During this time Seleucus, who had kept his army [2??] in Aeolis all the winter, engaged partly in rendering assistance to his allies and partly in ravaging the territories of those cities which he failed to win over, decided now to cross the frontiers of Eumenes whilst he was at a distance from home, engaged in attacking the maritime cities of Lycia in conjunction with the Romans and Rhodians. [3] He began by threatening an attack on Elea, then abandoning the siege he ravaged the surrounding district, and then went on to attack Pergamum, the capital and stronghold of the kingdom. [4] Attalus posted troops in front of the city and sent forward skirmishers of cavalry and light infantry to harass the enemy without meeting him in a regular engagement. [5] When he found in these encounters that he was in no way a match for his foe, he retired within his walls and the investment of the city commenced. [6] Antiochus left Apamea just about this time and encamped first at Sardis and then at the head of the Caicus, not far from Seleucus' camp, with a vast army drawn from various nations, the most formidable of whom were the Gaulish mercenaries, about 4000 strong. [7] These, with a small admixture of other troops, were sent to devastate every part of the territory of Pergamum. As soon as news of this reached Samos, Eumenes, summoned home by this war within his borders, sailed direct to Elea, where a body of cavalry and light infantry were in readiness. [8] Feeling himself safe with these, he hurried on to Pergamum before the enemy were aware or had made any movement to oppose him. Here again the fighting was confined to skirmishes, as Eumenes firmly declined to risk a decisive action. [9] A few days later the Roman and Rhodian fleets moved from Samos to Elea to support the king. When Antiochus received intelligence that troops were landed at Elea and that such a large naval force was concentrated in a single harbour, and at [10??] the same time learnt that the consul and his army were already in Macedonia, and that all preparations were being made for crossing the Hellespont, he thought that the time had come for discussing terms of peace, before he was beset both by land and sea. [11] There was some rising ground over against Elea, and he selected this for the site of his camp. Leaving all his infantry there, and his cavalry, of which he had 6000, he went down [12??] into the plain which extended to the walls of Elea, and sent a herald to Aemilius to inform him that he wished to open up negotiations for peace with him.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.