Polybius, Histories
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Book 24 - Chapter 4

1
<head lang="la">III. Res Macedoniae</head><w lemma="%2Apro%5Cs">Πρὸς</w> <w lemma="me%5Cn">μὲν</w> <w lemma="ou%29%3Dn">οὖν</w> <w lemma="tw%3D%7C">τῷ</w> <w lemma="%2Apo%2Fntw%7C">Πόντῳ</w> <w lemma="to%5C">τὸ</w> <w lemma="%2Aai%28%3Dmo%2Fn">Αἷμόν</w> <w lemma="e%29stin">ἐστιν</w> <w lemma="o%29%2Fros">ὄρος</w>, <w lemma="me%2Fgiston">μέγιστον</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="tau%2Fth%7C">ταύτῃ</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="u%28yhlo%2Ftaton">ὑψηλότατον</w>, <w lemma="me%2Fshn">μέσην</w> <w lemma="pws">πως</w> <w lemma="diairou%3Dn">διαιροῦν</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="%2Aqra%2F%7Ckhn:">Θρᾴκην·</w> <w lemma="a%29f%27">ἀφ᾽</w> <w lemma="ou%28%3D">οὗ</w> <w lemma="fhsi">φησι</w> <w lemma="%2Apolu%2Fbios">Πολύβιος</w> <w lemma="a%29mfote%2Fras">ἀμφοτέρας</w> <w lemma="kaqora%3Dsqai">καθορᾶσθαι</w> <w lemma="ta%5Cs">τὰς</w> <w lemma="qala%2Fttas">θαλάττας</w>, <w lemma="ou%29k">οὐκ</w> <w lemma="a%29lhqh%3D">ἀληθῆ</w> <w lemma="le%2Fgwn:">λέγων·</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="ga%5Cr">γὰρ</w> <w lemma="to%5C">τὸ</w> <w lemma="dia%2Fsthma">διάστημα</w> <w lemma="me%2Fga">μέγα</w> <w lemma="to%5C">τὸ</w> <w lemma="pro%5Cs">πρὸς</w> <w lemma="to%5Cn">τὸν</w> <w lemma="%2A%29adri%2Fan">Ἀδρίαν</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="ta%5C">τὰ</w> <w lemma="e%29piskotou%3Dnta">ἐπισκοτοῦντα</w> <w lemma="polla%2F">πολλά</w>.
<head>Troubles in Crete</head>In <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a> there was the beginning of great troubles set<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note7">Crete in B.C. 182. See<ref target="b22c19" targOrder="U">bk. 22, ch. 19</ref>.</note>in motion, if one should speak of "a beginning of troubles" in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>: for owing to the persistency of civil wars and the acts of savagery practised against each other, beginning and end are much the same in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>; and what appears to some people to be an incredible story is a spectacle of everyday occurrence there.

Walbank Commentary

Overview
24.4.0 - 24.4.0
<p rend="Plain Text">Mt. Haemus: on the position of this fragment see the previous note and p. 17: its relation to 2–3 is uncertain.</p>
24.4.0 - 24.4.0
<p rend="Plain Text">Mount Haemus</p> <p rend="Plain Text">This fragment from Strabo, vii. 5. 1, C. 313, corresponds to Livy, xl. 21. 2 and 22. 5, and comes from P.'s account of Philip's campaign in 181. On the position of 4 relative to 2–3 see the note following 1. 6 n. According to Livy (xl. 20. 5–6), res Macedoniae of this year</p> <p rend="Plain Text">(Ol. 149. 3 = 182/1) opened with a reference to Demetrius' care to avoid all behaviour that might fan Philip's suspicions; they then recounted how Philip, to exercise his army and lull Roman suspicion, led his troops from Stobi in Paeonia through the territory of the Maedi and the desolate lands beyond, to reach in seven days the foot of Mt. Haemus, from the summit of which, rumour had it, the Black Sea, Adriatic, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Danube&groupId=654&placeId=1195">Danube</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alps&groupId=313&placeId=609">Alps</a> could all be seena view which would assist Philip in his plans for war. Livy (following P.) describes the ascent, partly through dense forest, and the mist at the summit, which precluded any view. After sacrificing to Zeus and Helios, Philip descended and had to plunder the land of the Dentheleti for food; he returned through Maedica, where he took <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Petra&groupId=210&placeId=459">Petra</a> before returning to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> (Livy, xl. 21. 1–22. 15; Walbank, Philip, 248–9).</p> <p rend="Plain Text"> Strabo's statement that P. said that the Adriatic and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pontus&groupId=910&placeId=1634">Pontus</a> were both visible from the summit is not confirmed by Livy, who merely mentions this as a popular belief accepted by Philip (Livy, xl. 21. 2); moreover Strabo, vii. 5. 9, C. 317 (= xxxiv. 12. 1–2) implies that Theopompus told this story but was criticized by P. On Haemus see Oberhummer, RE, 'Haimos', cols. 2221–6; the mountain referred to here has been variously identified, with Musala in the Rila mountains (2,930 m.), Mt. Veen (2,200 m.), or Mt. Yumruksal (2,375 m.) in the Balkan range, north of Plovdiv; but the approach to Musala does not fit Livy and the latter two are too far away. It seems more likely that Haemus is here Mt. Vitosha (erni Vrh), 2,290 m., the ancient Scomius or Scombrus (Thuc. ii. 96. 3–5; Arist. Mete. i. 13. 350 b 17 (ed. Fobes)), as Leake, NG, iii. 472–4, suggested. Philip probably went up the Bregalnitsa from Stobi into the middle <milestone unit="page" n="256">[256]</milestone> Strymon (Struma) valley and north to where Sofia now stands, a little north of Vitosha; see Walbank, Philip, 250, with sketch-map on p. 222; Meloni, Perseo, 47–50. </p> <p rend="Plain Text">Murder of Demetrius. Livy, xl. 23–24, describes how Demetrius was sent back to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> from Stobi accompanied by Didas, governor of Paeonia, a man in Perseus' pay. He reported to Philip that Demetrius was planning to fly to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>; the king imprisoned Demetrius' friend Herodorus, and on the return of Apelles and Philocles from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> (cf. 1. 6 n.) with a sealed letter purporting to come from Flamininus, and after further pressure from Perseus, Philipprobably in 180, since Livy seems to have included two years' events under A.U.C. 573 = 181had Demetrius executed. The surviving account is based on much gossip and rumour; see Walbank, Philip, 251 ff.; Meloni, Perseo, 50–55; and, on Flamininus' role, Briscoe, Latomus, 1972, 25–26. On his letter to Philip (Livy, xl. 23. 7, 24. 1 calls it a forgery) see Gruen, GRBS, 1974, 222, 243–4.</p>

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