Reasons to Suspect Intrigue between Eumenes and Perseus
I have already stated
1 that Cydas of Crete, while, serving
in the army of Eumenes and held in especial honour by him,
had in the first place had interviews with
Cheimarus, one of the Cretans in the army of
Perseus, and again had approached the walls of
Demetrias, and conversed first with Menecrates, and then with Antimachus.
The Romans become suspicious of Eumenes, and ostentatiously transfer their favour to his brother Attalus. |
Again, that
Herophon had been twice on a mission from
Perseus to Eumenes, and that the Romans on that account
began to have reasonable suspicions of king Eumenes, is
rendered clear from what happened to Attalus. For they
allowed this prince to come to Rome from Brundisium, and
to transact the business he had on hand, and finally gave him
a favourable answer and dismissed him with every mark of
kindness, although he had done them no service of any importance in the war with Perseus; while Eumenes, who had
rendered them the most important services, and had assisted
them again and again in their wars with Antiochus and
Perseus, they not only prevented from coming to Rome, but
bade him leave Italy within a certain number of days, though
it was mid-winter. Therefore it is quite plain that some intriguing had been taking place between Perseus and Eumenes
to account for the alienation of the Romans from the latter.
What this was, and how far it went, is our present subject of
inquiry.