the Macedonian sets sail from Corinth, that he will arrive in Italy. Perhaps you may not consider Philip as equal to Hannibal, or the Macedonians to the Carthaginians: certainly, however, you will allow him equal to Pyrrhus. Equal, do I say? what a vast superiority has the one man over the other-the one nation over the other! Epirus ever was, and is at this day, deemed but an inconsiderable accession to the kingdom of Macedonia. Philip has the entire Peloponnesus under his dominion; even Argos itself, not more celebrated for its ancient glory than for the death of Pyrrhus. Now compare our situation. How much more flourishing was Italy when Pyrrhus attacked it! How much greater its strength, possessing so many commanders, so many armies, which the Punic war afterward consumed! Yet was he able to give it a violent shock, and advanced victorious almost to the gates of Rome: and not the Tarentines only, and the inhabitants of that tract of Italy which they call the greater Greece, whom you may suppose to have been led by the similarity of language and name, but the Lucanian, the Bruttian, and the Samnite, revolted from us. Do you believe that these would continue quiet and faithful if Philip should come over to Italy, because they continued faithful afterward, and during the Punic war? Be assured those states will never fail to revolt from us, except when there is no one to whom they can go over. If you had disapproved of a Roman army passing into Africa, you would this day have had Hannibal and the Carthaginians to contend with in Italy. Let Macedonia, rather than Italy, be the seat of war. Let the cities and lands of the enemy be wasted with fire and sword. We have already found, by experience, that our arms are more powerful and more successful abroad than at home. Go, and give your voices with the blessing of the gods; and what the senate have voted, do you ratify by your order. This resolution is recommended to you, not only by your consul, but even by the immortal gods themselves; who, when I offered sacrifice, and prayed that the issue of this war might be happy and prosperous to me and to the senate, to you and the allies and Latine confederates, granted every omen of success and happiness."

8. After this speech of Sulpicius, being sent to give their votes, they declared for the war as he had proposed. On which, in pursuance of a decree of the senate, a supplication for three days was proclaimed by the consuls; and prayers were offered to the gods at all the shrines, that the war which the people had ordered against Philip might be attended with success and prosperity. The consul Sulpicius, inquiring of the heralds whether they would direct the declaration of the war against King Philip to be made to himself in person, or

whether it would be sufficient to publish it in the nearest garrison within the frontiers of his kingdom, they answered that either would do. The consul received authority from the senate to send any person whom he thought proper, not being a senator, as ambassador, to denounce war against the king. They then proceeded to arrange the armies for the consuls and pretors. The consuls were ordered to levy two legions, and to disband the veteran troops. Sulpicius, to whom the management of this new and highly important war had been decreed, was allowed permission to carry with him as many volunteers as he could procure out of the army which Publius Scipio had brought home from Africa; but he was not empowered to compel any veteran soldier to attend him. They ordered that the consul should give to the pretors, Lucius Furius Purpureo and Quintus Minucius Rufus, five thousand of the allies of the Latine confederacy; with which forces they should hold, one, the province of Gaul, the other, Bruttium. Quintus Fulvius Gillo was ordered, in like manner, to select out of the army which Publius Ælius, late consul, had commanded, such as had been the shortest time in the service, until he also made up five thousand of the allies and Latine confederates, for guarding his province of Sicily. To Marcus Valerius Falto, who, during the former year, had held the province of Campania, as pretor, the command was continued for a year; in order that he might go over in quality of propretor to Sardinia, and choose out of the army there five thousand of the allies of the Latine confederacy, who also had been the shortest time in the service. The consuls were at the same time ordered to levy two legions for the city, which might be sent wherever occasion should require; as there were many states in Italy infected with an attachment to the Carthaginians, which they had formed during the war, and in consequence, swelling with resentment. The state was to employ during tha: year six Roman legions.

9. In the midst of the preparations for war, ambassadors came from King Ptolemy, with the following message:That "the Athenians had petitioned the king for aid against Philip; but that although they were their common_allies, yet the king would not, without the direction of the Roman people, send either fleet or army into Greece, for the purpose of defending or attacking any person: that he would remain quiet in his kingdom, if the Romans were at leisure to protect their allies; or, if more agreeable to them to be at rest, would himself send such aid as should effectually secure Athens against Philip." Thanks were returned to the king by the senate, and this answer:-that "it was the intention of the Roman people to protect their allies: that if

they should have occasion for any assistance towards carrying on the war, they would acquaint the king; and that they were fully sensible that, in the power of his kingdom, their state had a sure and faithful resource." Presents were then, by order of the senate, sent to the ambassadors, of five thousand asses* to each. While the consuls were employed in levying troops, and making other necessary preparations, the people, prone to religious observances, especially at the beginning of new wars, after supplications had been already performed, and prayers offered up at all the shrines, lest any thing should be omitted that had ever been practised, ordered that the consul who was to have the province of Macedonia should vow games, and a present to Jove. Licinius, the chief pontiff, occasioned some delay in the performance of it, alleging that "he could not properly frame the vow, unless the money to discharge it were specified: for as the sum to be named could not be applied to the uses of the war, it should be immediately set apart, and not to be intermixed with other money; and that, unless this were done, the vow could not be fulfilled." Although the objection, and the person who proposed it, were both of weight, yet the consul was ordered to consult the college of pontiffs, whether a vow could not be undertaken without specifying the amount to discharge it? The pontiffs determined that it could; and that it would be even more in order to do it in that way. The consul, therefore, repeating after the chief pontiff, made the vow in the same words in which those made for five years of safety used to be expressed; only that he engaged to perform the games, and make the offerings, at such expense as the senate should direct by their vote, at the timewhen the vow was to be put in act. Before this the great games, so often vowed, were constantly rated at a certain expense: this was the first time that the sum was not specified.

10. While every one's attention was turned to the Macedonian war, and at a time when people apprehended nothing less, a sudden account was brought of an inroad made by the Gauls. The Insubrians, Cenomanians, and Boians, having been joined by the Salyans, Ilvatians, and other Ligurian states, and putting themselves under the command of Hamilcar, a Carthaginian, who, having been in the army of Hasdrubal, had remained in those parts, had fallen on Placentia; and, after plundering the city, and in their rage burning a great part of it, leaving scarcely two thousand men among the flames and ruins, passed the Po, and advanced to plunder Cremona. The news of the calamity, which

161. 28. 1d.

had fallen on a city in their neighbourhood, having reached thither, the inhabitants had time to shut their gates, and place guards on the walls, that they might at least try the event of siege, and send messengers to the Roman pretor. Lucius Furius Purpureo, who had then the command of the province, had, in pursuance of the decree of the senate, disbanded the army, excepting five thousand of the allies and Latine confederates, and had halted with these troops in the nearest district of the province about Ariminum. He immediately informed the senate, by letter, of the subsisting tumult: that, "of the two colonies which had escaped the general wreck in the dreadful storm of the Punic war, one was taken and sacked by the present enemy, and the other besieged. Nor was his army capable of affording sufficient protection to the distressed colonists, unless he chose to expose five thousand allies to be slaughtered by forty thousand invaders, (for so many there were in arms;) and by such a loss, on his side, to augment their courage, already elated on having destroyed one Roman colony."

11. On reading this letter, it was decreed, that the consul Aurelius should order the army which he had appointed to assemble on a certain day in Etruria, to attend him on the same day at Ariminum; and should either go in person, if the public business would permit, to suppress the tumult of the Gauls, or write to the pretor Lucius Furius, that, as soon as the legions from Etruria came to him, he should send five thousand of the allies to guard that place in the mean time, and should himself proceed to relieve the colony from the siege. It was also decreed, that ambassadors should be sent to Carthage, and also into Numidia to Masinissa; to Carthage, to tell that people that "their countryman, Hamilcar, having been left in Gaul, (either with a part of the army formerly commanded by Hasdrubal, or with that of Mago-they did not with certainty know which,) was waging war, contrary to the treaty: that he had raised forces from among the Gauls and Ligurians, and persuaded them to take arms against Rome: that, if they chose a continuance of peace, they must recall him, and give him up to the Roman people." They were ordered at the same time to tell them, that "all the deserters had not been produced; that a great part of them were said to appear openly in Carthage, who ought to be sought after, and surrendered, according to the treaty." This was the message they were to deliver to the Carthaginians. To Masinissa they were charged with congratulation, on his "having not only recovered the kingdom of his father, but enlarged it by the acquisition of the most flourishing parts of Syphax's territories." They were ordered also to acquaint him, that "the

Romans had entered into a war against Philip, because he had given aid to the Carthaginians, while, by the injuries which he offered to the allies of the Roman people, he had obliged them to send fleets and armies into Greece, at a time when the flames of war spread over all Italy; and that by thus making them separate their forces, had been the principal cause of their being so late in passing over to Africa; and to request him to send some Numidian horsemen to assist in that war." Ample presents were given them to be carried to the king; vases of gold and silver, a purple robe, and a tunic adorned with palms of purple, an ivory sceptre, and a robe of state, with a curule chair. They were also directed to assure him, that if he deemed any thing farther requisite to confirm and enlarge his kingdom, the Roman people, in return for his good services, would exert their utmost zeal to effect it. At this time, too, the senate was addressed by ambassadors from Vermina, son of Syphax, apologizing for his mistaken conduct, on account of his youth and want of judgment, and throwing all the blame on the deceitful policy of the Carthaginians; adding, that, as Masinissa had from an enemy become a friend to the Romans, so Vermina would also use his best endeavours that he should not be outdone in offices of friendship to the Roman people, either by Masinissa or by any other; and requesting that he might receive from the senate the title of king, friend, and ally." The answer given to these ambassadors was, that not only his father Syphax, from a friend and ally, had on a sudden, without any reason, become an enemy to the Roman people, but that he himself had made his first essay of manhood in bearing arms against them. He must therefore sue to the Roman people for peace before he could expect to be acknowledged king, ally, and friend; that it was the practice of that people to bestow the honour of such title in return for great services performed by kings toward them: that the Roman ambassadors would soon be in Africa, to whom the senate would give instructions to regulate conditions of peace with Vermina, as he should submit the terms entirely to the will of the Roman people; and that, if he wished that any thing should be added, left out, or altered, he must make a second application to the senate." The ambassadors sent to Africa on those affairs were Caius Terentius Varro, Publius Lucretius, and Cneius Octavius, each of whom had a quinquereme assigned him.

12. A letter was then read in the senate from Quintus Minucius, the pretor, who held the province of Bruttium, that "the money had been privately carried off by night out of the treasury of Proserpine at Locri; and that there were 20 traces which could direct to the discovery of the guilty