the time when Antiochus occupied <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Egypt&groupId=556&placeId=368">Egypt</a>, those of the envoys from Greece who were sent to make peace joined him. Giving them a kind reception he entertained them splendidly on the first occasion of his meeting them, and on the second granted them an audience, and bade them tell him what their instructions were.
The first to speak were the envoys from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Achaea&groupId=272&placeId=533">Achaea</a>, the next was Demaratus from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Athens&groupId=379&placeId=715">Athens</a>, and after him Eudemus of Miletus.
As they all spoke in allusion to the same circumstances and on the same subject, the particulars of all the speeches were very similar.
They all ascribed the fault for what had happened to Eulaeus, and, pleading Ptolemy's kinship with the king and his youth, attempted to appease the wrath of Antiochus.
The king accepted all these pleas, even attaching greater weight to them than they did, but began to speak about his original rights, attempting to convince them that the district of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Coele-Syria&groupId=484&placeId=908">Coele-Syria</a> was the property of the kings of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syria&groupId=995&placeId=502">Syria</a>, and mentioning the grant made to Seleucus by the kings of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> after the death of Antigonus. Further he rested his case on the occupation of the country by his father Antiochus after a war;
and finally denied the existence of the agreement stated by those in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alexandria&groupId=1063&placeId=1868">Alexandria</a> to have been made between his father and the Ptolemy recently deceased, by which the latter should receive <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Coele-Syria&groupId=484&placeId=908">Coele-Syria</a> as a dowry when he married Cleopatra, the mother of the present king.
After speaking in this sense, and convincing not only himself but his auditors that he was right, he crossed to Naucratis.
After showing kindness to the people there, and making a present of a gold stater to each of the Greek residents, he advanced towards <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Alexandria&groupId=1063&placeId=1868">Alexandria</a>.
He promised to reply to the envoys when Aristeides and Theris had returned to him.
He said he had dispatched them to Ptolemy, and he wished the envoys from Greece to be cognisant and witnesses of everything.
Walbank Commentary