Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 45
Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

After the serious business,² Paulus celebrated with great pomp at Amphipolis a festival which had been long under preparation, and to announce which he had sent men to the cities and the kings of Asia, while he himself had given notice to the leading men [p. 361]during his tour of the Greek cities. [2] For a crowd of³ all sorts of professionals in the art of entertainment gathered from all over the world, as well as athletes and famous horses; [3] moreover there were delegations with sacrifices,⁴ and whatever more is usually done at the great games of Greece for the sake of gods or men, was so carried out as to arouse admiration not only for lavishness but for skill in giving shows, at which Romans were then tyros. Banquets for the delegations were also prepared with equal sumptuousness and pains. [4] From mouth to mouth went the saying of Paulus himself, that the man who knew how to conquer in war could also arrange a banquet and organize games.

XXXIII. After the festival had been held and the bronze shields loaded into ships, the rest of the arms of all kinds were piled up into a great heap, and the general, after prayer to Mars, Minerva, Mother Lua,⁵ and the other gods to whom it is right and lawful to dedicate the spoils of the enemy, with his own hands put the torch to the pile; then each of the military tribunes as they stood round about tossed in fire. [5] In that great gathering of Europe and Asia, when such a crowd had assembled partly to offer congratulations and partly for the display, and in the presence of such forces naval and military, a remarkable fact was that supplies were so abundant and grain so cheap that both to individuals and to cities and peoples abundant gifts of such supplies were made by the general, not only for immediate use, but to be taken home with them. [6] The eyes of [p. 363]the crowd which came were no more drawn to the⁶ stage spectacle, the contests of men, or the racing of the horses, than to the collected loot of Macedonia, set out on exhibition, statues, paintings, rare [7??] stuffs, and vessels made of gold, silver, bronze and ivory, manufactured with great pains in the palace at Pella, so as to serve not only for immediate show, as did the objects with which the palace at Alexandria was crammed, but for continuous use.⁷ This booty was loaded on the fleet and given to Gnaeus Octavius to transport to Rome.

[8] After a courteous farewell to the delegates, Paulus crossed the Strymon and pitched camp a mile from Amphipolis; thence he set out for Pella and arrived on the fifth day. Passing by the city to what is called the Pellaeum, he halted for two days, and sent his son Quintus Maximus and Publius Nasica with a portion of the troops to ravage Illyrians who had helped Perseus in the war, ordering the expedition to meet him at Oricum; the consul himself made for Epirus and reached Passaron on the fifteenth day.