Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor), 37.35

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[1] A full council was called and the speech of the envoy was heard.

[2] He said that, after many earlier embassies about peace had been sent backwards and forwards in vain, his own very confidence was due to the fact that the previous ambassadors had succeeded in nothing: for Zmyrna and Lampsacus and Alexandria Troas and Lysimachia¹ in Europe had been objects of contention in those discussions;

[3] of these, the king had already withdrawn from Lysimachia, that they might not say that he had possessions in Europe; the cities in Asia he was ready to surrender, and any other cities which the Romans, because they belonged to their party, wished to separate from the king's realm; of the money too which had been spent on the war, the king would guarantee to the Roman people the payment of one-half.

[4] These were the terms of peace; the rest of his speech was that mindful of² human destiny, they should deal temperately with their own fortune and not hardly with that of others.

[5] Let them limit their empire to Europe, that even this was very large; that it was possible to conquer and gain it part by part more easily than to hold the whole;

[6] but if they wished to take some part of Asia too,

[7] provided they limited it by easily recognizable natural features, the king would permit his own self-restraint to be overcome by Roman greed for the sake of peace and harmony.

[8] What seemed to the ambassador great incentives for concluding peace seemed unimportant to the Romans: as to the money that had been spent on the war, they deemed it only fair that the king should assume payment of it all, since it

[9] was by his fault that the war had been fomented, and that the king's garrisons should be withdrawn not only from Ionia and Aeolis, but, just as all Greece had been liberated, so all the

[10] cities which were in Asia should be set free³ ; this could not be accomplished otherwise than by the retirement of Antiochus from the occupation of Asia on this side of the Taurus mountains.

Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor). Medford, MA. .

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Sage, Evan T.; Schlesinger, Alfred C., translators. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959. (Loeb Classical Library))

Editions (3)

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.) — 37.35 focus

[1] Advocato frequenti consilio legati verba sunt audita.

[2] is, multis ante legationibus ultro citroque nequiquam de pace missis, earn eam ipsam fiduciam impetrandi sibi esse dixit, quod priores legati nihil impetrassent: Zmyrnam enim et Lampsacum et Alexandriam Troadem et Lysimachiam in Europa iactatas in illis disceptationibus esse;

[3] quarum Lysimachia iam cessisse regem, ne quid habere eum in Europa dicerent; eas quae in Asia sint civitates tradere paratum esse, et si quas alias Romani, quod suarum partium fuerint, vindicare ab imperio regio velint;

[4] impensae quoque in bellum factae partem dimidiam regem praestaturum populo Romano.

[5] hae condiciones erant pacis; reliqua oratio fuit, ut memores rerum humanarum et suae fortunae moderarentur et alienam ne urgerent. finirent Europa imperium, id quoque immensum esse;

[6] et parari singula acquirendo facilius potuisse quam universa teneri posse;

[7] quod si Asiae quoque partem aliquam abstrahere velint, dummodo non dubiis regionibus finiant, vinci suam temperantiam Romana cupiditate pacis et concordiae causa regem passurum. ea, quae legato magna ad pacem impetrandam videbantur,

[8] parva Romanis visa: nam et impensam, quae in bellum facta esset,

[9] omnem praestare regem aequum censebant, cuius culpa bellum excitatum esset, et non Ionia modo atque Aeolide deduci debere regia praesidia,

[10] sed sicut Graecia omnis liberata esset, ita, quae in Asia sint, omnes liberari urbes; id aliter fieri non posse, quam ut cis Taurum montem possessione Asiae Antiochus cedat.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Livy in Fourteen Volumes. Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Schlesinger, Alfred C., editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959 (printing).) — 43.23 focus

[1]

Rex cum non ¹ minore vexatione iumentorum hominumque quam venerat in Macedoniam rediit; Appium tamen ab obsidione Phanotes fama ducentis ad Stratum Persei summovit.

[2] Cleuas cum praesidio impigrorum iuvenum insecutus sub radicibus prope inviis montium ² ad mille hominum ex agmine impedito occidit, ad ducentos cepit.

[3] Appius superatis angustiis in campo quem Meleona vocant stativa dierum paucorum habuit. interim Cleuas assumpto Philostrato, qui quingentos ex ³ Epirotarum gente habebat, in agrum Antigonensem transcendit. ⁴ Macedones ad depopulationem profecti;

[4] Philostratus⁵ cum cohorte sua in insidiis loco ⁶ obscuro consedit. in palatos populatores cum erupissent ab Antigonea armati, ⁷ fugientes eos persequentes effusius in vallem insessam ab hostibus praecipitant.

[5] ibi ad mille ⁸ occisis, centum ferme captis, et ubique prospere gesta re prope stativa Appi castra movent, ne qua vis sociis suis ab Romano exercitu inferri possit.

[6] Appius nequiquam in his locis terens tempus, dimissis Chaonum Thesprotorumque ⁹ et si qui alii Epirotae erant praesidiis, cum Italicis militibus in Illyricum regressus, per Parthinorum ¹⁰ socias urbes in hiberna militibus divisis, ¹¹ ipse Romam sacrificii causa redit.

[7] Perseus ex Penestarum gente mille pedites, ducentos equites revocatos Cassandream, praesidio ut essent, misit.

[8] Ab Gentio eadem adferentes redierunt. nec deinde alios atque alios mittendo temptare eum destitit, cum appareret, quantum in eo praesidii esset, nec tamen impetrare ab animo posset, ut impensam in rem maximi ad omnia momenti faceret.

Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn Perseus (Weissenborn, W.; Müller, H. J., editors. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1873-1883.) — 37.35 focus

[1]

advocato frequenti consilio legati verba sunt audita.

[2] is, multis ante legationibus ultro citroque nequiquam de pace missis, eam ipsam fiduciam impetrandi sibi esse dixit, quod priores legati nihil impetrassent: Zmyrnam enim et Lampsacum et Alexandriam Troadem et Lysimachiam in Europa iactatas in illis disceptationibus esse;

[4] impensae quoque in bellum factae partem dimidiam regem praestaturum populo Romano.

[5] hae condiciones erant pacis; reliqua oratio fuit, ut memores rerum humanarum et suae fortunae moderarentur et alienam ne urgerent. finirent Europa imperium, id ¹ quoque immensum esse;

[6] et parari singula acquirendo facilius potuisse quam universa teneri posse;

[7] quod si Asiae quoque partem aliquam abstrahere velint, dummodo non dubiis regionibus finiant; vinci suam temperantiam Romana cupiditate pacis et concordiae causa regem passurum. ea, quae legato magna ad pacem impetrandam videbantur, parva Romanis visa:

[8] nam et impensam, quae in bellum facta esset, omnem praestare regem aequum censebant,

[9] cuius culpa bellum excitatum esset, et non Ionia modo atque Aeolide deduci debere regia praesidia,

[10] sed sicut Graecia omnis liberata esset, ita, quae in Asia sint, omnes liberari urbes; id aliter fieri non posse, quam ut cis Taurum montem possessione Asiae Antiochus cedat.

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library)) — 37.35 focus

[1]

A full council being assembled, audience was given to the ambassador,

[2] who said, that,

though many embassies about peace had already been sent backwards and forwards, without producing any effect, yet he conceived strong hopes of obtaining it, because the former ambassadors had obtained nothing. For the objects of contention in those discussions were Smyrna and Lampsacus, Alexandria in the Troad, and Lysimachia in Europe.

[3]

Of these, the king had already ceded Lysimachia, that they might not say that he possessed any thing in Europe; and those cities which lay in Asia, he was now ready to deliver up as well as any others, which the Romans might wish to render independent of the king's government, because they belonged to their party. The king was also willing to pay to the Roman people half the expense of the war.

[4] These were the conditions of peace.

[5] The rest of his discourse was,

that, mindful of human affairs, they should use with moderation their own good fortune, and not press too severely on the misfortune of others; that they should limit their empire by Europe; that single acquisitions could be made with more ease than that necessary for holding them collectively.

[6]

But if they would wish to take away some part of Asia, provided

[7]

that they would define it by indisputable limits, the king, for the sake of peace and harmony, would willingly suffer his own moderate temper to be overcome by the insatiableness of the Romans.

These concessions, which appeared to the ambassador of great moment towards obtaining a peace, the Romans deemed trifling.

[8] They thought it just, that

the king should defray the whole expense occasioned by the war, because it was through his fault that it was begun.

[9]

And that, not only Ionia and Aeolia ought to be evacuated by the king's troops, but as all Greece had been set free, so all the cities of that nation in Asia should also be free.

[10]

That this could be effected in no other way, than by Antiochus relinquishing the possession of that part of Asia on the hither side of Mount Taurus.

History of Rome Perseus (Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.) — 37.35 focus

[1]

A full council assembled to hear what he had to say.

[2] The purport of his speech was as follows: "Many embassies have passed to and fro on the question of peace, and have been fruitless; I entertain strong hopes of gaining it from the very fact that those negotiators gained nothing. For the difficulty in former discussions was the position of Smyrna, Lampsacus, Alexandra Troas and the European city of Lysimachia.

[3] Of these Lysimachia has already been evacuated by the king, so that you cannot say that he holds anything in Europe. He is prepared to give up those which are in Asia, and any others in his dominions which the Romans wish to claim on the ground that they are on the side of Rome.

[4] He is also prepared to pay half the cost of the war." These were the proposed conditions of peace.

[5] In the rest of his speech he advised the council to remember the uncertainty of human affairs, to make a moderate use of their own good fortune, and not treat the misfortunes of others oppressively.

[6] Let them limit their dominion to Europe, even that was an immense empire; it was easier to extend it by single acquisitions than to hold it together in its entirety.

[7] If, however, they wanted to annex some part of Asia, provided it was defined by clearly ascertained boundaries, the king would, for the sake of peace and concord, allow his own sense of moderation and equity to give way before the Roman greed for territory.

[8] These arguments in favour of peace, which the speaker thought so convincing, the Romans regarded as so much trifling.

[9] They considered it only just that the king, who was responsible for starting the war, should bear the whole cost of it, and that his garrisons should be withdrawn, not only from Ionia and Aeolis, but from all the

[10] cities in Asia, which should be as free as all the liberated cities in Greece, and this could only be effected if Antiochus surrendered all his Asiatic possessions west of the Taurus range.

Notes on the current edition

Ab Urbe Condita With An English Translation, books 1-10, 21-45, with periochae 11-20

1. The first three cities here mentioned have frequently been spoken of by Livy: cf. e.g. XXXV. xlii. 2; Lysimachia has not figured in the debates and Polybius (XXI. xiii) omits it from his account of this incident.

2. B.C. 190

3. Polybius omits this comparison of Asia and Greece.

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 37.35

Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor)

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