After their withdrawal Apollonidas of Sicyon rose. He said that sum offered by Eumenes was a gift not unworthy of the Achaeans' acceptance,
but that the intention of the giver and the purpose to which it was to be applied were as disgraceful and illegal as could be.
For, as it was forbidden by law for any private person or magistrate to receive gifts, on no matter what pretext, from a king, that all should be openly bribed by accepting this money was the most illegal thing conceivable, besides being confessedly the most disgraceful.
For that the parliament should be in Eumenes' pay every year, and discuss public affairs after swallowing a bait, so to speak, would evidently involve disgrace and hurt.
Now it was Eumenes who was giving them money; next time it would be Prusias, and after that Seleucus.
"And," he said, "as the interests of democracies and kings are naturally opposed, and most debates and the most important deal with out differences with the kings,
it is evident that perforce one or the other thing will happen: either the interests of the kings will take precedence of our own; or, if this is not so, we shall appear to every one to be ungrateful in acting against our paymasters."
So he exhorted the Achaeans not only to refuse the gift, but to detest Eumenes for his purpose in offering it.
The next speaker was Cassander of Aegina, who reminded the Achaeans of the destitution which had overtaken the Aeginetans owing to their being members of the League at the time when Publius Sulpicius Galba had attacked Aegina with his fleet and sold into slavery all its unhappy inhabitants;
and how, as I have narrated in a previous book, the Aetolians gained possession of the town by their treaty with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, and handed it over to Attalus on receipt of thirty talents.
Laying this before the eyes of the Achaeans, he begged Eumenes not to fish for the good offices of the Achaeans by making advantageous offers, but by giving up the city of Aegina, to secure without a dissentient voice their complete devotion.
He exhorted the Achaeans at the same time not to accept a gift which would clearly involve their depriving the Aeginetans of all hope of deliverance in the future.
In consequence of these speeches the people were so deeply moved that not a soul ventured to take the part of the king, but all with loud shouts rejected the proffered gift, although owing to the greatness of the sum the temptation seemed almost irresistible.
Walbank Commentary