<head>Affairs of Rhodes</head>In <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> the spirit of faction was growing ever more violent.
For when they heard of the senatus-consultum, in which they were instructed to pay no further attention to the orders of Roman generals, but only to the decrees of the senate itself, and when the majority approved of this wise action of the senate, Philophron and Theaedetus seized on this pretext to pursue their policy, saying that envoys should be sent to the senate, to Quintus Marcius Philippus, the consul, and to Gaius Marcius Figulus the commander of the fleet; for by this time it was already known which of the designated magistrates in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> would be coming to Grecian parts. The proposal was applauded, although there was some opposition; and at the beginning of summer there were sent to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> three envoys, Hagesilochus the son of Hagesias, Nicagoras, and Nicander, and to the consul and the commander of the fleet three others, Hagepolis, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Ariston&groupId=365&placeId=695">Ariston</a>, and Pasicrates, with instructions to renew kindly relations with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> and to defend <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a> from the charges brought by some against her, Hagesilochus and his colleagues being also charged to obtain permission to export corn from other parts.
I have already reported their speech to the senate, and the answer they received from it; and how after the kindest possible reception they returned.
As regards this matter it serves some purpose to remind my readers frequently, as indeed I attempt to do, that I am often compelled to report the interviews and proceedings of embassies before announcing the circumstances of their appointment and dispatch.
For as, in narrating in their proper order the events of each year, I attempt to comprise under a separate heading the events that happened in each country in that year, it is evident that this must sometimes occur in my work.
Walbank Commentary