Book 44
30
It was now the beginning of spring, and the new generals had reached their provinces. The consul Aemilius was in Macedonia, Octavius with the fleet at Oreum, and Anicius was in Illyria to conduct the war against Gentius. The father of Gentius was Pleuratus, formerly king of Illyria; his mother's name was Eurydice. Gentius had two brothers, one named Plator, the other, a half-brother, named Caravantius. He felt no uneasiness about the latter, as the father was a man of low birth, but to make his throne more secure he put Plator to death, and two of his friends with him, Ettritus and Epicadus, both of them able and enterprising men. It was commonly said that his jealousy was aroused by Plator's betrothal to Etuta, a daughter of Monunus, the prince of the Dardani, as though by this marriage he would secure the whole nation to his interest, and the fact that after Plator's death his brother married the girl made this conjecture highly probable. When all fear of his brother was removed, Gentius began to harass and oppress his people, and his naturally violent temper was inflamed by excessive indulgence in wine. However, as I have said above, he was bent upon war with Rome, and assembled the whole of his forces at Lissus. They numbered 15,000 men. He sent his brother Caravantius with 1000 infantry and 500 horse to effect the subjugation of the Cavii, either by intimidation or force, whilst he himself advanced against Bassania, a city five miles distant from Lissus. The population were friendly to Rome, and when Caravantius sent a demand for submission they chose to stand a siege rather than surrender. One of the towns belonging to the Cavii, Durnium, opened its gates to Caravantius; another city, Caravandis, shut its gates against him, and when he began an extensive devastation of their fields the peasants rose and killed a considerable number of the scattered plunderers.
