A full council assembled to hear what he had to say. [2] The purport of his speech was as follows: "Many embassies have passed to and fro on the question of peace, and have been fruitless; I entertain strong hopes of gaining it from the very fact that those negotiators gained nothing. For the difficulty in former discussions was the position of Smyrna, Lampsacus, Alexandra Troas and the European city of Lysimachia. [3] Of these Lysimachia has already been evacuated by the king, so that you cannot say that he holds anything in Europe. He is prepared to give up those which are in Asia, and any others in his dominions which the Romans wish to claim on the ground that they are on the side of Rome. [4] He is also prepared to pay half the cost of the war." These were the proposed conditions of peace. [5] In the rest of his speech he advised the council to remember the uncertainty of human affairs, to make a moderate use of their own good fortune, and not treat the misfortunes of others oppressively. [6] Let them limit their dominion to Europe, even that was an immense empire; it was easier to extend it by single acquisitions than to hold it together in its entirety. [7] If, however, they wanted to annex some part of Asia, provided it was defined by clearly ascertained boundaries, the king would, for the sake of peace and concord, allow his own sense of moderation and equity to give way before the Roman greed for territory. [8] These arguments in favour of peace, which the speaker thought so convincing, the Romans regarded as so much trifling. [9] They considered it only just that the king, who was responsible for starting the war, should bear the whole cost of it, and that his garrisons should be withdrawn, not only from Ionia and Aeolis, but from all the [10??] cities in Asia, which should be as free as all the liberated cities in Greece, and this could only be effected if Antiochus surrendered all his Asiatic possessions west of the Taurus range.
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.
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