The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books. Livy

camp. When Antiochus saw those men renewing the fight, whom, but just before, he had seen running away, and another large body advancing from the camp, with a third from the line, he turned his horse to flight. The Romans, thus victorious in both wings, advanced over heaps of slain, (which had been raised principally in the centre, where the strength of the bravest men and the armour by its weight had prevented flight,) to plunder the camp. The horsemen of Eumenes first, and then the rest of the cavalry, pursued the enemy through all parts of the plain, and killed the hindmost as they overtook them. But the fugitives suffered more severe loss by the chariots, elephants, and camels intermixed, and by their own disorderly crowd; for, after they once broke their ranks, they rushed, as if blind, one upon another, and were trodden to death by the trampling of the beasts. In the camp also there was great slaughter committed, rather greater than even in the field; for the flight of the first generally tended to the camp. The guard, through confidence in the great number of these, defended their works with the more obstinacy. The Romans having been stopped at the gates and rampart, which they had expected to take at the first rush, when they did at length break through, actuated by rage, made the more dreadful carnage.

      44 Up to fifty thousand foot and three thousand horse are said to have been killed that day; one thousand four hundred taken, with fifteen elephants and their drivers. Of the Romans, many were wounded, but no more than three hundred foot and twenty-four horsemen killed; and of the troops of Eumenes, twenty-five. That day the victors, after plundering the enemy’s camp, returned with great store of booty to their own. On the day following, they stripped the bodies of the slain, and collected the prisoners. Ambassadors came from Thyatira and Magnesia, near Sipylus, with a surrender of those cities. Antiochus fled, with very few attendants; but greater numbers collecting about him on the road, he arrived at Sardis, with a tolerable body of soldiers, about the middle of the night. Then when he heard that his son Seleucus and several of his friends had gone on to Apamea, he likewise at the fourth watch set out for Apamea with his wife and daughter, having committed to Zeno the command of the city, and having placed Timon over Lydia; which being disregarded, ambassadors are sent to the consul, by the unanimous voice of the citizens and soldiers who were in the garrison.

      45 About this time deputies came from Tralles, from Magnesia on the Masander, and from Ephesus, to surrender those cities. Polyxenidas had quitted Ephesus, as soon as he heard or the battle; and, sailing with the fleet as far as Patara, in Lycia, where, through fear of the Rhodian fleet stationed at Megiste, he landed, and, with a small retinue, pursued his journey, by land, into Syria. The several states of Asia placed themselves under the protection of the consul and the dominion of the Roman people. He was now at Sardis, whither Publius Scipio came from Elæa, as soon as he was able to endure the fatigue of travelling. Shortly after, a herald from Antiochus solicited through Publius Scipio, and obtained from the consul, permission for the king to send ambassadors. In a few days’ time, Zeuxis, who had been governor of Lydia, and Antipater, the king’s nephew, arrived. These, having first had a meeting with Eumenes, whom they expected to find most averse to peace, on account of old disputes, and seeing him better disposed than they or the king could have hoped, addressed themselves then to Publius Scipio, and through him to the consul: and a numerously attended council being granted to them at their request to declare their commission, Zeuxis said, “we have not any thing to propose ourselves, but rather to inquire from you, Romans, by what atonements we can expiate the error of our king, and obtain pardon and peace from our conquerors. You have ever pardoned, with the greatest magnanimity, vanquished kings and nations. With how much greater and more placable spirit ought you to act now, after your late victory, which has made you masters of the whole world! You ought now, like deities laying aside all disputes with mortal beings, to protect and spare the human race.” It had been determined, before the ambassadors came, what answer should be given them; and it was agreed that Africanus should deliver it. He is said to have spoken thus: “Of those things that are in the gift of the immortal gods, we, Romans, possess as much as the gods have been pleased to bestow. In every state of fortune we have had, and have, the same spirit for this, under the sway of our reason: prosperity has never elated, nor adversity depressed it. Of the truth of this, (to omit other instances,) I might produce your friend Hannibal as a convincing proof: but I can appeal to yourselves. We now conquerors offer to you conquered the same conditions which we offered to you when on an equal footing, at the time that you made proposals of peace, after we crossed the Hellespont, before we beheld the king’s camp or army, when the chance of war was equal and the issue uncertain. Resign all pretensions in Europe, and cede that part of Asia which lies on this side of Mount Taurus. Then, towards the expenses of the war, ye shall pay fifteen thousand talents of Eubœa;6 five hundred immediately, two thousand five hundred when the senate and people of Rome shall have ratified the peace, and one thousand annually for twelve years after. It likewise pleases us, that four hundred talents be paid to Eumenes, and the quantity of corn remaining unpaid, of what was due to his father. When we shall have settled these articles, it will be a sort of pledge, that we may consider it certain that you will perform them, if you give twenty hostages such as we shall choose. But it never will be clear to us that the Roman people will enjoy peace where Hannibal shall be. Him, therefore, we demand, above all. Ye shall also deliver up Thoas, the Ætolian, the fomenter of the Ætolian war, who armed you against us by the assurances of their support, and them by assurances of yours; and, together with him, Mnesilochus, the Acarnanian, and Philo, and Eubulidas, of Chalcis. The king will now make peace under worse circumstances on his side, because he makes it later than he might have done. If he now causes any delay, let him consider, that it is more difficult to pull down the majesty of kings from the highest to the middle stage, than it is to precipitate it from the middle to the lowest.” The ambassadors were sent by the king with these instructions, that they should accede to any terms of peace. It was resolved, therefore, that ambassadors should be sent to Rome. The consul distributed his army in winter quarters at Magnesia, on the Mæander, Tralles, and Ephesus. A few days after, the king brought the hostages to Ephesus to the consul; the ambassadors also, who were to go to Rome, arrived. Eumenes set out for Rome at the same time with the king’s ambassadors, and they were followed by embassies from all the states of Asia.

      46 Whilst these things are being transacted in Asia, two proconsuls arrived almost together at Rome, from their provinces, with hopes of triumphing: Quintus Minucius, from Liguria, and Manius Acilius, from Ætolia. After hearing their services, the senate refused a triumph to Minucius, but, with great unanimity, decreed one to Acilius, and he rode through the city in triumph over king Antiochus and the Ætolians. In the procession were carried, two hundred and thirty military ensigns; of unwrought silver, three thousand pounds’ weight; of coin, one hundred and thirteen thousand Attic tetradrachms;7 and two hundred and forty-eight thousand8 cistophoruses;9 of chased silver vessels, a great number, and of great weight. He bore, also, the king’s silver, furniture, and splendid wardrobe; golden crowns, presents from the allied states, forty-five; with spoils of all kinds. He led thirty-six prisoners of distinction, generals of the Ætolian and royal armies. Damocritus, the Ætolian general, a few days before, when he had escaped out of prison in the night, being overtaken by the guards on the bank of the Tiber, stabbed himself with a sword before he was seized. Nothing was wanted but the soldiers, to follow the general’s chariot; in every other respect the triumph was magnificent, both in the grandeur of the procession and the fame of his achievements. Sad intelligence from Spain diminished the joy of this triumph, viz. that in an unsuccessful battle in the territory of the Bastitani, under the command of Lucius Æmilius, the proconsul, at the town of Lycon, there fell six thousand of the Roman army against the Lusitanians; and that the rest, being driven in a panic within their rampart, found it difficult to defend the camp, and had retreated, by forced marches, as if flying, into a friendly country. Such were the accounts from Spain. Lucius Aurunculeius, the prætor, introduced to the senate the deputies of Placentia and Cremona, in Cisalpine Gaul. When they complained of the want of colonists, some having been carried off by the casualties of war, others by sickness, and several having left the colonies, through disgust at the vicinity of the Gauls; on this, the senate decreed, that “Caius Lælius, the consul, if he thought proper, should enrol six thousand families, to be distributed among these colonies, and that Lucius Aurunculeius, the prætor, should appoint commissioners to conduct the colonists.” Accordingly, Marcus Atilius Serranus, Lucius Valerius Flaccus, son of Publius, and Lucius Valerius Tappo, son of Caius, were nominated to that office.

      47