all his troops. It was a shame much feared by the conquered princes, and
the cruel old rule was that they should be put to death at the close of
the march. Paullus AEmilius was, however, a man of kind temper, and had
promised Perseus to spare his life. The unfortunate king begged to be
spared the humiliation of walking in the triumph, but AEmilius could not
disappoint the Roman people, and answered that "the favour was in
Perseus' own power," meaning, since he knew no better, that to die should
prevent what was so much dreaded. Perseus, however, did not take the
counsel, but lived in an Italian city for the rest of his life.

After Macedon was ruined the Romans resolved to put down all stirrings of
resistance to them in the rest of Greece. Their friend Callicrates,
therefore, accused all the Achaians who had been friendly to Perseus, or
who had any brave spirit--1000 in number--of conspiring against Rome, and
called on the League to sentence them to death; but as this proposal was
heard with horror, they were sent to Rome to justify themselves, and the
Roman senate, choosing to suppose they had been judged by the League,
sentenced them never to return to Achaia. Polybius was among them, so
that his home was thenceforth in the house of his pupils, the sons of
AEmilius. Many times did the Achaians send entreaties that they might be
set at liberty, and at last, after seventeen years, Polybius' pupils
persuaded the great senator Cato to speak for them, and he did so, but in
a very rough, unfeeling way. "Anyone who saw us disputing whether a set
of poor old Greeks should be buried by our grave-diggers or their own
would think we had nothing else to do," he said. So the Romans consented
to their going home; but when they asked to have all their rank and
honours restored to them, Cato said, "Polybius, you are less wise than
Ulysses. You want to go back into the Cyclops' cave for the wretched
rags and tatters you left behind you there." After all, Polybius either
did not go home or did not stay there, for he was soon again with his
beloved pupils; and in the seventeen years of exile the 1000 had so
melted away that only 300 went home again.

[Picture: Lessina, The Ancient Eleusis, on the Gulf of Corinth]

But the very year after their return a fresh rising was made by the
Macedonians, under a pretender who claimed to be the son of Perseus, and
by the Peloponnesians, with the Achaians and Spartans at their head