Book 44
27
The same niggardly conduct turned Gentius against him. After he had paid 300 talents to the emissaries of Gentius at Pella, he allowed them to seal the money up. Then ten talents were sent to Pantauchus with instructions that they were to be given to the king at once. He told his people, who were carrying the rest of the money sealed with the seal of the Illyrians, to make short journeys, and when they had reached the frontier, to wait there for his instructions. After Gentius had received that small portion of the money, he was constantly being urged by Pantauchus to provoke the Romans by some hostile act; accordingly he threw the two Roman envoys into prison, who happened to be with him at the time, M. Perpenna and L. Petilius. On hearing this, Perseus thought that Gentius was, in any case, driven by the force of circumstances into war with Rome, and in this belief he sent a message to have the money brought back, as though his one idea was that after his defeat as much spoil as possible might be reserved for the Romans. Hierophon returned from Eumenes without any one knowing what secret understanding had been arrived at between them. They themselves gave it out in public that it had to do with the exchange of prisoners, and Eumenes sent the same explanation to the consul to allay his suspicions.
