39.29
The
king's address made a considerable impression on the commissioners. Their
reply was a compromise; nothing was decided. If those cities were given to
Eumenes by the decision of the ten commissioners, they said, they would
make no change; if Philip had taken them in war, he should hold them as the
prize of war; if neither of these proved to be the case, the question must be
left to the senate. In order that matters might remain as they were, the
garrisons must be withdrawn from those cities. These were the main reasons
why Philip turned against the Romans. The war was not started by his son
Perseus on any fresh ground; it might be regarded as a legacy from his
father. At Rome there was no suspicion of a war with Macedonia. The
proconsul L. Manlius had returned from Spain. The senate met in the temple
of Bellona, and he asked to be allowed to celebrate his triumph. The
magnitude of his operations justified his request, but precedent was against
it; the immemorial practice had been that no commander should enjoy a
triumph unless he had brought back his army, or unless he left to his
successor a province thoroughly subjugated and pacified. However, the
intermediate honour was allowed to Manlius; he was to enter the City in
ovation. In his procession were borne 52 golden crowns, 132 pounds of
gold, and 16,300 pounds of silver, and he announced in the senate that his
quaestor, Q. Fabius, was bringing 10,000 pounds of silver and 80 pounds of
gold, and this also he would place in the treasury. There was a wide-spread
movement amongst the slaves in Apulia this year. The herdsmen had entered
into a conspiracy and were making the highroads and public pastures
insecure through acts of brigandage. The praetor L. Postumius, who was
administering the district from Tarentum, made a strict and close
investigation, and sentenced as many as 7000 men. Many took to flight and
many were executed. The consuls who had been for a long time detained in
the City by the enrolment of troops departed at last for their provinces.