Achaean Aid To Rome Declined
Upon Perseus designing to come into Thessaly and
note
there decide the war by a general engagement,
as he probably would have done, Archon and his
colleagues resolved to defend themselves against
the suspicions and slanders that had been
thrown upon them, by taking some practical
steps. They therefore brought a decree before the Achaean
congress, ordering an advance into Thessaly, with the full force
of the league, to co-operate energetically with the Romans. The
decree being confirmed, the Achaeans also voted that Archon
should superintend the collection of the army and the necessary
preparations for the expedition, and should also send envoys to
the Consul in Thessaly, to communicate to him the decree of
the Achaeans, and to ask when and where their
army was to join him. note Polybius and others
were forthwith appointed, and strictly instructed
that, if the Consul approved of the army joining him, they
should at once send some messengers to communicate the fact,
that they might not be too late on the field; and meanwhile,
that Polybius himself should see that the whole army found
provisions in the various cities through which it was to pass,
and that the soldiers should have no lack of any necessaries.
With these instructions the envoys started. The Achaeans
also appointed Telocritus to conduct an embassy to Attalus,
bearing the decree concerning the restoration of the honours
of Eumenes. note And as news arrived about the
same time that king Ptolemy had just celebrated
his anacleteria, the usual ceremony when the
kings come of age, they voted to send some ambassadors to
confirm the friendly relations existing between the league and
the kingdom of Egypt, and thereupon appointed Alcithus and
Pasiadas for this duty.
-- 381 -- 