Book 40
15
"Why do you not drop this story of what happened last night and come back to your real grievance which supplies the fuel to your jealousy? 'Why, Demetrius, are people talking everywhere about your being king? Why do you appear in some people's eyes to be a more worthy successor to your father's position than myself? Why do you cloud with doubt and anxiety those hopes which, if you did not exist, would be assured?' So Perseus thinks, if he does not speak his thoughts. It is this that makes him my enemy, my accuser, it is this that floods your palace and your realm with slander and suspicion. But, my father, as I am bound in duty not to hope for the crown nor, perhaps, ever to dispute it, since I am the younger and it is your wish that I should give place to the elder, so have I felt it my duty in the past and so I feel it today, never to show myself unworthy of you, my father, or unworthy of all my nation. For that would be caused by my faults, not by modestly giving way to him who has right and justice on his side. You bring up the Romans against me and turn into a crime what ought to be a source of pride. I never asked to be handed over to the Romans as a hostage, or to be sent as an envoy to Rome, but when sent by you I did not refuse to go. On both occasions I so conducted myself that neither you nor your sovereignty nor the whole of Macedonia could be ashamed of me. So you, my father, were the cause of my friendship with the Romans; as long as peace exists between you and them I too shall stand in favour with them. If war breaks out I, who have been a hostage and a not unsuccessful representative of my father, shall be their most determined foe. I do not claim today that my interest with the Romans shall help me, but I do pray that it may not injure me. It did not begin in a time of war nor is it reserved for a time of war. I was a pledge of peace, I was sent as an envoy to maintain the peace: neither of these should be put down to my credit or to my fault. If I have been guilty of undutiful conduct towards you, my father, or criminal designs against my brother, I am prepared to undergo any punishment. If I am innocent, I beg that I may not fall a victim to envy and malice, since I cannot suffer for any crime.
