32 When the Roman fleet had taken possession of these very safe harbours, the prætor thought proper, before he attempted the fortifications, either by escalade or works, that persons should be sent to sound the disposition of the magistrates and principal people in the place: when he saw them obstinate, he determined to attack the city in two places at the same time. One part was thinly occupied by private dwellings, temples of the gods occupying a great deal of the ground. In that part first, having brought up the battering-ram, he began to shake the wall and towers; and when the multitude within ran thither to defend that spot, the battering-rams were applied in the other quarter, and the walls were now knocked down in both places. On the fall of which, when some of the Roman soldiers were making an assault over the scattered masses of ruins, others attempted to scale walls; the townsmen made such an obstinate resistance, as plainly showed that they had a firmer dependence on their arms and courage, than on their fortifications. The prætor, compelled by the danger of the soldiers, sounded a retreat, that he might not expose them incautious to his opponents, maddened with despair and rage. The fighting being ended, the besieged did not, even then, think of rest; but all hastened from every quarter, to strengthen the walls, and to raise new ones in the place of those that had been demolished. While they were busily employed in this manner, Quintus Antonius, being sent by the prætor, came to them, who, after having blamed their obstinacy, assured them that “the Romans were more anxious than they were themselves that the battle should not be carried on to the destruction of the city. If they would desist from their madness, Æmilius would allow them to capitulate on the same terms on which they had formerly surrendered to Caius Livius.” When they heard this, having taken five days’ time to deliberate, and having in the mean time tried the hope of aid from Antiochus, after that the ambassadors sent to the king had brought back word that there was no aid in him, they opened their gates, stipulating that they should suffer nothing hostile. When the troops were marching into the city, and the prætor had proclaimed that it was his pleasure that the surrendered townsmen should be spared, there arose an universal clamour, “that it was shameful that the Phocæans, who had never been faithful to any alliance, and had always been bitter in enmity, should escape with impunity.” After which words, as if a signal had been given by the prætor, they ran, in parties, every way, to plunder the city. Æmilius, at first, began to resist, and call them back, saying, that “towns taken by storm, and not such as surrendered, were plundered; and that, even with regard to the former, the determination lay with the commander, not with the soldiers.” But rage and avarice were too strong for his authority; wherefore, despatching heralds through all parts of the city, he ordered, that all persons of free condition should come to him in the forum, that they should not be injured: and in all things which were in his power, the promise of the prætor was observed. He restored to them their city, their lands, and their laws; and, as the winter now approached, he chose the harbour of Phocæa for his fleet to pass the winter in.
33 About the same time it was announced to the consul, as he was marching along the frontiers of the Ænians and Maronites, that the king’s fleet was conquered at Myonnesus, and that Lysimachia was evacuated by its garrison. This latter event gave much more satisfaction than even the success at sea; especially after they came thither, and were hospitably received in the city, filled with provisions of all sorts, as if provided for the arrival of the army; when, in besieging the city, they had anticipated extreme want and hardship. There they made a halt for a few days, that the baggage and sick might overtake them, who, overcome by diseases, or the length of the way, had been left behind in all the forts of Thrace. When all had joined, they began again their march through the Chersonese, and arrived at the Hellespont; where every thing requisite for their passage having been previously got ready, by the care of king Eumenes, they crossed over, without confusion, as if to friendly shores, no one opposing, and the ships putting in at several different places. This raised to a high degree the spirits of the Romans, who saw the passage into Asia left open to them; which thing they supposed would cost them a severe struggle. They afterwards remained encamped a considerable time at the Hellespont, because it happened to be a period too holy for marching, during which the sacred shields are moved. The same festival had separated Publius Scipio from the army, as the religious ceremony was more incumbent on him, because he was one of the Salian priests; and he himself was a source of delay, till he overtook the rest of the army.
34 In the mean time an ambassador came from Antiochus to the camp—Heraclides, a Byzantian, having mandates concerning peace. The delay and tardiness of the Romans gave him great hope that this might be attained; for he had imagined, that as soon as they set foot in Asia, they would advance in a rapid march against the king. He resolved, however, not to address himself to the consul until he had first applied to Publius Scipio, and instructions to that effect were given him by the king. In him he had the greatest hope, besides that his greatness of soul, and the fulness of his glory, tended very much to make him inclined to peace, and it was known to all nations what sort of a conqueror he had been, both in Spain and afterwards in Africa; and also because his son was then a prisoner with Antiochus. Where, and when, and by what accident he became a prisoner, is, like very many other things, not ascertained among writers. Some say, that in the beginning of the war, as he was going from Chalcis to Oreum, he was intercepted by some of the king’s ships; others, that after the army came into Asia, he was sent with a troop of Fregellans to Antiochus’s camp, to gain intelligence; that on the cavalry sallying out against him, he retreated, and having fallen from his horse in the confusion, he was together with two horsemen, overpowered, and thus conducted to the king. This however is fully ascertained, that if peace had still subsisted with the Romans, and likewise a personal friendship between the king and the Scipios, the young man could not have been treated and courted with greater kindness than he was. When the ambassador, for these reasons, had waited the arrival of Publius Scipio, as soon as he came he applied to the consul, and requested that he should hear his instructions.
35 A full council being assembled, audience was given to the ambassador, who said, that, “though many embassies about peace had already been sent backwards and forwards, without producing any effect, yet he conceived strong hopes of obtaining it, because the former ambassadors had obtained nothing. For the objects of contention in those discussions were Smyrna and Lampsacus, Alexandria in the Troad, and Lysimachia in Europe. Of these, the king had already ceded Lysimachia, that they might not say that he possessed any thing in Europe; and those cities which lay in Asia, he was now ready to deliver up as well as any others, which the Romans might wish to render independent of the king’s government, because they belonged to their party. The king was also willing to pay to the Roman people half the expense of the war.” These were the conditions of peace. The rest of his discourse was, “that, mindful of human affairs, they should use with moderation their own good fortune, and not press too severely on the misfortune of others; that they should limit their empire by Europe; that single acquisitions could be made with more ease than that necessary for holding them collectively. But if they would wish to take away some part of Asia, provided that they would define it by indisputable limits, the king, for the sake of peace and harmony, would willingly suffer his own moderate temper to be overcome by the insatiableness of the Romans.” These concessions, which appeared to the ambassador of great moment towards obtaining a peace, the Romans deemed trifling. They thought it just, that “the king should defray the whole expense occasioned by the war, because it was through his fault that it was begun. And that, not only Ionia and Æolia ought