He closed with an earnest appeal. "I am not, senators, laying these facts before you as bruited in vague rumours, or because I wished such charges against an enemy to be true, and therefore was the more eager to credit them; I am stating the results of my investigations and disclosures just as though you had sent me on a mission of enquiry and I were reporting what I had actually seen. I would not have left my kingdom, to which you have given such extension and prestige, and undertaken so long a voyage merely to destroy all faith in me by telling you idle tales. I saw the greatest cities in Greece and Asia unveiling their designs day by day, and soon, were they allowed, they will have gone so far that there will be no room left for repentance. I have watched Perseus, not confining himself within his own borders, taking armed possession of some places, and where others could not be seized by force, winning them by a show of favour and goodwill. I observed how unequal the conditions were; he preparing for war against you and you making peace secure for him, though it seemed to me as if he were not so much preparing for war as actually commencing it. Abrupolis, your friend and ally, he has expelled from his kingdom. Arthetaurus, the Illyrian, also your friend and ally, he caused to be put to death because he discovered that he had written to you. Euersas and Callicritus, leading men in Thebes, he managed to get put out of the way because they spoke too frankly against him in the council of Boeotia and declared that they should inform you about what was going on. He sent help to the Byzantines in violation of the treaty; he levied war on Dolopia; he marched his army through Thessaly and Doris in order that, should civil war break out, he might smash the more respectable party by the means of the more disreputable one. He brought about universal confusion in Thessaly and Perrhaebia by holding out the prospect of a cancellation of all debts, so that he might crush the aristocracy by a body of debtors bound by their obligations to him. As you have remained quiet and allowed him to do all this, and as he sees that, as far as you are concerned, Greece has been handed over to him, he takes it for granted that he will meet with no armed opposition before he has landed in Italy. How far this is an honourable or safe policy for you to pursue, it is for you to consider. I, at all events, felt that it would be disgraceful on my part if Perseus came and carried war into Italy before I, your ally, had warned you to be on your guard. I have discharged the duty incumbent upon me and have relieved myself of what was a burden on my loyalty. What can I do more, except to pray heaven that you may consult the true interest of your commonwealth and of us, your allies and friends, who depend on you?"