44.24
At the
same time some considerations, suggested by the political conditions of the
time, were submitted in common to Eumenes and Antiochus. Perseus
reminded them that free commonwealths and monarchs are in the nature of
things antagonistic. Rome was attacking them one by one, and what was still
worse, kings were using their power against kings. His own father had been
crushed by the help of Attalus; the attack on Antiochus had been made with
the assistance of Eumenes and, to some extent, of his own father Philip; now
Eumenes and Prusias were in arms against himself. If royalty were abolished
in Macedonia, Asia would be the next. They had already become masters of
some parts of it under the pretext of making the cities free. Then Syria's turn
would come. Prusias was now held in higher honour than Eumenes, and
Antiochus was kept out of the Egypt which he had conquered -the prize of
war. He urged them to reflect on these things, and either insist upon the
Romans making peace with him, or else regard those who persisted in
carrying on an unjust war as the common enemies of all kings. The
communication to Antiochus was sent openly, the emissary to Eumenes was
sent ostensibly to arrange for the ransom of the prisoners. As a matter of
fact, more clandestine negotiations were going on, which for the time
aroused suspicion and ill-will against Eumenes amongst the Romans, and still
graver, though unfounded, charges were made against him, for he was
regarded as a traitor and a declared enemy. There was a Cretan called Cydas,
an intimate friend of Eumenes. This man went with a certain Chimarus, a
country man of his, who was serving under Perseus, to Amphipolis, then
afterwards to Demetrias, where he held conversations under the actual walls
of the city, first with Menecrates and then with Antimachus, both of them
generals of Perseus. Hierophon also, who was the emissary on this occasion,
had previously been on two missions to Eumenes. These secret missions and
colloquies were notorious, but what had actually taken place, or what
agreement had been come to between the monarchs, was not known. The
facts were these.