ion at Oreus, took twenty store ships,
sunk the rest, which were loaded with grain, and took also four
quinqueremes.[A] He fought also a second battle, in which he drove back
the consular general Hostilius, who was trying to invade Macedonia near
Elimiae; and when he tried to steal in through Thessaly, he again
offered battle, which the Roman declined. As an accessory to the war he
now made a campaign against the Dardans, as if affecting to despise the
Romans and to be at leisure. Here he cut to pieces ten thousand of the
barbarians, and carried off much plunder. He also had secret
negotiations with the Gauls who dwell near the Ister, called Basternae,
a nation of warlike horsemen, and by means of Genthius their king he
endeavoured to induce the Illyrians to take part in the war. There was
even a report that the barbarians had been induced by his bribes to
march through the southern part of Gaul beside the Adriatic, and so
invade Italy.

[Footnote A: Ships of war with five banks of oars.]

X. The Romans, when they learnt all this, determined that they would
disregard political influence in their choice of a general, and choose
some man of sense and capable of undertaking great operations. Such a
one was Paulus Aemilius, a man of advanced age, being about sixty years
old, but still in full vigour of body, and surrounded by kinsmen,
grown-up sons, and friends, who all urged him to listen to the appeal of
his country and be consul. He at first treated the people with little
respect, and shunned their eager professions of zeal, on the plea that
he did not wish for the command; but as they waited on him daily, and
called for him to come into the forum and shouted his name, he was at
length prevailed upon. When a candidate, he seemed to enter the field
not with a view to getting office, but to giving victory and strength in
battle to his fellow-citizens; with such zeal and confidence did they
unanimously elect him consul for the second time, not permitting lots
to be cast for provinces by the two consuls, as is usual, but at once
decreeing to him the management of the Macedonian war. It is said that
when he was named general against Perseus, he was escorted home in
triumph by the people _en masse_, and found his daughter Tertia, who was
quite a little child, in tears. He embraced her, and asked her why she
was crying; and she, throwing her arms round him and kissing him, said,
"Do you not know, father, that our Perseus is de