the battle, and that these were exhausted by fatigue and wounds, sent the priests (having their heads bound with the fillets of suppliants) at the dawn of the next day to surrender the city to Philip.

18. Before the surrender, one of the Roman ambassadors who had been sent to Alexandria, Mareus Emilius, being the youngest of them, in pursuance of a resolution which the three had jointly formed, on hearing of the present siege, came to Philip, and complained of his having made war on Attalus and the Rhodians; and particularly of the attack on Abydus, in which he was then employed: and on Philip's saying that he had been forced into the war by Attalus and the Rhodians commencing hostilities against him,-"Did the people of Abydus, too," said he, commence hostilities against you?" To him, who was unaccustomed to hear truth, this language seemed too arrogant to be used to a king, and he answered," Your youth, the beauty of your form, and, above all, the name of Roman, render you too presumptuous. However, my first desire is, that you would observe the treaties, and continue in peace with me; but if you begin an attack, I am, on my part, determined to prove that the kingdom and name of the Macedonians is not less formidable in war than that of the Romans." Having dismissed the ambassadors in this manner, Philip got possession of the gold and silver which had been thrown together in a heap, but was disappointed of his booty with respect to prisoners; for such violent phrensy had seized the multitude, that, on a sudden, taking up a persuasion that they were guilty of treachery towards those who had fallen in the battle, and upbraiding one another with perjury, especially the priests, who would surrender alive to the enemy those persons whom they themselves had devoted, they all at once ran different ways to put their wives and children to death; and then they put an end to their own lives by every possible method. The king, astonished at their madness, restrained the violence of his soldiers, and said, "that he would allow the people of Abydus three days to die in;" and, during this space, the vanquished perpetrated more deeds of cruelty on themselves, than the enraged conquerors would have committed; nor did any one of them come into the enemy's hands alive, except such as were in chains, or under some other insuperable restraint. Philip, leaving a garrison in Abydus, returned to his kingdom; and, just when he had been encouraged by the destruction of the people of Abydus, to proceed in the war against Rome, as Hannibal had been by the destruction of Saguntum, he was met by couriers, with intelligence that the consul was already in Épirus, and

had drawn his land forces to Apollonia, and his fleet to Corcyra, into winter quarters.

19. In the mean time the ambassadors who had been sent into Africa, on the affair of Hamilcar, the leader of the Gallic army, received from the Carthaginians this answer: that "it was not in their power to do more than to inflict on him the punishment of exile, and to confiscate his effects; that they had delivered up all the deserters and fugitives, whom, on a diligent inquiry, they had been able to discover, and would send ambassadors to Rome, to satisfy the senate on that head." They sent two hundred thousand measures of wheat to Rome, and the same quantity to the army in Macedonia. From thence the ambassadors proceeded into Numidia, to the kings; delivered to Masinissa the presents and the message according to their instructions, and out of two thousand Numidian horsemen which he offered, accepted one thousand. Masinissa superintended in person the embarkation of these, and sent them, with two hundred thousand measures of wheat, and the same quantity of barley, into Macedonia. The third commission which they had to execute was with Vermina. He advanced to meet them as far as the utmost limits of his kingdom, and left it to themselves to prescribe such conditions of peace as they thought proper, declaring that "he should consider any peace with the Roman people as just and advantageous." The terms were then settled, and he was ordered to send ambassadors to Rome to procure a ratification of the treaty.

20. About the same time Lucius Cornelius Lentulus, proconsul, came home from Spain; and having laid before the senate an account of his brave and successful conduct, during the course of many years, demanded that he might be allowed to enter the city in triumph. The senate, on this, gave their opinion, that, "his services were, indeed, deserving of a triumph; but that they had no precedent left them by their ancestors, of any person enjoying a triumph, who was not, at the time of performing the service on account of which he claimed that honour, either dictator, consul, or pretor; that he had held the province of Spain in quality of proconsul, and not of consul or pretor." They determined however that he might enter the city in ovation. Against this Tiberius Sempronius Longus, tribune of the people, protested, alleging, that such proceedings would be no less unprecedented, and contrary to the practice of their ancestors, than the other; but overcome at length by the unanimous desire of the senate, the tribune withdrew his opposition, and Lucius Lentulus entered the city in ovation. He carried to the treasury forty-four thousand pounds weight of silver, and two thousand four hundred pounds weight of

LIV. VOL. IV.-C

gold. To each of the soldiers he distributed of the spoil, one hundred and twenty assés.*

21. The consular army had by this time removed from Arretium to Ariminum, and the five thousand Latine confederates had gone from Gaul into Etruria. Lucius Furius therefore advanced from Ariminum, by forced marches, against the Gauls, who were then besieging Cremona, and pitched his camp at the distance of one mile and a half from the enemy. Furius had an excellent opportunity of striking an important blow, had he, without halting, led his troops directly to attack their camp; they were scattered and dispersed through the country, and the guard which they had left was very insufficient; but he was apprehensive that his men were too much fatigued by their hasty march. The Gauls, recalled from the fields by the shouts of their party, returned to the camp without seizing the booty within their reach, and, next day, marched out to offer battle; the Roman did not decline the combat, but had scarcely time to make the necessary dispositions, so rapidly did the enemy advance to the fight. The right brigade (for he had the troops of the allies divided into brigades) was placed in the first line, the two Roman legions in reserve. Marcus Furius was at the head of the right brigade, Marcus Cæcilius of the legions, and Lucius Valerius Flaccus of the cavalry: these were all lieutenants-general. Two other lieutenants-general, Cneius Lætorius and Publius Titinius, the pretor kept near himself, that with their assistance, he might observe, and take proper measures against any sudden attack. At first, the Gauls, bending their whole force to one point, were in hopes of being able to overwhelm, and trample under foot, the right brigade, which was in the van; but not succeeding, they endeavoured to turn round the flanks, and to surround their enemy's line, which, considering the multitude of their forces, and the small number of the others, seemed easy to be done. On observing this, the pretor, in order to extend his own line, brought up the two legions from the reserve, and placed them on the right and left of the brigade which was engaged in the van; vowing a temple to Jupiter, if he should on that day prove victorious. To Lucius Valerius he gave orders to make the horsemen of the two legions on one flank, and the cavalry of the allies on the other, charge the wings of the enemy, and not suffer them to come round to his rear. At the same time, observing that the centre of their line was weakened, from having extended the wings, he directed his men to make an attack there in close order, and to break through their ranks. The wings were routed

78. 9d.

by the cavalry, and, at the same time, the centre by the foot. Being worsted in all parts with great slaughter, the Gauls quickly turned their backs, and fled to their camp in hurry and confusion. The cavalry pursued them; and the legions coming up in a short time after, assaulted the camp, from whence there did not escape so many as six thousand men. There were slain and taken above thirty-five thousand, with eighty standards, and above two hundred Gallic wagons laden with booty of all kinds. Hamilcar, the Carthaginian general, fell that day, and three distinguished generals of the Gauls. The prisoners taken at Placentia, to the number of two thousand free men, were restored to the colony.

22. This was an important victory, and caused great joy at Rome. On receipt of the pretor's letter, a supplication for three days was decreed. In that battle there fell of the Romans and allies two thousand, most of them in the right brigade, against which, in the first onset, the most violent efforts of the enemy had been directed. Although the pretor had brought the war almost to a conclusion, yet the consul, Cneius Aurelius, having finished the business which required his attendance at Rome, set out for Gaul, and received the victorious army from the pretor. The other consul arriving in his province towards the end of autumn, passed the winter in the neighbourhood of Apollonia. Caius Claudius, and the Roman triremes which had been sent to Athens from the fleet that was laid up at Corcyra, as was mentioned above, arriving at Piræus, greatly revived the hopes of their allies, who were beginning to give way to despair. Their arrival not only put a stop to the inroads by land, which used to be made from Corinth through Megara, but so terrified the pirates from Chalcis, who had been accustomed to infest both the Athenian sea and coast, that they dared not venture round the promontory of Sunium, nor even trust themselves out of the straits of the Euripus. In addition to these came three quadriremes from Rhodes, the Athenians having three open ships, which they had equipped for the protection of their lands on the coast. While Claudius thought, that if he were able with his fleet to give security to the Athenians, it was as much as could be expected at present, fortune threw in his way an opportunity of accomplishing an enterprise of greater moment.

23. Some exiles driven from Chalcis, by ill-treatment received from the king's party, brought intelligence that the place might be taken without even a contest; for the Macedonians, being under no immediate apprehension from an enemy, were straying idly about the country; and the townsmen, depending on the Macedonian garrison, neglected the guard of the city. Claudius, in consequence of this, set out,

and though he arrived at Sunium early enough to have sailed forward to the entrance of the strait of Euboea, yet fearing that, on doubling the promontory, he might be descried by the enemy, he lay by with the fleet until night. As soon as it grew dark he began to move, and favoured by a calm, arrived at Chalcis a little before day; and then, approaching the city, on a side where it was thinly inhabited, with a small party of soldiers, and by means of scaling ladders, he got possession of the nearest tower, and the wall on each side. Finding in some places the guards asleep, and other parts left without any watch, they advanced to the more populous parts of the town, and having slain the sentinels, and broke open a gate, they gave an entrance to the main body of the troops. These immediately spread themselves through all parts of the city, and increased the tumult by setting fire to the buildings round the forum, by which means both the granaries belonging to the king, and his armory, with a vast store of machines and engines, were reduced to ashes. Then commenced a general slaughter of those who fled, as well as of those who made resistance; and after having either put to the sword or driven out every one who was of an age fit to bear arms, (Sopater also, the Acarnanian, who commanded the garrison, being slain,) they first collected all the spoils in the forum, and then carried it on board the ships. The prison, too, was forced open by the Rhodians, and those whom Philip had shut up there were set at liberty. They next pulled down and mutilated the statues of the king; and then, on a signal being given for a retreat, re-embarked and returned to Piræus, from whence they had set out. If there had been a sufficient number of Roman soldiers to have kept possession of Chalcis, without stripping Athens of a proper garrison, that city and the command of the Euripus would have been a most important advantage at the commencement of the war; for as the pass of Thermopyla is the principal barrier of Greece by land, so is the strait of the Euripus by sea.

24. Philip was then at Demetrias, and as soon as the news arrived there of the calamity which had befallen the city of his allies, although it was too late to carry assistance to those who were already ruined, yet anxious to accomplish what was next to assistance, revenge, he set out instantly with five thousand foot, lightly equipped, and three hundred horse. With a speed almost equal to that of racing, he hastened to Chalcis, not doubting but that he should be able to surprise the Romans. Finding himself disappointed, and that his coming answered no other end than to give him a melancholy view of the smoking ruins of that friendly city, (so few being left, that they were scarcely sufficient to bury those