War With Perseus Begun
Caius Lucretius
1
being at anchor off Cephallenia, wrote
a letter to the Rhodians, requesting them to
despatch some ships, and entrusted the letter
to a certain trainer named Socrates.
This letter arrived at
Rhodes in the second six months of the Prytany of Stratocles.
When the question came on for discussion,
Agathagetus, Rhodophon, Astymedes, and
many others were for sending the ships and
taking part in the war from the first, without
any further pretence; but Deinon and Polyaratus,
though really displeased at the favour already
shown to Rome, now for the present used the case of Eumenes
as their pretext, and began by that means to alienate the feelings
of the populace.
There had in fact been a long standing feeling
of suspicion and dislike in the minds of the Rhodians against
Eumenes, dating from the time of his war with Pharnaces; when,
upon king Eumenes blockading the entrance
of the Hellespont to prevent ships sailing into
the Pontus, the Rhodians had interfered with
his design and thwarted him. This ill-feeling had again been
recently exasperated during the Lycian war on the question of
certain forts, and a strip of territory on the frontier of the
Rhodian Peraea, which was being damaged by some of
Eumenes's subjects. These incidents taken together made
the Rhodians ready to listen to anything against the king.
Seizing on this pretext, the party of Deinon tried to discredit the despatch, asserting that it did not come from the
Romans but from Eumenes, who wished to involve them
on any possible pretext in a war, and bring expense and
perfectly unnecessary suffering upon the people. In support
of their contention they put forward the fact that the man who
brought the letter was some obscure trainer or another; and
asserted that the Romans were not accustomed to employ such
messengers, but were rather inclined to act with unnecessary
care and dignity in the despatch of such missives. When
they said this they were perfectly aware that the letter had
really been written by Lucretius: their object was to persuade
the Rhodian people to do nothing for the Romans readily, but
rather to perpetually make difficulties, and thus give occasions
for offence and displeasure to crop up between the two nations.
For their deliberate purpose was to alienate Rhodes from the
Roman friendship, and to join it to that of Perseus, by every
means in their power. Their motives for thus clinging to
Perseus were that Polyaratus, who was ostentatious and vain,
had become heavily in debt; and that Deinon, who was
avaricious and unscrupulous, had from the first relied on
increasing his wealth by getting presents from princes and
kings. These speeches having been delivered, the Prytanis
Stratocles rose, and, after inveighing at some length against
Perseus, and speaking with equal warmth in praise of the
Romans, induced the people to confirm the decree for the
despatch of the ships. Forthwith six quadriremes were prepared, five of which were sent to Chalcis under the command
of Timagoras, and the other under the command of another
Timagoras to Tenedos. This latter commander fell in at
Tenedos with Diophanes, who had been despatched by
Perseus to Antiochus, and captured both him and his crew.
All such allies as arrived with offers of help by sea Lucretius
thanked warmly, but excused from taking part in this service,
observing that the Romans had no need of naval support. . . .
Perseus now collected a large army at Citium, thirty-nine
thousand foot and four thousand horse, and advanced through the
north of Thessaly taking many towns, and finally taking up
his quarters at Sicyrium, at the foot of Mount Ossa. The Roman
consul, P. Licinius, marched from the south-west through Gomphi,
and thence to Larisa, where he crossed the river Peneus. After
some cavalry skirmishes, which were generally favourable to the
king, Perseus advanced nearer to the Roman camp, and a more
important battle was fought, in which the king again scored a considerable success with his cavalry and light-armed troops. The
Romans lost two hundred cavalry killed and as many prisoners
and two thousand infantry, while Perseus only had twenty cavalry
and forty infantry killed. He did not, however, follow up the
victory sufficiently to inflict a crushing blow upon the Roman
army; and though the Consul withdrew to the south of the Peneus,
after some days' reflection the king made proposals of peace. See
Livy, 42, 51-62. B. C. 171 (summer). 
