§42.15.1legationibus dimissis cum Harpalus, quanta maxima celeritate poterat, regressus in Macedoniam nuntiasset regi, nondum quidem parantis bellum reliquisse se Romanos, §42.15.2sed ita infestos, ut facile appareret, non dilaturos, et ipse, praeterquam quod et ita credebat futurum, iam etiam volebat, in flore virium se credens esse. §42.15.3Eumeni ante omnis infestus erat; a cuius sanguine ordiens bellum, Euandrum Cretensem, ducem auxiliorum, et Macedonas tres adsuetos ministeriis talium facinorum ad caedem regis subornat litterasque eis dat ad Praxo hospitam, principem auctoritate et opibus Delphorum. §42.15.4satis constabat, Eumenem, ut sacrificaret Apollini, Delphos escensurum.
When the embassies were dismissed, and Harpalus, having returned to Macedonia with the greatest speed he could, had reported to the king that he had left the Romans not yet indeed preparing for war, but so hostile that it was easily apparent they would not delay, the king himself, besides the fact that he believed it would be so, now even wished for it, believing himself to be in the flower of his strength. He was hostile to Eumenes above all others; beginning the war with his blood, he suborned Evander the Cretan, a commander of auxiliaries, and three Macedonians accustomed to the service of such crimes, for the murder of the king, and gave them letters to Praxo, his hostess, a woman of chief authority and wealth in Delphi. It was sufficiently clear that Eumenes would ascend to Delphi to sacrifice to Apollo.
praegressi cum Euandro insidiatores nihil aliud ad peragendum inceptum quam loci opportunitatem, omnia circumeuntes, quaerebant. §42.15.5escendentibus ad templum a Cirrha, priusquam perveniretur ad frequentia aedificiis loca, maceria erat ab laeva ad semitam paulum extantem a fundamento, qua singuli transirent; dextra pars labe terrae in aliquantum altitudinis derupta erat. §42.15.6post maceriam se abdiderunt gradibus adstructis, ut ex ea velut e muro tela in praetereuntem conicerent. §42.15.7primo a mari circumfusa turba amicorum ac satellitum procedebat, deinde extenuabant paulatim angustiae agmen. §42.15.8ubi ad eum locum ventum est, qua singulis eundum erat, primus semitam ingressus Pantaleon, Aetoliae princeps, cum quo institutus regi sermo erat. §42.15.9tum insidiatores exorti saxa duo ingentia devolvunt, quorum altero caput ictum est regi, altero umerus; §42.15.10sopitusque ex semita procidit in declive, multis super prolapsum iam saxis congestis.
The conspirators, having gone on ahead with Evander, going around everywhere, were seeking nothing other than a favorable opportunity of place to accomplish their undertaking. As they were ascending to the temple from Cirrha, before reaching the places crowded with buildings, there was a stone wall on the left of a path rising slightly from its foundation, along which they had to pass one by one; the right side had fallen away to a considerable depth due to a landslide. Behind this wall they hid themselves, having constructed steps so that they might cast weapons from it, as if from a rampart, upon anyone passing by. At first, starting from the sea, a crowd of friends and bodyguards advanced surrounding him, then the narrowness of the way gradually thinned the column. When they came to that place where they had to go one by one, Pantaleon, the chief of Aetolia, with whom the king had entered into conversation, entered the path first. Then the conspirators, starting up, rolled down two huge stones, with one of which the king's head was struck, and with the other his shoulder; and stunned, he fell from the path down the slope, many stones being already heaped upon him after his fall.
et ceteri quidem, etiam amicorum et satellitum turba, postquam cadentem videre, diffugiunt; Pantalcon contra inpavidus mansit ad protegendum regem.
Indeed, the others, even the crowd of friends and bodyguards, fled in all directions after they saw him falling; Pantalcon, on the contrary, remained undaunted to protect the king.