45.33
When
all the performances were ended and the bronze targes had been put on
board the ships, the rest of the spoils were collected into enormous heaps.
Then the commander offered up prayers to Mars and Minerva and Lua
Mater and the other deities to whom the spoils taken from the enemy must
be solemnly dedicated. He then applied a torch to the heap and the military
tribunes standing round each cast a brand on the pile. It is a noteworthy fact
that in this great meeting of Europe and Asia, where a multitude had been
drawn together from every part of the world, some to offer congratulations,
some to see the spectacle, where such great naval and military forces were
assembled, there was nevertheless such abundance of everything and
provisions were so cheap that the general out of this abundance made gifts
to individuals, to cities, and even to whole nations, sufficient not only for
their use at the time, but enough for them to take home with them. The
spectators were not more interested in the scenic representations and the
athletic contests and chariot races than they were in the display of the spoils
from Macedonia. These were all laid out to view -statues, pictures, woven
fabrics, articles in gold, silver, bronze and ivory wrought with consummate
care, all of which had been found in the palace, where they had not been
intended, like those which filled the palace at Alexandria, for a moment's
ornament but for constant and lasting use. They were all placed on board the
fleet under the charge of Cnaeus Octavius to be transported to Rome. After
taking a friendly leave of the various deputations Paulus crossed the Strymon
and fixed his camp a mile distant from Amphipolis. A five days' further
march brought him to Pella. Marching past the city he arrived at a place
called Spilaeum, where he stayed two days. During his stay he sent P. Nasica
and his son Q. Maximus to ravage that part of Illyria from which assistance
had been sent to Perseus and afterwards to meet him at Oricum. He himself
took the road to Epirus and after a fifteen days' march reached Passaron.
