The
hostile fleets met off the coast of Pamphilia. The battle was obstinate: at
first, by an oversight of the Rhodian admiral, some disorder occurred in
part of his fleet; but this was soon repaired, and a decisive victory
obtained. Part of Hannibal's fleet was captured, and the rest blocked up in
the harbours of Pamphilia. The defeat of Antiochus, both at sea and land,
by the Romans, to which we have already adverted, obliged this monarch to
sue for peace, in which the Rhodians were included.
We have now arrived at that period of the history of Rhodes when the first
difference arose between that city and the Romans: the latter suspected
that the Rhodians favoured Perseus king of Macedon, with whom they were at
war, and were moreover displeased at their presuming to interfere with them
in his favour. In order to watch their inclinations and motions, the senate
sent three commissioners to Rhodes: these found a fleet of forty galleys,
which there was reason to believe had been intended to act against the
Romans; but which, by the advice of the chief magistrate, were, on the
arrival of the commissioners, ordered to sea, to act in union with them.
Scarce, however, were the commissioners departed, when the Rhodians became
lukewarm in the cause of the Romans; and although they sent a few of their
galleys to join the Roman admiral, they kept the greatest number in port,
waiting the issue of the war between them and the king of Macedonia.
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