the Roman soldier prevails.

his ducibus usurus praetorem Octauium accersitum, exposito, quid pararet, Heracleum cum classe petere iubet et mille hominibus decem dierum cocta cibaria habere. ipse P. Scipionem Nasicam, Q. Fabium Maximum filium suum cum quinque <milibus> delectis militum Heracleum mittit, uelut classem conscensuros ad maritumam oram interioris Macedoniae, quod in consilio agitatum erat, uastandam. secreto indicatum cibaria his praeparata ad classem esse, ne quid eos moraretur.

intending to make use of these guides, having summoned the praetor Octavius, after setting forth what he was preparing, he orders him to make for Heracleum with the fleet and to have cooked rations for 1,000 men for ten days. he himself sends Publius Scipio Nasica and Quintus Fabius Maximus, his son, to Heracleum with five <thousand> picked soldiers, as if they were about to embark with the fleet to lay waste the maritime coast of interior Macedonia, which had been debated in the council. it was indicated in secret that rations had been prepared for them at the fleet, so that nothing might delay them.

inde iussi duces itineris ita diuidere uiam, ut quarta uigilia tertio die Pythoum adoriri possent. ipse postero die, ut detineret regem ab circumspectu rerum aliarum, prima luce medio in alueo cum stationibus hostium proelium commisit; pugnatumque utrimque est leui armatura. nec grauioribus armis in tam inaequali alueo pugnari poterat.

then the leaders of the march were ordered to divide the way so that at the fourth watch on the third day they might assault Pythoum. he himself, on the following day, in order to detain the king from a circumspection of other matters, at first light in mid-channel joined battle with the enemy pickets; and it was fought on both sides with light-armed troops. nor could fighting with heavier arms be carried on in so uneven a channel.

descensus ripae utriusque in alueum trecentorum ferme passuum erat; medium spatium torrentis alibi aliter cauati paulo plus quam mille passus patebat. ibi in medio spectantibus utrimque ex uallo castrorum <hinc rege>, hinc consule cum suis legionibus pugnatum est. missilibus procul regia auxilia melius pugnabant; comminus stabilior et tutior aut parma aut scuto Ligustico Romanus erat.

The descent of the bank on either side into the channel was about 300 paces; the middle span of the torrent, hollowed out differently in different places, lay open for a little more than 1,000 paces. There in the middle, with both sides looking on from the rampart of their camps, <on this side the king>, on the other the consul with his legions, the fighting took place. With missiles at a distance the king’s auxiliaries fought better; at close quarters the Roman, with either a parma or a Ligurian shield, was steadier and safer.

meridie fere receptui cani suis consul iussit. ita eo die diremptum proelium est haud paucis utrimque interfectis. sole orto postero die inritatis certamine animis etiam acrius concursum est.

About midday the consul ordered the retreat to be sounded for his men. Thus on that day the battle was broken off, with not a few slain on both sides. With the sun risen on the following day, their spirits provoked by the contest, they clashed even more fiercely.

sed Romani non ab iis tantum, cum quibus contractum certamen erat, sed multo magis ab ea multitudine, quae disposita in turribus stabat, omni genere missilium telorum ac saxis maxime uolnerabantur. ubi propius ripam hostium subissent, tormentis missa etiam ad ultimos perueniebant. multo pluribus eo die amissis consul paulo serius recepit suos.

But the Romans were being wounded not only by those with whom the engagement had been contracted, but much more by the multitude which, disposed on the towers, stood there; they were being wounded by every kind of missile weapon, and most of all by stones. When they had come nearer to the enemies’ bank, missiles launched by engines reached even to the very last men. With far more men lost that day, the consul received his own a little later.

tertio die proelio abstinuit, degressus ad imam partem castrorum, ueluti per deuexum in mare bracchium transitum temptaturus. Perseus, quod in oculis erat * * * * * .

On the third day he abstained from battle, having descended to the lowest part of the camp, as if about to attempt a crossing by an arm sloping down into the sea. Perseus, since it was before his eyes, * * * * * .

[36] <tempus> anni post circumactum solstitium erat; hora diei iam ad meridiem uergebat; iter multo puluere et incalescente sole factum erat. lassitudo et sitis iam sentiebatur et meridiem aestum magis accensurum cum mox adpareret, statuit sic adfectos recenti atque integro hosti non abicere; sed tantus ardor in animis ad dimicandum utcumque erat, ut consuli non minore arte ad suos eludendos quam ad hostes opus esset. nondum omnibus instructis instabat tribunis militum, ut maturarent instruere; circumibat ipse ordines; animos militum hortando in pugnam accendebat.

[36] <time> of the year after the solstice had been completed; the hour of the day was already inclining toward the meridian; the march had been made amid much dust and with the sun incalescent. Fatigue and thirst were already being felt, and since it soon appeared that noon would kindle the heat still more, he decided not to cast men so affected against a fresh and intact enemy; but such ardor to contend was in their spirits, however the case stood, that the consul needed no less art to elude his own men than the foe. With not all the formations yet drawn up, he kept pressing the military tribunes to make haste in deploying; he himself went around the ranks; by exhorting he enkindled the soldiers’ spirits for battle.

ibi primo alacres signum poscebant; deinde, quantum incresceret aestus, et uoltus minus uigentes et uoces segniores erant, et quidam incumbentes scutis nixique pilis stabant tum iam aperte primis ordinibus inperat, metarentur frontem castrorum et inpedimenta constituerent. quod ubi fieri milites sensere, alii gaudere palam, quod fessos uiae labore flagrantissimo aestu non coegisset pugnare; legati circa imperatorem ducesque externi erant, inter quos et Attalus, omnes adprobantes, dum pugnaturum consulem credebant--neque enim ne his <quidem> cunctationem aperuerat suam--; tunc mutatione consilii subita cum alii silerent, Nasica unus ex omnibus ausus est monere consulem, ne hostem ludificatum priores imperatores fugiendo certamen manibus emitteret: uereri, ne, <si> nocte abeat, sequendus maximo labore ac periculo in intima Macedoniae sit, aestasque, sicut prioribus ducibus, per calles saltusque Macedonicorum montium uagando circumagatur. se magnopere suadere, dum in campo patenti hostem habeat, adgrediatur, nec oblatam occasionem uincendi amittat.

There at first, eager, they were demanding the signal; then, as the heat increased, both faces were less vigorous and voices more sluggish, and some, leaning on their shields and braced on their pila, were standing. Then now openly he orders the front ranks to measure out the front of the camp and to set the baggage-train. When the soldiers perceived this was being done, some rejoiced openly, because he had not forced men wearied by the toil of the march in the most blazing heat to fight; envoys were around the commander and foreign leaders, among whom Attalus as well, all approving, so long as they believed the consul would fight—for he had not disclosed his hesitation even to these; then, when there was a sudden change of plan and others were silent, Nasica alone of all dared to warn the consul not to let the engagement slip from his hands by fleeing, as earlier commanders had, after trifling with the enemy: he feared that, if he went away by night, he would have to be pursued with very great toil and danger into the inmost parts of Macedonia, and that the summer, as under the previous leaders, would be spun out by wandering through the tracks and passes of the Macedonian mountains. He strongly urged that, while he had the enemy on an open plain, he should attack, and not lose the proffered opportunity of conquering.

consul nihil offensus libera admonitione tam clari adulescentis 'et ego' inquit 'animum istum habui, Nasica, quem tu nunc habes, et, quem ego nunc habeo, tu habebis. multis belli casibus didici, quando pugnandum, quando abstinendum pugna sit. non operae est stanti nunc in acie docere, quibus de causis hodie quiesse melius sit.

The consul, in no way offended by the frank admonition of so famous a young man, said: “I too, Nasica, have had that spirit which you now have, and that which I now have, you will have. By many vicissitudes of war I have learned when one must fight, when one must abstain from fighting. There is no leisure, as we stand now in the battle line, to teach for what reasons it is better today to remain quiet.”

rationes alias reposcito; nunc auctoritate ueteris imperatoris contentus eris.' conticuit adulescens: haud dubie uidere aliqua impedimenta pugnae consulem, quae sibi non apparerent.

ask for other reasons at another time; now you will be content with the authority of a veteran general.' the young man fell silent: without a doubt the consul saw certain impediments to battle which were not apparent to himself.

[37] Paulus postquam metata castra impedimentaque conlocata animaduertit, ex postrema acie triarios primos subducit, deinde principes, stantibus in prima acie hastatis, si quid hostis moueret, postremo hastatos, ab dextro primum cornu singulorum paulatim signorum milites subtrahens. ita pedites equitibus cum leui armatura ante aciem hosti oppositis sine tumultu abducti, nec ante, quam prima frons ualli ac fossa perducta est, ex statione equites reuocati sunt. rex quoque, cum sine detractatione paratus pugnare eo die fuisset, contentus eo, quod per hostem moram fuisse scirent, et ipse in castra copias reduxit.

[37] After Paulus noticed that the camp had been laid out and the baggage placed, he withdraws first, from the hindmost battle-line, the triarii, then the principes—the hastati standing in the first line, in case the enemy should stir—and, last, the hastati, removing the soldiers of each standard little by little, beginning from the right wing. Thus the foot-soldiers were led off without tumult, with the cavalry and the light-armed set before the battle-front and opposed to the enemy; nor were the horsemen recalled from their post before the foremost face of the rampart and the ditch had been carried through. The king also, although he had been prepared to fight that day without demur, content with this, that they knew the delay had been on the enemy’s part, likewise led his forces back into camp.

Castris permunitis C. Sulpicius Gallus, tribunus militum secundae legionis, qui praetor superiore anno fuerat, consulis permissu ad contionem militibus uocatis pronuntiauit, nocte proxima, ne quis id pro portento acciperet, ab hora secunda usque ad quartam horam noctis lunam defecturam esse. id quia naturali ordine statis temporibus fiat, et sciri ante et praedici posse. itaque quem ad modum, quia certi solis lunaeque et ortus et occasus sint, nunc pleno orbe, nunc senescentem exiguo cornu fulgere lunam non mirarentur, ita ne obscurari quidem, cum condatur umbra terrae, trahere in prodigium debere.

With the camp thoroughly fortified, C. Sulpicius Gallus, military tribune of the Second Legion, who had been praetor the previous year, by the consul’s permission, having called the soldiers to an assembly, announced that on the next night, so that no one might take it as a portent, from the second hour up to the fourth hour of the night the moon would be eclipsed. This, he said, happens by natural order at stated times, and can be known beforehand and predicted. Therefore, just as, since the risings and settings of the sun and moon are fixed, they do not marvel that the moon now shines with a full orb, now waning with a slight crescent, so neither ought they to construe its being obscured, when it is covered by the earth’s shadow, as a prodigy.

nocte, quam pridie nonas Septembres insecuta est dies, edita hora luna cum defecisset, Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope diuina uideri; Macedonas ut triste prodigium, occasum regni perniciemque gentis portendens, mouit nec aliter uates. clamor ululatusque in castris Macedonum fuit, donec luna in suam lucem emersit.

in the night which the day before the Nones of September followed, when at the announced hour the moon had suffered an eclipse, the wisdom of Gallus seemed to the Roman soldiers almost divine; it affected the Macedonians as a gloomy prodigy, portending the downfall of the kingdom and the ruin of the nation, nor did the seers interpret it otherwise. There was clamor and ululation in the camp of the Macedonians, until the moon emerged into her own light.

Postero die--tantus utrique ardor exercitui ad concurrendum fuerat, ut et regem et consulem suorum quidam, quod sine proelio discessum esset, accusarent-- regi prompta defensio erat, non eo solum, quod hostis prior aperte pugnam detractans in castra copias reduxisset, sed etiam quod eo loco signa constituisset, quo phalanx, quam inutilem uel mediocris iniquitas loci efficeret, promoueri non posset. consul ad id, quod pridie praetermisisse pugnandi occasionem uidebatur et locum dedisse hosti, si nocte abire uellet, tunc quoque per speciem immolandi terere uidebatur tempus, cum luce prima ad signum propositum pugnae exeundum in aciem fuisset. tertia demum hora sacrificio rite perpetrato ad consilium uocauit; atque ibi, quod rei gerendae tempus esset, loquendo et intempestiue consultando uidebatur quibusdam extrahere.

On the next day--so great had been the ardor in each army for clashing, that some of their own accused both the king and the consul because there had been a departure without a battle--the king had a ready defense, not only because the enemy first, openly declining combat, had led his troops back into camp, but also because he had posted his standards in a place where the phalanx, which even a moderate unevenness of ground makes ineffectual, could not be advanced. As for the consul, in that on the previous day he seemed to have let slip the occasion for fighting and to have given the enemy room, if he should wish, to depart by night, then too he seemed to be wasting time under the appearance of immolating, whereas at first light, at the signal set up for battle, it had been necessary to go out into the line of battle. At last, at the third hour, the sacrifice having been duly performed, he called a council; and there, though it was the time for action, he seemed to some to be prolonging matters by talking and by untimely deliberation.

<aduersus eos> sermones talem consul orationem habuit.

<against those> speeches the consul delivered such an oration.

[38] 'P. Nasica, egregius adulescens, ex omnibus unus, quibus hesterno die pugnari placuit, denudauit mihi suum consilium; idem postea, ita ut transisse in sententiam meam uideri posset, tacuit. quibusdam aliis absentem carpere imperatorem quam praesentem monere melius uisum est. et tibi, P. Nasica, et quicumque idem, quod <tu>, occultius senserunt, non grauabor reddere dilatae pugnae rationem.

[38] 'P. Nasica, an outstanding young man, alone out of all those to whom it pleased yesterday that there be fighting, laid bare to me his counsel; the same man afterwards kept silence, in such a way that he might seem to have passed over into my opinion. To certain others it seemed better to carp at the general when absent than to advise him when present. Both to you, P. Nasica, and to whoever, more covertly, held the same as <you>, I will not refuse to render an account of the battle’s deferral.

nam tantum abest, ut me hesternae quietis paeniteat, ut seruatum a me exercitum eo consilio credam. in qua me opinione sine causa esse ne quis uestrum credat, recognoscat agedum mecum, si uidetur, quam multa pro hoste et aduersus nos fuerint. iam omnium primum, quantum numero nos praestent, neminem uestrum nec ante ignorasse et hesterno die explicatam intuentis aciem animaduertisse certum habeo.

for so far is it from the case that I repent of yesterday’s rest, that I believe by that counsel I preserved the army. And lest any of you think that I hold this opinion without cause, come now, review with me, if it seems good, how many things were for the enemy and against us. Now, first of all, how greatly they excel us in number, I am certain that none of you was unaware beforehand, and that you observed it yesterday as you looked upon their deployed battle line.

ex hac nostra paucitate quarta pars militum praesidio inpedimentis relicta erat; nec ignauissimum quemque relinqui ad custodiam sarcinarum scitis. sed fuerimus omnes: paruom hoc tandem esse credimus, quod ex his castris, in quibus hac nocte mansimus, exituri in aciem hodierno aut summum crastino die, si ita uidebitur, diis bene iuuantibus sumus? nihilne interest, utrum militem, quem neque uiae labor eo die neque operis fatigauerit, requietum, integrum in tentorio suo arma capere iubeas atque in aciem plenum uirium, uigentem et corpore et animo educas, an longo itinere fatigatum et onere fessum, madentem sudore, arentibus siti faucibus, ore atque oculis repletis puluere, torrente meridiano sole, hosti obicias recenti, requieto, qui nulla re ante consumptas uires ad proelium adferat?

out of this our paucity a fourth part of the soldiers had been left as a guard for the baggage; nor are you unaware that it is not the very most slothful/cowardly who are left for the custody of the packs. but let us suppose we were all present: do we really think it a small matter that, from these camps in which we have lodged this night, we are, the gods kindly aiding, to go out into the battle-line today, or at the latest tomorrow, if it shall seem good? does it make no difference whether you order a soldier—whom on that day neither the labor of the road nor of work has wearied—rested, intact, to take up arms in his own tent and lead him out into the battle-line full of strength, vigorous in body and mind; or, worn out by a long march and tired by burden, dripping with sweat, with throats parched with thirst, with mouth and eyes filled with dust, with the noonday sun scorching, you throw him against an enemy fresh, rested, who brings to the battle forces in no way previously consumed?

quis, pro deum fidem, ita conparatus, uel iners atque inbellis, fortissimum uirum <non> uicerit? quid, quod hostes per summum otium instruxerant aciem, praeparauerant animos, stabant conpositi suis quisque ordinibus, nobis tunc repente trepidandum in acie instruenda erat et incompositis concurrendum?

who, by the faith of the gods, being thus prepared, even inert and unwarlike, would not have conquered the bravest man? What of the fact that the enemies, in the utmost leisure, had arrayed their battle line, had prepared their spirits, were standing composed, each in his own ranks, while for us there then suddenly had to be flustering in forming the line and, uncomposed, to clash?

[39] At hercule aciem quidem inconditam inordinatamque habuissemus, <sed> castra munita, prouisam aquationem, tutum ad eam iter praesidiis inpositis, explorata circa omnia; an nihil nostri habentes praeter nudum campum, in quo pugnaremus * * * . maiores uestri castra munita portum ad omnis casus exercitus ducebant esse, unde ad pugnam exirent, quo iactati tempestate pugnae receptum haberent. ideo, cum munimentis ea saepsissent, praesidio quoque ualido firmabant, quod, qui castris exutus erat, etiamsi pugnando acie uicisset, pro uicto haberetur. castra sunt uictori receptaculum, uicto perfugium.

[39] But, by Hercules, we would indeed have had a battleline uncomposed and disordered, <but> a fortified camp, a water-supply provided, a safe way to it with guards posted, everything around reconnoitered; or are we having nothing of ours except the bare field on which we would fight * * * . Your ancestors judged a fortified camp to be the port for the army against all contingencies: whence they would go out to the fight, whither, tossed by the tempest of battle, they would have a refuge. Therefore, when they had fenced it with defenses, they also made it firm with a strong garrison, because he who had been stripped of his camp—even if by fighting in the line he had conquered—was held as defeated. The camp is to the victor a place of reception, to the vanquished a refuge.

quam multi exercitus, quibus minus prospera pugnae fortuna fuit, intra uallum conpulsi tempore suo, interdum momento post, eruptione facta uictorem hostem pepulerunt? patria altera militaris est haec sedes, uallumque pro moenibus et tentorium suum cuique militi domus ac penates sunt. sine ulla sede uagi dimicassemus, ut quo <uicti, quo> uictores nos reciperemus?

How many armies, whose fortune of battle was less prosperous, driven within the rampart, in due time—sometimes a moment later—when a sortie had been made, have repelled the victorious enemy? This station is a second fatherland for the military, and the rampart in place of city-walls, and each soldier’s own tent are his home and Penates. Without any base we would have fought as wanderers—whither <uicti, quo> victors were we to withdraw ourselves?

his difficultatibus et impedimentis pugnae illud opponitur: quid, si hostis hac interposita nocte abisset, quantum rursus sequendo eo penitus in ultimam Macedoniam exhauriendum laboris erat? ego autem neque mansurum eum neque in aciem copias educturum fuisse certum habeo, si cedere hinc statuisset. quanto enim facilius abire fuit, cum procul abessemus, quam nunc, cum in ceruicibus sumus, nec fallere nos interdiu aut nocte abeundo <potest?

To these difficulties and impediments of battle this is opposed: what, if the enemy had gone away with this night interposed, how much toil again would have had to be exhausted by pursuing him deep into farthest Macedonia? But I, for my part, hold as certain that he would neither have remained nor have led out his forces into the battle line, if he had decided to withdraw from here. For how much easier was it to depart when we were far off, than now, when we are at his very neck, nor can he deceive us by going away either by day or by night <can he?>

quid au>tem est nobis optatius quam ut, quorum castra praealta fluminis ripa tuta, uallo insuper saepta crebris<que> turribus oppugnare adorti sumus, eos relictis munimentis, agmine effuso abeuntis in patentibus campis ab tergo adoriamur? hae dilatae pugnae ex hesterno die in hodiernum causae fuerunt. pugnare enim et ipsi mihi placet; et ideo, quia per Elpeum amnem saepta ad hostem uia erat, alio saltu deiectis hostium praesidiis nouom iter aperui, neque prius, quam debellauero, absistam.'

What, moreover, is more desirable for us than to attack from behind in the open plains those whose camp—secure on the very high bank of the river and, in addition, hedged about by a rampart with thick-set towers—we set about to assault, now that they, leaving their muniments, are departing in a straggling column? These were the causes of the battle’s delay from yesterday to today. For fighting pleases me as well; and for that reason, because the road to the enemy by way of the Elpeus river was fenced off, by another pass, the enemy’s garrisons having been thrown down, I opened a new route, nor shall I desist before I have brought the war to an end.'

[40] Post hanc orationem silentium fuit, partim traductis in sententiam eius, partim uerentibus nequiquam offendere in eo, quod utcumque praetermissum reuocari non posset. ac ne illo ipso quidem die aut consuli aut regi <pugnare placebat, regi,> quod nec fessos, ut pridie, ex uia neque trepidantis in acie instruenda et uixdum compositos adgressurus erat, consuli, quod in nouis castris non ligna, non pabulum conuectum erat, ad quae petenda ex propinquis agris magna pars militum e castris exierat. neutro imperatorum uolente fortuna, quae plus consiliis humanis pollet, contraxit certamen.

[40] After this speech there was silence, partly with some brought over to his opinion, partly with others fearing to incur offense to no purpose in a matter which, once somehow omitted, could not be recalled. And not even on that very day did it please either the consul or the king <to fight was pleasing, to the king,> because he was not going to attack men tired, as on the previous day, from the road, nor those panic-stricken in forming the battle line and scarcely yet composed; to the consul, because in the new camp neither wood nor fodder had been brought in, for the seeking of which from the neighboring fields a great part of the soldiers had gone out from the camp. Though neither of the commanders was willing, Fortune, which prevails more than human counsels, contracted the contest.

flumen erat haud magnum propius hostium castra, ex quo et Macedones et Romani aquabantur praesidiis ex utraque ripa positis, ut id facere tuto possent. duae cohortes a parte Romanorum erant, Marrucina et Paeligna, duae turmae Samnitium equitum, quibus praeerat M. Sergius Silus legatus; et aliud pro castris statiuom erat praesidium sub C. Cluuio legato, tres cohortes, Firmana, Uestina, Cremonensis, duae turmae equitum, Placentina et Aesernina. cum otium ad flumen esset neutris lacessentibus, hora circiter nona iumentum e manibus curantium elapsum in ulteriorem ripam effugit.

there was a river, not large, nearer to the enemy’s camp, from which both the Macedonians and the Romans drew water, with garrisons posted on each bank so that they might do this safely. On the Roman side there were two cohorts, the Marrucina and the Paeligna, two troops of Samnite cavalry, over whom Marcus Sergius Silus, legate, had command; and another stationary garrison was before the camp under the legate Gaius Cluvius—three cohorts, the Firmana, Vestina, Cremonensis, and two troops of cavalry, the Placentina and Aesernina. Since there was quiet at the river, with neither side provoking, at about the ninth hour a pack-animal, having slipped from the hands of those tending it, fled to the farther bank.

quod cum per aquam ferme genu tenus altam tres milites sequerentur, Threces duo id iumentum ex medio alueo in suam ripam trahentes <caperent, hos persecuti illi> altero eorum occiso receptoque [eo] iumento ad stationem suorum <se> recipiebant. octingentorum Thracum praesidium in hostium ripa erat. ex his pauci primo, aegre passi popularem in suo conspectu caesum, ad persequendos interfectores fluuium transgressi sunt, dein plures, postremo omnes, et cum praesidio * * * * .

when three soldiers were following it through water almost knee-deep, two Thracians, dragging that beast of burden from the middle of the channel to their own bank, , with one of them slain and the [same] beast recovered, were withdrawing to the post of their comrades . a garrison of eight hundred Thracians was on the enemy’s bank. of these a few at first, ill-enduring that a fellow-tribesman had been cut down in their own sight, crossed the river to pursue the slayers, then more, finally all, and with the garrison * * * * .

[41] * * proelium ducit. mouebat imperii maiestas, gloria uiri, ante omnia aetas, quod maior sexaginta annis iuuenum munia in parte praecipua laboris periculique capessebat. interuallum, quod inter caetratos et phalanges erat, inpleuit legio atque aciem hostium interrupit.

[41] * * leads the battle. They were moved by the majesty of his imperium, by the glory of the man, above all by his age, in that, more than sixty years old, he was taking up the duties of the young in the very forefront of toil and danger. The legion filled the interval which was between the caetrati and the phalanxes and broke the enemy’s battle-line.

a tergo caetrati erant, frontem aduersus clupeatos habebat; chalcaspides appellabantur. secundam legionem L. Albinus consularis ducere aduersus leucaspidem phalangem iussus; ea media acies hostium fuit. in dextrum cornu, unde circa fluuium commissum proelium erat, elephantos inducit et alas sociorum; et hinc primum fuga Macedonum est orta.

a rear guard of caetrati was behind; it held its front facing the shield-bearers; they were called chalcaspides. the ex-consul L. Albinus was ordered to lead the second legion against the leucaspis phalanx; that was the enemy’s middle battle-line. into the right wing, where the battle had been joined around the river, he brings in the elephants and the allies’ wings; and from here first the flight of the Macedonians arose.

nam sicut pleraque noua conmenta mortalium in uerbis uim habent, experiendo, cum agi, non, quem ad modum agatur, edisseri oportet, sine ullo effectu euanescunt, ita tum elephantomachae nomen tantum sine usu fuerunt. elephantorum impetum subsecuti sunt socii nominis Latini pepuleruntque laeuom cornu. in medio secunda legio inmissa dissipauit phalangem.

for just as most new contrivances of mortals have force in words, but when put to the test—since the thing must be done, not expounded as to how it should be done—they vanish without any effect, so then the elephantomachae were a name only without use. Following the charge of the elephants, the allies of the Latin name drove back the left wing. In the center, the second legion, sent in, scattered the phalanx.

neque ulla euidentior causa uictoriae fuit, quam quod multa passim proelia erant, quae fluctuantem turbarunt primo, deinde disiecerunt phalangem, cuius confertae et intentis horrentis hastis intolerabiles uires sunt; si carptim adgrediendo circumagere inmobilem longitudine et grauitate hastam cogas, confusa strue inplicantur; si uero aut ab latere aut ab tergo aliquid tumultus increpuit, ruinae modo turbantur, sicut tum aduersus cateruatim incurrentes Romanos et interrupta multifariam acie obuiam ire cogebantur; et Romani, quacumque data interualla essent, insinuabant ordines suos. qui si uniuersa acie in frontem aduersus instructam phalangem concurrissent, quod Paelignis principio pugnae incaute congressis aduersus caetratos euenit, induissent se hastis nec confertam aciem sustinuissent.

nor was there any more evident cause of the victory than that there were many combats everywhere, which first disturbed the wavering phalanx and then scattered it—a phalanx whose forces, compact and with spears bristling and held at the ready, are intolerable; but if, by attacking piecemeal, you compel the otherwise immobile spear, by its length and gravity, to be swung about, they become entangled in a confused heap; and if some alarm rattled either on the flank or from the rear, they are thrown into disorder like a collapse, as then they were compelled to go to meet the Romans charging in bands, with their line broken in many places; and the Romans insinuated their ranks wherever intervals were afforded. If they had charged with their entire battle line straight at the front of the arrayed phalanx—what befell the Paeligni, who at the beginning of the fight engaged incautiously against the targeteers—they would have run themselves onto the spears and would not have withstood the compact line.

[42] Ceterum sicut peditum passim caedes fiebant, nisi qui abiectis armis fugerunt, sic equitatus prope integer pugna excessit. princeps fugae rex ipse erat. iam a Pydna cum sacris alis equitum Pellam petebat; confestim eos Cotys sequebatur Odrysarumque equitatus.

[42] However, just as there were slaughters of the infantry everywhere—except for those who, having thrown down their arms, fled—so the cavalry withdrew from the fight almost entire. The leader of the flight was the king himself. Already from Pydna he was making for Pella with the sacred wings of cavalry; immediately Cotys and the cavalry of the Odrysians were following them.

ceterae quoque Macedonum alae integris abibant ordinibus, quia interiecta peditum acies, cuius caedes uictores tenebat, inmemores fecerat sequendi equites. diu phalanx a fronte, a lateribus, ab tergo caesa est. postremo qui ex hostium manibus elapsi erant, inermes ad mare fugientes, quidam aquam etiam ingressi, manus ad eos, qui in classe erant, tendentes, suppliciter uitam orabant; et cum scaphas concurrere undique ab nauibus cernerent, ad excipiendos sese uenire rati, ut caperent potius quam occiderent, longius in aquam, quidam etiam natantes, progressi sunt.

the other wings of the Macedonians too were withdrawing with their ranks intact, because the interposed battle-line of infantry—whose slaughter kept the victors occupied—had made the horsemen forgetful of pursuit. for a long time the phalanx was hewn down from the front, from the sides, from the rear. at last those who had slipped from the enemies’ hands, unarmed, fleeing to the sea—some even entering the water—stretching their hands to those who were in the fleet, were suppliantly begging for life; and when they perceived skiffs running together from all the ships, thinking they were coming to receive them, to take them aboard rather than to kill them, they went farther out into the water, some even swimming.

sed cum hostiliter <e> scaphis caederentur, retro, qui poterant, nando repetentes terram in aliam foediorem pestem incidebant; elephanti enim ab rectoribus ad litus acti exeuntis obterebant elidebantque. facile conuenit ab Romanis numquam una acie tantum Macedonum interfectum. caesa enim ad uiginti milia hominum sunt; ad sex <milia>, qui Pydnam ex acie perfugerant, uiui in potestatem peruenerunt, et uagi ex fuga quinque milia hominum capta.

but when they were being cut down from the skiffs in hostile fashion, those who could, swimming back to land, fell upon another, more hideous calamity; for the elephants, driven by their controllers to the shore, were crushing and dashing to pieces those coming out. It is readily agreed that never in one battle were so many Macedonians slain by the Romans. For about 20,000 men were cut down; about 6,000, who had fled from the battle line to Pydna, came alive into their power, and 5,000 men, stragglers from the rout, were captured.

ex uictoribus ceciderunt non plus centum, et eorum multo maior pars Paeligni; uolnerati aliquanto plures sunt. quod si maturius pugnari coeptum esset, ut satis diei uictoribus ad persequendum superesset, deletae omnes copiae forent: nunc imminens nox et fugientes texit et Romanis pigritiem ad sequendum locis ignotis fecit.

Of the victors, no more than 100 fell, and a much greater part of them were Paelignians; a somewhat larger number were wounded. If the fighting had been begun earlier, so that enough of the day remained for the victors to pursue, all the forces would have been destroyed: now the imminent night both covered those fleeing and produced in the Romans a sluggishness for pursuing in unknown places.

[43] Perseus ad Pieriam siluam uia militari frequenti agmine equitum et regio comitatu fugit. simul in siluam uentum est, ubi plures diuersae semitae erant, et nox adpropinquabat, cum perpaucis maxime fidis uia deuertit. equites sine duce relicti alii alia in ciuitates suas dilapsi sunt; perpauci inde Pellam celerius quam ipse Perseus, quia recta <et> expedita uia ierant, peruenerunt.

[43] Perseus fled to the Pierian forest by the military road with a crowded column of cavalry and with the royal retinue. As soon as they came into the forest, where there were several divergent paths, and night was approaching, he turned off the road with a very few of his most trusty. The horsemen, left without a leader, dispersed, some to one, some to another, into their own cities; a very few from there arrived at Pella more quickly than Perseus himself, because they had gone by a straight and clear road.

rex ad mediam ferme noctem errore et uariis difficultatibus uiae est uexatus; in regia Perseo, qui Pellae praeerant, Euctus <Eulaeus>que <et> regii pueri praesto erant. contra ea amicorum, qui alii alio casu seruati ex proelio Pellam uenerant, cum saepe arcessiti essent, nemo ad eum uenit. tres erant tantum cum eo fugae comites, Euander Cretensis, Neo Boeotus et Archidamus Aetolus.

the king was vexed almost to the middle of the night by wandering and by various difficulties of the road; at the royal palace there were in attendance for Perseus Euctus and the royal pages, who were in command at Pella. by contrast, of his friends who, each by a different chance, had been saved from the battle and had come to Pella, though they had been often summoned, no one came to him. there were only three companions of flight with him: Evander the Cretan, Neo the Boeotian, and Archidamus the Aetolian.

cum iis iam metuens, ne, qui uenire ad se abnuerent, maius aliquid mox auderent, quarta uigilia profugit. secuti eum sunt admodum quingenti Cretenses. petebat Amphipolim; sed nocte a Pella exierat, properans ante lucem Axium amnem traicere, eum finem sequendi propter difficultatem transitus fore ratus Romanis.

with these men, now fearing lest those who refused to come to him would soon dare something greater, he fled at the fourth watch. About five hundred Cretans followed him. He was making for Amphipolis; but he had gone out from Pella by night, hastening to cross the river Axius before daybreak, thinking that, on account of the difficulty of the crossing, that would be the limit of pursuit for the Romans.

[44] Consulem, cum se in castra uictor recepisset, ne sincero gaudio frueretur, cura de minore filio stimulabat. P. Scipio is erat, Africanus et ipse postea deleta Carthagine appellatus, naturalis consulis Pauli filius, adoptione Africani nepos. is septumum decumum tunc annum agens, quod ipsum curam augebat, dum effuse sequitur hostes, in partem aliam turba ablatus erat; et serius cum redisset, tunc demum, recepto sospite filio, uictoriae tantae gaudium consul sensit.

[44] The consul, when as victor he had withdrawn into the camp, was not allowed to enjoy unalloyed joy: concern for his younger son was goading him. P. Scipio this was—Africanus himself also later, after Carthage had been destroyed, so styled—the natural son of the consul Paulus, by adoption the grandson of Africanus. He, then in his seventeenth year, which in itself was increasing the worry, while he was following the enemy in unrestrained pursuit, had been carried off by the crowd into another quarter; and when he returned rather late, only then, with his son recovered safe, did the consul feel the joy of so great a victory.

Amphipolim cum iam fama pugnae peruenisset concursusque matronarum in templum Dianae, quam Tauropolon uocant, ad opem exposcendam fieret, Diodorus, qui praeerat urbi, metuens, ne Thraces, quorum duo milia in praesidio erant, urbem in tumultu diriperent, ab subornato ab se per fallaciam in tabellarii speciem litteras in foro medio accepit. scriptum in iis erat ad Emathiam classem Romanam adpulsam esse agrosque circa uexari; orare praefectos Emathiae, ut praesidium aduersus populatores mittat. his lectis hortatur Thracas, ut ad tuendam Emathiae oram proficiscantur: magnam eos caedem praedamque palatis passim per agros Romanis facturos.

When the report of the battle had already reached Amphipolis, and there was a concourse of matrons into the temple of Diana, which they call the Tauropolon, to demand aid, Diodorus, who was in charge of the city, fearing lest the Thracians—two thousand of whom were in the garrison—should plunder the city in the tumult, received letters in the very middle of the forum from a man suborned by himself through a trick, in the guise of a letter-carrier. In these it was written that a Roman fleet had put in to Emathia and that the fields around were being harried; he begs the prefects of Emathia to send a garrison against the raiders. When these had been read, he urges the Thracians to set out to guard the Emathian shore: that they would make great slaughter and booty of Romans straggling everywhere through the fields.

simul eleuat famam aduersae pugnae: quae si uera foret, alium super alium recentes ex fuga uenturos fuisse. per hanc causam Thracibus ablegatis, simul transgressos eos Strymonem uidit, portas clausit.

at the same time he elevates the rumor of an adverse battle: which, if it were true, would have meant that, one upon another, men fresh from flight would be coming. For this cause, the Thracians having been sent away, as soon as he saw that they had crossed the Strymon, he closed the gates.

[45] Tertio die Perseus, quam pugnatum erat, Amphipolim uenit. inde oratores cum caduceo ad Paulum misit. interim Hippias et Midon et Pantauchus, principes amicorum regis, Beroea, quo ex acie confugerant, ipsi ad consulem profecti Romanis se dedunt.

[45] On the third day after the battle, Perseus came to Amphipolis. From there he sent envoys with a caduceus to Paulus. Meanwhile Hippias and Midon and Pantauchus, chiefs among the king’s friends, at Beroea—whither they had fled from the battle line—set out themselves to the consul and surrendered to the Romans.

hoc idem et alii deinceps metu perculsi parabant facere. consul nuntiis uictoriae Q. Fabio filio et L. Lentulo et Q. Metello cum litteris Romam missis spolia iacentis hostium exercitus peditibus concessit, equitibus praedam circumiecti agri, dum ne amplius duabus noctibus a castris abessent. ipse propius mare ad Pydnam castra mouit.

the same thing others in turn, struck with fear, were preparing to do. the consul, messengers of the victory and letters having been sent to Rome—to Q. Fabius his son, and L. Lentulus, and Q. Metellus—granted to the infantry the spoils of the enemy army lying on the field, and to the cavalry the plunder of the surrounding countryside, provided that they be not absent from the camp for more than two nights. he himself moved the camp nearer the sea, to Pydna.

Beroea primum, deinde Thessalonica et Pella et deinceps omnis ferme Macedonia intra biduum dedita. Pydnaci, qui proximi erant, nondum miserant legatos; multitudo incondita plurium simul gentium turbaque, <quae> ex acie fuga in unum conpulsa erat, consilium et consensum ciuitatis inpediebat; nec clausae modo portae, sed etiam inaedificatae erant. missi Midon et Pantauchus sub muros ad conloquium Solonis, qui praesidio praeerat; per eum emittitur militaris turba.

Beroea first, then Thessalonica and Pella, and thereafter nearly all Macedonia were surrendered within two days. The Pydnaeans, who were nearest, had not yet sent envoys; a disorderly multitude of several peoples at once and a mob, which had been driven together into one place by flight from the battle line, was impeding the counsel and consensus of the civitas; and the gates were not only closed but even built up. Midon and Pantauchus were sent beneath the walls for a parley with Solon, who was in command of the garrison; through him the military crowd was sent out.

oppidum deditum militibus datur diripiendum. Perseus una tantum spe Bisaltarum auxilii temptata, ad quos nequiquam miserat legatos, in contionem processit Philippum secum filium habens, ut et ipsos Amphipolitanos et equitum peditumque, qui aut se persecuti aut fuga eodem delati erant, adhortando animos confirmaret. sed aliquotiens dicere incipientem cum lacrimae praepedissent, quia ipse hiscere nequiit, Euandro Cretensi editis, quae agi cum multitudine uellet, de templo descendit.

the town, having been surrendered, is given to the soldiers to be sacked. Perseus, with only one hope tried—that of auxiliary aid from the Bisaltae, to whom he had sent legates in vain—advanced into a public assembly, having his son Philip with him, in order by exhortation to fortify the spirits both of the Amphipolitans themselves and of the cavalry and infantry who had either followed him or had been carried to the same place by flight. But when tears several times hindered him as he began to speak, since he himself could not even open his mouth, after communicating to Evander the Cretan what he wished to be transacted with the multitude, he descended from the temple.

multitudo, sicut ad conspectum regis fletumque tam miserabilem et ipsa ingemuerat lacrimaueratque, ita Euandri orationem aspernabatur; et quidam ausi sunt media ex contione succlamare 'abite hinc, ne, qui pauci supersumus, propter uos pereamus.' horum ferocia uocem Euandri clausit. rex in<de> domum se recepit pecuniaque et auro argentoque in lembos, qui in Strymone stabant, delatis et ipse ad flumen descendit. Thraces nauibus se committere non ausi domos dilapsi et alia militaris generis turba; Cretenses spe pecuniae secuti.

The multitude—just as at the sight of the king and so pitiable a weeping it had itself groaned and wept—so spurned Evander’s oration; and certain men dared to shout from the middle of the assembly, 'Go away from here, lest we few who survive perish on your account.' The ferocity of these men shut Evander’s voice. The king then withdrew to his house; and when money and gold and silver had been carried down into the light skiffs (lembi) which were lying on the Strymon, he himself went down to the river. The Thracians, not daring to commit themselves to the ships, slipped away to their homes—and another crowd of the military sort as well; the Cretans followed in hope of money.

et quoniam in diuidendo plus offensionum quam gratiae erat, quinquaginta talenta iis posita sunt in ripa diripienda. ab hac direptione cum per tumultum naues conscenderent, lembum unum in ostio amnis multitudine grauatum merserunt. Galepsum eo die, postero Samothracam, quam petebant, perueniunt; ad duo milia talentum peruecta eo dicuntur.

and since, in the apportioning, there was more offense than favor, fifty talents were set on the bank for them to be plundered. From this pillaging, as amid the tumult they were boarding the ships, they sank one skiff at the mouth of the river, weighed down by the multitude. They reach Galepsus that day; on the next, Samothrace, which they were seeking; about two thousand talents are said to have been conveyed there.

[46] Paulus per omnes deditas ciuitates dimissis, qui praeessent, ne qua iniuria in noua pace uictis fieret, retentisque apud se caduceatoribus regis P. Nasicam, ignarus fugae regis, Amphipolim misit cum modica peditum equitumque manu, simul ut Sinticen euastaret et ad omnes conatus regi impedimento esset. inter haec Meliboea a Cn. Octauio capitur diripiturque; ad Aeginium, ad quod oppugnandum Cn. Anicius legatus missus erat, ducenti eruptione ex oppido facta amissi sunt ignaris Aeginiensibus debellatum esse. consul a Pydna profectus cum toto exercitu die altero Pellam peruenit et cum castra mille passus inde posuisset, per aliquot dies ibi statiua habuit, situm urbis undique aspiciens, quam non sine causa delectam esse regiam <anim>aduertit.

[46] Paulus, through all the surrendered cities, having sent out men to preside, lest any injury be done to the conquered in the new peace, and keeping with himself the king’s heralds, sent P. Nasica, unaware of the king’s flight, to Amphipolis with a modest band of infantry and cavalry, at the same time to devastate Sintice and to be an impediment to all the king’s attempts. Meanwhile Meliboea is taken and sacked by Cn. Octavius; at Aeginium, to the assault of which Cn. Anicius, the legate, had been sent, two hundred were lost when a sally from the town was made, the Aeginians being unaware that the war had been fought to a finish. The consul, setting out from Pydna, on the next day reached Pella with the whole army, and when he had pitched camp a thousand paces from there, he held a stationary camp there for several days, surveying on every side the site of the city, which he <anim>observed had been selected as royal not without cause.

sita est in tumulo uergente in occidentem hibernum; cingunt paludes inexsuperabilis altitudinis aestate et hieme, quas restagnantes faciunt <amnes. arx> Phacus in ipsa palude, qua proxima urbi est, uelut insula eminet, aggeri operis ingentis imposita, qui et murum sustineat et umore circumfusae paludis nihil laedatur. muro urbis coniuncta procul uidetur; diuisa est intermurali amni et eadem ponte iuncta, ut nec oppugnante externo aditum ab ulla parte habeat, nec, si quem ibi rex includat, ullum nisi per facillimae custodiae pontem effugium.

it is situated on a mound sloping toward the winter sunset; marshes of insuperable depth gird it in summer and in winter, which the back-ponding make <rivers. the citadel> Phacus, in the marsh itself where it is closest to the city, stands out like an island, set upon an embankment of an immense work, which both supports the wall and is in no way harmed by the moisture of the marsh that surrounds it. Joined to the wall of the city, it appears so from afar; it is divided by an inter-mural river and at that same point joined by a bridge, so that, when an external assailant attacks, it has no access from any side, nor, if the king encloses anyone there, is there any escape except by the bridge, of very easiest custody.

et gaza regia in eo loco erat; sed tum nihil praeter trecenta talenta, quae missa Gentio regi, deinde retenta fuerant, inuentum est. per quos dies ad Pellam statiua fuerunt. legationes frequentes, quae ad gratulandum conuenerant, maxime ex Thessalia, auditae sunt.

and the royal treasury was in that place; but at that time nothing was found except three hundred talents, which had been sent to King Gentius and then had been retained. during those days there were standing-camps at Pella. frequent embassies, which had assembled to offer congratulations, chiefly from Thessaly, were heard.

nuntio deinde accepto Persea Samothracam traiecisse, profectus a Pella consul quartis castris Amphipolim peruenit. effusa omnis obuiam turba cuiuis indicio erat non bono ac iusto rege orba * * .

then, upon receiving the report that Perseus had crossed over to Samothrace, the consul set out from Pella and, after four encampments, reached Amphipolis. the whole crowd poured out to meet him—a sign to anyone that it was bereft of a good and just king * * .