But Polyaratus much surpassed Deinon in stupidity and cowardice.
For when Popilius ordered King Ptolemy to send Polyaratus to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, the king did not think it fit to send him to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> out of regard for Polyaratus himself and his country, but decided to send him to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>, as Polyaratus had himself requested.
He therefore procured a galley, and putting him in charge of Demetrius, one of the royal friends, sent him off, having written to inform the Rhodians that he had dispatched him.
Polyaratus, when the ship put in to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phaselis&groupId=881&placeId=1589">Phaselis</a> on her voyage, with I don\'t know what notion in his head, took suppliant boughs and sought sanctuary at the common hearth of the town.
It seems to me that if anyone had asked him what he wanted, he would not have been able to say himself. For had he wished to go to his country what was the use of the suppliant boughs, as such was the purpose of those who were conveying him?
And had he wished to go to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, he would perforce have had to do so even had he not wished it. What other alternative then was open to him, there being no other place that could safely receive him?
When, however, the Phaselites sent to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> and begged the Rhodians to send to fetch Polyaratus and take him into their hands, the Rhodians, acting with great prudence, dispatched an undecked ship to escort him,
but forbade the commander to take him on board, as people in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alexandria&groupId=1063&placeId=1868">Alexandria</a> had been ordered to present the man at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>.
Than the ship arrived at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phaselis&groupId=881&placeId=1589">Phaselis</a> and the commander Epichares refused to receive Polyaratus on board,
while Demetrius, who had been appointed by the king of the convey him bade him leave sanctuary and continue his voyage, the people of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phaselis&groupId=881&placeId=1589">Phaselis</a> backing up this demand, as they were afraid that in consequence of this matter they might incur some blame from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, Polyaratus, alarmed at his dangerous situation,
went on board the galley again of Demetrius, but as they were sailing off availed himself of some plausible excuse
to go ashore, and again took refuge at Caunus, where likewise he implored the citizens to help him.
When they again declined, as they formed part of the Rhodian dominion, he sent messengers to the people of Cibyra imploring them to receive him in their city and to send him an escort — the city being under obligations to him as the sons of their tyrant Pancrates had been brought up in his house —
and they consented and did as he requested. By his arrival at Cibyra he placed himself and the people of that town in an even more difficult situation than the former one when he was at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phaselis&groupId=881&placeId=1589">Phaselis</a>.
For they neither ventured to keep him with them, as they feared danger from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, nor could they send him to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> owing to their ignorance of seamanship, as they were a purely inland people.
Consequently they were compelled to send an embassy to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> and another to the proconsul in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a>, begging them to take the man off their hands.
When Aemilius wrote to the people of Cibyra to place Polyaratus under strict guard and take him to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>, and at the same time to the Rhodians to see that he was properly escorted by sea, so that he might be conveyed safely to Roman territory, and when both requests were complied with,
Polyaratus reached <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> in this manner, having made as notable an exhibition as he could of his stupidity and cowardice, and having been surrendered not only by King Ptolemy, but by the Phaselites, Cibyratae, and the Romans, all owing to his own folly.
If I am asked why I have dealt at length with the case of Polyaratus and Deinon,
it was not in order to exult over their misfortunes, which would be indeed outrageous, but that I might by clearly exhibiting their lack of wisdom render such as find themselves placed by circumstance in a similar situation better prepared to act advisedly and wisely.
Walbank Commentary