10
Forty days were passed in view of the enemy, without making any kind of effort. Hence Philip conceived hopes of bringing about a treaty of peace, through the mediation of the people of Epirus; and a council, which was held for the purpose, having appointed Pausanias, the praetor, and Alexander, the master of the horse, as negotiators, they brought the consul and the king to a conference, on the banks of the river Aous, where the channel was narrowest. The sum of the consul's demands was, that the king should withdraw his troops from the territories of the several states; that, to those whose lands and cities he had plundered, he should restore such of their effects as could be found; and that the value of the rest should be estimated by a fair arbitration. Philip answered, that "the cases of the several states differed widely from each other. That such as he himself had seized on, he would set at liberty; but he would not divest himself of the hereditary and just possessions which had been conveyed down to him from his ancestors. If those states, with whom hostilities had been carried on, complained of any losses in the war, he was ready to submit the matter to the arbitration of any state with whom both parties were at peace." To this the consul replied, that "the business required neither judge nor arbitrator: for to whom was it not evident that every injurious consequence of the war was to be imputed to him who first took up arms. And in this case Philip, unprovoked by any, had first commenced hostilities against all." When they next began to treat of those nations which were to be set at liberty, the consul named, first, the Thessalians: on which the king, fired with indignation, exclaimed, "What harsher terms, Titus Quinctius, could you impose on me if I were vanquished?" With these words he retired hastily from the conference, and they were with difficulty restrained by the river which separated them from assaulting each other with missile weapons. On the following day many skirmishes took place between parties sallying from the outposts, in a plain sufficiently wide for the purpose. Afterwards the king's troops drew back into narrow and rocky places, whither the Romans, keenly eager for fighting, penetrated also. These had in their favour order and military discipline, while their arms were of a kind well calculated for protecting their persons. In favour of the enemy were the advantage of ground, and their balistas and catapultas disposed on almost every rock as on walls. After many wounds given and received on both sides, and numbers being slain, as in a regular engagement, darkness put an end to the fight.
11
While matters were in this state, a herdsman, sent by Charopus, prince of the Epirots, was brought to the consul. He said, that "being accustomed to feed his herd in the forest, then occupied by the king's camp, he knew every winding and path in the neighbouring mountains; and that if the consul thought proper to send some troops with him, he would lead them by a road, neither dangerous nor difficult, to a spot over the enemy's head." When the consul heard these things, he sent to Charopus to inquire if he considered that confidence might be placed in the rustic in so important a matter. Charopus ordered an answer to be returned, that he should give just so much credit to this man's account, as should still leave every thing rather in his own power than in that of the other. Though the consul rather wished than dared to give the intelligence full belief, and though his mind was possessed by mingled emotions of joy and fear, yet being moved by the confidence due to Charopus, he resolved to put to trial the prospect that was held out to him. In order to prevent all suspicion of the matter, during the two following days he carried on attacks against the enemy without intermission, drawing out troops against them in every quarter, and sending up fresh men to relieve the wearied. Then, selecting four thousand foot and three hundred horse, he put them under the command of a military tribune, with directions to advance the horse as far as the nature of the ground allowed; and when they came to places impassable to cavalry, then to post them in some plain; that the infantry should proceed by the road which the guide would show, and that when, according to his promise, they arrived on the height over the enemy's head, then they should give a signal by smoke, but raise no shout, until the tribune should have reason to think that, in consequence of the signal received from him, the battle was begun. He ordered that the march should take place by night, (the moon shining through the whole of it,) and employ the day in taking food and rest. The most liberal promises were made to the guide, provided he fulfilled his engagement; he bound him, nevertheless, and delivered him to the tribune. Having thus sent off this detachment, the Roman general exerted himself only the more vigorously in every part to make himself master of the posts of the enemy.
12
On the third day, the Roman party made the signal by smoke, to notify that they had gained possession of the eminence to which they had been directed; and then the consul, dividing his forces into three parts, marched up with the main strength of his army, through a valley in the middle, and made the wings on right and left advance to the camp of the enemy. Nor did these advance to meet him with less alacrity. The Roman soldiers, in the ardour of their courage, long maintained the fight on the outside of their works, for they had no small superiority in bravery, in skill, and in the nature of their arms; but when the king's troops, after many of them were wounded and slain, retreated into places secured either by intrenchments or situation, the danger reverted on the Romans, who pushed forward, inconsiderately, into disadvantageous grounds and defiles, out of which a retreat was difficult. Nor would they have extricated themselves without suffering for their rashness, had not the Macedonians, first, by a shout heard in their rear, and then by an attack begun on that quarter, been utterly dismayed and confounded at the unforeseen danger. Some betook themselves to a hasty flight: some, keeping their stand, rather because they could find no way for flight than that they possessed spirit to support the engagement, were cut off by the Romans, who pressed them hard both on front and rear. Their whole army might have been destroyed, had the victors continued their pursuit of the fugitives; but the cavalry were obstructed by the narrowness of the passes and the ruggedness of the ground; and the infantry, by the weight of their armour. The king at first fled with precipitation, and without looking behind him; but afterwards, when he had proceeded as far as five miles, he began, from recollecting the unevenness of the road, to suspect, (what was really the case,) that the enemy could not follow him; and halting, he despatched his attendants through all the hills and valleys to collect the stragglers together. His loss was not more than two thousand men. The rest of his army, coming to one spot, as if they had followed some signal, marched off, in a compact body, towards Thessaly. The Romans, after having pursued the enemy as far as they could with safety, killing such as they overtook, and despoiling the slain, seized and plundered the king's camp; which, even when it had no defenders, was difficult of access. The following night they were lodged within their own trenches.
13
Next day, the consul pursued the enemy through the same defiles through which the river winds its way among the valleys. The king came on the first day to the camp of Pyrrhus, a place so called in Triphylia, a district of Melotis; and on the following day he reached Mount Lingos, an immense march for his army, but his fear impelled him. This ridge of mountains belongs to Epirus, and stretches along between Macedonia and Thessaly; the side next to Thessaly faces the east, that next to Macedonia the north. These hills are thickly clad with woods, and on their summits have open plains and perennial streams. Here Philip remained encamped for several days, being unable to determine whether he should continue his retreat until he arrived in his own dominions, or whether he might venture back into Thessaly. At length, his decision leaned to leading down his army into Thessaly; and, going by the shortest roads to Tricca, he made hasty excursions from thence to all the cities within his reach. The inhabitants who were able to accompany him he summoned from their habitations, and burned the towns, allowing the owners to take with them such of their effects as they were able to carry; the rest became the prey of the soldiers; nor was there any kind of cruelty which they could have suffered from an enemy, that they did not suffer from these their confederates. These acts were painful to Philip even while he executed them; but as the country was soon to become the property of the foe, he wished to rescue out of it at least the persons of his allies. In this manner were ravaged the towns of Phacium, Iresiae, Euhydrium, Eretria, and Palaepharsalus. On his coming to Pherae, the gates were shut against him, and as it would necessarily occasion a considerable delay if he attempted to take it by force, and as he could not spare time, he dropped the design, and crossed over the mountains into Macedonia; for he had received intelligence, that the Aetolians too were marching towards him. These, on hearing of the battle fought on the banks of the river of Aous, first laid waste the nearest tracts round Sperchia, and Long Come, as they call it, and then, passing over into Thessaly, got possession of Cymine and Angeae at the first assault. From Metropolis they were repulsed by the inhabitants, who, while a part of their army was plundering the country, assembled in a body to defend the city. Afterwards, making an attempt on Callithera, they were attacked by the townsmen in a like manner; but withstood their onset with more steadiness, drove back into the town the party which had sallied, and content with that success, as they had no prospect whatever of taking the place by storm, retired. They then took by assault and sacked the towns of Theuma and Calathas. Acharrae they gained by surrender. Xyniae, through similar apprehensions, was abandoned by the inhabitants. These having forsaken their homes, and going together in a body, fell in with a party which was being marched to Thaumacus for the purpose of protecting their foragers; all of whom, an irregular and unarmed multitude, incapable of any resistance, were put to the sword by the troops. The deserted town of Xyniae was plundered. The Aetolians then took Cyphara, a fort conveniently situated on the confines of Dolopia. All this the Aetolians performed within the space of a few days.
14
Nor did Amynander and the Athamanians, when they heard of the victory obtained by the Romans, continue inactive. Amynander, having little confidence in his own troops, requested a slight auxiliary force from the consul; and then advancing towards Gomphi, he stormed on his march a place called Pheca, situate between that town and the narrow pass which separates Thessaly from Athamania. He then attacked Gomphi, and though the inhabitants defended it for several days with the utmost vigour, yet, as soon as he had raised the scaling ladders to the walls, the same apprehension (which had operated on others) at length compelled them to surrender. This capture of Gomphi spread the greatest consternation among the Thessalians: their fortresses of Argenta, Pherinus, Thimarus, Lisinae, Stimon, and Lampsus surrendered, one after another, with several other garrisons equally inconsiderable. While the Athamanians and Aetolians, delivered from fear of the Macedonians, converted to their own profit the fruits of another's victory; and Thessaly, ravaged by three armies at once, knew not which to believe its foe or its friend; the consul marched on, through the pass which the enemy's flight had left open, into the country of Epirus. Though he well knew which party the Epirots, excepting their prince Charopus, were disposed to favour, yet as he saw that, even from the motive of atoning for past behaviour, they obeyed his orders with diligence, he regulated his treatment of them by the standard of their present rather than of their former temper, and by this readiness to pardon conciliated their affection for the future. Then, sending orders to Corcyra for the transport ships to come into the Ambrician bay, he advanced by moderate marches, and on the fourth day pitched his camp on Mount Cercetius. Hither he ordered Amynander to come with his auxiliary troops; not so much as being in want of his forces, as that he might avail himself of them as his guides into Thessaly. With the same purpose, many volunteers of the Epirots also were admitted into the corps of auxiliaries.
15
Of the cities of Thessaly, the first which he attacked was Phaloria. The garrison here consisted of two thousand Macedonians, who at first resisted with the utmost vigour so far as their arms and fortifications could protect them. The assault was carried on without intermission or relaxation either by day or by night, because the consul thought that it would have a powerful effect on the spirits of the rest of the Thessalians, if the first who made trial of the Roman strength were unable to withstand it; and this at the same time subdued the obstinacy of the Macedonians. On the reduction of Phaloria, deputies came from Metropolis and Piera, surrendering those cities. To them, on their petition, pardon was granted: Phaloria was sacked, and burned. He then proceeded to Aeginium; but finding this place so circumstanced, that, even with a moderate garrison, it was safe, after discharging a few weapons against the nearest advanced guard he directed his march towards the territory of Gomphi; and thence descended into the plains of Thessaly. His army was now in want of every thing, because he had spared the lands of the Epirots; he therefore despatched messengers to learn whether the transports had reached Leucas and the Ambracian bay; sending the cohorts, in turn, to Ambracia for corn. Now, the road from Gomphi to Ambracia, although difficult and embarrassed, is very short; so that in a few days, provisions having been conveyed from the sea, his camp was filled with an abundant supply of all necessaries. He then marched to Atrax, which is about ten miles from Larissa, on the river Peneus. The inhabitants came originally from Perrhaebia. The Thessalians, here, were not in the least alarmed at the first coming of the Romans; and Philip, although he durst not himself advance into Thessaly, yet, keeping his stationary camp in the vale of Tempe, whenever any place was attempted by the enemy, he sent up reinforcements as occasion required.
16
About the time that Quinctius first pitched his camp opposite to Philip's, at the entrance of Epirus, Lucius, the consul's brother, whom the senate had commissioned both to the naval command and to the government of the coast, sailed over with two quinqueremes to Corcyra; and when he learned that the fleet had departed thence, thinking that no delay ought to be incurred, he followed, and overtook it at the island of Zama. Here he dismissed Lucius Apustius, in whose room he had been appointed, and then proceeded to Malea, but at a slow rate, being obliged, for the most part, to tow the vessels which accompanied him with provisions. From Malea, after ordering the rest to follow with all possible expedition, himself, with three light quinqueremes, hastened forward to the Piraeus, and took under his command the ships left there by Lucius Apustius, lieutenant-general, for the protection of Athens. At the same time, two fleets set sail from Asia; one of twenty-four quinqueremes, under king Attalus; the other belonging to the Rhodians, consisting of twenty decked ships, and commanded by Agesimbrotus. These fleets, joining near the island of Andros, sailed for Euboea, which was separated from them only by a narrow strait. They first ravaged the lands belonging to Carystus; but, judging that city too strong, in consequence of a reinforcement hastily sent from Chalcis, they bent their course to Eretria. Lucius Quinctius also, on hearing of the arrival of king Attalus, came thither with the ships which had lain at the Piraeus; having left orders, that his own ships should, as they arrived, follow him to Euboea. The siege of Eretria was now pushed forward with the utmost vigour; for the three combined fleets carried machines and engines, of all sorts, for the demolition of towns, and the adjacent country offered abundance of timber for the construction of new works. At the beginning the townsmen defended their walls with a good degree of spirit; afterwards, when they felt the effects of fatigue, a great many being likewise wounded, and a part of the wall demolished by the enemy's works, they became disposed to capitulate. But they had a garrison of Macedonians, of whom they stood in no less dread than of the Romans; and Philocles, the king's general, sent frequent messages from Chalcis, that he would bring them succour in due time, if they could hold out the siege. The hope of this, in conjunction with their fears, obliged them to protract the time longer than was consistent either with their wishes or their strength. However, having learned soon after that Philocles had been repulsed in the attempt, and forced to fly back, in disorder, to Chalcis, they instantly sent deputies to Attalus, to beg pardon and protection. While intent on the prospect of peace, they executed with less energy the duties of war, and kept armed guards in that quarter only where the breach had been made in the wall, neglecting all the rest; Quinctius made an assault by night on the side where it was least apprehended, and carried the town by scalade. The whole multitude of the townsmen, with their wives and children, fled into the citadel, but soon after surrendered themselves prisoners. The quantity of money, of gold and silver, taken was not great. Of statues and pictures, the works of ancient artists, and other ornaments of that kind, a greater number was found than was proportionate either to the size of the city, or its opulence in other particulars.
17
The design on Carystus was then resumed, and the fleets sailed thither; on which the whole body of the inhabitants, before the troops were disembarked, deserted the city and fled into the citadel, whence they sent deputies to beg protection from the Roman general. To the townspeople life and liberty were immediately granted; and it was ordered, that the Macedonians should pay a ransom of three hundred drachmas[7] a head, deliver up their arms, and quit the country. After being ransomed for the said amount, they were transported, unarmed, to Boeotia. The combined fleets having, in the space of a few days, taken these two important cities of Euboea, sailed round Sunium, a promontory of Attica, and steered their course to Cenchreae, the grand mart of the Corinthians. In the mean time, the consul found the siege of Atrax more tedious and severe than had been universally expected, and the enemy resisted in the way which they had least anticipated. He had supposed that the whole of the trouble would be in demolishing the wall, and that if he could once open a passage for his soldiers into the city, the consequence would then be, the flight and slaughter of the enemy, as usually happens on the capture of towns. But when, on a breach being made in the wall by the rams, and when the soldiers, by mounting over the ruins, had entered the place, this proved only the beginning, as it were, of an unusual and fresh labour. For the Macedonians in garrison, who were both chosen men and many in number, supposing that they would be entitled to extraordinary honour if they should maintain the defence of the city by means of arms and courage, rather than by the help of walls, formed themselves in a compact body, strengthening their line by an uncommon number of files in depth. These, when they saw the Romans entering by the breaches, drove them back, so that they were entangled among the rubbish, and with difficulty could effect a retreat. This gave the consul great uneasiness; for he considered such a disgrace, not merely as it retarded the reduction of a single city, but as likely to affect materially the whole process of the war, which in general depends much on the influence of events in themselves unimportant. Having therefore cleared the ground, which was heaped up with the rubbish of the half-ruined wall, he brought up a tower of extraordinary height, consisting of many stories, and which carried a great number of soldiers. He likewise sent up the cohorts in strong bodies one after another, to force their way, if possible, through the wedge of the Macedonians, which is called a phalanx. But in such a confined space, (for the wall was thrown down to no great extent,) the enemy had the advantage, both in the kind of weapons which they used, and in the manner of fighting. When the Macedonians, in close array, stretched out before them their long spears against the target fence which was formed by the close position of their antagonists' shields, and when the Romans, after discharging their javelins without effect, drew their swords, these could neither press on to a closer combat, nor cut off the heads of the spears; and if they did cut or break off any, the shaft, being sharp at the part where it was broken, filled up its place among the points of those which were unbroken, in a kind of palisade. Besides this, the parts of the wall still standing rendered both the flanks of the Macedonians secure, who were not obliged, either in retreating or in advancing to an attack, to pass through a long space, which generally occasions disorder in the ranks. An accidental circumstance also helped to confirm their courage: for as the tower was moved along a bank of not sufficiently solid soil, one of the wheels sinking into a rut, made the tower lean in such a manner that it appeared to the enemy as if falling, and threw the soldiers posted on it into consternation and affright.
18
As none of his attempts met any success, the consul was very unwilling to allow such a comparison to be exhibited between the two classes of soldiery and their respective weapons; at the same time, he could neither see any prospect of reducing the place speedily, nor any means of subsisting in winter, at such a distance from the sea, and in regions desolated by the calamities of war. He therefore raised the siege; and as, along the whole coast of Acarnania and Aetolia, there was no port capable of containing all the transports that brought supplies to the army, nor any place which afforded lodgings to the legions, he pitched on Anticyra, in Phocis on the Corinthian gulf, as most commodiously situated for his purpose. There the legions would be at no great distance from Thessaly, and the places belonging to the enemy; while they would have in front Peloponnesus, separated from them by a narrow sea; on their rear, Aetolia and Acarnania; and on their sides, Locris and Boeotia. Phanotea in Phocis he took without resistance at the first assault. The siege of Anticyra gave him not much delay. Then Ambrysus and Hyampolis were taken. Daulis, being situated on a lofty eminence, could not be reduced either by scalade or works: he therefore provoked the garrison, by missile weapons, to make sallies from out the town. Then by flying at one time, pursuing at another, and engaging in slight skirmishes, he led them into such a degree of carelessness, and such a contempt of him, that at length the Romans, mixing with them as they ran back, entered by the gates, and stormed the town. Six other fortresses in Phocis, of little consequence, came into his hands, through fear rather than by force of arms. Elatia shut its gates, and the inhabitants seemed determined not to admit within their walls either the army or the general of the Romans, unless compelled by force.
19
While the consul was employed in the siege of Elatia, a prospect opened to him of effecting a business of much more importance; namely, of drawing away the Achaeans from their alliance with Philip to that of the Romans. Cycliades, the head of the faction that favoured the interest of Philip, they had now banished; and Aristaenus, who wished for a union between his countrymen and the Romans, was praetor. The Roman fleet, with Attalus and the Rhodians, lay at Cenchreae, and were preparing to lay siege to Corinth with their whole combined force. The consul therefore judged it prudent, that, before they entered on that affair, ambassadors should be sent to the Achaean state, with assurances, that if they came over from the king to the side of the Romans, the latter would consign Corinth to them, and annex it to the old confederacy of their nation. Accordingly, by the consul's direction, ambassadors were sent to the Achaeans, by his brother Lucius Quinctius, by Attalus, and by the Rhodians and Athenians--a general assembly being summoned to meet at Sicyon to give them audience. Now, the state of feeling of the Achaeans was by no means uniform. Nabis the Lacedaemonian, their constant and inveterate enemy, was the object of their dread; they dreaded the arms of the Romans; they were under obligations to the Macedonians, for services both of ancient and recent date; but the king himself, on account of his perfidy and cruelty, they looked upon with jealous fear, and not judging from the behaviour which he then assumed for the time, they knew that, on the conclusion of the war, they should find him a more tyrannical master. So that every one of them was not only at a loss what opinion he should support in the senate of his own particular state, or in the general diets of the nation; but, even when they deliberated within themselves, they could not, with any certainty, determine what they ought to wish, or what to prefer. Such was the unsettled state of mind of the members of the assembly, when the ambassadors were introduced and liberty of speaking afforded them. The Roman ambassador, Lucius Calpurnius, spoke first; next the ambassadors of king Attalus; after them those of the Rhodians; and then Philip's. The Athenians were heard the last, that they might refute the discourses of the Macedonians. These inveighed against the king with the greatest acrimony of any, for no others had suffered from him so many and so severe hardships. So great a number of speeches of the ambassadors succeeding each other took up the whole of the day; and about sun-set the council was adjourned.
20
Next day the council was convened again; and when the magistrates, according to the custom of the Greeks, gave leave, by their herald, to any person who chose to offer advice, not one stood forth; but they sat a long time, looking on each other in silence. It was no wonder that men, revolving in their minds matters of such contradictory natures, and who found themselves puzzled and confounded, should be involved in additional perplexity by the speeches continued through the whole preceding day; in which the difficulties, on all sides, were brought into view, and stated in their full force. At length Aristaenus, the praetor of the Achaeans, not to dismiss the council without any business being introduced, said:--"Achaeans, where are now those violent disputes, in which, at your feasts and meetings, whenever mention was made of Philip and the Romans, you scarcely refrained from blows? Now, in a general assembly, summoned on that single business, when you have heard the arguments of the ambassadors on both sides, when the magistrates demand your opinions, when the herald calls you to declare your sentiments, you are struck dumb. Although your concern for the common safety be insufficient for determining the matter, cannot the party zeal which has attached you to one side or the other extort a word from any one of you? especially when none is so obtuse as not to perceive, that the time for declaring and recommending what each either wishes or thinks most advisable, must be at the present moment; that is, before we make any decree. When a decree shall have been once passed, every man even such as previously may have disapproved the measure, must then support it as good and salutary." These persuasions of the praetor, so far from prevailing on any one person to declare his opinion, did not excite, in all that numerous assembly, collected out of so many states, so much as a murmur or a whisper.
21
Then the praetor, Aristaenus, again spoke as follows:--"Chiefs of Achaea, you are not more at a loss for advice, than you are for words; but every one is unwilling to promote the interest of the public at a risk of danger to himself. Were I in a private character, perhaps I too should be silent; but, as praetor, it is my duty to declare, that I see evidently, either that an audience of the council ought not to have been accorded to the ambassadors, or that they ought not to be dismissed from it without an answer. Yet how can I give them an answer, unless by a decree of yours? And, since not one of you who have been called to this assembly either chooses or dares to make known his sentiments, let us examine (as if they were opinions proposed to our consideration) the speeches of the ambassadors delivered yesterday; supposing the speakers not to have required what was useful to themselves, but to have recommended what they thought most conducive to our advantage. The Romans, the Rhodians and Attalus, request an alliance and friendship with us; and they demand to be assisted by us in the war in which they are now engaged against Philip. Philip reminds us of our league with him, and of the obligation of our oath; he requires only, that we declare ourselves on his side; and says, he will be satisfied if we do not intermeddle in the operations of the war. Does not the reason occur to the mind of any one of you why those, who are not yet our allies, require more than he who is? This arises not from modesty in Philip, nor from the want of it in the Romans. It is fortune, which, while it bestows confidence to requisitions on one side, precludes it on the other. We see nothing belonging to Philip but his ambassador: the Roman fleet lies at Cenchreae, exhibiting to our view the spoils of the cities of Euboea. We behold the consul and his legions, at the distance of a small tract of sea, overrunning Phocis and Locris. You were surprised at Philip's ambassador, Cleomedon, showing such diffidence yesterday in his application to us to take arms on the side of the king against the Romans. But if we, in pursuance of the same treaty and oath, the sacredness of which he inculcated on us, were to ask of him, that Philip should protect us, both from Nabis and his Lacedaemonians, and also from the Romans, he would be utterly unable to find, not only a force with which to protect us, but even an answer to return. As much so in truth as was Philip himself, who endeavoured, by promises of waging war against Nabis, to draw away our youth into Euboea; but finding that we would neither decree such assistance to him, nor choose to be embroiled in a war with Rome, forgot that alliance on which he now lays such stress, and left us to Nabis and the Lacedaemonians to be spoiled and plundered. Besides, to me the arguments of Cleomedon appeared utterly inconsistent. He made light of the war with the Romans; and asserted, that the issue of it would be similar to that of the former, which they waged against Philip. If such the case, why does he, at a distance, solicit our assistance; rather than come hither in person, and defend us, his old allies, both from Nabis and from the Romans? Us, do I say? Why, on this showing, has he suffered Eretria and Carystus to be taken? Why so many cities of Thessaly? Why Locris and Phocis? Why does he at present suffer Elatia to be besieged? Did he, either through compulsion, or fear, or choice, quit the straits of Epirus, and those impregnable fastnesses on the river Aous; and why, abandoning the pass which he was occupying, did he retire altogether into his own kingdom? If of his own will he gave up so many allies to the ravages of the enemy, what objection can he make to these allies consulting for their own safety? If through fear, he ought to pardon the like fear in us. If he retired defeated by force of arms, let me ask you, Cleomedon, shall we, Achaeans, be able to withstand the Roman arms, which you, Macedonians, have not withstood? Are we to give credit to your assertion, that the Romans do not employ, in the present war, greater forces or greater strength than they did in the former, rather than regard the facts themselves? In the first instance, they aided the Aetolians with a fleet; they sent not to the war either a consul as commander, or a consular army. The maritime cities of Philip's allies were in terror and confusion; but the inland places were so secure against the Roman arms, that Philip ravaged the country of the Aetolians, while they in vain implored succour from those arms. Whereas, in the present case, the Romans, after bringing to a final conclusion the Punic war, which they had supported for sixteen years in the bowels, as it were, of Italy, sent not auxiliaries to the Aetolians in their quarrels, but, being themselves principals, made a hostile invasion on Macedonia with land and sea forces at once. Their third consul is now pushing forward the war with the utmost vigour. Sulpicius, engaging the king within the territory of Macedonia itself, has overthrown and put him to flight; and afterwards despoiled the most opulent part of his kingdom. Then, again, when he was in possession of the strait of Epirus, where, from the nature of the ground, his fortifications, and the strength of his army, he thought himself secure, Quinctius drove him out of his camp; pursued him, as he fled into Thessaly; and, almost in the view of Philip himself, stormed the royal garrisons and the cities of his allies. Supposing that there were no truth in what the Athenian ambassadors mentioned yesterday, respecting the cruelty, avarice, and lust of the king; supposing the crimes committed, in the country of Attica, against the gods, celestial and infernal, concerned us not all; that we had less to complain of than what the people of Cius and Abydos, who are far distant from us, have endured: let us then, if you please, forget even our own wounds; let the murders and ravages committed at Messana, and in the heart of Peloponnesus, the killing of his host Garitenes at Cyparissia, almost in the very midst of a feast, in contempt of laws divine and human; the murder of the two Aratuses of Sicyon, father and son, though he was wont to call the unfortunate old man his parent; his carrying away the son's wife into Macedonia for the gratification of his vicious appetites, and all his violations of virgins and matrons;--let all these, I say, be consigned to oblivion. Let us suppose our business were not with Philip, through dread of whose cruelty you are all thus struck dumb; for what other cause could keep you silent, when you have been summoned to a council? Let us imagine that we are treating with Antigonus, a prince of the greatest mildness and equity, to whose kindness we have all been highly indebted; would he require us to perform what at the time was impossible? Peloponnesus is a peninsula, united to the continent by the narrow passage of an isthmus particularly exposed and open to the attacks of naval armaments. Now, if a hundred decked ships, and fifty lighter open ones, and thirty Issean barks, shall begin to lay waste our coasts, and attack the cities which stand exposed, almost on the very shore, shall we then retreat into the inland towns, as if we were not afflicted with an intestine war, though in truth it is rankling in our very bowels? When Nabis and the Lacedaemonians by land, and the Roman fleet by sea, shall press us, whence must I implore the support due from the king's alliance, whence the succours of the Macedonians? Shall we ourselves, with our own arms, defend, against the Roman forces, the cities that will be attacked? Truly, in the former war, we defended Dymae excellently well! The calamities of others afford us abundant examples; let us not seek how we may render ourselves an example to others. Do not, because the Romans voluntarily desire your friendship, contemn that which you ought to have prayed for, nay, laboured with all your might to obtain. But, it is insinuated, that they are impelled by fear, in a country to which they are strangers; and that, wishing to shelter themselves under your assistance, they have recourse to your alliance in the hope of being admitted into your harbours, and of there finding supplies of provisions. Now, at sea they are absolute masters; and instantly reduce to subjection every place at which they land. What they request, they have power to enforce. Because they wish to treat you with tenderness they do not allow you to take steps that must lead you to ruin. Cleomedon lately pointed out, as the middle and safest way, to remain inactive, and abstain from taking up arms But that is not a middle way; it is no way at all. For, besides the necessity of either embracing or rejecting the Roman alliance, what other consequence can ensue from such conduct, than that, while we show no steady attachment to either side, as if we waited the event with design to adapt our counsels to fortune, we shall become the prey of the conqueror? Contemn not then, when it is spontaneously offered to your acceptance, what you ought to have solicited with your warmest prayers. The free option between the two, which you have this day, you will not always have. The same opportunity will not last long, nor will it frequently recur. You have long wished to deliver yourselves out of the hands of Philip, although you have not dared to make the attempt. Those have now crossed the sea, with large fleets and armies, who are able to rescue you to a state of freedom, without any trouble or danger to yourselves. If you reject such persons as allies, you can scarcely be of sane mind; but you must unavoidably have to deal with them, either as allies or as enemies."
22
This speech of the praetor was followed by a general murmur; some declaring their approbation, and others vehemently rebuking those who did so. And now, not only individuals, but whole states were engaged in altercation among themselves; and at length among the magistrates, called Demiurgi, who are ten in number, the dispute was taken up with as much warmth as among the multitude. Five of them declared, that they would propose the question concerning an alliance with Rome, and would take the votes on it; while five insisted, that it had been provided by law that neither the magistrates should have power to propose nor the council to pass any decree injurious to the alliance with Philip. This day, also, was spent in contention, and there remained now but one day more of the regular time of sitting; for, according to the rule, the decree must be passed on the third day: and as that approached, the zeal of the parties was kindled into such a flame, that scarcely did parents refrain from offering violence to their own sons. There was present a man of Pallene, named Rhisiasus, whose son, Memnon, was a demiurgus, and was of that party which opposed the reading of the decree and taking the votes. This man, for a long time, entreated his son to allow the Achaeans to take proper measures for their common safety, and not, by his obstinacy, to bring ruin on the whole nation; but, finding that his entreaties had no effect, he swore that he would treat him, not as a son, but as an enemy, and would put him to death with his own hand. By these threats he forced him, next day, to join the party that voted for the question being proposed. These, having now become the majority, proposed the question accordingly, while almost every one of the states, openly approving the measure, showed plainly on which side they would vote. Whereupon the Dymaeans, Megalopolitans, with several of the Argives, rose up, and withdrew from the council; which step excited neither wonder nor disapprobation. For when, in the memory of their grandfathers, the Megalopolitans had been expelled their country by the Lacedaemonians, Antigonus had reinstated them in their native residence; and, at a later period, when Dymae was taken and sacked by the Roman troops, Philip ordered that the inhabitants, wherever they were in servitude, should be ransomed, and not only restored them to their liberty, but their country. As to the Argives, besides believing that the royal family of Macedonia derived its origin from them, the greater part were attached to Philip by personal acts of kindness and familiar friendship. For these reasons, when the council appeared disposed to order an alliance to be concluded with Rome, they withdrew; and their secession was readily excused, in consideration of the many and recent obligations by which they were bound to the king of Macedon.
23
The rest of the Achaean states, on their opinions being demanded, ratified, by an immediate decree, the alliance with Attalus and the Rhodians. That with the Romans, as it could not be perfected without an order from the people, they deferred until such time as ambassadors could be sent to Rome. For the present, it was resolved, that three ambassadors should be sent to Lucius Quinctius; and that the whole force of the Achaeans should be brought up to Corinth, which city Quinctius, after taking Cenchreae, was then besieging. The Achaeans accordingly pitched their camp opposite to the gate that leads to Sicyon. The Romans made their approaches on the side of the city which faces Cenchreae; Attalus having drawn his army across the isthmus, towards Lechaeum, the port on the opposite sea. At first, they did not push forward their operations with any great degree of vigour, because they had hopes of a dissension breaking out between the townsmen and the king's troops. But afterwards, learning that they all were of one mind; that the Macedonians exerted themselves as if in defence of their common country; and that the Corinthians submitted to the orders of Androsthenes, commander of the garrison, as if he were their countryman, and elected by their own suffrages; the assailants had no other hopes but in force, arms, and their works. They therefore brought up their mounds to the walls, though by very difficult approaches. On that side where the Romans attacked, their ram had demolished a considerable part of the wall; and the Macedonians having run together to defend the place thus stripped of its works, a furious conflict ensued between themselves and the Romans. At first, by reason of the enemy's superiority in number, the Romans were quickly repulsed; but being joined by the auxiliary troops of Attalus and the Achaeans, they restored the fight to an equality; so that there was no doubt that they would easily drive the Macedonians and Greeks from their ground. But there were in the town a great multitude of Italian deserters; some of whom, having been in Hannibal's army, had, through fear of being punished by the Romans, followed Philip; others, having been sailors, had lately quitted the fleets, and gone over, in hopes of more honourable employment: despair of safety, therefore, in case of the Romans getting the better, inflamed these to a degree which might rather be called madness than courage. Opposite to Sicyon is the promontory of Juno Acraea, as she is called, stretching out into the main, the passage to Corinth being about seven miles. To this place Philocles, one of the king's generals, led, through Boeotia, fifteen hundred soldiers; and there were barks from Corinth ready to take these troops on board, and carry them over to Lechaeum. Attalus, on this, advised to burn the works, and raise the siege immediately; Quinctius was for persisting more obstinately in the attempt. However, when he saw the king's troops posted at the gates, and that the sallies of the besieged could not easily be withstood, he came over to the opinion of Attalus. Thus, their design proving fruitless, they dismissed the Achaeans, and returned to their ships. Attalus steered to Piraeus, the Romans to Corcyra.
24
While the naval forces were thus employed, the consul, having encamped before Elatia, in Phocis, first endeavoured, by conferring with the principal inhabitants, to bring them over, and by their means to effect his purpose; but on their answering that they had nothing in their power, because the king's troops were more numerous and stronger than the townsmen, he assaulted the city on all sides at once with arms and engines. A battering-ram having been brought up, shattered a part of the wall that reached from one tower to another, and this falling with a prodigious noise and crash, left much of the town exposed. On this a Roman cohort made an assault through the breach, while at the same time the townsmen, quitting their several posts, ran together from all parts to the place, which was endangered by the attack of the enemy. At the same time others of the Romans climbed over the ruins of the wall, and brought up scaling-ladders to the parts that were standing. As the conflict attracted the eyes and attention of the enemy to one particular spot, the walls were scaled in several places, by which means the soldiers easily entered the town. The noise and tumult which ensued so terrified the enemy, that quitting the place, which they had crowded together to defend, they all fled in panic to the citadel, accompanied by the unarmed multitude. The consul having thus become master of the town, gave it up to be plundered, and then sent messengers into the citadel, offering the king's troops their lives, on condition of their laying down their arms, and departing. To the Elatians he offered their liberty; which terms being agreed to, in a few days after he got possession of the citadel.
25
In consequence of Philocles, the king's general, coming into Achaia, not only Corinth was delivered from the siege, but the city of Argos was betrayed into his hands by some of the principal inhabitants, after they had first sounded the minds of the populace. They had a custom, that, on the first day of assembly, their praetors, for the omen's sake, should pronounce the names, Jupiter, Apollo, and Hercules; in addition to which, a rule had been made, that, along with these they should join the name of king Philip. After the conclusion of the alliance with the Romans, the herald did not make that addition; on which a murmur spread through the multitude, who would add the name of Philip, and insisting that the respect, due by law, should be paid as before; until at length the name was given out amidst universal approbation. On the encouragement afforded by this favourable disposition, Philocles was invited, who seized in the night a strong post called Larissa, seated on a hill which overhangs the city, and in which he placed a garrison. At the dawn of day, however, and as he was proceeding in order of battle to the forum, at the foot of the hill he was met by a line of troops, drawn up to oppose him. This was a body of Achaeans, lately posted there, consisting of about five hundred young men, selected out of all the states. Their commander was Aenesidemus, of Dymae. The king's general sent a person to recommend to them to evacuate the city, because they were not a match for the townsmen alone, who held the same sentiments as the Macedonians; much less when these were joined by the Macedonians, whom even the Romans had not withstood at Corinth. This at first had no effect, either on the commander, or his men: and when they, soon after, perceived the Argives also in arms, coming, in a great body, from the opposite side, perceiving that their destruction was inevitable, they yet seemed determined to run every hazard, if their leader would persevere. But Aenesidemus, unwilling that the flower of the Achaean youth should be lost, together with the city, made terms with Philocles, that they should have liberty to retire, while himself remained armed with a few of his dependents, in the position which he had occupied. To a person sent by Philocles to inquire what he meant, he only answered, standing with his shield held out before him, that he meant to die in arms in defence of the city intrusted to his charge. Philocles then ordered some Thracians to throw their javelins at him and his attendants; and they were all put to death. Thus, notwithstanding the alliance concluded by the Achaeans with the Romans, two of their cities, and those of the greatest consequence, Argos and Corinth, were still in the hands of Philip. Such were the services performed during that summer by the land and sea forces of Rome employed in Greece.