39.23
As the
year was now closing, Q. Marcius was preparing to lay down his office while
still abroad; S. Postumius, who had completed the investigations which he
had conducted with the most scrupulous impartiality, held the election. The
new consuls were Ap. Claudius Pulcher and M. Sempronius Tuditanus. The
next day the following were elected praetors: P. Cornelius Cethegus, A.
Postumius Albinus, C. Afranius Stellio, C. Atilius Serranus, L. Postumius
Tempsanus and M. Claudius Marcellus. S. Postumius had reported that
whilst engaged on his enquiries he had traversed both coasts of Italy, and
had found two deserted colonies, Sipontum on the Adriatic and Buxentum
on the Mediterranean. Three commissioners were appointed by the City
praetor to enrol colonists for these places, namely, L. Scribonius Libo, M.
Tuccius and Cn. Baebius Tamphilus. The war which was threatening with
Perseus and the Macedonians did not owe its origin to what most people
imagined, nor was it due to the action of Perseus himself. Its beginnings
were prepared by Philip, and had he lived longer, he would himself have
undertaken it. When the terms of peace were imposed upon him after his
defeat, the thing which exasperated him most was the interference of the
senate with his claim to punish those of his subjects who had revolted from
him during the war. In drawing up the conditions of peace Quinctius had left
this point for further consideration, and he was not without hopes of making
his claim good. A second grievance which he felt bitterly was that when
Antiochus was worsted at Thermopylae and the two armies separated, the
consul advancing against Heraclea and Philip against Lamia, he was ordered
to retire from the walls of Lamia, after the capture of Heraclea, and the town
was surrendered to the Romans. The Aetolians were rallying from their flight
at Naupactus, and the consul, hastening there, mollified Philip's anger by
permitting him to make war on Athamania and Amynander and annex the
cities, which the Aetolians had taken from the Thracians, to his own
dominions. He expelled Amynander from Athamania without much trouble
and took some of his cities. He also reduced Demetrias, a strong city and
useful in every respect, and brought the tribe of the Magnetes beneath his
sway. In Thrace, too, there were some cities in a state of turmoil owing to
the quarrels of their leaders and the misuse of a liberty to which they were
unaccustomed, and these he secured by supporting the weaker side in these
domestic conflicts.