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

All approving his design, and three quadriremes being added to that fleet which he had, he set sail for Patara. The wind being favourable at first, carried them very near the city, and they were in hopes of effecting something by surprise. After that, the wind veering, the sea had begun to roll in heavy waves, they persevered at their oars until they reached the land; but there was no safe anchorage there, nor could they ride in the road, as the sea was rough, and night was coming on. They, therefore, sailed past the city, to the port of Phœnicus, which was not quite two miles distant, and which afforded shelter from the violence of the waves, but high cliffs overlooked it, which the towns-people, joined by the king’s troops which were in garrison, immediately seized. Livius, though the landing-places were rugged and difficult, sent against them a party of the auxiliaries, composed of Issæans, and light infantry of Smyrna. These (whilst they were skirmishing with missile weapons, and in slight attacks on the few who were there at first, rather than engaging in battle) supported the contest sufficiently well. After that greater numbers flocked thither from the city, and at length, the whole multitude pouring out, fear seized Livius, not only that the auxiliaries might be cut off, but that the ships would be in danger from the land. In consequence he led out to the engagement, not only the soldiers, but the marines, and even the crowd of rowers, armed with such weapons as each could find. After all, however, the fight was doubtful; and, besides a considerable number of soldiers, Lucius Apustius fell in this disorderly combat. At last, the Lycians were routed, and driven within their gates; and the Romans, with a bloody victory, returned to their ships. They then proceeded to the gulf of Telmissus, which washes Caria on one side, and Lycia on the other, where all thoughts of any further attempt on Patara were laid aside, the Rhodians were sent home, and Livius, sailing along the coast of Asia, crossed over to Greece, that he might have a meeting with the Scipios, who were at that time in Thessaly, and then take his passage to Italy.

      17 Æmilius, although he himself had been driven off from Ephesus by a storm, and had returned to Samos without effecting any thing, after he knew that the expedition to Lycia was dropped, and that Livius had gone to Italy, having thought it disgraceful that Patara should be attacked in vain, resolved to go thither and attack the city with his utmost force. Having sailed past Miletus, and the rest of the coast of the allies, he made a descent in the bay of Bargyllæ, with the design of reducing Jassus. A garrison of the king’s troops held the city, and the Romans made hostile depredations on all the country round. He then sent persons to confer with the magistrates and principal inhabitants, and sound their dispositions. After they answered that nothing was in their power, he advanced to lay siege to the city. There were, with the Romans, some exiles from Jassus, who, in a body, earnestly importuned the Rhodians “not to suffer an unoffending city, which was as well a neighbouring one as also connected with them in consanguinity, to be ruined. They themselves were banished for no other cause than their faithful attachment to the Romans; and those who remained in the place were held in subjection by the same force by which they had been expelled. The wish of the people of Jassus was one, to escape from a state of slavery under the king.” The Rhodians, moved by their entreaties, and calling in the assistance of king Eumenes, by representing, at the same time, their own connexions with them, and also the unfortunate condition of the city, which was kept in bondage by the king’s garrison, prevailed on Æmilius to drop the siege. Departing hence, and coasting along the shore of Asia, the other places being at peace, they arrived at Loryma, a port opposite to Rhodes. Here, at head-quarters, a private conversation arises first among the tribunes of the soldiers, and afterwards reached the ears of Æmilius, that the fleet was going off to a distance from Ephesus, from the war which concerned themselves; so that the enemy, being left behind, without control, might safely make whatever attempts they pleased against so many states of the allies, in their neighbourhood. These remarks moved Æmilius; and calling the Rhodians to him, he asked them, whether the whole fleet could lie in the harbour of Patara: when they answered that it could not, furnished with an excuse for laying aside the design, he sailed back to Samos.

      18 In the mean time Seleucus, son of Antiochus, who had kept his army in Ætolia, through the whole of the winter employed, partly, in succouring his allies, partly, in ravaging the lands of those whom he could not seduce to his side, resolved to make an incursion on the territory of king Eumenes, while he, at a great distance from home, was assisting the Romans and Rhodians, in attacks on the maritime parts of Lycia. He advanced with hostile standards, first, to Elæa; afterwards, the design of besieging it being given up, having wasted the country in a hostile manner, he led his army to lay siege to Pergamus, the capital and principal fortress of the kingdom. Attalus, at first, posting advanced guards outside the city, and sending out parties of cavalry and light infantry, harassed rather than withstood the enemy. But, after some time, having discovered, in slight skirmishes, that he was not a match for the enemy in any respect, he drew back his men within the fortifications, and then the city began to be besieged. About this time, Antiochus, leaving Apamea with a vast army compounded of various nations, encamped first at Sardis, and afterwards took post at a small distance from the camp of Seleucus, at the head of the river Caicus. The most formidable part of his force was a body of four thousand Gauls, procured for hire: these, with a few others intermixed, he detached, with orders to waste utterly the country about Pergamus. When news of these transactions arrived at Samos, Eumenes being thus recalled by a war in his own dominions, sailed with his fleet to Elæa; and finding there, in readiness, some light troops of horse and foot, he took them for an escort, and proceeded directly to Pergamus, before the enemy could be apprized of his arrival, or could put themselves in motion. Then again skirmishes began to take place in the sallies, Eumenes undoubtedly shrinking from the risk of a decisive engagement. In a few days after the combined fleet of the Romans and Rhodians came from Samos to Elæa, to support the king. When information was brought to Antiochus that these had landed troops at Elæa, and that so many fleets were assembled in one harbour, and at the same time heard that the consul, with his army, was already in Macedonia, and that the things that were necessary for the passage of the Hellespont were being prepared, he judged that now was the time for negotiation, before he should be pressed on sea and land at once; and with this view he chose for his camp a rising ground opposite to Elæa. Leaving there all the infantry, with his cavalry, amounting to six thousand, he went down into the plains, which lay under the walls of the town, having despatched a herald to Æmilius, to acquaint him that he wished to treat of peace.

      19 Æmilius sent to Pergamus for Eumenes, and desiring the Rhodians to be present, held a council on the message. The Rhodians were not averse to a pacification; but Eumenes affirmed that “it was not honourable to treat of peace at that time, nor could an end be put to the thing.” “For,” said he, “how can we, shut up as we are, within our walls, and besieged, with honour accept terms of peace? Or to whom shall that treaty be valid, which we shall conclude, without the presence of the consul, without a vote of the senate, and without an order of the Roman people? For, let me ask, supposing the matter concluded by you, would you immediately go home to Italy, and carry away your fleet and army, or would you wait to know the consul’s determination on the case; what the senate should decree, or the people order? It remains therefore that you must stay in Asia, that your troops being led back again into winter quarters, the war being given over, must exhaust the allies in furnishing provisions; and then, if it seem fit to those who have the power of determining, we must begin the whole war anew, which we are able, with the aid of the gods, to finish before winter, if no relaxation from our present vigorous movements is made by delay.” This opinion prevailed; and the answer given to Antiochus was, that they could not treat of peace before the arrival of the consul. Antiochus, peace being tried for in vain, ravaged, first, the territory of Elæa, then that of Pergamus; and, leaving there his son Seleucus, marched in a hostile manner to Adramyttium, whence he proceeded to a rich tract of country called the Plain of Thebes, a city celebrated in one of Homer’s poems; and in no other place in Asia did the king’s soldiers find such a plenty of booty. At the same time, Æmilius and Eumenes also, sailing round with the fleet, came to Adramyttium, to protect the city.

      20 By chance, at this time, one thousand foot with one hundred horse came to Elæa from Achaia, Diophanes being commander of all these forces; whom, on their landing, persons, sent by Eumenes to meet them, conducted by night to Pergamus. Veterans they all were, well skilled in war; and their commander was a disciple of Philopœmen, the most consummate general among the Greeks in that age. They set apart two days to give rest to the