27.
While these matters are passing in Illyria, Paullus, before the arrival of the ten commissioners, sent his son Quintus Maximus, who was by this time returned from Rome, to sack Agassae and Aeginium: Agassae, because the inhabitants, after surrendering their city to the consul, and volun- tarily soliciting an alliance with Rome, had revolted again to [p. 2148]Perseus: the crime of the people of Aeginium was of a late date;
[2]
not giving credit to the report
[3??]
of the Romans being victorious, they had treated with hostile cruelty some soldiers who came into the city.
[4]
He also detached Lucius Postumius to pillage the city of Aenia; because the inhabitants had continued in arms with more obstinacy than the neighbouring states.
[5]
Autumn now drew nigh; at the commencement of this season, when he resolved to make a tour through Greece, in order to take a view of those curiosities, which, being celebrated by fame, are represented as greater than they really are when examined by the eye, he gave the command of his quarters to Caius Sulpicius Gallus, and, with
[6??]
a moderate retinue, began his journey, accompanied by his son Scipio, and Athenaeus, king Eumenes' brother, and directed his route through Thessaly to the famous oracle at Delphi;
[7]
where he offered sacrifices to Apollo, and, in honour of his victory, destined for his own statues some unfinished columns in the vestibule, on which they had intended to place statues of king Perseus. He also visited the temple of Jupiter Trophonius at Lebadia;
[8]
where, after viewing the mouth of the cave, through which people applying to the oracle descend, in order to obtain information from the gods, he sacrificed to Jupiter and Hercyna, who have a temple there; and then went down to Chalcis, to see the curiosities of the Euripus, and of the island of Eubœa, which is there united to the continent by a bridge.
[9]
From Chalcis he passed by sea to Aulis, a port three miles distant, famous for having been formerly the station of Agamemnon's fleet of one thousand ships, and distinguished also for the temple of Diana, in which that king of kings sought a passage for his fleet to Troy, by offering his daughter Iphigenia as a victim at the altar.
[10]
Thence he came to Oropus, in Attica; where an ancient prophet is worshipped as a god, and has an old temple, rendered delightful by the surrounding springs and streams.
[11]
He then went to Athens, which, though filled with only the decayed relics of ancient grandeur, still contained many things worthy of observation; the citadel, the port, the walls connecting Piraeeus with the city; the dockyards, the monuments of illustrious generals, the statues of gods and men, alike remarkable for the variety of the materials and the ingenuity of the artists.
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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