[6]
Attalus received the young man warmly and ordered Prusias to assign certain towns for his occupation, and territory to furnish him supplies. Prusias replied that he would presently give his son the whole kingdom of Attalus, which he had intended for Nicomedes when he invaded Asia1 before. After giving this answer he made a formal accusation at Rome against Nicomedes and Attalus and cited them to trial. The forces of Attalus at once made an incursion into Bithynia, the inhabitants of which gradually took sides with the invaders. Prusias, trusting nobody and hoping that the Romans would rescue him from the toils of the conspiracy, asked and obtained from his son-in-law, Diegylis, the Thracian, 500 men, and with these alone as a body-guard he took refuge in the citadel of Nictæa. The Roman prætor, in order to favor Attalus, delayed introducing the ambassadors of Prusias to the Senate at Rome. When he did introduce them, the Senate voted that the prætor himself should choose legates and send them to settle the difficulty. He selected three men, one of whom had once been struck on the head with a stone, from which he was badly scarred; another was a diseased cripple, and the third was considered almost a fool; wherefore Cato made the contemptuous remark concerning this embassy, that it had no understanding, no feet and no head.
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1 In Roman nomenclature Asia meant the proconsular province composed of Mysia, Lydia, Caria, and Phrygia.
Appian. The Foreign Wars. Horace White. New York. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 1899.
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