Eumenes's ship. They obeyed, and would
have taken it, had he not outsailed his pursuers. The rest of the ships of
Pergamus sustained the fight with great vigour, till the earthen vessels
had been thrown into them. At first they only laughed at this, and were
very much surprised to find such weapons employed against them. But when
they saw themselves surrounded with the serpents, which darted out of
these vessels when they flew to pieces, they were seized with dread,
retired in disorder, and yielded the victory to the enemy.

(M137) Services of so important a nature seemed to secure for ever to
Hannibal an undisturbed asylum at that prince's court.(836) However, the
Romans would not suffer him to be easy there, but deputed Q. Flamininus to
Prusias, to complain of the protection he gave Hannibal. The latter easily
guessed the motive of this embassy, and therefore did not wait till his
enemies had an opportunity of delivering him up. At first he attempted to
secure himself by flight; but perceiving that the seven secret outlets,
which he had contrived in his palace, were all seized by the soldiers of
Prusias, who, by perfidiously betraying his guest, was desirous of making
his court to the Romans; he ordered the poison, which he had long kept for
this melancholy occasion, to be brought him; and taking it in his hand,
"Let us," said he, "free the Romans from the disquiet with which they have
so long been tortured, since they have not patience to wait for an old
man's death. The victory which Flamininus gains over a man disarmed and
betrayed will not do him much honour. This single day will be a lasting
testimony of the great degeneracy of the Romans. Their fathers sent notice
to Pyrrhus, to desire he would beware of a traitor who intended to poison
him, and that at a time when this prince was at war with them in the very
centre of Italy; but their sons have deputed a person of consular dignity
to spirit up Prusias, impiously to murder one who is not only his friend,
but his guest." After calling down curses upon Prusias, and having invoked
the gods, the protectors and avengers of the sacred rights of hospitality,
he swallowed the poison,(837) and died at seventy years of age.

This year was remarkable for the death of three great men, Hannibal,
Philopoemen, and Scipio, who had this in common, that they all died out of
their native countries, by a death little correspondent to the glory of
their actions. The two first died b