countries, had the most noble way of thinking; and, on the contrary, to heap riches and honours on all such, who, whether right or wrong, should declare in favour of the Romans; a resolution, which soon after increased the herd of flatterers in all republics, and very much lessened the number of the true friends of liberty. From this period, the Romans made it one of the constant maxims of their policy, to oppress by all possible methods whoever ventured to oppose their ambitious projects. This single maxim may serve as a key to the latent principles and motives of the government of the republic, and to show us what idea we ought to entertain of the pretended equity and moderation they sometimes display, but which does not long support itself, and of which a just judgment cannot be formed but by the consequences. To conclude, the senate, in order to get the exiles restored to their country, did not only write to the Achæans, but to the Ætolians, Epirots, Athenians, Boeotians, and Acarnanians, as if they intended to incense all Greece against the Achæans; and in their answer to the ambassadors, they did not make the least mention of any one but Callicrates, whose example the senate wished the magistrates of all other cities would follow. That deputy, after receiving this answer, returned in triumph, without reflecting that he was the cause of all the calamities which Greece, and particularly Achaia were upon the point of experiencing; for hitherto a sort of equality had been observed between the Achæans and the Romans, which the latter thought fit to permit, out of gratitude for the considerable services the Achæans had done them, and for the inviolable fidelity with which they had adhered to them, in the most perilous junctures, as in the wars against Philip and Antiochus. The members of this league distinguished theinselves at that time in a most conspicuous manner by their authority, their forces, their zeal for liberty, and above all, by the shining merit and exalted reputation of their commanders. But Callicrates's treason (for we may justly bestow that name upon it) gave it a deadly wound. The Romans, says Polybius, noble in their sentiments, and full of humanity, are moved at the complaints of the wretched, and think it their duty to afford their aid to all who fly to them for protection; and this it was that inclined them to favour the cause of the Lacedæmonian exiles. But if any one, on whose fidelity they may safely depend; suggests to them the inconveniencies they would bring upon themselves, should they grant certain favours; they generally return to a just way of thinking, and correct, so far as lies in their power, what they may have done amiss. Here, on the contrary, Callicrates studies nothing but how he might best work upon their passions by flattery. He had been sent to Rome to plead the cause of the Achæans, and, by a criminal and unparalleled prevarication, he declares against his superiors, and becomes the advocate of their ene mies, by whom he had suffered himself to be corrupted. At his return to Achaia, he spread so artfully the terror of the Roman name, and intimidated the people to such a degree, that he got himself elected captain-general. He was no sooner invested with this command, but he restored the exiles of Lacedæmonia and Messene to their country. Polybius, on this occasion, praises exceedingly the humanity of the Romans, the tenderness with which they listen to the complaints of the unfortunate, and their readiness to atone for such unjust actions as they may have committed, when they are once made acquainted with them. I know not whether the applauses he gives them will not admit of great abridgment. The reader must call to mind that he wrote this in Rome, and under the eye of the Romans, after Greece had been reduced to a state of slavery. We are not to expect from an historian, who is subject and dependent, so much veracity as he very possibly would have observed in a free state, and at a time when men were permitted to speak the truth; and we must not blindly believe every circumstance of this kind advanced by him; facts have more force, and speak in a clearer manner than he does. The Romans themselves did not scruple to commit injustice, whenever they had an opportunity of employing foreign means, for that purpose, which procured them the same advantage, and served to conceal their unjust policy. *Eumenes, in the mean time, was engaged in war against Pharnaces, king of Pontus. The latter took Sinope, a very strong city of Pontus, of which his successors remained possessors ever afterwards. Several cities made complaints against this at Rome. Ariarathes king of Cappadocia, who was united in interest with Eumenes, sent also ambassadors thither. The Romans several times employed their me diation and authority to put an end to their differences; but Pharnaces was insincere on these occasions, and always broke his engagements. Contrary to the faith of treaties, he took the field, and was opposed by the confederate kings. Several enterprises ensued; and after some years had been spent in this manner, a peace was concluded. * A. M. 3822. Ant. J. C. 182. Polyb. in Legat. c. 51-5353-59. *Never were more embassies sent than at the time we are now speaking of. Ambassadors were seen in all places, either coming from the provinces to Rome, or going from Rome to the provinces; or from the allies and nations to one another. The † Achæans deputed, in this quality, to Ptolemy Epiphanes, king of Egypt, Lycortas, Polybius his son, and the young Aratus, to return that monarch thanks for the presents he had already bestowed on their republic, and the new offers he had made them. However these ambassadors did not leave Achaia, because when they were preparing to set out, advice came that Ptolemy was dead. This prince, after having overcome the rebels within his kingdom, as has already been mentioned, resolved to attack Seleucus, king of Syria. When he began to form the plan for carrying on this war, one of his principal officers asked by what methods he would raise money for the execution of it. He re plied that his friends were his treasure. The principal courtiers concluded from this answer, that, as he considered their purses as the only fund he had to carry on this war, they were upon the point of being ruined by it. To prevent therefore that consequence, which had more weight with them than the allegiance they owed their sovereign, they caused him to be poi. soned. This monarch was thus dispatched in his 29th year, after he had sat 24 years on the throne. Ptolemy Philometer, his son, who was but six years of age succeeded him, and Cleopatra his mother was declared regent. CHAP. II. Tthe year of the world 3821, till 3840. HIS second chapter includes the space of 20 years, from In this interval are contained: the first 20 years of Ptolemy Philométer's reign over Egypt, which amounted in the whole to 34 years: the five last years of Philip, who reigned 40 years in Macedonia, and was succeeded by Perseus, who reigned 11: the eight or nine last years of Seleucus Philopater in Syria, and the 11 years of Antiochus Epiphanes his successor, who exercised the most horrid cruelties against the Jews. I shall reserve the 11 years of Perseus's reign over Macedonia for the following book, * A. M. 3824. Ant. J. C. 180. A. M, 3824. Ant. J. C. 180. + Polyb. in Legat. c. 57、 Hieron. in Daniel. though they coincide with part of the history related in this chapter. SECTION I. PERSEUS CONSPIRES AGAINST DEMETRIUS. THE LATTER IS INNOCENTLY PUT TO DEATH, AND PERSEUS SUCCEEDS TO THE THRONE. FROM the spreading of a report among the states contiguous to Macedonia, that such as went to Rome to complain against Philip, were heard there, and many of them very favourably; a great number of cities, and even private persons, made their complaints in that city against a prince, who was a very troublesome neighbour to them all, with the hopes either of having the injuries redressed which they pretended to have received, or at least to console themselves in some measure for them, by being allowed the liberty to deplore them. King Eumenes, among the rest, to whom, by order of the Roman commissioners and senate, the fortresses in Thrace were to be given up, sent ambassadors, at whose head was Athenæus his brother, to inform the senate, that Philip did not evacuate the garrisons in Thrace, as he had promised; and to complain of his sending succours into Bithynia to Prusias, who was then at war with Eumenes. Demetrius, the son of Philip, king of Macedon, was at that time in Rome, whither, as has been already mentioned, he had been sent by his father, in order to superintend his affairs in that city. It was properly his business to answer the several accusations brought against his father: but the senate imagining that this would be a very difficult task for so young a prince, who was not accustomed to speak in public: to spare him that trouble, they sent certain persons to him to inquire, whether the king his father had not given him some memorials, and contented themselves with his reading them. Philip therein justified himself to the best of his power, with respect to most of the articles which were exhibited against him; but he especially showed great disgust at the decrees which the Roman commissioners had enacted against him, and at the treatment he had met with from them. The senate saw plainly what all this tended to; and as the young prince endeavoured to apologize for certain particulars, and assured them, that every thing should be done agreeably to the will of the Romans, the senate repli * A. M. 3821. Ant. J. C. 183. Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 46, 47. Liv. 1. xxxix. 53. ed, that his father Philip could not have done more wisely, or what was more agreeable to them, than in sending his son Demetrius to make his excuses: that as to past transactions, the senate might dissemble, forget, and bear with a great many things that, as to the future, they relied on the promise which Demetrius gave: that, although he was going to leave Rome, in order to return to Macedon, he left there, as the hostage of his inclinations his own good heart and attachment for Rome, which he might retain inviolably, without infringing in any manner the duty he owed his father: that out of regard to him, ambassadors should be sent to Macedon, to rectify, peaceably and without noise, whatever might have been hitherto amiss: and that as to the rest, the senate was well pleased to let Philip know, that he was obliged to his son Demetrius for the tenderness with which the Romans behaved towards him. These marks of distinction, which the senate gave him with the view of exalting his credit in his father's court, only animated envy against him, and at length occasioned his destruction. The return of Demetrius to Macedon, and the arrival of the ambassadors, produced different effects, according to the various dispositions of mens minds. The people, who extremely feared the consequences of a rupture with the Romans, and the war that was preparing, were highly pleased with Demetrius, from the hopes that he would be the mediator and author of a peace; not to mention that they considered him as the successor to the throne of Macedon, after the demise of his father: for though he was the younger son, he had one great advantage of his brother, and that was, his being born of a mother who was Philip's lawful wife; whereas Perseus was the son of a concubine, and even reputed suppositious. Besides it was not doubted but that the Romans would place Demetrius on his father's throne, Perseus not having any credit with them. And these were the common reports. On one side also, Perseus was greatly uneasy; as he feared that the advantage of being elder brother would be but a very feeble title against a brother superior to him in all other respects: and, on the other, Philip, imagining that it would not be in his power to dispose of the crown as he pleased, beheld with a jealous eye, and dreaded the too great authority of his younger son. It was also a great mortification to him, to see rising in his life-time, and before his eyes, a kind of second court in the concourse of Macedonians who crowded about Demetrius. The young prince himself did not take sufficient care to prevent or sooth the growing disaffection to his person. Instead |