At the head of the embassy were Menippus and Hegesianax; the former of whom said, that "he could not conceive what intricacy there was in the business of their embassy, as they came simply to ask friendship, and conclude an alliance.

Now, there were three kinds of treaties, by which kings and states formed friendships with each other: one, when terms were dictated to a people vanquished in war; for after all their possessions have been surrendered to him who has proved superior in war, he has the sole power of judging and determining what portion of them the vanquished shall hold, and of what they shall be deprived.

The second, when parties, equally matched in war, conclude a treaty of peace and friendship on terms of equality; for then demands are proposed and restitution made, reciprocally, in a convention; and if, in consequence of the war, confusion has arisen with respect to any parts of their properties, the matter is adjusted on the footing either of ancient right or of the mutual convenience of the parties.

The third kind was, when parties who had never been foes, met to form a friendly union by a social treaty: these neither dictate nor receive terms, for that is the case between a victor and a party vanquished.

As Antiochus came under this last description, he wondered, he said, that the Romans should think it becoming to dictate terms to him; as to which of the cities of Asia they chose should be free and independent, which should be tributary, and which of them the king's troops and the king himself should be prohibited to enter.