A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

4. A.AtiliusSerranus, probably the second son of No. 2, was praetor B. C. 192, and obtained, as his province, Macedonia and the command of the fleet, under the pretext of carrying on hostilities against the Lacedaemonian tyrant Nabis, but in reality that he might be ready to act in the threatening war against Antiochus the Great, king of Syria. In the following year he retained the command of the fleet till the arrival of his successor, C. Livius Salinator; and as the war had been already declared against Antiochus, he captured in the Aegean a large fleet of transports carrying provisions to the king, and brought the ships into the Peiraeeus. He was praetor a second time in B. C. 173, and obtained the jurisdictio urbana. He was ordered in the same year to renew with Antiochus Epiphanes the treaty which had been concluded with his father. In B. C. 171 he was sent, with Q. Marcius Philippus and others, as ambassador into Greece, to counteract the designs and influence of Perseus. An account of this embassy, and of the way in which he and Philippus deceived the Macedonian monarch, is given in the life of Philippus [Vol. III. p. 286a.]. In the following year, B. C. 170, he was consul with A. Hostilius Mancinus, and obtained Italy as his province, while his colleague had the conduct of the war against Perseus. (Liv. 35.10, 20, 22, 36.20; Appian, Syr. 22 ; Liv. 41.28, 42.1, 6, 37, 38, 44, 47; Plb. 27.2; Liv. 43.9.)