Baftarnæ were compelled to return to their own country. Thirty thousand, however, penetrated into Dardania, where they began to make fettlements, being privately affifted by Perfes, who was perfectly well acquainted with the nature and importance of his father's fcheme. Mean- Sends an while he sent an embaffy to the Romans, intreating them embassy to to renew the league made with his father, and to acknow- Rome. lege him king of Macedon, promifing in return to act as their faithful ally, to leave his neighbours in peace, and to undertake no war without their permiffion.

At home his administration was remarkably mild, and Strives to he affected a rigid regard to justice. He fat daily to hear gain the causes, and, having a clear head, decided upon them with minds of fome applaufe. Towards the Greeks he behaved with the the people. utmost moderation; he gratified them in all things they desired of him; he relinquifhed all the pretences of his ancestors upon any of their cities; in fhort, he behaved fo graciously, that his very favours rendered him suspected. The Romans, when they had heard his minifters, fent ambaffadors of their own into Macedon, who were kindly entertained by Perfes till they began to act like tutors. Firft, they interrogated him about the Baftarna, and began to intimate that the Romans would not fee the Dardanians fubjected by thefe Barbarians. Perfes affirmed that he did not invite them; but that pretence would not anfwer his purpofe; they infifted upon his driving them back again. Shortly after this event the Dolopians, who were the subjects of Perfes, rebelled, and flew Euphanor his governor, under pretence that he had behaved tyrannically. Perfes marched against them with an army, and Mifunderreduced them again under his dominion, after having fanding chaftifed them pretty severely for their revolt. This ex- him and pedition furnished the Roman ambaffadors with new caufe the Ro of complaint; they faid he was precluded by treaty from mans. making war without the confent of their state; they intimated as much to Perfes while he was in the field; but he would not hear of being hindered from punishing rebels; a restriction which to him appeared little less than depriving him of his kingdom. Henceforward, therefore, the Romans and Perfes were never upon good terms, though they were not immediately engaged in war, which the uneafinefs of their refpective circumftances prevented each fide from commencing.

After fubduing the Dolopians, Perfes made a vifit to the temple of Apollo, at Delphi, marching, however, at the head of his army. This feemed to be at once a dan

gerous

between

at Rome.

New gerous and unneceffary expedition, on account of his paffcaufes of ing through the territories of states little affected to him, complaint and to whom indeed the conduct of his father might have justly rendered him obnoxious; yet Perfes so managed it, as not only to avoid giving farther offence, but also to make this very march the means of reftoring friendship and confidence between himself and these states. He took fuch care in quartering his army, that none were oppreffed; and paid fo exactly for whatever they had, that many thought his paffage a benefit to them. The deputies which were fent to compliment him, he received kindly; and when he had performed his journey to Delphi, he returned without leaving any mark either of refentment or ambition behind him. This vifit was a new cause of complaint at Rome, where, if the king lived upon ill terms with his neighbours, it was refented as a mark of his thirst of power; and if he was defirous of maintaining a good understanding with them, that too was resented as an indication of his seeking allies, in order to fupport him in his designs against the Romans (F).

Perfes gains the friendShip of the Greek ftates and other princes.

1

As a war was generally expected, and as the king himfelf meant at last to recur to force, he took great pains to be, well provided for it; he cultivated the friendship of the Rhodians, who had been his father's open enemies, and this with fuch fuccefs, that in a moft fumptuous manner they conveyed to him Laodice, the daughter of Seleucus, fon of Antiochus, the Great. About the fame time he married his fifter to Prufias, king of Bithynia, whom he had engaged in alliance with him. With the Thracians he, not only concluded, a peace, but prevailed upon them to furnish him with foldiers, when and in what proportion he pleafed. vcl 71157

k Polyb. Legat. Ix.

(F) To fay the truth, fuf picion reigned at prefent in Italy, and in Greece, the Romans holding none for friends who fcrupled obedience in any thing; and the Greeks began to diftruft the Roman friendhip, when they found it as fatal to their liberty as the enmity of others (1). Hence two factions fprung up in

(1) Liv. Hist, lib. xli.

Greece; the one wholly dependent on Rome, the other defirous of restoring the ancient glory of their country, and therefore favouring the king of Macedon, who, on all occafions, affected to fpeak warmly on this topic, and to reprefent the independency of Greece as the main point he had in view.

Juftin. lib, xxxiii. cap. 4.

Pergamus,

In his own kingdom of Macedon, he not only amaffed great fums of money, but provided magazines for a great army for ten years, keeping up at the fame time thirty thousand foot, and five thoufand horfe. These steps appeared fo prudent to the Greeks, that forgetting Eumenes, king of Pergamus, their old favourite, upon whom they had heaped extravagant honours, they began to incline to Perfes, who affected to be the patron of the Greek liberty against the pride of the Romans. Eumenes, pro- Eumenes, voked at this change in their difpofition, and being also an king of hereditary enemy to Perfes, whom he hated, determined complains to make a journey to Rome, on purpose to incite the fenate of him at to pull down his competitor, whom he now looked on Rome. as the idol of Greece. Perfes had his ambassadors, the chief of whom was one Harpalus, at Rome, who, when Eumenes had been heard, requested to fpeak in the king's defence. This liberty was granted them, and Harpalus, who was at the head of the commiflion, fpoke in very high terms. He said, that Perfes had hitherto, and would always give every reasonable fatisfaction to the Romans, but that he would ftill remember he was a fovereign prince; and if reasonable satisfaction would not content them, he would not be afraid of betaking himself to arms. The fenate acted with its ufual caution, concealed the fubftance of Eumenes's fpeech, that it might be thought to contain more than it really did, and gave the ambaffadors of Perfes a cold general answer.

Eumenes, when he went from Rome, refolved to imi- On his retate his rival, in vifiting the temple at Delphi. Perfes turn narhaving intelligence of his defign, employed four affaffins rowly ef capes being to take him off in a narrow paffage leading from the fea- killed by fhore to the temple. There they stoned him from behind two aas. the wall, and actually left him for dead. Nevertheless fins fent by he recovered, and the whole confpiracy was detected. Perfes The chief of the affaffins was Evander, a Cretan, who commanded the auxiliary troops in the service of Perses; and Praxo, a woman of diftinction at Delphi, had entertained him and his accomplices at her house. Valerius, a Roman ambaffador in Greece, caused this woman to be apprehended, and fent to Rome,, when all the circumftances of the affaffination was discovered. The fame Valerius, by means of one Rammius, a citizen of Brundufium, disclosed another scene ftill more interefting. This man declared, that having a large houfe in his native city, he had often entertained the Macedonian ambaffadors when paffing to Rome, and returning from thence:

that

between

him and Rome.

that king Perfes having given him to understand, that he took very kindly his civility to his minifters, invited him into Macedon, and when he went thither, proposed to him the giving a certain poisonous drug to the principal fenators who were esteemed enemies to the Macedonian intereft, which poison Rammius was informed would work New caufe imperceptibly: that, for fear of his own life, he had acof a mifun- cepted this commiffion, but had immediately difclofed it derftanding to Valerius, and accompanied him home. The Romans, upon this information, difpatched orders to their ambaffadors in Macedon to acquaint Perfes with the crimes laid to his charge, and to demand direct anfwers. Having, after fome affected delays, given them a hearing, he replied, that the Romans were grown fo intolerably proud, fo exceffively infolent, and fo unreasonably greedy of authority, that they would not be content to have princes for their allies, unless they were also their flaves: that, under colour of fending ambaffadors, they fent fpies, and fometimes tutors: that as to the league made with his father, he was not obliged to observe it: that he had indeed fubmitted to it on his firft acceffion to the crown, because his affairs were unfettled; but that for the future he would not look upon himself to be bound by it, though he was content to make a new treaty upon equitable Commands terms. The ambaffadors having, according to their inftructions, threatened him with war, he commanded them to depart his dominions in three days. It was the miffortune of this king to have at fometimes too much, and at other times too little fpirit. If he had begun the war with the fame vigour which on this occafion he seemed to difplay, in all probability he would have fucceeded; but fuffering fear to get the better of him, and entertaining falfe hopes of peace, he once more fell into a train of negociation, than which nothing could be more prejudicial to his affairs 1.

their am

baffadors to depart his dominions.

War breaks

Romans.

The fresh application of the king for peace produced out with the no other answer than this," that if he was fincerely inclined to treat with the Romans, he might have an opportunity of doing it foon in his own dominions, into which they were about to fend their conful with an army." They kept their promife. P. Licinius Craffus, was immediately dispatched with an army; but before he could, arrive in Greece, Perfes had attempted another me thod of treating; for having been informed that Martius,

1 Liv. lib. xlii. Polyb. Legat. Ixi. lxii. lxiii. Diodor. Sicul. in Excerpt. lib. xxvi.

a Roman

a Roman legate, was in Theffaly, he went in person to Lariffa, and there defired to have an interview with him, with which request Martius complied. At this conference the artful Roman, though he talked in the high strain of his country, yet mingled fomany obliging expreffions, and teftified fuch perfonal respect for the king, as perfuaded him to fend ambaffadors once more to Rome, when his affairs required leading a good army into Greece; a step which would have enabled his friends there to have acknowleged their attachment to him, and have prevented the Boeotians and others from declaring for the Romans, merely out of fear. When Martius, the Roman ambassador, returned home, he valued himself very much for having overreached the king, and drawn him into a truce; for he had agreed to one for a certain time, whereby he himself, when in a condition of acting, was bound up, and the Romans had time given them, till they could be in a situation to take the field. The ambaffadors of Perfes, who repaired in confequence of this truce to Rome, had audience; but notwithstanding they fignified the king's readinefs to give full and ample fatisfaction on every head, they received a very short answer, and were commanded to quit Italy in thirty days. When these ambassadors returned, Perfes perceived that peace was upon no terms to be had; and therefore, as if it had been against his inclination, he began to prepare for war. He appointed the general rendezvous of his army at Citium, where he himself offered a hecatomb to Pallas, and then proceeded to a general review. He mustered, on this occafion, Perfes prethirty-nine thoufand foot, and four thoufand horfe; the pares for it. moft numerous, and by far the finest army that, fince Alexander's expedition into Afia, any Macedonian king had brought into the field. The king having viewed them, mounted his tribunal, from whence he made a long and laboured harangue, entering into a detail of all that had paffed between himself and the Romans, from his acceffion to the crown to that time, which the foldiers heard with fome attention, and moderate figns of fatiffaction; but when at the clofe he reprefented the ancient glory of the Macedonians, and the mifery to which the Romans fought to reduce them, in pathetic terms, the army fhouted aloud, and declared they would die in the field to a man, rather than not equal their ancestors, and redeem their country from any apprehenfions of being fubjected by this new and arrogant state.

He