23.38
During
these incidents amongst the Lucanians and Hirpini, the five ships which were
carrying the Macedonian and Carthaginian agents to Rome, after sailing
almost round the whole of Italy in their passage from the upper to the lower
sea were off Cumae, when Gracchus, uncertain whether they belonged to
friends or foes, sent vessels from his own fleet to intercept them. After
mutual questionings those on board learnt that the consul was at Cumae. The
vessels accordingly were brought into the harbour and the prisoners were
brought before the consul and the letters placed in his hands. He read the
letters of Philip and Hannibal through and sent everything under seal by land
to the senate, the agents he ordered to be taken by sea. The letters and the
agents both reached Rome the same day, and when it was ascertained that
what the agents said in their examination agreed with the letters, the senate
were filled with very gloomy apprehensions. They recognised what a heavy
burden a war with Macedon would impose upon them at a time when it was
all they could do to bear the weight of the Punic war. They did not,
however, so far give way to despondency as not to enter at once upon a
discussion as to how they could divert the enemy from Italy by themselves
commencing hostilities against him. Orders were given for the agents to be
kept in chains and their companions to be sold as slaves; they also decided to
equip twenty vessels in addition to the twenty-five which P. Valerius Flaccus
already had under his command. After these had been fitted out and
launched, the five ships which had carried the agents were added and thirty
vessels left Ostia for Tarentum. Publius Valerius was instructed to place on
board the soldiers which had belonged to Varro's army and which were now
at Tarentum under the command of L. Apustius, and with his combined fleet
of fifty-five vessels he was not only to protect the coast of Italy but try to
obtain information about the hostile attitude of Macedon. If Philip's designs
should prove to correspond to the captured despatches and the statements of
the agents, he was to write to Marcus Valerius, the praetor, to that effect
and then, after placing his army under the command of L. Apustius, go to the
fleet at Tarentum and sail across to Macedonia at the first opportunity and
do his utmost to confine Philip within his own dominions. A decree was
made that the money which had been sent to Appius Claudius in Sicily to be
returned to King Hiero should now be devoted to the maintenance of the
fleet and the expenses of the Macedonian war, and it was conveyed to
Tarentum through L. Antistius. Two hundred thousand modii of wheat and
barley were sent at the same time by King Hiero.
