17. About the same time, Caius Valerius, who had been sent ambassador to examine the state of Greece, and to observe the movements of king Perseus, returned from that country, and made a report of all things, which agreed with the accusations urged by Eumenes. He brought with him from Delphi, Praxo, the woman whose house had served as a receptacle for the assassins; and Lucius Rammius, a Brundusian, who was the bearer of the following information. Rammius was a person of the first distinction at Brundusium, accustomed to entertain in his house the Roman commanders, and such ambassadors as came that way from foreign powers, especially those of the kings. By these means he had formed an acquaintance with Perseus, although he was distant from him; and in consequence of a letter from him, which gave hopes of a more intimate friendship, and of great advantages to accrue to him, he went on a visit to the king, and, in a short time, found himself treated with particular familiarity, and drawn, oftener than he wished, into private conversations. Perseus, after promises of the highest rewards, pressed him, with the most earnest solicitations, “as all the commanders and ambassadors of the Romans used to lodge at his house, to procure poison to be given to such of them as he should point out by letter;” and told him, that, “as he knew the preparation of poison to be attended with the greatest difficulty and danger, and that ordinarily it could not be administered without the privity of several; besides, the issue was uncertain, whether doses sufficiently powerful to produce the desired effect or calculated to escape detection, might be given;—he would, therefore, give him some which neither in administering nor when administered could be discovered by any means.” Rammius dreading, lest, in case of refusal, he should himself be the first on whom the poison would be tried, promised compliance, and departed; but did not wish to return to Brundusium, without first holding a conference with Caius Valerius, the ambassador, who was said to be at that time in the neighbourhood of Chalcis. Having first laid his information before him, by his order he accompanied him to Rome, where, being brought before the senate, he gave them an account of what had passed.