I ask myself further on my own part: Does not avarice make fools of us? For who can help observing the folly of both kings? How could Eumenes expect, in view of the extremely distant terms they were on, to be trusted and to receive such a large sum of money, unable as he was to give Perseus any proper security for its return if he failed to fulfil his promises?
And how did he think he could receive such a sum without the Romans finding it out?
For if not at once, they would have done so later.
So that, in return for the money given him, he was sure to have to reckon on a quarrel with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, which would result in the loss not only of the money he had received but of his kingdom and perhaps his life, once he was the declared enemy of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>.
For if now, when he had not done anything but merely had thought of it, he incurred such extreme danger, what was the treatment he would have deserved had he succeeded in carrying out the foregoing design!
As to Perseus again, every one must wonder why he did not think it the most advantageous thing for himself and most in his interest to give the money and let Eumenes swallow the bait.
For if Eumenes had helped him as he promised, and put an end to the war, the gift would have been worth his while;
but if he had been deceived in this hope, he would certainly at least have involved Eumenes in enmity with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, it being in his power to make the transaction public.
And it is easy to see, when we think of it, how valuable this would have been to Perseus, whether he were successful in the war or the reverse.
For he considered Eumenes to have been the cause of all his misfortunes, and he could not have taken more effectual vengeance on him than by making him the enemy of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>.
What, then, was the reason of this evident folly on both sides? Avarice: what else could we say? For the one prince, to receive a gift which dishonoured him, neglect all other considerations, and undertook to do any dirty service; while the other, to save giving it, was ready to suffer any disaster and shut his eyes to all consequences.
Perseus behaved in the same way towards the Galatians and towards Genthius. . . .
Walbank Commentary