(BOOK 19, BOISSEVAIN.)

IX, 18.—At this time Flamininus, too, made a campaign against Argos, for the Romans seeing that Nabis was not loyal to them and was a source of terror to the Greeks treated him as an enemy. With an accession of allies from Philip Flamininus marched upon Sparta, crossed Taygetus without effort and advanced toward the city, meeting with no opposition. For Nabis, being afraid of the Romans and suspicious of the natives, did not rouse himself to the point of meeting Flamininus at a distance; but when the latter came nearer he made a hostile excursion from the town, thinking lightly of his opponent because of the fatigue of the journey and because Flamininus was kept employed by the business of encamping; and he did cause a few flurries. The next day he came out to face the Romans when they assaulted, but as he lost large numbers he did not come out again. So Flamininus, leaving a portion of his army there to prevent a warlike demonstration anywhere, with the rest turned his attention to the country districts; these he ravaged with the aid of his brother and the Rhodians and Eumenes, son of Attalus. Nabis was consequently in despair and despatched a herald to Flamininus about peace. The latter listened to his proposals but did not immediately cease hostilities. For Nabis did not dare to refuse the arrangements which he was asked to make, nor yet would he consent to make them. And the populace prevented him from coming to an agreement. So temporarily Nabis did not come to terms, but when the Romans attacked again and captured almost all of Sparta (it was in part destitute of a wall), he would wait no longer, but made a truce with Flamininus and by sending an embassy to Rome effected a settlement.

Flamininus hereupon set all the Greeks free; B.C. 194
(a.u. 560)later he convened them in session and after reminding them of the benefits they had received urged them to maintain a kindly attitude toward the Romans: he then withdrew all their garrisons and departed with his entire army.

Upon the arrival of Flamininus at Rome Nabis rebelled. And straightway the whole Greek world, so to speak, was thrown into a turmoil which the Ætolians did their best to increase. They were making ready for war and were sending embassies to Philip and Antiochus. They persuaded the latter to assume a position of hostility to the Romans, promising him that he should be king of both Greece and Italy. Roman interests were so upset that they had no hope of overcoming Antiochus, but were satisfied if they could preserve their former conquests. Antiochus was regarded as a mighty personage both in the light of his own power, through which he had performed distinguished exploits and above all had subjugated Media, B.C. 193
(a.u. 561)and he loomed far mightier still for having attached to his cause Ptolemy, king of Egypt, and Ariarathes, monarch of Cappadocia, as a kinsman by marriage.

Antiochus being so esteemed, the Romans as long as they were at war with Philip were careful to court his favor, keeping up friendly relations with him through envoys and sending him gifts. But when they had vanquished their other enemy, they despised also this king whom they had formerly feared. Antiochus himself crossed over into Thrace and gained control of many districts. B.C. 192
(a.u. 562)He helped colonize Lysimachia, which had been depopulated, intending to use it as a base. It was Philip and Nabis who had invited his assistance. Hannibal, too, had been with him and had caused him to hope that he might sail to Carthage and from there to Italy, and further that he could subjugate the races along the Ionian Gulf and with them set out against Rome. Twice before, indeed, Antiochus had crossed into Europe and had reached Greece. This time he learned that Ptolemy was dead, and deeming it all important that he should obtain the sovereignty of Egypt he left his son Seleucus with a force at Lysimachia and himself set out on the march. He found out, however, that Ptolemy was alive, and so kept away from Egypt and made an attempt to sail to Cyprus. Baffled by a storm he returned home. The Romans and he both despatched envoys to each other submitting mutual complaints that they might get an excuse for the war and inspect conditions on each side betimes.

Hannibal had obtained the most important office at Carthage and in his tenure of it had offended the most powerful nobles and incurred their hatred. Malicious reports about him were conveyed to the Romans to the effect that he was rousing the Carthaginians to revolt and was negotiating with Antiochus. Learning that some men from Rome were at hand and fearing possible arrest he escaped from Carthage by night. He came then to Antiochus and paved the way for his own restoration to his native country and for war against the Romans by promising the king that he would secure to him the rulership of Greece and Italy. All went well until Scipio Africanus joined them. Scipio had been sent to Libya as arbitrator between Masinissa and the Carthaginians, who were at variance over some land boundaries, and had left their dispute still hanging in the air that they might continue to quarrel and neither of them be angry at the Romans on account of a definite decision. From there he crossed into Asia nominally as an envoy to Antiochus but in reality to smite both him and Hannibal with terror by his appearance and accomplish what was for the advantage of the Romans. After his arrival Antiochus no longer bestowed a similar degree of attention upon Hannibal. He suspected him of secret dealings with Scipio, and found him burdensome besides, because everybody ascribed every plan to Hannibal and all placed in him their hope for success in the war. For these reasons, then, he became both jealous and afraid of Hannibal, dreading that he might change his demeanor, should he get control of any power. So he neither supplied him with an army nor sent one to Carthage; and he did not favor him very much with audiences but made it a practice not to sanction any of his proposals.

IX, 19.—The rumors about Antiochus occupied a large share of Rome's attention and caused the Romans no small degree of uneasiness. The name of Antiochus was in many mouths: some said that he already held the whole of Greece, others talked to the effect that he was hastening toward Italy. The Romans accordingly despatched envoys to Greece, among them Flamininus, who was on intimate terms with the people, in order to prevent them and Philip from creating any disturbance; and of the prætors they sent Marcus Bæbius to Apollonia, in case Antiochus should undertake to cross over into Italy that way, and Aulus Atilius to attend to Nabis. The second of these had no work to do, for Nabis had ere this perished, the victim of a plot on the part of the Ætolians, and Sparta had been captured by the Achæans: Bæbius and Philip confirmed the loyalty of many portions of Thessaly. The Macedonian king was true to his agreement with the Romans principally for the reason that Antiochus had attached some settlements belonging to him in Thrace.

Flamininus went about Greece, and some he persuaded not to revolt, others already revolted he won back, except the Ætolians and a few towns elsewhere. The Ætolian league had bound itself to Antiochus and was forming a union out of some states that were willing and others that were unwilling. Antiochus in spite of the winter time hastened forward to fulfill the hopes of the Ætolians, and this explains why he did not bring along a respectable force. With what he had, however, he took Chalcis and gained control of the rest of Eubœa. Finding some Romans among the captives he released them all. Then he entered Chalcis to spend the winter, Frag. 591with the result that he himself and his generals and his soldiers had their mental energies ruined beforehand; for by his general indolence and his passion for a certain girl he drifted into luxurious living and at the same time rendered the best unfit for warfare.

The people of Rome learning that he was in Greece and had captured Chalcis took up the war in earnest. B.C. 191
(a.u. 563)Of the consuls they retained Scipio Nasica to guard Italy and sent Manius Glabrio with a large army into Greece. Nasica conducted a war against the Boii, and Glabrio drove Antiochus out of Greece. He also went to Thessaly and with the help of Bæbius and Philip gained control of many of the towns there. He captured Philip of Megalopolis and sent him to Rome, and drove Amynander out of his domain, which he then gave to the Macedonian ruler.

Antiochus meanwhile was staying at Chalcis and keeping quiet. Afterward he entered Bœotia and at Thermopylæ withstood the Romans who came to meet him. Considering the fewness of his soldiers he thought it best to seek an ally in the natural advantages of his position. And in order to avoid having himself such an experience as the Greeks had met who were arrayed there against the Persian he sent a division of the Ætolians up to the summit of the mountains to keep guard there. Glabrio cared little for the location and did not postpone a battle: however, he despatched his lieutenants Porcius Cato and Valerius Flaccus by night against the Ætolians on the summit and himself engaged in conflict with Antiochus just about dawn. As long as he fought on level ground he had the best of it, but when Antiochus fell back to a position higher up, he found himself inferior till Cato arrived in the enemy's rear. Cato had come upon the Ætolians asleep and had killed most of them and scattered the rest; then he hurried down and participated in the battle going on below. So they routed Antiochus and captured his camp. The king forthwith retired to Chalcis, but learning that the consul was approaching went back unobserved to Asia.

Glabrio at once occupied Bœotia and Eubœa, and proceeded to deliver assaults upon Heraclea, since the Ætolians were unwilling to yield to him. The lower city he captured by means of a siege and received the capitulation of those who had fled to the acropolis. Among the prisoners taken at this time was found Democritus the Ætolian general, who had once refused alliance to Flamininus, and when the latter asked for a decree that he might send it to Rome, had said: "Don't worry. I will carry it there with my army and read it to you all on the banks of the Tiber."—Philip was engaged in besieging Lamia when Glabrio came against it and appropriated both victory and booty. Though the remainder of the Ætolians wanted to become reconciled, still they made no truce because Antiochus sent them envoys and money; and they set themselves in readiness for war. Philip affected friendliness toward the Romans, but his heart was with Antiochus. Meantime Glabrio was besieging Naupactus which belonged to the Ætolians, and Flamininus coming to them persuaded the inhabitants to make peace, for he was well known to them. They as well as the Epirots despatched envoys to Rome. Philip for sending a triumphal crown to Capitoline Jupiter received in return among other presents his son Demetrius, who was living at Rome a hostage. A truce was not made with the Ætolians, for they would not submit to any curtailment of privilege.

B.C. 190
(a.u. 564)IX, 20.—The Romans set against Antiochus the Scipios, Africanus and his brother Lucius. They granted the Ætolians a respite for the purpose of once more conducting an embassy to Rome regarding peace, and hurried on against Antiochus. On reaching Macedonia they secured allies from Philip and marched on to the Hellespont. After crossing into Asia they occupied most of the coast districts which had previously been occupied by the Romans who had gone there first, as well as by Eumenes and the Rhodians; the latter had also conquered Hannibal in the region of Pamphylia, as he was taking some ships out from Phœnicia. Eumenes and his brother Attalus proceeded to injure the country of Antiochus, and cities kept coming over, some under compulsion, some voluntarily, to the Romans, with the ultimate result that Antiochus was obliged to abandon Europe entirely and to recall his son Seleucus from Lysimachia. When this son had accomplished the return journey, he sent him with troops against Pergamum. Inasmuch, however, as his investment of the town proved ineffectual and the Scipios soon reached his vicinity, Antiochus lost no time in concluding a truce with them; for he expected to obtain terms since Frag. 592he had got possession of the son of africanus and was according him the kindest treatment. and finally, though he failed of securing peace, he released him without ransom. The peace project, however, came to nothing, because Antiochus would not agree to accede to the Roman demands.

Still, for a long time their attitude was marked by inaction. Finally they fell to fighting again. The following may serve as a general description of the contest. Antiochus put the chariots in front, with the elephants next, and behind these the slingers and the archers. But the Romans anticipated the charge of the chariots by a charge of their own and with a great clamor they rushed straight at them and repulsed them, so that most of these vehicles turned in the direction of the elephants. In their backward career they threw their own contingent into confusion,—for their erratic course terrified and dispersed the men marshaled close to them,—and a heavy rain which now came up rendered weak the detachment of archers and slingers. A heavy, all-enveloping mist succeeded, which was of no hindrance to the Romans, who had the upper hand and were fighting at close range; but in the case of their opponents, who were in dread and employed cavalry and archers for the most part, it made it out of the question to see which way to shoot their arrows and caused them to stumble over one another, like men in the dark. Nevertheless Antiochus developed sufficient power, by means of his armored cavalry, to rout the antagonists directly confronting him and to advance in pursuit of them as far as their camp. Indeed, he would have taken it, had not Marcus Æmilius Lepidus, who was charged with guarding it, killed the first Romans that came in after they had refused to heed his exhortations to check their flight. As a result the rest of the party turned back and the commander himself made a sortie with members of the garrison who were free from the prevailing demoralization, and their united efforts repulsed Antiochus. While this action was taking place, Zeuxis had assailed the ramparts in another quarter, had succeeded in getting within them, and continued to pillage until Lepidus became aware of it and came to the rescue of his own interests. At the same time Scipio captured the camp of Antiochus, wherein he found many human beings, many horses, baggage animals, silver and gold coins, elephants, and a number of precious objects besides. Antiochus after this defeat at once retired into Syria, and the Asiatic Greeks made common cause with the Romans.

After this, upon overtures made by Antiochus, an armistice was arranged. Africanus was well disposed toward him for his son's sake, and the consul, too, did not want to leave the victory to be grasped by his successor, now approaching; consequently they laid upon Antiochus conditions no more severe than those they had originally set, before the battle. B.C. 189
(a.u. 565)Indeed, Gnæus Manlius who succeeded them in office was not pleased with the agreement reached, and he made additional demands upon the king, requiring him besides to give hostages, one of whom should be his son Antiochus, and to deliver up all the deserters, among whom was Hannibal. Antiochus reluctantly yielded obedience on all points: to give up Hannibal, however, was out of his power, since that prince had taken seasonable refuge with Prusias, king of Bithynia. On these terms Antiochus was able to send envoys to Rome and effect a cessation of hostilities. Lucius Scipio received praise for his victory, and it gave him the title of Asiaticus in the same way as his brother had been called Africanus for conquering Carthage, which had possessed the most considerable power in Africa.

These brothers who had proved themselves men of such valor and as a result of excellence had attained such a height of reputation were not long afterward brought to court and handed over to the populace. Lucius was condemned on the suspicion of his having appropriated no inconsiderable share of the spoil, and Africanus nominally for having made the conditions lighter out of gratitude for kindness shown his son; (the true cause of his conviction was jealousy). Frag. 60that they could not justly be charged with wrongdoing is made plain both by other evidence and most of all by the fact that when the property of asiaticus was confiscated it was found to consist merely of his original inheritance, and that though africanus retired to liternum and abode there to the end, no one ever again passed sentence of condemnation upon him.

Manlius all this time was engaged in winning over Pisidia, Lycaonia, and Pamphylia, and a large district of Galatia in Asia. For there exists in that region too a race of Gauls which broke off from the European stock. Years ago with their king, Brennus, at their head they overran Greece and Thrace, and crossing thence to Bithynia they detached certain portions of Phrygia, Paphlagonia, Mysia adjacent to Olympus, and Cappadocia, and took up their residence in them; and they constitute to-day a separate nation bearing the name of Gauls. This people caused Manlius trouble, but he managed to overcome them too, capturing their city Ancyra by assault and gaining control of the rest of the towns by capitulation. This effected, he set sail for home after he had received a large price for peace from Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia.

IX, 21.—The Ætolians when they had sent ambassadors to Rome the second time in regard to peace themselves raised the standard of rebellion. Hence the Romans immediately dismissed the ambassadors and referred the conduct of affairs in Greece to Marcus Fulvius. He set out first for the large city of Ambracia (it had once been the royal residence of Pyrrhus and was now occupied by the Ætolians) and proceeded to besiege it. So the Ætolians held a conference with him about peace, but finding him disinclined to a truce they sent a part of their army into Ambracia. The Romans undertook to capture the town by an underground passage and pushed their mine straight forward, temporarily eluding the notice of the besieged party; but the latter began to suspect the true state of affairs when the excavated earth attained some dimensions. As they were not aware in what direction the trench was being dug, they kept applying a bronze shield to the surface of the ground all about the circuit of the walls. By means of the resonance they found out the place and went to work in their turn to dig a tunnel from inside and approached the Romans, with whom they battled in obscurity. Finally they devised the following sort of defence. They filled a huge jar with feathers and put fire in it. To this they attached a bronze cover that had a number of holes bored in it. Then, after carrying the jar into the mine and turning the mouth of it toward the enemy, they inserted a bellows in the bottom, and by blowing this bellows with vigor they caused a tremendous amount of unpleasant smoke, such as feathers would naturally create, to pour out, so that not one of the Romans could endure it. Hence the Romans in despair of succeeding made a truce and raised the siege. When they had agreed to treat, the Ætolians also changed their course and secured an armistice. Subsequently they obtained a peace from the People by the gift of considerable money and many hostages. Fulvius induced Cephallenia to capitulate and reduced to order the Peloponnesus, which was in a state of factional turmoil.

B.C. 187
(a.u. 567)
B.C. 183
(a.u. 571)After a little, in the consulship of Gaius Flaminius and Æmilius Lepidus, Antiochus died and his son Seleucus succeeded him. Much later, at the demise of Seleucus, the Antiochus who spent some time as a hostage in Rome became king. And Philip had courage enough to revolt because he had been deprived of some towns in Thessaly and of Ænus and Maronea besides, but he was unable to do so on account of his age and what had happened to his sons.—Some Gauls crossed the Alps and desired to found a city to the south of the mountains. Marcus Marcellus took away their arms and everything that they had brought: the Romans in the capital, however, upon receiving an embassy from them restored everything on condition that they should at once retire.

These years also saw the death of Hannibal. Envoys had been sent from Rome to Prusias, monarch of Bithynia, and a part of their errand was to make him give up Hannibal, who was at his court. The Carthaginian had advance information of the facts and being unable to escape committed suicide. cp. Frag. 64.an oracle had once announced to him that he should die in the land of libyssa, and he was expecting to die in libya, his native country, but, as it happened, his demise occurred while he chanced to be staying in a certain place called libyssa. Scipio Africanus also died at this time.