55.
After the Rhodians the ambassadors of Antiochus were summoned. In the usual fashion of envoys begging for mercy, they confessed the wrongdoing of the king and implored the conscript Fathers,
[2??]
in arriving at a decision, to pay regard to their own clemency rather than to the error of the king, who had paid a sufficient and more than sufficient penalty; finally, they requested that they would ratify by their authority the peace proposed by Lucius Scipio the commander, on the terms which he had stated.
[3]
And the senate voted that this treaty of peace should be ratified, and a few days later the assembly so ordered. The treaty was struck on the Capitoline with Antipater the chief of the embassy and likewise the son of the brother of King Antiochus.
[4]
Then other embassies also from Asia were heard.1 To all these the same reply was given, that the senate, in the fashion of their forefathers, would send ten commissioners to adjudge cases arising in Asia [p. 463]and to settle differences;
[5]
yet the general principle2 followed would be this, that on this side of the Taurus mountains the districts which had been within the boundaries of the kingdom of Antiochus should be assigned to Eumenes with the exception of Lycia and Caria as far as the Meander river;
[6]
that these should be given to the Rhodian state; that the other cities of Asia which had paid tribute to Attalus should also be tributaries to Eumenes; that those which had been vassals of Antiochus should be independent and free from tribute.3
[7]
They chose these ten commissioners: Quintus Minucius Rufus, Lucius Furius Purpurio, Quintus Minucius Thermus, Appius Claudius Nero, Gnaeus Cornelius Merula, Marcus Junius Brutus, Lucius Aurunculeius, Lucius Aemilius Paulus, Publius Cornelius Lentulus, Publius Aelius Tubero.4
1 In addition to the major parties interested in the settlement, Antiochus, Eumenes and the Rhodians, there were apparently many other cities and states which neither Polybius nor Livy finds it necessary to mention by name, but whose claims had to be considered. One can easily imagine that the senate would feel somewhat bewildered, since war and victory had previously been simple problems in their experience.
2 B.C. 189
3 The terms of the final settlement, conforming in general to the principle here stated, are given in XXXVIII. xxxviii. It is obvious that an effort has been made to satisfy both Eumenes and the Rhodians.
4 The first three of these had been consuls. If the otherwise unknown Cn. Cornelius Merula is a mistake for Cn. Corn. Merenda, all the others had been praetors. In contrast to the habit of including former commanders in commissions sent to Greece, the Scipios and Acilius are —rather pointedly perhaps —omitted, as is Flamininus. The return of Paulus from Spain has not been mentioned before, and his name may have been added later as a concession to the Scipionic party. The commission is then undistinguished for either reputation or demonstrated capacity, though I hesitate to say that this was deliberate.
Livy. Books XXXV-XXXVII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935: published without copyright notice.
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