force, both naval and military; and in the beginning of spring, sending forward by land his two sons, Ardues and Mithridates, at the head of the army, with orders to wait for him at Sardis, he himself set out by sea with a fleet of one hundred decked ships, besides two hundred lighter vessels, barks and fly-boats, designing to attempt the reduction of all the cities under the dominion of Ptolemy along the whole coast of Caria and Cilicia; and, at the same time, to aid Philip with an army and ships, for as yet that war had not been brought to a conclusion.

20.  The Rhodians, out of a faithful attachment to the Roman people, and an affection for the whole race of the Greeks have performed many honourable exploits, both on land and sea:  but never was their gallantry more eminently conspicuous than on this occasion, when, nowise dismayed at the formidable magnitude of the impending war, they sent ambassadors to tell the king, that he should not double the tribute of Cheledoniae, which is a promontory of Cilicia, rendered famous by an ancient treaty between the Athenians and the king of Persia; that if he did not confine his fleet and army to that boundary, they would meet him there and oppose not out of any ill will, but because they would not suffice to join Philip and obstruct the Romans, who were resisting liberty to Greece.  At this time Antiochus was pushing the siege of Coracesium with his works; for, after he had possession of Zephyrium, Solae, Aphrodisias, and Corycus; and doubling Anemurium, another promontory of Cilicia, had taken Selinus; when all these, and the other fortresses on that coast, had, either through fear or inclination, submitted without resistance, Coracesium shut its gates, and gave him a delay which he did not expect.  Here an audience was given to the ambassadors of the Rhodians, and although the purport of their embassy was such as might kindle passion in the breast of a king, yet he stifled his resentment, and answered, that “he would send ambassadors to Rhodes, and would give them instructions to renew the old treaties, made by him and his predecessors, with that state; and to assure them, that they need not be alarmed at his approach; that it would involve no injury or fraud either to them or their allies; for that he was not about to violate the friendship subsisting between himself and the Romans, both his own late embassy to that people, and the senate’s answers and decrees, so honourable to him, were a sufficient evidence.”  Just at that time his ambassadors happened to have returned from Rome, where they had been heard and dismissed with courtesy, as the juncture required; the event of the war with Philip being yet uncertain.  While the king’s ambassadors were haranguing to the above purpose, in an assembly of the people at Rhodes, a courier arrived with an account of the battle at Cynoscephalae having finally decided the fate of the war.  Having received this intelligence, the Rhodians, now freed from all apprehensions of