[26.] Ambassadors having arrived from Epirus about this time, sent both from those who were in actualB.C. 156. Coss L. Cornelius Lentulus, C. Marcius Figulus II. possession of Phoenice and from those who been banished from it; and both parties having made their statement in presence of each other, the Senate answered that they would give instructions on this point to the commissioners that were about to be sent into Illyria with Gaius Marcius the Consul.[207]...

[27.] After defeating Attalus, and advancing to Pergamum, Prusias prepared a magnificent sacrifice andPrusias, king of Bithynia, attacks Attalus of Pergamum. brought it to the sacred enclosure of Asclepius, and after offering the victims, and having obtained favourable omens, went back into his camp for that day; but on the next he directed his forces against the Nicephorium, and destroyed all the temples and sacred enclosures, and plundered all the statues of men and the marble images of the gods. Finally he carried off the statue of Asclepius also, an admirably executed work of Phyromachus, and transferred it to his own country,—the very image before which the day before he had poured libations and offered sacrifice; desiring, it would seem,5, [11]. that the god might in every way be propitious and favourable to him. I have spoken of such proceedings before, when discoursing on Philip, as sheer insanity. For at one time to offer sacrifice, and endeavour to propitiate heaven by their means, worshipping and uttering the most earnest prayers before holy tables and altars, as Prusias was wont to do, with bendings of the knee and effeminate prostrations, and at the same time to violate these sacred objects and to flout heaven by their destruction,—can we ascribe such conduct to anything but a mind disordered and a spirit lost to sober reason? I am sure this was the case with Prusias: for he led his army off to Elaea, without having performed a single act of manly courage in the course of his attempts on Pergamum, and after treating everything human and divine with petty and effeminate spite.Elaea on the Casius, the port of Pergamum. He attempted to take Elaea, and made some assaults upon it; but being unable to effect anything, owing to Sosander, the king’s foster-brother, having thrown himself into the town with an army and repelling his assaults, he marched off towards Thyateira. In the course of his march, he plundered the temple of Artemis in the Holy village; and the sacred enclosure of Apollo Cynneius at Temnus[208] likewise he not only plundered but destroyed by fire. After these achievements he returned home, having waged war against the gods as well as against men. But Prusias’s infantry also suffered severely from famine and dysentery on their return march, so that the wrath of heaven appears to have quickly visited him for these crimes.[209]...

[28.] After his defeat by Prusias Attalus appointed his brother Athenaeus to accompany Publius LentulusAttalus sends his brother to Rome. to Rome to inform the Senate of what had happened. At Rome they had not paid much attention when a previous messenger named Andronicus had come from Attalus, with news of the original invasion; because they suspected that Attalus wished to attack Prusias himself, and was therefore getting up a case against him beforehand, Prusias had sent his son Nicomedes and some ambassadors to represent his case at Rome. and trying to prejudice him in their eyes by these accusations; and when Nicomedes and some ambassadors from Prusias, headed by Antiphilus, arrived and protested that there was not a word of truth in the statement, the Senate was still more incredulous of what had been said about Prusias.The Senate send fresh commissioners to investigate. But when after a time the real truth was made known, the Senate still felt uncertain, and sent Lucius Apuleius and Gaius Petronius to investigate what was the state of the case in regard to these two kings.

BOOK XXXIII

[1.] Before spring this year the Senate, after hearing the report of Publius Lentulus and his colleagues,B.C. 155. The Roman legate Publius Lentulus, and Athenaeus, brother of Attalus, reach Rome and declare the truth. who had just reached Rome from Asia, in the business of king Prusias, called in Athenaeus also, brother of king Attalus. The matter, however, did not need many words: the Senate promptly appointed Gaius Claudius Cento, Lucius Hortensius, and Gaius Arunculeius, to accompany Athenaeus home, with instructions to prevent Prusias from waging war against Attalus.

Also Xeno of Aegium and Telecles of Tegea arrived as ambassadors from the Achaeans in behalf of theAnother embassy in behalf of the Achaean detenus. Achaean detenus. After the delivery of their speech, on the question being put to the vote, the Senators only refused the release of the accused persons by a very narrow majority.It fails by the action of the praetor, who, by putting the question simply “yes” or “no” for release, forced the party who were for postponing it to vote “no.” The man who really prevented the release from being carried was Aulus Postumius, who was praetor, and as such presided in the Senate on that occasion. Three alternatives were proposed—one for an absolute release, another for an absolute refusal, and a third for a postponement of the release for the present. The largest numbers were for the first of these three; but Postumius left out the third, and put the two first to the vote together, release or no release; the result was that those who were originally for the postponement transferred their votes to the party that were against the release, and thus gave a majority against release....

[3.][210] When the ambassadors returned to Achaia with the news that the restoration of all the detenus had been only lost in The Achaeans are encouraged to try again. the Senate by a narrow majority, the people becoming hopeful and elated sent Telecles of Megalopolis and Anaxidamus on a fresh mission at once. That was the state of things in the Peloponnese....

[4.] Aristocrates, the general of the Rhodians, was in appearance a man of mark and striking ability;Aristocrates proves a failure in the war with Crete. and the Rhodians, judging from this, believed that they had in him a thoroughly adequate leader and guide in the war.[211] But they were disappointed in their expectations: for when he came to the test of experience, like spurious coin when brought to the furnace, he was shown to be a man of quite a different sort. And this was proved by actual facts....