57. Perseus therefore surprised them all, when not expecting, and totally ignorant of, his arrival, and seized on the throne, which was obtained by wickedness. The demise of Philip happened very seasonably for the purpose of gaining time and collecting strength for the support of a war: for, in a few days after, the nation of the Bastarnians, in consequence of long solicitation, set out from their own abodes, with a large force of infantry and cavalry, and crossed the Danube. Antigonus and Cotto (the latter was a Bastarnian of distinction, and Antigonus had been sent, much against his will, with this same Cotto, as ambassador, to persuade his countrymen to take arms) went forward, to carry intelligence of this to the king; but at a small distance from Amphipolis a rumour, and then authentic information, acquainted them with the king’s death; which event disconcerted the whole arrangement of their plan. It had been arranged in this manner;—Philip was to procure for the Bastarnians a safe passage through Thrace, and supplies of provisions. In order to be able to effect this, he had courted the chieftains in that country by presents, having pledged his faith that the Bastarnians should march through it in a peaceable body. It was proposed to exterminate the nation of the Dardanians, and to establish settlements for the Bastarnians in their country: from which measure a double advantage would accrue, if both the Dardanians, a nation ever hostile to Macedonia, and anxiously looking to the unfortunate periods of its kings, would be removed out of the way; and the Bastarnians, having left their wives and children in Dardania, might be sent to ravage Italy. That the road to the Adriatic Sea and Italy was through the country of the Scordiscians, and that the army could not be led by any other way; that the Scordiscians would readily grant a passage to the Bastarnians, for they would have no dislike to people resembling themselves in language and manners and would probably join them in an expedition, when they saw that they were on their way to the plunder of a most opulent nation. The remaining plans were accommodated to every kind of event that might take place; for if the Bastarnians would be cut off by the Romans, still the removal of the Dardanians, and the booty to be gained from the remains of the former, and the full possession of Dardania, would prove a consolation; or if they should be successful, then, while the Romans would be employed in the Bastarnian war, he might recover what he had lost in Greece. Such had been the designs of Philip.