41.23
This
nation and the Athenians alone out of all Greece had pushed their animosity
so far as to forbid the Macedonians to enter their country. Macedonia had, in
consequence, become a refuge for all the runaway slaves from Achaia, for as
the Achaeans had closed their frontiers against Macedonia, they could not
themselves venture into that kingdom. When Perseus got to know this, he
had the runaways arrested and sent a letter . . . "They, too, however, must
think out the best means of preventing the flight of slaves in the future." The
letter was read at a meeting of their council by Xenophanes, their
captain-general, who was anxious to make private interest with the king.
Most of those present thought it written in a fair and generous spirit,
especially those who were to recover the runaway slaves whom they had
given up for lost. Amongst those who believed that the safety of the nation
depended upon their keeping their treaty with Rome intact was Callicrates.
He made the following speech to the council: "Some look upon this question
as of small and trifling importance; I regard it as the greatest and most
serious of all under discussion, and, more than that, I consider that it has in
one way been decided. For although we have excluded the kings of
Macedonia and the Macedonians themselves from our territories, and that
decree is still in force forbidding us to admit the envoys and communications
of their kings, through which the feelings of some amongst us might be
wrongly influenced, nevertheless, we are now listening to the king as though
he were addressing us whilst absent, and we are actually giving our approval
to his speech. Wild animals mostly reject and shun the food which is placed
to deceive them, but we in our blindness are caught by the idle show of a
petty boon, and in the hope of recovering some miserable slaves of very little
value we are allowing our own liberty to be tampered with and undermined.
Who does not see that a way is being sought to lead us to an alliance with
the king, and therefore to a breach of the treaty with Rome, with which all
our interests are bound up? Unless, indeed, anyone doubts that a war
between Perseus and the Romans is inevitable, and that what was expected
during Philip's lifetime and interrupted by his death will take place now that
he is dead. Philip, as you know, had two sons, Demetrius and Perseus.
Demetrius far surpassed his brother in birth on the mother's side, in courage,
in ability, in popularity with his countrymen. But Philip had destined the
crown as a reward for hatred of the Romans, and he put Demetrius to death
for no other offence than his friendship with Rome. Perseus, he knew, would
inherit a war with Rome almost before he inherited the crown, and he made
him king. What else has he been doing since his father's death but making
preparations for war? In the first place he sent the Bastarnae into Dardania
creating universal alarm. If they had made their home in that country, Greece
would have found them more troublesome neighbours than the Gauls were in
Asia. Though his expectations here were frustrated, he did not give up all
thoughts of war; rather, to say the truth, he has now commenced war and
subjugated the Dolopes by force of arms, and refused to listen to their
proposal to refer their differences to the arbitration of Rome. Then he
crossed Mount Oeta and, in order to make a sudden appearance in the heart
of Greece, went up to Delphi. What do you imagine was his object in thus
exercising a right-of-way where none existed? Then he traversed Thessaly.
His doing so without inflicting injury on any of those he hated I regard with
all the more apprehension as an attempt to win them over. And now he has
sent a letter to us with what looks like an act of generosity, and advises us to
consider how for the future we may dispense with that generosity, namely,
by rescinding the decree by which the Macedonians are kept out of the
Peloponnese. This, too, in order that we may once more see the king's
ambassadors and the renewal of hospitable relations with his chief men.
Before long we shall have the Macedonian armies and the king himself
entering the Peloponnese by way of Delphi -narrow is the strait that
separates us! -and, finally, we shall find ourselves in the ranks of the
Macedonians whenever they take up arms against Rome. I give it as my
opinion that we make no fresh decree, but let everything remain just as it is,
until it becomes absolutely certain whether these fears of mine are
groundless or justified. If the peace between Macedonia and Rome remains
unbroken, let there be friendly intercourse between us. For the present it
seems to me premature and dangerous to think of altering our policy."
