<head>Reaction of the Egyptian Kings</head>In <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a> the first thing the kings did after being<pb n="420" />relieved from the war with Antiochus was to send Numenius, one of their friends, as an envoy to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> to return thanks for the favours received; and they next released the Lacedaemonian Menalcidas, who had made active use of the occasion against the kingdom for his own advantage; Gaius Popilius Laenas asked the king for his release as a favour to himself.<note anchored="yes" place="unspecified" id="note30">Menalcidas was one of the Romanising party, who appears to have been Strategus of the league in B.C. 153 [<bibl n="Paus. 7.11.7" default="NO" valid="yes">Pausan. 7.11.7</bibl>], and to have committed suicide in B.C. 148-147, in despair at his failure to wrest <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> from the league.</note>. . .<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note31">Release of Menalcidas.</note>
Walbank Commentary