§37.54.1grata oratio regis patribus fuit, et facile apparebat munifice omnia et propenso animo facturos.
The king's speech was pleasing to the senators, and it was easily apparent that they would do everything generously and with a favorable mind.
§37.54.2interposita Smyrnaeorum brevis legatio est, quia non aderat quidam Rhodiorum.
A brief embassy of the Smyrnaeans was interposed because a certain one of the Rhodians was not present.
collaudatis egregie Smyrnaeis, quod omnia ultima pati quam se regi tradere maluissent, introducti Rhodii sunt.
After the Smyrnaeans had been extraordinarily praised because they had preferred to suffer all extremities rather than surrender themselves to the king, the Rhodians were introduced.
§37.54.3quorum princeps legationis expositis initiis amicitiae cum populo Romano meritisque Rhodiorum Philippi prius, deinde Antiochi bello “nihil” inquit “nobis tota nostra actione, §37.54.4patres conscripti, neque difficilius neque molestius est, §37.54.5quam quod cum Eumene nobis disceptatio est, cum quo uno maxime regum et privatim singulis et, quod magis nos movet, publicum civitati nostrae hospitium est.
The chief of whose embassy, having explained the beginnings of their friendship with the Roman people and the merits of the Rhodians first in the war with Philip and then with Antiochus, said: "Nothing in our entire pleading, conscript fathers, is either more difficult or more troublesome to us, than that our dispute is with Eumenes, with whom alone of all the kings we have, both privately as individuals and, what moves us more, publicly as our state, a bond of hospitality.
§37.54.6ceterum non animi nostri, patres conscripti, nos, sed rerum natura, quae potentissima est, disiungit, ut nos liberi etiam aliorum libertatis causam agamus, reges serva omnia et subiecta imperio suo esse velint.
But, conscript fathers, it is not our own disposition but the nature of things, which is most powerful, that divides us, in that we, being free, also plead the cause of others' freedom, while kings wish all things to be enslaved and subjected to their empire.
§37.54.7utcumque tamen res sese habet, magis verecundia nostra adversus regem nobis obstat, quam ipsa disceptatio aut nobis impedita est aut vobis perplexam deliberationem praebitura videtur.
However the matter stands, however, our respect toward the king stands in our way more than the dispute itself is either difficult for us or seems likely to offer a perplexing deliberation to you.
§37.54.8nam si aliter socio atque amico regi et bene merito hoc ipso in bello, de cuius praemiis agitur, honos haberi nullus posset, nisi liberas civitates in servitutem traderetis ei, esset deliberatio anceps, §37.54.9ne aut regem amicum inhonoratum dimitteretis, aut decederetis instituto vestro gloriamque Philippi bello partam nunc servitute tot civitatium deformaretis; §37.54.10sed ab hac necessitate aut gratiae in amicum minuendae aut gloriae vestrae egregie vos fortuna vindicat.
For if no honor could be paid in any other way to a king who is an ally and friend and well-deserving in this very war, the rewards of which are being discussed, unless you delivered free cities into servitude to him, the deliberation would be doubtful, lest either you should dismiss a friendly king without honor, or you should depart from your custom and now disfigure the glory acquired in the war with Philip by the enslavement of so many cities; but from this necessity of either diminishing your gratitude toward a friend or your own glory, fortune excellently delivers you.
est enim deum benignitate non gloriosa magis quam dives victoria vestra, quae vos facile isto velut aere alieno exsolvat.
For by the favor of the gods, your victory is not more glorious than it is rich, which easily releases you from that, as it were, debt.
§37.54.11nam et Lycaonia et Phrygia utraque et Pisidia omnis et Chersonesus, quaeque circumiacent Europae, in vestra sunt potestate, §37.54.12quarum una quaelibet regi adiecta multiplicare regnum Eumenis potest, omnes vero datae maximis eum regibus aequare.
For both Lycaonia and both Phrygias, and all Pisidia, and the Chersonese, and those parts of Europe which lie around it, are in your power, any single one of which, if added to the king, can multiply the kingdom of Eumenes, and indeed all of them, if given, can make him equal to the greatest kings.
§37.54.13licet ergo vobis et praemiis belli ditare socios et non decedere instituto vestro et meminisse, quem titulum praetenderitis prius adversus Philippum, nunc adversus Antiochum belli, §37.54.14quid feceritis Philippo victo, quid nunc a vobis, non magis quia fecistis, quam quia id vos facere decet, §37.54.15desideretur atque expectetur.
It is permitted to you, therefore, both to enrich your allies with the rewards of war, and not to depart from your custom, and to remember what pretext of war you put forward first against Philip, and now against Antiochus, what you did when Philip was defeated, and what now from you—not more because you did it than because it is fitting for you to do so—is desired and expected.
alia enim aliis et honesta et probabilis est causa armorum; illi agrum, hi vicos, hi oppida, hi portus oramque aliquam maris ut possideant; vos nec cupistis haec antequam haberetis, nec nunc, cum orbis terrarum in dicione vestra sit, cupere potestis.
For to different people there is a different cause of arms, both honorable and plausible: that those may possess land, these villages, these towns, these harbors and some coast of the sea; but you neither desired these things before you had them, nor now, when the whole world is under your sway, can you desire them."