because they were waiting for him.
[Sidenote: Speech of Heracleides.]
[Sidenote: The Consul’s answer.]
+14.+ However, Publius arrived a few days afterwards, and Heracleides
being summoned to attend the Council delivered the message with which
he was charged, announcing that Antiochus abandoned Lampsacus, Smyrna,
and Alexandria; and also all such towns in Aeolis and Ionia as had
sided with Rome; and that he offered, further, an indemnity of half
their expenses in the present war. He added many arguments besides,
urging the Romans “Not to tempt fortune too far, as they were but
men; nor to extend their empire indefinitely, but rather to keep it
within limits, if possible those of Europe,—for even then they would
have an enormous and unprecedented dominion, such as no nation before
them had attained;—but if they were determined at all hazards to grasp
parts of Asia also, let them say definitely what parts those were, for
the king would go to the utmost stretch of his power to meet their
wishes.” After the delivery of this speech the council decided that the
Consul should answer that “It was only fair that Antiochus should pay,
not the half, but the whole expense of the war, seeing that he, and
not they, had originally begun it; and as to the cities, he must not
only liberate those in Aeolis and Ionia, but must surrender his whole
dominion on this side of Mount Taurus.” On receiving this answer from
the council, conveying demands which went far beyond his instructions,
the envoy, without answering a word, abstained from a public audience
thenceforth, but exerted himself to conciliate Publius Scipio.
[Sidenote: The secret offers of Antiochus to Publius Scipio.]
[Sidenote: Scipio’s reply.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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