thofe to the ten commiflioners, whom he fufpected to have had any inclination to fupport Perfeus. They did not think it would fuffice to write to the Achæans, as they had done to other ftates, that they fhould fend fuch of their citizens to Rome as were accused of having favoured Perfeus; but they fent two deputies to declare in perfon that order to the league. Two reafons induced them to act in this manner: The firft was, their fear that the Achæans, who were very jealous of their liberty, and full of valour, fhould refufe obedience to the letters that should be written them; and that Callicrates, and the other informers, would run the risk of their lives in the affembly: The fecond, becaufe in the letters which had been found amongst Perfeus's papers, nothing appeared to convict the accufed Achæans.

The two commiflioners fent into Achaia were C. Claudius and Cn. Domitius Anobarbus. One of them more abandoned to injuftice than the other (Paufanias does not fay which), complained in the aflembly, that many of the moft powerful perfons of the league had aflifted Perfeus against the Romans, and demanded that they should be condemned as deferving death, after which he fhould name them. The whole affembly was fhocked at this propofal, and cried out on all fides, that it was an unheard-of thing to condemn perfons before it was declared who they were, and pressed him to make known the guilty. Upon repeated instances to explain himself, he replied, at the fuggeftion of Callicrates, that all who had been in office, and commanded the armies, had rendered themfelves guilty of that crime. Xenon, upon that, who was a perfon of great credit, and very much. refpected by the league, fpoke to this effect: "I have "commanded the armies, and have had the honour to "be the chief magiftrate of the league; I proteft, that "I have never acted in any thing contrary to the inte"refts of the Romans, which I am ready to prove, ei"ther in the affembly of the Achæans, or at Rome be"fore the fenate." The Roman took hold of this expreflion as favourable to his defigns, and decreed, that all those who had been charged by Callicrates fhould be

fent

fent to Rome, in order to justify themselves there. The whole affembly was in the highest affliction upon this fentence. Nothing like it had ever been known, even under Philip, or his fon Alexander. Those princes, though irresistibly powerful, never conceived the thought of caufing fuch as opposed them to be brought into Macedonia, but referred the trying of them to the council of the Amphictyons, their natural judges. The Romans did not imitate their moderation; but, by a conduct which may justly be called tyrannical, caufed above a thousand of the moft confiderable citizens of the Achæan: league to be feized and conveyed to Rome. Callicrates became more than ever the object of horror and detestation to all the Achæans. All people avoided meeting. him, and shunned his prefence as an infamous traitor and no one would bathe in the public baths after him,› till all the water had been firft emptied out of them.

Polybius, the celebrated hiftorian, was of the number of thefe exiles. We have feen Lycortas, his father, diftinguish himself by the fortitude and conftancy with which he supported the interests of the Achæan league: during his government of it. He had taken particular care of the education of his fon. In regard to policy, Polybius had Lycortas his father, a great statesman, for his master; and for war, Philopoemen, one of the most able and intrepid generals of antiquity: it was under thefe tutors he imbibed those learned leffons of government and war which he practifed himself, and has tranfmitted to posterity in his writings.

As foon as he arrived at Rome, whither his reputation had reached before him, his merit made the greatest men of the republic cultivate his friendship. He was parti cularly intimate with the two fons of Paulus Æmilius, the eldest of whom had been adopted into the family of the Fabii, and the youngest into that of the Scipios. The latter had been adopted by P. Cornelius Scipio, fon of Scipio Africanus, who conquered Hannibal. I have en-larged fufficiently, in the conclufion of the hiftory of the Carthaginians, upon the intimate friendship of Polybius with this fecond fon of Paulus Æmilius, who afterwards

con

conquered Carthage and Numantia. That young Ro-man perceived the value of fuch a friend, and knew how to apply his leffons and counfels to the best advantage. 'It is very probable, that Polybius compofed the greatest part of his hiftory, or at least collected his materials for it, at Rome.

When the Achæans arrived at Rome, the fenate, with-out hearing or examining their caufe, fuppofing, without any foundation, and contrary to the most known truth, that they had been tried and sentenced in the affembly of the Achæans, banished them into different towns of Italy. Polybius was excepted from that number.

The Achæans(), surprised and afflicted with the fate of their countrymen, fent deputies to Rome, to demand that the fenate would vouchfafe to take cognizance of their caufe. They were anfwered, that it had been done, and that they had adjudged it themselves. Upon that reply, the Achæans fent back the fame deputies to Rome (with Euræus at their head), to protest again before the fenate, that those Achæans had never been heard by their country, and that their affair had never been brought to a trial. Euræus, in confequence, entered the fenate with the other deputies who accompanied him, and declared the orders he had received, praying that they would take cognizance of the accufation, and not fuffer the accused to perish, without paffing fentence upon the crime they were charged with: That it were to be wifhed the fenate would examine the affair themselves, and make known the guilty; but in case their other great affairs should not afford them leisure for fuch inquiry, they had only to refer it to the Achæans, who would do them justice, in such a manner as fhould evidence the greatnefs of their averfion for the culpable. Nothing was more equitable than this demand; and the fenate was very much at a loss how to anfwer it. On the one fide, they did not think it proper to try the cause, for the accufation was groundlefs; on the other, to difmifs the exiles, without paffing judgment upon them, was to lofe irrecoverably all their friends in

(s) Polyb. Legat. cv.

Achaia.

Achaia. The fenate, to leave the Greeks no hopes of retrieving their exiles, and to render them thereby more fubmiffive to their orders, wrote into Achaia to Callicrates, and into the other states to the partifans of the Romans, that it did not appear to them, that the return of the exiles confifted with theirs, or the intereft of their country. This answer not only threw the exiles, but all the people of Greece, into a confternation. An univerfal mourning fucceeded it. They were convinced, that there was nothing further to hope for the accufed Achæans, and that their banishment was perpetual.

However (t), they fent new deputies, with instructions to demand the return of the exiles; but as fuppliants, and as a favour; left, in taking upon them their defence, they should feem ever fo little to oppofe the will of the fenate. There did not escape any thing in their harangue, that was not very well weighed, and fufficiently referved. Notwithstanding which, the fenate continued inflexible, and declared, that they would perfift in the regulations already made.

The Achæans (u) would not be rejected, and appointed feveral deputations at different times, but with no better fuccefs; they were particularly ordered to demand the return of Polybius. They were in the right to persevere thus in the applications to the fenate, in favour of their countrymen. Though their repeated inftances had no other effect than to place the injustice of the Romans in full light, they could not be confidered as unneceflary. Many of the fenators were moved with them, and were of opinion, that it was proper to fend home the exiles.

The Achæans, (x) having received advice of this favourable difpofition, in order to improve it to their advantage, appointed a last deputation. The exiles had been already banished feventeen years, and a great number of them were dead. There were very warm debates upon them in the fenate; fome being for their return into their country, and their being reftored to the poffeffion of their eftates;

(t) Polyb. Legat. cxxi. Legat. cxxix, cxxx.

(u) A. M. 3844. Ant. J. C. 160. Id. (x) Plut. in Cato Cenf. p. 341..

ftates; and others oppofing it. Scipio, at the request of Polybius, had folicited Cato in favour of the exiles. That grave fenator, rifing up to fpeak in his turn: "To fee us 66 (faid he) dispute an whole day, whether fome 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 pleafantry was all that was wanting to make the fenate afhamed of fo long a conteft, and to determine it at last to send back the exiles into Peloponnefus. Polybius was for defiring, that they might be reinftated in all the honours and dignities they poffeffed before their banishment; but before he prefented that request to the fenate, he thought proper to found Cato upon it, who told him, smiling, "Polybius, you do not imitate the wifdom of Ulyffes. "You are for returning into the cave of the Cyclops "for fome miferable tatters you have left there (y)." The exiles accordingly returned into their country; but of the thousand that left it, only about three hundred remained. Polybius made no ufe of this permiflion; or if he did, he foon rejoined Scipio, feeing three years after he was with him at the fiege of Carthage.

SECT. II. Mean flatteries of PRUSIAS, king of Bithynia, in the fenate. EUMENES, become fufpected by the Romans, is not fuffered to enter Rome. ARIARATHES, king of Cappadocia, dies, and is fucceeded by a fon of the fame name. Death of EUMENES. ATTALUS, his brother, fucceeds him as guardian to his fon, then very young. War between ATTALUS and PRUSIAS.

The

latter having formed the defign of putting his fon NICOMEDES to death, is killed by him. Embaffy of three celebrated Athenian phil:fophers to Rome. "Another from the people of Marfeilles. Digreffion upon the city of Marfeilles.

A

FTER the defeat of Perfeus, new embaffics came every day to Rome, either to congratulate the Romans upon their victory, or to justify or excufe them

(y) A. M. 3854. Ant J. C. :50.

felves