Aemilius Paulus
Plutarch
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives, Vol. VI. Perrin, Bernadotte, translator. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann Ltd., 1918.
For he did not pay them the money he had promised, but after craftily getting thirty talents from his friends, which his enemies were to get soon afterwards, he sailed across with them to Samothrace, where he took refuge as a suppliant in the temple of the Dioscuri.
Now, the Macedonians are always said to have been lovers of their kings, but at this time, feeling that their prop was shattered and all had fallen with it, they put themselves into the hands of Aemilius, and in two days made him master of all Macedonia.
And this would seem to bear witness in favour of those who declare that these achievements of his were due to a rare good fortune.
And still further, that which befell him at his sacrifice was a token of divine favour. When, namely, Aemilius was sacrificing in Amphipolis, and the sacred rites were begun, a thunderbolt darted down upon the altar, set it on fire, and consumed the sacrifice with it.
But an altogether more signal instance of divine favour and good fortune is seen in the way the rumour of his victory spread. For it was only the fourth day after Perseus had been defeated at Pydna, and at Rome the people were watching equestrian contests, when suddenly a report sprang up at the entrance of the theatre that Aemilius had conquered Perseus in a great battle and reduced all Macedonia.
After this the rumour spread quickly among the multitude, and joy burst forth, accompanied by shouts and clapping of hands, and prevailed in the city all that day.
Then, since the story could not be traced to any sure source, but seemed to be current everywhere alike, for the time being the rumour vanished into thin air; but when, a few days afterwards, they were clearly informed of the matter, they were astonished at the tidings which had reached them first, seeing that in the fiction there was truth.
It is said also that a report of the battle fought by the Italian Greeks at the river Sagra[*](A battle between the Locrians and Crotoniats, at some time in the sixth century B.C.) reached Peloponnesus on the same day, and so did that of the battle with the Medes at Mycale come on the same day to Plataea.[*](It was when the Greeks at Mycale were about to attack the Persians that a rumour came to them of the victory of the Greeks at Plataea over Mardonius (Herodotus, ix. 100).)
And when the Romans conquered the Tarquins, who had taken the field against them with the Latins, two tall and beautiful men were seen at Rome a little while after, who brought direct tidings from the army. These were conjectured to be the Dioscuri.
The first man who met them in front of the spring in the forum, where they were cooling their horses, which were reeking with sweat, was amazed at their report of the victory.[*](See the Coriolanus, iii. 4. )
Then, we are told, they touched his beard with their hands, quietly smiling the while, and the hair of it was changed at once from black to red, a circumstance which gave credence to their story, and fixed upon the man the surname of Ahenobarbus, that is to say, Bronze-beard.