The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost BooksLivy
History
The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books
Livy
Rome -- History
37. The consul having made every preparation for the execution of his
designs, when he had quitted the post where he lay, marched first to
Dardanus, and then to Rhœteum; from both states the people came out in
crowds to meet him. He then advanced to Troy, and having pitched his
camp in the plain which is under the walls, when he had gone up to the
city and into the citadel, he offered sacrifices to Minerva, the
guardian of the citadel; the Trojans, by every act and expression of
respect, showing themselves proud of the Romans being descended from
them, and the Romans expressing their delight in their origin. The army
marching thence, arrived, on the sixth encampment, at the source of the
Caicus. To this place also king Eumenes came. He at first endeavoured to
bring back his fleet from the Hellespont to Elæa, for the winter;
subsequently, when by adverse winds he could not, for several days, pass
the promontory of Lectos, that he might not be absent at the
commencement of operations, he landed and came, with a small body of
men, by the shortest road to the Roman camp. From the camp he was sent
home to Pergamus, to hasten supplies of provisions; and when the corn
was delivered to the persons whom the consul had ordered to receive it,
he returned to the same camp. The plan was, provisions for several days
being prepared, to march hence against the enemy, before the winter
should prevent them. The king’s camp was near Thyatira; and Antiochus,
hearing there that Publius Scipio had fallen sick and was conveyed to
Elæa, sent ambassadors to conduct his son to him. As this present was
highly grateful to the mind of the father, so was the satisfaction which
it gave no less salutary to his body. At length, being sated with the
embraces of his son, he said to the ambassadors, “Tell the king that I
return him thanks; that at present I can make him no other requital than
my advice; which is, not to come to an engagement, until he shall have
heard that I have rejoined the army.” Although sixty-two thousand foot,
and more than twelve thousand horse, inspired the king at times with
hopes in the result of a battle; yet, moved by the advice of so great a
man as Scipio, in whom, when he considered the uncertainty of the events
of war, he placed safety in any reverse of fortune, he retired, and
having crossed the Phrygian river, pitched his camp near Magnesia, which
is at Sipylus. And lest, if he wished to prolong the time, the Romans
might attack his works, he drew round it a fosse six cubits deep and
twelve broad, and on the outside surrounded the fosse with a double
rampart: on the inside bank, he raised a wall flanked with towers at
small distances, by which the enemy could easily be prevented from
crossing the fosse.
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