§37.52.1haud multo post M. Aurelius Cotta legatus L. Scipionis cum Antiochi regis legatis et Eumenes rex Rhodiique Romam venerunt.
Not long afterwards, M. Aurelius Cotta, the legate of L. Scipio, arrived in Rome along with the ambassadors of King Antiochus, as did also King Eumenes and the Rhodians.
§37.52.2Cotta in senatu primum, deinde in contione iussu patrum, quae acta in Asia essent, exposuit.
Cotta, by order of the senators, explained first in the senate and then in the assembly what had been done in Asia.
supplicatio inde in triduum decreta est, et quadraginta maiores hostiae immolari iussae.
Thereupon a thanksgiving of three days was decreed, and forty of the larger victims were ordered to be immolated.
§37.52.3tum omnium primum Eumeni senatus datus est.
Then, first of all, an audience of the senate was granted to Eumenes.
is cum breviter et egisset gratias patribus, quod obsidione se ac fratrem exemissent regnumque ab iniuriis Antiochi vindicassent, et gratulatus esset, §37.52.4quod terra marique res prospere gessissent, quodque regem Antiochum fusum fugatumque et exutum castris prius Europa, post et Asia, quae cis Taurum montem est, §37.52.5expulissent, sua deinde merita malle eos ex imperatoribus suis legatisque quam se commemorante cognoscere dixit.
After he had briefly thanked the senators for having delivered himself and his brother from the siege and vindicated his kingdom from the injuries of Antiochus, and had congratulated them on their successful operations by land and sea, and on having routed and put to flight King Antiochus, stripping him of his camp and expelling him first from Europe, and then from Asia also on this side of Mount Taurus, he said that, as for his own merits, he preferred that they should learn of them from their own generals and legates rather than from his own recital.
§37.52.6haec approbantibus cunctis iubentibusque dicere ipsum, omissa in id verecundia, quid sibi ab senatu populoque Romano tribui aequum censeret; propensius cumulatiusque, si quo possit, prout eius merita sint, §37.52.7senatum facturum, ad ea rex, si ab aliis sibi praemiorum optio deferretur, libenter, data modo facultate consulendi senatum Romanum, consilio amplissimi ordinis usurum fuisse, ne quid aut immoderate cupisse aut petisse parum modeste videri posset; §37.52.8verum enimvero cum ipsi daturi sint, multo magis munificentiam eorum in se fratresque suos ipsorum arbitrii debere esse.
When all approved of this and bade him speak himself, putting aside all modesty on that point, and state what he thought it fair for him to receive from the senate and the Roman people, adding that the senate would act with greater readiness and abundance, as far as possible, in accordance with his merits; to this the king replied that, if the choice of rewards were offered to him by others, he would gladly have availed himself of the advice of this most illustrious body, provided only the opportunity of consulting the Roman senate were given him, so that he might not seem either to have desired anything immoderately or to have petitioned with too little modesty; but indeed, since they themselves were to give them, their munificence towards himself and his brothers ought much more to be left to their own judgment.
§37.52.9nihil hac oratione eius patres conscripti deterriti sunt, quo minus dicere ipsum iuberent, et, cum aliquamdiu hinc indulgentia hinc modestia inter permittentis in vicem non magis mutua quam inexplicabili facilitate certatum esset, Eumenes ex templo excessit.
The senators were not in the least deterred by this speech of his from ordering him to speak himself; and when for some time there had been a contest, on the one side of indulgence and on the other of modesty, between those who in turn yielded to each other with a facility no less mutual than inextricable, Eumenes withdrew from the temple.
§37.52.10senatus in eadem perstare sententia, ut absurdum esse diceret ignorare regem, quid sperans aut petens venerit; quae accommodata regno suo sint, ipsum optime scire; Asiam longe melius quam senatum nosse; revocandum igitur et cogendum, quae vellet quaeque sentiret, expromere.
The senate persisted in the same opinion, saying that it was absurd for the king to pretend not to know what he had come hoping for or seeking; that he himself best knew what was suited to his own kingdom; that he knew Asia far better than the senate did; and that he must therefore be recalled and compelled to declare what he wanted and what his views were.