This pronouncement made on the first day of the conference called forth mixed feelings in the audience. [2] The unhoped-for boon of political liberty and the lightening of the annual tribute were a great relief to them, but the prohibition of mutual intercourse between the different cantons seemed to them like the rending asunder of their country, like an animal deprived of its limbs, where each limb is necessary to all the rest so ignorant were they of the size of Macedonia, how easily it lent itself to division and how self-contained each part was in itself. [3] The first section includes the Bisaltae, a nation of warriors living on the other side of the Nessus and around the Strymon and contains many special kinds of fruit and minerals and the city of Amphipolis, which is so conveniently situated, commanding as it does all approaches from the east. [4] Then again, the second division comprises the populous cities of Thessalonica and Cassandrea and also the rich corn-growing district of Pallene. Facilities for sea-borne traffic are afforded by numerous harbours: some at Torone under Mount Athos, and at Aenea and Acanthus, others facing Thessaly and Euboea, and others again easily accessible from the Hellespont. [5] The third canton includes the famous cities of Edessa, Beroea and Pella, the warlike tribe of the Vettii and also a large population of Gauls and Illyrians who are devoted to husbandry. [6] The fourth canton is peopled by the Eordaei the Lyncestae and the Pelagones, and there are also the three cities of Atintania, Tymphaei, and Elimiotis. [7] The whole of this strip of country is cold and unkindly and difficult of cultivation, and the character of the peasants corresponds to that of their country. Their barbarian neighbours make them still more ferocious by sometimes familiarising them with war, and in times of peace introducing their own rites and customs. [8] In this division of Macedonia, therefore, each separate portion had its own distinctive advantages
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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