stayed with him except Evander a Cretan, Archedamus an Aetolian, and Neon a Boeotian.  Of the common soldiers the Cretans followed him, not from any love they bore him, but being as eager for his riches as bees are for honey.  For he carried great store of wealth with him, and out of it distributed among the Cretans cups and bowls and other gold and silver plate to the amount of fifty talents.  But when he reached first Amphipolis, and then Galepsus, and had got a little the better of his fears, his old malady of meanness attacked him, and he would complain to his friends that he had flung some of the drinking cups of Alexander the Great to the Cretans by mistake, and entreated with tears those who had them to give back and take the value in money.  Those who understood his character were not taken in by this attempt to play the Cretan with men of Crete, but some believed him and lost their cups for nothing.  For he never paid the money, but having swindled his friends out of thirty talents, which soon fell into the hands of the enemy, he sailed with the money to Samothrace, and took sanctuary in the temple of the Dioskuri as a suppliant.

XXIV.  The people of Macedon have always been thought to love their kings, but now, as if some main prop had broken, and the whole edifice of government fallen to the ground, they gave themselves up to Aemilius, and in two days constituted him master of the entire kingdom.  This seems to confirm the opinion of those who say that these successes were owing to especial good fortune:  and the incident of the sacrifice also was clearly sent from Heaven.  For when Aemilius was offering sacrifice at Amphipolis, when the sacred rites had been performed, lightning came down upon the altar, and burned up the offering.  But in its miraculous character and good luck the swiftness with which the news spread surpasses all these; for on the fourth day after Perseus had been vanquished at Pydna, while the people at Rome were assembled at a horse race, suddenly there arose amongst them a rumour that Aemilius had defeated Perseus in a great battle and had subdued all Macedonia.  This report soon spread among the populace, who expressed their joy by applause and shouts throughout the city all that day.  Afterwards, as the report could be traced to no trustworthy source, but was merely repeated among them vaguely, it was disbelieved and came to nothing; but in a few days they learned the real story, and wondered at the rumour which had preceded it, combining truth with falsehood.

XXV.  There is a legend that the news of the battle on the river Sagra in Italy against the natives was carried the same day into Peloponnesus, and that of the battle of Mykale against the Medes was so carried to Plataea.  The victory of the Romans over the Latins under the exiled Tarquins was reported at Rome a little after it took place, by two men, tall and fair, who came from the army.  These men they conjectured to have been the Dioskuri (Castor and Pollux).