46.
Paullus sent officers to hold the government of the several cities which had surrendered; lest, at a time when peace was but newly restored, the conquered might suffer any ill treatment. He detained with himself the ambassadors of Perseus;
[2]
and, being uninformed of the flight of the king, detached Publius Nasica, with a small party of horse and foot, to Amphipolis, both that he might lay waste the country of Sintice, and be ready to obstruct every effort of the king. In the mean time, Melibœa was taken and sacked by Cneius Octavius.
[3]
At Aeginium, to which Cneius Anicius, a lieutenant-general, had been despatched, two hundred men were lost by a sally made from the town; the Aeginians not being aware that the war was at an end. The consul, quitting Pydna, arrived with his whole army, on the second day, at Pella; and, pitching his camp at the distance of a mile from it, remained in that station for several days, reconnoitring on all sides the situation of the city; and he perceived that it was chosen to be the capital of the kingdom, not without good reason.
[4]
It stands on a hill which faces the south-west, and is surrounded by morasses, [p. 2114]formed by stagnant waters from the adjacent lakes, so deep as to be impassable either in winter or summer.
[5]
In the part of the morass nearest to the city the citadel rises up like an island, being built on a mound of earth formed with immense labour, so as to be capable of supporting the wall, and secure against any injury from the water of the surrounding marsh.
[6]
At a distance it seems to join the city rampart, but is divided from it by a river, and united by a bridge; so that if externally invaded it has no access from any part, and if the king chooses to confine any person within it, there is no way for an escape except by that bridge, which can be guarded with great ease.
[7]
This was the depository of the royal treasure; but, at that time, there was nothing found there but the three hundred talents which had been sent to king Gentius, and afterwards brought back. While they were stationed at Pella, audience was given to a great number of embassies, which came with congratulations, especially out of Thessaly. Then, receiving intelligence that Perseus had passed over to Samothrace, the consul departed from Pella, and after four days' march, arrived at Amphipolis.
[8]
Here the whole multitude poured out of the town to meet him; a plain demonstration that the people considered themselves not as1
1 Crevier supplement: “bereft of a good and just king, but as delivered from a haughty tyrant. Paullus having entered the city while engaged in religious services, and performing a solemn sacrifice, [9??] the altar was sud- denly kindled by lightning, while all considered the event to signify that the offerings of the consul were most acceptable to the gods, since they were consecrated by fire from heaven. The consul, after a [10??] short delay at Amphipolis, proceeded at once in pursuit of Perseus, and also that he might carry his victorious arms round to all the nations which had been under his sway, made for [11??] the province of Odomantice, a region be- yond the river Strymon, and encamped at Sirae.
”
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, books thirty-seven to the end, with the epitomes and fragments of the lost books. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. William A. McDevitte. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers, Bungay. 1850. 4.
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