Kitap 42
41
The king replied: "A defence which before impartial judges would be a good one, I have now to make before judges who are also accusers. As to the charges brought up against me, some of them I rather think I ought to be proud of, others I am not ashamed to admit, others again, which are simply assertions, it is enough for me simply to deny. If I were standing my trial under your laws, what evidence could either the Brundisian informer or Eumenes bring against me which would make their accusations appear true rather than false and malicious? Eumenes, who oppresses so many of his subjects both in his public and private life, has had, I suppose, no other enemy but me, and I have, it seems, been unable to discover a more capable agent for criminal deeds than Rammius, a man whom I had never seen before, and was never to see again. I have also to account for the deaths of the Thebans, who everybody knows were drowned at sea, and for the death of Arthetaurus; here, however, no charge is brought against me beyond the fact that his murderers found refuge in my dominions. I will not protest against the unfairness of this argument, if you in your turn allow that if any refugees have escaped to Italy or to Rome you were the authors of the crimes of which they have been found guilty. If you, in common with all other nations, refuse to admit this, then I shall be with the rest of the world. Good heavens! what boots it for a man to be free to go into exile, if there is nowhere a place where an exile can go? Nevertheless, as soon as I was advised by you and ascertained that these men were in Macedonia, I ordered that search should be made for them, and that they should quit the kingdom, and I forbade them ever to cross my frontiers.
