§35.16.1iam convaluerat Sulpicius; itaque ambo Ephesum venerunt rex a Minnione excusatus, et absente eo agi res coepta est.
Sulpicius had already recovered; and so both came to Ephesus, while the king was excused by Minnio, and in his absence the business began to be conducted.
§35.16.2ibi praeparata oratione Minnio “specioso titulo” inquit “uti vos, Romani, Graecarum civitatium liberandarum video, sed facta vestra orationi non conveniunt, et aliud Antiocho iuris statuitis, alio ipsi utimini.
There, with a prepared speech, Minnio said: "I see, Romans, that you employ the splendid pretext of liberating Greek cities; but your deeds do not agree with your speech, and you establish one standard of law for Antiochus, while you yourselves use another.
§35.16.3qui enim magis Zmyrnaei Lampsacenique Graeci sunt quam Neapolitani et Regini et Tarentini,
For how are the Smyrnaeans and Lampsacenes more Greek than the Neapolitans, Rhegians, and Tarentines, from whom you exact tribute, from whom you demand ships according to treaty?
§35.16.4a quibus stipendium, a quibus naves ex foedere exigitis? cur Syracusas atque in alias Siciliae Graecas urbes praetorem quotannis cum imperio et virgis et securibus mittitis? nihil aliud profecto dicatis quam armis superatis vos iis has leges imposuisse.
Why do you send a praetor every year with imperium and rods and axes to Syracuse and to the other Greek cities of Sicily? Indeed, you would say nothing else than that you imposed these laws on them after they had been conquered by force of arms.
§35.16.5eandem de Zmyrna, Lampsaco civitatibusque, quae Ioniae aut Aeolidis sunt, causam ab Antiocho accipite.
Accept the same justification from Antiochus concerning Smyrna, Lampsacus, and the cities which are of Ionia or Aeolis.
§35.16.6bello superatas a maioribus, stipendiarias ac vectigales factas in antiquum ius repetit; itaque ad haec ei responderi velim, si ex aequo disceptatur et non belli causa quaeritur. ” §35.16.7ad ea Sulpicius “fecit verecunde” inquit “Antiochus, qui, si alia pro causa eius non erant, quae dicerentur, quemlibet ista quam se dicere maluit.
He is reclaiming into their ancient status those cities which, having been conquered in war by his ancestors, were made tributary and tax-paying; and so I should wish an answer to be made to him on these points, if the discussion is conducted on fair terms and a pretext for war is not being sought." To this Sulpicius said: "Antiochus has acted with modesty; since there were no other arguments to be spoken in favor of his cause, he preferred anyone else to say those things rather than himself.
§35.16.8quid enim simile habet civitatium earum, quas comparasti, causa? ab Reginis et Neapolitanis et Tarentinis, ex quo in nostram venerunt potestatem, uno et perpetuo tenore iuris, semper usurpato, numquam intermisso, §35.16.9quae ex foedere debent, exigimus.
For what similarity is there in the case of those cities which you compared? From the Rhegians, Neapolitans, and Tarentines, from the time they came under our power, by one uninterrupted and continuous course of law, always exercised, never suspended, we demand what they owe according to treaty.
potesne tandem dicere, ut ii populi non per se, non per alium quemquam foedus mutaverint, §35.16.10sic Asiae civitates, ut semel venere in maiorum Antiochi potestatem, in perpetua possessione regni vestri permansisse, et non alias earum in Philippi, alias in Ptolomaei fuisse potestate, alias per multos annos nullo ambigente libertatem usurpasse?
Can you really say that, just as those peoples have not changed the treaty either of themselves or through anyone else, so the cities of Asia, once they came into the power of Antiochus' ancestors, have remained in the continuous possession of your kingdom, and that some of them were not in the power of Philip, others of Ptolemy, and others for many years exercised their liberty with no one calling it into question?
§35.16.11nam si, quod aliquando servierunt, temporum iniquitate pressi, ius post tot saecula adserendi eos in servitutem faciet, quid abest, quin actum nihil nobis sit, §35.16.12quod a Philippo liberavimus Graeciam, et repetant posteri eius Corinthum Chalcidem Demetriadem et Thessalorum totam gentem?
For if the fact that they were once enslaved, oppressed by the injustice of the times, creates a right after so many centuries to reduce them to slavery again, what is lacking to make it appear that nothing has been accomplished by us in freeing Greece from Philip, and that his descendants might reclaim Corinth, Chalcis, Demetrias, and the entire nation of the Thessalians?
§35.16.13sed quid ego causam civitatium ago, quam ipsis agentibus et nos et regem ipsum cognoscere aequius est?”
But why do I plead the cause of the cities, which it is more just that both we and the king himself should learn from their own pleading?"