Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 41
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

20. Antiochus, setting up an ivory chair in the Roman fashion, would administer justice and adjudge disputes on the most trifling matters. [2] And so incapable was his mind of sticking to any station in life, as it strayed through all the varieties of existence that it was not really clear either to himself or to others what kind of person he was.¹ [3] It was his habit not to speak to his friends, to smile at mere acquaintances in a most friendly way, and with an inconsistent generosity to make himself and others [p. 249]laughing-stocks; to some, men of distinction who held² themselves in high esteem, he would give childish presents, as of food or toys, others, who expected nothing, he would make rich. [4] And so he seemed to some not to know what he wanted; some said that he was playing childish tricks, some that he was unquestionably insane. [5] Nevertheless in two great and important respects his soul was truly royal —in his benefactions to cities and in the honours paid to the gods. [6] To the people of Megalopolis in Arcadia he promised that he would enclose their city with a wall, and he gave the greater part of the money; at Tegea he began to build a magnificent theatre of marble; in the prytaneum at Cyzicus —this is the central hall of the city, where those men dine upon whom this distinction has been bestowed —he furnished a golden service for one table. [7] While he gave the Rhodians nothing remarkable, yet he gave them gifts of every description, whatever their needs demanded. [8] Of his magnificent ideas as to the treatment of the gods, the temple of Jupiter Olympius at Athens, the only one in the world which, though unfinished,³ was designed to conform to the greatness of the god, can well be evidence; besides, he also adorned Delos with marvellous altars and abundance of statuary, and at Antioch he built a magnificent temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, which had not merely its ceiling panelled with gold, but also its walls wholly covered with gilded plates; [9] and many other things he promised in other places, but by reason of the very short duration of his reign⁴ he did not finish them. [10] Also in regard to the splendour of his shows of every sort he surpassed earlier kings, his other spectacles being given in their own [p. 251]proper⁵ style and with an abundance of Greek⁶ theatrical artists;⁷ a gladiatorial exhibition, after the Roman fashion, he presented which was at first received with greater terror than pleasure on the part of men who were unused to such sights; [11] then by frequent repetitions, by sometimes allowing the fighters to go only as far as wounding one another, sometimes permitting them to fight without [12??] giving quarter, he made the sight familiar and even pleasing, and he roused in many of the young men a joy in arms. And so, while at first he had been accustomed to summon gladiators from Rome, procuring them by large fees, finally he could find a sufficient supply at home. [13] . . .⁸ Scipio the jurisdiction between citizens and aliens.