21.
At the same time King Attalus, who had fallen ill at Thebes and then removed from Thebes to Pergamum, died in his seventy-second year, after he had been on the throne for forty-four years.
[
2]
Fortune had bestowed upon this man nothing but wealth to give him hope of royal power. By using this both wisely and splendidly he brought it about that he seemed worthy of the throne, first in his own eyes, then in those of others.
[
3]
Then when in a single battle he had conquered the Gauls, a people the more terrible to Asia by reason of their recent arrival, he assumed the title of king, and thenceforth his greatness of soul always matched the greatness of his distinction.
[
4]
He ruled his subjects with perfect justice, exhibited remarkable fidelity to his allies, was courteous to his wife and sons —four
[
5]
survived him —and kind and generous to his friends; he left a kingdom so strong and well-established that possession of it was handed down to the third generation.
1
[
6]
While this was the state of affairs in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, the war with Philip having been scarcely finished and peace, at any rate, not yet assured, a great war broke out in Farther Spain.
2 Marcus Helvius was now governor of that province.
[
7]
He sent dispatches to the senate that two petty kings,
[p. 337]Culcha and Luxinius, were in arms, that seventeen
3 towns had joined Culcha and the powerful cities of Carmo and Baldo
[
8]
were with Luxinius, and that on the coast, the Malacini and Sexetani and all Baeturia and other states which had not yet disclosed their intentions would soon rise to join the revolt of their neighbours.
[
9]
This letter was read to the senate by Marcus Sergius, the praetor who exercised jurisdiction in cases between citizens and aliens,
4 and the Fathers voted that as soon as the praetorian elections were over the praetor to whom the province of Spain had by then been allotted should at the earliest possible moment refer to the senate the question of the Spanish war.