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All who had commanded in Macedonia supported his requests, and, with one exception, they were all granted. With regard to the land, however, he was told that a commission would be sent to investigate the question of ownership. If the territory belonged to Rome, and had not been granted to any one, they should consider that no one was more deserving of the grant than Prusias. If, however, it should turn out not to have belonged to Antiochus and had, therefore, never been claimed by Rome, or should it prove to have been actually granted to the Gauls, Prusias must pardon them if the people of Rome were unwilling that anything should be granted to him to the injury of another. To no one can a gift be grateful when he knows that the giver can take it away whenever he pleases. The senate accepted the commendation of his son Nicomedes; the care with which the people of Rome protect the sons of friendly monarchs was shown in the case of Ptolemy, King of Egypt. With this reply Prusias was dismissed. Presents of . . . sesterces were ordered to he made to him and 50 pounds of silver plate. The senate also decided that presents should be made to Nicomedes of the same value as those made to Masinissa's son Masgaba, and that the victims for sacrifice and the other requisites, whether he wished to offer them at Rome or at Praeneste, should be supplied to the king at the public cost, as in the case of the magistrates. From the fleet at Brundisium twenty warships were assigned to him for his use. Till the king had reached the fleet thus presented to him, L Cornelius Scipio was to be his constant attendant, and was to defray all expenses incurred by him and his suite. They say that the king was wonderfully delighted with the kindness the people of Rome had shown towards him. He refused to have any presents purchased for himself, but he ordered his son to accept what the Roman people gave him. This is what our historians say about Prusias. Polybius alleges that the king was unworthy of his regal title; he was in the habit of meeting the ambassadors who were sent to him with his head shaved, and wearing a freedman's cap, speaking of himself as the manumitted slave of Rome, and wearing the distinctive dress of this class on that account. At Rome, too, when he entered the senate-house, he prostrated himself and kissed the threshold and called the senators his protecting deities, with other expressions more degrading to himself than complimentary to those who heard him. After a stay of not more than thirty days in the City and the neighbourhood he left for his kingdom. A war in Asia was begun (between Eumenes and the Gauls) . . .
