justice in such a manner as should evidence the greatness of their aversion for the culpable. Nothing was more equitable than this demand, and the senate was very much at a loss how to an swer it. On the one side, they did not think it proper to try the cause, for the accusation was groundless; on the other, to dismiss the exiles, without passing judgment upon them, was to lose irrecoverably all their friends in Achaia. The senate to leave the Greeks no hopes of retrieving their exiles, and t render them thereby more submissive to their orders, wrote into Achaia to Callicrates, and into the other states to the partisans of the Romans, that it did not appear to them, that the return of the exiles consisted with theirs, or the interest of their country. This answer not only threw the exiles, but all the people of Greece, into consternation. An universal mourn ing succeeded it. They were convinced that there was nothing further to hope for the accused Achæans, and that their ba nishment was perpetual.

*However, they sent new deputies, with instructions to de mand the return of the exiles, but as suppliants, and as a favour, lest in taking upon them their defence, they should seem ever so little to oppose the will of the senate. There did not escape any thing in their harangue, that was not very well weighed, and sufficiently reserved; notwithstanding which, the senate continued inflexible, and declared that they would per sist in the regulations already made.

+ The Achaeans would not be rejected; and appointed several deputations at different times, but with no better success; they were particularly ordered to demand the return of Polybius They were in the right to persevere thus in their applications to the senate, in favour of their countrymen. Though their repeated instances had no other effect than to place the injustice of the Romans in full light, they could not be considered as un necessary. Many of the senators were moved with them, and were of opinion that it was proper to send home the exiles.

The Achæans having received advice of this favourable dis position, in order to improve it to their advantage, appointed a Jast deputation. The exiles had been already banished 17 years, and a great number of them were dead. There were very warm debates upon them in the senate; some being for their return into their country, and their being restored to the posses

* Polyb. Legat. cxxi.

† A. M. 3844. Ant. J. C. 160. Polyb. Legat. cxxix, cxxx, Plut. in Cato. Cens. p. 341.

ion of their estates; and others opposing it. Scipio, at the equest of Polybius, had solicited Cato in favour of the exiles. hat grave senator rising up to speak in his turn, to see us," id he, "dispute a whole day, whether some poor old men of Greece shall be interred by our grave-diggers or those of their own country, would not one believe that we had nothing at all to do!" That pleasantry was all that was wanting to jake the senate ashamed of so long a contest, and to deter ine at last to send back the exiles into Peloponnesus. Polybius as for desiring that they might be reinstated in all the honours nd dignities they possessed before their banishment; but beore he presented that request to the senate, he thought proper o sound Cato upon it, who told him, smiling, "Polybius, you do not imitate the wisdom of Ulysses. You are for returning into the cave of the Cyclops for some miserable tatters you ' have left there*." The exiles accordingly returned into their Country; but of the 1000 that left it, only about 300 remained. Polybius made no use of this permission, or if he did, he soon ejoined Scipio, seeing three years after he was with him at he siege of Carthage.

SECTION II.

RIARATHES DIES, AND IS SUCCEEDED BY HIS SON.DEATH OF EUMENES.-WAR BETWEEN ATTALUS AND PRUSIAS.

AFTER the defeat of Perseus, new embassies came every day Rome, either to congratulate the Romans upon their victory, r to justify or excuse themselves for the attachment they seemd to have to that prince; and some came to lay complaints efore the senate in regard to some allies. We have seen itherto what relates to the Rhodians and Achæans. In this ection I shall collect what concerns Eumenes, king of Perganus, Prusias, king of Bithynia, and some other particular affairs. Prusias being come to Rome, to make the senate and Ronan people his compliments of congratulation upon the good uccess of the war against Perseus, dishonoured the royal digity by abject flattery. At his reception by the deputies appointed by the senate for that purpose, he appeared with his read shaved, and with the cap, habit, shoes, and stockings of slave made free; and saluting the deputies, 66 you see," said of your freedmen ready to fulfil whatsoever you shall

ae,

one

* A. M. 3844. Ant. J. C. 150.

A. M. 3838. Ant. J. C. 166. Polyb. Legat. xcvii. Liv. 1. xlv, n. 44. VOL. VII.

U

"please to command, and to conform entirely to all your cus "toms."-When he entered the senate, he stood at the door, facing the senators who sat, and prostrating himself, kissed the threshold. Afterwards, addressing himself to the assembly, "I salute you gods, preservers,” cried he; and went on with a discourse suitable to that prelude. Polybius says, that he should be ashamed to repeat it. He concluded with demanding, that the Roman people would renew the alliance with him, and grant him certain lands taken from Antiochus, of which the Gauls had possessed themselves without any right or preter sion. He then recommended his son Nicomedes to them. All he asked was granted him; only commissioners were appoint ed to examine into the condition of the lands in question. Livy in his account of this audience, omits the abject submissions of Prusias, of which he pretends the Roman historians say nothing: he contents himself with mentioning in the conclusion, part of what Polybius had said before, and with some reason; for that base deportment at least dishonoured the senate as much, who suffered, as the prince who acted it.

* Prusias had scarce left Rome, when advice came that Eu menes was upon the point of entering it. That news gave the ɛenate some trouble. Eumenes, in the war against Perseus, had behaved in such a manner that they could neither continue him as a friend nor an enemy. There was reason for violent sus picions, but no certain proofs against him. To admit him to as audience, was to declare him innocent: to condemn him as guilty, was to lay themselves under the necessity of a war with him, and to proclaim to all the world that they had failed in point of prudence, by loading a prince with fortunes and honours, whose character they were little acquainted with. To avoid these inconveniences, the senate made a decree, by which, under the pretext that the reception of kings was too great a ch.rge to the republic, they forbade all kings in general to en ter that city, and caused that ordinance to be signified to the king of Pergamus, who was at no loss to comprehend its meaning. He returned therefore into his own dominions.

This affront encouraged his enemies, and cooled the affec tion of his allies. Prusias sent an ambassador to Rome, to com plain of the irruptions he made into Bithynia. He added, that Eumenes had secret intelligence with Antiochus; that he treat

*Polyb: Legat. xcvii.

A. M. 3839. Ant. J. C. 165. Polyb. Legat, xcvii, cii. civ.cv. cvi. cxix. cxxi.

ed all those injuriously who seemed to favour the Romans, and particularly the Gallo Grecians his neighbours, in contradiction to the senates decrees in their behalf. That people had also sent deputies to Rome with their complaints; which they afterwards repeated several times, as well as Prusias. The senate did not yet declare themselves. They contented themselves with aiding and supporting the Gallo Grecians underhand to the utmost of their power, without doing any manifest injustice to Eumenes.

The king of Pergamus, who had been forbidden entrance into Rome, sent his brothers Attalus and Athenæus thither to answer the accusations he was charged with. The apology they made seemed finally to confute all complaints against the king, and the senate were so well satisfied with it, that they sent them back into Asia laden with honours and presents. They did not, however, entirely efface the prejudices conceived against their brother. The senate dispatched Sulpicius Gallus and Manius Sergius, with orders to inform themselves secretly whe. ther Antiochus and Eumenes were not concerting some design against the Romans.

* Sulpicius acted in this commission with very great impru dence. He was a vain man, and aimed at appearing important, by declaring against Eumenes. When he arrived in Asia, he caused all the cities to be informed that such as had any complaints to make in regard to that prince might repair to him at Sardis. And there for ten days he hearkened quietly to all the accusations people thought fit to form against Eumenes: a liberty that set all malcontents at work, and opened a door for all manner of calumnies!

† Tiberius Gracchus, whom the senate sent the following year into Asia upon the same account, was received by Eumenes and Antiochus in a manner which convinced him there was nothing to fear from those two kings, and induced him to make his report to the senate accordingly. He gave as favourable an account of the conduct of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, who had married the sister of Eumenes. That prince died some time after. His son Ariarathes ‡, surnamed Philopater, succeeded him. He had him by Antiochis, the daughter of Antiochus the Great, and intended, when he came of age, to resign his kingdom to him, to which his son would never con

* Polyb. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 145.

†A M. 3840. A. M. 3842.

Ant. J. C. 164.

Ant. J. C. 162. Diod. Eleg. F. 895.

sent; from whence he was called Philopater, that is, lover of his father. An action highly laudable, in an age wherein ru was no uncommon thing to acquire kingdoms by parricide. pri

* As soon as the young king ascended the throne, he sess deputies to Rome, to demand that the treaty his father had made with the Romans should be renewed, which was granted him with praises.

† Some time after, notwithstanding Eumenes aided him with all his forces, he was dethroned by Demetrius, king of Syria and one of his elder brothers set in his place, who was a supposed son, named Holofernes. Ariarathes took refuge at Rome. The usurper and Demetrius sent their ambassadors al- € so thither. The senate decreed that the two brothers should reign jointly. It was a policy sufficiently frequent with the Romans to divide kingdoms between brothers, in order to weaken them by that partition, and sow the seeds of eternal division tetween them. Attalus, in the first year of his reign, re-established him in the sole possession of the throne, having conquered and expelled his competitor.

Eumenes was always suspected by the Romans, and almost continually at war with Prusias, or the Gallo Grecians. He died at length after having reigned 38 || years. He left for his successor in the kingdom his son Attalus, surnamed Philometer, then an infant, whom he had by Stratonice, sister of Ariarathes, and appointed guardian of his son, and regent of his kingdom, his brother Attalus Philadelphus, who governed the kingdom 21 years.

Polybius bestows great praises on Eumenes. The body of that prince, says he, was weak and delicate, his soul great, and abounding with the most noble sentiments. He gave place to none of the kings **his contemporaries in many other qualities, and excelled them in all the nobleness of his inclinations. The kingdom of Pergamus, when he received it from his father, consisted only of a very small number of cities, which scarce deserved that name. He rendered it so powerful that it might have disputed pre-eminence with almost all the greatest kingdoms. He owed nothing either to chance or fortune; still using the words of Polybius. Every thing was the result

Polyb. Legat, cxxi.

†A. M. 3845. Ant J. C. 159. A. M. 3847. Ant. J. C. 157.

ror.

Polyb. Legat. cxxvi.

Strabo says he reigned 43 years, but that is presumed to be an er

Strab. 1. xiii. p. 624.

** Polyb. Exemp. Virt. et Vit. p. 166.