The first man who fell in with them as they stood in the forum, near the fountain, found them washing their horses, which were covered with sweat.  He marvelled much at their tale of the victory; and then they are said to have smiled serenely and stroked his beard, which instantly changed from black to yellow, thus causing his story to be believed, besides winning for him the soubriquet of Ahenobarbus, which means ‘brazen beard.’  But that which happened in our own time will make all these credible.  When Antonius rebelled against Domitian, and a great war in Germany was expected, Rome was greatly disturbed till suddenly there arose among the people a rumour of victory, and a story ran through Rome that Antonius himself was killed, and that the army under him had been utterly exterminated.  And this report was so clear and forcible, that many of the magistrates offered sacrifice for the victory.  When the originator of it was sought for, as he could not be found, but the story when traced from one man to another was lost in the vast crowd as if in the sea, and appeared to have no solid foundation, all belief in it died away:  but when Domitian set out with his forces to the war, he was met on the way by messengers with despatches describing the victory.  The day of this success was the same as that stated by the rumours, though the places were more than two thousand five hundred (English) miles distant.  All men of our own time know this to be true.

XXVI.  Cnaeus Octavius, the admiral under Aemilius’s orders, now cruised round Samothrace.  He did not, from religious motives, violate Perseus’s right of sanctuary, but prevented his leaving the island and escaping.  But nevertheless Perseus somehow outwitted him so far as to bribe one Oroandes, a Cretan, who possessed a small vessel, to take him on board.  But this man like a true Cretan took the money away by night, and bidding him come the next night with his family and attendants to the harbour near the temple of Demeter, as soon as evening fell, set sail.  Now Perseus suffered pitiably in forcing himself, and his wife and children, who were unused to hardships, through a narrow window in the wall, and set up a most pititul wailing when some one who met him wandering on the beach showed him the ship of Oroandes under sail far away at sea.  Day was now breaking, and having lost his last hope, he made a hasty retreat to the town wall, and got into it with his wife, before the Romans, though they saw him, could prevent him.  But his children he had entrusted to a man named Ion, who once had been a favourite of his, but now betrayed him, and delivered them up to the Romans, thus providing the chief means to compel him, like a wild animal, to come and surrender himself into the hands of those who had his children.  He felt most confidence in Nasica, and inquired for him, but as he was not present, after lamenting his fate, and reflecting on the impossibility of acting otherwise, he surrendered himself to Cnaeus.