wing into prison some Roman ambassadors who were sent to
him. Perseus, thinking that Genthius no longer needed money to make him
hostile to Rome, since he had given him such a pledge of his hatred of
it, and had involved himself in war with it by such a crime, deprived
the poor man of his three hundred talents, and shortly afterwards looked
calmly on while he and his family were plucked out of their kingdom,
like birds out of a nest, by Lucius Anicius, who was sent with an army
against him. Aemilius, when he came to contend with such a rival as
this, despised him as a man, but was surprised at the force which he had
at his disposal. These were four thousand cavalry, and of infantry
soldiers of the Macedonian phalanx nearly forty thousand. Encamped by
the sea-shore, near the skirts of Mount Olympus, on ground nowhere
accessible, and strongly fortified by himself with outworks and defences
of wood, Perseus lived in careless security, thinking that by time and
expense he should wear out Aemilius's attack. But he, while he busied
his mind with every possible mode of assault, perceiving that his army
in consequence of its past want of discipline was impatient, and usurped
the general's province by proposing all sorts of wild schemes, severely
reprimanded the soldiers, and ordered them not to meddle with what was
not their concern, but only take care that they and their arms were
ready, and to use their swords as Romans should when their general
should give the word. He ordered the night sentries to go on guard
without their spears, that they might be more attentive and less
inclined to sleep, having no arms to defend themselves against the
enemy.

XIV. The army was chiefly troubled by want of water; for only a very
little bad water ran or rather dripped out of a spring near the sea.
Aemilius perceiving that Olympus, immediately above him, was a large and
well-wooded mountain, and guessing from the greenness of the foliage
that it must contain some springs which had their courses underground,
dug many pits and wells along the skirts of the mountain, which
immediately were filled with pure water, which by the pressure above was
driven into these vacant spaces. Yet some say that there are no hidden
fountains of water, lying ready in such places as these, and say that it
is not because they are dug out or broken into that they flow, but that
they have their origin and cause in the saturation of the surrounding
earth which become