32.
On taking over Scodra, Anicius' very first order was that the ambassadors Petilius and Perpenna should be searched out and brought to him.
[2]
When they had been restored to a properly dignified state, he immediately sent Perpenna to arrest the friends and relatives of the king.
[3]
Perpenna set out for Meteon, the city of the Labeate tribe, and brought to camp at Scodra Etleva,1 the queen, with her two children, Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus, and Caravantius the king's brother.
[4]
After completing the Illyrian campaign within thirty days, Anicius sent Perpenna to Rome as messenger of this victory, and a few days later sent on King Gentius himself with his mother, wife, children, and brother, as well as other leading Illyrians.
[5]
This campaign was unique in that its conclusion was reported at Rome before its beginning.
During the time that this was going on, Perseus also was in great fear because of the arrival not only of Aemilius the new consul, who he heard had come on the scene bringing dire threats, but also of Octavius the praetor.
[6]
The king was feeling equally keenly the threat from the Roman fleet and the danger to the coastal area. At Thessalonica, Eumenes and Athenagoras were in command with a small garrison of two thousand light infantry.2
[7]
To that place Perseus sent the officer Androcles also, under orders to encamp right by the dockyards.
[8]
To Aenea a thousand cavalry under Creon of Antigonea were sent to [p. 197]protect the coastal area, in order to come at once to3 the aid of the country folk at any point on the shore where they heard that enemy ships had put in.
[9]
Five thousand Macedonians were sent to garrison Pythoüs and Petra,4 the commanders being Histiaeus, Theogenes, and Midon.
[10]
When these forces had left, Perseus set himself to fortifying the bank of the Elpeüs, because its dry bed could be crossed. In order that his entire force might be free for this operation, women gathered from the near-by cities brought foodstuffs into camp;
[11]
the soldiers, under orders, from the woods near by generously . . .5
1 We cannot determine whether this is another queen, or whether the name Etuta in xxx. 4 refers to the same woman.
2 Cf, XLII. li. 4 and the note.
3 B.C. 168
4 These places guarded a pass north of Mount Olympus by which the position at the Elpeüs might have been taken in the rear.
5 Further preparations of Perseus and the arrival of Paulus at the Roman camp were described in this gap.
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