In the same summer in which these things were done in Thessaly, a legate sent into Illyricum by the consul assaulted two wealthy towns; Cerem he forced by main strength of arms into surrender, and granted them all their own possessions, that by the reputation of clemency he might draw to himself those who dwelt in Carnus, a fortified city. After he could neither compel them to surrender nor take it by siege, lest his soldiers be wearied to no purpose by two assaults, he plundered the city which he had earlier left untouched.

The other consul, Gaius Cassius, neither accomplished anything worth recording in Gaul, which he had drawn by lot, and in a vain undertaking attempted to lead his legions through Illyricum into Macedonia. That the consul had set out upon this march the Senate learned from the envoys of the Aquileians, who, complaining that their colony was new and weak and not yet sufficiently fortified, set among the hostile nations of the Histri and the Illyrians, were asking that the Senate take thought how that colony might be fortified; and when they were asked whether they wished that business entrusted to the consul Gaius Cassius, they answered that Cassius, after summoning his army to Aquileia, had set out through Illyricum into Macedonia. At first the thing seemed past belief, and each man for himself supposed that perhaps war had been carried against the Carni or the Histri. Then the Aquileians said that they knew nothing further, and dared affirm no more than that thirty days’ grain had been issued to the soldiers, and that guides who knew the routes from Italy into Macedonia had been sought out and taken along. The Senate indeed was indignant that the consul had dared so great a thing—that he should abandon his own province and cross into another’s, that he should lead his army by a new and perilous route among foreign peoples, that he should open a road into Italy to so many nations. In full numbers they decreed that Gaius Sulpicius the praetor should name three legates from the Senate, who should set out from the city that very day and, with all the haste they could make, pursue the consul Cassius wherever he might be; they were to announce that he should set no war in motion against any nation save the one the Senate had judged ought to be made war upon. These legates set out: Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, Marcus Fulvius, Publius Marcius Rex. The fear concerning the consul and his army for that time put off the care of fortifying Aquileia.

Then envoys of several peoples of the two Spains were brought into the Senate. They, complaining of the avarice and the arrogance of the Roman magistrates, on bended knees besought the Senate not to suffer them, its allies, to be more foully plundered and harried than enemies. Since they were complaining of other indignities besides, and it was moreover manifest that monies had been wrung from them, the business was given to Lucius Canuleius the praetor, to whom Spain had fallen by lot, that against each of those from whom the Spaniards sought to recover monies he should appoint five recoverers from the senatorial order, and grant the Spaniards the power of choosing what patrons they wished. The envoys, called into the Senate house, had the decree of the Senate read to them and were ordered to name patrons. They named four: Marcus Porcius Cato, Publius Cornelius Scipio son of Gnaeus, Lucius Aemilius Paulus son of Lucius, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus. With Marcus Titinius first—who had been praetor in Hither Spain in the consulship of Aulus Manlius and Marcus Junius—they took up the recoverers. Twice the case was adjourned; on the third hearing the defendant was acquitted. A disagreement arose between the envoys of the two provinces: the peoples of Hither Spain took Marcus Cato and Scipio as their patrons, those of Farther Spain Lucius Paulus and Sulpicius Gallus. Brought before the recoverers were, by the Hither peoples, Publius Furius Philus, by the Farther, Marcus Matienus; the former had been praetor three years before, in the consulship of Spurius Postumius and Quintus Mucius, the latter two years before, in the consulship of Lucius Postumius and Marcus Popilius. Both were accused on the gravest charges and their cases adjourned; and when the cause was to be pleaded afresh, they made their excuse that they had changed their ground for the sake of exile. Furius went into exile at Praeneste, Matienus at Tibur. There was a report that the patrons were prevented from arraigning the noble and powerful, and the praetor Canuleius increased this suspicion, because, dropping the matter, he set about holding a levy, then suddenly departed into his province, lest more should be harried by the Spaniards. Thus, the past being blotted out in silence, provision was nonetheless made for the Spaniards in the future by the Senate—a thing they obtained—that a Roman magistrate should not fix the assessment of the grain, nor compel the Spaniards to sell their twentieths at whatever price he himself wished, and that no prefects should be set over their towns for the collecting of monies.

And there came from Spain another embassy, of a new kind of men. Declaring themselves born of Roman soldiers and of Spanish women with whom there was no right of marriage, more than four thousand men, they begged that a town be given them to dwell in. The Senate decreed that they should register their names with Lucius Canuleius, and the names of any whom they had freed; that it was its pleasure these be settled at Carteia by the Ocean; that those of the Carteians who wished to remain at home should have the power of being numbered among the colonists, with land assigned; that this should be a Latin colony and be called a colony of freedmen.

At the same time there came from Africa both Gulussa, a princeling, the son of Masinissa, as his father’s envoy, and the Carthaginians. Gulussa, brought first into the Senate, set forth what had been sent by his father for the Macedonian war, and promised that, if they wished to lay any further commands upon him, he would perform them in return for the deserts of the Roman people; and he warned the conscript fathers to beware of the treachery of the Carthaginians: they had conceived the design of fitting out a great fleet, ostensibly on behalf of the Romans and against the Macedonians; but once it was prepared and equipped, it would lie in their own power whom they should have for enemy or ally. This...

... only this much terror they who had entered the camp produced, by displaying the heads, that, had the army been brought up at once, the camp could have been taken. Then too a great flight took place; and there were those who judged that envoys should be sent to sue for peace with entreaties, and several states, on hearing this news, came into surrender. When these were excusing themselves and laying the blame on the madness of two men, who had of their own accord offered themselves up to punishment, and the praetor had granted them pardon, he set out at once to the other states; and, all of them carrying out his commands, with his army at rest he traversed a pacified countryside which a little before had blazed with vast tumult. This mildness of the praetor, by which without bloodshed he had tamed a most ferocious nation, was the more welcome to the commons and the fathers in proportion as the war in Greece had been waged more cruelly and more rapaciously, both by the consul Licinius and by the praetor Lucretius. The tribunes of the plebs were tearing at Lucretius in his absence with unceasing harangues, though he was excused as being away on the business of the state; yet at that time even what lay near at hand was so unexplored that he was at that very moment on his own estate at Antium, and was conducting water to Antium from the river Loracina out of his spoils. He is said to have let out that work for a hundred and thirty thousand asses. He also adorned the shrine of Aesculapius with painted panels from his plunder. The ill-will and the infamy the envoys of Abdera turned away from Lucretius onto Hortensius his successor, weeping before the Senate house and complaining that their town had been stormed and sacked by Hortensius: the cause of the city’s destruction had been that, when he demanded a hundred thousand denarii and fifty thousand measures of wheat, they had asked for an interval in which to send envoys about the matter both to the consul Hostilius and to Rome. Scarcely had they reached the consul when they heard that the town had been stormed, the chief men beheaded, the rest sold under the crown. The matter seemed shameful to the Senate, and they decreed concerning the Abderites the same as they had decreed concerning the Coronaeans the year before, and ordered Quintus Maenius the praetor to proclaim the same before the assembly. And two legates, Gaius Sempronius Blaesus and Sextus Julius Caesar, were sent to restore the Abderites to liberty. To the same men it was entrusted to announce both to the consul Hostilius and to the praetor Hortensius that the Senate judged an unjust war had been brought upon the Abderites, and that all who were in slavery should be sought out and restored to liberty, as was just.

At the same time complaints concerning Gaius Cassius, who had been consul the year before and was then military tribune in Macedonia with Aulus Hostilius, were laid before the Senate, and envoys came from Cincibilis, king of the Gauls. His brother spoke in the Senate, complaining that Gaius Cassius had laid waste the fields of the Alpine peoples, his allies, and had carried off thence many thousands of men into slavery. About the same time came envoys of the Carni, the Histri, and the Iapydes: guides had first been demanded of them by the consul Cassius, to show the route to him as he led his army into Macedonia; he had departed from them peaceably, as if to wage another war elsewhere; then, turning back from the middle of his march, he had traversed their borders in hostile fashion; slaughter, rapine, and burnings had been committed everywhere; and to this hour they did not know for what cause they had been treated as enemies by the consul. To the absent princeling of the Gauls and to these peoples it was answered that the Senate had neither known beforehand of the things they complained were done, nor, if they had been done, did it approve them; but that it was unjust for a man of consular rank to be condemned unheard in his absence, when he was away on the business of the state. When Gaius Cassius should have returned from Macedonia, then, if they wished to accuse him face to face, the Senate, the matter being investigated, would take pains that satisfaction be made. And it was resolved not only to answer those nations, but to send two legates to the princeling across the Alps and three to the peoples round about, who should declare what the opinion of the fathers was. They voted that gifts be sent to the envoys of two thousand asses each; to the two brother princelings these especially: two torques made of five pounds of gold, and five silver vessels of twenty pounds, and two caparisoned horses with their grooms and cavalry arms and military cloaks; and to their companions garments, both for the free men and for the slaves. These were sent; the following were granted at their request, that they should have the right of trading for ten horses each and the power of taking them out of Italy. The legates sent across the Alps with the Gauls were Gaius Laelius and Marcus Aemilius Lepidus; to the other peoples, Gaius Sicinius, Publius Cornelius Blasio, Titus Memmius.

Envoys of many cities of Greece and Asia gathered at Rome at one time. First the Athenians were brought in. They set forth that, as for the ships and soldiers they had, they had sent them to the consul Publius Licinius and the praetor Gaius Lucretius; that these, not using them, had imposed on them a hundred thousand measures of grain, which—although they plowed barren land and fed even their own farmers on imported grain—they had nonetheless, that they might not fail in their duty, made up; and that they were ready to furnish the other things that should be commanded. The Milesians, recounting that they had as yet furnished nothing, promised that, if the Senate wished to command anything for the war, they were ready to furnish it. The Alabandans recalled that they had built a temple to the City of Rome and instituted annual games to that goddess, and had brought a golden crown of fifty pounds to set up on the Capitol as a gift to Jupiter Best and Greatest, and three hundred cavalry shields: these they would hand over to whomever was ordered. They begged that it be permitted them to set up the gift on the Capitol and to sacrifice. This the Lampsacenes too begged, bringing a crown of eighty pounds, recalling that they had withdrawn from Perseus once the Roman army had come into Macedonia, though they had been under the sway of Perseus and before of Philip. In return for that, and because they had furnished everything to the Roman commanders, they asked only this, that they be received into the friendship of the Roman people and, if peace were made with Perseus, be excepted from it, lest they fall back into the king’s power. To the other envoys a courteous answer was given; the praetor Quintus Maenius was ordered to enter the Lampsacenes on the roll of allies. Gifts were given to all, two thousand asses to each. The Alabandans were ordered to carry their shields back to the consul Aulus Hostilius in Macedonia.

And from Africa came the envoys of the Carthaginians and of Masinissa together: the Carthaginians declaring that they had a million measures of wheat and five hundred thousand of barley brought down to the sea, to convey wherever the Senate had judged. This service and duty of theirs they knew to be less than was owed to the deserts of the Roman people and to their own goodwill; but often on other occasions, in the prosperous affairs of either people, they had discharged the offices of a grateful and faithful ally with gifts. Likewise the envoys of Masinissa promised the same sum of wheat, and twelve hundred horse and twelve elephants; and that, if anything else were needed, the Senate should command it: with equal readiness of spirit would he furnish both these and what he had himself unbidden promised. Thanks were rendered both to the Carthaginians and to the king, and they were asked to convey what they promised to the consul Hostilius in Macedonia. Gifts of two thousand asses each were sent to the envoys.

When the Cretan envoys recalled that they had sent into Macedonia as many archers as had been demanded of them by the consul Publius Licinius, and, on being asked, did not deny that a greater number of archers served with Perseus than with the Romans, it was answered that, if the Cretans would firmly and earnestly resolve to hold the friendship of the Roman people preferable to that of King Perseus, the Roman Senate too would give them its answer as to sure allies. Meanwhile they were to announce to their people that it was the Senate’s pleasure that the Cretans take pains to recall home, at the earliest possible time, those soldiers whom they kept within the garrisons of King Perseus.

The Cretans being dismissed with this answer, the Chalcidians were called, whose embassy moved everyone at its very entrance, because Micion, their chief man, crippled in his feet, was carried in upon a litter. A matter of the utmost extremity...

... it seemed at once a thing in which, for one so afflicted, either the excuse of ill-health would not even by himself have been sought, or, sought, would not have been granted. When he had said, by way of preface, that he had nothing alive left to him save his tongue to lament the calamities of his fatherland, he set forth first the good services of his city, both the old ones and those they had rendered, in the war with Perseus, to the Roman generals and armies; then what Gaius Lucretius, the Roman praetor, had first done against his countrymen, arrogantly, rapaciously, cruelly; then what Lucius Hortensius was doing at that very moment. In what manner they reckoned that all things—even those they were suffering—must rather be endured, however harsher, than that they should fall away from their loyalty: so, as for what concerned Lucretius and Hortensius, they knew it had been safer to shut their gates than to receive the men into the city. Those who had shut them out—Emathia, Amphipolis, Maronea, Aenus—were unharmed; among themselves the temples had been stripped of all their ornaments, and Gaius Lucretius had carried off to Antium in his ships things plundered by sacrilege; free persons had been seized into slavery; the fortunes of the allies of the Roman people had been plundered and were daily being plundered. For, after the practice of Gaius Lucretius, Hortensius too kept his naval allies billeted in their houses in winter as in summer, and their homes were full of a crowd of sailors; and these moved about among their very midst, among their wives and children, men to whom nothing was of any account either to say or to do. It was resolved to summon Lucretius into the Senate, that he might dispute the matter face to face and clear himself. But, present, he heard far more than had been hurled at him in his absence, and graver and more powerful accusers came forward, two tribunes of the plebs, Manius Juventius Thalna and Gnaeus Aufidius. These tore at him not only in the Senate but, having dragged him also into the assembly and cast many reproaches at him, named a day for his trial. By order of the Senate the praetor Quintus Maenius answered the Chalcidians that, as for the good services they said they had rendered the Roman people both before and in the war now being waged, the Senate both knew that they reported the truth and held them as grateful as they ought to be; but as for what they complained had been done by Gaius Lucretius and was being done by Lucius Hortensius, the Roman praetors, those things had neither been done nor were being done by the will of the Senate—who could suppose this, who knew that the Roman people had made war on Perseus, and before on Philip his father, for the freedom of Greece, not that its allies and friends should suffer such things at the hands of its own magistrates? They would send a letter to the praetor Lucius Hortensius, that the things the Chalcidians complained had been done did not please the Senate; if any free persons had come into slavery, that he should see to their being sought out at the earliest time and restored to liberty; that none of the naval allies, save the masters, should be billeted in lodgings, as the Senate judged just. These things were written to Hortensius by order of the Senate. Gifts of two thousand asses were sent to the envoys, and vehicles hired at public expense for Micion, to convey him conveniently to Brundisium. When the day that had been named came, the tribunes accused Gaius Lucretius before the people and named a fine of a million asses. The assembly being held, all five-and-thirty tribes condemned him.

Among the Ligurians nothing memorable was done that year; for neither did the enemy stir arms, nor did the consul lead his legions into their territory, and, the peace of that year being sufficiently ascertained, he discharged the soldiers of two Roman legions within sixty days of coming into his province. The army of the allies of the Latin name being led early into winter quarters at Luna and Pisae, he himself with the cavalry visited most of the towns of the province of Gaul.

Nowhere else than in Macedonia was there war; yet they held Gentius too, king of the Illyrians, in suspicion. And so the Senate judged that eight ships, fitted out, should be sent from Brundisium to Gaius Furius the legate at Issa, who was in command of the island with a garrison of two Issaean ships—two thousand soldiers were put aboard these ships, whom Marcus Raecius the praetor, by decree of the Senate, had enrolled in that part of Italy which faces Illyricum—and the consul Hostilius sent Appius Claudius into Illyricum with four thousand foot, to protect the dwellers along Illyricum. He, not content with the forces he had brought, by collecting auxiliaries from the allies armed up to eight thousand men of various sorts, and, having traversed all that region, encamped at Lychnidus among the Dassaretii.

Not far from there was the town of Uscana, mostly within Perseus’s borders. It had ten thousand citizens and a modest garrison of Cretans for its protection. From there secret messengers came to Claudius: if he brought his forces nearer, there would be men ready to betray the city. And it was worth his while, they said: he would fill with booty not only himself and his friends but his soldiers too. Hope, brought to bear upon his greed, so blinded his mind that he neither detained any of those who had come, nor demanded hostages to be a pledge against treachery in the conduct of the affair, nor sent scouts, nor received a guarantee of good faith. On the appointed day alone, having set out from Lychnidus, he pitched camp twelve miles from the city to which he was making. From there, at the fourth watch, he moved his standards, leaving about a thousand to guard the camp. In disorder, strung out in a long column, thinned in numbers—for the wandering of the night scattered them—they reached the city. Their negligence grew, after they saw no armed man upon the walls. But as soon as they were within range of a missile, a sally was made from two gates at once. And at the shout of those sallying a huge din arose from the walls, of women wailing, with the clatter of bronze on every side, and a confused multitude mingled with a crowd of slaves rang out with varied cries. This terror, so manifold, flung against them from every side, brought it about that the Romans could not withstand the first storm of the sally. And so more were slain in flight than in fighting; scarcely two thousand men escaped with the legate himself into the camp. The longer the march into the camp was, the more, in their weariness, did the enemy have opportunity to pursue. Appius, not even delaying in the camp to gather his men scattered in flight—which would have been the salvation of those straggling through the fields—led the remnants of the disaster straight back to Lychnidus.

These things, and others done not prosperously in Macedonia, were heard from Sextus Digitius, a military tribune, who had come to Rome for the sake of a sacrifice. On account of these things the fathers, fearing lest some greater disgrace be incurred, sent into Macedonia as legates Marcus Fulvius Flaccus and Marcus Caninius Rebilus, to bring back word of what was being done once they had ascertained it; and that Aulus Atilius the consul should so proclaim the elections for choosing consuls that they could be held in the month of January, and that he should return to the city at the earliest possible time. Meanwhile it was entrusted to Marcus Raecius the praetor that by edict he recall to Rome all senators from all Italy, save those who were away on the business of the state, and that of those who were at Rome none should be away more than a thousand paces from Rome. These things were done as the Senate had judged. The consular elections were held on the fifth day before the Kalends of February. The consuls created were Quintus Marcius Philippus, for the second time, and Gnaeus Servilius Caepio. Two days later the praetors were made: Gaius Decimius, Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, Gaius Marcius Figulus, Servius Cornelius Lentulus, Publius Fonteius Capito. To the praetors-designate, besides the two urban jurisdictions, four provinces were decreed: Spain, Sardinia, Sicily, and the fleet.

The legates from Macedonia returned when the month of February was quite spent. They reported what successes King Perseus had had that summer, and how great a fear had seized the allies of the Roman people, so many cities having been reduced into the king’s power. The consul’s army was understaffed, furloughs having been freely granted out of self-seeking; the consul threw the blame for this upon the military tribunes, they in turn upon the consul. The fathers learned that they made light of the disgrace incurred through the rashness of Claudius; for they reported that few soldiers of Italian stock, and for the most part enrolled in a hasty levy, had been lost there. The consuls-designate, as soon as they should enter office, were ordered to refer about Macedonia to the Senate; and the provinces appointed for them were Italy and Macedonia.

This year there was an intercalation; the intercalary Kalends fell on the third day after the Terminalia. Within that year these priests died: Lucius Flamininus; two pontiffs passed away, Lucius Furius Philus and Gaius Livius Salinator. In the place of Furius the pontiffs chose Titus Manlius Torquatus, in that of Livius, Marcus Servilius.

At the beginning of the following year, when the new consuls Quintus Marcius and Gnaeus Servilius had referred about the provinces, it was resolved that at the earliest time they should either arrange Italy and Macedonia between themselves or draw lots for them; and, before the lot should decide it—lest, while it was uncertain, anyone do anything through the weight of favor—it was decreed for each province what reinforcement the situation required. (They decree for Macedonia six thousand Roman foot, six thousand foot of the allies of the Latin name, two hundred and fifty Roman horse, three hundred allied.) The veteran soldiers were to be discharged, so that in each Roman legion there should be no more than six thousand foot and three hundred horse. For the other consul no fixed number of Roman citizens was determined which he should levy for the reinforcement; only this was fixed, that he should enroll two legions, which should have five thousand two hundred foot each and three hundred horse. A greater number of Latins was decreed for him than for his colleague: ten thousand foot and six hundred horse. Four legions besides were ordered to be enrolled, to be led out if there should be need anywhere. The consuls were not permitted to appoint the tribunes for these; the people elected them. Of the allies of the Latin name sixteen thousand foot and a thousand horse were demanded. It was resolved only to prepare this army, so that it might march out if the situation anywhere required it. Macedonia gave the most concern. For the fleet a thousand naval allies, Roman citizens of the freedman order, were ordered to be enrolled, five hundred from Italy and as many from Sicily; and to him to whom that province should fall it was entrusted to see them conveyed into Macedonia, wherever the fleet might be. For Spain three thousand Roman foot as reinforcement and three hundred horse were decreed. There too the number of soldiers in the legions was fixed: five thousand two hundred foot and three hundred horse. And the praetor to whom Spain should fall was ordered to command of the allies four thousand foot and three hundred horse.

I am not unaware that, through the same negligence by which men now commonly believe that the gods foretell nothing, no prodigies at all are reported in public or entered in the annals. Yet, as I write of ancient matters, by some means or other my mind grows ancient too, and a certain religious scruple holds me from accounting unworthy of entry into my annals those things which those most prudent men judged ought to be taken up by the state. At Anagnia two prodigies were reported that year: a torch was seen in the sky, and a cow spoke; she was being fed at public expense. At Menturnae too, in those days, the appearance of a burning sky had shone forth. At Reate it rained stones. At Cumae, on the citadel, Apollo wept for three days and three nights. In the city of Rome two temple-keepers brought word: the one, that in the temple of Fortuna a crested snake had been seen by many; the other, that in the temple of Fortuna Primigenia, which is on the hill, two separate prodigies had occurred—a palm had sprung up in the precinct, and it had rained blood in the daytime. Two prodigies were not taken up: the one, because it had happened on private ground—Titus Marcius Figulus reported that a palm had sprung up in his rain-basin—the other, because it had happened in a foreign place: at Fregellae, in the house of Lucius Atreus, a spear which he had bought for his soldier son was said to have burned in the daytime for more than two hours, in such a way that the fire consumed nothing of it. On account of the public prodigies the books were consulted by the decemvirs. They set forth with what forty full-grown victims, and to which gods, the consuls should sacrifice, and that a supplication should be held, and that all the magistrates should sacrifice with full-grown victims at all the couches of the gods, and that the people should be garlanded. All was done as the decemvirs directed.

Then elections were proclaimed for creating censors. The leading men of the state stood for the censorship: Gaius Valerius Laevinus, Lucius Postumius Albinus, Publius Mucius Scaevola, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Claudius Pulcher, Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus. These last two the Roman people created censors. Since there was greater care than usual about the holding of the levy, on account of the Macedonian war, the consuls accused the commons before the Senate, because the younger men did not answer the summons. Against them Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius the praetors pleaded the cause of the commons: the levy was difficult not for consuls but for self-seeking consuls; no man was made a soldier by them against his will. That the conscript fathers too might know this to be so, the praetors—who had both less force of command and less authority—would, if it so seemed good to the Senate, carry the levy through. This was entrusted to the praetors with great approval of the fathers, not without a slight to the consuls. That they might assist the matter, the censors proclaimed in the assembly that they would lay down a law for the taking of the census, that, besides the common oath of all citizens, men should swear this in addition: “Are you less than forty-six years of age, and have you, in accordance with the edict of the censors Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius, presented yourself for the levy; and, as often as there shall be a levy so long as these censors shall hold their magistracy, if you have not been made a soldier, will you present yourself at the levy?” Likewise, because there was a report that many from the Macedonian legions were absent from the army upon uncertain furloughs, through the self-seeking of the commanders, they proclaimed concerning the soldiers enrolled for Macedonia in the consulship of Publius Aelius and Gaius Popilius, or after those consuls, that those of them who were in Italy should, within thirty days, after first being registered in the census before themselves, return to the province; and that the names of those who were in the power of a father or grandfather should be reported to them. They would also examine the grounds of those discharged, and those whose discharge before their service was complete seemed to them to have been a favor, they would order to be made soldiers. When this edict and the censors’ letters had been sent out through the market-towns and assembly-places, so great a multitude of younger men gathered at Rome that the unwonted crowd was a burden to the city. Besides the levy of those who ought to be sent as reinforcement, four legions were enrolled by Gaius Sulpicius the praetor, and within eleven days the levy was completed. Then the consuls drew lots for their provinces; for the praetors, on account of their jurisdiction, had drawn lots earlier. The urban jurisdiction had fallen to Gaius Sulpicius, the foreign to Gaius Decimius; Spain to Marcus Claudius Marcellus, Sicily to Servius Cornelius Lentulus, Sardinia to Publius Fonteius Capito, the fleet to Gaius Marcius Figulus. Of the consuls, Italy fell to Gnaeus Servilius, Macedonia to Quintus Marcius; and, the Latin festival being performed, Marcius set out at once. Then, when Caepio referred to the Senate which two of the new legions he should lead with him into Gaul, the fathers decreed that Gaius Sulpicius and Marcus Claudius the praetors should give the consul, out of the legions they had enrolled, whichever seemed good. Taking it ill that the consul was subjected to the praetors’ decision, when the Senate was dismissed he stood at the tribunal of the praetors and demanded that, in accordance with the decree of the Senate, they appoint him two legions. The praetors left the choice to the consul’s own selection.

Then the censors revised the roll of the Senate. Marcus Aemilius Lepidus was chosen as princeps senatus, now by the third pair of censors. Seven were ejected from the Senate. In taking the census of the people, they compelled the soldiers from the Macedonian army—of whom the census showed how many were absent from their standards—to return to the province; they examined the grounds of those discharged from service, and those whose discharge did not yet seem lawful they bound by an oath in this form: “According to your conscience, will you, in accordance with the edict of the censors Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius, return to the province of Macedonia, in so far as you can do so without wrongful deceit?”

In reviewing the cavalry their censorship was very harsh and severe; from many they took away the horse. Since in this they had offended the equestrian order, they added a flame to the ill-will by an edict, in which they proclaimed that none of those who under the censors Quintus Fulvius and Aulus Postumius had farmed the public taxes or contributions should approach their auction, or be a partner or connection in that farming. The old publicans, often complaining of this, when they could not obtain from the Senate that it set a limit to the censorial power, at last found, as patron of their cause, the tribune of the plebs Publius Rutilius, angry at the censors out of a quarrel over a private matter. They had ordered a freedman client of his to demolish a wall on the Sacred Way over against the public buildings, because it had been built upon public ground. Appealed to by the private citizen, the tribunes were invoked. Since none but Rutilius interposed, the censors sent to take pledges, and named a fine against the private citizen before the assembly. From this a contention arose, and when the old publicans had betaken themselves to the tribune, suddenly a bill was promulgated under the name of a single tribune: that the public taxes and contributions which Gaius Claudius and Tiberius Sempronius had let out should not be a valid letting; that they should be let out afresh, and that there should be a right for all alike of buying and farming. The tribune of the plebs named a day for the assembly to vote on that law. When the day came, as the censors came forward to speak against it, while Gracchus spoke there was silence; when Claudius was shouted down, he ordered the herald to obtain a hearing. At this the tribune complained that the assembly had been taken from him and that he had been forced back into the ranks, and departed from the Capitol, where the assembly was. On the next day he stirred up great tumults. First he consecrated the goods of Tiberius Gracchus, because, in the matter of the fine and the pledges of the man who had appealed to the tribune, by not obeying the interposition he had forced him into the ranks; he named a day for Gaius Claudius, because he had taken the assembly from him, and pronounced that he adjudged both censors guilty of treason, and sought a day for the assembly from Gaius Sulpicius the urban praetor. The censors not refusing that the people pass judgment on them at the earliest time, a day for the trial of treason was named for the eighth and seventh days before the Kalends of October. The censors went up at once into the Atrium of Liberty, and, the public records being sealed and the record-office closed and the public slaves dismissed, declared that they would transact no public business before the people’s judgment about them had been made. Claudius first pleaded his cause; and when, of the twelve centuries of the knights, eight had condemned the censor, and many others of the first class, at once the leading men of the state, in the sight of the people, laid aside their golden rings and changed their dress, that they might go round as suppliants among the commons. But most of all Tiberius Gracchus is said to have turned the verdict, because, when there was a shout on every side from the commons that there was no danger to Gracchus, he swore in set words that, if his colleague were condemned, he would not wait for the judgment upon himself but would be the companion of his exile. Yet so near to the edge of hope did the defendant come that eight centuries were lacking to his condemnation. Claudius being acquitted, the tribune of the plebs declared that he did not detain Gracchus.

That year, at the request of the Aquileian envoys that they increase the number of the colonists, fifteen hundred families were enrolled by decree of the Senate, and the triumvirs to settle them were sent: Titus Annius Luscus, Publius Decius Subulo, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus.

The same year Gaius Popilius and Gnaeus Octavius, the legates who had been sent into Greece, carried round through all the cities of the Peloponnese the decree of the Senate, first read out at Thebes, that no one should contribute anything for the war to the Roman magistrates save what the Senate had judged. This had given confidence for the future too, that they had been relieved of the burdens and expenses by which they were drained, as one after another laid commands upon them. The Achaean council being given them at Aegium, having spoken and been heard kindly, and a most faithful nation being left in excellent hope of its future condition, they crossed over into Aetolia. There, indeed, there was not yet sedition, but everything was suspect and full of mutual accusations; on account of which, hostages being demanded but no settlement imposed on the matter, the legates set out thence into Acarnania. At Thyrium the Acarnanians gave the legates a council. There too there was a struggle between factions: some of the leaders demanded that garrisons be brought into their cities against the madness of those who were drawing the nation to the Macedonians; a part refused, lest what was the custom toward those captured in war and toward enemies, pacified and allied states should receive as a disgrace. This deprecation seemed just. The legates returned to Hostilius the proconsul at Larisa—for it was by him that they had been sent. He kept Octavius with him and sent Popilius with about a thousand soldiers into winter quarters at Ambracia.

Perseus, at the beginning of winter not daring to go out from the borders of Macedonia, lest the Romans burst into his kingdom while it lay empty, near the time of the solstice—when the depth of the snow makes the mountains impassable from Thessaly—reckoning that here was an opportunity to break the hopes and spirits of his neighbors, lest there be any danger from them while he was turned away to the Roman war (since from Thrace Cotys, and from Epirus Cephalus by a sudden defection from the Romans, secured him peace, and a recent war had subdued the Dardani, and he saw that the only hostile side of Macedonia was the one that lay open from Illyricum, the Illyrians themselves being far from quiet and affording an approach to the Romans, and that, if he should subdue the nearest of the Illyrians, Gentius too, the king who had long been wavering, could be enticed into alliance), set out with ten thousand foot, part of whom were phalangites, and two thousand light-armed and five hundred horse, and came to Stuberra. From there, grain for several days being taken and the apparatus for the assaulting of cities ordered to follow, on the third day he pitched camp at Uscana—the largest city of the Penestian land—yet before he brought force to bear, sending men to sound now the feelings of the prefects of the garrison, now of the townsmen. There was there a Roman garrison with the young men of the Illyrians. After they brought back nothing of peace, he set about assaulting it and tried to take it by encirclement. When, without intermission, by day and by night, some succeeding others, part brought ladders to the walls, part fire to the gates, the defenders of the city nonetheless withstood that storm, because there was hope that the Macedonians could not long endure the violence of winter in the open, and that there would not be so much respite from the Roman war for the king that he could tarry. But after they saw mantlets being moved up and towers raised, their stubbornness was overcome. For, besides that they were no match against force, there was not within even a supply of grain or of any other thing, as in an unlooked-for siege. And so, since there was no hope of resisting, Gaius Carvilius of Spoletium and Gaius Afranius were sent from the Roman garrison to seek of Perseus, first, that he allow them to depart armed and carrying their own goods with them; then, if they obtained that less, that they receive a guarantee only of life and liberty. This was promised by the king more generously than it was made good; for, having ordered them to go out carrying their goods with them, he first took away their arms. When these had gone out of the city, both the cohort of the Illyrians—they were five hundred—and the Uscanenses surrendered themselves and their city. Perseus, placing a garrison in Uscana, led off to Stuberra the whole multitude of those who had surrendered, almost equal in number to his own army. There, the Romans—they were four thousand men—being distributed, except the leaders, into the custody of the states, he sold the Uscanenses and the Illyrians, and led his army back into Penestia to reduce into his power the town of Oaeneum—conveniently situated besides, and the passage that way is into the Labeates, where Gentius reigned. As he was passing by a populous fort, Draudacum by name, one acquainted with that region said that there was no need of taking Oaeneum unless Draudacum too were in his power; it was even more conveniently placed for everything. When the army was brought up, all surrendered themselves at once. Heartened by this hope at a swifter surrender, after he noticed how great the terror of his column was, he reduced eleven other forts into his power by the same fear. At very few was force needed; the rest surrendered of their own will; and among these fifteen hundred Roman soldiers, stationed throughout the garrisons, were taken in. Carvilius of Spoletium was of great use in the parleys, by saying that no cruelty had been done against the men themselves. They came to Oaeneum, which could not be taken without a regular siege. It was both stronger than the others in its young men and strong in its walls, and on this side a river, Artatus by name, on that a very high mountain, hard of approach, girt it. These things gave the townsmen hope of resisting. Perseus, having walled the town around, set about leading an earthwork from the higher part, by whose height he might overtop the walls. While this work was being completed, in frequent battles meanwhile—by which, through sallies, the townsmen both protected their own walls and hindered the enemy’s works—a great multitude of them was consumed by various mischances, and those who survived were rendered useless by the toil of day and night and by their wounds. As soon as the earthwork was joined to the wall, both the royal cohort—whom they call the Nicators—climbed over, and with many ladders an assault was made on the city at several points at once. All the grown males were killed; their wives and children he gave into custody; the rest of the booty fell to the soldiers. Returning thence victorious to Stuberra, he sent to Gentius as envoys Pleuratus the Illyrian, an exile with him, and Adaeus the Macedonian from Beroea. These he ordered to set forth his deeds of that summer and winter against the Romans and the Dardani, to add the recent works of the winter expedition in Illyricum, and to urge Gentius to join in friendship with him and with the Macedonians. These, having crossed the ridge of Mount Scordus through the wastes of Illyricum—which the Macedonians had deliberately made by ravaging, lest the passages should be easy for the Dardani into Illyricum or Macedonia—reached Scodra at last with vast toil. At Lissus was King Gentius. Thither the envoys, summoned, setting forth their commission, were kindly heard; who carried back an answer without effect, that he did not lack the will to make war with the Romans, but that, to attempt what he wished, he lacked above all money. These things they reported to the king at Stuberra, then at the very height of selling his captives from Illyricum. At once the same envoys, with Glaucias added from the number of the bodyguards, were sent back without mention of money—without which, not being given, the needy barbarian could not be driven to war. Having then ravaged Ancyra, Perseus led his army back again into Penestia, and, the garrisons of Uscana and of the forts round about which he had recovered being strengthened in every place, he withdrew into Macedonia.

Lucius Coelius, a Roman legate, was in command of Illyricum; who, not daring to stir while the king was in those parts, only after his departure attempted to recover Uscana in Penestia from the garrison of Macedonians that was there, and, repulsed with many wounds, led his forces back to Lychnidus. Thence, a few days later, he sent Marcus Trebellius of Fregellae with a fairly strong band into Penestia to receive hostages from those cities which had remained faithfully in friendship; he ordered him also to proceed into the Parthini—they too had agreed to give hostages. From both nations he exacts them without disturbance. The hostages of the Penestae were sent to Apollonia, those of the Parthini to Dyrrachium—then the name Epidamnus was more current among the Greeks. Appius Claudius, desiring to redeem the disgrace he had received in Illyricum, set about assaulting Phanote, a fort of Epirus. He had brought with him, besides the Roman army, auxiliaries of the Chaonians and Thesprotians, up to six thousand men; nor did he accomplish anything worth the effort, since Cleuas, who had been left by Perseus, defended it with a strong garrison.

And Perseus, having set out for Elimea and reviewed his army around it, led it to Stratus, the Epirotes calling him. Stratus was then the strongest city of Aetolia; it is situated above the Ambracian Gulf, near the river Inachus. He set out thither with ten thousand foot and three hundred horse, whom he led fewer in number on account of the narrowness of the roads and their roughness. On the third day, when he had come to Mount Citium, scarcely getting across on account of the depth of the snow, he found a place for his camp too only with difficulty. Setting out thence, more because he could not stay than because either the road or the weather was bearable, with vast distress, especially to the pack-animals, on the next day he pitched camp at the temple of Jupiter which they call Nicaeus. Thence, an immense march being accomplished, to the river Aratthus, he was held back by the depth of the stream and remained. In that interval, a bridge being completed and his forces led across, having advanced a day’s march, he had coming to meet him Archidamus, the chief of the Aetolians, through whom Stratus was being handed over to him. That day camp was pitched at the border of the Aetolian territory. Thence on the next day Stratus was reached; where, having pitched camp near the river Inachus, while he expected the Aetolians to pour out of all the gates and come over into his protection, he found the gates closed and, on the very night on which he had come, a Roman garrison received with Gaius Popilius the legate. The leading men, who, compelled by the authority of Archidamus when present, had summoned the king, becoming more sluggish after Archidamus went out to meet him, had given the opposing faction occasion to summon Popilius with a thousand foot from Ambracia. In good time Dinarchus too, prefect of the cavalry of the Aetolian nation, came with six hundred foot and a hundred horse. It was sufficiently agreed that he had come to Stratus as though making for Perseus, then, his mind changing with fortune, had joined the Romans, against whom he had come. Nor was Popilius more free from care than he ought to be, amid temperaments so unstable. He at once made the keys of the gates and the guard of the walls his own; Dinarchus and the Aetolians, with the young men of the Stratians, he removed into the citadel under the appearance of a garrison. Perseus, from the hills overhanging the upper part of the city having attempted parleys, when he saw them obstinate and even keeping him off at a distance with missiles, pitched camp five miles from the city across the river Petitaurus. There, a council being summoned, when Archidamus and the Epirote deserters would have him stay, but the Macedonian leaders judged that there should be no fighting against an unfavorable season of the year, with no provisions prepared, when the besiegers would feel the want sooner than the besieged—especially because the enemy’s winter quarters were not far thence—terrified, he moved his camp into Aperantia. The Aperantians, on account of the great favor and authority of Archidamus among that people, received him by the consent of all; and he himself was set over them with a garrison of eight hundred soldiers. The king returned into Macedonia with no less distress to the pack-animals and the men than he had come; yet the report of his leading toward Stratus drew Appius off from the siege of Phanote. Cleuas, having followed with a garrison of active young men, killed, at the foot of the nearly impassable mountains, about a thousand men out of the encumbered column, and took about two hundred. Appius, the narrows being passed, held a fixed camp of a few days in the plain which they call Meleon. Meanwhile Cleuas, taking with him Philostratus, who held sway among the Epirote nation, crossed over into the territory of Antigonea. The Macedonians set out for plundering; Philostratus with his cohort settled in ambush in an obscure place. When armed men had sallied from Antigonea against the scattered plunderers, pursuing them too freely as they fled, they hurled them down into a valley beset by the enemy. There, a thousand being killed and about a hundred captured, and the business everywhere prosperously done, they moved their camp near the fixed camp of Appius, lest any force be brought against their allies by the Roman army. Appius, wearing away his time to no purpose in those parts, the garrisons of the Chaonians and of any other Epirotes being dismissed, returned with his Italian soldiers into Illyricum, and, the soldiers being distributed through the allied cities of the Parthini into winter quarters, he himself returned to Rome for the sake of a sacrifice. Perseus recalled a thousand foot and two hundred horse from the Penestian nation and sent them to Cassandrea, to be a garrison. From Gentius men returned bringing back the same things as before. Nor did he thereafter cease, by sending one envoy after another, to try him, since it was apparent how much protection lay in him; yet he could not prevail upon his own mind to make the outlay upon a matter of the greatest moment to everything.