“ [2] Finally the Ætolians took the initiative and made
peace with Philip by themselves without the Romans, and messengers were sent to Rome by Philip himself and by the commander of the Roman forces in order to come to an agreement. Peace was made between them on the condition that neither party should do any injury to the friends of the other. This was the result of the first trial of strength between them, and neither of them believed that the treaty would be lasting, since it was not based on good-will.”
B.C. 205
“
Not long afterward Philip, having ordered a fleet to be prepared by his maritime subjects, took Samos and Chios and devasted a part of the territory of King Attalus. He even attempted Pergamus itself, not sparing temples or sepulchres. He also ravaged Peræa, which belonged to the Rhodians, who had been promoters of the treaty of peace. With another part of his army he ravaged Attica and laid
Y.R. 554
siege to Athens, as though none of these countries concerned the Romans. It was reported also that a league had been made between Philip and Antiochus, king of Syria, to the effect that Philip should help Antiochus to conquer Egypt and Cyprus, of which Ptolemy IV., surnamed Philopator,1 who was still a boy, was the ruler; and that Antiochus should help Philip to gain Cyrene, the Cyclades islands, and Ionia. This rumor, so disquieting to all, the Rhodians communicated to Rome. After the Rhodians, ambassadors of Athens came complaining of the siege instituted by Philip. The Ætolians also had repented of their treaty, and they complained of Philip's bad faith toward them and asked to be inscribed again as allies. The Romans reproached the Ætolians for their recent defection, but they sent ambassadors to the kings ordering Antiochus not to invade Egypt, and Philip not to molest the Rhodians, or the Athenians, or Attalus, or any other ally of theirs. To them Philip made answer that it would be well if the Romans would abide by the treaty of peace they had entered into with him. Thus was the treaty dissolved and a Roman army hastened to Greece, Publius commanding the land forces and Lucius the fleet.”
B.C. 200
FROM "THE EMBASSIES"
“Philip, king of Macedon, had a conference with Flamininus,
which had been brought about by the ambassadors of the Epirots. When Flamininus ordered Philip to retire to Greece, not on account of the Romans, but of the Greek cities themselves and to make good the damage he had done to the aforesaid cities. . . .”
B.C. 198
FROM THE VATICAN MSS. OF CARDINAL MAI
“A shepherd promised to guide an army well equipped for the climb by a mountain path in three days' time.
”FROM SUIDAS
“Lucius Quintius [Flamininus]2 sent envoys to the Achæan League to persuade them, together with the Athenians and Rhodians, to abandon Philip and join the Romans, and to ask them to furnish aid as allies. But they, being troubled by a civil war and also by one with Nabis, the neighboring tyrant of Lacedæmon, were divided in mind and hesitated. The greater part of them preferred the alliance of Philip and sided against the Romans on account of certain outrages against Greece committed by Sulpicius, the former commander. When the Roman faction urged their views with vehemence, most of their opponents left the assembly in disgust, and the remainder, being forced to yield by the smallness of their number, entered into an alliance with Lucius and followed him at once to the siege of Corinth, bringing their engines with them.
”FROM "THE EMBASSIES"
FROM "THE EMBASSIES" “”“
Flamininus came into conference with Philip a second time at the Malian gulf. When the Rhodians, the Ætolians, and Amynander, king of the Athamanes, made their complaints against Philip, Flamininus ordered him to remove his garrison from Phocis, and required both parties to send ambassadors to Rome. When this was done the Greeks asked the Roman Senate to require Philip to remove from their country the three garrisons which he called the fetters of Greece: the one at Chalcis, which threatened the Bœotians, the Eubœans, and the Locrians; the one at Corinth, which closed the door of the Peloponnesus; and the third at Demetrias, which lay, as it were, in ambush for the Ætolians and the Magnesians. The Senate asked Philip's ambassadors what the king's views were respecting the garrisons. When they answered that they did not know, the Senate said that Flamininus should decide the question and do what he considered just. So the ambassadors took their departure from Rome. Flamininus and Philip, being
Y.R. 557
unable to come to any agreement, resumed hostilities.”
B.C. 197
FROM "THE EMBASSIES"
