45.10
When
the news of the victory of Rome had spread into Asia, Antenor, who was
lying with a fleet of swift ships at Phanae, left that place for Cassandrea. C.
Popilius was at Delos to escort the supply ships destined for Macedonia, and
when he learnt that the war in Macedonia was at an end and that the enemy
vessels had left their station he sent home the ships of the allies which were
under his command and set sail for Egypt to carry out the mission with
which he was charged. He was anxious to meet Antiochus, if possible,
before he approached the walls of Alexandria. Coasting along the shores of
Asia the commissioners arrived at Loryma, a harbour little more than twenty
miles from Rhodes and facing the city. Here some of the leading Rhodians
had come to meet them -for by this time the news of the victory had been
carried to Rhodes -and begged them to break their journey at Rhodes. They
said that it deeply concerned the good name and safety of their city that the
commissioners should find out for themselves what had been going on and
what was going on at the time, and should carry back to Rome what they
had personally ascertained and not simply empty rumours. For a long time
they refused, but at last consented to a brief interruption of their voyage for
the sake of an allied city. After they had entered Rhodes, these same men
persuaded them to appear before their assembly. The appearance of the
commissioners increased rather than allayed the fears of the citizens. Popilius
brought up all the hostile speeches and acts of which they had been guilty
during the war, whether individually or collectively. Being a man of fierce
temper, he made the matters he spoke about appear still more heinous by his
angry expression and the sternness of his voice. So though the citizens had
given him no personal offence, they could gather from the embittered tone of
one Roman senator what the feelings of the senate as a whole were towards
them. The address of C. Decimius was much more moderate. With regard to
most of the things that Popilius had mentioned, he said that the blame did
not rest with the people, but with a few agitators who had stirred up the
mob, and, winning their votes by bribery, had passed decrees filled with
flattery of the king, and had been the means of those embassies being sent to
him which had caused the Rhodians as much shame as regret. All this, if the
people were sound at heart, would recoil on the heads of the guilty parties.
His words were loudly applauded, for he not only exculpated the great body
of the citizens, but he fastened the guilt on those who were really responsible
for the mischief. When, therefore, their leaders spoke in reply, those of them
who tried to explain away the charges which Popilius had made were not
listened to with anything like the approval which greeted those who agreed
with Decimius that the authors of the evil should be made to atone for the
evil they had done. A decree was at once passed that those who were
convicted of having spoken or acted in favour of Perseus against the Romans
should be sentenced to death. Some had left the city before the Romans
came, others took their own lives. The commissioners did not stay beyond
five days in Rhodes, and then went on to Alexandria. Their departure did not
make the Rhodians any the more slack in commencing the trials under the
decree passed when the commissioners were present; the mildness of
Decimius did quite as much to strengthen their resolution to see the thing
through as the severity of Popilius.