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

by Polybius

The victory of the Romans over the Tolistoboii at Mount Olympus is described by Livy, 38, 19-23; that over the Tectosages, a few miles from Ancyra, in 38, 24-27. The second battle took place in mid-autumn, B.C. 189; and the result was that the Gauls gave in their submission at Ephesus, and were forced to engage to leave off predatory excursions, and to confine themselves to their own frontiers. Livy, 38, 27 and 40.

[38.] It chanced that among the prisoners made when the Romans won the victory at OlympusThe vengeance of Chiomara, wife of the Gallic chief Ortiago. See Livy, 38, 24. over the Gauls of Asia, was Chiomara, wife of Ortiago. The centurion who had charge of her availed himself of his chance in soldierly fashion, and violated her.

He was a slave indeed both to lust and money: but eventually his love of money got the upper hand; and, on a large sum of gold being agreed to be paid for the woman, he led her off to put her to ransom. There being a river between the two camps, when the Gauls had crossed it, paid the man the money, and received the woman, she ordered one of them by a nod to strike the Roman as he was in the act of taking a polite and affectionate farewell of her. The man obeyed, and cut off the centurion’s head, which she picked up and drove off with, wrapped in the folds of her dress. On reaching her husband she threw the head at his feet; and when he expressed astonishment and said: “Wife to keep faith is a good thing,” she replied: “Yes; but it is a better thing that there should be only one man alive who has lain with me!” [Polybius says that he conversed with the woman at Sardis, and was struck with her dignified demeanour and intelligence.][110]...

[39.] After the victory over the Gauls at Olympus, when the Romans were encamped at Ancyra, and CnaeusThe Gauls try to take Cnaeus Manlius by a stratagem, but are foiled. See Livy, 38, 25. was on the point of continuing his advance, ambassadors came from the Tectosages asking that Cnaeus would leave his troops in their quarters, and advance himself in the course of the next day into the space between the two camps; and promising that their kings would come to meet him, and discuss the terms of a peace. But when Cnaeus consented, and duly arrived at the appointed place with five hundred horse, the kings did not appear. After his return to the camp, however, the ambassadors came again, and, offering some excuses for the kings, begged him to come once more, as they would send some of their chief men to discuss the whole question. Cnaeus consented; but, without leaving the camp himself, sent Attalus and some tribunes with three hundred horse. The envoys of the Gauls duly appeared and discussed the business: but finally said that it was impossible for them to conclude the matter or ratify anything they agreed upon; but they engaged that the kings would come next day to agree on the terms, and finally settle the treaty, if the Consul would also come to them. Attalus promised that Cnaeus would come, and they separated for that day. But the Gauls were deliberately contriving these postponements, and amusing the Romans, because they wanted to get some part of their families and property beyond the river Halys; and, first of all, to get the Roman Consul into their hands if they could, but if not, at any rate to kill him. With this purpose they watched next day for the coming of the Romans, with a thousand horse ready to fall upon him. When Cnaeus heard the result of Attalus’s interview, believing that the kings would come, he left the camp, attended as usual by five hundred horse. Now it happened that, on the days of the previous interviews, the foraging parties which went out from the Roman camp to fetch wood and hay had gone in the same direction, in order to have the protection of the squadron which went to the parley. A numerous foraging party acted in the same way on this third occasion, and the tribunes ordered them to proceed in the same direction, with the usual number of horsemen to protect them as they advanced. And their being out on this duty proved accidentally to be the salvation of their comrades in the danger which threatened them....

CEPHALLENIA.

The citadel of Same in Cephallenia taken by a night surprise. [40.] M. Fulvius took the quarter of the town in which was the citadel by a night surprise, and introduced the Romans into the town.[111]

[41.] The good and the expedient are seldom compatible, and rare indeed are those who can combine and reconcile them.Philopoemen’s policy towards Sparta. See above, bk. 19. For as a general rule we all know that the good shuns the principles of immediate profit, and profit those of the good. However, Philopoemen attempted this task, and succeeded in his aim. For it was a good thing to restore the captive exiles to Sparta; and it was an expedient thing to humble the Lacedaemonian state, and to punish those who had served as bodyguards to a tyrant. But seeing clearly that money is ever the support on which every dynasty rests, and having a clear head and the instincts of a ruler, he took measures to prevent the introduction into the town of money from outside....

[43.][112] Meanwhile in Asia the Roman consul Cnaeus Manlius wintered at Ephesus, in the last year of this Olympiad,Cnaeus Manlius spends the winter of 189-188 B.C. at Ephesus, the last year of the 147th Olympiad, and arranges the settlement of Asia. and was there visited by embassies from the Greek cities in Asia and many others, bringing complimentary crowns to him for his victories over the Gauls. For the entire inhabitants of Asia this side Taurus were not so much rejoiced at the prospect given them by Antiochus’s defeat of being relieved from tribute, garrisons, or other royal exactions, as at the removal of all fear of the barbarians, and at their escape from their insolence and lawlessness. Among the rest Musaeus came from Antiochus, and some envoys from the Gauls, desiring to ascertain the terms upon which friendship would be granted them; and also from Ariarathes, the king of Cappadocia. For this latter prince, having attached himself to the fortunes of Antiochus, and having taken part in his battle with the Romans, had become alarmed and dismayed for his own fate, and therefore was endeavouring by frequent embassies to ascertain what he would have to pay or do to get pardon for his error. The Consul complimented the ambassadors from the cities, and dismissed them after a very favourable reception; but he replied to the Gauls that he would not make a treaty with them until king Eumenes, whom he expected, had arrived. To the envoys from Ariarathes he said that they might have peace on the payment of six hundred talents. With the ambassador of Antiochus he arranged that he would come with his army to the frontier of Pamphylia, to receive the two thousand five hundred talents, and the corn with which the king had undertaken to furnish the Roman soldiers before his treaty with Lucius Scipio. This business being thus settled, he solemnly purified his army;Spring of B.C. 188. and, as the season for military operations was now beginning, he broke up his quarters, and, taking Attalus with him, arrived at Apameia in eight days’ march, and remained there three days. On the fourth he continued his advance; and, pushing on at great speed, arrived on the third day at the rendezvous with Antiochus, and there pitched his camp. Here he was visited by Musaeus, who begged him to wait, as the carts and cattle that were bringing the corn and money were late. He consented to wait: and, when the supply arrived, he distributed the corn among the soldiers, and handed over the money to one of his tribunes, with orders to convey it to Apameia.

[44.] He himself started in full force for Perga, where he heard that a commander of a garrison placed in that townA faithful officer at Perga. by Antiochus had neither left it himself nor withdrawn his garrison. When he came within a short distance of the place he was met by the captain of the garrison, who begged Cnaeus not to condemn him unheard. “He had received the city from Antiochus in trust, and was holding it until he should be instructed what to do by the sovereign who had entrusted it to him.” And he therefore begged for thirty days’ respite, to enable him to send and ask the king for instructions. Observing that Antiochus was behaving straightforwardly in other particulars, Cnaeus consented to allow him to send and ask the king the question. After some days the officer accordingly received an answer, and surrendered the city.