On his return to Macedonia, Perseus sent envoys to Rome to carry on the peace negotiations which he had begun with Marcius, and he gave them letters to take to Byzantium and Rhodes. The purport of the letters was the same for all, he had had an interview with the Roman commissioners. [2] What he had heard and said was put in such a way as to make it appear that he had the best of the argument. [3] In their address to the Rhodians, his envoys said that they were confident that there would be peace, for it was on the advice of Marcius and Atilius that they were sent to Rome. If the Romans in violation of the treaty proceeded to war, then the Rhodians must use all their influence and all their power to restore peace, but if their appeals proved fruitless, then they must make it their business to prevent the power and authority over the whole world from passing into the hands of one single nation. [4] That was the concern of all the nations, but especially of the Rhodians, by how much the more they surpassed other nations in greatness and prosperity, but they would be enslaved and helpless if they paid no regard to any but the Romans. [5] The letter and the address of the envoys received a favourable hearing, but they did not avail to make the Rhodians change their minds; the influence and authority of the better citizens prevailed. The answer which they decided to give was to the effect that the Rhodians wanted peace; [6] if there was war, the king need not expect or ask for anything from them, since he was trying to break up the long-standing friendship between them and the Romans, a friendship which was the fruit of many valuable services rendered in both peace and war. [7] On their way back from Rhodes they visited some of the cities of Boeotia-Thebes, Coronea and Haliartus-which it was supposed had been forced against their will to abandon their alliance with Perseus and join the Romans. [8] They made no impression on the Thebans, although there was a strong feeling amongst them against the Romans owing to the severe sentences passed on their leaders and the restoration of the exiles. [9] But at Coronea and at Haliartus there was a kind of inborn affection for the dynasty, and they sent to Macedonia to ask for a garrison that they might protect themselves against the wanton aggression of Thebes. [10] The king told them in reply that as there was an armistice between him and the Romans, he could not send any troops to them; still, he advised them to revenge any wrongs that the Thebans might inflict on them, but in such a way as not to give the Romans any pretext for venting their wrath on him.
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.