Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 42
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

“¹ The Dolopians were utterly ravaged by you yourself.² King Eumenes, on his return from Rome to his kingdom, was almost slaughtered like a beast for sacrifice on consecrated ground before the altars of Delphi —and [2] I am reluctant to mention whom he accuses³ ; about the secret crimes of which your guest-friend at Brundisium informs us,⁴ I am sure that everything has been written you from Rome and also that your own envoys have reported. [3] You could have avoided my saying these things in one way, and that was by not asking for what reason armies were being brought across to Macedonia or why we were sending [p. 413]garrisons to the cities of our allies. Since you did inquire,⁵ we should have been more arrogant in keeping silence than we are in replying truthfully. Indeed, on account of our inherited guest-friendship, I am eager to hear what you have to say and hope that you will give me some foundation for pleading your cause before the senate.”

[4] XLI. To this the king replied: "A cause, which would be good if it were pled before impartial judges, I shall plead before men who are at once accusers and judges. [5] However, of the charges made against me, some are such that I should perhaps boast of them, not such that I should blush to confess them, others are such that, since they are made in a word, it is enough to deny them in a word.⁶ [6] For with what, if I should be a defendant to-day under your laws, could either the informer at Brundisium or Eumenes charge me, so that they might seem truly to accuse me rather than to revile me? Doubtless Eumenes, although he is offensive to so many people because of personal reasons or those of state,⁷ had no other enemy than me! Nor could I find anyone superior as a tool in crime to Rammius, whom I had never seen previously nor was to see afterwards! [7] Even for the Thebans, who, it is known, perished by shipwreck, and for the murder of Arthetaurus I must give an accounting! In this latter case, however, no charge is brought against me except that his assassins went into exile in my kingdom. [8] The unfairness of this situation I shall not protest, on condition that you too agree that whenever exiles betake themselves to Italy or Rome you will confess [p. 415]that you were sponsors of the crimes for which they⁸ have been condemned. [9] If both you and all other peoples will protest against this, I too shall be among the others. And, heavens, what use is there for exile to be allowed to anyone, if there is to be nowhere room for the fugitive? [10] However, as soon as I had learned, on advices from you, that these men were in Macedonia, I had them searched out, ordered them to depart from my kingdom, and banished them forever from my territory. And these charges have been made against me as if I were a prisoner at the bar; the other charges are made as against a king, and are such as to involve interpretation of the treaty between you and me. [11] For if it is written in the treaty that I may not be permitted to protect myself and my kingdom, even if someone attacks me, then I must confess that, inasmuch as I have defended myself with arms against Abrupolis, an ally of the Roman people, the treaty has been broken. But if, on the other hand, it is both permitted by the treaty and is arranged by the law of nations that arms may be beaten back by arms, what, pray, was it proper for me to do when Abrupolis devastated the confines of my kingdom even to Amphipolis, and carried off many free persons, a great abundance of slaves, and many thousand cattle? [12] Should I have kept quiet and suffered, until he came armed to Pella and into my palace? But, you say, I proceeded against him in a just war indeed, but he should not have been conquered, nor have suffered the further consequences which befall the conquered; since I, who was assailed with arms, suffered the misfortune of like disasters, how can he who was the cause of the war complain that they [p. 417]happened to him?⁹ [13] I will not use the same defence,¹⁰ Romans, for having checked the Dolopians with arms; since, even had they not deserved it, I acted within my rights, since they were in my kingdom and under my sway, having been assigned by your decree to my father. [14] Moreover, if it were proper for me to give an accounting, I could not seem, I will not say to you and your allies, but even to those who do not approve harsh and unjust exercise of authority even over slaves, to have exceeded justice and virtue in punishing them; inasmuch as they killed Euphranor, the governor placed over them by me, in such fashion that death would have been the lightest of vengeance for him.