[44.] The Romans sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, wishing to be supplied with corn, as they were suffering M. Atilius and Manius Glabrio sent to Alexandria with presents to Ptolemy Philopator and Queen Cleopatra. Livy, 27, 4, B.C. 210. from a great scarcity of it at home; and, moreover, when all Italy had been laid waste by the enemy’s troops up to the gates of Rome, and when all supplies from abroad were stopped by the fact that war was raging, and armies encamped, in all parts of the world except in Egypt. In fact the scarcity at Rome had come to such a pitch, that a Sicilian medimnus was sold for fifteen drachmae.[337] But in spite of this distress the Romans did not relax in their attention to the war.
END OF VOL. I
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Vita Nicolai V. a Dominico Georgio, Rome, 1742, p. 206.
[2] Casaubon mentions in his preface several partial editions and translations which had appeared by Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, and Belgians. But he says all such translations were founded on the faulty Latin translation of Perotti; and none were of any value. The only fairly good one was a German translation.
[3] Unless the avoidance of the hiatus be counted one, which has been pointed out by Hultsch. I cannot forbear from quoting here the admirable words of Casaubon on the style of Polybius:—Non deest sed non eminet in Polybio facundia. Nihil vero est iniquius illis, qui nullam putant esse eloquentiam, nisi uti nihil est praeter eloquentiam. Semper mihi apprime placuit Diodori Siculi sententia, vehementius in historico eloquentiae studium improbantis. Verborum enim curam nimiam veri fere par sequitur incuria. Oratio vultus animi est: ut hic fuerit gravis aut solutus, ita etiam illa vel severa erit vel mollis. The nearest Greek to that of Polybius is II. Maccabees.
[4] Livy, 38, 30-34.