Book 44
30
By this time Appius Claudius, who had strengthened the army he had with him by contingents from the Ballini, the Apolloniates and the Dyrrhachians, had left his winter quarters and was encamped near the River Genusus. The intelligence brought to him of the league between Perseus and Gentius, and the outrageous treatment of the Roman envoys, decided him to commence hostilities against him. The praetor Anicius, who was at this time in Apollonia, heard what was going on in Illyria, and sent a message to Appius requesting him to wait for him by the Genusus. In three days he arrived at the camp and brought with him in addition to his own force 2000 infantry and 200 cavalry, sent by the Parthini, the infantry under the command of Epicadus, the cavalry under that of Algalus. He was making preparations to march into Illyria, his principal object being the raising of the siege of Bassania. The projected invasion was delayed by a report that eighty pirate barques were ravaging the coast. They had been sent by Gentius on the advice of Pantauchus to devastate the fields of Apollonia and Dyrrhachium. Then the fleet . . . they surrendered.
