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Before the surrender, one of the Roman ambassadors, who had been sent to Alexandria, Marcus Aemilius, being the youngest of them, on the joint resolution of the three, on hearing of the present siege, came to Philip, and complained of his having made war on Attalus and the Rhodians; and particularly that he was then besieging Abydus; and on Philip's saying that he had been forced into the war by Attalus and the Rhodians commencing hostilities against him,--"Did the people of Abydus, too," said he, "commence hostilities against you?" To him, who was unaccustomed to hear truth, this language seemed too arrogant to be used to a king, and he answered,--"Your youth, the beauty of your form, and, above all, the name of Roman, render you too presumptuous. However, my first desire is, that you would observe the treaties, and continue in peace with me; but if you begin an attack, I am, on my part, determined to prove that the kingdom and name of the Macedonians is not less formidable in war than that of the Romans." Having dismissed the ambassador in this manner, Philip got possession of the gold and silver which had been thrown together in a heap, but lost his booty with respect to prisoners: for such violent frenzy had seized the multitude, that, on a sudden, taking up a persuasion that those who had fallen in the battle had been treacherously sacrificed, and upbraiding one another with perjury, especially the priests, who would surrender alive to the enemy those persons whom they themselves had devoted, they all at once ran different ways to put their wives and children to death; and then they put an end to their own lives by every possible method. The king, astonished at their madness, restrained the violence of his soldiers, and said, "that he would allow the people of Abydus three days to die in;" and, during this space, the vanquished perpetrated more deeds of cruelty on themselves than the enraged conquerors would have committed; nor did any one of them come into his hands alive, except such as chains, or some other insuperable restraint, forbade to die. Philip, leaving a garrison in Abydus, returned to his kingdom; and, just when he had been encouraged by the destruction of the people of Abydus to proceed in the war against Rome, as Hannibal had been by the destruction of Saguntum, he was met by couriers, with intelligence that the consul was already in Epirus, and had drawn his land forces to Apollonia, and his fleet to Corcyra, into winter quarters.
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In the mean time, the ambassadors who had been sent into Africa, on the affair of Hamilcar, the leader of the Gallic army, received from the Carthaginians this answer: that "it was not in their power to do more than to inflict on him the punishment of exile, and to confiscate his effects; that they had delivered up all the deserters and fugitives, whom, on a diligent inquiry, they had been able to discover, and would send ambassadors to Rome, to satisfy the senate on that head." They sent two hundred thousand measures of wheat to Rome, and the same quantity to the army in Macedonia. From thence the ambassadors proceeded into Numidia, to the king; delivered to Masinissa the presents and the message according to their instructions, and out of two thousand Numidian horsemen, which he offered, accepted one thousand. Masinissa superintended in person the embarkation of these, and sent them, with two hundred thousand measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, into Macedonia. Their third commission was with Vermina. He advanced to meet them as far as the utmost limits of his kingdom, and left it to themselves to prescribe such conditions of peace as they thought proper, declaring, that "he should consider any peace with the Roman people as just and advantageous." The terms were then settled, and he was ordered to send ambassadors to Rome to procure a ratification of the treaty.
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About the same time, Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, proconsul, came home from Spain; and having laid before the senate an account of his brave and successful conduct, during the course of many years, demanded that he might be allowed to enter the city in triumph. The senate gave their opinion that "his services were, indeed, deserving of a triumph; but that they had no precedent left them by their ancestors of any person enjoying a triumph, who had not performed the service either of dictator, consul, or praetor; that he had held the province of Spain in quality of proconsul, and not of consul, or praetor." They determined, however, that he might enter the city in ovation. Against this, Tiberius Sempronius Longus, tribune of the people, protested, alleging, that such proceedings would be no more in accordance with the custom of their ancestors, or with any precedent, than the other; but, overcome at length by the unanimous desire of the senate, the tribune withdrew his opposition, and Lucius Lentulus entered the city in ovation. He carried to the treasury forty-four thousand pounds weight of silver, and two thousand four hundred pounds weight of gold. To each of the soldiers he distributed, of the spoil, one hundred and twenty asses.[[2]]
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