Ab Urbe Condita, books 43-45 - 43

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Book XLIII During the same summer in which this campaign was fought in Thessaly, the staff-officer . . ., sent by the consul into Illyricum, besieged two rich cities. Ceremia he compelled by force of arms to surrender; and he left to its inhabitants all their possessions, in order by his reputation for clemency to entice the dwellers in the walled city of Carnuns. After he had been unable either to induce them to surrender or to capture them by blockade, in order that his soldiery might not be worn out by two sieges and gain nothing, he plundered the city which he had previously left untouched. Gaius Cassius the second consul failed to accomplish anything of note in Gaul, which had fallen to his lot, and made a vain attempt to lead his legions through Illyricum into Macedonia. The consul's venture on this journey became known to the senate through an embassy from Aquileia, which complained that their colony was new and weak and had been as yet insufficiently fortified against the surrounding hostile tribes of Histrians and Illyrians; on their requesting that the senate should concern itself with means for fortifying this colony, they were asked if they wished this matter to be entrusted to Gaius Cassius the consul, but replied that Cassius, having mustered his army at Aquileia, had set out through Illyricum for Macedonia. This report seemed unbelievable at first, and the senators each thought to himself that perhaps a campaign against the Carnians or Histrians had been begun. Then the envoys from Aquileia said that they knew and dared assert nothing more than that thirty days' grain had been issued to the soldiery, and that guides who knew the roads from Italy into Macedonia had been sought out and taken along. Then indeed the senate was incensed that the consul had such effrontery as to leave his own district, trespass upon his colleague's, lead his army by a dangerous, untried route among foreign peoples, and leave open to so many tribes the way into Italy. A full senate decreed that the praetor Gaius Sulpicius should name three envoys from among the senators, who should that very day set out from the city and with all possible speed overtake the consul Cassius, wherever he might be; they were to declare to him that he must not engage in war with any people unless the senate had determined on war against them. The following envoys set out: Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Marcus Fulvius, Publius Marcius Rex. Fear for the consul and his army displaced for the present any consideration of fortifying Aquileia. Next, envoys of several peoples from each of the Spains were presented to the senate. After complaining of the greed and arrogance of Roman officials, they begged of the senate on bended knees that it would not permit them, its allies, to be more wretchedly despoiled and harassed than its enemies. Since they complained of other acts of injustice also and it was in fact obvious that money had been extorted, the task was assigned to the praetor Lucius Canuleius, to whom Spain had been allotted, to assign for each man, from whom the Spaniards were seeking to recover money, five judges of senatorial rank and to permit the Spaniards to choose any advocates they might wish. The decree of the senate was read to the envoys, who had been summoned to the senate-house, and they were ordered to name their advocates. They named four, Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Cornelius Scipio son of Gnaeus, Lucius Aemilius Paulus son of Lucius, and Gaius Sulpicius Gallus. The case of Marcus Titinius, who had been praetor in Nearer Spain during the consulship of Aulus Manlius and Marcus Junius, was first taken up by a board of judges. The trial was twice adjourned, and at the third session the defendant was acquitted. A dispute arose between the envoys of the two provinces; the peoples of Nearer Spain chose as advocates Marcus Cato and Publius Scipio, those of Farther Spain took Lucius Paulus and Sulpicius Gallus. There were brought before judges by the peoples of the nearer province Publius Furius Philus, by those of the farther province Marcus Matienus ; the former had been praetor three years before, in the consulship of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Mucius, the latter had served two years before, when Lucius Postumius and Marcus Popilius were consuls. Both were accused on most serious charges and the cases were adjourned; when the time came for a fresh trial, the defence reported that they had left Roman territory to go into exile. Furius went for his exile to Praeneste, Matienus to Tibur. There was a rumour that the advocates would not allow accusations against men of rank and influence; this suspicion was increased by Canuleius the praetor, who gave up this investigation, began to hold a levy, and then suddenly left for his province, so that no more men should be assailed by the Spaniards. Though bygones were thus shrouded in silence, the senate voted for the future what the Spaniards had requested —that a Roman official should not set the price for grain, nor compel the Spaniards to sell their five-per-cent quotas at the price he wished, and that no officers should be placed over their towns to collect money. Another embassy, also from Spain, of a novel class of people, arrived. Stating that they were the children of Roman soldiers and of Spanish women, between whom legal marriage could not exist, and that they numbered over four thousand souls, they asked that a town be given them in which to live. The senate decreed that they should declare before Lucius Canuleius the praetor their own names and the names of any slaves they might have set free, and that it was the pleasure of the senate that these people should be settled at Carteia near the Ocean; any present inhabitants of Carteia who wished to remain at home would have the opportunity to be members of the colony, but on assigned land. This colony was to have Latin rights and to be called the freedmen's colony. At the same time there came from Africa both Prince Gulussa, the son of Masinissa, as ambassador for his father, and Carthaginian envoys. Gulussa was presented to the senate first, and set forth what supplies had been sent by his father for the Macedonian campaign ; he also promised that if they wished to order anything further, his father would furnish it, as due return to the Roman people, and he warned the senators to beware of treachery from the Carthaginians; they had adopted the plan, he added, of preparing a large fleet, ostensibly for the Romans and against the Macedonians; when this fleet should be ready and equipped, the Carthaginians would be free to decide for themselves who should be considered an enemy or who an ally. The instilling of this [suspicion caused the senate] . . . . . . they thereafter caused such terror as they entered the camp, displaying the heads, that if the army had been brought up at once, the camp might have been taken. Even as it was, a great panic took place, and there were those who advised sending envoys to beg for peace; many cities, too, on hearing this news, offered themselves in surrender. These cities cleared themselves and placed the blame on the folly of two men who had of their own accord gone to meet their punishment, and the praetor, having accepted these excuses, set out at once for the other cities and, since everybody obeyed his commands, passed without using his army through a region, now peaceful, which shortly before had been aflame with a huge uprising. This clemency of the praetor, whereby without bloodshed he had tamed a very war-like people, was the more pleasing to the Roman commons and the Fathers because the campaign in Greece had been conducted with too much cruelty and greed by both the consul Licinius and Lucretius the praetor. Lucretius was assailed in his absence by the tribunes of the people in meeting after meeting, although it was stated in his behalf that he was absent in the service of the state; but in that day even the neighbourhood of the city was such unknown territory that he was at that time on his estate at Antium and was engaged in bringing water to Antium from the River Loracina at the cost of his spoils. He is said to have let the contract for this work at one hundred and thirty thousand asses; he also decorated with paintings from the booty the temple of Aesculapius. Disapprobation and disgrace were diverted from Lucretius to Hortensius, his successor, by envoys from Abdera, who wept before the senate-house and complained that their city had been stormed and plundered by Hortensius; the reason for the destruction of the city had been, they said, that when the praetor had ordered a hundred thousand denarii and fifty thousand peeks of wheat, they had asked for a stay, during which they might send envoys about the matter to the consul Hostilius and to Rome. Hardly had they come to the consul when they heard that their town had been stormed, their leading men beheaded with the axe, and the rest sold at auction. This seemed to the senate a disgraceful occurrence, and they issued the same decree about the people of Abdera which they had issued the preceding year about the people of Coronea, and instructed Quintus Maenius the praetor to make a similar proclamation before an assembly. Furthermore, two envoys, Gaius Sempronius Blaesus and Sextus Julius Caesar, were sent to restore the people of Abdera to freedom. To these same envoys instructions were given to inform both Hostilius the consul and Hortensius the praetor that the senate had resolved that an improper war had been undertaken against the people of Abdera, and that it was just that all who were enslaved should be sought out and restored to freedom. At this same time complaints were made to the senate about Gaius Cassius, who had been consul the year before and was then a tribune of the soldiers in Macedonia with Aulus Hostilius, and envoys of Cincibilus, a king of the Gauls, arrived. The king's brother spoke before the senate, complaining that Gaius Cassius had ravaged the land of the Alpine tribes, their allies, and had dragged thence into slavery many thousand persons. About the same time envoys of the Carnians, Histrians, and Iapydes arrived; they said, first, that guides had been demanded of them by the consul Cassius, to show him the way as he was leading his army to Macedonia; he had left them peaceably as if to wage a war elsewhere. Next, that returning from the middle of his journey, he had traversed their territory as an enemy; slaughter, pillage and burning had taken place everywhere; nor did they know to that very minute why they had been treated as enemies by the consul. Both to the absent prince of the Gauls and to these peoples the answer was given that the senate neither had known that these occurrences of which they complained would take place nor, if they had taken place, did the senate approve. But to condemn an ex-consul in his absence without a trial would be an injustice, since he was absent in the service of the state; when Gaius Cassius should have returned from Macedonia, then, if they wished to accuse him to his face, on hearing the case the senate would see to it that amends were made. It was voted not only to make a reply to these peoples, but to send envoys, two to the prince beyond the Alps and three to the several other peoples; the envoys were to announce what the opinion pronounced by the Fathers was. They determined to send to the envoys gifts of two thousand asses apiece and to the two princely brothers the following special gifts, two twisted necklaces made of five pounds of gold and five silver vessels of twenty pounds, and two horses with trappings for head and chest, along with their grooms, and cavalry weapons and military cloaks, and to the princes' attendants, both free and slave, garments. These things were sent; the following was granted at their request-that they should have the privilege of buying ten horses apiece and of exporting them from Italy. As envoys there were sent with the Gauls across the Alps Gaius Laelius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and to the other peoples, Gaius Sicinius, Publius Cornelius Blasio, and Titus Memmius. At the same time envoys from a large number of the states of Greece and Asia gathered in Rome. The Athenians were presented first; they pointed out that they had sent their whole fleet and army to Publius Licinius the consul and Gaius Lucretius the praetor; these officers had not employed their forces, but had ordered a hundred thousand pecks of grain; although they tilled a barren soil and supported even their farmers on imported grain, yet they had gathered this amount so as not to fail in their duty; and they were ready to furnish other things too which might be ordered. The Milesians, without mentioning anything which they had furnished, promised that if the senate wished to order anything for the war they were ready to furnish it. The envoys of Alabanda announced that they had built a temple to the City of Rome, and had established annual games in honour of that divinity; they had also brought with them a golden crown of fifty pounds' weight to place in the Capitol as a gift to Jupiter Greatest and Best, besides three hundred cavalry shields; these they would deliver to whomever the senate ordered. They asked permission to place their gift in the Capitol and to offer sacrifice. The same request was also made by the people of Lampsacus, who brought a crown of eighty pounds' weight, and called to mind that they had abandoned Perseus, after a Roman army had come into Macedonia, although they had been subject to Perseus and previously to Philip. In return for this and for their action in furnishing the Roman generals with everything, they asked only that they might be admitted to friendship with the Roman people, and that if peace should be made with Perseus, provision should be made for them, to prevent their reverting to the control of the king. A kindly answer was given the other envoys; as for the Lampsacenes, the praetor Quintus Maenius was ordered to enroll them as allies. Gifts of two thousand asses apiece were given to all the envoys. Those from Alabanda were ordered to carry the shields back to Aulus Hostilius, the consul in Macedonia. Envoys from Africa also arrived, both Carthaginians and those of Masinissa together. The Carthaginian envoys reported that they had conveyed to the sea a million pecks of wheat and five hundred thousand of barley, in order that they might deliver it wherever the senate should determine; they said that this gift and act of duty of theirs was, they knew, less than a return for the favours of the Roman people and less than they would wish; but they had often, on other occasions when both peoples had been prospering, fulfilled the duties of grateful and faithful allies. Likewise the envoys of Masinissa promised the same total of wheat as well as twelve hundred cavalry and twelve elephants; they requested the senate to order anything else which might be needed, for the king would furnish such things with as good a will as he gave what he, of his own accord, had promised. Thanks both to the Carthaginians and to the king were expressed and they were asked to deliver what they had promised to Hostilius the consul in Macedonia. To each of the envoys a gift of two thousand asses was sent. The Cretan envoys reported that they had sent to Macedonia as large a force of archers as the consul Publius Licinius had stipulated, but when they did not deny, on being questioned, that a larger number of their archers were serving with Perseus than with the Romans, they were told in reply that if the people of Crete intended truly and zealously to prize the friendship of the Roman People above that of King Perseus, the Roman senate would also respond to them as it did to indubitable allies. Meanwhile, let them report to their people that it was the pleasure of the senate that the people of Crete should make a point of recalling home at the first possible moment those soldiers whom they might have within the lines of King Perseus. After the Cretans had been dismissed with this reply, the envoys of Chalcis were summoned; their embassy stirred sympathy by its very entrance, because Micythion, their chief, having an affliction of the feet, was borne in on a litter; at once the occasion seemed one of direst necessity, in which an excuse on grounds of health for one so afflicted either had seemed to the victim himself something for which he should not ask, or had not been granted at his request. After he had begun by saying that no part of him was still living except the tongue wherewith to bewail the disasters of his fatherland, he set forth, first, the good services of his state, both in earlier times and those which, during the war with Perseus, they had performed for the Roman commanders and armies, and next the acts of arrogance, greed, and cruelty which in the first instance had been committed against Micythion's fellow-countrymen by Gaius Lucretius the Roman praetor, and, furthermore, were being committed more than ever at that time by Lucius Hortensius. Just as they considered that, rather than depart from their loyalty, they should suffer everything, even more grievous injuries than those which they were now suffering, so also, as far as Lucretius and Hortensius were concerned, they were aware that it would have been safer to bar their gates than to receive those Romans into their city. Those cities which had shut them out —Emathia, Amphipolis, Maronea, Aenus —were unharmed. In Chalcis, temples had been stripped of all their adornments and the loot of these profanations Gaius Lucretius had transported in his ships to Antium; free persons had been rushed away to slavery; the possessions of allies of the Roman people had been plundered and daily were being plundered. For, according to the precedent set by Gaius Lucretius, Hortensius too was quartering his sailors, in summer no less than in winter, in private houses, and the homes of Chalcis were full of the mob from the fleet; at large among the Chalcideans and their wives and their children there were men utterly reckless in word and deed. It was voted to summon Lucretius before the senate in order that he might plead in person and attempt to clear himself. However, when he appeared he heard many more reproaches than had been hurled at him in his absence; and more influential and powerful accusers joined in, namely, two tribunes of the people, Manius Iuventius Talna and Gnaeus Aufidius. These not only assailed him in the senate, but also dragged him before an assembly, and after casting many reproaches at him, then set a day for his trial. By order of the senate Quintus Maenius the praetor replied to the envoys of Chalcis that, as to the services to the Roman People, both previously and in the war now being waged, which the envoys mentioned, the senate knew that they had spoken truly and, also, these services were appreciated exactly as they should be. As to their complaints about what the Roman praetor Gaius Lucretius had done, and what Lucius Hortensius the Roman praetor was doing, no one could be unaware that these things had been done and were being done without the consent of the senate, —no one, that is, who knew that the Roman People had declared war on Perseus and previously on Philip, his father, to preserve the freedom of Greece, and not to inflict on allies and friends such injuries from Roman officers. His fellow-senators, said Maenius, would send a letter to the praetor Lucius Hortensius, saying that the senate was displeased with those actions of which the people of Chalcis complained; that if any free persons had been sold into slavery, he should take steps at the first possible moment to search them out and restore them to freedom; that the senate deemed it just that none of the sailors, except the captains, should be quartered in private houses. These instructions were by order of the senate written to Hortensius. Gifts of two thousand asses apiece were sent to the envoys, and carriages were hired at public expense for Micythion, to convey him comfortably to Brundisium. As for Gaius Lucretius, on the day set for his trial, the tribunes accused him before the people and proposed a fine of one million asses. When the vote was taken, all the thirty-five tribes approved his condemnation. Among the Ligurians nothing noteworthy was accomplished that year. For neither did the enemy take up arms, nor did the consul lead his legions into enemy territory; and having sufficiently assured himself of peace for that year, he sent home the soldiers of the two Roman legions within sixty days after arriving in his province. After having at an early time led the force of allies of the Latin Name into winter-quarters at Luna and Pisa, he himself visited with the cavalry several towns of the province of Gaul. Nowhere else was there war except in Macedonia. However, they still regarded Gentius, the king of the Illyrians, with suspicion. And so, on the one hand, the senate decided that eight fully-equipped ships should be sent from Brundisium to Gaius Furius, the staff-officer at Issa, who was in charge of the island with a force of two Issaean ships-two thousand soldiers were put aboard the eight ships, a force raised, in accordance with a decree of the senate, by Marcus Raecius the praetor, in that part of Italy which faced Illyricum-and, on the other hand, the consul Hostilius sent Appius Claudius into Illyricum with four thousand infantry, to protect the peoples bordering on Illyricum. Claudius, being unsatisfied with the force that he had brought, by collecting auxiliaries from the allies brought under arms about eight thousand men of various sorts, and after traversing all that region took up his position at Lychnidus of the Dassaretii. Not far from there lay Uscana, a town belonging to the lands and realm of Perseus. It had ten thousand inhabitants and a moderate garrison of Cretans to protect it. From there, secret messengers kept coming to Claudius, declaring that if he would bring his troops up closer, there were those who were ready to betray the city. And it would be worth his while, they added, for he would not only satisfy himself and his friends, but also his soldiers with the booty. Hope joined to greed so blinded his mind that neither did he keep with him any of the messengers who had come, nor did he demand hostages as security that there would be no treachery in the carrying out of the plan, nor did he send men to reconnoitre, nor did he receive any solemn promise. Having merely agreed upon a day, he set out from Lychnidus and pitched camp twelve miles from the city to which he was marching. Thence in the fourth watch he began to advance, leaving about a thousand to garrison the camp. The soldiers arrived near the city in disorder, scattered in along column, and straggling, since wandering by night had dispersed them. Their carelessness increased after they saw no armed man on the walls. However, as soon as they were within range of missiles, a sally was made from two gates at once; and together with the battle-cry of the sallying parties, there arose from the walls a great uproar of women howling and of bronze clashing everywhere, while an unorganized crowd, with disorderly bands of slaves amongst them, clamoured with various outcries. This appalling surprise, presented from all directions in so many forms, brought it about that the Romans could not withstand the first storm-blast of the sally. And so more were slaughtered in the flight than in the combat; hardly two thousand men, together with the commander himself, escaped to the camp. Since the way to the camp was long, the enemy had the opportunity to overtake more of the weary men. Appius, not even lingering in camp to gather his men scattered in flight-an action which would have been the means of saving those who were wandering through the countryside-at once led back to Lychnidus the remnants of the disaster. This and other affairs in Macedonia conducted with no success were reported by Sextus Digitius, a tribune of the soldiers, who had come to Rome to offer a sacrifice. The result was that the Fathers, solicitous lest some greater disgrace might befall, sent as commissioners to Macedonia Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Marcus Caninius Rebilus, who were to report after investigation on what was taking place; the Fathers also decided that Aulus Atilius the consul should proclaim the assembly for the election of consuls for such a time that it might be completed during the month of January, and that he should return to the city at the first possible moment. Meanwhile Marcus Raecius the praetor was charged with recalling to Rome by proclamation all senators from the whole of Italy, except those who were absent on public business, while those who were in Rome were not to go more than a mile away from Rome. These matters were carried out as the senate voted. The consular elections were held on the twenty-sixth of January. The consuls elected were Quintus Marcius Philippus for the second time and Gnaeus Servilius Caepio. Two days later there were elected as praetors Gaius Decimius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, Gaius Marcius Figulus, Servius Cornelius Lentulus, Publius Fonteius Capito. For the praetors-elect four assign ments besides the two in the city were decreed: Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, and the fleet. The commissioners from Macedonia returned when the month of February was just ended. These reported the successes achieved by King Perseus during that summer, and how great a panic had seized the allies of the Roman people when so many cities were brought under the control of the king. The army of the consul, said the commissioners, was reduced in numbers because leaves of absence had been lavishly granted as a means of currying political favour; blame for this situation was placed by the consul on the tribunes of the soldiers, but by them, on the other hand, on the consul. The Fathers took it that the commissioners were minimizing the disgrace inflicted by the rashness of Claudius, since they reported that very few soldiers of Italian stock, but chiefly those enrolled on the spot in an irregular levy, had been lost. The consuls-elect were ordered to present to the senate, as soon as they entered upon their office, the problem of Macedonia; and Italy and Macedonia were designated as their provinces. In this year there was an intercalation; the additional month began on the third day after the Terminalia. There died of the priests in that year Lucius Flamininus . . . two pontiffs passed away, Lucius Furius Philus and Gaius Livius Salinator. In place of Furius the pontiffs chose Titus Manlius Torquatus, in place of Livius, Marcus Servilius. At the beginning of the following year, when the new consuls Quintus Marcius and Gnaeus Servilius put the question of provinces, it was voted that at the first possible moment they should either arrange with each other or draw lots for Italy and Macedonia; before the lot should decide this question, while it was still in doubt, so that favouritism should have no weight, it was voted to decree for each province the reinforcements called for by the situation —for Macedonia, of infantry, six thousand Romans, and six thousand allies of the Latin Name, of cavalry, two hundred and fifty Romans and three hundred allies —also to discharge old soldiers so that there should be in each Roman legion not more than six thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry. For the other consul no fixed number of Roman citizens whom he might select as reinforcements was defined. This only was fixed that he should enroll two legions, each of which was to have five thousand and two hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry. Of the Latins, a larger number was assigned than to his colleague, ten thousand infantry and six hundred cavalry. Four additional legions were ordered enrolled, to be led out if needed anywhere. For these, the consuls were not allowed to appoint tribunes; the people elected them. On the allies of the Latin Name sixteen thousand infantry and a thousand cavalry were levied. It was voted that this force should merely be got ready so as to march out if circumstances anywhere should demand. Macedonia was especially an object of concern. For the fleet, a thousand sailors, Roman citizens of the class of freedmen, and five hundred from Italy, were ordered enrolled; as many were to be enrolled from Sicily, and the governor-to-be of that province was instructed to see to their transportation to Macedonia, wherever the fleet might be. For Spain, three thousand Roman infantry and three hundred cavalry were decreed as reinforcement. The number of soldiers for the legions was fixed for that region also —five thousand and two hundred infantry and three hundred cavalry for each legion. The praetor to whom Spain should fall, was ordered to levy from the allies also four thousand infantry and three hundred cavalry. I am not unaware that, as a result of the same disregard that leads men generally to suppose nowadays that the gods foretell nothing, no portents at all are reported officially, or recorded in our histories. However, not only does my own mind, as I write of old-time matters, become in some way or other old-fashioned, but also a certain conscientious scruple keeps me from regarding what those very sagacious men of former times thought worthy of public concern as something unworthy to be reported in my history. At Anagnia, two portents were announced in that year, a fiery meteor seen in the sky, and a cow which spoke; this animal, the report stated, was being kept at public expense. At Minturnae also during these very days the sky presented the appearance of being on fire. At Reate there was a rain of stones. At Cumae the Apollo on the citadel shed tears for three days and three nights. In the city of Rome two temple-attendants announced portents; one, that a crested snake had been seen by many people in the temple of Fortune; the other announced two different portents in the temple of Fortune the First-Born which is on the hill, that a palm had sprung up in the courtyard and that during the day blood had rained down. Two portents were not treated as public matters, the one because it took place in a privately-owned spot-Titus Marcius Figulus reported that a palm had sprung up in his catch-basin —the other because it occurred in a non- Roman place —at Fregellae, in the house of Lucius Atreus, a spear which he had bought for his son's service in the army was said to have blazed during the day for more than two hours in such a way that the fire consumed none of it. Because of the public portents the books were approached by the Board of Ten; they proclaimed the gods to whom the consuls were to offer forty full-grown victims, and also that a day of prayer should be observed, that all the magistrates should sacrifice full-grown victims at all the principal temples and that the people should wear wreaths. Everything was carried out as the Board of Ten prescribed. Thereupon the assembly for electing censors was announced. The leading men of the state sought the censorship, Gaius Valerius Laevinus, Lucius Postumius Albinus, Publius Mucius Scaevola, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Claudius Pulcher, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. The last two were elected censors by the Roman people. Since concern over holding the levy was greater, because of the Macedonian war, than at other times, the consuls blamed the commons before the senate because even the men of military age were not presenting themselves. Retorting to them Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius the praetors pleaded the cause of the commons; the levy, they said, was difficult, not for consuls, but for politically-minded consuls; they never enrolled a soldier against his will. That the Conscript Fathers might also be sure that this was so, they themselves, though praetors, whose powers of office and importance were less, would, if it seemed best to the senate, complete the levy. This task was entrusted to the praetors with great enthusiasm on the part of the Fathers, not without jeers at the consuls. The censors, to further the business, made the following proclamation before a meeting; that they were going to lay down a rule for taking the census that, besides the general oath for all citizens, they would require assent on oath to the following: Are you less than forty-six years of age, and have you, in accordance with the proclamation of Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius the censors, come forward for the levy, and as often as there shall be a levy, as long as these censors shall hold office, if you have not entered the army, will you come forward for the levy? ; again, since it was rumoured that many were absent on leave from the legions in Macedonia without specific reason because of the popularity-hunting of the generals, they proclaimed concerning the soldiers enrolled for Macedonia in the consulship of Publius Aelius and Gaius Popilius or after that consulship, that whoever of them were in Italy should within thirty days, having first appeared before the censors, return to their province, and that the names of those who were subject to the authority of father or grandfather should be reported to the censors. They would also review, they said, the reasons for discharges, and those whose discharge before completion of their military service seemed to the censors to result from indulgence they would order to be enrolled as soldiers. Through this proclamation of the censors, and through their letters sent about throughout the markets and hamlets, so large a crowd of men of military age assembled at Rome that the unusual throng was burdensome to the city. Besides the levy of those who were needed to be sent as reinforcements four legions were enrolled by Gaius Sulpicius the praetor, and within eleven days the levy was completed. The consuls then drew lots for their provinces. For the praetors had drawn lots more promptly to secure the administration of justice. The city praetorship fell to Gaius Sulpicius, the jurisdiction over aliens to Gaius Decimius; Spain was drawn by Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Sicily by Servius Cornelius Lentulus, Sardinia by Publius Fonteius Capito, the fleet by Gaius Marcius Figulus. Of the consuls, Italy fell to Gnaeus Servilius, and Macedonia to Quintus Marcius; when the Latin Festival had been held, Marcius at once set out. When Caepio then consulted the senate as to which two of the new legions he should take with him to Gaul, the Fathers voted that Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius the praetors should give the consul what legions they chose from those they had enrolled. Feeling insulted that a consul should be subject to the decision of praetors, Servilius dismissed the senate and, taking his stand at the judgment-seat of the praetors, demanded that, in accordance with the decree of the senate, they assign him two legions. The praetors gave the consul his choice in the selection. Thereupon the censors chose the senate; Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was chosen chief. This was the third time the censors had chosen him. Seven were expelled from the senate. In receiving the census of the people they forced the soldiers from the army in Macedonia —the census showed how numerous were these absentees from the ranks —to return to their province; they reviewed the excuses of those discharged from service, and in the case of any whose discharge seemed premature they compelled assent on oath to the following: With your whole heart will you, in accordance with the decree of Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius the censors, return to the province of Macedonia, as you are able, in all sincerity, to do this? In reviewing the knights, the censorship of these officials was rather stern and harsh; they deprived many of their horses. When in this matter they had offended the order of knights, they added fire to the grudge by a proclamation, in which they proclaimed that none of those who in the censorship of Quintus Fulvius and Aulus Postumius had farmed the public revenues or the public works should appear at the auction of Claudius and Sempronius, or should be a partner or sharer in the contracting. When, after many complaints about this decree, the veteran tax-gatherers were unable to induce the senate to set a limit to the censors' power, at last in a tribune of the people, Publius Rutilius, who was angry with the censors over a dispute concerning a private matter, they found an advocate for their cause. A freedman client of Rutilius had been ordered by the censors to pull down a house-wall on the Sacred Way opposite the public temples, because the wall was built on state land. An appeal was made by the citizen to the tribunes. When no one but Rutilius intervened in his behalf, the censors sent agents to secure bonds and announced before a meeting a fine for the citizen. A dispute having arisen from this cause, when the veteran tax-gatherers had resorted to the tribune, a proposed law was suddenly published under the name of the one tribune, stating that whereas Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius had let certain public revenues and public works, the letting of these should be void; they should be let anew, and everyone without restriction should have the right of farming and contracting. The tribune of the people announced for the assembly a day for voting on this proposal. When this day came, as the censors came forward to advise against the law, while Gracchus was speaking there was silence; when heckling greeted Claudius, he ordered the herald to bring the meeting to order. When this was done, the tribune, complaining that the meeting had been taken out of his hands and that he had been deprived of his authority, left the Capitol, where the assembly was. Next day he raised a great uproar. He first dedicated to the gods the property of Tiberius Gracchus because in the matter of the fine and the bonds imposed on one who had appealed to a tribune, Gracchus had, by not obeying the tribune's interposition, deprived him of his authority; he set a day for the trial of Gaius Claudius on the charge of taking the meeting away from him; and he announced that he judged each censor guilty of treason, and asked of Gaius Sulpicius the city praetor a day for an assembly. Since the censors did not object to having the people pass judgment on them at the first possible moment, the day for the assembly-trial for treason was set for the twenty-third and twenty-fourth of September. The censors immediately mounted to the Hall of Liberty and, having there sealed the public accounts and closed the account room and sent away the public slaves, declared that they would transact no public business until the judgment of the people upon them had been passed. Claudius pleaded his cause first; and when of the twelve centuries of knights eight had condemned the censor, along with many other centuries of the first class, at once the leading men of the state, in the sight of the people, laid aside their gold rings and put on mourning, in order to go about entreating the commons. Chiefly, however, Tiberius Gracchus is said to have changed men's minds, because, although there was everywhere shouting from the commons that Gracchus was in no danger, he swore in formal terms that if his colleague were condemned he would not await the outcome of his own trial, but would accompany Claudius into exile. None the less, so near did the defendant come to the last ray of hope that only eight centuries were lacking for condemnation. When Claudius had been acquitted, the tribune of the people said that he did not care about the case of Gracchus. In that year, at the request of envoys from Aquileia that the number of colonists be increased, fifteen hundred households were enrolled in accordance with a decree of the senate, and a board of three, Titus Annius Luscus, Publius Decius Subulo, and Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, were sent to lead the settlement. In the same year Gaius Popilius and Gnaeus Octavius, the envoys who had been sent into Greece, first caused to be read at Thebes and then to be carried about to all the cities of the Peloponnese the decree of the senate that no one should contribute anything to Roman officers for the war except what the senate should have voted. This resolution had produced confidence for the future, too, that they had been relieved of both burdens and outlays, by which, as one and another ordered various things, they were being drained dry. Before an Achaean council held for them at Aegium the Roman envoys both spoke and were heard with cordiality, and leaving this most loyal people with extraordinary hope for their future position, they crossed to Aetolia. There no revolt indeed had as yet broken out, but every move was suspected and replete with the mutual recriminations of the Aetolians; having, because of these, called for the giving of hostages, but without bringing the trouble to an end, the envoys set out thence for Acarnania. At Thyrreum the Acarnanians held a council for the envoys. There too a contest between factions was under way; some of the chief men demanded that garrisons be brought into their cities to guard against the madness of those who were dragging the tribe toward the Macedonians; some objected to this, on the ground that the disgrace which was customary for those captured in war and hostile should not be inflicted on peaceful and allied cities. This plea in opposition seemed sound. The envoys returned to Hostilius the proconsul at Larisa —for they had been sent by him. Octavius he kept with him, Popilius he sent with about a thousand soldiers into winter quarters at Ambracia. Perseus did not dare to leave the limits of Macedonia at the outset of winter, for fear that at some point the Romans might raid his undefended realm. About the winter solstice, however, when the depth of snow makes the mountains impassable from Thessaly, he thought that here was an opportunity to shatter the hopes and spirits of his neighbours, so that no danger might arise from them while his attention was turned toward the campaign against the Romans. On the side of Thrace Cotys assured peace, as did Cephalus on the side of Epirus by his sudden desertion of the Romans, while the recent campaign had subdued the Dardani. Perceiving then that the only quarter hostile to Macedonia was that which allowed access from Illyricum, where the Illyrians themselves were restless and were providing the Romans with an approach, and that if he conquered the nearest Illyrians, he might also entice King Gentius, who had long been wavering, into an alliance, Perseus set out with ten thousand infantry, some of whom were phalanx-men, two thousand light troops, and five hundred cavalry, and reached Stuberra. Thence, taking grain for a number of days and ordering equipment for besieging cities to follow, on the third day he pitched camp by Uscana —which is the largest city of the Penestian region —but sent, before bringing an attack to bear, men to test the mood, now of the commanders of the garrison, now of the townspeople. For there was in the city, along with the young men of the Illyrians, a Roman garrison. After the messengers reported nothing in the way of terms, Perseus began to press the siege and tried to capture the city with a surrounding attack. Although without interruption through day and night relay of men after relay here brought ladders against the walls, and there fire against the gates, nevertheless, the defenders of the city withstood this tempest, because they had hopes that the Macedonians could not longer endure the violence of winter in the open, and that the lull in the Roman campaign would not long permit the king to linger. However, after they saw sheds being brought up and towers raised, their determination was overcome. For apart from the fact that they were not equally matched against the assault, there was no supply even of grain or of anything else in the city, as was natural when the siege was unexpected. And so, since there was no hope of holding out, Gaius Carvilius of Spoletium and Gaius Afranius were sent from the Roman garrison to request of Perseus, first, that he should permit them to depart under arms and carrying their possessions with them, and next, if they failed to obtain this, that they should at least receive assurances of life and freedom. The king's generosity was greater in promise than in performance; for after bidding them to depart carrying their possessions with them, he deprived them first of their arms, then of their freedom. After the Romans had left the city, both the force of Illyrians —there were five hundred of them —and the people of Uscana surrendered themselves and their city. After placing a garrison in Uscana, Perseus took the whole mass of prisoners, which almost equalled his army in numbers, to Stuberra. There, after assigning the Romans —of whom there were four thousand —, except the chief officers, to various cities to guard, and selling the people of Uscana and the Illyrians, he led the army back among the Penestae in order to bring under his control the town of Oaeneum, which was in many ways strategically situated, particularly in that the route to the Labeates, where Gentius was king, passes this way. As he was passing a populous fort, Draudacum by name, one who knew this region said that there was no use of capturing Oaeneum unless Draudacum too was under his control; for it was even more strategically situated for all purposes. On his bringing up his army, all at once surrendered. Encouraged by this surrender, more prompt than he had hoped, after he noticed how great was the fear caused by his column, -he brought under his control eleven other forts because of this same dread. At only a very few was there need of force; the rest were voluntarily surrendered; and in these there were taken prisoner fifteen hundred Roman soldiers who had been distributed among the garrisons. Carvilius of Spoletium was most useful in the parleys, in saying that no harshness had been used against him and his comrades. Next, Perseus arrived at Oaeneum, which could not be taken without a regular siege. The city was strong both because of a somewhat larger force of young men than the others had had and because of its walls; moreover, on the one side a river, Artatus by name, on the other a very high mountain, difficult to ascend, girt the city about. These defences gave the people of the city hope of holding out. Perseus, after encircling the town with earthworks, began to build up a mound on the higher side, high enough to bring him above the wall. While this work was in progress, the frequent battles which meanwhile took place, as the townspeople resorted to sallies to protect their walls and to hinder the siege-works of the enemy, caused a great wastage in casualties of one kind or another, while those townspeople who survived were incapacitated by daily and nightly toil and by wounds. As soon as the mound was joined to the wall, the royal company, whom they call the Conquerors, passed over it, and also at the same time an attack was made with ladders against many parts of the city. All the adult males were killed; their wives and children Perseus put under guard; the other items of booty fell to the soldiers. Returning thence victoriously to Stuberra, he sent as envoys to Gentius, Pleuratus the Illyrian, who was in exile at his court, and Adaeus, a Macedonian from Beroea; he instructed them to relate his achievements of that summer and winter against the Romans and Dardanians; they were to add the recent operations of his winter march into Illyricum; and they were to urge Gentius to join in friendship with Perseus and the Macedonians. After crossing the ridge of Mount Scordus, and passing through the desert regions of Illyricum, which the Macedonians had purposely made desert by ravaging, so that there might be no easy passage for the Dardanians to Illyricum or Macedonia, these envoys came at last with great toil to Scodra. King Gentius was at Lissus. Thither the envoys were summoned, and their message was given a favourable hearing; but the reply which they took away accomplished nothing; it was to the effect that Gentius did not lack the will to fight the Romans, but to try to effect his will he did especially lack money. These words the envoys reported at Stuberra to the king, who was at that moment engaged in selling the prisoners from Illyricum. At once the same envoys, with the addition of Glaucias from among the king's bodyguard, were sent back with no word about money, by which alone the poverty-stricken barbarian could be urged into war. Thence, after ravaging Ancyra, Perseus led his army back again among the Penestae and, having strengthened the garrisons in Uscana and in all the forts that he had captured round about it, retired to Macedonia. Lucius Coelius, a Roman staff-officer, was in charge of Illyricum; he had not dared to stir while the king was in those parts, but after his departure at last attempted in the Penestian country to retake Uscana, and, being driven back with many wounded by the Macedonian garrison which was there, led his forces back to Lychnidus. Thence after a few days he sent Marcus Trebellius of Fregellae with a strong enough detachment among the Penestae to receive hostages from those cities which had remained loyal to the alliance; he ordered Trebellius to proceed also to the Parthini, for they had likewise promised to give hostages. From both peoples Trebellius exacted the hostages without disturbance. The knights of the Penestae were sent to Apollonia, those of the Parthini to Dyrrachium —at that time the name Epidamnus was more generally in use among the Greeks. Appius Claudius, eager to atone for the disgrace he had received in Illyricum, attempted to besiege Phanote, a fort of Epirus. He took with him auxiliaries from the Chaonians and The sprotians, besides his Roman army, a total of about six thousand men; he did not accomplish anything worth his trouble, since Cleuas, who had been left by Perseus, was defending it with a strong garrison. Perseus also, setting out for Elimea, and purifying his army in that neighbourhood, led his force, at the invitation of the Epirotes, to Stratus. Stratus was at that time the strongest city of Aetolia; it is situated inland from the Ambracian Gulf near the River Inachus. Perseus set out thither with ten thousand infantry and three handred cavalry, a smaller number of which he took with him because of the narrowness and roughness of the roads. When on the third day he had arrived at Mount Citium, the snow was so deep that he barely succeeded incrossing and had difficulty also in finding a place for his camp. Setting out thence, more because he could not stay than because either the way or the weather was bearable, with great suffering, especially of the baggage-animals, on the second day he pitched camp at the temple of Jupiter whom they call the Victorious. Thence having traversed a huge march to the Aratthus River, he halted . . . delayed by the depth of the river. In this length of time a bridge was finished, and, leading his troops across, he proceeded one day's march and effected a meeting with Archidamus, a prominent Aetolian, who was trying to hand over Stratus to him. On that day camp was pitched at the edge of Aetolian territory; thence on the second day they arrived at Stratus. Although, when he pitched camp there near the Inachus River, Perseus expected the Aetolians to come streaming out of every gate to put themselves under his protection, he found that the gates were closed and that on the very night when he had arrived a Roman garrison, under the staff-officer Gaius Popilius, had been received. The leading men, driven by the influence of Archidamus while he was there, had summoned the king, but had become less active when Archidamus had gone out to meet Perseus, and had given an opportunity to the opposing party of summoning Popilius with a thousand infantry from Ambracia. Just in time, too, came Dinarchus, the chief of cavalry of the Aetolian League, with six hundred infantry and a hundred cavalry. It was well known that he had come to Stratus as if on his way to Perseus, but then, changing his mind with his luck, had joined the Romans, against whom he had come. Popilius, for his part, was not more off his guard than he should have been, considering the fickle temperaments which encompassed him. He at once took control of the keys of the gates and the guarding of the walls, and removed to the citadel, ostensibly as its garrison, Dinarchus and his Aetolians, along with the young men of Stratus. Perseus, after attempting parleys from the hills which overhang the upper part of the city, on seeing that they were determined and were even keeping him at a distance with missiles, pitched his camp five miles from the city across the river Petitarus. There he called a council and, although Archidamus and the Epirote deserters tried to keep him where he was, when the leading Macedonians were of the opinion that he should not fight against the unfavourable season of the year without having arranged for supplies, since the blockaders were bound to feel the want of them before the blockaded, especially when winter-quarters of the enemy were not far distant, Perseus in fear moved his camp into Aperantia. The Aperantians, because of their great regard for Archidamus and his influence with that people, by general agreement received Perseus; Archidamus himself, with a garrison of eight hundred men, was put in charge of the city. With no less suffering of beasts and men than when he had come, the king returned to Macedonia; Appius, however, was drawn away from the siege of Phanote by the report that Perseus was marching on Stratus. Cleuas, following with a force of vigorous young men beneath the almost impassable spurs of the mountains, killed about a thousand men of the burdened column and captured about two hundred. After passing over the narrows, Appius remained in camp a few days in the plain which they call Meleon. Meanwhile Cleuas, taking along Philostratus, who had five hundred of the Epirote people, crossed over to the territory of Antigonea. The Macedonians set out to plunder; Philostratus with his detachment settled down in ambush in a hidden spot. When armed men sallied forth from Antigonea against the scattered plunderers, as they pursued in too open order after these fugitives, they burst into the valley ambushed by the enemy. After the killing there of about a thousand and the capturing of nearly a hundred, the campaign was successfully conducted everywhere, and they moved their camp near the settled camp of Appius, so that no violence might be inflicted by the Roman army on their allies. Appius, who was wasting time to no purpose in these parts, after sending away the forces of Chaonians, The sprotians and whatever other Epirotes there were, retired to Illyricum with his Italian soldiers, divided his men in winter-quarters among the allied cities of the Parthini, and himself returned to Rome to offer sacrifices. Perseus sent to Cassandrea to act as its garrison a thousand infantry and two hundred cavalry recalled from the people of the Penestae. The envoys returned from Gentius with the same reply. On the one hand, Perseus did not cease thereafter to make overtures to him by sending embassy after embassy, and, on the other hand, although it was obvious how much reinforcement Gentius could provide, yet he could not induce himself to incur expense for a matter of the greatest importance in every respect.

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0914.phi00143.perseus-eng1. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.