Book 45
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In this progress through Greece he was careful to avoid doing anything that might alarm those who were friends of Rome, and therefore he made no enquiry into the sentiments entertained by communities as a whole or by individual citizens during the war with Perseus. On his return to Demetrias he was met by a crowd of Aetolians dressed in mourning. On his asking with some surprise what the matter was, they told him that five hundred and fifty of their principal citizens had been put to death by Lyciscus and Tisippus, after they had placed round the senate-house a cordon of Roman soldiers sent by A. Baebius, the commandant of the garrison. Others they had sent into exile, and they were keeping the property of those who had been killed as well as of those who had been banished. He sent orders for those who were accused to await him at Amphipolis. He met Cnaeus Octavius at Demetrias, and while he was there a report reached him that the ten commissioners had landed in Greece, and laying aside all other business he proceeded to Apollonia. Through the slackness of his guard Perseus had been able to get away from Amphipolis and met Aemilius at Apollonia-it is only a day's journey. Aemilius is said to have spoken to him in a kindly tone, but when he arrived in the camp at Amphipolis he severely censured C. Sulpicius, in the first place because he had allowed Perseus to wander so far away in the province and secondly because he had shown such indulgence to his soldiers that he allowed them to remove the tiles from the city walls in order to roof their winter huts. He ordered the tiles to be taken back and the uncovered places to be restored to their former condition. Perseus and his elder son Philip were handed over to A. Postumius to be kept under guard; Aemilius treated the daughter and the younger son, who had been brought from Samothrace, with every mark of respect and kindness.
