§37.28.1Teii, cum in oculis populatio esset, oratores cum infulis et velamentis ad Romanum miserunt.
The Teians, as the plundering was taking place before their eyes, sent envoys with sacred wool-bandages and olive-branches to the Roman commander.
§37.28.2quibus purgantibus civitatem omnis facti dictique hostilis adversus Romanos, et iuvisse eos commeatu classem hostium arguit, et quantum vini Polyxenidae promisissent; quae si eadem Romanae classi darent, revocaturum se a populatione militem; §37.28.3si minus, pro hostibus eos habiturum.
As they cleared their state of any hostile deed or word against the Romans, the praetor charged both that they had assisted the enemy's fleet with provisions, and how much wine they had promised to Polyxenidas; if they would give the same things to the Roman fleet, he said he would recall his soldiers from the plundering; if not, he would treat them as enemies.
hoc tam triste responsum cum rettulissent legati, vocatur in contionem a magistratibus populus, ut, quid agerent, consultarent.
When the envoys had brought back this so grim response, the people were summoned to an assembly by the magistrates to consult on what they should do.
§37.28.4eo forte die Polyxenidas cum regia classe a Colophone profectus postquam movisse a Samo Romanos audivit et ad Myonnesum piratas persecutos Teiorum agrum depopulari, naves in Geraestico portu stare, ipse adversus Myonnesum in insula — §37.28.5Macrin nautici vocant — ancoras portu occulto iecit.
On that day, by chance, Polyxenidas, having set out from Colophon with the royal fleet, after he heard that the Romans had moved from Samos and, having pursued the pirates to Myonnesum, were plundering the territory of the Teians, and that their ships were stationed in the harbor of Geraesticum, himself, opposite Myonnesum, at an island— which the sailors call Macris—dropped anchor in a hidden harbor.
§37.28.6inde ex propinquo explorans, quid hostes agerent, primo in magna spe fuit, quem ad modum Rhodiam classem ad Samum circumsessis ad exitum faucibus portus expugnasset, sic et Romanam expugnaturum.
Reconnoitering from close quarters what the enemy was doing, he was at first in great hope that, just as he had defeated the Rhodian fleet at Samos by blocking the entrance at the exit of the harbor, so he would also defeat the Roman fleet.
nec est dissimilis natura loci: §37.28.7promunturiis coeuntibus inter se ita clauditur portus, ut vix duae simul inde naves possint exire.
Nor was the nature of the place dissimilar: the harbor is so enclosed by promontories meeting each other that scarcely two ships can go out from there at the same time.
§37.28.8nocte occupare fauces Polyxenidas in animo habebat, et denis navibus ad promunturia stantibus, quae ab utroque cornu in latera exeuntium navium pugnarent, ex cetera classe, sicut ad Panhormum fecerat, armatis in littora expositis terra marique simul hostis opprimere.
Polyxenidas had in mind to seize the entrance by night, and, with ten ships stationed at each of the promontories to fight from both flanks against the sides of the ships coming out, and with armed men from the rest of the fleet landed on the shores as he had done at Panhormum, to overwhelm the enemy by land and sea at the same time.
§37.28.9quod non vanum ei consilium fuisset, ni, cum Teii facturos se imperata promisissent, ad accipiendos commeatus aptius visum esset Romanis in eum portum, qui ante urbem est, classem transire.
This plan would not have been in vain for him, had it not, when the Teians promised that they would do what was commanded, seemed more suitable to the Romans, for the purpose of receiving the provisions, to move their fleet into that harbor which is in front of the city.
§37.28.10dicitur et Eudamus Rhodius vitium alterius portus ostendisse, cum forte duae naves in arto ostio implicitos remos fregissent; §37.28.11et inter alia id quoque movit praetorem, ut traduceret classem, quod ab terra periculum erat, haud procul inde Antiocho stativa habente.
It is said also that Eudamus the Rhodian pointed out the defect of the other harbor, when by chance two ships had broken their entangled oars in the narrow entrance; and among other things, this also moved the praetor to transfer the fleet: that there was danger from the land, since Antiochus had his permanent camp not far from there.