+50.+ Just when the designs of Antiochus in Thrace were succeeding
to his heart’s desire, Lucius Cornelius and his party sailed into
Selybria. These were the envoys sent by the Senate to conclude a peace
between Antiochus and Ptolemy. And at the same time there arrived
Publius Lentulus from Bargylia, Lucius Terentius and Publius Villius
from Thasus, three of the ten commissioners for Greece. Their arrival
having been promptly announced to Antiochus, they all assembled within
the next few days at Lysimacheia; and it so happened that Hegesianax
and Lysias, who had been on the mission to Flamininus, arrived about
the same time. The private intercourse between the king and the Romans
was informal and friendly; but when presently they met in conference
to discuss public affairs, things took quite another aspect. Lucius
Cornelius demanded that Antiochus should evacuate all the cities
subject to Ptolemy which he had taken in Asia; while he warned him in
solemn and emphatic language that he must do so also to the cities
subject to Philip, “for it was ridiculous that Antiochus should come in
and take the prizes of the war which Rome had waged with Philip.” He
also admonished him to abstain from attacking autonomous cities, and
added that “He was at a loss to conjecture with what view Antiochus
had crossed over to Europe with such a powerful army and fleet; for if
it were not with the intention of attacking the Romans, there was no
explanation left that any reasonable person could accept.” With these
words the Romans ceased speaking.
[Sidenote: The reply of Antiochus.]
[Sidenote: Lysimachus conquered by Seleucus Nicanor, B.C. 281.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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