he had two sons, whom he kept at home, but those by the former marriage
he had adopted into the greatest and noblest families of Rome, the elder
into that of Fabius Maximus, who had five times been consul, while the
younger was treated by Scipio Africanus as his cousin, and took the name
of Scipio.
Of his two daughters, one married a son of Cato, the other Aelius
Tubero, an excellent man, who supported his poverty more gloriously than
any other Roman. There were sixteen in the family, all Aelii; and one
small house and estate sufficed for them all, with their numerous
offspring and their wives, among whom was the daughter of our Aemilius,
who, though her father had twice been consul and twice triumphed, was
not ashamed of the poverty of her husband, but was proud of the virtue
that kept him poor. But nowadays brothers and kinsmen, unless their
inheritances be divided by mountain ranges, rivers, and walls like
fortifications, with plenty of space between them, quarrel without
ceasing. These are the materials for reflection which history affords to
those who choose to make use of them.
VI. Aemilius, when elected consul, marched against the sub-Alpine
Ligurians, called by some Ligustines, a brave and spirited nation, and
from their nearness to Rome, skilled in the arts of war. Mixed with the
Gauls, and the Iberians of the sea coast, they inhabit the extremity of
Italy where it dies away into the Alps, and also that part of the Alps
which is washed by the Tuscan Sea, opposite the Libyan coast. At this
time they took also to seafaring, and, sailing forth in small piratical
ships, they plundered and preyed upon commerce as far as the columns of
Heracles. On Aemilius's approach they opposed him, forty thousand
strong; but he, with only eight thousand, attacked five-fold his own
numbers, put them to rout, and having chased them into their fastnesses,
offered them reasonable and moderate terms; for it was not the Roman
policy utterly to exterminate the Ligurian race, but to leave them as an
outwork to protect Italy against the constant movements of the Gaulish
tribes.
Trusting in Aemilius they surrendered all their ships and their cities
into his hands. He did the cities no hurt, or at most destroyed the
walls, and restored them to the owners, but he carried off all the
ships, leaving them nothing larger than a six-oared boat; while he set
free the numerous captives which they had taken both by sea and land,
among whom were some Roman citizens. These were his glorious exploits in
that consulship. Afterwards he frequently let his desire for re-election
be seen, and once became a candidate, but as he failed and was passed
over, he thenceforth remained in retirement, occupying himself with
religious matters, and teaching his children not only the Roman
education in which he himself had been brought up, but also the Greek,
and that more carefully. For not only were the grammarians,
philosophers, and orators Greek, but also the sculptors and painters,
and the young men kept Greeks to manage their horses and hounds, and
instruct them in hunting. Aemilius, unless hindered by public business,
always was present at the exercises and studies of his sons, and was the
kindest father in Rome.
VII. This was the period during which the Romans, who were at war with
Perseus, King of Macedon, complained of their generals, whose ignorance
and cowardice had led to the most disgraceful and ridiculous failure,
and to the sustaining of much more loss than they inflicted. They, who
had just driven Antiochus, called the Great, out of Asia Minor, beyond
Taurus, and restricted him to Syria, making him glad to purchase peace
at the price of fifteen thousand talents; who, a little before, had
crushed Philip in Thessaly, and set free the Greeks from the power of
Macedon; and who had also utterly subdued Hannibal himself, a man whose
daring and immense resources rendered him far more dangerous an opponent
than any king, thought that it was not to be borne that Perseus should
wage war as if he were on equal terms with the Roman people, and that,
too, with only the remnants of his father's routed forces; for they did
not know that Philip, after his defeat, had greatly increased the power
and efficiency of the Macedonian army. To explain which, I shall briefly
relate the story from the beginning.
VIII. Antigonus, who was the most powerful of the generals and
successors of Alexander, and who obtained for himself and his family the
title of king, had a son named Demetrius, whose son was Antigonus,
called Gonatas. His son again was named Demetrius, who, after reigning
some short time, died, leaving a son Philip, a mere boy in years.
Fearing disturbance during his minority, the Macedonian nobles made
Antigonus, a cousin of the deceased, Regent and commander-in-chief,
associating with him in this office the mother of Philip. Finding him a
moderate and useful ruler, they soon gave him the title of king. He had
the soubriquet of Doson, as though he were only a promiser, not a
performer of his engagements. After this man, Philip came to the throne,
and, while yet a boy, distinguished himself in all that becomes a king,
so as to raise men's hopes that he might restore the empire of Macedon
to its ancient glory, and be alone able to check the power of Rome,
which now menaced the whole world. Defeated in a great battle at
Scotussa by Titus Flamininus, he bent to the storm, surrendered all that
he had to the Romans, and was thankful for mild treatment. Afterwards,
chafing at his subordinate position, and thinking that to reign
dependent on the pleasure of the Romans was more worthy of a slave who
cares only for sensual pleasure, than of a man of spirit, he gave his
whole mind up to preparations for war, and secretly and unscrupulously
collected materials for it. Of the cities in his kingdom, he allowed
those on the sea-coast and the main roads to fall into partial decay, so
that his power might be despised, while he collected great forces in the
interior. Here he filled all the outposts, fortresses, and cities with
arms, money, and men fit for service, and thus trained the nation for
war, yet kept his preparations secret. In his arsenals were arms for
thirty thousand men; eight million medimni of corn were stored in his
fortresses, and such a mass of treasure as would pay an army of ten
thousand men for ten years. But before he could put all these forces in
motion and begin the great struggle, he died of grief and remorse, for
he had, as he admitted, unjustly put his other son Demetrius to death on
the calumnies of one far worse than he was. Perseus, the survivor,
inherited his father's hatred of the Romans with his kingdom, but was
not of a calibre to carry out his designs, as his small and degraded
mind was chiefly possessed by avarice. He is said not even to have been
legitimate, but that Philip's wife obtained him when a baby from his
real mother, a midwife of Argos, named Gnathaina, and palmed him off
upon her husband. And this seems to have been one reason for her putting
Demetrius to death, for fear that if the family had a legitimate heir,
this one's bastardy would be discovered.
IX. However, low-born and low-minded though he was, yet having by the
force of circumstances drifted into war, he held his own and maintained
himself for a long time against the Romans, defeating generals of
consular rank with great armies, and even capturing some of them.
Publius Licinius, who first invaded Macedonia, was defeated in a cavalry
engagement, with a loss of two thousand five hundred brave men killed,
and six hundred prisoners. Perseus next by a sudden attack made himself
master of the Roman naval station at Oreus, took twenty store ships,
sunk the rest, which were loaded with grain, and took also four
quinqueremes.[A] He fought also a second battle, in which he drove back
the consular general Hostilius, who was trying to invade Macedonia near
Elimiae; and when he tried to steal in through Thessaly, he again
offered battle, which the Roman declined. As an accessory to the war he
now made a campaign against the Dardans, as if affecting to despise the
Romans and to be at leisure. Here he cut to pieces ten thousand of the
barbarians, and carried off much plunder. He also had secret
negotiations with the Gauls who dwell near the Ister, called Basternae,
a nation of warlike horsemen, and by means of Genthius their king he
endeavoured to induce the Illyrians to take part in the war. There was
even a report that the barbarians had been induced by his bribes to
march through the southern part of Gaul beside the Adriatic, and so
invade Italy.
[Footnote A: Ships of war with five banks of oars.]
X. The Romans, when they learnt all this, determined that they would
disregard political influence in their choice of a general, and choose
some man of sense and capable of undertaking great operations. Such a
one was Paulus Aemilius, a man of advanced age, being about sixty years
old, but still in full vigour of body, and surrounded by kinsmen,
grown-up sons, and friends, who all urged him to listen to the appeal of
his country and be consul. He at first treated the people with little
respect, and shunned their eager professions of zeal, on the plea that
he did not wish for the command; but as they waited on him daily, and
called for him to come into the forum and shouted his name, he was at
length prevailed upon. When a candidate, he seemed to enter the field
not with a view to getting office, but to giving victory and strength in
battle to his fellow-citizens; with such zeal and confidence did they
unanimously elect him consul for the second time, not permitting lots
to be cast for provinces by the two consuls, as is usual, but at once
decreeing to him the management of the Macedonian war. It is said that
when he was named general against Perseus, he was escorted home in
triumph by the people _en masse_, and found his daughter Tertia, who was
quite a little child, in tears. He embraced her, and asked her why she
was crying; and she, throwing her arms round him and kissing him, said,
"Do you not know, father, that our Perseus is dead?" meaning a little
dog which she had brought up, which was so named. Aemilius said, "May
this bring good luck, my daughter: I accept the omen." This story Cicero
the orator tells in his book on Divination.
XI. It being the custom that the consuls-elect should return thanks, and
make a gracious speech to the people from the rostrum, Aemilius called
together the people and said that he had sought for his former
consulship because he wanted office, but for this one because they
wanted a general: wherefore he felt no gratitude towards them, but would
lay down his consulship if they thought that they would succeed better
in the war under some one else; but if they felt confidence in him, he
asked them not to interfere with his acts as general, nor to gossip
about him, but to furnish quietly what was wanted for the war; for if
they tried to command their commander they would afford even a more
sorry spectacle than they had already done. By these words he made the
citizens stand greatly in awe of him, and gave them great expectations
of what he would effect, while all rejoiced that they had passed over
those who used to flatter them, and had chosen a general of independence
and spirit. So much did the Roman people respect bravery and honour,
because it led to conquests, and to making them masters of the world.
XII. I consider it to have been by divine favour that Aemilius Paulus on
starting for his campaign met with such a fortunate and calm voyage, and
so speedily and safely arrived at the camp; but as to the war itself,
and his conduct of it, accomplished as it was partly by swift daring,
partly by wise dispositions, by the valour of friends, confidence in the
midst of dangers, and reliance on sound plans, I cannot tell of any
glorious and distinguished exploit, which, as in the case of other
generals, owed its success to his good fortune; unless, indeed, any one
should count as good fortune for Aemilius the avarice of Perseus, which
destroyed the great and well-founded hopes of the Macedonians in the
war, and brought them to ruin by the meanness of their chief. At his
request there came a force of Basternae, a thousand horse and ten
thousand light troops who fought with them, all mercenary soldiers--men
who knew nothing of tilling the soil, or of sailing the sea, who did not
live from the produce of their flocks, but who studied one art and
business solely, ever to fight and overcome their antagonists. So, when
in the camp at Maedike, these men mixed with the king's troops, tall in
their person, admirable in their drill, boastful and haughty in their
defiance of the foe, they gave confidence to the Macedonians, and made
them think that the Romans never could withstand their attack, but would
be terrified at their appearance and march, outlandish and ferocious as
it was. But Perseus, now that he had got such auxiliaries as these, and
put his men into such heart, because he was asked for a thousand staters
for each officer, became bewildered at the amount of the sum which he
would have to pay, and his meanness prevailing over his reason, refused
their offers, and broke off the alliance, as if he had been steward of
his kingdom for the Romans rather than fighting against them, and had to
give an exact account of his expenses in the war to his enemies; though
he might have been taught by them, who had besides other war materials,
a hundred thousand soldiers collected together ready for use. Yet he,
when engaged in war with such a power as this, where such great forces
were kept on foot to contend with him, kept doling out and sparing his
money as if it were not his own. And still he was not a Lydian or
Phoenician, but a man who from his descent ought to have had a share of
the spirit of Philip and Alexander, who made all their conquests by the
principle that empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It
used, indeed, to be a proverb that "It is not Philip, but Philip's gold
that takes the cities of Greece." Alexander, too, when beginning his
Indian campaign, seeing the Macedonians laboriously dragging along the
rich and unwieldy plunder of the Persians, first burned all the royal
carriages, and then persuaded the soldiers to do the like with their
own, and start for the war as light as if they had shaken off a burden.
But Perseus, when spending his own money to defend himself, his
children, and his kingdom, rather than sacrifice a little and win,
preferred to be taken to Rome with many others, a rich captive, and show
the Romans how much he had saved for them.
XIII. For not only did he dismiss the Gauls and break his word to them,
but after inducing Genthius the Illyrian to take part in the war for a
bribe of three hundred talents, he lodged the money with that prince's
envoys, all counted, and let them put their seals upon it. Genthius then
thinking that he had got what he asked, did a wicked and impious deed in
seizing and throwing into prison some Roman ambassadors who were sent to
him. Perseus, thinking that Genthius no longer needed money to make him
hostile to Rome, since he had given him such a pledge of his hatred of
it, and had involved himself in war with it by such a crime, deprived
the poor man of his three hundred talents, and shortly afterwards looked
calmly on while he and his family were plucked out of their kingdom,
like birds out of a nest, by Lucius Anicius, who was sent with an army
against him. Aemilius, when he came to contend with such a rival as
this, despised him as a man, but was surprised at the force which he had
at his disposal. These were four thousand cavalry, and of infantry
soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx nearly forty thousand. Encamped by
the sea-shore, near the skirts of Mount Olympus, on ground nowhere
accessible, and strongly fortified by himself with outworks and defences
of wood, Perseus lived in careless security, thinking that by time and
expense he should wear out Aemilius's attack. But he, while he busied
his mind with every possible mode of assault, perceiving that his army
in consequence of its past want of discipline was impatient, and usurped
the general's province by proposing all sorts of wild schemes, severely
reprimanded the soldiers, and ordered them not to meddle with what was
not their concern, but only take care that they and their arms were
ready, and to use their swords as Romans should when their general
should give the word. He ordered the night sentries to go on guard
without their spears, that they might be more attentive and less
inclined to sleep, having no arms to defend themselves against the
enemy.
XIV. The army was chiefly troubled by want of water; for only a very
little bad water ran or rather dripped out of a spring near the sea.
Aemilius perceiving that Olympus, immediately above him, was a large and
well-wooded mountain, and guessing from the greenness of the foliage
that it must contain some springs which had their courses underground,
dug many pits and wells along the skirts of the mountain, which
immediately were filled with pure water, which by the pressure above was
driven into these vacant spaces. Yet some say that there are no hidden
fountains of water, lying ready in such places as these, and say that it
is not because they are dug out or broken into that they flow, but that
they have their origin and cause in the saturation of the surrounding
earth which becomes saturated by its close texture and coldness, acting
upon the moist vapours, which when pressed together low down turn into
water. For just as women's breasts are not receptacles full of milk
ready to flow, but change the nutriment which is in them into milk, and
so supply it, so also the cold places which are full of springs have no
water concealed in them, nor any such reservoirs as would be needed to
send out deep rivers from any fixed point, but by their pressure they
convert the air and vapour which is in them into water. At any rate,
those places which are dug over break more into springs and run more
with water, in answer to this treatment of their surface, just as
women's breasts respond to sucking, for it moistens and softens the
vapour; whereas land which is not worked is incapable of producing
water, not having the motion by which moisture is obtained. Those who
argue thus have given sceptics the opportunity of saying, that if it be
true, there can be no blood in animals, but that it gathers about
wounds, and that the flow of blood is produced by the air, or some
change which takes place in the flesh. They are proved to be wrong by
those who sink shafts for mines, and meet with rivers in the depths of
the earth, which have not collected themselves by degrees, as would be
the case if they derived their origin from the sudden movements of the
earth, but flow with a full stream. Also, when mountains and rocks are
fissured by a blow, there springs out a gush of water, which afterwards
ceases. But enough of this.
XV. Aemilius remained quiet for some days, and it is said two such great
hosts never were so near together and so quiet. After exploring and
trying every place he discovered that there was still one pass
unguarded, that, namely, through Perrhaebae by Pythium and Petra. He
called a council of war to consider this, being himself more hopeful of
success that way, as the place was not watched, than alarmed at the
precipices on account of which the enemy neglected it. First of those
present, Scipio, surnamed Nasica, son-in-law to Scipio Africanus,
afterwards a leading man in the Senate, volunteered to lead the party
which was to make this circuitous attack. And next Fabius Maximus, the
eldest of the sons of Aemilius, though still only a youth, rose and
spiritedly offered his services. Aemilius, delighted, placed under their
command not so many troops as Polybius says in his history, but so many
as Nasica himself tells us that he had, in a letter which he wrote to
one of the princes of that region about this affair. He had three
thousand Italians, besides his main body, and five thousand who composed
the left wing. Besides these, Nasica took a hundred and twenty horse,
and two hundred of Harpalus's light troops, Thracians and Cretans mixed.
He began his march along the road towards the sea, and encamped near the
temple of Herakles, as though he intended to sail round to the other
side of the enemy's camp, and so surround him: but when the soldiers had
supped, and it was dark, he explained his real plan to his officers,
marched all night away from the sea, and halted his men for rest near
the temple of Apollo. At this place Olympus is more than ten furlongs
high: and this is proved by the epigram which the measurer wrote as
follows:
"The height of Olympus' crest at the temple of Pythian Apollo
consists of (measured by the plumb line) ten stades, and
besides a hundred feet all but four. It was Xenagoras, the son
of Eumelus, who discovered its height. King Apollo, hail to
thee; be thou propitious to us."
And yet geometricians say that neither the height of any mountain nor
the depth of any sea is above ten stades (furlongs). However, Xenophanes
did not take its altitude conjecturally, but by a proper method with
instruments.
XVI. Here then Nasica halted. Perseus in the morning saw Aemilius's army
quiet in its place, and would have had no idea of what was going on had
not a Cretan deserter come and told him of the flank march of the
Romans. Then he became alarmed, but still did not disturb his camp, but,
placing ten thousand foreign mercenaries and two thousand Macedonians
under the command of Milo, ordered him to march swiftly and occupy the
passes. Now Polybius says that the Romans fell upon these men when they
were in their beds, but Nasica tells us that a sharp and dangerous
conflict took place upon the heights. He himself was assailed by a
Thracian, but struck him through the breast with his spear. However, the
enemy were forced back; Milo most shamefully fled in his shirt, without
his arms, and Scipio was able to follow, and at the same time lead his
forces on to level ground. Perseus, terrified and despairing when he saw
them, at once broke up his camp and retreated. But still he was obliged
either to give battle before Pydna, or else to disperse his army among
the various cities of the kingdom, and so to await the Romans, who,
being once entered into his country, could not be driven out without
much slaughter and bloodshed. It was urged by his friends that he had a
great numerical superiority, and that the troops would fight desperately
in defence of their wives and families, especially if their king took
the command and shared their danger. He pitched his camp and prepared
for battle, viewed the ground, and arranged the commands, intending to
set upon the Romans as soon as they appeared. Now the position both
possessed a flat plain for the manoeuvres of the phalanx, which requires
level ground, and also hills rising one above another offered refuges
and means for outflanking the enemy to his light troops. Also two
rivers, the Aeson and Leukus, which ran across as it, though not very
deep at that season (late autumn), were expected to give some trouble to
the Romans.