To Antiochos Epiphanis

The young Antiochian said to the king:
"My heart pulses with a precious hope.
The Macedonians, Antiochos Epiphanis,
the Macedonians are back in the great fight.
Let them only win, and I'll give anyone who wants them
the lion and the horses, the coral Pan,
the elegant palace, the gardens of Tyre,
and everything else you've given me, Antiochos Epiphanis."

The king may have been moved a little,
but then he remembered his father, his brother,
and said nothing: an eavesdropper
might repeat something they'd said.-
In any case, as was to be expected,
the terrible defeat came swiftly, at Pydna.

Constantine P. Cavafy

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