Book 27
11
The cestros was a novel invention, made during the war A new kind of missile used in the army of Perseus. with Perseus. This weapon consisted of an iron bolt two palms long, half of which was spike, and half a tube for the reception of the wooden shaft which was fixed into the tube, and measured a span in length and a finger-breadth in diameter. At the middle point of the shaft three wooden plumes were morticed in. The sling had thongs of unequal length, and on the leather between them the missile was loosely set. When the sling was being swung round, with the two thongs taut, the missile kept its place; but when the slinger let go one of the thongs, it flew from the leather like a leaden bullet, and was projected from the sling with such force as to inflict a very grievous wound upon any one whom it hit.Livy, who translates this passage, calls the missile a cestrosphendona (42, 65).
12
Cotys was a man of distinguished appearance and of Character of Cotys, king of the Odrysae, an ally of Perseus. great ability in military affairs, and besides, quite unlike a Thracian in character. For he was of sober habits, and gave evidence of a gentleness of temper and a steadiness of disposition worthy of a man of gentle birth. . . .
13
Ptolemy, the general serving in Cyprus, was by no A prudent governor of Cyprus. See above, bk. 18, ch. 55. means like an Egyptian, but was a man of sense and administrative ability. He received the governorship of the island when the king of Egypt was quite a child, and devoted himself with great zeal to the collection of money, refusing payments of any kind to any one, though he was often asked for them by the king’s agents, and subjected to bitter abuse for refusing to part with any. But when the king came of age he made up a large sum and sent it to Alexandria, so that both king Ptolemy himself and his courtiers expressed their approval of his previous parsimony and determination not to part with any money. . . .
