History of Rome

​On the following day the council was summoned; when there, through the herald, as is the custom of the Greeks, the power of advising, if anyone wished, was granted by the magistrates, and yet no one came forward, there was for a long time a silence of men looking at one another.

​Nor is it a wonder if, to those whose minds, as they revolved in their own thoughts mutually conflicting matters, had become in a manner numb, the speeches also on both sides, delivered through the whole day by presenting and warning of difficult things, had further confused them.

​At length Aristaenus, the praetor of the Achaeans, lest he should dismiss a silent council, said: “Where, O Achaeans, are those contests of mind, in which, at banquets and social circles, when mention of Philip and the Romans occurred, you scarcely restrained your hands?

​Now, in a council summoned for that one matter, when you have heard the words of the ambassadors on both sides, when the magistrates lay the matter before you, when the herald calls you to advise, ​you have become mute! If the care for the common safety does not, cannot even those partizan feelings which have inclined your minds to this side or that, squeeze a word from anyone?

​Especially since there is no one so dull who cannot know that the opportunity for speaking and advising what each either wishes or thinks best is now, before we decree anything; but once it has been decreed, that must be defended by all as good and useful, even by those to whom it previously displeased.”

​This exhortation of the praetor not only did not draw out any single person to advise, but did not even stir a murmur or whisper of so great an assembly gathered from so many states.