Mucedonia The cities, he would not fuffer to be touched; and as for fubmits. the royal treasures, he carried the laft farthing of them to Rome, though this integrity procured him the ill-will of the army. Hippias, and other officers who were in Berea, with a confiderable body of forces, furrendered, and immediately Theffalonica, Pella, with the rest of the principal places in Macedon, followed their example; so that the whole kingdom was given up in two days, excepting only Pydna, under the walls of which the battle was fought. Several thousand foldiers taking shelter there, were afhamed to deliver up fo confiderable a place without a capitulation. This was readily granted them; and as foon as the place was evacuated, the conful marched away to Amphipolis. There he received letters brought by three very mean perfons, who yet were ftyled the ambaffadors of Perfes. The conful no fooner faw them, than, turning to thofe who were about him, he said, "Mark the inconftancy of fortune; this man, who but the other day thought the ample kingdom of Macedon nothing, if he was hindered from fubduing the Dardanians and Illyrians, now confined in a narrow island, and an exile from his native land, fends thefe poor men to afk favours." Then reaching out his hand to receive the letters, as foon as he had read the fuperfcription, which ran thus, "King Perfes to the conful Paulus, health;" he refused to open it, or to give any answer. Perses, informed of this circumftance, perceived that he was now no more than a private perfon, or at least so confidered by the Romans. He therefore wrote letters a fecond time, and addreffed them to the conful, without affuming any title. In thefe he bewailed his own mifery, implored mercy of the Romans, and begged that commiffioners might be fent to treat with him about a peace. This laft requeft, which was all the conful had in his power to grant, he readily complied with 9. With thefe commiffioners let us tranfport ourselves to Samothrace, in order to obferve the laft act of royalty performed by this unfortunate monarch.. King Perfes The temple of Caftor and Pollux in Samothracia was flies to a and this time an inviolable afylum: in truth, the whole fanctuary. ifland was looked upon as holy, and confecrated to those deities. This was the caufe which induced Perfes to fly thither, as fuppofing he fhould there remain in fafety. On the arrival of Lentulus, Albinus, and Antonius, who q Liv, ubi fupra. Plut. ubi fupra. were were the commiffioners fent by the conful to treat with him, Perfes inftantly entered into a negotiation, which however he managed flowly and imprudently, infifting that he should ftill retain the title of king, which the commiffioners told him the conful could not grant; but, they faid, if he would submit himself and his affairs to the direction of the Roman people, the conful would undertake for his fafety. Mean while, Octavius the Roman admiral arrived with a great fleet, by which the Samothracians were over-awed. Evander, the Cretan, who accompanied Perfes, was demanded as an affaflin, whofe prefence polluted the temple; and his master, to whom he had ever proved a faithful fervant, facrificed him to his own fear: he first caused him to be murdered, and then declared, that he had made away with himself. Perfes having now a profpect of his mifery in a true Endea light, beholding himself without forces, without friends, vours to and without hopes, refolved, if poffible, to efcape into make his Crete, and to that end bargained with one Oroandes, a escape. Cretan, who had a small ship in the haven of Samothrace, to carry himself, his wife, his fon, his treafure, and three attendants, to that ifland. The mafter of the veffel took the money on board firft, and then affigned an hour in the night for the king and his company to come on board. But as foon as it began to grow dark, he hoifted fail, and left the helpless Perfes to deplore at leifure his credulity, and the lofs of his money. At midnight the king, his wife, his fon Philip, and three attendants, retired by a back gate into a garden behind his apartment; then clambering over a wall, they made the best of their way to the port, and after wandering till it was almoft light on the fea-fhore, were informed by a ftranger, that Oroandes had failed for Crete the evening before. The king, his confort, and the young prince, with thofe who attended them, were forced to make all imaginable speed back, that they might regain the temple before they were discovered by the Romans. But finding the day broke before they reached the wall of the garden, they were obliged to hide themselves there behind a corner, till by degrees they could get in unperceived. himself to the Roman Not long after this attempt, being deferted by his at- Surrenders tendants, and informed that Ion of Theffalonica, to whom he had entrusted the reft of his family, had delivered them up to Octavius, he furrendered himself with his eldest fon Philip to the fame officer, who conveyed them directly to Amphipolis, admiral. The recep tion of Per fes in the Roman camp. Amphipolis, and thence dispatched an exprefs to inform the conful of what had happened '. As foon as Paulus Æmilius received the letter of Octavius, he fent Tubero, his fon-in-law, with feveral perfons of diftinction, to receive the king. He ordered facrifices to be immediately offered, and made the fame rejoicings as if a new victory had been obtained. When he was informed the king drew near, he affembled a council of war in his own pavillion, where he refolved to wait for the royal prifoner. The whole camp ran out to fee him, and the crowd was so very great, that the lictors were ordered to make way for him to the conful's tent. Perfes walked alone, wrapped in a mourning cloak; and when he entered the tent, would have thrown himself at the feet of the conful; but Æmilius rifing haftily, ftepped forward, gave him his hand, and would not fuffer him to kneel. He then placed him in a feat over against those who affifted at the council. When filence had been obferved fome time, the conful demanded of the king what wrong the Roman people had done him, which had compelled him to take up arms, and with fuch obftinacy to perfift in hazarding his perfon, fubjects, and kingdom, as he did. The king looking on the ground, and fhedding tears, made no reply. Then the conful having rebuked him for his conduct, encouraged him with an affurance of fafety from the clemency of the Roman people. Finally, turning to his council, he moralized in Latin, on the inftability of fortune; committed his royal prifoner to the cuftody of Tubero; and treated him with civility and refpect. After having fettled the affairs of Macedonia for the prefent, he made a progrefs into Greece, where he took fuch measures as beft fuited with the interefts of Rome, and on fome occafions acted with great feverity. Underftanding that he was to be joined by ten legates from Rome, to fettle a new form of government in Macedonia, he repaired to Apollonia, where they intended to land; and there he was met by king Perfes, who had been indulged with great liberty by Sulpitius, to whose care the conful had committed him when he fet out for Greece. Æmilius reprimanded Sulpitius for having allowed the prifoner to go at large, and put him with his fon Philip into the hands of Pofthumius, by whom they were ftrictly guarded. His youngest fon Alexander and Liv. lib. xlv. Plut. in Vit. Emil. 7 his daughter were brought from Samothrace to Amphipolis, where they were kindly used by the conful It was at this period that the conftitution of Macedo- New form nia was new-modelled by Æmilius and his ten colleagues, of govern who mounted the tribunal, furrounded by their lictors, blibed in and caused the decree which they had prepared, to be Macedon. read in public, and expounded. It imported that the Macedonians fhould be free, enjoy all the cities and territories they poffeffed; be governed by their own laws; and elect their own magiftrates, paying to the people of Rome one half of the tribute which they ufed to pay to their own fovereigns: that Macedonia fhould be divided into four regions, having the cities of Amphipolis, Theffalonica, Pella, and Pelagonia, for their refpective capitals, in which general affemblies were to be held quarterly for levying taxes, and electing magiftrates; that there fhould be no intercourfe of any kind betwixt these divifions; that the Macedonians fhould not work any mines of gold and filver; but, might work those of iron or brafs, paying the king's proportion to the Romans; that they should not import foreign falt; nor fell timber' for fhip-building to the barbarous nations. with them. When this decree was published, it greatly affected the The Mace minds of the people. They were glad to be restored to donians their liberty; but they could not comprehend what that displeafed liberty was. They faw evident contradictions in the decree, which, though it fpake of leaving them under their own laws, impofed many new and fevere regulations. What most disturbed them was the divifion of the kingdom, whereby, as a nation, they were torn and mangled, feparated and disjointed from each other. Emilius proceeded next to regulate the rest of the Grecian affairs at Amphipolis, where, at the clofe of the proceedings, Andronicus the Ætolian, and Neo the Bocotian, because they had been always friends to Perfes, loft their heads. Then iffued a proclamation, whereby the The fu fupreme power in Macedon was vefted in certain fenators. preme All the nobility, as alfo all their children, exceeding the power. vefted in age of fifteen, were commanded immediately to tranfport fenators. themselves into Italy; as were likewife all fuch as ever had any commiffion, even of the smallest importance, from the king or his predeceffors; and it was declared, that whoever prefumed to contravene that edict should be punished with death. Laftly, Æmilius published the laws he had promifed, which, whether they were or were not agreeable to the Macedonians, they were ever after bound bound to obey. These ferious matters being difcuffed, Æmilius celebrated games at Amphipolis with a magnificence unknown to former times. The brazen fhields belonging to the Macedonian phalanx, he fent on board the fhips. All the reft of the arms belonging to the Macedonians, he caused to be brought to Amphipolis: as it was intended they should never raise armies, nor engage in military expeditions, these weapons were formed into a prodigious pile, and, after folemn prayers offered to Mars, Minerva, and other deities, the conful firft fet fire to them with a torch; then the principal officers in the army threw in those lighted torches with which they had Epirus affifted at the folemnity. All the rich furniture, plate, plundered. ftatues, and other valuable things found in the royal palace, were first exposed to public view, and then put on board the fleet (K). (K) It is a great misfortune to fuch as are engaged in writing the hiftories of nations conquered by the Romans, that they have no materials but the writings of Romans or Greeks, who flattered the power of the Romans more than the fpirit of their own writers would allow them to do. Livy, whofe history may be justly faid to vie with its fubject, reprefents his countrymen as acting upon the nobleft and most philofophical principles upon all occafions. He fays, that with refpect to the Macedonians, the conful Æmilius treated them in fuch a manner, as tended to convince the world that the Romans did not make war with a view to enflave free men, but on the contrary, that they might be able to fet fuch nations, as were already enflaved, free (7). Plutarch fpeaks much the fame language, and highly commends his hero, the fenate, and people of Rome, for fo (7) Tit. Liv. Hift. lib. xliv. xlv. Æmilius generously treating those whom they had totally fubdued (8). To adventure without authority to contradict authors fo much and so justly in esteem, may feem a high prefumption. Yet of this prefumption we must be guilty, in order to fet this part of our history in its proper light; it will, however, be fomewhat alleviated by our grounding all the observations we make on facts recorded by the authors, from whofe fentiments we beg leave to differ. In the first place, let us remark, that Perfes, from the very beginning of the war, was for fubmitting almoft to any terms, provided the Romans would grant him peace, which was refufed, except he would reduce himself to fuch a fituation as the most unfuccefsful war could fcarce compel him. This the conful, Licinius Craffus, declared, in few words, when the Romans had not entered Macedonia, but were, on the con (8) Plut. in Vita P. Æmil. trary, |