BOOK XL

When Philip had ordered the children of those whom he had put to death, to be sought after as hostages, Theoxena, fearing the king’s passion for her own children and those of her sister, who were still quite young, brought forward swords and a cup in which there was poison, and persuaded them to escape, by putting an end to their existence, the mockery that awaited them; after administering which advice, she in company with her husband plunged headlong from the ship into the sea. The quarrels between Perseus and Demetrius, the sons of Philip, king of Macedon, are related; and how that Demetrius was first assailed by accusations invented through his brother’s guile, and among the rest, an impeachment for parricide and aspiring to the throne, and at last, since he was the friend of the Roman people, cut off by poison; and the kingdom of Macedon, on the death of Philip, fell to Perseus. It contains likewise the exploits successfully achieved by very many commanders in Liguria, and against the Celtiberians in Spain. Under the Janiculum, in the field of L. Petillius, the secretary, the books of Numa Pompilius were found by the labourers of the field, enclosed in a stone chest, written in both Latin and Greek characters; in which, when the prætor, to whom they had been brought, had read very many things calculated to overthrow the present system of religion, he swore to the senate that their being read and preserved would be detrimental to the state. And by a decree of the senate they were burned in the Comitium. The colony of Aquilia was planted. Philip, worn out by the pangs of conscience, because, influenced by the false information of his other son Perseus, he had by poison removed from life’s scene his son Demetrius, both resolved on the punishment of Perseus and desired to leave his friend Antigonus, rather than him, as his successor. But, whilst forming this project, he was hurried off by death. Perseus received the kingdom.

1 At the commencement of the next year, the consuls and prætors determined the provinces by lot. For the consuls there was no province to be decreed, except Liguria. The city jurisdiction fell to Marcus Ogulnius Gallus; that among foreigners, to Marcus Valerius; of the Spains, the Hither, to Marcus Fulvius Flaccus; the Farther, to Publius Manlius; Sicily, to Lucius Ctecilius Denter; and Sardinia, to Caius Terentius Istra. The consuls were ordered to hold levies, for Quintus Fabius had written from Liguria, that the Apuani seemed inclined to a renewal of hostilities, and that it was to be feared that they would make an irruption into the district of Pisæ. From the Spains, also, they received intelligence that the Hither province was in arms; that the war still continued with the Celtiberians: that, in the Farther province, because the prætor had been for a long time indisposed, military discipline was relaxed by intemperance and inactivity. For these reasons it was decreed that new armies should be raised; four legions for Liguria, that each might contain five thousand two hundred foot, and three hundred horse, and to these same were added, fifteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse of the Latin allies. These were to complete the two consular armies. They were ordered, also, to enrol seven thousand foot and four hundred horse, of the allies and Latins, and to send them into Gaul to Marcus Marcellus, whose command was prolonged on the expiration of his consulship. There were ordered to be levied, of Roman citizens, four thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry, and of the allies, seven thousand infantry with three hundred cavalry, which should be also led into both Spains. And to Quintus Fabius Labeo, with the army which he had in Liguria, was the command prolonged for a year.

2 The spring of this year was remarkable for storms. On the day before the feast of Pales, a tremendous hurricane arose about mid-day, and made havoc in many places, both sacred and common. It threw down the brazen statues in the Capitol; tore away a gate from the temple of Luna, which is on the Aventine, and fastened it to the back parts of the temple of Ceres; overturned other statues in the Circus Maximus, together with the pillars on which they stood; tore off several cupolas from the roofs of temples, and scattered them in an unseemly manner. This storm was converted into a prodigy, and the aruspices ordered it to be attended to. At the same time expiation was made, because it had been reported that a three-footed mule was born at Reate, and that the temple of Apollo, at Formiæ and at Caieta, was struck with lightning. On account of these prodigies, a sacrifice of twenty larger victims was offered, and there was a supplication of one day’s continuance. About the same time information was obtained from a letter of Aulus Terentius, the proprætor, that Publius Sempronius, after being sick for more than a year, had died in the Farther province: on this account the prætors were ordered to set out sooner for Spain. The foreign embassies were then brought before the senate; and first, those of the kings Eumenes and Pharnaces, and of the Rhodians, complaining of the sufferings of the inhabitants of Sinope. There came also, about the same time, the ambassadors of Philip, the Achæans, and Lacedæmonians. Answers were given to these, after Marcius, who had been sent to inspect the affairs of Greece and Macedonia, had first received an audience. To the Asiatic kings and the Rhodians, they answered, that the senate would send ambassadors to examine into those matters.

3 Marcius had increased their anxiety respecting Philip; for, he acknowledged that the latter had acquiesced with the will of the senate in such a manner, as to render it very evident, that he would conform to it no longer than necessity obliged him; nor was it difficult to see, that he intended to renew hostilities, and that every thing which he then said and did had a tendency that way. Now, in the first place, he removed almost the whole body of the citizens, with their families, from the maritime cities, into Emathia, which is its modern name, it was formerly called Pæonia; he gave up those cities to be inhabited by Thracians, and other barbarians, thinking that this kind of people would prove more faithful to him in case of a war with Rome. This proceeding caused great discontent over all Macedonia; and of those who, with their wives and children, left their dwellings, few concealed their grief in silence; and, their hatred overcoming their fear, imprecations against the king were heard, as they proceeded along in groups. His mind, rendered savage by these things, entertained suspicions of all men, places, and seasons; at last he began to confess openly, that he had nothing sufficiently safe without seizing and confining the sons of those whom he had destroyed, and sending them out of the world at different times.

4 This cruelty, horrible in itself, the calamities of one particular family rendered still more so. Philip had, many years before, put to death Herodicus, a Thessalian of distinction; and afterwards his sons-in-law. His daughters were left widows, having each a little son. The names of the women were Theoxena and Archo. Theoxena, though courted by many, rejected every offer of marriage. Archo married a certain Poris, by far the first of the Ænean nation; and, after bearing him many children, died, leaving them all quite young. Theoxena then, in order that her sister’s children might be educated under her own inspection, married Poris, and as if she herself had borne them all, treated her own and her sister’s sons with the same affectionate care. When she heard of the king’s order for seizing the children of the persons who had been put to death, supposing that they were destined to afford sport not only to the king’s lust, but to that of his guards, she formed in her mind a horrid project, and had the hardiness to declare, that she would kill them all with her own hand, rather than they should come into the power of Philip. Poris, abhorring the mention of such a dreadful deed, told her that he would carry them away to Athens, to some faithful friends, and would himself accompany them in their flight. They all went from Thessalonica to Ænea, to a stated sacrifice, which they offer yearly, with great solemnity, in honour of Æneas, the founder of the nation. Having spent the day there, in the anniversary feast, about the third watch, when all were asleep, they embarked in a vessel ready prepared by Poris, as if intending to return to Thessalonica; but their design was to cross over to Eubœa. However, daylight surprised them at a small distance from the land, struggling in vain against a contrary wind, and the king’s officers, who commanded the garrison of the port, despatched an armed bark to bring back their ship, with a strict injunction not to return without it. When they were now drawing nigh, Poris was intently occupied in animating the rowers and sailors, and, at times, raising his hands towards heaven, supplicated the gods to assist him. Meanwhile, the woman, with desperate fury recurring to the shocking design which she had long premeditated, dissolves some poison, and produces swords; then, placing the cup in their view, and unsheathing the swords, she says, “Death is our only refuge. These paths lead thither, by whichever of them each one’s inclination leads them to adopt, let them escape the tyranny of the king. Come then, dear youths, let those of you who are the elder, first take the sword; or, if a slower death is your choice, drain the cup.” At the same time the enemy was fast approaching, and she, who urged them to despatch themselves, was urgent; the young men, having put an end to their lives some by the one and some by the other fatal expedient, were thrown expiring into the sea. Then, embracing her husband and companion in death, she plunged into the deep. The king’s officers then took possession of the ship, deserted by its owners.

5 The barbarity connected with this deed added fresh fuel to the flame of public resentment kindled against the king, insomuch that most people uttered imprecations on himself and his children; which curses being in a short time heard by all the gods, caused him to vent his cruelty on his own blood relations. For Perseus, when he perceived that the popularity and high reputation of his brother Demetrius among the Macedonian people, and interest among the Romans, increased more and more every day, and that no hope was left him of obtaining the crown save by the instrumentality of some wicked device, bent all his thoughts to that one object. But not thinking himself alone strong enough even for the dastardly project, which he meditated in his effeminate mind, he began to tamper with each of his father’s friends by dark suggestions. At first, several of these showed an appearance of rejecting with scorn any such overtures, because they entertained higher expectations from Demetrius. Afterwards Philip’s animosity to the Romans increased every day, which Perseus fomented; but Demetrius, with all his might, opposed. Foreseeing the fatal doom of the youth, who heeded not a brother’s guile, and thinking that they must lend their assistance to the accomplishment of what was likely to take place, and cherish the hopes of the more powerful, they united themselves to Perseus. They defer the execution of other measures till their proper season; for the present, it seems good that the king should by every strenuous exertion be inflamed against the Romans, and urged to form resolutions for war, to which he had already of his own accord turned his attention. At the same time, in order that Demetrius might be a greater object of suspicion every day, they used deliberately to prolong the conversations even to the use of insulting language towards the Romans; thereupon, when some depreciating their manners and institutions, some their military achievements, some the appearance of the city itself, unadorned either by public or private structures; others spoke scornfully of some particular individuals among their principal men. On these occasions, the young prince unwary, both out of affection for the Roman nation, and opposition to his brother, by maintaining their cause in all things, rendered himself an object of suspicion to his father, and a fit subject for their accusations. His father therefore kept him a stranger to all his designs respecting the Romans; he was entirely devoted to Perseus, and held with him, daily and nightly, deliberations on that subject. The envoys had returned whom he happened to have sent to the Bastarnians, to solicit aid, and brought with them from thence young men of distinction, and some of royal extraction; one of whom promised his sister in marriage to Philip’s son, and the connexion with that nation raised the king’s spirits. Hereupon Perseus said, “What does that avail? There is by no means as much protection afforded by foreign aid, as there is danger arising from domestic treachery. I am unwilling to call him traitor, but a spy we certainly have in our bosom, and although the Romans have restored to us his body, since he was a hostage at Rome, yet they still possess his heart. The faces of almost all the Macedonians are turned towards him, and they think they are to have no other king but him whom the Romans would give them.” By such discourses the old man’s mind, distempered in itself, was stimulated to passion, and these imputations he received deeper in his mind, than appeared from his countenance.

6 It happened to be the time of the purification of the army; which ceremony is thus performed:—The head and fore part of a dog cut through the middle is laid at the right side of the way, and the hinder part with the entrails at the left. Between the parts of the victim, thus divided, the forces are led under arms. In the front of the van, are carried the remarkable suits of armour of all the kings of Macedon, from the remotest origin; next follows the king himself, with his children; then the royal cohort and body guards, and the remaining body of the Macedonians close the rear. The two young sons of the king attend by his side; Perseus being now in his thirtieth year, Demetrius five years younger; the former in the full strength of manhood, the latter in its bloom; the mature offspring of a fortunate parent, if his mind had been influenced by reason. The custom was, that when the purificatory sacrifice was finished, the army should perform their evolutions, and the two lines divided on both sides should engage in a mock fight. The young princes were appointed commanders in this mock engagement; but it was not the mere representation of a battle, for they engaged as if they were fighting for the throne: many wounds were given with stakes, nor was any thing but the steel wanting to give it the form of a regular battle. The party which was under the command of Demetrius, was far superior. While Perseus was vexed thereat, his considerate friends rejoiced; and said, that that very circumstance would afford grounds for impeaching the youth.

7 Each of the princes gave an entertainment that day to his comrades, who had exercised under his command. Perseus being invited to supper by Demetrius, refused; kind hospitality and youthful merriment led both to excess in wine. Thereupon mention was made of the mock engagement, and numerous remarks were thrown out against the antagonists in such a manner as not to spare even the leaders themselves. To learn these expressions, a spy was sent from among the guests of Perseus; but not conducting himself with sufficient caution, he was detected by some young men who happened to come out of the banqueting-room, and severely beaten. Demetrius, knowing nothing of this matter, said, “Why do we not go to my brother, join with him in merriment, and by our frankness and gaiety assuage his resentment, if any, arising from the engagement, as yet remains?” All with one accord cried out that they would attend him, except those who were afraid of the immediate revenge of the spy that had been beaten by them. When Demetrius pressed these also, they concealed swords under their clothes, with which they might defend themselves if any violence should be offered. In the case of domestic discord, nothing that is concealed can remain so. Both houses were full of spies and traitors. An informer ran on before to Perseus, and told him, that four young men, armed with swords, were coming with Demetrius. Though the reason was evident, (for he had heard that his guest had been beaten by them,) yet, for the purpose of blackening the matter, he ordered his gate to be locked, and from the upper part of the house and the windows facing the street, he drives away the revellers, as if they were come to murder him, from the entrance to the gate. Demetrius flushed with wine, having for a little exclaimed loudly at his being shut out, returns home to his own feast entirely ignorant of the meaning of the whole proceeding.

8 Next day, Perseus, as soon as an opportunity of seeing his father was afforded him, entered the palace, and with looks expressive of disquietude stood silent in the presence of his sire but at some distance. Of whom when his father inquired “if all was well, and what was the cause of that sadness?” he answers, “Know that it is by the sufferance of another that your son survives. We are now attacked by my brother with no secret treachery; he came by night to my house, with armed men to take away my life, and it was by shut doors, and the protection afforded by the walls, that I was saved from his fury.” When he had inspired into his father a horror mixed with wonder, he adds, “If you can listen to me, I shall cause you to understand the affair as an evident truth.” But Philip replied that he would hear him, and ordered Demetrius to be instantly summoned. He then sent for two friends of advanced age, Lysimachus and Onomastus, (who never interfered in the juvenile disputes of the brothers, and were of late rare visitors in the palace,) that he might have their assistance in counsel. While his friends are coming he walked about by himself, secretly revolving many things in his mind; his son still standing at a distance. On being told that they had arrived, he retired with his two friends, and the same number of his life-guards, into an inner apartment; he permitted each of his sons to bring in three persons unarmed. Here, having taken his seat, he says, “I, the most unhappy of fathers, sit here as judge between my two sons, the accuser and the accused of the crime of fratricide; about to find, in my nearest of relations, the foul stain either of falsehood or a commission of crime. For a long time, indeed, I have apprehended an impending storm, after I perceived your mutual looks, which showed no sign of brotherly affection, and after I had overheard some expressions. But I sometimes cherished the hope that your passions would subside, and that your suspicions could be removed; that even enemies lay down their arms and form a treaty, and that the private disputes of many have been ended; and I trusted that the remembrance of your fraternal relationship would at some time or other occur to you, and of the simplicity and intimacy that subsisted between you in your boyish days; and finally, of my instructions, which, I fear, I have fruitlessly poured into deaf ears. How often have I, in your hearing, mentioned, with abhorrence, examples of the disagreements of brothers, and recounted the dreadful consequences of them, by which themselves, their offspring, their houses, and their kingdoms, have been utterly ruined. I have represented, on the other hand, more laudable examples; also the social intercourse between the two kings of the Lacedæmonians, beneficial to themselves and to their country for many ages; and that this same state, after the custom of each one arbitrarily seizing on absolute power prevailed, was quite overturned. Then, that these brothers, Eumenes and Attalus, raised their dominions (from so small circumstances, that they were almost ashamed of the title of king), to an equality with mine, or with those of Antiochus, or indeed of any monarch of this age, and by nothing else than by brotherly concord. Nor did I decline showing you examples even from among the Romans that I had either seen or heard; as of Titus and Lucius Quintius, who carried on the war against me; the two Scipios, Publius and Lucius, who vanquished Antiochus; and their father and uncle, the lasting harmony of whose life even death could not dissolve. But neither could the wickedness of the former, attended by an issue suitable to their crimes, deter you from your foolish quarrels; nor could the sound judgment and good fortune of the latter bend you to wisdom. While I am alive and in health, you have both in your hopes and wicked desires laid hold on my inheritance. You wish me to live just so long as that, surviving one, I should, by my death, make the other king without a competitor. You cannot endure to have either brother or father. You have no sense of affection, no religion, your insatiable passion for regal sway alone has supplied the place of all other feelings. Come, then, pollute your father’s ears, contend with mutual accusations, as you soon will with the sword; speak openly either whatever truth you can, or are pleased to invent. My ears are now opened, which henceforward will be shut against all secret charges of one against the other.” When with furious passion he had uttered these words, tears gushed from the whole assembly and a sorrowful silence long prevailed.

9 At length Perseus spoke to this effect: “I ought then, it seems, to have opened my gate in the night, and admitted those armed revellers, and held out my throat to their swords; since nothing less than the perpetration of the deed can gain belief, and since I, who have been assailed by secret treachery am accosted in the same language as a robber and an assassin might expect. It is not without reason, that those people say that you have but one son, Demetrius; and that I am supposititious, and born of a concubine; for if I held in your breast the rank of a son, or the affection due to one, you would wreak your anger not on me, who complain of discovered treachery, but on him who was the author of it; nor would my life be so worthless in your eyes, that you should neither be moved by the danger which I have already undergone, nor by that to which I must be exposed in future, if punishment be not inflicted on the assassins. If, therefore, it be our doom to die secretly let us be silent, only offering prayers to the gods that the wickedness commenced with me may terminate in me, and that you be not aimed at through my side. But if, as nature itself suggests to those encompassed with perils in a desert place, to implore assistance even from men whom they had never seen, so I, on seeing a sword drawn against me, may be allowed to raise my voice. I beseech you then, by your own person, by the name of father, (and you long know which of us reveres that title most,) that you may hear me in the same manner as you would if, roused by cries and lamentations by night, you had come up, when I was crying for help, and in the dead of night had found Demetrius, with armed men, in the porch of my house. What I should, at that time, and in that case, have exclaimed with terror, I now, next day, lay before you in form of a complaint. Brother, it is long since you and I lived together on the terms of mutual hospitality; you certainly wish to be king; this my expectation, my age, opposes, the law of nations opposes, the ancient practice of Macedon opposes, and moreover the judgment of my father opposes. These you can surmount by no other means than by shedding my blood. You are making every scheme and every attempt. Hitherto, either my care or fortune has prevented the fratricide you intended to commit. Yesterday, on occasion of the purification, the military exercise and mock representation of a fight, you almost rendered it a bloody battle; nor was I saved from death by any other means than by suffering myself and my party to be overcome. Pretending brotherly sport, you wanted to drag me from a hostile fight to your house to supper. Father, do you think that I, to whom they came in arms, that they might drink with me, would have supped there with unarmed guests. Do you think that I would have been in no danger from their swords by night, when they almost killed me with stakes, of which you were a spectator. Why, Demetrius, did you come at that time of night; why an enemy come to a person provoked; why with young men in arms? I did not venture to trust myself with you as a guest, and shall I admit you as a reveller, coming with armed men? Father, if the gate had been open, you would be preparing my funeral at this moment, in which you are hearing my complaint. I do not, as an accuser, urge any thing for the purpose of accusation; nor by collecting doubtful circumstances, in a train of artful arguments. For what can he say? Does he deny that he came to my gate with a large party, or that there were armed men with him? Send for the persons, whom I will name; they who dared to do this, might dare to do any thing; nevertheless, they will not dare to deny it. If I brought before you any who had been caught within my doors in arms, you would consider this an evident proof; consider those who confess in the same light as if actually caught in the fact.

10 “Curse now thirst for dominion. Call up the furies, the avengers of the wrongs of brothers; but, father, let not your curses be undiscriminating. Separate and distinguish the assassin, and him by treachery assailed, and charge the guilty head. Let him, who intended to kill a brother, feel the wrath of the gods, of his father; and let him, who was to have perished by a brother’s wickedness, find refuge in his father’s compassion and justice. For where else shall I seek refuge, who cannot find safety in the solemn purification of your army, in the exercise of the troops, in my own house, in a feast, nor in the night, which nature’s bounty granted to mankind for a season of repose. If I go to my brother, according to his invitation, I must die. If I admit my brother to a party of pleasure within my own gates, I must die. Neither by going, nor by staying, do I escape secret treachery. Whither then shall I betake me? Father, I have courted nothing save the gods and thee. I have not the Romans, to whom I may fly. They seek my destruction, because I grieve at the injuries which they have done you; because I resent your being deprived of so many cities, so many nations, and, lately, of the coast of Thrace. They have no hope that Macedonia will ever be their property, while either you or I am safe. If a brother’s wickedness shall have carried off me, and old age thee, or if even this should not be waited for, they know that both the king and kingdom of Macedonia will become theirs. If the Romans had left you any thing beyond the limits of Macedon, I would suppose that even that had been left me as a shelter. But I have protection enough in the Macedonians. You were an eye-witness yesterday of the attack made on me by the soldiers. What did they want, but the steel? And what they wanted, in the day, my brother’s guests took to themselves in the night. Why need I mention the greater part of the nobles, who have placed all their hopes of honour and fortune in the Romans, and in him who is all-powerful with the Romans? Nor, in truth, do they prefer him merely to me, his elder brother, but, they want little of preferring him to yourself, his king and father. For, he is the person out of regard to whom the senate remitted to you the intended punishment, who now screens you from the Roman arms; who thinks it fit that your advanced age should be under obligation to, and dependent on, his youth. Him the Romans, him the cities freed from thy jurisdiction, and him the Macedonians, rejoicing at the peace with Rome, defend; but for me, father, what hope or protection have I any where except in thee?

11 “What do you suppose to be the intention of the letter lately sent to you by Titus Quintius, in which he not only says, that you acted wisely for your own interest in sending Demetrius to Rome, but also advises you to send him back again, with a greater number of ambassadors, and nobles of Macedonia? Titus Quintius is now his counsellor, and master, in every thing. Having renounced you his father, he has substituted him in your place. There in preference to all other places their secret plans are concocted. When he desires you to send greater numbers, and the chief men of Macedon they are seeking assistants in their schemes. For those who go from this place unchanged and uncorrupted, and impressed with the idea that they had Philip as their king, return from thence tainted—infected by Roman blandishments. Demetrius alone is every thing to them. They give him the title of king already, even in his father’s life-time. If I express my indignation at these things, you must forthwith understand that the crime of thirsting for dominion has been laid to my charge; not only by others, father, but even by you. But this charge, if made against both, I do not admit; for whom do I remove from his place, that I may succeed in his room? My father alone is before me; and that he may long be so, I entreat the gods. I his survivor, (and may I be so only on these terms, if, by my desert, he shall wish me to be so,) shall receive the inheritance of his kingdom, provided my father shall bequeath it to me. He covets rule, and covets it with criminal passion, since he hastily overleaps the order of age, of nature, of the Macedonian custom, and of the laws of nations. An elder brother stands in his way, to whom by right, and by the wish of his father, the kingdom belongs. Let him be carried off: I shall not be the first that acquired a kingdom by spilling a brother’s blood. My father, being old, and forlorn from being bereaved of his son, will rather fear for himself, than revenge his son’s death. The Romans will rejoice, they will approve, they will defend the deed. Father, these prospects are uncertain, but they are not groundless. For the matter stands thus: you can repel from me the fatal danger, by inflicting punishment on those who have taken up arms to kill me; if success attend the daring deed, you the very same shall not be able to avenge my death.”

12 When Perseus concluded his speech, the eyes of all present were turned to Demetrius, as if he were going to reply immediately. Then, when it was evident to all that, bathed in tears, he was unable to speak, silence for a long time reigned: at length necessity itself, inasmuch as they called on him to speak, overcame his grief, and he began thus: “Father, all the aids which heretofore have been the privilege of the accused, my accuser has preoccupied. By his tears, counterfeited for the purpose of working another’s ruin, he has caused my unfeigned tears to be suspected by you. Although, ever since I returned from Rome, he, by holding secret consultations with his confederates, labours night and day to insnare me, yet nevertheless he represents me in the character, not only of a conspirator, but of an open assassin and murderer. He terrifies you with his danger, in order to hasten, through your means, the ruin of an innocent brother. He asserts, that he has a place of refuge no where in the world, that I may have no remaining hope even in thee. Circumvented, destitute, and helpless as I am, he loads me with odium arising from foreign favour, which proves detrimental rather than advantageous. Then how, accuser-like, has he blended that which was the crime of this night with other invectives against my conduct, that he might, by representing the tenor of the rest of my life, throw a colour of guilt both on the late transaction, the true nature of which you shall soon understand; and that he might support the other groundless insinuations respecting my views, wishes, and designs, by this latter, fictitious, fabricated story. He had, at the same time, this design, that his accusation might appear to be sudden and by no means premeditated, as if occasioned by sudden fright and disturbance of this night. But, Perseus, if I were a traitor against my father and his government; if I had formed plans with the Romans, or with other enemies of my father, the tale of last night ought not to have been waited for; I ought to have been long ago brought to answer for my treason. And if the former charge apart from the latter were unfounded, and tended to discover your hatred towards me, rather than my guilt, it ought on the present day also to be either omitted or postponed to some future period; in order that it might clearly appear, whether I plotted against you; or you, with indeed a strange and singular kind of hatred, against me. However, I will, as well as I am able in my present unforeseen perturbation of mind, distinguish those matters which you have confounded; and I will unveil the plot of the preceding evening, whether mine or yours. Perseus wishes it to be believed, that I had formed a design to take his life, with the view, forsooth, that having removed the elder brother, on whom by the law of nations, by the custom of Macedonia, and likewise by your judgment, as he says, the kingdom was to devolve, I, the younger, should succeed in the room of him whom I had slain. What, then, can be the meaning of that other part of his speech, where he says that the Romans were courted by me, and from my reliance on them that I conceived hopes of the crown? For, if I believed that the Romans possessed such influence, that they could appoint whomsoever they pleased king of Macedon, and if I had such confidence in my interest with them, what need was there of fratricide? Could it be my wish to wear a diadem stained with a brother’s blood, or to become execrable and odious in the eyes of those very people, with whom whatever interest I may happen to have, has been procured by zeal, or at least affected integrity of conduct? unless you believe that Titus Quintius, by whose power and advice you allege I am at present governed, though he lives in such cordial affection with his own brother, would recommend to me to murder mine? He has united for me, not only the favour of the Romans, but the opinions of the Macedonians, and the concurring sentiments almost of all the gods and men, by reason of all which he cannot believe that he would prove equal to me in the competition. Yet the same man accuses me of having (though I was inferior to him in every mode of proceeding) had recourse to an act of wickedness as my last resource. Do you wish that the formula of the judicial inquiry should be to this effect, that whichever feared lest the other should seem more worthy of the throne, shall be deemed guilty of designing his brother’s destruction?

13 “But let us examine the process of this accusation, in whatever manner it has been fabricated. He has arraigned me of attempting his life, by several methods; and all these modes of attack he has crowded into the space of one day. I intended to kill him by day when we engaged after the purification, and, if it seems good to the gods, even on the day of purification. I intended, when I invited him to supper, to take him off by poison of course. I intended, when some armed persons followed me to join his party in their conviviality, to kill him with the sword. You see what sort of opportunities were chosen for this murder; those of sport, feasting, and revelling. What? on what sort of a day! On the day in which the army was purified; in which, after the royal armour of all the former kings of Macedon was carried in procession between the divided victim, when we two only rode along with you, father, at your sides, and the body of the Macedonian troops followed. Now, even supposing that I had formerly been guilty of some crime requiring expiation, could I, after being purified and expiated in this sacred solemnity, at the very time especially when I was looking at the victim laid on each side of our road, revolved in my mind fratricide, poisons and swords prepared against the feast? With what other sacred rites could I afterwards atone for the guilt of a mind, contaminated with every kind of villany? But whilst his understanding, blinded by a desire for accusing, wishes to render every thing an object of suspicion, it confounds one thing with another. For if I intended to take you off by poison at supper, what could be more incongruous with my design, than to provoke you to rage by an obstinate contest and engagement, that you might have reason to refuse, as you did, my invitation to supper? But when, in your anger, you had refused, whether ought I to have taken pains to pacify you, that I might find another opportunity, since I had got the poison ready, or to pass over, as it were, from that design to another, namely, that of killing you with the sword, and on that same day, under pretence of feasting with you? If I thought that you declined supping with me, through fear for your life, how could I suppose that you would not, through the same fear, have declined drinking with me also.

14 “Father, I have no cause to blush, that on a festival day, among companions of my own age, I should have indulged too freely in wine; and I wish you would also inquire with what cheerfulness and mirth yesterday’s entertainment, at my house, was rendered festive, that joy also (perhaps a blamable one) increasing it, our party not having been worsted in the fight. This my present misfortune, and my fears, have effectual dissipated the fumes of the liquor; but, if these had not intervened, we, the conspirators, would have been now lying fast asleep. If, Perseus, I designed to storm your house, and after the house had been taken to kill the owner, ought I not to have refrained from wine for that one day, and to have kept my soldiers sober? And that I should not be the only one to defend my cause with excessive candour, my brother himself also, not in the least inclined to malice or suspicion, says, I know nothing more, I charge them with nothing more, than that they came in arms to drink with me. If I should ask, From what source have you become acquainted with that very circumstance? you must necessarily acknowledge, either that my house was full of your spies; or that my companions took arms so openly, as that every one could see them. Lest he should seem either on a prior occasion to have made any investigation, or now to adduce arguments for the purpose of convicting, he desired you to inquire of the persons whom he would name, whether they had swords, in order that, as it were, in a doubtful case, when you had investigated into that which they themselves confessed, they might be deemed convicted. Why do you not rather desire inquiry to be made after this, whether they carried swords for the purpose of killing you; whether by my direction and knowledge? this you wish to be believed, and not that which they confess, and what is, indeed, notorious, they say they carried them for the purpose of defending themselves. Whether they acted right or wrong, let them account for their own conduct. My cause, which is no way affected by this act, do not blend with it. Explain whether we intended to attack you openly, or secretly. If openly, why had we not all swords? why had no one a sword except those who had beaten your spy? If privately, what was the arrangement of our plan? Were four to remain, in order to fall on you in your sleep, when the banquet broke up, and I your guest had departed? How would they have escaped detection, as being strangers, and belonging to me; and, above all, being liable to suspicion, because they had been in a quarrel a little before? But how were they to have escaped after having killed you? Could your house have been taken and stormed by two swords?

15 “Why not rather, having dropped that fable of last night, recur to what really grieves you, what kindles your envy? Say,—Why, Demetrius, is mention made any where of your mounting the throne? Why do you appear, to some, a more worthy successor to your father’s dignity than I? Why do you disturb with doubt and anxiety my hopes, which would be certain if you were not in being? These are the thoughts of Perseus, though he does not express them; these make that man my enemy, these create my accuser; these fill your house, these your kingdom, with accusations and suspicions. But, father, as I ought not now either to hope for the crown, or perhaps ever to contend for it, because I am the younger brother, and because you wish that I should yield to the elder; so neither ought I at any former time, or at the present, to act in such a manner as to appear undeserving of you my father, and of all. For I should attain that by my own vices, not by yielding to him on whose side is law both human and divine, not by moderation. You upbraid me with the Romans; and what ought to be deemed an honour, you convert into a crime. I did not request, that I should either be delivered a hostage to the Romans, or sent as an ambassador to Rome. Being commissioned by you, I did not refuse to go. On both occasions, I conducted myself in such a manner, as to be no disgrace to you, to your kingdom, or to the Macedonian nation. You, therefore, father, have been the cause of my friendship with the Romans. As long as peace shall subsist between you and them, so long will I also continue in friendship with them; but, if war should arise, I, the same who have been there a hostage, and no unprofitable ambassador in my father’s behalf, will be their most determined enemy. Nor do I, this day, require that the favour of the Romans should be any advantage to me; I only entreat that it be not detrimental. It neither commenced in war, nor is it reserved for war. I have been a pledge of peace; and, to procure a continuance of peace, I was sent ambassador. Let neither be esteemed an honour or a crime. Father, if I have been guilty of any undutiful behaviour towards you, or any criminal behaviour towards my brother, I beg to be freed from no punishment. If I be innocent, let me not, I beseech you, be destroyed by envy when I cannot by crime. My brother’s accusation, this day, is not the first that he has brought against me; but it is the first made openly, and owing to no offence given him by me. If my father were angry with me, it would become you, the elder brother, to intercede for the younger, you to obtain pardon for his youth, and you for his error; but in the very person from whom I ought to receive protection, in him I meet my ruin. From a feast and revelry I have been hurried, almost half asleep, to plead my cause on a charge of fratricide. Without advocates, without patrons, I am compelled to plead my own cause. If I were to speak for another, I would have taken time to study and compose a speech; though, what else would I endanger than that of my reputation for abilities. But, before I knew why I had been summoned, I heard you, in a paroxysm of passion, ordering me to account for my conduct, and my brother accusing me. He employed against me a speech long before prepared and studied; I had only the time in which the accusations were recited, for hearing what were the impeachments. During that short space whether should I listen to my accuser, or study a defence? Thunder-struck by the sudden and unthought-of calamity, I was scarcely capable of understanding what was alleged against me, much less of being sufficiently aware what defence I should make. What hope indeed could I have, if I had not my father as judge, with whom, though I am outstripped by an elder brother in affection, yet surely, when accused, I ought not to be outstripped in his compassion. For my prayer is, that you would save me, for my sake, and for your own; he demands, that, for his security, you should put me to death. What do you think will he do, when you shall have delivered the kingdom into his hands, who even now thinks it reasonable that he should be gratified with my blood?” While he was uttering these words, tears interrupted his breath and voice at the same time. Philip, having sent them away, and conferred a short time with his friends, declared, that “he could not from a single hour’s discussion give a formulary judgment on the cause between them, but by a scrutiny into the conduct and manners of both, and a close observation of their words and actions, on occasions great and small.” That it appeared clearly to all, that the charge relating to the preceding night was effectually refuted; but that Demetrius’ favour with the Romans had been an object of suspicion, as being too great. These, as it were, the seeds of the Macedonian war which was to be waged with Perseus, in particular, were sown, when Philip was still alive.

16 Both the consuls set out into Liguria, which at that time was the only consular province. A supplication for one day was decreed because prosperity had attended their affairs in that quarter. About two thousand Ligurians came to the extreme borders of the Gallic province, where Marcellus lay encamped, requesting him to receive their submission. Marcellus, having ordered the Ligurians to wait in the same place, consulted the senate through the medium of a letter. The senate ordered Marcus Ogulnius, præetor, to write back to Marcellus, that “it would have been more proper for the consuls, whose province it was, than for them, to decide what might tend to the interest of the republic; that in this case too it was their pleasure, if he should receive the surrender of the Ligurians, that their arms should not be taken from them admitted to a surrender, and that the senate thought proper that the Ligurians should be sent to the consul. The prætors arrived at the same time in Spain; Publius Manlius in the Farther province, which he had governed in his former prætorship, and Quintus Fulvius Flaccus in the Hither one, and he received the command of the army from Terentius; for the Farther province, by the death of the proprætor, Publius Sempronius, had been without a governor. The Celtiberians attacked Fulvius Flaccus while besieging a town of the Spaniards, called Urbicua. Many severe actions were fought there, and many of the Roman soldiers killed and wounded. They were vanquished by Fulvius’ perseverance, because he could by no force be diverted from the siege; the Celtiberians, wearied out with so many battles, retired. The city, having lost their assistance, was within a few days taken and sacked; the prætor bestowed the booty on the soldiers. Fulvius having taken this town, and Publius Manlius having only gathered together his army, which had been scattered, without having achieved any other memorable action, led their armies into winter quarters. These were the transactions of that summer in Spain. Terentius, who had come home from that province, entered the city in ovation. He carried in the procession nine thousand three hundred and twenty pounds’ weight of silver, eighty pounds’ weight of gold, and two golden crowns of the weight of sixty-seven pounds.

17 In the same year the Romans were arbitrators on the spot in a dispute, subsisting between the people of Carthage and king Masinissa, about a tract of ground. This ground Gala, father of Masinissa, had taken from the Carthaginians. Syphax had expelled Gala, and afterwards, from respect to Hasdrubal, his father-in-law, had made a present of it to the Carthaginians. In this year, Masinissa had expelled the Carthaginians. This matter was debated before the Romans with no less mental ardour than they had contended for it with the sword, even in the field of battle. The Carthaginians claimed the ground first, as having been the property of their ancestors; and next, because it had come to them from Syphax. Masinissa urged, that “he had retaken possession of it as part of his father’s kingdom, and held it under the law of nations; and that he had the advantage, both in the merits of his cause and in the present possession. That, in this discussion, he had no other fear, than lest the moderation of the Romans might operate to his loss, whilst they dreaded the appearance of any partiality to a king who was their friend and ally, in prejudice to the common enemy of him and them.” The deputies did not alter the right of possession, but referred the cause entire to the senate at Rome. There was nothing done afterwards in Liguria. The inhabitants, at first, retired into pathless forests; and afterwards, disbanding their army, separated in every direction among the villages and forts. The consuls, too, wished to disband their forces, and consulted the senators on this matter. They ordered that one of them should discharge his troops, and come to Rome to elect magistrates for the year; and that the other, with his legions, should pass the winter at Pisæ. A report prevailed, that the transalpine Gauls were arming their young men, and it was not known on what quarter of Italy that multitude would pour itself. The consuls settled the matter between them,—that Cneius Bæbius should go home to the elections, because his brother, Marcus Bæbius, was a candidate for the consulship.

18 The assembly for the election of consuls was held, and Publius Cornelius Cethegus and Marcus Bæbius Tamphilus were chosen. The prætors were afterwards elected, Quintus Fabius Maximus, Quintus Fabius Buteo, Tiberius Claudius Nero, Quintus Petillius Spurinus, Marcus Pinarius Posca, and Lucius Duronius. When the magistrates entered into office, the provinces fell to these by lot in the following order: to the consuls, Liguria; to the prætors, Quintus Petillius, the city, and Quintus Fabius Maximus, the foreign jurisdiction; to Quintus Fabius Buteo, Gaul; to Tiberius Claudius Nero, Sicily; to Marcus Pinarius, Sardinia; and to Lucius Duronius, Apulia, to which was annexed Istria also, because information was received at Tarentum and Brundusium, that the lands bordering on the sea were infested by robberies committed by foreign piratical ships. The Massilians made the same complaint, with regard to the ships of the Ligurians. The armies were then voted, to the consuls four Roman legions (each consisting of five thousand two hundred foot and three hundred horse); and fifteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse of the allies and Latins. In the Spains, the old praætors were continued in command, with the armies which they then had; and as an augmentation, there were voted for them, three thousand Roman citizens with two hundred horse, and six thousand foot and three hundred horse of the Latin confederates. Nor was the business of the fleet neglected. The consuls were ordered to constitute duumvirs for conducting that department; by whom, twenty ships which they had launched were to be manned with Roman citizens who had been in servitude; with this proviso only, that free-born officers should command them. The duty of guarding the coast was so arranged between the duumvirs, each of whom had the command of ten ships, that the promontory of Minerva formed the point of division between them: one was to defend the part on the right, as far as Marseilles; the other, that on the left, extending to the town of Barium.

19 Many horrid prodigies were seen at Rome this year, and reported from abroad. It rained blood in the courts of the temples of Vulcan and Concord, and the priests reported that spears moved, and that the image of Juno Sospita at Lanuvium shed tears. There was a pestilence in the country, in the market towns and market-places: and so violent was it in the city, that Libitina could scarcely supply the requisites for burying the dead. These prodigies, and the mortality, alarmed the senate so much, that they ordered the consuls to sacrifice to such gods as they thought proper, victims of the larger kinds, and likewise the decemvirs to consult the books. Pursuant to their direction, a supplication for one day was proclaimed, to be performed at every shrine in Rome. On the authority of these same, both the senate voted, and the consuls announced, that there should be a supplication and holidays for three days throughout the whole of Italy. The pestilence raged with so great fury, that when, in consequence of the revolt of the Corsicans, and a war raised in Sardinia by the Iliensians, it seemed good, that, from among the Latin allies, eight thousand foot and three hundred horse should be raised, whom Marcus Pinarius the prætor should convey with him into Sardinia;—the consuls returned a representation, that so great a number of men had died, and so many were sick, in every place that the number of soldiers could not be made up. The prætor was ordered to take from Cneius Bæbius, proconsul, who was in winter quarters at Pisæ, as many soldiers as would make up the deficiency, and transport them from thence to Sardinia. To Lucius Duronius the prætor, to whose lot Apulia had fallen, was given in addition the charge of making inquiry concerning the Bacchanalians; for some remaining seeds of the evils, formerly excited by those people, had shown themselves there the year before. The inquiries were rather commenced under the prætor, Lucius Pupius, than brought to any issue; the senate therefore ordered the new prætor to cut up that evil by the roots, lest it might spread again more extensively. The consuls, also, by direction of the senate, proposed to the people certain laws concerning canvassing for elections.

20 They next introduced the embassies to audience. And first, those of the kings, Eumenes and Ariarathes the Cappadocian; and Pharnaces of Pontus. No further answer was given to these, than that the senate would send persons to examine, and decide their disputes. Ambassadors from the Lacedæmonian exiles, and from the Achæans, were next brought in. Hopes were given to the exiles, that the senate would write to the Achæans that they should be restored. The Achæans gave an account, to the satisfaction of the senate, of the recovery of Messene, and the settlement of affairs there. From Philip, king of Macedonia, came two ambassadors also,—Philocles and Appelles; not on any business with the senate, but rather to pry into and inquire concerning the correspondence with the Romans, of which Perseus had accused Demetrius, and, particularly, into that with Titus Quintius, concerning the kingdom, to the prejudice of his brother. The king had employed these men, believing them unbiassed and inclined in favour of neither party; but they were accomplices and agents of Perseus, in his treacherous designs against his brother. Demetrius, ignorant of all except the villanous scheme of his brother which had lately broke out, at first neither utterly despaired, nor yet entertained much hope of being reconciled with his father; but afterwards he trusted less and less every day to Philip’s affection, having observed that an audience with him was prevented by his brother. Wherefore, not to increase the suspicions lie laboured under, he used extreme circumspection in all his words and actions, and carefully avoided all mention of, and communication with, the Romans; to such a degree as to wish that they should not write, as he knew that his father’s mind was principally exasperated by charges of this nature.

21 Philip, lest his troops should be enervated by inactivity, and at the same time, to avert all suspicion of his harbouring any design of a war with Rome, ordered his army to assemble at Stobi, in Pæonia; and thence he led it on into Mædica. He had been seized with an earnest desire of ascending to the summit of Mount Hæmus, for he gave credit to a vulgar opinion, that from thence could be seen at once the Pontic and Adriatic Seas, the river Danube, and the Alps; and he thought that the having a view of all those places, would be of no small consequence towards forming his plans of a war with Rome. On inquiry, from people acquainted with the country, respecting the ascent to Mount Hæmus, when it was ascertained from them all, that there was no way by which an army could go up it, but that there was access for a small party, lightly accoutred, that he might soothe with familiar discourse his younger son, whom he had determined not to take with him, he first asked his opinion, “whether, as the difficulty of the journey was represented to be so great, he ought to persist in his design, or not?” He added, that, if he should resolve to proceed, he could not forget the caution of Antigonus, respecting undertakings of that kind; who being tossed about by a violent storm, when he had all his family in the same ship with him, was said to have advised his sons to remember, and hand down to their children, this maxim: “never to have the hardihood to rush into danger themselves, and their whole family together.” He would therefore attend to this warning, and not expose his two sons at once to the chance of those perils, which were represented to lie in his way; and as he meant to take his elder son with him, he would send back the younger into Macedon, as a reserve to his hopes, and as guardian of the kingdom.” It did not escape Demetrius that he was sent out of the way, that lie might not be present at their deliberations, when, in view of those places, they should consult which were the shortest roads to the Adriatic Sea and to Italy, and what was the general plan to be pursued in the war. He was obliged however not only to obey his father on the occasion, but to express his approbation of the measure, lest a reluctant obedience might beget suspicion. In order that his journey into Macedonia might be safe, Didas, one of the king’s general officers and governor of Pæonia, was ordered to escort him with a small party of men. Perseus took this man, as well as most of his father’s friends, into the conspiracy to ruin his brother, from the time that it became plain to every one, from the tendency of the king’s feelings, to which of the two the inheritance of the throne should come; and Perseus charged him on this occasion, to insinuate himself by every kind of obsequiousness into the most familiar communication with Demetrius, so as to draw from him all his secrets, and to pry into his hidden thoughts. The prince, therefore, set out with a guard more dangerous to him than if he had gone alone.

22 Philip marched first into Mædica, then crossing the deserts that lie between Mædica and Hæmus, at length, at his seventh encampment, he reached the foot of the mountain. There he halted one day, to make choice of those who were to accompany him, and on the next proceeded on his journey. At first, while they ascended the lower parts of the hills, the fatigue was moderate; but as they advanced upwards, they found the ground more thickly covered with woods, and many places impassable. They then came to a part of the way so shaded by the thickness of the trees, and the branches so interwoven with each other, that the sky could scarcely be seen; but when they drew near to the top, what is rarely seen in other places, the whole tract was covered with so thick a fog, that they were impeded no less than if they were journeying by night. At last, on the third day, they arrived at the summit. On coming down they did not discountenance the vulgar opinion, more, I suppose, lest the folly of the journey should be exposed to derision, than that it was there possible to see those seas, and mountains, and rivers, so widely distant from each other. They were all greatly fatigued by the difficulty of the way; and chiefly the king himself, in proportion as he was less fitted for exertion, owing to his advanced age. After sacrificing to Jupiter and the sun, on two altars which he consecrated on the spot, he descended in two days, though the ascent had cost him three: for he was particularly afraid of the night cold, which even at the rising of the dog-star was like the cold of winter. After struggling with numerous hardships during those days, he found his camp in a condition not more pleasing, for as it lay in a country enclosed on all sides by deserts, there was extreme want. He halted therefore but one day, to refresh those whom he had taken with him, and then hastened away into the country of the Dentheletians, with a rapid march close resembling flight. These were allies, but the Macedonians, on account of their own necessities, plundered their country, as if it belonged to an enemy; for they first pillaged the country houses, and afterwards ravaged several villages, overwhelming the king with shame, when he heard the cries of his allies, calling in vain on the gods who witnessed their league, and on himself by name. Having carried off corn from hence, he marched back into Mædica, and laid siege to a town called Petra. He pitched his camp in a plain, and sent his son Perseus with a small party to attack the city from the higher ground. The townsmen, when danger pressed them on all sides, gave hostages, and for the present surrendered themselves; but as soon as the army retired, regardless of the hostages, they deserted the city, and fled into fastnesses and mountains. Philip returned to Macedon, after having exhausted his troops by every kind of fatigue, without effecting any purpose, and with his suspicions of his son augmented through the treachery of the governor Didas.

23 This man being sent, as before mentioned, to escort Demetrius, had, by flattering discourses, and even expressing his own indignation at the treatment shown him, imposed on the open temper of the youth, who was too much off his guard, and justly incensed against his relations; and by a voluntary offer of his assistance in all his measures, and giving a solemn assurance of fidelity, he elicited his secrets. Demetrius was meditating flight to Rome; and the governor of Pæonia appeared to him to have been sent by the kindness of the gods to aid him in his design;—through whose province he supposed he might make his escape. This scheme was immediately betrayed to his brother, and, by his direction, discovered to his father. A letter was brought the king while he was besieging Petra; and in consequence of it, Herodotus, who was the most intimate friend of Demetrius, was taken into custody, and an order was given that Demetrius himself should be guarded, without his perceiving it. These occurrences, added to what had passed before, made the king’s arrival in Macedon a sad one. The present charges had an effect on him; yet he resolved to wait the return of those whom he had sent to Rome, to procure intelligence of every particular. After he had passed several months under this uneasiness and anxiety, the ambassadors, who had preconcerted before they left Macedon, what information they should bring home from Rome, at last arrived; who, in addition to other grounds of accusation, produced to the king a forged letter, sealed with a counterfeit seal of Titus Quintius. In this letter was a kind of interceding apology, that if the young prince, misled by the ambition of reigning, had offered some propositions to him on the subject, yet he was sure that “Demetrius would never attempt any thing against his relations; and that he himself was not such an individual as to appear capable of giving an undutiful advice.” This letter confirmed the charges made by Perseus: Herodotus was, therefore, immediately put to the rack, which he endured a long time, and died under the torture, without giving information of any sort.

24 Perseus now brought before his father a second formal accusation against Demetrius. His preparations for flight through Pæonia were alleged against him, and his having bribed certain persons to accompany him on the journey; but the forged letter of Titus Quintius pressed hardest on him. There was, however, no severe sentence pronounced openly, in order that he might be put to death in secrecy, which they considered a preferable course: nor was this done through regard for himself, but lest the inflicting punishment on him might unmask designs against the Romans. The king himself having occasion to go from Thessalonica to Demetrias, sent Demetrius, with the same attendant Didas, to Astræum in Pæonia, and Perseus to Amphipolis, to receive hostages from the Thracians, and is said, on parting with Didas, to have given him directions to put his son to death. A sacrifice was either intended or counterfeited by Didas, and Demetrius, being invited to be present at the solemnity, came from Astræum to Heraclea. It is said that poison was administered to him in that supper. The moment he had swallowed the draught, he was conscious of its deadly properties; and being quickly after seized with violent pains, left the banquet, and retired to a chamber, where he continued for some time in agony, complaining of the cruelty of his father, inveighing against the fratricide of Perseus, and the villany of Didas. Then one Thyrsis of Stubera, and one Alexander of Berœa, were sent in, who, covering his head and mouth with blankets, suffocated him. In this manner perished that innocent youth, since in his case his enemies were not even content with a common kind of murder.

25 While these matters were passing in Macedon, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, being, on the expiration of his consulate, continued in command, led his army at the commencement of spring into the country of the Ingaunian Ligurians. He had no sooner pitched his camp in the enemy’s territory, than ambassadors came to him under pretext of suing for peace, but in reality as spies. When Paullus declared that he would enter into no treaty whatever, unless they first surrendered; to this they did not object, but said that it would require time to procure the consent of such a rude kind of people. When, for that purpose, a suspension of arms for ten days was granted, then they further requested that his men might not go beyond the mountains for wood or forage, for that was the part of their lands which they had under tillage. After they obtained this request, they collected all their forces behind those mountains, which they had prevented the Romans from approaching; and on a sudden, with a vast multitude, assaulted every gate of his camp at once. During that whole day, they prosecuted the attack with such vigour, that Paullus had not time to march out of the camp, nor room to draw out his troops: crowding together at the gates, they defended their camp by blocking up the passage, rather than by fighting. When the enemy had retired a little before sun-set, the general despatched two horsemen to Pisæ, to Cneius Bæbius, proconsul, with a letter, requesting him to come with all speed to his relief, as he was besieged in the midst of a truce. Bæbius had given up his army to Marcus Pinarius, the prætor, who was going into Sardinia, but he informed the senate by letter that Lucius Æmilius was besieged by the Ligurians, and also wrote to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, whose province lay the nearest, that, if he thought proper, he should march his army out of Gaul into Liguria, and relieve Lucius Æmilius from the blockade. These succours would have come too late. The Ligurians returned next day to the attack of the camp. Æmilius, although he was aware that they would come, and although he could have drawn out his army to meet them, yet kept his men within the lines, in order that he might protract the business until such time as Bæbius should come with his army from Pisæ.

26 Bæbius’s letter caused a great alarm at Rome, and it was increased by this circumstance, that, in a few days after Marcellus coming to Rome, having given up the command of the army to Fabius, banished all hope of a possibility of the forces, then in Gaul, being removed into Liguria; for hostilities had commenced with the Istrians, who obstructed the settlement of the colony of Aquileia; and, as Fabius had led his army thither, he could not quit that country now that the war was begun. There was but one hope of relief, and even that too slow for the exigency of the time,—this was, that the consuls might hasten their march into that province, and the senators earnestly pressed them to do so. The consuls declared that they would not set out until the levies were completed, and that no indolence in them, but the violence of the epidemic sickness, was the cause of their being so long in finishing the levy. However, they could not withstand the united wishes of the whole senate, in urging them to depart in the military habit, and to proclaim a day to the troops which they had enlisted, on which they should assemble at Pisæ. Authority was given them to enlist hasty levies on their march, wherever they should go, and take them with them. Orders were likewise issued to the prætors, Quintus Petillius and Quintus Fabius, that Petillius should raise two tumultuary legions of Roman citizens, and compel every person under fifty years of age to enlist; and that Fabius should demand from the Latin allies, fifteen thousand foot and eight hundred horse. Two commanders were appointed to the fleet, Caius Matienus and Caius Lucretius, and ships were put in readiness for them. An order was given Matienus, whose station was at the Gallic bay, to steer his squadron, with all expedition, to the coast of Liguria, and to try if he could be of any service to Lucius Æmilius and his army.

27 Æmilius, when no aid appeared in any quarter, believing that his couriers had been intercepted, resolved to wait no longer, but to make a trial of fortune by himself; and for this purpose, before the coming of the enemy, who now made their attacks with less briskness and vigour, he drew up his troops at the four gates, that, on a signal being given, might sally out from all sides at once. To four independent cohorts of auxiliaries, he added two others, and gave the command to Marcus Valerius, lieutenant-general, with orders to make his sally by the prætorian gate. At the right gate of the first cohort he formed the spearmen of the first legion, placing the first-rank men of the same legion in reserve: Marcus Servilius and Lucius Sulpicius, military tribunes, had the command of these. The third legion was drawn up opposite to the left gate of the first cohort, with this difference only, that here the first-rank men were posted in front, and the spearmen in reserve. Sextus Julius Cæsar and Lucius Aurelius Cotta, military tribunes, had the command of this legion. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, lieutenant-general, with the right wing of the allies, was posted at the quæstorian gate: and two cohorts, with the veterans of the two legions, were ordered to stay within to guard the camp. The general himself went round by all the gates, haranguing the troops, and excited the wrath of the soldiers by all the incentives that he could use; at one time declaiming against the treachery of the enemy, who after suing for peace, and obtaining a truce, had come during the very time of that truce, in violation of the law of nations, to attack his camp; at another, setting before them what a shame it was that a Roman army should be besieged by Ligurians, people more properly styled robbers than a regular enemy. “With what face,” continued he, “if you make your way hence by the assistance of others, and not by your own valour, will any of you meet, I do not say those soldiers that conquered Hannibal, or Philip, or Antiochus, the greatest kings and generals of the present age, but those who often drove those very Ligurians before them, flying like cattle through pathless forests, and put them to the sword? What the Spaniards, the Gauls, the Macedonians, or Carthaginians, never dared to attempt, a Ligurian enemy dares: he marches up to the trenches of a Roman camp, unexpectedly besieges and assaults it; although, formerly, we, searching carefully the recesses of the forests, were with difficulty able to find them lurking in their hiding-places.” This was answered by a general clamour, “that it was no fault of the soldiers, as no one had given them the order to sally forth Let him but give the order, and he should soon be convinced, that both the Romans and the Ligurians were the same that ever they were.”

28 There were two camps of the Ligurians on the hither side of the mountains, from which, on the former days, they had marched forward at sun-rise, all in order and regular array. On this day they did not take arms until they had made a full meal of food and wine; and then they came out in loose order, and regardless of their ranks, as they expected with certainty, that the enemy would not venture out beyond the rampart. As they were approaching in this disorderly manner, the shout being raised by every one in the camp at once, even by the suttlers and servants, the Romans rushed out by all the gates at the same time. This event was so entirely unexpected by the Ligurians, that they were confounded no less than if they had been caught in an ambush. For a short time, some appearance of a fight was maintained, and then followed a hasty flight, and a general slaughter of the fugitives. When the signal was given to the cavalry to mount their horses, and not to suffer any to escape, they were all driven in a confused flight to their camps, and soon beaten out of them also. Above fifteen thousand of the Ligurians were killed, and two thousand five hundred taken. In three days after, the whole state of the Ingaunian Ligurians gave hostages, and surrendered. The masters and crews of the ships, which had been employed in piracies, were carefully sought, for, and thrown into prison; and thirty-two ships of that description were taken by Caius Matienus, one of the two on the Ligurian coast. Lucius Aurelius Cotta, and Caius Sulpicius Gallus, were sent to Rome to announce these transactions and bring a letter to the senate, and at the same time to request that, as the business of the province was finished, Lucius Æmilius might have permission to leave it, and to bring away his troops and disband them. Both requests were granted by the senate, and a supplication was decreed, at all the shrines, for three days; the prætors Petillius and Fabius received orders, the former to discharge the city legions, the latter to excuse the allies and Latins from the levies, and that the city prætor should write to the consuls, that the senate thought proper that the occasional soldiers, enlisted on account of the sudden alarm, should be immediately discharged.

29 The colony of Gravisca was established this year in a district of Etruria, formerly taken from the Tarquinians, and five acres of land were given to each settler. The commissioners who conducted it were Caius Calpurnius Piso, Publius Claudius Pulcher, and Caius Terentius Istra. The year was rendered remarkable by a drought, and a scarcity of the productions of the earth. It is handed down on record, that during the space of six months no rain fell. In the same year, some workmen in the farm of Lucius Petillius, a notary, at the foot of the Janiculum, digging the ground deeper than usual, discovered two stone chests, about eight feet long and four broad, the covers of which were soldered with lead. Both the chests had inscriptions in Greek and Latin letters, one signifying that therein was buried Numa Pompilius, son of Pompo, and king of the Romans; the other, that therein were contained the books of Numa Pompilius. When the owner of the ground had, by the advice of his friends, opened these chests, the one which, according to its inscription, contained the body of the king, was found perfectly empty, without any trace of a human body or of any thing else having ever been in it; the whole being consumed by the decay of such a number of years. In the other were found two bundles, tied round with waxed cords, and each containing seven books, not only entire, but apparently quite fresh. Seven were in Latin, and related to the pontifical law; and seven in Greek, containing the doctrines of philosophy, such as might have been known in that age. Valerius Antias adds, that they contained the doctrines of Pythagoras, supporting, by this plausible fiction, the credit of the vulgar opinion, that Numa had been a disciple of Pythagoras. The books were read, first, by Petillius’s friends, who were present at the discovery. Afterwards, when they became publicly spoken of in consequence of many others reading them, Quintus Petillius, the city prætor, having a desire to read those books, borrowed them from Lucius Petillius, with whom he was familiarly acquainted, in consequence of Quintus Petillius having, when quæstor, made him a notary, and chosen him as one of ten. On reading the principal heads of the contents, he perceived that most of them had a tendency to undermine the established system of religious doctrines, and, thereupon, he told Lucius Petillius, that “he was determined to throw those books into the fire; but before he did so, he gave him leave, if he thought he had any right or appeal to demand the restitution of them, to make the trial, which he might do and preserve his favour.” The notary applied to the plebeian tribunes, and the tribunes referred the matter to the senate. The prætor declared, that he was ready to make oath that those books ought not to be read or preserved; and the senate decreed, that “the prætor’s having offered his oath ought to be deemed sufficient evidence that those books should, without delay, be burned in the comitium, and that such a price should be paid to the owner as might be judged reasonable by the prætor, Quintus Petillius, and the majority of the plebeian tribunes.” The notary did not receive the money. The books, however, were burned in the comitium, in the view of the people, the fire being made by the public servants, whose duty “it was to assist at sacrifices.

30 A formidable war broke out this summer in the Hither Spain, where the Celtiberians assembled such a force as they had hardly ever brought into the field before, amounting to no less than thirty-five thousand men. Quintus Fulvius Flaccus was governor of this province, who, because he heard that the Celtiberians were arming their young men, drew together all the succours he could procure from the allies. But he was by no means equal to the enemy in point of numbers. Early in spring, he marched his army into Carpetania, and fixed his camp close to the town of Æbura, in which he posted a small garrison. In a few days after, the Celtiberians pitched their camp at the foot of a hill, about two miles from that place. When the Roman prætor was informed of their approach, he detached his brother, Marcus Fulvius, with two troops of the allied horse, to the enemy’s post, to take a view of them; ordering him to advance as near as possible to their rampart, so as to form a judgment of the size of the camp; and not to engage in fight, but to retreat if he should see the enemy’s cavalry coming out. He acted according to his instructions, and for several days there was nothing further done than these two troops showing themselves, and then retreating when the enemy’s cavalry sallied from their tents. At length, the Celtiberians came out, with their entire force of horse and foot together, and drawing up in a line, posted themselves about midway between the two camps. The whole plain was level, and convenient for fighting, and here the Spaniards stood waiting for their enemy. The Roman general kept his men within the rampart during four successive days, while the others constantly drew up theirs, and formed in the same place. No motion was made by the Romans; and from that time the Celtiberians, because they had not an opportunity of engaging, remained quiet in their camp; their cavalry only advanced as out-posts, to be ready in case of any movement being made by Fulvius. Both parties went for wood and forage behind their own camps, neither interrupting the other.

31 When the Roman prætor thought that, by his inactivity for so many days, he had created in the Celtiberians a firm persuasion that he would not be first in any movement, he ordered Lucius Acilius, with the left wing of allies and six thousand provincial auxiliaries, to make the circuit of a mountain behind the enemy, and as soon as he should hear the shout, to pour down from them on their camp. This party, to avoid being seen, set out in the night. At the dawn of day Flaccus sent Caius Scribonius, a præfect of the allies, with the allied cavalry of the left wing, to the enemy’s rampart; when the Celtiberians, observing that they approached nearer, and were also more numerous than usual, all their cavalry poured forth from the camp, and at the same time the signal is given to the infantry to sally forth. Scribonius, according to his instructions, no sooner heard the neighing of the enemy’s cavalry than he wheeled about and retreated to the camp, on which they pursued with the more violence. First the cavalry, and in a short time the line of infantry, came up, confidently expecting that they should be able to assault the camp before night, and they were five hundred paces, not more, from the rampart. Flaccus, therefore, thinking that they were now drawn far enough from their camp, to hinder them from giving it any succour, as he had his troops already formed within the works, burst out from three sides at once; and at the same time raised the shout, not only to inspire ardour for the fight, but also that the party on the mountain might hear it. Nor did these make any delay, but, according to their orders, poured down on the camp, where five thousand men, not more, were left to guard it, and when the smallness of their numbers, the multitude of the assailants and the unexpectedness of the affair, had struck terror into them, the camp was taken almost without a struggle. Acilius set fire to that part of the camp which was most exposed to the view of the combatants.

32 The Celtiberians in the rear of their own line first observed the flames, and the news spread quickly through the whole army, that the camp was lost, and was even then completely in a blaze, which filled them with dismay, while it gave fresh spirits to the Romans; for now the shouts of victory raised by their friends struck their ear, and the enemies’ camp appeared all on fire. The Celtiberians hesitated for some time, uncertain how to act, but when they considered that, in case of a defeat, they had no place of refuge, and that their only hope now lay in their arms, they renewed the combat afresh, with greater obstinacy. Their centre was pressed hard by the fifth legion; but their men advanced with more confidence against the left wing, where they saw that the Romans had posted the provincial auxiliaries, troops of their own kind. The left wing of the Romans was now near being defeated, had not the seventh legion come to its support. At the same time, the troops left in garrison at Æbura came up during the heat of the battle, and Acilius closed on the enemy’s rear. Thus surrounded, the Celtiberians were, for a long time, cut off in great numbers, and at last the survivors betook themselves to flight in every direction. The cavalry, in two divisions, were sent in pursuit, and made great havoc. There were killed, of the enemy, on that day, twenty-three thousand, and four thousand seven hundred were taken, with more than five hundred horses, and eighty-eight military ensigns. The victory was great, but not obtained without loss of blood. There fell, of the two Roman legions, a few more than two hundred men; of the Latin confederates, eight hundred and thirty; and of foreign auxiliaries, about two thousand four hundred. The prætor led back his victorious troops to their tents: Acilius was ordered to remain in the camp which he had taken. Next day the spoils of the enemy were collected, and those whose bravery had been remarkable were presented with gifts in a public assembly.

33 The wounded were then conveyed into the town of Æbura, and the legions marched through Carpetania, against Contrebia. The garrison there, on being invested, sent for succours to the Celtiberians; but these were long in coming, not because they were unwilling to give assistance, but that after they had begun their march the roads were rendered impassable, and the rivers swelled by continued rains, so that their countrymen, despairing of assistance, capitulated. Flaccus also, being compelled by the same severe weather, brought his whole army into the city. The Celtiberians, who were on their march, having heard nothing of the capitulation, when the rains abated at last, passed the rivers, and came to Contrebia. When they saw no camp before the town, supposing either that it was removed to the other side, or that the enemy had retired, they came up towards the walls in careless disorder. The Romans made a sally against them from two gates, and attacking them in confusion completely routed them. The same circumstance that disabled them from standing their ground and maintaining a fight,—their not having come in one body, or in a regular disposition, round their standards,—proved favourable to many in making their escape: for they scattered themselves widely over the whole plain, so that the Romans could no where enclose any considerable body of them. However, there were about twelve thousand killed, and more than five thousand taken, with four hundred horses, and sixty-two military standards. The stragglers, flying homewards, turned back another body of Celtiberians, whom they met on the road, by informing them of the surrender of Contrebia, and their own defeat; whereupon they all immediately dispersed, and made the best of their way to their several villages and forts. Flaccus, leaving Contrebia, led his legions through Celtiberia ravaging the country; he stormed many forts until at length the greatest part of the Celtiberians surrendered.

34 Such were the transactions of that year in Hither Spain. In the Farther province, Manlius fought several successful battles with the Lusitanians. In the same year the Latin colony of Aquileia was established in the Gallic territory. Three thousand foot soldiers received each fifty acres, centurions a hundred, horsemen a hundred and forty. The three commissioners who conducted the settlement were Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius and Lucius Manlius Acidinus. Two temples were dedicated this year, one to Venus Erycina, at the Colline gate; Lucius Porcius Licinius duumvir, son of Lucius, dedicated it. This temple had been vowed, during the Ligurian war, by Lucius Porcius, the consul The other to Piety, in the herb-market. Manius Acilius Glabrio, the duumvir, dedicated this temple; he erected a gilded statue of his father Glabrio, the first of the kind that ever was seen in Italy. This was the person who vowed the temple, on the day whereon he gained the decisive victory over king Antiochus, at Thermopylæ, and who, likewise, had contracted for its being built, in pursuance of a decree of the senate. At the same time when these temples were consecrated, Lucius Æmilius Paullus, the proconsul, triumphed over the Ingaunian Ligurians. He carried in the procession twenty-five golden crowns, but no other article of either gold or silver. Many Ligurian chiefs were led captives before his chariot, and he distributed to each of his soldiers three hundred asses.57 The arrival of ambassadors from the Ligurians, begging that a perpetual peace might be established, enhanced the reputation of this triumph, and they asserted, that “the Ligurians had come to a resolution never again to take arms, on any occasion, except when commanded by the Roman people.” This answer was given to the Ligurians, by Quintus Fabius, the prætor, by order of the senate, that “such kind of language was not new with the Ligurians; but it concerned chiefly their own interest that their disposition should be new, and conformable to their language. They must go to the consuls, and perform whatever was commanded by them; for the senate would never believe, from any other than the consuls, that the Ligurians were really and sincerely disposed to peace.” Peace however was made with that people. In Corsica, a battle was fought against the inhabitants. The prætor, Marcus Pinarius, slew in the field about two thousand of them; by which loss they were compelled to give hostages, and a hundred thousand pounds of wax. The army was then carried over into Sardinia, and some successful battles were fought against the Iliensians, a nation, even at the present day, not in every particular friendly to us. In this year a hundred hostages were restored to the Carthaginians, and the Roman people enabled them to live in peace, not only among themselves, but also with Masinissa, who at that time with an armed force held possession of the land in dispute.

35 The consuls had nothing to do in their province. Marcus Bæbius, being summoned home to Rome to preside at the elections, created consuls Aulus Postumius Albinus Luscus and Caius Calpurnius Piso. Then Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus, Lucius Postumius Albinus, Publius Cornelius Mammula Titus Minucius Molliculus, Aulus Hostilius Mancinus, and Caius Mænius were made prætors. All these entered into office on the ides of March. In the beginning of this year in which Aulus Postumius Albinus and Caius Calpurnius Piso were consuls, Lucius Minucius, lieutenant-general, and two military tribunes, Titus Mænius and Lucius Terentius Massilicta, who had come from Hither Spain from Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, were introduced to an audience of the senate by Aulus Postumius the consul. These, after informing the senate of the two victories gained, of the submission of Celtiberia, and of the conclusion of the business of the province, and that there was no occasion either to send pay, as usual, or corn to the army for that year, requested, first, that “on account of these successes a thanksgiving should be performed to the immortal gods; and, then, that leave should be given to Quintus Fulvius, on his quitting the province, to bring home from it the army which had served under him and many former prætors, with much bravery. They represented, that this measure, besides the propriety of it, was in some degree necessary, for the troops were so obstinately bent on it, that it did not seem possible to keep them longer in the province; but, if they were not disbanded, they would either leave it without orders, or, if any one would attempt to detain them by compulsion, would break out into a dangerous mutiny.” The senate ordered, that Liguria should be the province of both the consuls. The prætors then cast lots for theirs. The city jurisdiction fell to Aulus Hostilius; the foreign, to Titus Minucius; Sicily, to Publius Cornelius; Sardinia, to Caius Mænius; Farther Spain, to Lucius Postumius; and Hither Spain, to Tiberius Sempronius. As this last was to succeed Quintus Fulvius Flaccus, and wished that the province might not be stripped of the veteran troops, he spoke thus: “Quintus Minucius, I demand of you, since you assert, in your report, that your province is subdued, do you think, that the Celtiberians will always faithfully observe the treaty, so that the province may be kept in obedience without an army? If you cannot give us any assurance of, or undertake to answer for, the fidelity of the barbarians, but think that, at all events, there must be an army maintained there, I pray you, whether would you recommend to the senate to send a reinforcement into Spain, in order that those soldiers only who have served out their time may be discharged, and the recruits mixed with the veterans? or to withdraw the veteran legions, and enlist new ones, and send them in their place? and this, although the contempt entertained for such new recruits might rouse barbarians of more pacific tempers to a renewal of war? would it be a matter easier said than done, to reduce to complete subjection a province naturally fierce, and constantly renewing the war? A few states, as I am informed, who were awed, more than the rest, by the nearness of our winter quarters, have submitted to our authority and dominion, while those more remote are in arms. This being the case, conscript fathers, I now give notice beforehand, that, with the army at present there, I will undertake to execute the business of the republic; but, if Flaccus bring those legions home with him, I will choose some quiet part of the country for winter quarters, and will not expose raw soldiers to an enemy so remarkably ferocious.”