The Prestige of Rome.

Judas heard of the reputation of the Romans--how they were mighty men who favored all who joined themselves to them and made an alliance with all who came to them and were strong and powerful. He had also been told of the battles they had fought and of the brave deeds that they had performed against the people of Gaul as they conquered them and forced them to pay tribute, and what they had done in the province of Spain, seizing the silver and gold mines there and by their planning and persistence gaining control of the entire country even though it was considerably distant from their own. They also had subdued kings who had come against them from the ends of the earth, crushing them and inflicting heavy losses on them, while the rest paid tribute to them every year.

       Philip and Perseus, the king of the Macedonians, and the others who had engaged in battle against them had been crushed by them and subjugated. They had also defeated Antiochus the Great, the king of Asia, who had attacked them with one hundred and twenty elephants, and with cavalry and chariots and a very large army. They had taken him alive and imposed terms of surrender that obligated him and his successors to pay a substantial annual tribute, give hostages, and surrender portions of his best provinces--the countries of India, Media, and Lydia--which they took from him and gave to King Eumenes. When the Greeks devised a plan to attack and destroy them, the Romans got wind of it and sent against them a single general. In the ensuing battle many of the Greeks were wounded and fell, and the Romans took captive their wives and children, tore down their strongholds, and enslaved them, a status that they endure even to the present day. All of the other kingdoms and islands that opposed them they destroyed and subjugated.

       However, with their friends and those who depended on them for protection, they maintained strong ties of friendship. They had subdued kings far and near, and all who heard of their reputation were terrified of them. Those whom they wished to help ascend to a throne became kings; those whom they wished to depose were overthrown. As a result, they were greatly exalted. Yet for all this not one of them ever put on a crown or wore purple as an emblem of authority. They had built a senate house where each day three hundred and twenty senators deliberated on how best to achieve the well-being of the people. They entrusted one man each year to rule over them and their dominions; all obeyed this one man without any envy or jealousy.

1ST MACCABEES: CHAPTER 8, VERSES 1 - 16