After a few moments' silence Marcius said: "I suppose you are expecting me to give you a reply to the letter which you sent to Corcyra in which you ask us why we who are envoys have come with soldiers and are distributing garrisons in the various cities. [2] Not to give you any reply would, I fear, be thought arrogant, whilst a truthful reply would pain you whilst you listened to it. [3] As, however, he who breaks a treaty must be chastised either by word of mouth or by force of arms, and much as I could have wished that war against you had been entrusted to another rather than to me, I will discharge my task of telling my guest-friend some unpleasant truths, however matters stand, like physicians who administer disagreeable remedies to restore a patient's health.
[4] "As soon as you ascended the throne you did one thing which in the opinion of the senate you were right in doing, you sent an embassy to Rome to renew the treaty, but they hold that it would have been better not to renew it than to violate it after it was renewed. You drove Abrupolis, an ally and friend of Rome, out of his kingdom. [5] You sheltered the assassins of Arthetaurus, showing that you were glad-I will not say more-that he was murdered. The man whom they killed was of all the Illyrian princes the most loyal to the cause of Rome. [6] You marched with an army through Thessaly and the district of Malis up to Delphi, against the provisions of the treaty, and you also sent assistance to the Byzantines. You made a secret and separate treaty, ratified by an oath, with the Boeotians, our allies, which was forbidden. As for the Theban envoys, Euersas and Callicritus, who were murdered on their way to Rome, I prefer to enquire who killed them rather than to charge anyone with it. [7] Who could possibly be considered responsible for the civil war in Aetolia, and the deaths of the leaders, unless it were your party? The devastation of Dolopia was your own doing. [8] When Eumenes was returning from Rome to his kingdom he narrowly escaped being butchered at Delphi, like a victim on consecrated ground before the altar. I shrink from saying whom he accuses of this. [9] I have certain proof that the secret crimes of which your friend at Brundisium gave us information were all communicated to you in writing by your friends in Rome and reported to you by your envoys. [10] My saying all this might have been avoided by you, had you taken a different course and not asked us why the armies were coming into Macedonia and why we are stationing garrisons in the different cities. Had we kept silent, we should have shown you less consideration than we have done by a statement of facts. [11] Out of regard for the friendship which we have inherited from our fathers I shall give you a favourable hearing, and I only wish that you may furnish me with some grounds for my pleading your cause before the senate."
