Book 45
29
Aemilius gave notice for the councils of ten from all the cities to assemble at Amphipolis and to bring with them all archives and documents wherever they were deposited, and all the money due to the royal treasury. When the day arrived he advanced to the tribunal, where he took his seat with the ten commissioners, surrounded by a vast concourse of Macedonians. Though they were accustomed to the display of royal power, this novel assertion of authority filled them with fear; the tribunal, the clearing of the approach to it through the mass of people, the herald, the apparitor, all these were strange to their eyes and ears and might even have appalled allies of Rome, to say nothing of a vanquished enemy. After the herald had called for silence Paulus, speaking in Latin, explained the arrangements decided upon by the senate and by himself in concert with the ten commissioners; Cnaeus Octavius, who was also present, translated the address into Greek. First of all it was laid down that the Macedonians were to be a free people, possessing their cities and fields as before, enjoying their own laws and customs and electing their annual magistrates. They were to pay to Rome half the tribute which they had been paying to the king. Secondly, Macedonia was to be broken up into four separate cantons. The first would embrace the district between the Strymon and the Nessus, and in addition, beyond the Nessus to the east, the forts, towns and villages which Perseus had held, with the exception of Aenus, Maronea and Abdera, and beyond the Strymon to the west the whole of Bisaltica together with Heraclea, which district the natives call Sintice. The second canton would be bounded on the east by the Strymon, exclusive of Sintice, Heraclea and Bisaltica; and on the west by the Axius, including the Paeonians, who dwelt to the east of the Axius. The third division would be the district enclosed between the Axius on the east and the Peneus on the west; the Bora range shuts it in on the north. This canton was increased by the addition of the part of Paeonia which extends westwards beyond the Axius; Edessa and Beroea were assigned to this division. The fourth canton lay on the other side of the Bora range, bordering Illyria on the one side and Epirus on the other.
