44.30
It was
now the beginning of spring, and the new generals had reached their
provinces. The consul Aemilius was in Macedonia, Octavius with the fleet at
Oreum, and Anicius was in Illyria to conduct the war against Gentius. The
father of Gentius was Pleuratus, formerly king of Illyria; his mother's name
was Eurydice. Gentius had two brothers, one named Plator, the other, a
half-brother, named Caravantius. He felt no uneasiness about the latter, as
the father was a man of low birth, but to make his throne more secure he put
Plator to death, and two of his friends with him, Ettritus and Epicadus, both
of them able and enterprising men. It was commonly said that his jealousy
was aroused by Plator's betrothal to Etuta, a daughter of Monunus, the
prince of the Dardani, as though by this marriage he would secure the whole
nation to his interest, and the fact that after Plator's death his brother married
the girl made this conjecture highly probable. When all fear of his brother
was removed, Gentius began to harass and oppress his people, and his
naturally violent temper was inflamed by excessive indulgence in wine.
However, as I have said above, he was bent upon war with Rome, and
assembled the whole of his forces at Lissus. They numbered 15,000 men. He
sent his brother Caravantius with 1000 infantry and 500 horse to effect the
subjugation of the Cavii, either by intimidation or force, whilst he himself
advanced against Bassania, a city five miles distant from Lissus. The
population were friendly to Rome, and when Caravantius sent a demand for
submission they chose to stand a siege rather than surrender. One of the
towns belonging to the Cavii, Durnium, opened its gates to Caravantius;
another city, Caravandis, shut its gates against him, and when he began an
extensive devastation of their fields the peasants rose and killed a
considerable number of the scattered plunderers.
By this time Appius Claudius, who had strengthened the army he
had with him by contingents from the Ballini, the Apolloniates and the
Dyrrhachians, had left his winter quarters and was encamped near the River
Genusus. The intelligence brought to him of the league between Perseus and
Gentius, and the outrageous treatment of the Roman envoys, decided him to
commence hostilities against him. The praetor Anicius, who was at this time
in Apollonia, heard what was going on in Illyria, and sent a message to
Appius requesting him to wait for him by the Genusus. In three days he
arrived at the camp and brought with him in addition to his own force 2000
infantry and 200 cavalry, sent by the Parthini, the infantry under the
command of Epicadus, the cavalry under that of Algalus. He was making
preparations to march into Illyria, his principal object being the raising of the
siege of Bassania. The projected invasion was delayed by a report that eighty
pirate barques were ravaging the coast. They had been sent by Gentius on
the advice of Pantauchus to devastate the fields of Apollonia and
Dyrrhachium. Then the fleet . . . they surrendered.
