4.
About the same time ambassadors arrived in Rome from two kings, Philip and Ptolemy,1 King of Egypt; Philip promised aid and money and grain [p. 167]for the war; from Ptolemy also was brought the2 sum of a thousand pounds of gold and twenty thousand pounds of silver.
[2]
None of these gifts was accepted; thanks were expressed to the kings, and when each of them promised to come with all his forces to Aetolia and participate in the war, Ptolemy was excused from this;
[3]
to the ambassadors of Philip the answer was given that it would be acceptable to the senate and
[4??]
the Roman people if he did not fail the consul Manius Acilius. Ambassadors also came from the Carthaginians and King Masinissa.
[5]
The Carthaginians promised five hundred3 thousand modii of wheat and five hundred thousand modii of barley, and offered to transport half of it to Rome;
[6]
they begged the Romans to accept it as a gift from them and they said that they would prepare a fleet at their own expense and would pay at once in a lump sum the tribute which they owed in successive instalments over a term of years.4
[7]
The ambassadors of Masinissa promised that the king would send five hundred thousand modii of wheat and three hundred thousand of
[8??]
barley to Greece for the army, three hundred thousand modii of wheat and two hundred fifty thousand of barley to Rome, and five hundred cavalry and twenty elephants to Manius Acilius the consul.
[9]
Regarding the grain, the answer was given both that the Roman people would use the grain if they would accept pay for it; the Carthaginians were released from their promise about the fleet, except with respect to the ships which -they owed under [p. 169]the treaty;5 as to the money also, the reply was6 that they would accept none before it was due.7
1 Ptolemy was the son-in-law of Antiochus (XXXV. xiii. 4).
2 B.C. 191
3 The quantity is doubtful (see the critical note). I have followed what seems to be the most trustworthy authority.
4 The treaty of peace with Carthage provided for annual payments of tribute for fifty years (XXX. xxxvii.. 5; Polybius XV. xviii). The Carthaginians were prepared to pay at once the entire balance. The financial reforms introduced by Hannibal (XXXIII. xlvii. 1-2) had apparently been effective.
5 The sources quoted in the preceding note say nothing of any obligation to furnish ships to Rome, aside from the surrender of vessels on hand at the close of the war. However, we see from xliv. 5 below that there were Carthaginian ships in the fleet of Livius in the east.
6 B.C. 191
7 Editors are disagreed as to the interpretation of this somewhat ungracious reply. Some say that Rome feared to lose her hold on Carthage; it is pleasanter to believe with others that Rome wanted to give the impression to Carthage as to Philip, both of whom seem exceedingly generous, that she was able with her own resources to meet even an emergency of this magnitude. It would be interesting to know whether these recent enemies were simply politic or were really as well-disposed as their offers of help indicates.
Livy. Books XXXV-XXXVII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935: published without copyright notice.
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