42.37
A few
days later Q. Marcius, A. Atilius, the two Lentuli, Publius and Servius, and
also L. Decimius were sent to Greece, and took with them 2000 men as far
as Corcyra. There they arranged what districts to visit and what force each
was to take with him. Decimius was sent to Gentius, the king of the Illyrians,
to find out whether he still had any regard for his former friendship with
Rome, and if so to induce him to take an active part in the war as an ally.
The two Lentuli were sent to Cephallania that they might sail across to the
Peloponnese and round the western coast before winter. The visitation of
Epirus, Aetolia and Thessaly was assigned to Marcius and Atilius, after
which they were ordered to survey the state of Boeotia and Euboea and then
sail to the Peloponnese. There they arranged to meet the Lentuli. Before they
separated at Corcyra, a despatch was received from Perseus in which he
requested to know the reason for the Romans landing an army in Greece and
occupying the cities. It was decided that no written reply should be sent, but
that the bearer of the despatch should be told that the Romans were doing it
for the protection of the cities themselves. The Lentuli in their visits to the
different towns urged upon them all without distinction the duty of giving
the Romans the same cordial and loyal assistance against Perseus which they
had given in the war with Philip and then afterwards with Antiochus. During
their meetings they heard murmurs of dissatisfaction amongst the Achaeans.
They complained that while they had from the very beginning of the
Macedonian war rendered every assistance to the Romans and in the war
with Philip had been the declared enemies of the Macedonians, they were
now put upon the same footing as the people of Messene and Elea who had
fought for Antiochus against Rome, and after being incorporated into the
Achaean council were handed over to their Achaean conquerors as the prize
of war.
