• Teos to Lucius Aemilius Regillus, 190 BC (orator)

These unknown envoys were dispatched by Teos to the praetor Lucius Aemilius Regillus, whose army was ravaging the territory of Teos. This episode took place in 190, in the broader context of the Roman-Seleucid war.

When anchored in Samos, Regillus had learned that the Teians had supplied the Seleucid fleet with provisions. He decided to either extort the same from them, or to punish them for providing support to the enemy. The Roman navy landed in the Geraesticus port, north of the city center, and started to plunder the Teain chora. Geraesticus should correspond to the port named Gerraiidai, which was thirty stadia away from the city (Strab. 14 1, 30). The Teains sent their spokesmen to the praetor to protest their innocence; they presented themselves as supplicants, hence their use of infulae and velamenta (woolen bands, wrapped around olive branches). Regillus threatened them to deliver the same amount of supplies. The spokesmen went back to the city and a popular assembly was held to decide what to do. Eventually, the Teians agreed. They moved the Roman fleet to the main port in the south and began loading food and wine onto the ships.

This obedient behaviour probably allowed the city to remain free from Attalid rule after the Peace of Apamea (cfr. Boulay 2018, 135-6; Adak, Thonemann 2022, 166-7).

• Adak, M., Thonemann, P. (2022), Teos and Abdera. Two cities in peace and war, Oxford.
• Boulay, T. (2018), ‘La liberté de Téos et le soutien d’Attale II à Alexandre Balas’, Syria 95, 133-154