decision in his presence; and thereupon the Boeotian confederacy fell at once to pieces.  It is not true that the great structure of Epaminondas was destroyed by the Romans; it actually collapsed before they touched it, and thus indeed became the prelude to the dissolution of the other still more firmly consolidated leagues of Greek cities.(3) With the forces of the Boeotian towns friendly to Rome the Roman envoy Publius Lentulus laid siege to Haliartus, even before the Roman fleet appeared in the Aegean.

Preparations for War

Chalcis was occupied with Achaean, and the province of Orestis with Epirot, forces:  the fortresses of the Dassaretae and Illyrians on the west frontier of Macedonia were occupied by the troops of Gnaeus Sicinius; and as soon as the navigation was resumed, Larisa received a garrison of 2000 men.  Perseus during all this remained inactive and had not a foot’s breadth of land beyond his own territory, when in the spring, or according to the official calendar in June, of 583, the Roman legions landed on the west coast.  It is doubtful whether Perseus would have found allies of any mark, even had he shown as much energy as he displayed remissness; but, as circumstances stood, he remained of course completely isolated, and those prolonged attempts at proselytism led, for the time at least, to no result.  Carthage, Genthius of Illyria, Rhodes and the free cities of Asia Minor, and even Byzantium hitherto so very friendly with Perseus, offered to the Romans vessels of war; which these, however, declined.  Eumenes put his land army and his ships on a war footing.  Ariarathes king of Cappadocia sent hostages, unsolicited, to Rome.  The brother-in-law of Perseus, Prusias ii. king of Bithynia, remained neutral.  No one stirred in all Greece.  Antiochus iv. king of Syria, designated in court style “the god, the brilliant bringer of victory,” to distinguish him from his father the “Great,” bestirred himself, but only to wrest the Syrian coast during this war from the entirely impotent Egypt.

Beginning of the War

But, though Perseus stood almost alone, he was no contemptible antagonist.  His army numbered 43,000 men; of these 21,000 were phalangites, and 4000 Macedonian and Thracian cavalry; the rest were chiefly mercenaries.  The whole force of the Romans in Greece amounted to between 30,000 and 40,000 Italian troops, besides more than 10,000 men belonging to Numidian, Ligurian, Greek, Cretan, and especially Pergamene contingents.  To these was added the fleet, which numbered only 40 decked vessels, as there was no fleet of the enemy to oppose it—­Perseus, who had been prohibited from building ships of war by the treaty with Rome, was only now erecting docks at Thessalonica—­but it had on board 10,000 troops, as it was destined chiefly to co-operate in sieges.  The fleet was commanded by Gaius Lucretius, the land army by the consul Publius Licinius Crassus.