And still he was not a Lydian or
Phoenician, but a man who from his descent ought to have had a share of
the spirit of Philip and Alexander, who made all their conquests by the
principle that empire may be gained by gold, not gold by empire. It
used, indeed, to be a proverb that "It is not Philip, but Philip's gold
that takes the cities of Greece." Alexander, too, when beginning his
Indian campaign, seeing the Macedonians laboriously dragging along the
rich and unwieldy plunder of the Persians, first burned all the royal
carriages, and then persuaded the soldiers to do the like with their
own, and start for the war as light as if they had shaken off a burden.
But Perseus, when spending his own money to defend himself, his
children, and his kingdom, rather than sacrifice a little and win,
preferred to be taken to Rome with many others, a rich captive, and show
the Romans how much he had saved for them.
XIII. For not only did he dismiss the Gauls and break his word to them,
but after inducing Genthius the Illyrian to take part in the war for a
bribe of three hundred talents, he lodged the money with that prince's
envoys, all counted, and let them put their seals upon it. Genthius then
thinking that he had got what he asked, did a wicked and impious deed in
seizing and throwing into prison some Roman ambassadors who were sent to
him. Perseus, thinking that Genthius no longer needed money to make him
hostile to Rome, since he had given him such a pledge of his hatred of
it, and had involved himself in war with it by such a crime, deprived
the poor man of his three hundred talents, and shortly afterwards looked
calmly on while he and his family were plucked out of their kingdom,
like birds out of a nest, by Lucius Anicius, who was sent with an army
against him.
Pages:
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663