Polybius, Histories
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Book 30 - Chapter 16

1
<head lang="la">III. Res Aegypti</head><w lemma="%2A%28%2Foti">Ὅτι</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="%2Aai%29%2Fgupton">Αἴγυπτον</w> <w lemma="oi%28">οἱ</w> <w lemma="basilei%3Ds">βασιλεῖς</w> <w lemma="a%29polelume%2Fnoi">ἀπολελυμένοι</w> <w lemma="tou%3D">τοῦ</w> <w lemma="pro%5Cs">πρὸς</w> <w lemma="%2A%29anti%2Foxon">Ἀντίοχον</w> <w lemma="pole%2Fmou">πολέμου</w> <w lemma="prw%3Dton">πρῶτον</w> <w lemma="me%5Cn">μὲν</w> <w lemma="ei%29s">εἰς</w> <w lemma="%2A%28rw%2Fmhn">Ῥώμην</w> <w lemma="presbeuth%5Cn">πρεσβευτὴν</w> <w lemma="e%29ce%2Fpemyan">ἐξέπεμψαν</w> <w lemma="%2Anoumh%2Fnion">Νουμήνιον</w>, <w lemma="e%28%2Fna">ἕνα</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="fi%2Flwn">φίλων</w>, <w lemma="eu%29xaristh%2Fsonta">εὐχαριστήσοντα</w> <w lemma="peri%5C">περὶ</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="ei%29s">εἰς</w> <w lemma="au%29tou%5Cs">αὐτοὺς</w> <w lemma="gegono%2Ftwn">γεγονότων</w> <w lemma="eu%29ergethma%2Ftwn:">εὐεργετημάτων·</w>
2
<w lemma="a%29pe%2Flusan">ἀπέλυσαν</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="to%5Cn">τὸν</w> <w lemma="%2Alakedaimo%2Fnion">Λακεδαιμόνιον</w> <w lemma="%2Amenalki%2Fdan">Μεναλκίδαν</w>, <w lemma="e%29nergw%3Ds">ἐνεργῶς</w> <w lemma="kexrhme%2Fnon">κεχρημένον</w> <w lemma="toi%3Ds">τοῖς</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="th%3Ds">τῆς</w> <w lemma="basilei%2Fas">βασιλείας</w> <w lemma="kairoi%3Ds">καιροῖς</w> <w lemma="pro%5Cs">πρὸς</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="i%29di%2Fan">ἰδίαν</w> <w lemma="e%29pano%2Frqwsin">ἐπανόρθωσιν</w>, <w lemma="%2Agai+%2Fou">Γαΐου</w> <w lemma="%2Apopili%2Fou">Ποπιλίου</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="u%28pe%5Cr">ὑπὲρ</w> <w lemma="th%3Ds">τῆς</w> <w lemma="a%29polu%2Fsews">ἀπολύσεως</w> <w lemma="xa%2Frin">χάριν</w> <w lemma="ai%29thsame%2Fnou">αἰτησαμένου</w> <w lemma="para%5C">παρὰ</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="basile%2Fwn">βασιλέων</w>.
<head>III. Affairs of Egypt</head>In <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a> the kings, when relieved from the war with Antiochus, in the first place
dispatched Numenius, one of the royal friends, on an embassy to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> of return thanks for the benefits conferred on them. They also set free Menalcidas of Lacedaemon who had energetically availed himself of the distressed condition of the kingdom to obtain his restoration. It was Gaius Popilius who asked them to do this as a personal favour to himself.

Walbank Commentary

Overview
30.16.1 - 30.16.2
<p rend="Plain Text">Actions taken by the Ptolemies</p> <p rend="Plain Text">This excerpt from de legat. gent. forms part of res Aegypti of Ol. 153, 1 = 168/7 (see p. 32). Since it records measures directly following upon Antiochus IV's expulsion (cf. xxix. 27. 1–13), and in the case of Menalcidas (§2) in response to C. Popillius' request, they must belong to autumn 168 (rather than 167); cf. § 1 n.</p>
Specifics
30.16.1 - 30.16.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">πρεσβευτὴν . . . Νουμήνιον</w>:</emph> probably identical with <w lang="el-GR">Νουμήνιον Ἠρακλειοδώρου Ἀλεξανδρείανς</w> mentioned along with Ptolemy, son of Ptolemy (and brother of Ptolemy the governor of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Cyprus&groupId=119&placeId=356">Cyprus</a>), and Pedestratus, son of Agetor, a Lacedaemonian, as a proxenos of Gortyn in GDI, iv. 4. p. 1036 = IC, iv. 208 A ll. 4–5. He is also known as eponymous officer and eponymous priest; and several papyri show him as archisomatophylax and strategos of the Thebaid in 170; see Peremans–van 't Dack, 1966, 5213 (165/4), 14617. He was summoned to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alexandria&groupId=1063&placeId=1868">Alexandria</a>, probably in preparation for the war, late in 170. The sending of him to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> on this embassy is also mentioned in a demotic text on an ostracon from North Saqqra (J. D. Ray, The Archive of Hor (London, 1976), 20–29, Text 3, ll. 21–22 verso), which gives the earliest known reference to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> in an Egyptian text. This document dates the sending of Numenius after 29 August 168 (ll. 20–22). For further bibliography on Numenius see Mooren, 70, no. 024; cf. A. Soc. 1973, 121–3; J. David Thomas, The Epistrategos in Ptolemaic and Roman <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a>, Part I (Cologne, 1975), 35–36, 89 n. 21. Numenius' arrival in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> is described from an annalistic source under A.U.C. 586 = 168 in Livy, xlv. 13. 4–5, 7–8, as sent 'communi nomine regis et Cleopatrae'; cf. Niese, iii. 176 n. 5. For the Friends in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a> see xv. 25. 21 n. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">εὐχαριστήσοντα περὶ τῶν . . . εὐεργετημάτων</w>:</emph> cf. Livy, xlv. 13. 4–5, 'plus eos senatui populoque Romano quam parentibus suis, plus quam diis immortalibus debere, per quos obsidione miserrima liberati essent, regnum patrium prope amissum 〈recepissent〉'. The Senate replied that they should always regard their defence as resting on the fides of the Roman people (Livy, xlv. 13. 7–8). <milestone unit="page" n="439">[439]</milestone> </p>
30.16.2 - 30.16.2
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἀπέλυσαν . . . Μεναλκίδαν</w>:</emph> this man later became general of the Achaean confederacy (151/0), where he supported the pro-Roman party (cf. xxxviii. 18. 6, and, for his shady role in the affair of Oropus and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a>, xxxii. 11. 5 n.; Paus. vii. 11. 7–13. 8). See Ehrenberg, RE, 'Menalkidas', cols. 703–4; Lehmann, 316 n. 373. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἐπανόρθωσιν</w>:</emph> 'to make a private fortune'; cf. i. 66. 12. Paton, 'to obtain his restoration' misses the sense. Menalcidas was presumbly one of many Greeks in Ptolemaic service; there is no evidence that he was an exile. </p>

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