42.42
"But
when I left Dolopia to visit the cities of Larisa, Antron and Pteleon, as I was
in the neighbourhood of Delphi I went up there for the purpose of offering
sacrifice in discharge of vows taken long before. And to make this charge
still more serious it is asserted that I went with an army to do, of course,
what I now complain of your doing, to occupy the cities and station
garrisons in the citadels. Summon those Greek cities through which I
marched, and should anyone, I do not care who complain of any ill-treatment
from my soldiery, I will allow it to be said that under the presence of offering
sacrifice I had another object in view. We sent troops to assist the Aetolians
and the Byzantines, and we established friendly relations with the Boeotians.
In whatever light these measures are regarded, they were not only made
known to you through my envoys, but were even on several occasions
defended in your senate, where I had some critics not so fair or just as you,
Q. Marcius, my hereditary friend and guest. But my accuser, Eumenes, had
not yet arrived.
"This man, by misrepresenting and distorting all my actions, has
made them appear suspicious and treacherous, and he tried to persuade you
that Greece could not be really free or enjoy the boon of liberty which you
have conferred as long as the kingdom of Macedonia remained intact. Well,
the wheel will come round full turn: somebody will soon be saying that it
was to no purpose that Antiochus had been removed beyond the Taurus.
Eumenes is a much greater oppressor of Asia than Antiochus ever was, your
allies can have no rest as long as the kingdom of Pergamum exists, it stands
like a citadel to command all the States round it. I am quite aware that the
charges which you, Q. Marcius and A. Atilius, have brought against me, and
the replies which I have made to them, are just what the minds and ears of
those present choose to make of them, and that it is not my conduct or my
motives that are important, but the light in which you view them. I am not
conscious of having committed any fault knowingly: whatever lapse I may
have been guilty of through imprudence can, I am sure, be corrected and
amended through these stern admonitions of yours. At all events I have done
nothing which cannot be remedied, nothing for which you should think it
necessary to seek redress by force of arms. Otherwise the fame of your
clemency and magnanimity has been carried through the world in vain, if for
reasons which are hardly worth discussion you take up arms and levy war
upon monarchs who are your allies."