42.13
He
closed with an earnest appeal. "I am not, senators, laying these facts before
you as bruited in vague rumours, or because I wished such charges against
an enemy to be true, and therefore was the more eager to credit them; I am
stating the results of my investigations and disclosures just as though you
had sent me on a mission of enquiry and I were reporting what I had actually
seen. I would not have left my kingdom, to which you have given such
extension and prestige, and undertaken so long a voyage merely to destroy
all faith in me by telling you idle tales. I saw the greatest cities in Greece and
Asia unveiling their designs day by day, and soon, were they allowed, they
will have gone so far that there will be no room left for repentance. I have
watched Perseus, not confining himself within his own borders, taking armed
possession of some places, and where others could not be seized by force,
winning them by a show of favour and goodwill. I observed how unequal the
conditions were; he preparing for war against you and you making peace
secure for him, though it seemed to me as if he were not so much preparing
for war as actually commencing it. Abrupolis, your friend and ally, he has
expelled from his kingdom. Arthetaurus, the Illyrian, also your friend and
ally, he caused to be put to death because he discovered that he had written
to you. Euersas and Callicritus, leading men in Thebes, he managed to get
put out of the way because they spoke too frankly against him in the council
of Boeotia and declared that they should inform you about what was going
on. He sent help to the Byzantines in violation of the treaty; he levied war on
Dolopia; he marched his army through Thessaly and Doris in order that,
should civil war break out, he might smash the more respectable party by the
means of the more disreputable one. He brought about universal confusion in
Thessaly and Perrhaebia by holding out the prospect of a cancellation of all
debts, so that he might crush the aristocracy by a body of debtors bound by
their obligations to him. As you have remained quiet and allowed him to do
all this, and as he sees that, as far as you are concerned, Greece has been
handed over to him, he takes it for granted that he will meet with no armed
opposition before he has landed in Italy. How far this is an honourable or
safe policy for you to pursue, it is for you to consider. I, at all events, felt
that it would be disgraceful on my part if Perseus came and carried war into
Italy before I, your ally, had warned you to be on your guard. I have
discharged the duty incumbent upon me and have relieved myself of what
was a burden on my loyalty. What can I do more, except to pray heaven that
you may consult the true interest of your commonwealth and of us, your
allies and friends, who depend on you?"