§39.33.1principio insequentis anni P. Claudius L. Porcius consules, cum Q. Caecilius M. Baebius Ti. Sempronius, qui ad disceptandum inter Philippum et Eumenem reges Thessalorumque civitates missi erant, §39.33.2legationem renuntiassent, regum quoque eorum civitatiumque legatos in senatum introduxerunt.
At the beginning of the following year, the consuls Publius Claudius and Lucius Porcius, when Quintus Caecilius, Marcus Baebius, and Tiberius Sempronius, who had been sent to arbitrate between the kings Philip and Eumenes and the states of the Thessalians, had reported on their embassy, introduced also the envoys of those kings and states into the senate.
§39.33.3eadem utrimque iterata, quae dicta apud legatos in Graecia erant.
The same arguments on both sides were repeated which had been spoken before the envoys in Greece.
aliam deinde novam legationem patres, cuius princeps Ap. Claudius fuit, in Graeciam et Macedoniam decreverunt ad visendum, redditaene civitates Thessalis et Perrhaebis essent.
Thereupon the senators decreed another new embassy to Greece and Macedonia, of which Appius Claudius was the head, to see whether the states had been restored to the Thessalians and the Perrhaebians.
§39.33.4iisdem mandatum, ut ab Aeno et Maronea praesidia deducerentur, maritimaque omnis Thraciae ora a Philippo et Macedonibus liberaretur.
To these same men it was commanded that the garrisons should be withdrawn from Aenus and Maronea, and that the entire maritime coast of Thrace should be liberated from Philip and the Macedonians.
§39.33.5Peloponnesum quoque adire iussi, unde prior legatio discesserat incertiore statu rerum, quam si non venissent: nam super cetera etiam sine responso dimissi, nec datum petentibus erat Achaeorum concilium.
They were also ordered to go to the Peloponnesus, from where the former embassy had departed with the state of affairs more unsettled than if they had not come; for, besides other things, they had even been dismissed without an answer, nor had a council of the Achaeans been granted to them when they requested it.
§39.33.6de qua re querente graviter Q. Caecilio et simul Lacedaemoniis deplorantibus moenia diruta, abductam plebem in Achaiam et venumdatam, ademptas, quibus ad eam diem civitas stetisset, §39.33.7Lycurgi leges, Achaei maxime concilii negati crimen excusabant recitando legem, quae nisi belli pacisve causa, et cum legati ab senatu cum litteris aut scriptis mandatis venirent, vetaret indici concilium.
While Quintus Caecilius was complaining bitterly about this matter, and at the same time the Lacedaemonians were deploring that their walls had been demolished, their common people carried off into Achaea and sold, and that, which up to that day the state had stood upon, the laws of Lycurgus had been taken away, the Achaeans excused themselves especially from the charge of having refused the council by reading a law which, except in the case of war or peace, and when envoys from the senate came with letters or written instructions, forbade a council to be summoned.
§39.33.8ea ne postea excusatio esset, ostendit senatus curae iis esse debere, ut legatis Romanis semper adeundi concilium gentis potestas fieret, quem ad modum et illis, quotiens vellent, senatus daretur.
Lest this should afterwards be an excuse, the senate pointed out that it ought to be their concern that the power of attending the council of the nation should always be granted to Roman envoys, in the same manner as the senate was granted to them as often as they wished.