Amid these alliances, Abrupolis, the king of the Thracian tribe of the Sapaei and an ally of the Romans attacked Macedon, laid it waste as far as Amphipolis, and overran the gold mines of Mount Pangaeus.
He gained the support of Greeks who were treated generously, saw Perseus as their kindred, were keen on revolutionary change, or did not want to be at Rome's mercy.
He praised the Achaeans for retaining an old decree forbidding the Macedonian kings to approach their territories, and emphasized that Rome considered Perseus an enemy.
[4] Eumenes II of Pergamon, who had been in conflict with Macedon and who disliked Perseus, made a speech in the Roman senate with the aim of precipitating hostilities.
Perseus was declared a public enemy, the Senate elected to wage war and dispatched an army to Apollonia on the western coast of Greece to occupy the coastal cities.
Meanwhile, Publius Licinius had marched from Epirus on the west coast of Greece through arduous mountain passes and through Athamania, a kingdom allied with Perseus.
On seeing it advancing, Cretan commander Euander advised Perseus that continuing the battle was an unnecessary risk, and the king decided to withdraw.
Livy noted that according to some sources the consul returned to his camp, while according to others a big battle ensued in which 8,000 enemies were killed, including two commanders, and 2,800 were captured, while Romans lost 4,300 men.
Publius Licinius heard that Perseus had gone, and launched a failed attack on Gonnus in order to deny the Macedonians a convenient descent into Thessaly.
Perseus, in a surprise attack on the Roman fleet stationed at Oreum on the island of Euboea, captured five warships and twenty transports laden with corn, and sunk the other ships.
Livy wrote that Gaius Hortensius did not conduct his naval operations “with sufficient skill or success, for none of his acts deserves better to be remembered than his cruel and perfidious plundering of the city of the Abderites when they endeavoured to avert, by entreaty, the intolerable burdens imposed on them".
He sent a detachment to the area to receive the hostages from the cities which had remained loyal (they were sent to Apollonia) and from the Parthini (a tribe of southern Illyria), who were sent to Dyrrhachium (modern Durrës, Albania).
The only option was the area between the bottom of Mount Olympus and the sea, but that was only one mile wide, half of which was the bog of the mouth of the River Baphirus and a large part of the remaining plain was taken up by the town.
With his withdrawal Perseus marched back to Dium, rebuilt the fortifications the Romans had pulled down, and encamped on the bank of the Enipeus to use it as a defence.
Livy cited one source claiming it was ignored while others wrote that the senate replied that the Rhodians and Perseus had conspired against Rome and that the words of the ambassadors confirmed this.
This strengthened the leaders of the pro-Macedonian faction who declared that Rhodes had sufficient authority to put an end to the war and that the kings had to accede to peace.
Livy commented that “having manoeuvred with each other to no purpose, they gained nothing but disgrace”, and that, but for a small amount of money, Perseus missed a chance for successful peace talks or, had they failed, the ignition of hostilities between Rome and Eumenes.
Perseus gave his officers the excuse that the Gauls were savages and that he would hire only 5,000 cavalry, which were enough for war and not too many to be dangerous, in order to justify not wanting to spend money on the whole of the Gallic body.
[54] Gentius assembled his entire force of 15,000 at Lissus and sent his brother Caravantius with 1,000 infantry and 50 cavalry[55] to subdue the Cavii while he besieged Bassania, five miles away, which was an ally of Rome.
[62] After the defeat at the Pythian mountains, Perseus withdrew to Pydna, pitching camp in the plain between the rivers Aeson and Leucus, shallow in the summer, but still deep enough to trouble the Romans.
Aemilius ordered his cohorts to attack any gaps, however narrow, and slip through like a wedge to break up the ranks of the phalanx and divide the battle into separate confrontations.
[78] Plutarch recorded that Polybius wrote that Perseus cravenly left the battle immediately and went to the city under the pretext of offering sacrifices to Heracles.
Meanwhile, Gnaeus Octavius, the commander of the Roman fleet, anchored it off Samothrace and, out of respect to the gods and the sanctuary on the island, did not go for Perseus, but took measures to prevent him from escaping by sea and pressured him to surrender.
He accused Euander, the leader of the Cretan mercenaries, of having attempted to murder king Eumenes II of Pergamon at the sanctuary of Delphi, and called for him to be put on trial.
The motion to award Aemilius a triumph was disputed by an officer who had a personal gripe with him and sought support from the soldiers who felt they had been given less of the share of the booty than they should.
The pretext was that without them “the law lost its authority or the subjects their liberty” and that the Macedonians were unable to work the mines themselves because those in charge would line their pockets and this could cause unrest.
The Macedonian national council was abolished with the excuse that this was intended to prevent a demagogue from flattering the “mob” and turn the freedom granted by the Romans into a “dangerous and fatal licence.” Macedon was to be divided into four republics,[which?]
[93] When the commission arrived from Rome, Aemilius gave notice for the representatives of all the cities to assemble at Amphipolis and bring all the documents they had and all the money due to the Royal treasury.
When Epirus was pacified and detachments wintered in various cities, Lucius Anicius returned to Scodra, the capital of Illyria, where five commissioners had arrived from Rome.
A few days later Lucius Anicius, who had been meeting the representatives of the rest of the Epirots, told them that the senate wanted to hear from some of their leaders and ordered them to follow him to Italy.