y to that people, and the senate's answers and decrees, so
honourable to him, were a sufficient evidence." Just at that time his
ambassadors happened to have returned from Rome, where they had been
heard and dismissed with courtesy, as the juncture required; the
event of the war with Philip being yet uncertain. While the king's
ambassadors were haranguing to the above purpose, in an assembly of
the people at Rhodes, a courier arrived with an account of the battle
at Cynoscephalae having finally decided the fate of the war.
Having received this intelligence, the Rhodians, now freed from all
apprehensions of danger from Philip, resolved to oppose Antiochus with
their fleet. Nor did they neglect another object that required their
attention; the protection of the freedom of the cities in alliance
with Ptolemy, which were threatened with war by Antiochus. For, some
they assisted with men, others by forewarning them of the enemy's
designs; by which means they enabled the Cauneans, Mindians,
Halicarnassians, and Samians to preserve their liberty. It were
needless to attempt enumerating all the transactions as they occurred
in that quarter, when I am scarcely equal to the task of recounting
those which immediately concern the war in which Rome was engaged.

21. At this time king Attalus, having fallen sick at Thebes, had been
carried thence to Pergamus, died at the age of seventy-one after he
had reigned forty-four years. To this man fortune had given nothing
which could inspire hopes of a throne except riches. By a prudent,
and, at the same time, a splendid use of these, he begat, in himself
first, and then in others, an opinion, that he was not undeserving of
a crown. Afterwards, having in one battle utterly defeated the Gauls,
which nation was then the more terrible to Asia, as having but lately
made its appearance there, he assumed the title of king, and ever
after exhibited a spirit equal to the dignity of that name. He
governed his subjects with the most perfect justice, and observed an
unvarying fidelity towards his allies; gentle and bountiful to his
friends; affectionate to his wife and four sons, who survived him; and
he left his government established on such solid and firm foundations,
that the possession of it descended to the third generation. While
this was the posture of affairs in Asia, Greece, and Macedonia, the
war with Philip being scarcely ended, and the peace certainly not yet
perfected, a desperate insurr