BOOK XLV.
Perseus was captured by Æmilius Paulus in Samothrace. When Antiochus, king of Syria, was besieging Ptolemy and Cleopatra, king and queen of Egypt, and ambassadors were sent to him by the senate, to order him to desist from besieging a king in alliance with Rome, on his being informed of the mandates of the senate, he answered, that he would consider what line of conduct he should adopt. Then Popilius, one of the ambassadors, described, with his wand, a circle around the king, and ordered him to give a decided answer before he passed it. By which decided conduct he compelled the king to desist from the war. The embassies of the nations and king, that came to congratulate the Romans, were admitted into the senate-house, with the exception of the embassy from the Rhodians, which was excluded because their feelings in that war were opposed to the Roman people. The next day, when the question was put “that war should be proclaimed against them,” the Rhodian ambassadors pleaded the cause of their country before the senate, and were dismissed in a manner that rendered it uncertain whether they were looked on as enemies or allies. Macedon was reduced to the form of a Roman province. Æmilius Paulus triumphed; although his own soldiers opposed him, because they were dissatisfied with their share of the plunder, and Servius Sulpicius Galba spoke against him; Perseus and his three sons preceded his triumphal chariot. Still the joy of this triumph was not unmingled, for it was rendered remarkable by the death of his two sons: one of whom died before his father’s triumph; the death of the other speedily followed. The ceremony of the conclusion of the census was performed by the censors. Three hundred and twelve thousand eight hundred and five citizens were enrolled. Prusias, king of Bithynia, came to Rome, to congratulate the senate on the victory gained over Macedon; and committed his son Nicomedes to the charge of the senate: being full of servility, he called himself the freed-man of the Roman people.
1 Although Quintus Fabius, Lucius Lentulus, and Quintus Metellus, who were sent with the news of the victory, made all possible haste to Rome, yet they found rejoicings for that event anticipated there. The fourth day after the battle with Perseus, while games were exhibiting in the circus, a faint rumour spread itself suddenly among the people through all the seats, “that a battle had been fought in Macedon, and that the king was entirely defeated.” The rumour gathered strength, until at last arose shouting and clapping of hands, as if certain tidings of victory were brought to them. The magistrates were surprised, and caused inquiry to be made for the originator of this sudden rejoicing; but as none was found, the joy of course vanished, since the matter was uncertain; yet the prestige of conquest still remained impressed on their minds; and when, on the arrival of Fabius, Lentulus, and Metellus, the fact was established by authentic information, they rejoiced on a twofold account,—on that of the victory, and their happy presage of it. This exultation in the circus is related in another manner, with equal appearance of probability: that on the fifteenth day before the calends of October, being the second day of the Roman games, as the consul Licinius was going down to give the signal for the race, a courier, who said he came from Macedon, delivered to him a letter decorated with laurel. As soon as he had started the chariots, he mounted his own, and as he rode back through the circus to the seats of the magistrates, showed to the people the embellished tablets, at the sight of which the multitude, regardless of the games, ran down at once into the middle of the area. The consul held a meeting of the senate on the spot; and after reading the letter to them, by their direction told the people, before the seats of the magistrates, that “his colleague, Lucius Æmilius, had fought a general engagement with Perseus; that the Macedonian army was beaten and put to flight; that the king had fled with few attendants; and that all the states of Macedon had submitted to the Romans.” On hearing this, a universal shouting and clapping of hands arose among the commons; and most of them, leaving the games, hastened home to communicate the joyful tidings to their wives and children. This was the thirteenth day after the battle was fought in Macedon.
2 On the following day a meeting of the senate was held in the council-chamber, and a general supplication was voted, and likewise a decree of the senate was passed, that the consul should disband all his troops, excepting the legionary soldiers and seamen; and that their disbandment should be taken into consideration as soon as the deputies from the consul Æmilius, who had sent forward the courier, should arrive in town. On the sixth day before the calends of October, about the second hour, the deputies came into the city, and proceeded directly to the tribunal in the forum, drawing after them, wherever they went, an immense crowd, composed of those who went forth to meet and escort them. The senate happened to be then in the council-chamber, and the consul introduced the deputies to them. They were detained there no longer than to give an account, “how very numerous the king’s forces of horse and foot had been; how many thousands of them were killed, how many taken; with what small loss of men the Romans had made such havoc of the enemy, and with how small a retinue Perseus had fled; that it was supposed he would go to Samothrace, and that the fleet was ready to pursue him; so that he could not escape, either by sea or land.” They were then brought out into the assembly of the people, where they repeated the same particulars, and the general joy was renewed in such a degree, that no sooner had the consul published an order, “that all the places of worship should be opened,” than every one proceeded, with as much speed as he could use, to return thanks to the gods, and the temples of the immortal gods, throughout the entire city, were filled with vast crowds, not only of men, but of women. The senate, being re-assembled, ordered thanksgivings in all the temples, during five days, for the glorious successes obtained by the consul Lucius Æmilius, with sacrifices of the larger kinds of victims. They also voted that the ships, which lay in the Tiber fit for sea, and ready to sail for Macedon, in case the king had been able to maintain the contest, should be hauled up, and placed in the docks, and that the seamen belonging to them should be discharged, after receiving a year’s pay; and, together with these, all who had taken the military oath to the consul; that all the soldiers in Corcyra and Brundusium, on the coast of the Hadriatic and in the territory of Larinum, (for in all these places had troops been cantoned, in order that the consul Licinius might, if occasion required, take them over to reinforce his colleague,) should be disbanded. The thanksgiving was fixed, by proclamation in the assembly, for the fifth day before the ides of October, and the five days following.
3 Two deputies, Caius Licinius Nerva and Publius Decius, arriving from Illyria, brought intelligence that the army of the Illyrians was defeated, their king, Gentius, taken prisoner and all Illyria reduced under the dominion of the Roman people. On account of these services, under the conduct and auspices of the prætor, Lucius Anicius, the senate voted a supplication of three days’ continuance, and it was accordingly appointed, by proclamation, to be performed on the fourth third, and second days before the ides of November. Some writers tell us that the Rhodian ambassadors, who had not yet been dismissed, were, when the news of the victory was received, called before the senate in order to expose their absurd arrogance. On this occasion, Agesipolis, their principal, spoke to this effect: that “they had been sent by the Rhodians to effect an accommodation between the Romans and Perseus; because the war subsisting between them was injurious and burdensome to all Greece, and expensive and detrimental to the Romans themselves; but that fortune had acted very kindly, since, by terminating the war after another manner, it afforded them an opportunity of congratulating the Romans on a glorious victory.” This was the discourse of the Rhodians. The senate returned the following answer: that “the Rhodians had sent that embassy, not through anxiety for the interests of Greece, or for the expenses of the Roman people, but merely from their wish to serve Perseus. For, if their concern had been such as they pretended, they should have sent ambassadors at the time when Perseus, leading an army into Thessaly, had continued, for two years, to besiege some of the cities of Greece, and to terrify others with denunciations of vengeance. All this time not the least mention of peace was made by the Rhodians; but when they heard that the Romans had passed the defiles, and penetrated into Macedon, and that Perseus was held enclosed by them, then they sent an embassy, from no other motive whatever, but a wish to rescue Perseus from the impending danger.” With this answer the ambassadors were dismissed.
4 About the same time Marcus Marcellus, coming home from Spain, where he had taken Marcolica, a city of note, brought into the treasury ten pounds’ weight of gold, and a quantity of silver, amounting to a million of sesterces.[99] While the consul, Paullus Æmilius, lay encamped at Siræ, in Odomantice, as mentioned above, a letter from king Perseus was brought to him by three ambassadors of mean appearance, and it is reported that he, on looking at them, shed tears at the uncertainty of the lot of man; because he who, a short time before, not content with the kingdom of Macedon, had invaded Dardania and Illyria, and had called out to his aid the whole Bastarnian nation, now banished from his kingdom after the loss of his army, was forced to take refuge in a little island, where, as a suppliant, he was protected by the sanctity of the place, not by any strength of his own. But when he read the address, “King Perseus to the consul Paullus, greeting,” the folly of a man, who seemed insensible to his condition, banished every feeling of compassion; therefore, although there were, in the remaining part of the letter, entreaties ill suited to royalty, yet the embassy was dismissed without an answer and without a letter. Perseus felt that he must, now that he was conquered, forego the name of king, and consequently sent another letter, inscribed simply with his name, in which he made a request, and obtained it too, that some persons should be sent to him, with whom he might confer on the state and condition of his affairs. Three ambassadors were accordingly despatched, Publius Lentulus, Aulus Postumius Albinus, and Aulus Antonius; but nothing was effected by this embassy, for Perseus clung with all the energy of despair to the regal title, while Paullus insisted on an absolute submission of himself, and every thing belonging to him, to the honour and clemency of the Roman people.
5 Whilst these things are going on, the fleet of Cneius Octavius put in at Samothrace. When he also, by presenting immediate danger to Perseus’s view, was endeavouring at one time by menaces, at another by hopes, to prevail on him to surrender; in this design he was greatly assisted by a circumstance which may have occurred either by accident or design. Lucius Atilius, a distinguished young man, observing that the people of Samothrace were met in a general assembly, requested permission of the magistrate to address a few words to them; which being granted, he said,—“People of Samothrace, our good hosts; is the account which we have heard true or false, that this island is sacred, and the entire soil holy and inviolable?” They all agreed in asserting the supposed sanctity of the place; whereupon he proceeded thus: “Why, then, has a murderer, stained with the blood of king Eumenes, presumed to profane it? And though, previous to every sacrifice, a proclamation forbids all who have not pure hands to assist at the sacred rites, will you, nevertheless, suffer your holy places to be polluted by an assassin who bears the mark of blood on his person?” The story of king Eumenes having been nearly murdered by Evander at Delphi, was now well known by report through all the cities of Greece. The Samothracians, therefore, besides the consideration of their being themselves, as well as the temple and the whole island, in the power of the Romans, were convinced that the censure thrown on them was not unjust, and therefore sent Theondas, their chief magistrate, whom they style king, to Perseus, to acquaint him, that “Evander the Cretan was accused of murder; that they had a mode of trial established among them, by the practice of their ancestors, concerning such as were charged with bringing impure hands into the consecrated precincts of the temple. If Evander was confident that he was innocent of the capital charge made against him, let him come forth, and stand a trial; but, if he would not venture to undergo an inquiry, let him free the temple from profanation, and provide for his own safety.” Perseus, calling Evander aside, advised him not on any account to stand a trial, because he was no match for his accusers, either in the merits of the cause, or in influence. He had secret apprehensions that Evander, on being condemned, would expose him, as the instigator of that abominable act. “What then remained,” he said, “but to die bravely?” Evander made, openly, no objection; but telling the king that he chose to die by poison rather than by the sword, took measures in secret for effecting his escape. When this was told the king, fearing lest he should direct the anger of the Samothracians against himself as accessory to the escape of a guilty person, he ordered Evander to be put to death. No sooner was this rash murder perpetrated, than the idea immediately struck his mind that he had now drawn on himself the whole of the guilt, which before had affected Evander only; that the latter had wounded Eumenes at Delphi, and he had slain Evander in Samothrace; and thus the two most venerable sanctuaries in the world had, through his means alone, been defiled with human blood. However, he avoided the imputation of this deed, by bribing Theondas to tell the people that Evander had laid violent hands on himself.
6 But by such an atrocious act, committed on his only remaining friend, on one whose fidelity he had experienced on so many trying occasions, and who, in return for not proving a traitor, was himself betrayed, he alienated the feelings of every one. All went over to the Romans as soon as they could, and consequently obliged him, now left almost alone, to adopt the design of flying. He applied to a Cretan, called Oroandes, to whom the coast of Thrace was well known, since he carried on traffic in that country, to take him on board his vessel, and convey him to Cotys. At one of the promontories of Samothrace, is the harbour of Demetrium; there the vessel lay. About sun-set every thing necessary for the voyage was carried thither, together with as much money as could be transported with secrecy; and at midnight, the king himself, with three persons, who were privy to his flight, going out through a back door into a garden near his chamber, and having, with much difficulty, climbed over the wall, went down to the shore. Oroandes had set sail, at the dusk of the evening, the very moment the money arrived, and was now steering for Crete. Perseus, after he could not find the ship in the harbour, wandered about for a long time on the coast, but at last, fearing the approach of day, and not daring to return to his lodging, he hid himself in a dark corner at one side of the temple. The royal pages was the name given among the Macedonians to a band of the children of the leading noblemen, who were selected to wait on the king: this band had accompanied Perseus in his flight, and did not even now desert him, until a proclamation was made by the herald of Cneius Octavius, that, “if the royal pages, and other Macedonians, then in Samothrace, would come over to the Romans, they should have impunity, liberty, and all their property, both what they had in the island, and what they had left in Macedon.” On this notice they all passed over to the Romans, and gave in their names to Caius Postumius, a military tribune. Ion of Thessalonica delivered up to Octavius the king’s younger children also; nor was any one now left with Perseus, except Philip, his eldest son. Then, after uttering many execrations against fortune, and the gods to whom the temple belonged, for not affording aid to a suppliant, he surrendered himself and his son to Octavius, who gave orders to put him on board the prætor’s ship; the remainder of his money was put on board the same ship; and the fleet immediately returned to Amphipolis. Thence Octavius sent the king into the camp to the consul, having previously sent forward a letter to inform him that he was a prisoner, and on the road thither.
7 Paullus, considering this a second victory, as it really was, offered sacrifices on receiving the intelligence; then, calling a council, and reading to them the prætor’s letter, he sent Quintus Ælius Tubero to meet the king; the rest he desired to remain assembled in the prætorium. Never, on any other occasion, did so great a multitude gather about a spectacle. In the time of their fathers, king Syphax had been made prisoner, and brought into the Roman camp; but, besides that he could not be compared with Perseus, either in respect of his own reputation or that of his country, he was at the time merely a subordinate party in the Carthaginian war, as Gentius was in the Macedonian. Whereas Perseus was the principal in this war; and was not only highly conspicuous through his own personal renown, and that of his father, grandfather, and other relations in blood and extraction, but of these, two shone with unparalleled lustre,—Philip, and Alexander the Great, who made the empire of the Macedonians the first in the world. Perseus came into the camp, dressed in mourning, unattended by any of his countrymen, except his own son, who being a sharer in the calamity, made him more wretched. He could not advance on account of the number of persons that had collected to see him, until the lictors were sent by the consul, and they, after clearing the way, opened a passage to the prætorium. The consul arose to do him honour, but ordered the rest to keep their seats, and, advancing a little, held out his right hand to the king, on his entrance; and raised him up when he endeavoured to throw himself at his feet: nor would he suffer him to embrace his knees, but led him into the tent, and desired him to sit on the side opposite to the officers assembled in council.