Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 45
William A. McDevitte, Sen. Class. Mod. Ex. Schol. A.B.T.C.D., Ed.

24. “What charge then remains, of which we are to acquit ourselves, since there has been no hostile act on our part, and the insolent language of an ambassador, though grating to the ear, has not deserved the ruin of a state. [2] Conscript fathers, I hear that the estimate of the penalty for our secret wishes has become the subject of your conversation. [3] Some assert that we favoured the king, and therefore that we should be punished with war; others, that we did indeed wish him success, but ought not, on that account, to suffer the penalty of war, since it has not been so instituted either by the practice or laws of any state, that if any one should wish an enemy to perish, he should be condemned, provided that he did nothing towards effecting his wishes. [4] We feel, indeed, grateful to those who absolve us from the punishment, though not from the crime; but we lay down this law for ourselves: if we all entertained the wishes of which we are accused, we will then make no distinction between the will and the deed: let us all be punished. [5] If some of our people in power favoured you, and others the king, I do not demand, that for the sake of us who were on your side, the favourers of the king may be saved; but I deprecate our perishing through them. [6] You are not more inveterate against them than is our state itself; and most of them, when they ascertained this, fled, or put themselves to death, the others have been condemned by us, and [p. 2144]they will soon be in your power, conscript fathers. [7] The rest of us Rhodians, as we have merited no thanks during the war, so neither have we deserved punishment. Let the accumulation of our former services atone for our present dereliction of duty. [8] You have recently waged war with three kings: let not the circumstance of our having been inactive in one of these wars, be more injurious to us than our having fought on your side in the other two has served us. [9] Consider Philip, Antiochus, and Perseus, as you would three votes; two of them acquit us; one, although it would be unfavourable, is nevertheless doubtful. If they were to sit in judgment over us, we would be condemned. Conscript fathers, you are to decide, whether Rhodes is to continue on the earth or to be utterly destroyed. [10] You are not deliberating concerning war, conscript fathers, for though it is in your power to declare war, it is not in your power to wage it, as not a single Rhodian will take up arms against you. [11] If you persist in your anger, we will beg time from you, until we carry home an account of this unhappy embassy. We will then, every free person of all the Rhodians, both men and women, with all our wealth, embark in ships, and leaving the seats of our tutelar deities, both public and private, repair to Rome, where, heaping together in the Comitium, at the door of your senate-house, all our gold [12??] and silver, all the public and private property that we possess, we will submit our persons, and those of our wives and children, to your disposal; that, whatever we are to suffer, we may suffer here. Let our city be sacked and burned far away from our view. [13] The Romans may pass a judgment, that the Rhodians are enemies; [14] but we have also a right, in some degree, to judge ourselves; and we never will judge ourselves your enemies, nor do one hostile act, should we even suffer extreme calamities.”