The Histories of Polybius, Vol. 2 (of 2)

by Polybius

[10.] On the complaint of the ambassadors of Marseilles as to their injuries sustained at the hands of the Ligurians,The Ligurians prevent the commissioners from landing, and wound Flaminius who had already landed, and drive him to his ship. the Senate at once appointed a commission, consisting of Flaminius, Popilius Laenas, and Lucius Pupius, who sailed with the envoys of Marseilles, and landed in the territory of the Oxybii at the town of Aegitna. The Ligurians, hearing that they were come to bid them raise the siege, descended upon them as they lay at anchor, and prevented the rest from disembarking; but finding Flaminius already disembarked and his baggage landed, they began by ordering him to leave the country, and on his refusal they began to plunder his baggage. His slaves and freedmen resisting this, and trying to prevent them, they began to use violence and attacked them with their weapons. When Flaminius came to the rescue of his men they wounded him, and killed two of his servants, and chased the rest down to their ship, so that Flaminius only escaped with his life by cutting away the hawsers and anchors.War ordered with the Oxybii and Deciatae, B.C. 154. He was conveyed to Marseilles and his wound attended to with all possible care; but when the Senate was informed of the transaction, it immediately ordered one of the consuls, Quintus Opimius, to lead an army against the Oxybii and Deciatae.[213]

[11.] Having collected his army at Placentia, Quintus Opimius marched over the ApenninesOpimius orders his soldiers to join at Placentia, and marches into Gaul, and arrived in the territory of the Oxybii; and, pitching his camp on the river Apro, awaited the enemy, being informed that they were mustering their forces and were eager to give him battle. Meanwhile, he advanced to Aegitna, where the ambassadors takes Aegitna,had been outraged, took the city by assault, and sold its inhabitants as slaves, sending the ringleaders in the outrage to Rome in chains. Having done this, he went to meet the enemy. The Oxybii, convinced that their violence to the ambassadors admitted of no terms being granted them, with all the courage of desperation, and excited to the highest pitch of furious enthusiasm, did not wait to be joined by the Deciatae, but, having collected to the number of about four thousand,and defeats the Oxybii and Deciatae. rushed to the attack upon their enemy. Quintus was somewhat dismayed at the boldness of their attack, and at the desperate fury of the barbarians; but was encouraged by observing that the enemy were advancing in complete disorder, for he was an experienced soldier and a man of great natural sagacity. He therefore drew out his men, and, after a suitable harangue, advanced at a slow pace towards the enemy. His charge was delivered with great vigour: he quickly repulsed the enemy, killed a great many of them, and forced the rest into headlong flight. Meanwhile, the Deciatae had mustered their forces, and appeared on the ground intending to fight side by side with the Oxybii; but finding themselves too late for the battle, they received the fugitives in their ranks, and after a short time charged the Romans with great fury and enthusiasm; but being worsted in the engagement, they immediately all surrendered themselves and their city at discretion to the Romans. Having thus become masters of these tribes, Opimius delivered over their territory on the spot to the people of Marseilles, and for the future forced the Ligurians to give hostages at certain fixed intervals to the Marsilians. He then deprived the tribes that had fought with them of their arms,Opimius winters in Gaul, B.C. 154-153. and divided his army among the cities there for the winter, and himself took up his winter quarters in the country. Thus the war had a conclusion as rapid as its commencement....

[12.] All the previous winter Attalus had been busy collecting a large army, Ariarathes and Mithridates havingThe commissioners visit Attalus and Prusias early in B.C. 154. sent him a force of cavalry and infantry, in accordance with the terms of their alliance with him. While he was still engaged in these preparations the ten commissioners arrived from Rome: who, after meeting and conferring with him at Cadi about the business, started to visit Prusias, to whom on meeting him they explained the orders of the Senate in terms of serious warning. Prusias at once yielded to some of the injunctions, but refused to submit to the greater part. The Romans grew angry,Prusias will not yield till too late. renounced his friendship and alliance, and one and all started to return to Attalus. Thereupon Prusias repented; followed them a certain distance with vehement entreaties; but, failing to gain any concession, left them in a state of great doubt and embarrassment.The Romans promote a combination against Prusias. The Romans, on their return to Attalus, bade him station himself with his army on his own frontier, and not to begin the war himself, but to provide for the security of the towns and villages in his territory: while they divided themselves, one party sailing home with all speed to announce to the Senate the disobedience of Prusias; another departing for Ionia; and a third to the Hellespont and the ports about Byzantium, all with one and the same purpose namely, to detach the inhabitants from friendship and alliance with Prusias, and to persuade them to adhere to Attalus and assist him to the best of their power....

[13.] At the same time Athenaeus set sail with eighty decked ships, of which five were quadriremesSummer of B.C. 154. Attalus’s brother Athenaeus harasses the coast of Prusias’s kingdom. sent by the Rhodians for the Cretan war, twenty from Cyzicus, twenty-seven Attalus’s own, and the rest contributed by the other allies. Having sailed to the Hellespont, and reached the cities subject to Prusias, he made frequent descents upon the coast, and greatly harassed the country. But when the Senate heard the report of the commissioners who had returned from Prusias, they immediately despatched three new ones, Appius Claudius, Lucius Oppius, and Aulus Postumius: who, on arriving in Asia, put an end to the war by bringing the two kings to make peace, on condition of Prusias at once handing over to Attalus twenty decked ships, and paying him five hundred talents in twenty years, both retaining the territory which they had at the commencement of the war. Farther, that Prusias should make good the damage done to the inhabitants of Methymna, Aegae, Cymae, Heracleia, by a payment of a hundred talents to those towns. The treaty having been drawn out in writing on those terms, Attalus withdrew his army and navy to his own country. Such are the particulars of the events which took place in the quarrel between Attalus and Prusias....

[14.]B. C. 153. Another fruitless embassy from Achaia. An embassy again coming to Rome from Achaia in behalf of the detenus, the Senate voted to make no change....

[15.]Heracleides brings to Rome Laodice, daughter of Antiochus Epiphanes, and his supposed son Alexander Balas. Heracleides came to Rome in the middle of summer, bringing Laodice and Alexander, and stayed there a long time, employing all the arts of cunning and corruption to win the support of the Senate....

Astymedes of Rhodes being appointed ambassador and navarch at the same time, came forward immediately and addressed the Senate on the war with Crete. The quarrel of Rhodes and Crete. The Senate listened with attention, and immediately appointed Quintus at the head of a commission to put an end to the war....

[16.] This year the Cretans sent Antiphatas, son of Telamnestus of Gortyn, with envoys to the Achaeans asking for help,The Achaeans decline to help either Rhodes or Crete, and the Rhodians sent Theophanes with a similar mission. The Congress of the Achaeans was that year at Corinth: and on each body of ambassadors pleading their respective causes, the assembled people were more inclined towards the Rhodians, from respect to the reputation of although inclined to support Rhodes. their state, and the general character of their policy and statesmen. When Antiphatas saw this, he wished to come forward to make another speech; and, having obtained permission from the Strategus to do so, he spoke in weightier and more exalted terms than might be expected from a Cretan; for, in fact, the young man was in no way of the ordinary Cretan type, but had shunned the characteristic principles of his countrymen. Accordingly the Achaeans received his plain speaking with favour; and still more for the sake of his father Telamnestus, who had taken a spirited part with them at the head of five hundred Cretans in their war against Nabis. However, none the less for that, after listening to him they were still inclined to aid the Rhodians, until Callicrates of Leontium stood up and said that they ought not to go to war in favour of either, or to send aid to either of the two peoples without the consent of the Romans. This argument decided them in favour of non-intervention....

[17.] Dispirited with the course things were taking, the Rhodians entered upon some measures and designs which were strange and unreasonable. In fact, they were much in the same state as men suffering from chronic diseases. It frequently happens that such men, when, in spite of following all the rules of medicine and obeying the prescriptions of the doctors, they are unable to make any advance towards improvement, give up all such efforts in despair, and either listen wholly to priests and seers, or try every sort of charm or amulet. So it was with the Rhodians. When their hopes were baffled in every direction, they were reduced to listen to every kind of suggestion, and to magnify and accept every kind of chance. Nor was this unnatural. For when nothing dictated by reason proves successful, and yet some action or another must necessarily be pushed on, there is no alternative but to try something which does not depend on reason. The Rhodians, having come to this dilemma, acted accordingly; and, among other things that were in defiance of reason, reelected as their archon a man of whom they disapproved....

[18.] Many different embassies having come to Rome, the Senate admitted Attalus,[214]B.C. 152. Visit of the young Attalus, son of the late king Eumenes. son of king Eumenes I. For he had arrived at Rome at this time, still quite a young boy, to be introduced to the Senate, and to renew in his person the ancestral friendship and connexion with the Romans. After a kindly reception by the Senate and his father’s friends, and after receiving the answer which he desired, and such honours as suited his time of life, he returned to his native land, meeting with a warm and liberal reception in all the Greek cities through which he passed on his return journey.Demetrius, son of Ariarathes VI. Demetrius also came at this time, and, after receiving a fairly good reception for a boy, returned home.