As soon as he could get an opportunity of seeing his father the next day, Perseus entered the palace with a perturbed expression and stood in silence at some distance from his father. [2] "Are you well?" asked Philip. "Why that gloomy countenance?" "Let me tell you," he replied, "that it is more than I hoped for to be alive now. It is no longer by secret plots that my brother is seeking my life; he came to my house at night with an armed band to kill me. Only by barring the doors could I shelter myself from his fury behind the walls of the house." [3] After thus astonishing and alarming his father, he went on, "Yes, and if you can give me a hearing I will make you see the whole thing clearly." [4] Philip said that he would certainly hear him and sent orders for Demetrius to be summoned at once. He also sent for two of his older friends who had nothing to do with the quarrel between the brothers, and did not often visit the palace-Lysimachus and Onomastus. He wished to have them present at the council. [5] Whilst waiting for them he walked up and down deep in thought, his son standing some distance away. [6] When they were announced he withdrew with them and two of his life-guards into an inner room, and allowed each of his sons to bring three companions unarmed. [7] After taking his seat he began: "Here I, a most unhappy father, am sitting as judge between my two sons, one accusing the other of fratricide, and I have to find my own children guilty of either a false accusation or a confession of criminal intent. [8] I have for some time been dreading the imminence of this storm as I watched the way you looked at one another with an expression of anything but brotherly love, and listened to some of your language. Sometimes I have ventured to hope that your anger was dying down and that suspicions could be cleared up. [9] Even hostile nations have laid down their arms and made treaties of peace, and many men have put an end to their private quarrels. [10] I fancied that some day you might remember your relationship to one another, the unreserved intimacy of your boyish days and the teaching which I have given you, which has, I fear, fallen on deaf ears. [11] How often have I told you of my detestation of fraternal quarrels and the dreadful results they lead to, how often they have ruined families and houses and kingdoms! I have also placed before you happier examples on the other side; [12] the perfectly friendly relations between the two kings of Sparta, which had for long centuries been such a safeguard to themselves and their country; but as soon as the fashion came in of each trying to secure despotic power for himself, that State was destroyed. [13] Look at those two monarchs, Eumenes and Attalus, who from such [14??] small beginnings that they shrank from the title of king have now become the peers of Antiochus and myself, and this is due to nothing so much as the brotherly concord that existed between them. I even drew examples from the Romans which had fallen under my own observation or which I had heard of: the two Quinctii, Titus and Lucius; the two Scipios, Publius and Lucius, who conquered Antiochus; their father and their uncle whose lifelong harmony was cemented by death. [15] And yet the bad examples which I first mentioned and the evil results of their evil conduct could not deter you from your insane quarrels, nor could the good character and the good fortune of the others turn you to a sound and healthy state of mind. [16] While I am yet alive and drawing vital breath you have in your criminal ambition decided to whom the crown will pass. [17] You wish me to live just long enough to survive one of you, and then by my death make the other the unquestioned king. [18] You cannot bear that either your father or your brother should live. You have no affection, no conscience; an insatiable desire for the crown alone has supplanted everything else in your hearts. Go on, then, grieve and shock your father's ears, fight out your differences with mutual recriminations as you will soon do with the sword; speak out openly whatever you can truly allege or find pleasure in inventing. [19] My ears are open to you now, henceforth they will be closed to any secret charges which you may make against each other." [20] He uttered these last words in very angry tones and all present burst into tears; there was a long and sorrowful silence.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.