At the beginning of the following spring, the consul Q. Marcius Philippus arrived in Brundisium with the 5000 men who were to reinforce his legions. M. Popilius, an ex-consul, and a number of young men of equally noble birth, followed the consul as military tribunes for the legions in Macedonia. [2] C. Marcius Figulus, who was to command the fleet, reached Brundisium at the same time, and he and the consul left Italy together. [3] The following day they made Corcyra, the next day Actium, the seaport of Acarnania. The consul landed at Ambracia and proceeded by land to Thessaly. Figulus sailed past Leucatas and entered the Gulf of Corinth. [4] Leaving his ship at Creusa he hurried on through the middle of Boeotia-a one day's march for a lightly-equipped soldier-to join the fleet at Chalcis. A. Hostilius was at the time in a camp near Palaepharsalus in Thessaly. [5] He had not fought any important action but he had checked the licence and disorder of his soldiers and brought them up to a state of complete military efficiency, and he had been consistently honourable in his conduct towards the allies and protected them from all injustice and oppression. On hearing of the arrival of his successor he made a careful inspection of the arms, the men and the horses, and went to meet the consul with his army in complete equipment. [6] Their first meeting was quite in accord with their rank and their character as Romans, and subsequently they worked in perfect harmony as long as the proconsul stayed with the army.
[7] A few days later the consul addressed his troops. He first alluded to Perseus's contemplated assassination of his father, and his actual murder of his brother, and then went on to describe how, after his [8??] [9??] crimes had secured him the crown, he had recourse to poisoning and bloodshed; how he laid an infamous plot against Eumenes, inflicted injuries against the people of Rome, and plundered the cities of the allies of Rome in violation of the existing treaty. [10] He would find out in the ruin of his fortunes how hateful all this conduct was to the gods, for the gods bestowed their favour on natural affection and honourable dealing; it was by these that the Roman people gained their lofty position in the world. [11] He next drew a comparison between the strength of Rome, embracing as she does the world, and the strength of Macedonia, army against army. [12] "How much greater," he exclaimed, "were the forces of Philip and Antiochus, and yet they were shattered by armies no stronger than ours today."
