§35.17.1Vocari deinde civitatium legationes iussit, praeparatas iam ante et instructas ab Eumene, qui, quantumcumque virium Antiocho decessisset, suo id accessurum regno ducebat. §35.17.2admissi plures, dum suas quisque nunc querellas, nunc postulationes inserit, et aequa iniquis miscent, ex disceptatione altercationem fecerunt.
He then ordered the embassies of the cities to be summoned, which had already been prepared and instructed beforehand by Eumenes, who reckoned that whatever strength should be lost to Antiochus would accrue to his own kingdom. More were admitted, and while each introduced now his complaints, now his demands, and mixed just things with unjust, they turned the discussion into an altercation.
itaque nec remissa ulla re nec impetrata aeque, ac venerant, omnium incerti legati Romam redierunt. §35.17.3rex dimissis iis consilium de bello Romano habuit.
Thus, with nothing either remitted or obtained, the envoys returned to Rome as uncertain of all things as they had come. The king, having dismissed them, held a council concerning the Roman war.
ibi alius alio ferocius, quia, quo quisque asperius adversus Romanos locutus esset, §35.17.4eo spes gratiae maior erat, alius superbiam postulatorum increpare, tamquam Nabidi victo, sic Antiocho, maximo Asiae regum, imponentium leges; §35.17.5quamquam Nabidi tamen dominationem in patria sua et patria Lacedaemone remissam, §35.17.6Antiocho si Zmyrna et Lampsacus imperata faciant, §35.17.7indignum videri;
There, one spoke more fiercely than another, because the more harshly each spoke against the Romans, the greater was his hope of favor. One censured the insolence of their demands, as if they were imposing laws on Antiochus, the greatest of the kings of Asia, in the same way as on the defeated Nabis; although to Nabis, nevertheless, his sovereign power in his own country and native Lacedaemon had been left, while to Antiochus, if Smyrna and Lampsacus should do what was commanded, it seemed a humiliation.
alii parvas et vix dictu dignas belli causas tanto regi eas civitates esse; sed initium semper a parvis iniusta imperandi fieri, nisi crederent Persas, cum aquam terramque ab Lacedaemoniis petierint, §35.17.8gleba terrae et haustu aquae eguisse.
Others said that those cities were small causes of war for so great a king, and scarcely worth mentioning; but that the beginning of commanding unjust things always starts from small matters, unless they believed that the Persians, when they demanded water and earth from the Lacedaemonians, had been in need of a clod of earth and a draught of water.
per similem temptationem a Romanis de duabus civitatibus agi; sed alias civitates, simul duas iugum exuisse vidissent, §35.17.9ad liberatorem populum defecturas.
By a similar trial, the business concerning the two cities was being conducted by the Romans; but the other cities, as soon as they saw that the two had cast off the yoke, would revolt to the liberating people.
si non libertas servitute potior sit, tamen omni praesenti statu spem cuique novandi res suas blandiorem esse.
Even if liberty were not preferable to slavery, nevertheless, the hope of changing one's situation was more alluring to everyone than any present state.