oys to Rome
presumably to make a defence on the charges which were being pressed
against him. These messengers the Romans would not receive within the
wall, but they transacted business with them in the space before the
city; and no other answer was vouchsafed them than that they would
send a consul with whom he might confer on whatever topics he pleased.
They also caused them to depart the same day, having given them guides
to prevent their associating with anybody. And Perseus was forbidden
in the future to set foot on the soil of Italy.

The Romans next sent out Gnaeus Sicinius, a praetor, with a small force
(they had not yet made ready their greater armament) and Perseus made
a tentative invasion of Thessaly in which he won over the greater part
of that country. [Sidenote: B.C. 171 (_a.u._ 583)] When spring opened
they sent Licinius Crassus against him as well as a praetor, Gaius
Lucretius, in charge of the fleet. The latter first encountered
Perseus near Larissa and was worsted in a cavalry skirmish: later,
though, he got the best of him and Perseus accordingly retreated into
Macedonia. As for Crassus, he assailed the Greek cities which were
held in subjection by Philip and was repulsed from the majority of
them, although he did get possession of a few. Some he razed to the
ground and sold the captives. When the inhabitants of Rome learned
these details, they became indignant and later they imposed a money
fine on Crassus, liberated the captured cities, and bought back from
the purchasers such of their inhabitants as had been sold and were
then found in Italy.

So fared the Romans in these undertakings, but in the war against
Perseus as a whole they suffered many great reverses and their
fortunes at many points were at a low ebb. Perseus occupied the
greater part of Epirus and Thessaly, having gathered a large body of
troops. As a measure of defence against the Romans' elephants he had
trained a phalanx of heavy-armed warriors whose shields and helmets he
had taken care should be studded with sharp iron nails. Also, in order
to make sure that the beasts should not prove a source of terror to
the horses he constructed images of elephants that were smeared with
some kind of ointment to give them a fearful odor and were frightful
both to see and to hear (for a mechanical device enabled them to emit
a roar resembling thunder); and he kept continually leading the horses
up to these representations until they took cour