MACEDO N. 
Sfl 
lip, having been required to withdraw his garrifons from 
the towns of Oenus and Maronea, contrived by way of 
revenge to introduce the Thracians into the latter town, 
by whom it was cruelly pillaged. The Roman fenate, in¬ 
formed of this outrage, ordered him to juftify his con¬ 
duct before them; and he fent Demetrius to Rome for 
that purpofe. Demetrius’s vifit to Rome became the fub- 
je£t of an accufation againll him to his father; and of a 
violent quarrel between the two princes, in which each 
accufed the other of a defign againll his life. If the nar¬ 
ration of Livy, and the fubftance of the fpeech put into 
the mouth of Philip on the occafion, are to be confidered 
as authentic, nothing could be more prudent than the 
conduct, or wifer.than the admonitions, of the unhappy 
father. Being, however, impofed upon by falfe informa¬ 
tion^ he was induced firft to coniine, and afterwards to 
put to death, his younger fon. The difcovery of the 
fraud which had been pradlifed upon him, and of the in¬ 
nocence of Demetrius, threw him into a Hate of grief and 
remorfe which almoft deprived him of his reafon ; and he 
died miferably, B. C. 178, about the age of fifty-eight, 
in the forty-third year of his reign, after having taken 
jneafures to exclude his fon Perfes from the fuccefiion, 
by appointing Antigonushis lieir, which however proved 
ineffectual. 
Perfes, or Perfeus, generally confidered as the lad king 
of Macedon, lucceeded' his father; and his firft act was to 
caufe his competitor Antigonus to be put to death. He, 
however, attempted to extinguilh the odium of this exe¬ 
cution by a mild and prudent government. He ingra¬ 
tiated himfelf with his own fubjedts by adminiftering juf- 
tice in perfon with impartiality, and gained the good-will 
of his Grecian neighbours by relinquilhing the invidious 
claims of his houl’e upon their cities. To the Romans, 
he fent an embaffy of friendfl)ip, which they returned by 
the million of ambaffadors who took upon themfelves to 
controul him as a dependent, rather than to treat him as 
a fovereign prince. Mifunderllandings, therefore, loon 
arofe between them ; and, in the profpedt of a war, Perfes 
feduloully cultivated the friendfliip of the Greek ftates 
and the neighbouring princes. He married his filler to 
Prufias king ofBithynia; and himfelf efpoufed Laodicea, 
daughter of Seleucus, the fon of Antiocus the Great. He 
alfo made ample provifion of money and military llores, 
and kept on foot a numerous and well-difciplined army. 
With tbefe laudable meafures of policy he did not fcru- 
ple to join bafe and treacherous attempts againll his ene¬ 
mies. Eumenes king of Pergamus, his hereditary enemy, 
and who had made complaints againll him before the Ro¬ 
man fenate, having paid a vifit to the temple of Delphi, 
was attacked by affaflins on his return, and left for dead. 
This villany was traced to Perfes, who was foon after¬ 
wards accufed of a plot for poifoning the principal per- 
fons in Rome who oppofed the Macedonian intered- To 
the Roman ambaffadors who charged him with fhefe 
crimes he gave fuch an anfwer that they left his kingdom, 
and every thing tended to immediate hoftilities. Perfes 
ftill negociated for peace, but was haughtily anfwered, that 
he might treat with the conful who would fliortly arrive 
in his kingdom with an army. When the war was de¬ 
clared, he put himfelf at the head of a finer army than 
had been feen in Macedon fince the expedition of Alex¬ 
ander the Great, and marched into Theffaly. Even yet 
the Macedonians were terrible in war ; and their phalanx, 
when properly conducted, feems to have been abfolutely 
invincible by any method of making war known at that 
time. It confifted of 16,000 men, of whom 1000 marched 
abreaft, and thus was lixteen men deep, each of whom 
carried a kind of pike twenty-three feet long. The lol- 
diers Hood fo clofe, that the pikes of the fifth rank reached 
their points beyond the front of the battle. The hinder- 
snoft ranks leaned their pikes on the Ihoulders of thole 
who went before them, and, locking them fall, prefled 
brilkly againll them when they made the charge; io that 
the firll five ranks had the impetus of the whole phalanx, 
which was the reafon why the fliock was generally jrre- 
fiftible. The Romans had never encountered fuch a ter¬ 
rible enemy ; and in the firft battle, which happened 171 
B. C. they were defeated with the lofs of 2200 men, while 
the Macedonians loll no more than 60. The generals of 
Perfes now prefled him to llorm the enemy’s camp; but 
he refufed to comply, and thus the bell opportunity he 
ever had was loll. Still, however, the Romans gained 
little or no advantage, till the year 168 B. C. when Paulus 
Asmilius, a rnoft experienced commander, was fent to Ma¬ 
cedon. Perfes now put all upon the iffue of a general 
engagement, which was fought at Pydna; and Asmilius, 
with all his courage and military experience, would have 
been defeated, had the Macedonians been commanded by 
a general of courage or conduct. The light-armed Ma¬ 
cedonians charged with fuch vigour, that, after the battle, 
fome of their bodies were found within two furlongs of 
the Roman camp. When the phalanx came to charge, 
the points of their fpears, Unking into the Roman Ihields, 
kept the heavy-armed troops from making any motion ; 
while, on the other hand, Perfes’s light-armed men did 
terrible execution. On this occafion, it is faid, that Asmi- 
lius tore his clothes, and gave up all hopes. However, 
perceiving that as the phalanx gained ground it loft its 
order in feveral places, he caufed his own light-armed 
troops to charge in thofe places, whereby the Macedo¬ 
nians were at length put into confufion. If Perfes with 
his horfe had on the firft appearance of this charged the 
Romans briikly, his infantry would have been able to re¬ 
cover themfelves; but, inftead of this, he betook himfelf 
to flight; and the infantry at lad did the fame, but not 
till twenty thoufand of them bad loft their lives. It is 
affirmed by Polybius and Livy, that during the battle Per¬ 
fes was employed in facrificing to Hercules in the city of 
Pydna; but one Pofidonius, a Greek writer, who flays he 
was prefent, affirms that Perfes, notwithftanding he had 
been difabled the day before by a kick from a horfe, in¬ 
filled upon being conveyed into the-field, where he en¬ 
couraged his men during the combat, till a wound from 
a dart compelled him to withdraw. He fled, flenderly ac¬ 
companied, to Pella; where, being remonftrated with for 
his mifcondufl by two of his chamberlains, he ftabbed 
them both with his own hand. Thence he retreated to 
Amphipolis, where having mounted the tribunal to ad- 
drefs the people, his tears flowed lb fait as to prevent his 
utterance, p'inding the Amphipolitans bent upon mak¬ 
ing terms with the conqueror, he embarked with his trea- 
fures, and failed to the ifle of Samothrace, and took re¬ 
fuge in the temple of Caftor and Pollux, which was re¬ 
garded as an inviolable fanfluary. Doubting his abode 
there, he hired a mariner of Crete to carry him with his 
family and treafures to that ifland ; but the man, having 
got the money on-board, fet fail, and left Perfes, after 
wandering all night, to regain the temple. At length, he 
furrendered himlelf to Oflavius the Roman admiral, who 
conveyed him to the camp of Asmilius. The conful re¬ 
proached him feverely for his errors and imprudences, 
but afterwards treated him with much kindnefs. He was, 
however, referved, according to the unfeeling Roman cuf- 
tom, to decorate the triumph of the vidlor; and, being 
brought to Rome for that purpofe, was previoufly con¬ 
fined in the common prifon. When he underllood that a 
triumph had been decreed to Asmilius, he fent to him to 
implore that he might not be made a public fpeflacle; 
but received no other anfwer than that “ it was in his 
own power to prevent it;” meaning, by a voluntary death. 
But his mind was not of fo high a tone as that of Cleo¬ 
patra in a firailar fituation ; and he endured to walk in 
the proceffion, clad in deep mourning, and followed by 
his two fons, his infant daughter, their attendants, and 
the principal Macedonian nobles. After this exhibition, 
he was inhumanly again (hut in a loathfome dungeon, 
with the meaneft criminals, and reduced to 1'uch wretch¬ 
ed nefs as to be obliged to beg a (hare of their pittance 
from his fellow-prisoners. In their companion, they alfo 
procured 
