The Illyrian Wars

​The rest, as many as I found, have been written down by me not so much in order of time and sequence as by each individual tribe of the Illyrians. The Romans were waging war against the Macedonians, and Perseus was already king of the Macedonians after Philip. Genthius, the king of other Illyrians, allied with Perseus for money, and invaded the Illyrians under Roman rule, and bound the Roman ambassadors who came to him, accusing them of having come not as ambassadors but as spies. Anicius, a Roman general, sailed against them and captured some of Genthius’s light boats, and having encountered him on land, won the battle, and shut him up in a certain place, from where, as Genthius begged him, Anicius ordered him to surrender himself to the Romans; but he asked for three days to deliberate, and obtained them. During these days, as his subjects were going over to Anicius, he requested to meet Anicius, and fell at his knees begging very shamefully. But Anicius, encouraging him as he cowered, raised him up, and having invited him to a feast, ordered his attendants to cast him into prison as he was leaving from the dinner. And Anicius led this man to Rome for a triumph along with his children, and the entire war against Genthius had been fought in twenty days. But Aemilius Paulus, who had captured Perseus, received secret instructions from the Senate and intentionally passed by his seventy cities on his way to Rome, and promised to pardon them for what had happened if they would bring in all the silver and gold they had, as they were afraid. When they accepted this, he sent a portion of his army with them to each city, having appointed the same day for all the commanders of the army, and having ordered them to proclaim at dawn in each city for three hours that they must bring the money to the market-place, and after they had brought it, to plunder the rest.

​Thus Paulus plundered seventy cities in one hour. But the Ardaei and the Palarii, other tribes of the Illyrians, were ravaging the Illyria under Roman rule, and the Romans, because of their preoccupation, sent ambassadors to rebuke them. But when they did not reform, they marched against them with ten thousand infantry and six hundred cavalry. And they, having heard of this, and being still unprepared, sent ambassadors, repenting and begging. And the Senate ordered them to pay damages to those who had been wronged. But as they did not pay, Fulvius Flaccus marched against them. And indeed the war ended only in a raid. For I did not find its exact end. Sempronius, surnamed Tuditanus, and Tiberius Pandusa made war on the Iapodes within the Alps, and the Iapodes seem to have submitted to them, and the Segestani also seem to have submitted to Lucius Cotta and Metellus, but both revolted not long after.

​The Dalmatians, another tribe of the Illyrians, were overrunning the Illyrians under Roman rule, and did not admit the Roman ambassadors who arrived concerning this. Therefore, the Romans marched against them, with Marcius Figulus as their consul and leader in the war. But while Figulus was just pitching camp, they overran and defeated the guards, and drove him out of the camp into a sloping plain, until he came fleeing to the river Naro. But when they retreated and it was the beginning of winter, Figulus, hoping to fall upon them unexpectedly, found them gathered from the cities against his approach. Nevertheless, he drove them together into the city of Delminium, from which indeed their name was turned into Delmateans, and then Dalmatians. But being unable to do anything against a strong city by sudden assault, and not being able to use siege engines because of its height, he captured the other cities by attacking them, which had become rather empty of men because of the gathering into Delminium. Then, having wrapped clubs of two cubits with pitch, sulphur, and hemp, he slung them into Delminium from catapults. And they caught fire from the momentum, and being carried like torches, set fire wherever they happened to strike, until many parts were burned down, and indeed this was the end of the Dalmatian war for Figulus at that time. A long time afterward, Caecilius Metellus, when he was consul, voted to make war on the Dalmatians who had done no wrong, out of a desire for a triumph; and since they received him as a friend, he wintered among them in the city of Salona, and returned to Rome and celebrated a triumph.