21.
Antiochus, at the approach of the consul,1 left Chalcis and first proceeded to Tenos, then crossed to Ephesus.
[2]
When the consul arrived at Chalcis the gates stood open, since at his approach Aristoteles, the king's prefect, had left the city.
[3]
And the other cities of Euboea were given up without a struggle; and a few days later everything was quiet and the army was led back to Thermopylae doing no injury to any city, their moderate conduct after the victory being far more worthy of praise [p. 223]than the actual victory.
[4]
Then the consul sent2 Marcus Cato to Rome, that from him, a thoroughly trustworthy source, the senate and the Roman people might learn what had happened.
[5]
From Creusa —this is the trading-port of the Thespians, lying deep in the Corinthian gulf —he made for Patrae in Achaea; from Patrae he skirted the shores of Aetolia and Acarnania right up to Corcyra and thence crossed to Hydruntum in Italy.
[6]
On the fifth day from there in hurried progress by land he arrived in Rome. Entering the City before daybreak he went from the gate straight to the praetor Marcus Junius.3
[7]
Junius at daybreak summoned the senate; Lucius Cornelius Scipio,4 who had been sent on some days before by the consul, learning on his arrival that Cato had reached there first and was in the senate, came in while he was recounting what had happened.
[8]
Then the two legates by order of the senate were taken before the assembly and there told the same story as in the senate about the events in Aetolia.
[9]
A period of thanksgiving for three days was proclaimed and the praetor was ordered to sacrifice forty full-grown victims to whatever gods he saw fit.
[10]
About the same time too Marcus Fulvius Nobilior,5 who two years before had as praetor set out for Spain, entered the City in ovation; he carried in his procession one hundred and thirty thousand silver coins stamped with the two-horse chariot, and
[11??]
in addition to the minted money twelve [p. 225]thousand pounds of silver and one hundred and6 twenty-seven pounds of gold.
1 In the light of the narrative that has just preceded the leisurely progress of the consul after the battle is hard to explain or defend. A more relentless pursuit by the cavalry, reinforced with light infantry, and liaison with the fleet of Atilius, which was operating off the eastern coast, might easily have resulted in the capture of the king and the final termination of the war. Instead of following the coast route after the battle, Glabrio marched well inland, with no apparent motive, and the time he thus consumed (note especially per omnes dies in xx. 1 above) gave the king the opportunity to reach Chalcis, reorganize the remnant of his forces, and make good his escape. We should remember that communications were slow and uncertain for both sides and information scanty and unreliable. It should also be pointed out that Livy shows no sign that he considers Acilius delinquent in any way, and there is no mention of any criticism on this ground a year later, when he was sharply criticized for other things (XXXVII. lvii. 10-15).
2 B.C. 191
3 These details might almost have been taken from some eulogistic biography (or autobiography?) of Cato: cf. the note to XXXIV. xxi. 8. The account in Plutarch (Cato xiv) differs in several respects. According to it Cato was sent immediately after the battle, that he might be the first to report his own achievements; the route was different but the five-day land journey is the same; there is no mention of Scipio.
4 Scipio had been defeated in the consular election for this year (XXXV. xxiv. 4) but was elected for the following year (xlv. 9 below). There is no other reference to his presence in Greece, and Livy may have confused his visit to Rome with one of Publius Scipio to announce a victory in Gaul (xxxix. 4 below).
5 For his appointment to Spain see XXXIV. Iv. 6; cf. also xxxix. 1 below.
6 B.C. 191
Livy. Books XXXV-XXXVII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935: published without copyright notice.
The Annenberg CPB/Project provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.