1 Because of their feeling of personal guilt, since there was no hope of pardon for them, these men shut the gates, in order to be buried in the general downfall of their city, and urged the people to prefer death to slavery. No one dared open his mouth against such all-powerful men. At last a certain Theodotus, a youth of equal rank, spoke out, his dread of the Romans outweighing his timidity before the chief men of his city.
[2]
“What is this madness,” said he, “which is goading you, that you make the state an accessory to the crime of two men?
[3]
Certainly I have often heard tales of those who met death for the fatherland; but these are the first ever known to believe that the fatherland ought to die for them. Why do we not [p. 337]open our gates and accept the overlordship which2 the world has accepted?”
[4]
When the crowd concurred with these remarks, Antinoüs and Theodotus charged into the first outpost of the enemy and, exposing themselves to wounds, were there killed; the city was surrendered to the Romans. By similar obstinacy on the part of Cephalus, the leading citizen, Tecmon was closed, but when he was killed, it was recovered by surrender.
[5]
Neither Phylace nor Horreum stood up against attack. When order had been established in Epirus, and the troops distributed in winter quarters among suitable cities, Anicius returned to Illyricum, summoned the chief men from all his theatre of operations, and held a conference at Scodra, where the five commissioners from Rome had arrived. There he announced as officer in charge, on the advice of his council, that the Roman senate and people gave the Illyrians their freedom; he would remove his garrisons from all towns, citadels, and forts.
[6]
Not only freedom, but tax-exemption as well would be granted, he said, to the people of Issa and Taulantia, and to the Pirustae among the Dassaretii as well as to Rhizon and Olcinium, because they had gone over to the Romans while Gentius was still undefeated. The Daorsi would also be granted tax-exemption, because they had abandoned Caravantius and gone over with their arms to the Romans. On the people of Scodra, the Dassarenses, the Selepitani, and the rest of the Illyrians a tax was laid of half what they had paid to the king. Next, Anicius divided Illyricum into three parts.
[7]
He made the first of these the region above Pista, the second all the Labeatae, and the third the Agravonitae, Rhizon [p. 339]and Olcinium and their neighbours. After3 announcing this charter for Illyricum, Anicius returned from there into Epirus to his winter-quarters at Passaron.
XXVII. While these events were occurring in Illyricum, Paulus sent his son Quintus Maximus, who had by this time returned from Rome, to sack Aeginium and Agassae before the arrival of the ten commissioners.
[8]
In the case of Agassae, the reason was that, although they had surrendered their city to the consul Marcius with a voluntary request for alliance with Rome, they had again gone over to Perseus. The fault of Aeginium was recent; because they did not believe the rumour about the Roman victory, they had cruelly treated as enemies certain soldiers who had entered their city.4 Paulus also sent Lucius Postumius to sack the city of Aenia, because they had maintained resistance more stubbornly than the neighbouring cities.
It was about the season of autumn; Paulus decided to employ the beginning of this season travelling about Greece and seeing the sights which are made so famous by repute that they are greater by hearsay than by visual acquaintance.
[9]
Putting Gaius Sulpicius Gallus in charge of the camp, he set out with no large escort, his son Scipio and Athenaeus, the brother of King Eumenes, serving as his personal aides. He went through Thessaly to Delphi, the [p. 341]famous oracular shrine. There he offered sacrifice5 to Apollo, and when he saw the columns which had been begun at the entrance, on which they were going to place statues of King Perseus, he reserved them for his own statues as conqueror.6 At Lebadia also he visited the shrine of Jupiter Trophonius;7 there he viewed the mouth of the cave through which those who use the oracle go down to make their inquiries of the gods, and offered sacrifice to Jupiter and Hercynna, whose temple is there.
[10]
Paulus then went down to Chalcis to see the spectacle of the Euripus and of that great island Euboea which is joined by a bridge to the mainland. From Chalcis he crossed to Aulis, three miles away, with its harbour famous as the anchorage once upon a time for the thousand ships8 of Agamemnon's fleet, and its temple of Diana, where the renowned king of kings sought passage to Troy for his ships by bringing his daughter as a victim to the altar.
[11]
Thence Paulus went to Oropus in Attica, where an ancient prophet is worshipped as a god, and there is an old temple made charming by springs and streams around it.9 Thence he went to Athens, which is also replete with ancient glory, but nevertheless has many notable sights, the Acropolis, the harbours, the walls joining Piraeus to the city, the shipyards, the monuments of great [p. 343]generals, and the statues of gods and men —statues10 notable for every sort of material and artistry.
1 27. 15 (13) and XXX. 7 says that at the outset of the war, the Epirote leaders, including Antinoüs and the Cephalus mentioned below, wished to keep out of the war, though maintaining their alliance with Rome; but Charops the younger, by traducing them to Rome, compelled them to declare for Perseus in order to avoid arrest by the Romans.
2 B.C. 167
3 B.C. 167
4 This seems to be another version, or another phase, of the episode recorded in XLIV. xlvi. 3; if, as seems likely, Aeginium was in north-western Thessaly, its adherence to Perseus was more of a fault; but Paulus seems to have been looking for reasons which would justify the acquisition of plunder by the army. If, as Livy's arrangement implies, but does not make certain, these events occurred a year after the fall of Perseus, the justification for them is thin. Assuming this time interval, however, we may suppose that the arrangements of the senate (xvii. 1) were made with the benefit of advice from Paulus, and that Paulus' sightseeing mentioned below was more in order than it would have been soon after the battle of Pydna.
5 B.C. 167
6 Polybius XXX. 10. 2 (14) reports the statues of Paulus as actually erected.
7 The identification of the oracular hero Trophonius with Zeus seems to be unofficial, though Strabo IX. ii. 38 (p. 414) also makes it. A description of the sanctuary, including the shrine of Hercynna, a nymph of a spring and stream, is given by Pausanias IX. xxxix.
8 The ships enumerated in Homer's Catalogue are 1186; but the round number appears in Aeschylus, Vergil, and other poets before Marlowe.
9 The “ancient prophet” was Amphiaraüs, of the Seven against Thebes. His sanctuary was established, according to archaeological evidence, near the end of the fifth century, and became a modest spa, which was favoured by the Romans; in 73 B.C., Amphiaraüs was officially recognized as a god by the consuls, with Cicero's assistance, and his lands were therefore tax-exempt, see Pausanias I. xxxiv and Fraser's note.
10 B.C. 167
Livy. Books XLIII-XLV With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1951: published without copyright notice.
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