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

45. Thence an embassy had been sent during¹ this time to Asia and among the islands.² [2] There were three envoys, Tiberius Claudius, Spurius Postumius and Marcus Junius. These went about exhorting the allies to undertake war against Perseus on the side of the Romans; and the richer any given city was the more painstakingly they negotiated there, because the lesser cities would follow the leadership of the greater. [3] The Rhodians were considered of the greatest importance in everything, because they could not only embrace the war, but assist in it, too, with their forces, since forty ships had been made ready, on motion of Hegesilochus; this man, who held the chief magistracy —their own title is prytanis³ —had [4] by numerous speeches won over the Rhodians to give up the hope, which they had repeatedly discovered to be idle, of currying favour with kings, and to keep the alliance with Rome, the only alliance in the world at that time which was secure whether through power or trustworthiness. [5] War with Perseus, said Hegesilochus, was imminent; the Romans would call for the same naval force which they had recently seen in the war with Antiochus, and previously in that with Philip.⁴ [6] The Rhodians would be in a panic over the sudden need to prepare a fleet at the time it should be sent, if they did not begin to refit their ships and equip them with sailors. This they must do with the greater vigour in order to [p. 429]refute by the proof of actions the accusations brought⁵ by Eumenes. [7] Aroused by these arguments, they displayed to the Roman envoys on their arrival, so that it might be evident that they had not waited to be urged, a fleet of forty ships prepared and equipped. [8] This embassy, moreover, had great weight in winning the allegiance of the states of Asia. Decimius alone returned to Rome without accomplishing anything, and disgraced by the suspicion of having even solicited bribes from the Illyrian kings.