44.
The consul, when he returned victorious to his camp, to mar his entire joy, was much distressed by concern for his younger son.
[2]
This was Publius Scipio, who afterwards acquired the title of Africanus by the destruction of Carthage. He was, by birth, the son of the consul Paullus, and by adoption, the grandson of the elder Africanus.
[3]
He was then only in the seventeenth year of his age, which circumstance heightened his father's anxiety; for, pursuing the enemy with eagerness, he had been carried away by the crowd to a distant part. But when he returned late in the evening, the consul, having received his son in safety, felt unmixed joy for the very important victory.
[4]
When the news of the battle reached Amphipolis, the matrons ran together to the temple of Diana, whom they style Tauropolos, to implore her aid. Diodorus, who was governor of the city, fearing lest the Thracians, of whom there were two thousand in garrison, might, during the confusion, plunder the city, contrived to receive in the middle of the forum a letter through a person whom he had deceitfully suborned to personate a courier.
[5]
The contents of it were, that “the Romans had put in their fleet at Emathia, and were ravaging the territory round; and that the governors of Emathia besought him to send a reinforcement to oppose the ravagers.”
[6]
After reading this, he desired the Thracians to march to the relief of the coast of Emathia, telling them, as an encouragement, that the Romans being dispersed through the country, they might easily kill many of them, and gain a large booty.
[7]
At the same time he threw discredit on the [p. 2112]report of the defeat, alleging that, if it were true, many would have come thither direct from the retreat.
[8]
Having, on this pretence, sent the Thracians out of the town, he no sooner saw them pass the river Strymon, than he shut the gates.
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