2.
About the same time, ambassadors arrived both from king Attalus, and from the Rhodians, with information that the Macedonian was tampering with the states of Asia.
[2]
To these embassies an answer was given, that the senate would give attention to the affairs of Asia. The determination with regard to the making war on him, was left open to the consuls, who were then in their provinces.
[3]
In the mean time, three ambassadors were sent to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, namely, Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Publius Sempronius Tuditanus, to announce their conquest of Hannibal and the Carthaginians;
[4]
to give thanks to the king for his faithful adherence to his engagements in the time of [p. 1343]their distress, when even the nearest allies of the Romans abandoned them; and to request that if, compelled by ill treatment, they should undertake a war with Philip, he would preserve his former disposition towards the Roman people.
[5]
In Gaul, about this time, the consul, Publius Aelius, having heard that, before his arrival, the Boians had made inroads on the territories of the allies, levied two occasional legions on account of this disturbance;
[6]
and adding to them four cohorts from his own army, ordered Caius Oppius, the prefect, to march with this tumultuary band through Umbria, (which is called the Sappinian district,) and to invade the territories of the Boians. He himself led his own troops thither openly, over the intervening mountains. Oppius, on entering the same, for some time committed depredations with tolerable success and safety.
[7]
But afterwards, having pitched on a place near a fort called Mutilum, convenient enough for cutting down the corn, (for the crops were now ripe,) and setting out without having reconnoitred around, and without establishing armed posts of sufficient strength to protect those who were unarmed and intent on their work, he was suddenly surrounded, together with his foragers, by an unexpected invasion of the Gauls.
[8]
On this, panic and flight seized even on those who were furnished with weapons.
[9]
Seven thousand men, dispersed through the corn fields, were put to the sword, among whom was the commander himself, Caius Oppius.
[10]
The rest were driven by terror into the camp; from whence, in consequence of a resolution of the soldiers, they set out on the following night, without any particular commander; and, leaving behind a great part of their baggage, made their way, through woods almost impassable, to the consul, who returned
[11??]
to Rome without having performed any thing in his province worth notice, except that he ravaged the lands of the Boians, and made a treaty with the Ingaunian Ligurians.
Livy. History of Rome by Titus Livius, books twenty-seven to thirty-six. literally translated, with notes and illustrations, by. Cyrus Edmonds. York Street, Covent Garden, London. Henry G. Bohn. John Child and son, printers, Bungay. 1850. 3.
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