39.
At this time, too, Lucius Cornelius, sent by the senate to arbitrate the difference between the [p. 383]kings, Antiochus and Ptolemy, stopped at Selymbria, -1 and some of the ten commissioners, Publius Lentulus from Bargyliae and Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius from Thasos, came to Lysimachia.
[2]
Also, Lucius Cornelius from Selymbria and Antiochus from Thrace arrived there a few days later.
[3]
There was a preliminary meeting with the ambassadors and then a kindly and hospitable reception, but when the debate over their instructions and the present situation in Asia began, there were displays of temper.
[4]
The Romans did not conceal the fact that his conduct, from the time he set sail from Syria, was displeasing to the senate, and they also deemed it right that all the cities which had belonged to Ptolemy should be restored to him;
[5]
for, as regards the cities formerly held by Philip, which Antiochus had taken the opportunity to seize while Philip was
[6]
engaged in the Roman war, they regarded it as surely unendurable that the Romans should have suffered so many toils and dangers for so many years on land and sea and that Antiochus should carry off the prizes of war.
[7]
But, granting that the Romans pretended to ignore his advance into Asia as an act which did not concern them, what then? What of the fact that he was even then crossing into Europe with all his fleets and armies, and how far did that differ from an open declaration of war on the Romans? He, of course, would deny it, even if he crossed into Italy, but the Romans would not wait for him to have the power to do this.
1 B.C. 196
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