8 The first question asked Perseus was, “by what injuries had he been compelled to enter into a war against the Roman people with such violent animosity, and to bring himself and his kingdom to the extremity of danger?” While all expected his answer, fixing his eyes on the ground, he wept a long time in silence. The consul, again addressing him, said, “If you had succeeded to the government in early youth, I should have wondered less at your not being sensible of the great importance of the friendship, or enmity, of the Roman people: but that was not the case, as you bore a part in the war which your father waged with us, and, afterwards, must have remembered the peace which we observed towards him with the strictest sincerity. What then was your design in preferring war to peace, with those, whose power in war, and whose good faith in peace, you had so fully experienced?” Neither questions nor reproaches could draw an answer from him: on which the consul added, “Howsoever these things may have occurred, whether through the frailty of mankind, or accident, or necessity, be of good spirits. The clemency of the Roman people, displayed in the distress of numerous kings and nations, affords you not only hope, but almost perfect confidence of safety.” This he said in the Greek language to Perseus; and then, turning to his own people, he said, in the Latin tongue, “You observe this striking instance of the instability of human affairs. To you, young men, principally, I address the observation. In the hour of prosperity, therefore, we ought to adopt against no man measures dictated by either pride or violence, nor confide implicitly in present advantages; since we know not what the evening may produce. He is really a man, whose spirit neither prosperity can elate by success, nor adversity break by misfortune.” On the dismissal of the council, the charge of guarding the king is given to Quintus Ælius. Perseus was invited to dine that day with the consul, and every other honour, which could be shown him under existing circumstances, was paid to him.
9 The troops were immediately sent off to their winter cantonments. Amphipolis furnished the greater part with quarters, and the towns in that neighbourhood received the rest. Thus ended the war between the Romans and Perseus, which had lasted, without intermission, four years; and thus ended a kingdom, long renowned through a great part of Europe, and throughout all Asia. From Caranus, who was their first king, they reckoned Perseus the fortieth. Perseus came to the crown in the consulate of Quintus Fulvius and Lucius Manlius, received the title of king from the senate in that of Marcus Junius and Aulus Manlius, and reigned eleven years. The Macedonians were little known by fame until the reign of Philip, son of Amyntas; although the empire began to increase in his time, and through his agency, still it was confined within the limits of Europe, extending over all Greece with a part of Thrace, and Illyria. Afterwards the power of Macedon poured down like a deluge on Asia, and in the course of the thirteen years of the reign of Alexander, reduced under its dominion that almost immense tract which had constituted the empire of the Persians. Hence it overspread the Arabias and India, as far as where the Red Sea forms the utmost boundary of the earth. At that time their empire and name were the first in the world; but on the death of Alexander, it was torn asunder into a number of kingdoms, whilst his successors, in the general scramble for power, dismembered it by their struggles. From the time of its highest elevation to this its final downfall, it stood one hundred and fifty years.
10 When the news of the victory, obtained by the Romans, was carried into Asia, Antenor, who lay with a fleet of small vessels at Phanæ, sailed over to Cassandrea. Caius Popilius, who staid at Delos to protect the ships bound to Macedon, learning that the war there was at an end, and that the enemy’s fleet had left its station, sent home the Athenian squadron, and proceeded on his voyage for Egypt, to finish the business of the embassy with which he was charged, in order that he might meet Antiochus before he should approach the walls of Alexandria. When the ambassadors, after sailing along the coast of Asia, arrived at Loryma, a port somewhat more than twenty miles from Rhodes, and just opposite to that city, some of the principal Rhodians (for the news of the victory had by this time reached them too) met them, and requested them “to sail over to their city; that it was of the utmost consequence to the character and safety of the Rhodian state that they should, in person, inform themselves of what had been done, and what was then passing at Rhodes; so as to carry to Rome intelligence, founded on their own knowledge, and not on vague reports.” After refusing for a long time, they were at length prevailed on to submit to a short delay of their voyage, for the sake of the safety of an allied city. When they came to Rhodes, the same persons, by urgent entreaties, persuaded them to come into a general assembly. The arrival of the ambassadors rather heightened, than allayed, the fears of the public. For Popilius enumerated all the hostile expressions and actions, both of the community and of individuals, during the war: and, being naturally of an austere temper, he magnified the atrociousness of the matters which he mentioned, by the sternness of his countenance, and the harshness of his tone of voice; so that, as he had no cause of personal quarrel with their state, people judged from the severity of one Roman senator, what was the feeling of the whole senate towards them. The speech of Caius Decimius was more moderate; for he said, “that in most of the particulars mentioned by Popilius, the blame lay, not on the nation, but on a few incendiary ringleaders of the populace, who, employing their tongues for hire, procured the passing of several decrees, full of flattery towards the king; and had sent those embassies, at which the Rhodians should always feel not less shame than grief; all which proceedings, however, if the people were disposed to act properly, would fall on the heads of the guilty.” He was heard with great satisfaction; not only because he extenuated the offences of the community, but because he threw the whole blame on the authors of their misconduct. When, therefore, their own magistrates spoke in answer to the Romans, the speech of those who endeavoured to exculpate them, in some measure, from the charges advanced by Popilius, was not so pleasing to them as the advice of those who concurred with the opinion of Decimius, in the necessity of giving up the principal instigators to atone for their crime. A decree was therefore immediately passed, that all who should be convicted of having, in any instance, spoken or acted in favour of Perseus, against the Romans, should be condemned to die. Several of those concerned had left the city on the arrival of the Romans: others put an end to their own lives. The ambassadors staid only five days at Rhodes, and then proceeded to Alexandria. Nor were the trials instituted, pursuant to the decree passed in their presence, carried on at Rhodes with less activity; and this perseverance of the Rhodians, in the execution of that business, was entirely owing to the mild behaviour of Decimius.
11 Whilst these events were going on, Antiochus, after a fruitless attempt on the walls of Alexandria, had retired: and being now master of all the rest of Egypt, he left, at Memphis, the elder Ptolemy, whose restoration to the throne was the pretended object of his armament, though, in reality, he meant to attack him, as soon as he should have vanquished his competitors; and then he led back his army into Syria. Ptolemy, who was not ignorant of his intention, conceived hopes, that, while he held his younger brother under terror, and in dread of a siege, he might be received into Alexandria, provided his sister favoured the design, and his brother’s friends did not oppose it. Accordingly, he never ceased sending proposals to his sister first, and his brother and his friends afterwards, until he effected an accommodation with them. His suspicions of Antiochus were awakened by this circumstance, that, when he gave him possession of the rest of Egypt, he left a strong garrison in Pelusium: a plain proof that he kept that key of Egypt in his hands, in order that he might be able, whenever he pleased, to introduce an army again into the country; and he foresaw, that the final issue of a civil war with his brother must be, that the conqueror, thoroughly weakened by the contest, would be utterly unable to contend with Antiochus. In these prudent observations of the elder brother, the younger, and those about him, concurred; while their sister greatly promoted the negotiation, both by her advice and entreaties. Accordingly, peace being made with the approbation of all, the elder Ptolemy was received into Alexandria, without any opposition even from the populace; who, during the war, had been severely distressed by a general scarcity, not only in consequence of the siege, but from receiving no provisions from the rest of Egypt after the enemy had retired from the walls. Although it was reasonable to suppose that Antiochus would be rejoiced at these events, if he had really marched his army into Egypt for the purpose of reinstating Ptolemy on the throne,—(the plausible pretext which he had professed to all the states of Asia and Greece, in his answers to their embassies, and in the letters that he wrote,)—yet he was so highly offended, that he prepared to make war on the two brothers, with much greater acrimony and fury of resentment than he had shown against the one. He instantly sent his fleet to Cyprus; and, as soon as the spring appeared, he directed his route towards Egypt at the head of his army, and advanced into Cœle-syria. Near Rhinocolura he was met by ambassadors from Ptolemy, who gave him thanks, because through his assistance he had recovered the throne of his fathers; and requested him to secure to him the enjoyment of the benefit, which he had himself conferred; and rather to signify what he wished to be done, than from an ally to become an enemy, and proceed by force of arms. To this he answered, that “he would neither recall his fleet, nor stop the march of his army, on any other conditions than the cession of all Cyprus and the city of Pelusium, together with the lands adjoining the Pelusian mouth of the Nile;” and he even named a particular day, on or before which he expected to receive an answer that these demands were complied with.
12 When the time fixed for the suspension of hostilities had elapsed, Antiochus ordered the commanders of his fleet to sail up the mouth of the Nile to Pelusium, while he himself entered Egypt, through the deserts of Arabia. He was amicably received by the people about Memphis, as he was, afterwards, by the rest of the Egyptians; some being led by inclination, others by fear; and he proceeded thus, by short marches, down to Alexandria. The Roman ambassadors met him after crossing the river at Eleusine, four miles from that city. On their approach he saluted them, and held out his right hand to Popilius; but Popilius put into his hand a written tablet, containing the decree of the senate, and desired him first to peruse that. On perusing it, he said, that he, after calling his friends together, would consult on what was to be done; on which Popilius, with the usual asperity of his disposition, drew a line round the king, with a wand which he held in his hand, and said, “Before you go out of that circle, give me an answer to report to the senate.” Astonished at such a peremptory injunction, the king hesitated for some time; but at last replied, “I will do as the senate directs.” Popilius then thought proper to stretch out his right hand to him; as to a friend and ally. Antiochus having retired out of Egypt, on the day appointed, the ambassadors, after confirming by their influence the reconciliations between the brothers, as concord was far from being established among them, sailed to Cyprus: from which they sent home the ships of Antiochus, which had fought and defeated an Egyptian fleet. This embassy attracted a great share of respect from all nations; because it had manifestly rescued Egypt out of the hands of the Syrian, when he had it within his grasp, and restored to the race of Ptolemy the kingdom of their forefathers While one of the consuls of this year distinguished his administration by a glorious victory, the reputation of the other was thrown into the shade, because he had no opportunity of displaying his talents. When, in the beginning of his administration, he had appointed his troops to assemble, he entered the consecrated place without due auspices; and the augurs, on the matter being laid before them, pronounced the appointment improper. Going into Gaul, he lay encamped near the long plains, at the foot of the mountains Sicimina and Papirus, and passed the winter in the same country with the troops of the Latin allies. The Roman legions staid all the while in the city, because the day had been irregularly appointed for the meeting of the soldiers. The prætors went to their several provinces, except Caius Papirius Carbo, to whose lot Sardinia had fallen; the senate having commanded him to administer justice, at Rome, between natives and foreigners; a duty to which he had been already named.
13 Popilius, with his colleagues in the embassy to Antiochus, returned to Rome, and gave information, that all disputes between the kings had terminated, and that the army had marched out of Egypt into Syria. Soon after, ambassadors arrived from the kings themselves. Those of Antiochus represented, that “their king had considered a peace, which was agreeable to the senate, as preferable to a victory, how complete soever, and had, accordingly, obeyed the order of the Roman ambassadors, as implicitly as if it had been a mandate of the gods.” They then offered his congratulations on their victory, “to which,” they said, “the king would have contributed with his utmost power, if any commands to that effect had been given him.” The ambassadors of Ptolemy, in the joint names of that prince and Cleopatra, presented their thanks, acknowledging that “they were more indebted to the senate and people of Rome than to their own parents, more than to the immortal gods; since through their intervention they had been relieved from a most distressing siege, and had recovered the kingdom of their fathers, when it was almost entirely lost.” The answer given by the senate was that “Antiochus had acted rightly and properly, in complying with the demand of their ambassadors; and that his conduct was pleasing to the senate and people of Rome.” To Ptolemy and Cleopatra, king and queen of Egypt, they answered, that “the senate rejoiced very much, that any benefit or advantage had accrued to the Egyptian monarchs, through their instrumentality; and would take care, that they should always have reason to consider, that the strongest bulwark of their kingdom lay in the protection of the Roman people.” Caius Papirius, the prætor, was commissioned to send the usual presents to the ambassadors. A letter now arrived from Macedon, which doubled the public joy, as it brought information that “king Perseus was in the hands of the consul.” After the ambassadors were dismissed, a controversy between deputies from Pisa and others from Luna came on; the former, complaining that they were dispossessed of their lands by the Roman colonists; while the latter insisted that the lands in question had been marked out to them by the triumvirs. The senate sent five commissioners to examine and fix the boundaries, Quintus Fabius Buteo, Publius Cornelius Blasio, Tiberius Sempronius Musca, Lucius Nævius Balbus, and Caius Apuleius Saturninus. A joint embassy from the three brothers, Eumenes, Attalus, and Athenæus, came with congratulations on the victory; and Masgaba, son of king Masinissa, having landed at Puteoli, Lucius Manlius, the quæstor, was immediately despatched with money to meet him, and conduct him to Rome at the public expense. An audience of the senate was immediately given him on his arrival. This young prince spoke in such a manner that he made services, which were meritorious in themselves, still more gratifying. He recounted what numbers of foot and horse, how many elephants, and what quantities of corn his father had sent into Macedon in aid of the Romans during the last four years. “But there were two things,” he said, “that made him blush; one, the senate having sent by their ambassadors a request, instead of an order, to furnish necessaries for their army; the other, their having sent money in payment for the corn. Masinissa well remembered that the kingdom which he held had been acquired, and increased, and multiplied by the Roman people; and contenting himself with the management of it, acknowledged the right and sovereignty to be vested in those who granted it to him. It was just, therefore, to take, and not to ask from him nor purchase, any of the produce of lands made over by themselves. Whatever remained, after supplying the Roman people, would be fully sufficient for Masinissa.” That with these instructions he parted with his father; but he was afterwards overtaken by some horsemen, who announced to him the conquest of Macedon, with directions to congratulate the senate, and acquaint them that his father felt so much joy at that circumstance, that he wished to come to Rome, and in the Capitol to offer thanks to Jupiter supremely good and great. He requested, therefore, that if it were not disagreeable, the senate would give him. permission to do so.
14 Masgaba was answered, that “his father, Masinissa, acted as became a prince of a benevolent and grateful disposition; to such a degree that, by acknowledging the kindness of his friends, he added value and dignity to it. The Roman people had been assisted by him in the Carthaginian war with exertions at once faithful and brave; by the favour of the Roman people he had obtained his kingdom, and had afterwards, in the successive wars with the three kings, discharged with his usual readiness every duty. That it was not surprising, that a king who had so intimately blended his own interests, and those of his kingdom, with the interests of the Romans, should be delighted at the victory of the Roman people. That he should return thanks to the immortal gods for the victory of the Roman people, before the tutelary deities of his family; that his son could return thanks in his stead at Rome; as he had already said enough in the way of congratulation, both in his own name and in his father’s. But that the senate were of opinion, that his leaving his own kingdom, and going out of Africa, besides being inconvenient to himself, was detrimental to the Roman people.” On Masgaba making a request that Hanno, son of Hamilcar, might be brought to Rome as a hostage in the place of some other, the senate replied, that they could not reasonably require hostages from the Carthaginians, at the choice of any other person. The quæstor was ordered, by a vote of the senate, to purchase presents for the young prince to the value of one hundred pounds’ weight of silver, to accompany him to Puteoli, to defray all his expenses while he staid in Italy, and to hire two ships to carry him and the retinue of the king to Africa; clothes were given to every one of his attendants, both freemen and slaves. Soon after this a letter was brought concerning Masinissa’s other son, Misagenes, stating that, after the conquest of Perseus, he was sent by Lucius Paullus, with his horsemen, to Africa; and that while he was on his voyage in the Adriatic Sea, his fleet was dispersed, and himself, in a bad state of health, driven into Brundusium with only three ships. Lucius Stertinius, the quæstor, was sent to him to Brundusium, with presents of the same kind as those given to his brother at Rome, and he was ordered to provide lodgings for the prince and his retinue, and every thing necessary for his health and convenience; and that the expenses of himself and his entire retinue should be paid liberally; that he should look out for ships by which the prince might pass over into Africa with ease and safety. The quæstor was ordered to give to each of the horsemen a pound of silver, and five hundred sesterces. The assemblies, for the election of consuls for the ensuing year, were held by Caius Licinius the consul. Quintus Ælius Pætus, Marcus Junius Pennus, were appointed consuls. Then Quintus Cassius Longinus, Manius Juventius Thalna, Tiberius Claudius Nero, Aulus Manlius Torquatus, Cneius Fulvius Gillo, C. Licinius Nerva, were made prætors. In the same year the censors, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus and Caius Claudius Pulcher, at length united in passing a decree on a matter, which had been for a long time discussed among themselves in different disputes. Gracchus, when the freed-men, after being repeatedly confined within the four city tribes, had once more spread themselves through them all, wished to pluck up by the root the evil which was always sending fresh shoots, and to exclude from enrolment all who had ever been slaves. Claudius struggled energetically against him, and made frequent references to the institutions of their ancestors, who had often tried to restrain the freed-men, but never to totally exclude them from the rights of citizens. He said that some relaxation of the former strictness had been conceded even by the censors, Caius Flaminius and Lucius Æmilius. And indeed, although even at that time those dregs of the people had spread themselves through all the tribes, and it appeared requisite to reduce them again within what might be considered their original settlement, still at the time some important concessions were made to several of that rank.
15 For by those censors the freed-men were enrolled in the four city tribes, excepting such as had a son more than five years old, who was their own offspring; all these the censors ordered to be surveyed in the tribe wherein they had been surveyed within the last five years; and such as had a farm, or farms, in the country, exceeding in value thirty thousand sesterces,[100] were allowed the privilege of being included in the country tribes. Though this reservation was made in their favour, yet Claudius still insisted, that “a censor could not, without an order of the people, take away from any man, and much less from a whole class of men, the right of suffrage. For though he can remove a man from his tribe, which is nothing more than ordering him to change it, yet he cannot, therefore, remove him out of all the thirty-five tribes; which would be to strip him of the rights of a citizen, and of liberty; not to fix where he should be surveyed, but to exclude him from the survey.” These points were discussed by the censors, who at last came to this compromise: that out of the four city tribes, they should openly, in the court of the temple of Liberty, select one by lot, in which they should include all those who had ever been in servitude. The lot fell on the Æsquiline tribe; on which Tiberius Gracchus published an order, that all sons of freed-men should be surveyed in that tribe. This proceeding gained the censors great honour with the senate, who gave thanks to Sempronius for his perseverance in so good a design, and also to Claudius for not obstructing it. Greater numbers were expelled from the senate, and ordered to sell their horses, by them than by their predecessors. They both concurred in removing from their tribes and disfranchising the same persons, in every instance; nor did one of them remove any mark of disgrace inflicted by the other. They petitioned that, according to custom, the year and half’s time allowed for enforcing the repairs of buildings, and for approving the execution of works contracted for, should be prolonged; but Cneius Tremellius, a tribune, protested against it, because he had not been chosen into the senate. This year Caius Cicereius dedicated a temple to Juno Monita on the Alban mount, five years after he had vowed it; and Lucius Postumius Albinus was inaugurated flamen of Mars.
16 The consuls, Quintius Ælius and Marcus Junius, having proposed the business of distributing, the provinces, the senate decreed that Spain, which during the Macedonian war had been but one province, should be again formed into two; and that the present governors, Lucius Paullus and Lucius Anicius, should continue in the government of Macedonia and Illyria, until, with the concurrence of commissioners, they should adjust the affairs of those countries disordered by the war, and reduce them to a form of government different from the regal. The provinces assigned to the consuls were Pisæ and Gaul, with two legions to each, containing separately five thousand two hundred foot and four hundred horse. The lots of the prætors were as follows: the city jurisdiction fell to Quintus Cassius; the foreign, to Manius Juventius Thalna; Sicily, to Tiberius Claudius Nero; Hither Spain, to Cneius Fulvius; and to Caius Licinius Nerva, Farther Spain. Sardinia had fallen to Aulus Manlius Torquatus, but he could not proceed thither, being detained by a decree of the senate, to preside at trials of capital offences. The senate was then consulted concerning prodigies which were reported: the temple of the tutelar deities, on the Velian hill, had been struck by lightning; and two gates, and a large part of the wall, in the town of Minervium. At Anagnia, a shower of earth had fallen; and, at Lanuvium, a blazing torch was seen in the sky. Marcus Valerius, a Roman citizen, reported, that at Calatia, on the public lands, blood had flowed from his hearth, during three days and two nights. On account of this last occurrence in particular, the decemvirs were directed to consult the books; on which they ordered a general supplication for one day, and sacrificed in the forum fifty goats. On account of the other prodigies, there was a supplication for another day, with sacrifices of the larger victims, and the city was purified. Then, with reference to the gratitude due to the immortal gods, the senate decreed, that, “forasmuch as their enemies were subdued, and the kings Perseus and Gentius, with Macedon and Illyria, were in the power of the Roman people, whatever offerings were made in all the temples by Appius Claudius and Marcus Sempronius, the consuls, on occasion of the conquest of king Antiochus, offerings of the same value should then be made, and that Quintus Cassius and Manius Juventius, the prætors, should superintend them.