On the break-up of the council the members dispersed to their respective cities. [2] The next day the king consulted the council as to where operations should commence. It was thought best to begin with Chalcis, where the Aetolians had recently made their futile attempt, and where they considered success would depend on quick action more than on serious preparations or sustained effort. [3] The king accordingly, with a force of 1000 infantry which had come up from Demetrias, marched through Phocis, and the Aetolian leaders, who had called out a few of their fighting men, taking a different route, assembled at Chaeronea and followed him in ten ships of war. [4] Fixing his camp at Salganeus he crossed the Euripus with the Aetolians, and when he was within a short distance from the harbour the magistrates and leading men of Chalcis came forward in front of their gate. A small party from each side met to confer. The Aetolians did their utmost to persuade the Chalcidians to receive the king as an ally and friend without disturbing their friendly relations with Rome. [5] They said that he had sailed across to Europe not to levy war [6??] but to liberate Greece, not with empty professions as the Romans had done, but to make her really free. [7] Nothing could be more advantageous for the States of Greece than to enter into friendly relations with both parties, for then they would be secure against ill-treatment from either side through the protection which the other would be pledged to afford. [8] If they refused to receive the king, let them consider what they would at once have to go through, with the Romans too far away to help and Antiochus, whom they were powerless to resist, before their gates as an enemy. [9] Micythio, one of the Achaean leaders, said in reply that he was wondering who the people were that Antiochus had left his kingdom and come across to Europe to liberate. He knew of no city in Greece which held a Roman garrison or paid tribute to Rome or had to submit against its will to conditions imposed by a one-sided treaty. [10] The Chalcidians needed no one to vindicate their liberty, for they were a free State; nor did they require protection, for it was owing to this same Roman people that they were in the enjoyment of peace and liberty. [11] They did not reject the proffered friendship of the king nor even of the Aetolians, but the first proof of [12??] friendship would be their departure from the island, for as far as they themselves were concerned it was quite certain that they would not admit them within [13??] their walls or even enter into any alliance with them without the authority of the Roman Government.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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