20 They crossed over the top of Mount Scordus, and through desert tracts of Illyria, which the Macedonians had laid waste, for the purpose of preventing the Dardanians from passing easily into Illyria or Macedon; and, at length, after undergoing prodigious fatigue, arrived at Scodra. King Gentius was at Lissus; to which place the ambassadors were invited, and received a favourable audience while stating their instructions, but obtained an indecisive answer: that “he wanted not inclination to go to war with the Romans, but was in extreme want of money to enable him to enter on such an undertaking, though he wished to do so.” This answer they brought to the king at Stubera, whilst he was engaged in selling the Illyrian prisoners. The same ambassadors were immediately sent back, with an accession to their numbers in Glaucias, one of his body guards, but without any mention of money; the only thing by which the needy barbarian could be induced to take a part in the war. Then Perseus, after ravaging Ancyra, led back his army once more into Penestia; and having strengthened the garrison of Uscana, and the surrounding fortresses which he had taken, he retired into Macedon.
21 Lucius Cælius, a Roman lieutenant-general, commanded at that time in Illyria. While the king was in that country he did not venture to stir; but, on his departure, he made an attempt to recover Uscana, in Penestia; in which being repulsed, with great loss, by the Macedonian garrison, he led back his forces to Lychnidus. In a short time after he sent Marcus Trebellius Fregellanus, with a very strong force, into Penestia, to receive hostages from the cities which had faithfully remained in friendship. He ordered him, also, to march on to the Parthinians, who had likewise covenanted to give hostages, which were received from both nations without any trouble: those of the Penestians were sent to Apollonia; those of the Parthinians, to Dyrrachium, then more generally called by the Greeks Epidamnus. Appius Claudius, wishing to repair the disgrace which he had suffered in Illyria, made an attack on Phanote, a fortress of Epirus; bringing with him, besides the Roman troops, Athamanian and Thesprotian auxiliaries, to the amount of six thousand men; nor did he gain any advantage to recompense his exertion, for Clevas, who had been left there with a strong garrison, effectually defended the place. Perseus marched to Elimea, and, after reviewing his army in the vicinity of that town, led it to Stratus, in compliance with an invitation of the Epirotes. Stratus was then the strongest city in Ætolia. It stands on the Ambracian Gulf, near the river Inachus. Thither he marched with ten thousand foot and three hundred horse; for, on account of the narrowness and ruggedness of the roads, he led a smaller army than he would otherwise have done. On the third day he came to Mount Citium, which he could scarcely climb over, by reason of the depth of the snow, and with difficulty found even a place for his camp. Leaving that spot, rather because he could not conveniently stay, than that either the road or the weather was tolerable, the army, after suffering severe hardships, which fell heaviest on the beasts of burden, encamped on the second day at the temple of Jupiter, called Nicæus. After a very long march thence, he halted at the river Aracthus, being detained there by the depth of the water, during the time in which a bridge was being constructed; he then led over his army, and, having proceeded one day’s march, met Archidamus, an Ætolian of distinction, who proposed delivering Stratus into his hands.
22 On that day Perseus encamped at the borders of the Ætolian territory; and, on the next, arrived before Stratus, where, pitching his camp near the river Achelous, he expected that the Ætolians would come in crowds to put themselves under his protection; but on the contrary, he found the gates shut, and discovered that the very night on which he arrived, a Roman garrison, under Caius Popilius, lieutenant-general, had been received into the town. The nobles, who, induced by the authority of Archidamus, while he was present, had invited the king, as soon as he went out to meet Perseus had become less zealous, and had given an opportunity to the opposite faction to call in Popilius, with one thousand foot, from Ambracia. At the same juncture came also Dinarchus, general of the Ætolian cavalry, with six hundred foot and one hundred horse. It was well known that he came to Stratus intending to act with Perseus; but that, with the change of fortune, he had changed his mind, and joined the Romans, against whom he had come. Nor was Popilius less on his guard than he ought to be among people of such fickle tempers. He immediately took into his own keeping the keys of the gates, with the direction of the guard of the walls, and removed Dinarchus and the Ætolians, together with the young men of Stratus, into the citadel, under pretence of garrisoning it. Perseus sounded the garrison, by addressing them from the eminences that hung over the upper part of the city, and finding that they were obstinate, and even kept him at a distance with weapons, removed his camp to the other side of the river Petitarus, about five miles from the town: there he held a council, wherein Archidamus and the refugees from Epirus were for detaining him there; but the Macedonian nobles were of opinion that he ought not to fight against the severity of the season without having magazines of provisions; in which case the besiegers would feel a scarcity sooner than the besieged, especially as the winter quarters of the enemy were at no great distance: being deterred by these considerations, he removed his camp into Aperantia. The Aperantians, in consequence of the great interest and influence which Archidamus possessed among them, submitted to Perseus with universal consent; and Archidamus himself was appointed their governor, with a body of eight hundred soldiers.
23 The king then returned into Macedon with his men and horses, not less harassed than they had been in their advance to Stratus. However, the report of Perseus’s march to that place obliged Appius to raise the siege of Phanote. Clevas, with a body of active young men, pursued him to the foot of some mountains, which formed a defile almost impassable, killed one thousand men of his disordered troops, and took two hundred prisoners. Appius, when he got clear of the defile, encamped for a few days in a plain named Meleon. Meanwhile Clevas, being joined by Philostratus, who was invested with the chief power among the nation of the Epirotes, proceeded over the mountains into the lands of Antigonea. The Macedonians setting out to plunder, Philostratus, with his division, posted himself in ambush, in a place where he could not be seen. When the troops at Antigonea sallied out against the straggling plunderers, they pursued them in their flight with too great eagerness, until they precipitated themselves into the valley which was beset by the enemy, who killed one thousand, and made about one hundred prisoners. Being thus successful every where, they encamped near the post of Appius, in order to prevent the Roman army from offering any violence to their allies. Appius, as he was wasting time there to no purpose, dismissed the Chaonian and other Epirotes, and with his Italian soldiers marched back to Illyria; then sending the troops to their several winter quarters, in the confederate cities of the Parthinians, he went home to Rome on account of a sacrifice. Perseus recalled from the nation of the Penestians one thousand foot and two hundred horse, and sent them to garrison Cassandria. His ambassadors returned from Gentius with the same answer as before. Still he did not cease from soliciting him, but sent embassy after embassy; yet, notwithstanding that he was sensible of the powerful support he would find in Gentius, the Macedonian could not prevail on himself to expend money on the business, although it was to him a question of vital importance.
BOOK XLIV.
Quintus Marcius Philippus, the consul, penetrates into Macedonia through the rugged passes, and takes several cities. The Rhodians send an embassy to Rome, threatening to aid Perseus, unless the Romans made peace with him. This act was received with general indignation. Lucius Æmilius Paullus, the consul, sent against Perseus, defeats him, and reduces all Macedonia to subjection. Before the engagement, Caius Sulpicius Gallus, a military tribune, foretells an eclipse of the moon, and warns the soldiers not to be alarmed at that phenomenon. Gentius, king of Illyria, vanquished by Anicius the prætor, and sent prisoner, together with his wife and children, to Rome. Ambassadors from Ptolemy and Cleopatra, king and queen of Egypt, complain of Antiochus making war upon them. Perseus, not paying Eumenes, king of Pergamus, and Gentius, king of Illyria, the money he had promised them for their assistance, is deserted by them.