44.1
At the beginning of
the following spring, the consul Q. Marcius Philippus arrived in Brundisium
with the 5000 men who were to reinforce his legions. M. Popilius, an
ex-consul, and a number of young men of equally noble birth, followed the
consul as military tribunes for the legions in Macedonia. C. Marcius Figulus,
who was to command the fleet, reached Brundisium at the same time, and he
and the consul left Italy together. The following day they made Corcyra, the
next day Actium, the seaport of Acarnania. The consul landed at Ambracia
and proceeded by land to Thessaly. Figulus sailed past Leucatas and entered
the Gulf of Corinth. Leaving his ship at Creusa he hurried on through the
middle of Boeotia -a one day's march for a lightly-equipped soldier -to join
the fleet at Chalcis. A. Hostilius was at the time in a camp near
Palaepharsalus in Thessaly. He had not fought any important action but he
had checked the licence and disorder of his soldiers and brought them up to
a state of complete military efficiency, and he had been consistently
honourable in his conduct towards the allies and protected them from all
injustice and oppression. On hearing of the arrival of his successor he made a
careful inspection of the arms, the men and the horses, and went to meet the
consul with his army in complete equipment. Their first meeting was quite in
accord with their rank and their character as Romans, and subsequently they
worked in perfect harmony as long as the proconsul stayed with the army.
A few days later the consul addressed his troops. He first alluded to
Perseus's contemplated assassination of his father, and his actual murder of
his brother, and then went on to describe how, after his crimes had secured
him the crown, he had recourse to poisoning and bloodshed; how he laid an
infamous plot against Eumenes, inflicted injuries against the people of Rome,
and plundered the cities of the allies of Rome in violation of the existing
treaty. He would find out in the ruin of his fortunes how hateful all this
conduct was to the gods, for the gods bestowed their favour on natural
affection and honourable dealing; it was by these that the Roman people
gained their lofty position in the world. He next drew a comparison between
the strength of Rome, embracing as she does the world, and the strength of
Macedonia, army against army. "How much greater," he exclaimed, "were
the forces of Philip and Antiochus, and yet they were shattered by armies no
stronger than ours today."
