Philip V. Wages War with Attalus, King of Pergamum, and the Rhodians.
See
supra 15, 20-24;
Livy, 31, 17,
sqq.
KING PHILIP having arrived at Pergamum, and believing
Philip's impious conduct in Asia, B. C. 201. |
that he had as good as made an end of Attalus,
gave the rein to every kind of outrage; and
by way of gratifying his almost insane fury he
vented his wrath even more against the gods than against
man. For his skirmishing attacks being easily repelled by the
garrison of Pergamum, owing to the strength of the place, and
being prevented by the precautions taken by Attalus from
getting booty from the country, he directed his anger against
the seats of the gods and the sacred enclosures; in which, as
it appears to me, he did not wrong Attalus so much as himself.
He threw down the temples and the altars, and even had their
stones broken to pieces that none of the buildings he had
destroyed might be rebuilt. After spoiling the Nicephorium,
cutting down its grove, and demolishing its ring wall, and
levelling with the ground many costly fanes, he first directed
his attack upon Thyatira, and thence marched into the plain
of Thebe, thinking that this district would supply him with the
richest spoil.
Zeuxis, Satrap of Antiochus, fails to help Philip substantially. |
But finding himself again disappointed in this respect, on arriving at the
"Holy Village" he sent a message to Zeuxis,
demanding that he would furnish him with corn,
and render the other services stipulated for in the treaty.
1
Zeuxis, however, though feigning to fulfil the obligations of
the treaty, was not minded to give Philip real and substantial help. . . .