39.  About this time Lucius Cornelius, who had been commissioned by the senate to accommodate the differences between the kings Antiochus and Ptolemy, stopped at Selymbria; and, of the ten ambassadors, Publius Lentulus from Bargylii, and Publius Villius and Lucius Terentius from Thasus, came to Lysimachia.  Hither came, likewise, Lucius Cornelius from Selymbria, and a few days after Antiochus from Thrace.  His first meeting with the ambassadors, and an invitation which he afterwards gave them, were friendly and hospitable; but when the business intrusted to them and the present state of Asia, came to be treated of, the minds of both parties were exasperated.  The Romans did not scruple to declare, that every one of his proceedings, from the time when he set sail from Syria, was displeasing to the senate; and they required restitution to be made, to Ptolemy, of all the cities which had been under his dominion.  “For, as to what related to the cities which had been in the possession of Philip, and which Antiochus, taking advantage of a season when Philip’s attention was turned to the war with Rome, had seized into his own hands, it would surely be an intolerable hardship, if the Romans were to have undergone such toils and dangers, on land and sea, for so many years, and Antiochus to appropriate to himself the prizes of the war.  But, though his coming into Asia might be passed over unnoticed by the Romans, as a matter not pertaining to them, yet when he proceeded so far as to pass over into Europe with all his land and naval forces, how much was this short of open war with the Romans?  Doubtless, had he even passed into Italy, he would deny that intention.  But the Romans would not wait to give him an opportunity of doing so.”

40.  To this the king replied, that “he wondered how it was, that the Romans were in the habit of diligently inquiring what ought to be done by king Antiochus; but never considered how far they themselves ought to advance on land or sea.  Asia was no concernment of the Romans, in any shape; nor had they any more right to inquire what Antiochus did in Asia, than Antiochus had to inquire what the Roman people did in Italy.  With respect to Ptolemy, from whom they complained that cities had been taken, there was a friendly connexion subsisting between him and Ptolemy, and he was taking measures to effect speedily a connexion of affinity also; neither had he sought to acquire any spoils from the misfortunes of Philip, nor had he come into Europe against the Romans, but to recover the cities and lands of the Chersonese, which, having been the property of Lysimachus,[1] he considered as part of his own dominion; because, when Lysimachus was subdued, all things belonging to him became, by the right of conquest, the property of Seleucus.  That, at times, when his predecessors were occupied by cares of different kinds, Ptolemy first, and afterwards Philip, usurping the rights of others, possessed themselves of several of these places, but who could doubt that the Chersonese and the nearest parts of Thrace belonged to Lysimachus?  To restore these to their ancient state, was the intent of his coming, and to build Lysimachia anew, (it having been destroyed by an inroad of the Thracians,) in order that his son, Seleucus, might have it for the seat of his empire.”