Book 42
14
This speech made a great impression on the House, but for the time no one outside could learn anything beyond the fact of the king's presence in the House, in such silence were the proceedings veiled. Only when the war was over did what the king said and what the senate replied leak out. A few days later the envoys of King Perseus were admitted to an audience. But the minds, no less than the ears, of the senators had been captured by Eumenes, and all that the Macedonian envoys alleged in justification or apology found no hearing. The effrontery of Harpalus, the leader of the embassy, created still more exasperation. He said that the king was anxious that when he declared that he had neither said nor done anything of a hostile character, his statement should be believed. If, however, he saw that they were obstinately bent upon finding some excuse for war, he should depend upon himself with resolution and courage; the chances of war were the same for both sides and the issue was uncertain.
