44.19
The
new consuls, L. Aemilius Paulus and C. Licinius, entered on their duties at
the beginning of the year, March 15. The senate were mainly anxious to
know what the consul who was to command in Macedonia had to report
about his province. Paulus said that he had nothing to lay before them, as the
commissioners had not yet returned; after being twice driven out of their
course back to Dyrrhachium they were now at Brundisium. When he had
received the necessary information, which would be in a very few days. he
would make his report. That nothing might delay his departure, he had fixed
the Latin Festival for April 12. When the sacrifice had been duly performed,
he and Cn. Octavius would go as soon as the senate authorised their
departure. In his absence it would be his colleague's care to see that
whatever had to be prepared or despatched to the war would be got ready
and sent off. Meantime the foreign deputations could be received in
audience.
The first to be called in were the envoys from the two monarchs,
Ptolemy and Cleopatra. They were in mourning garb with beard and hair
untrimmed, and when they entered the House holding the olive branch of
supplication, they prostrated themselves to the ground. Their language was
even more piteous than their dress. Antiochus, king of Syria, who had been
in Rome as a hostage, was now, under the specious pretext of restoring the
elder Ptolemy to his throne, waging war against his younger brother and was
threatening Alexandria at the time. He had won a naval victory off Pelusium,
and after hurriedly throwing a bridge over the Nile he had led his army
across, and was terrifying Alexandria with the prospect of a siege, and it
seemed almost certain that he would gain possession of the powerful realm
of Egypt. After stating these facts the envoys implored the senate, to come
to the assistance of the kingdom and its rulers, who were friends of Rome.
They urged that the kindness which the Roman people had shown to
Antiochus and their authority amongst all kings and nations were such that if
they sent word to him and informed him that the senate disapproved of war
being levied against monarchs who were their friends, he would at once quit
the walls of Alexandria and take his army back to Syria. If the senate
hesitated to do this, they would soon have Ptolemy and Cleopatra coming as
fugitives from their realm, and the Roman people would feel somewhat
ashamed at not having sent them help in their extremity. The senators were
much moved by the appeal of the Alexandrians, and at once sent C. Popilius
Laenas, C. Decimius and C. Hostilius to put an end to the war between the
monarchs. They were instructed to approach Antiochus first and then
Ptolemy, and announce to them that if they did not abstain from war they
should not regard the one who was responsible for its continuance as either a
friend or an ally.