42.45
A
commission was sent about the same time to visit Asia and the islands
adjoining. The commissioners were Tiberius Claudius, Sp. Postumius and M.
Junius. As they went about amongst the allies they urged them to join the
Romans in the war against Perseus, and the wealthier and more powerful the
state the greater attention they paid to it, since the smaller ones would be led
by the greater. The Rhodians were regarded as the most important of all,
because they were in a position to give not only moral support but material
assistance. They had, acting on the advice of Hegesilochus, got forty ships
ready for service. When he was acting as supreme magistrate -"prytanis"
they call him -he had, after many speeches, induced the Rhodians to
abandon all those hoses of support from monarchs, which had so often
proved vain, and hold to the alliance with Rome, the only one in the whole
world which they could depend on for strength and fidelity. A war with
Perseus was imminent, the Romans would look for the same naval armament
that they had seen lately in the war with Antiochus and in the previous war
with Philip. Unless they began at once to refit their ships and provide them
with crews, they would be in all the hurry and confusion of making their fleet
ready for sea when it was to be actually sent off. It was all the more
important that this should be done that they might give a practical proof of
the falseness of the charges which Eumenes had brought against them. These
arguments had their effect and when the Roman commissioners arrived they
were shown a fleet of forty vessels quite ready for sea, a clear proof that
they had not waited for the Romans to spur them on. The work of these
commissioners in securing the support of the cities in Asia was of the utmost
importance. Decimius alone returned without any success; he was widely
suspected of having received bribes from Gentius and the Illyrian princes.
