History of Rome (Complete)

by Livy

The consul Paulus Aemilius was, as I have already said, still in camp at Sirae, in the Odomantic country, when three persons of mean appearance brought him a letter from Perseus. On seeing the missive he is said to have shed tears over the fate that befalls men, for the man who a short time ago was not contented with his kingdom of Macedonia, but made an attack on the Dardanians and the Illyrians, and had called out the auxiliary levies of the Bastarnae - that man had now lost his army, was driven out of his kingdom a homeless wanderer into a small island where, as a suppliant, he was protected by the sanctity of the temple, not by any strength which he possessed. When, however, he read the salutation, “From King Perseus to the consul Paulus.” the man’s utter failure to realise his condition destroyed all feeling of compassion.