Book 41
6
It was left to the consuls to decide what reply should be given to these envoys and to deal with the whole state of things in Sardinia. An equally tragic story was told by the Lycians, who had come to complain of the cruel tyranny of the Rhodians, under whose government they had been placed by L. Cornelius Scipio. They had been formerly under Antiochus and they assured the senate that their subjection under the king was glorious liberty compared with their present condition. It was not political oppression only under which they were suffering, but absolute slavery; they, their wives and children were the victims of violence; their oppressors vented their rage on their persons and their backs, their good name was besmirched and dishonoured, their condition rendered detestable in order that their tyrants might openly assert a legal right over them and reduce them to the status of slaves bought with money. Moved by this recital, the senate gave the Lycians a letter to hand to the Rhodians, intimating that it was not the pleasure of the senate that either the Lycians or any other men born free should be handed over as slaves to the Rhodians or any one else. The Lycians possessed the same rights under the suzerainty and protection of Rhodes that friendly states possessed under the suzerainty of Rome.
