40.11
"What
do you suppose is the meaning of that letter which has just been sent to you
by T. Quinctius, in which he says that you acted wisely in your own interest
by sending Demetrius to Rome, and urges you to send him again with a more
numerous embassage including the foremost men in Macedonia? T.
Quinctius is now his adviser and director in everything; he has renounced
you, his father, and put him in your place. With him all the secret plans are
arranged beforehand; he is looking out for men to help him in carrying out
those plans when he bids you send more of the Macedonian leaders with
him. They will go from here loyal and true, believing that they have a king in
Philip, they will come back tainted and poisoned with Roman blandishments.
Demetrius is everything to the Romans, they are already addressing him as
king while his father is alive. If I show indignation at all this, I have forthwith
to listen to charges of seeking the crown not only from others but even from
you, my father. But if the accusation rests between us, I, for my part,
repudiate it. For whom am I displacing that I may step into his place? My
father alone is before me, and I pray Heaven that he may long be so. If I
survive him -and may this be so only if my deserts make him wish it -I shall
receive the heritage of the crown if my father delivers it to me. That youth is
coveting the crown, and coveting it with criminal intent. He is eager to
forestall the order laid down by age, by nature, by the usage of the
Macedonians, by the law of nations. 'My elder brother,' he says to himself, 'to
whom by right and even by my father's wish the crown belongs, stands in my
way; let him be removed. I shall not be the first who has sought a kingdom at
the cost of a brother's blood. My father, an old man, without the support of
his elder son will be too much afraid for himself to think of avenging his
son's death. The Romans will be glad, they will approve of my act and
defend it.' These are uncertain hopes, but not groundless. For this is how
matters stand, my father; you can repel the danger which menaces my life by
punishing those who have taken up the sword to slay me; if their criminal
purpose is achieved, you will not have the power to avenge my death."
