there checked the farther advance of the Romans.  So the Roman army remained, during the rest of the summer and the winter, hemmed in in the farthest corner of Thessaly; and, while the crossing of the passes was certainly a success and the first substantial one in the war, it was due not to the ability of the Roman, but to the blundering of the Macedonian, general.  The Roman fleet in vain attempted the capture of Demetrias, and performed no exploit whatever.  The light ships of Perseus boldly cruised between the Cyclades, protected the corn-vessels destined for Macedonia, and attacked the transports of the enemy.  With the western army matters were still worse:  Appius Claudius could do nothing with his weakened division, and the contingent which he asked from Achaia was prevented from coming to him by the jealousy of the consul.  Moreover, Genthius had allowed himself to be bribed by Perseus with the promise of a great sum of money to break with Rome, and to imprison the Roman envoys; whereupon the frugal king deemed it superfluous to pay the money which he had promised, since Genthius was now forsooth compelled, independently of it, to substitute an attitude of decided hostility to Rome for the ambiguous position which he had hitherto maintained.  Accordingly the Romans had a further petty war by the side of the great one, which had already lasted three years.  In fact had Perseus been able to part with his money, he might easily have aroused enemies still more dangerous to the Romans.  A Celtic host under Clondicus—­10,000 horsemen and as many infantry—­offered to take service with him in Macedonia itself; but they could not agree as to the pay.  In Hellas too there was such a ferment that a guerilla warfare might easily have been kindled with a little dexterity and a full exchequer; but, as Perseus had no desire to give and the Greeks did nothing gratuitously, the land remained quiet.

Paullus

At length the Romans resolved to send the right man to Greece.  This was Lucius Aemilius Paullus, son of the consul of the same name that fell at Cannae; a man of the old nobility but of humble means, and therefore not so successful in the comitia as on the battle-field, where he had remarkably distinguished himself in Spain and still more so in Liguria.  The people elected him for the second time consul in the year 586 on account of his merits—­a course which was at that time rare and exceptional.  He was in all respects the right man:  an excellent general of the old school, strict as respected both himself and his troops, and, notwithstanding his sixty years, still hale and vigorous; an incorruptible magistrate—­“one of the few Romans of that age, to whom one could not offer money,” as a contemporary says of him—­and a man of Hellenic culture, who, even when commander-in-chief, embraced the opportunity of travelling through Greece to inspect its works of art.

Perseus Is Driven Back to Pydna
Battle of Pydna
Perseus Taken Prisoner