Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 41
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. and Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D., Ed.

23. This one people out of all Greece, together with the Athenian state, had gone so far in their anger as to exclude Macedonians from their territories.¹ [2] And so when slaves escaped from Achaea Macedonia was a refuge for them because, since the Achaeans had forbidden the Macedonians to enter their country, they themselves did not dare to cross the frontiers of their kingdom. [3] Accordingly, when Perseus had become aware of this, he arrested all the fugitives [and sent letters graciously promising to restore such slaves to them].² But, he added, they too should take measures that similar escapes of slaves should not happen in future. [4] When this letter was read by their general Xenarchus, who was seeking for an opportunity to curry favour personally [p. 261]with the king, and when the majority believed that³ it had been written in a spirit of moderation and kindliness, this being especially the view of those who were to recover, contrary to expectations, their lost slaves, Callicrates, one of those who believed that the safety of the state depended on whether the treaty with the Romans were preserved [5] inviolate,⁴ spoke as follows:

“The matter under discussion, [7] Achaeans, appears to some to be trivial or of only moderate importance, but I for my part consider that a question by far the most serious of all is not only being decided, but somehow or other has been decided. For we who had forbidden to the kings of the Macedonians and to the Macedonians themselves admission to our territories and who knew that the decree was still in force, namely that by which we had made provision that we should not receive the [8] ambassadors or the messengers of the kings, through whom the sentiments of some of us might be affected, we, I say, are now listening to the king who, so to say, speaks to us though absent, and (heaven help us!) we even approve his speech. And while wild beasts generally disdain and refuse [9] food offered to entrap them, we, blind fools, are caught by the showy bait of a trifling kindness, and, in the hope of recovering some paltry slaves of the slightest value, permit our very liberty to be undermined and endangered. For who does not see that a way for an alliance with the king is being sought, whereby the Roman treaty, on which our whole fate depends, would be violated? Or is it doubtful to anybody that [10] a war between the Romans and Perseus is inevitable, and that this war, anticipated while Philip was alive and postponed [11] by [p. 263]his death, will come after the death of Philip? As you⁵ know, Philip had two sons, Demetrius and Perseus. In birth on his mother's side, in character, in intellect, in influence with the Macedonians, Demetrius far surpassed the other.⁶ But because Philip had set up the throne as a prize for hatred of the Romans, he put Demetrius to death, for no other crime than that he had cultivated [12] the friendship of the Romans; Perseus he made king, knowing that he would inherit a war with the Roman people almost before he could inherit the throne. Accordingly, what has he done after his father's death except prepare for war? First, to the alarm of all, he turned the Bastarnae loose into Dardania, and if they had retained this district Greece [13] would have found them neighbours more dangerous than Asia found the Gauls.⁷ Disappointed in that hope, he nevertheless did not abandon his plans for the war; no: if we are willing to speak frankly, he has already begun the war. Dolopia he has overrun with arms, and when they wished to appeal in their disputes to the arbitrament of the Roman people he paid no heed.⁸ Next, crossing Oeta, so that he suddenly appeared at the very navel of Greece, he climbed up to Delphi. Toward what, do [14] you think, does this assumption of the right to travel an unaccustomed route tend? Then he traversed Thessaly; but if he did so without injuring in any way men whom he hated, all the [15??] more do I fear his scheming. Next he directed a letter to us, under pretence of doing us a service, and bids us consider how we shall not need this service in future, that is, that we shall repeal the [p. 265]decree by which Macedonians are excluded from the⁹ Peloponnesus, and again see the king's ambassadors, and hospitalities exchanged with their leaders, and presently Macedonian armies and even the king himself crossing from Delphi (for how great a strait flows between us?¹⁰ ) to the Peloponnesus, and shall [16] be mingled with the Macedonians as they arm themselves against the Romans! I vote that we shall decree nothing new but preserve everything as it is, until it shall [17] be reduced to certainty whether our fears are false or justified. If the peace between the Macedonians and the Romans remains inviolate, let us [18??] too share the friendship and the intercourse; to plan about it now seems dangerous and premature.”