The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost BooksLivy
History
The History of Rome, Books 37 to the End: with the Epitomes and Fragments of the Lost Books
Livy
Rome -- History
his daughter in marriage; offered to restore immediately the states that
had revolted from us, and gave great hopes of enlarging my dominions, if
I would have carried on war in conjunction with him against you. I will
not boast on this account, because I was guilty of no trespass against
you; but I will rather mention those instances of conduct which are
worthy of the very early friendship between our house and you. I
assisted your commanders with forces by land and sea, so that not one of
your allies can stand in competition with me. I supplied them with
provisions by land and sea. I was present in all the naval engagements
which are fought in many places; and I never was sparing of my labour
and danger. I underwent a siege, the most dreadful suffering that can
occur in war, being shut up in Pergamus, in the utmost danger both of my
kingdom and of my life. Afterwards when liberated from the siege,
although in one part Antiochus, in another Seleucus, were encamped about
the citadel of my kingdom, having deserted my own affairs, I went with
my whole fleet to the Hellespont, to meet your consul Lucius Scipio, to
assist in transporting his army. From the time that the army came over
into Asia, I never quitted the consul; no Roman soldier was more regular
in his attendance in your camp, than I and my brothers. No expedition,
no cavalry action, was undertaken without me. In the field I took that
post, and I maintained that ground, in which the consul wished me to be.
I do not intend, conscript fathers, to say who in that war can be
compared to me in services towards you. I would not hesitate to compare
myself to any of those nations or kings whom you hold in great honour.
Masinissa was your enemy before he became your ally; nor did he repair
to you with his auxiliaries when his kingdom was safe; but dethroned,
exiled, and stripped of all his forces, he fled for refuge to your camp
with one troop of horse. Nevertheless, because he faithfully and
diligently adhered to your cause in Africa, against Syphax and the
Carthaginians, you not only restored him to the throne of his father,
but by adding to his domain the most opulent part of the kingdom of
Syphax, rendered him the most potent of all the kings in Africa. What
reward then, and what honour are we worthy of at your hands, who have
never been foes, but always allies? My father, myself, my brothers, have
carried arms in your cause by sea and land, not only in Asia, but in
countries remote from our home; in Peloponnesus, in Bœotia, in Ætolia,
during the wars with Philip, and Antiochus, and the Ætolians. Some one
may say, what therefore do you demand? Conscript fathers, since I must
obey you when you desire me to explain my wishes: if you have removed
Antiochus beyond the mountains of Taurus with the intention of holding
those countries yourselves, I wish for no other people to settle near
me, no other neighbours than you; nor could I hope that my kingdom would
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