1. Judas had heard of the reputation of the Romans. They were valiant fighters and acted amiably to all who took their side. They established a friendly alliance with all who applied to them.
2. He was also told of their battles and the brave deeds that they performed against the Gauls, conquering them and forcing them to pay tribute;
3. and what they did in Spain to get possession of the silver and gold mines there.
4. By planning and persistence they subjugated the whole region, although it was very remote from their own. They also subjugated the kings who had come against them from the far corners of the earth until they crushed them and inflicted on them severe defeat. The rest paid tribute to them every year.
5. Philip and Perseus, king of the Macedonians, and the others who opposed them in battle they overwhelmed and subjugated.
6. Antiochus the Great, king of Asia, who fought against them with a hundred and twenty elephants and with cavalry and chariots and a very great army, was defeated by them.
7. They took him alive and obliged him and the kings who succeeded him to pay a heavy tribute, to give hostages and to cede
8. Lycia, Mysia, and Lydia from among their best provinces. The Romans took these from him and gave them to King Eumenes.
9. When the Greeks planned to come and destroy them,
10. the Romans discovered it, and sent against the Greeks a single general who made war on them. Many were wounded and fell, and the Romans took their wives and children captive. They plundered them, took possession of their land, tore down their strongholds and reduced them to slavery even to this day.
11. All the other kingdoms and islands that had ever opposed them they destroyed and enslaved; with their friends, however, and those who relied on them, they maintained friendship.