friendship of Polybius with this second son of Paulus Æmilius, who afterwards conquered Carthage and Numantia. That young Roman perceived the value of such a friend, and knew how to apply his lessons and advice to the best advantage. It is very probable that Polybius composed the greatest part of his history, or at least collected his materials for it, at Rome.

When the Achæans arrived at Rome, the senate, without hearing or examining their cause, supposing, without any foundation, and contrary to the most known truth, that they had been tried and sentenced in the assembly of the Achaans, banished them into different towns of Italy. Polybius was excepted from that number.

a The Achæans, surprised and afflicted with the fate of their countrymen, sent deputies to Rome, to demand that the senate would vouchsafe to take cognizance of their cause. They were answered, that it had been done, and that they had adjudged it themselves. Upon that reply, the Achæans sent back the same deputies to Rome (with Euraas at their head) to protest again, before the senate, that those Achæans had never been heard by their country, and that their affair had never been brought to a trial. Euræas, in consequence, entered the senate with the other deputies who accompanied him, and declared the orders he had received, praying, that they would take cognizance of the accusation, and not suffer the accused to perish without passing sentence upon the crime they were charged with: that it were to be wished the senate would examine the affair themselves, and make known the guilty; but, in case their other great affairs should not afford them leisure for such inquiry, they had only to refer it to the Achæans, who would do them justice in such a manner, as should evince the greatness of their aversion for the guilty. Nothing was more equitable than this demand, and the senate was very much at a loss how to answer 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, in order to leave the Greeks no hopes of retrieving their exiles, and to 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 was consistent with their interest, or with that of their country. This answer not only threw the exiles, but all the people of Greece into a consternation. An universal mourning succeeded it. They were convinced, that there was nothing further to hope for the accused Achaans, and that their banishment was perpetual.

a Polyb. Legat, cv.

• However, they sent new deputies, with instructions to demand the return of the exiles; but as suppliants, and as a favour; lest, in taking upon them their defence, they should seem, in the slightest degree, 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 persist in the regulations already made.

The Achæans, without being disheartened, 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 solicitations had no other effect than to place the injustice of the Romans in full light, they could not be considered as unnecessary. 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 disposition, in order to improve it to their advantage, appointed a last deputation. The exiles had been already banished seventeen years, and a great number of them were dead. There were very warm debates upon this subject in the senate; some being for their return into their own country, and restored to the possession of their estates; and others, opposing it. Scipio, at the request of Polybius, had solicited Cato in favour of the exiles. That grave senator, rising up to speak in his turn: "To see us," said 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 make the senate ashamed of so long a contest, and to induce them at last to send back the exiles into Peloponnesus. Polybius was for desiring that they might be reinstated in all the honours and dignities they possessed before their banishment; but, before he presented that request to the senate, he thought proper to sound Cato upon it, who told him, smiling, "Po

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lybius, you do not imitate the wisdom of Ulysses. Your 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_thousand that left it, only about three hundred remained, Polybius made no use of this permission, or if he did, he soon rejoined Scipio; since, three years after, he was with him at the siege of Carthage.

a Poly Legat, exxii.

A M. 3814. Ant J. C. 160. Polyb. Legat. cxxix. cxxx.

c Plut. in Cato Cens. p. 341.

A. M. 3854. Ant. J. C. 150.

SECT. II.

Ariarathes 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 to Rome, either to congratulate the Romans upon their victory, or to justify or excuse themselves for the attachment they seemed to have to that prince; and some came to lay complaints before the senate in regard to some allies. We have seen hitherto what relates to the Rhodians and Achæans. In this section I shall collect what concerns Eumenes, king of Pergamus, Prusias, king of Bithynia, and some other particular affairs.

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"Prusias, being come to Rome, to pay to the senate and Roman people his compliments of congratulation upon the the good success of the war against Perseus, dishonoured the royal dignity by his abject flattery. At his reception by the deputies appointed by the senate for that purpose, he appeared with his head shaved, and with the cap, habit, and shoes and stockings of a slave made free; and, saluting the "You see," said he, deputies, one of your freed men rea"dy to fulfil whatsoever you shall please to command, and to "conform entirely to all your customs." 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, ye "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 pretension. He then recommended his son Nicomedes to them. All he asked was granted him; only commissioners were appointed 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 not without good 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 Eumenes was upon the point of entering it. That news gave the senate some trouble. Eumenes, in the war against

A. M. 3838. Ant. J. C. 166. Polyb. Legat, xcvii. Liv. lib. xiv. n. 44.
Polyb. Legat. xcvii,

Perseus, had behaved in such a manner, that they could neither consider him as a friend nor an enemy. There was reason for violent suspicions, but no certain proofs against him. To admit him to an audience, was to declare him innocent: to condemn him as guilty, was to lay them under the necessity of a war with him, and to proclaim to all the world, that they had been deficient in prudence, by loading a prince with favours and honours, with whose character they were little acquainted. To avoid these inconveniences, the senate made a decree, by which, under the pretext that the reception of kings was too great an expense to the republic, they forbade all kings in general to enter 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 affection of his allies. Prusias sent an ambassador to Rome, to complain against him for the irruptions he made into Bithynia. He added, that Eumenes held secret intelligence with Antiochus; that he treated all those injuriously who seemed to favour the Romans, and particularly the Gallo-Grecians, his neighbours, in contradiction to the senate's 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 covertly aiding and supporting the Gallo-Grecians 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 with which he was charged. The apology they made seemed fully to confute all the complaints that had been alleged 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, whether Antiochus and Eumenes were not concerting some design against the Romans.

Sulpicius acted in this commission with very great imprudence. 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 a A. M. 3839. Ant. J C. 165. Polyb. Legat. xcvii. cii. civ. cv. evi. exix' exxi. 6 Polyb. in Excerpt. Vales. p. 145,

hearkened quietly to all the accusations people thought fit to form against Eumenes; a liberty that set all malcontents at at work, and opened a door for all manner of calumnies.

a 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 an equally favourable account of the conduct of Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, whose sister Eumenes had married That prince died some time after. His son Ariarathes, surnamed Philopator, & succeeded him. He had him by Antiochis, the daughter of Antiochus the Great, and intended, when he came to age, to resign his kingdom to him, to which his son would never consent; from whence he was called Philopator, that is, lover of his father. An action highly laudable in an age wherein it was no uncommon thing to acquire kingdoms by parricide.

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

e

d 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 supposititious child, named Holofernes. Ariarathes took refuge at Rome. The and Demetrius sent their usurper ambassadors also 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 an eternal division between 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.

g

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 thirty-eight years. He left for his successor in the kingdom his son Attalus, surnamed Philometor, 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 Philadel phus, who governed the kingdom one-and-twenty years.

a A. M. 3840. Ant. J. C. 164.

b A. M. 3842. Ant. J. C. 162. Diod. Eclog. p. 895.

Polyb. Legat. c xxi.

d A. M. 3845. Ant. J. C. 159. Polyb. Legat. cxxvi. e A. M. 3847. Ant. J. C. 157.

Strabo says, he reigned forty-three years, but that is presumed to be an er g Strab. I. xiii. p. 624.