missioners,
who presented him with a decree of the Senate, commanding him to abstain
from hostilities against Egypt. The king, having read the decree,
promised to take it into consideration with his friends, whereupon
Popillius, one of the Roman commissioners, stepping forward, drew a
circle round the king with his staff, and told him that he should not
stir out of it till he had given a decisive answer. The king was so
frightened by this boldness that he immediately promised to withdraw his
troops. Eumenes, king of Pergamus, whose conduct during the war with
Perseus had excited the suspicion of the Senate, hastened to make his
submission in person, but was not allowed to enter Rome. Prusias, king
of Bithynia, had the meanness to appear at Rome with his head shaven,
and in the dress of a liberated slave. The Rhodians, who had offered
their mediation during the war with Perseus, were deprived of Lycia and
Caria. In Greece itself the Senate acted in the same arbitrary manner.
It was evident that they meant to bring the whole country under their
sway. In these views they were assisted by various despots and traitors
in the Grecian cities, and especially by Callicrates, a man of great
influence among the Achaeans, who for many years had lent himself as the
base tool of the Romans. He now denounced more than a thousand Achaeans
as having favored the cause of Perseus. Among them were the historian
Polybius, and the most distinguished men in every city of the League.
They were all apprehended and sent to Italy, where they were distributed
among the cities of Etruria, without being brought to trial. Polybius
alone was allowed to reside at Rome in the house of AEmilius Paullus,
where he became the intimate friend of his son Scipio Africanus the
younger. The Achaean League continued to exist, but it was really subject
to Callicrates. The Achaean exiles languished in confinement for
seventeen years. Their request to be allowed to return to their native
land had been more than once refused; but the younger Scipio Africanus
at length interceded on their behalf, and prevailed upon Cato to
advocate their return. The conduct of the aged Senator was kinder than
his words. He did not interpose till the end of a long debate, and then
simply asked, "Have we nothing better to do than to sit here all day
long debating whether a parcel of worn-out Greeks shall be carried to
their graves here or in Achaia?" A decree of the Senate gave the exiles