45.24
"If no
hostile act can be imputed to us, if the pompous language of our envoy,
offensive as it was to listen to, did not merit the destruction of our city, what
is there left from which we have to clear ourselves? I hear, senators, that you
are discussing the amount of the fine which is to be imposed upon us for our
unspoken wishes. It is alleged that our sympathies were with the king and
that we should have preferred to see him victorious, so, some of you think
we ought to be punished by war, others hold that while that was our wish we
ought not on that account to be punished. In no State has it been laid down
either by traditional usage or by positive enactment that whoever wishes the
destruction of an enemy, but does nothing to bring it about, shall still suffer
capital punishment. To those of you who are for freeing us from the penalty
though not from the charge we are grateful; we assert this principle for
ourselves -if, as is alleged, this was the universal wish, we do not distinguish
between will and deed, we are all involved. If some of our leaders were on
your side and others on the side of the king, I do not ask that the supporters
of the king should enjoy immunity on account of us who were on your side;
what I do ask is that we should not perish on account of them. You are not
more angry with them than our State itself is, and, knowing this, most of
them have either fled or taken their own lives; others whom we have found
guilty will be in your hands, senators. Though the conduct of the rest of us
during the war has merited no gratitude, it certainly has not merited
punishment. Let the accumulation of our former services outweigh this
failure in our duty. During these late years you have been engaged in war
with three kings; let not the fact that we gave no assistance in one war count
more against us than the fact that we fought for you in two wars counts for
us. Let Philip, Antiochus and Perseus stand for three separate verdicts; two
acquit us, one is so doubtful as to be adverse. If they were our judges we
should be pronounced guilty; you, senators, are now acting as judges as to
whether Rhodes is to remain in the world or be utterly blotted out. The
question before you is not one of war; you can commence one, but you
cannot continue it, since not a single Rhodian is going to bear arms against
you. If you persist in nursing your wrath against us we shall ask for time to
carry the tidings of this fatal embassy home. All of us every free person,
every man and woman in Rhodes, will go on board our ships with all the
money we possess, and bidding farewell to our national and our household
gods, we shall come to Rome. All the gold and silver belonging to the State,
all that individual citizens possess, will be placed in a heap on the Comitium,
on the threshold of your senate-house, and we shall deliver up ourselves, our
wives and children to you, prepared to suffer whatever may be in store for
us. Far removed from our eyes, let our city be plundered and burnt. The
Romans have it in their power to judge the Rhodians to be public enemies,
we too can pass some judgment on ourselves; we shall never judge ourselves
to be your enemies, nor will we commit a single hostile act, even if we have
to suffer everything that you can inflict upon us."