Macedon
to its ancient glory, and be alone able to check the power of Rome,
which now menaced the whole world. Defeated in a great battle at
Scotussa by Titus Flamininus, he bent to the storm, surrendered all that
he had to the Romans, and was thankful for mild treatment. Afterwards,
chafing at his subordinate position, and thinking that to reign
dependent on the pleasure of the Romans was more worthy of a slave who
cares only for sensual pleasure, than of a man of spirit, he gave his
whole mind up to preparations for war, and secretly and unscrupulously
collected materials for it. Of the cities in his kingdom, he allowed
those on the sea-coast and the main roads to fall into partial decay, so
that his power might be despised, while he collected great forces in the
interior. Here he filled all the outposts, fortresses, and cities with
arms, money, and men fit for service, and thus trained the nation for
war, yet kept his preparations secret. In his arsenals were arms for
thirty thousand men; eight million medimni of corn were stored in his
fortresses, and such a mass of treasure as would pay an army of ten
thousand men for ten years. But before he could put all these forces in
motion and begin the great struggle, he died of grief and remorse, for
he had, as he admitted, unjustly put his other son Demetrius to death on
the calumnies of one far worse than he was. Perseus, the survivor,
inherited his father's hatred of the Romans with his kingdom, but was
not of a calibre to carry out his designs, as his small and degraded
mind was chiefly possessed by avarice. He is said not even to have been
legitimate, but that Philip's wife obtained him when a baby from his
real mother, a midwife of Argos, named Gnathaina, and palmed him off
upon her husband. And this seems to have been one reason for her putting
Demetrius to death, for fear that if the family had a legitimate heir,
this one's bastardy would be discovered.

IX. However, low-born and low-minded though he was, yet having by the
force of circumstances drifted into war, he held his own and maintained
himself for a long time against the Romans, defeating generals of
consular rank with great armies, and even capturing some of them.
Publius Licinius, who first invaded Macedonia, was defeated in a cavalry
engagement, with a loss of two thousand five hundred brave men killed,
and six hundred prisoners. Perseus next by a sudden attack made himself
master of the Roman naval stat