§43.7.1Cretensium legatis commemorantibus se, quantum sibi imperatum a P. Licinio consule esset sagittariorum, §43.7.2in Macedoniam misisse, cum interrogati non infitiarentur apud Persea maiorem numerum sagittariorum suorum quam apud Romanos militare, responsum est, §43.7.3si Cretenses bene ac naviter destinarent potiorem populi Romani quam regis Persei amicitiam habere, senatum quoque Romanum iis tamquam certis sociis responsum daturum esse.
When the envoys of the Cretans mentioned that they had sent as many archers as had been commanded of them by the consul Publius Licinius into Macedonia, since they did not deny, when questioned, that a greater number of their archers was serving with Perseus than with the Romans, the reply was made: if the Cretans resolved sincerely and actively to prefer the friendship of the Roman people to that of King Perseus, the Roman senate also would give them a reply as to reliable allies.
§43.7.4interea nuntiarent suis placere senatui dare operam Cretenses, ut, quos milites intra praesidia regis Persei haberent, eos primo quoque tempore domum revocarent.
In the meantime, they should announce to their people that it was the pleasure of the senate that the Cretans should take care to recall home, at the very first opportunity, whatever soldiers they had within the garrisons of King Perseus.
§43.7.5Cretensibus cum hoc responso dimissis Chalcidenses vocati, quorum legatio ipso introitu movit, quod Micythion, princeps eorum, pedibus captus lectica est introlatus; §43.7.6ultimae necessitatis extemplo visa res, in qua ita adfecto excusatio valetudinis aut ne ipsi quidem petenda visa foret aut data petenti non esset.
When the Cretans had been dismissed with this reply, the Chalcidians were called in. Their embassy moved everyone at its very entrance, because Micythion, their chief man, having lost the use of his feet, was carried in on a litter; this was immediately seen to be a matter of the utmost necessity, in which an excuse of ill health for one so afflicted would neither have seemed proper to be sought by the man himself, nor, if sought, would have been granted to him.
§43.7.7cum sibi nihil vivi relicum praeterquam linguam ad deplorandas patriae suae calamitates praefatus esset, exposuit civitatis primum suae benefacta et vetera et ea, quae Persei bello praestitissent ducibus exercitibusque Romanis; §43.7.8tum quae primo C. Lucretius in populares suos praetor Romanus superbe, avare, crudeliter fecisset; deinde quae tum cum maxime L. Hortensius faceret.
After prefacing that nothing of life was left to him except his tongue to deplore the calamities of his native land, he set forth first the good deeds of his state, both ancient and those which they had performed during the war with Perseus for the Roman commanders and armies; then, what the Roman praetor Gaius Lucretius had first done proudly, greedily, and cruelly against his fellow-citizens; and next, what Lucius Hortensius was doing at this very moment.
§43.7.9quem ad modum omnia sibi, etiam iis, quae patiantur, tristiora, patienda esse ducant potius, quam fide decedant, sic, quod ad Lucretium Hortensiumque attineret, scire tutius fuisse claudere portas quam in urbem eos accipere.
Just as they considered that everything, even harder to bear than what they were suffering, should be endured by them rather than they should depart from their loyalty, so, as far as Lucretius and Hortensius were concerned, they knew that it would have been safer to shut their gates than to receive them into the city.
§43.7.10qui exclusissent eos, Emathiam, Amphipolim, Maroneam, Aenum incolumes esse. apud se templa omnibus ornamentis spoliata; conpilataque sacrilegiis C. Lucretium navibus Antium devexisse; libera corpora in servitutem abrepta; fortunas sociorum populi Romani direptas esse et cotidie diripi.
Those who had shut them out—Emathia, Amphipolis, Maroneea, Aenus—were unharmed; but in their own case, the temples had been despoiled of all ornaments, and Gaius Lucretius had carried off the plundered sacred objects in ships to Antium; free persons had been dragged away into slavery, and the fortunes of the allies of the Roman people had been plundered and were being plundered daily.
§43.7.11nam ex instituto C. Lucreti Hortensium quoque in tectis hieme pariter atque aestate navalis socios habere, et domos suas plenas turba nautica esse; versari inter se, coniuges liberosque suos, quibus nihil neque dicere pensi sit neque facere.
For, according to the practice of Gaius Lucretius, Hortensius also kept the naval allies quartered in their houses in winter just as in summer, and their homes were full of the crowd of sailors; they lived among themselves, their wives, and their children, men to whom there was no concern for what they said or did.