I before observed, that Philip having discovered that he had been more than once imposed upon, had restored Aratus to his favour and confidence. Supported by his credit and councils he went to the assembly of the Achæans, appointed, on his account, at Sicyon. On the report he made of the state of bis exchequer, and of the urgent necessity he was in of money to maintain his forces, a resolution was made to furnish him with fifty* talents, the instant his troops should set out upon their march; with three months' pay for his soldiers, and ten thousand measures of wheat: And, that afterwards, as long as he should carry on the war in person in Peloponnesus, they should furnish him with seventeen lents a month,

ta

When the troops returned from their winter-quarters, and were assembled, the king debated in council on the operations of the ensuing campaign. It was resolved to act by sea, because they thereby should infallibly divide the enemy's forces, from the uncertainty they must be under, with regard to the side on which they should be attacked. Philip was to make war on the inhabitants of Ætolia, Lacedæmonia and Elis.

Whilst the king, who was now returned to Corinth, was forming his Macedonians for naval affairs, and employing them in the several exercises of the sea-service, Apelles, who found his credit diminish, and was exasperated to see the counsels of Aratus followed, and not his, took secret measures to defeat all the king's designs. His view was to make himself necessary to his sovereign; and to force him by the ill posture of his affairs, to throw himself into the arms of a minister who was best acquainted with, and then actually in the administration of them. How villainous was this! Apelles prevailed with Leontius and Megaleas, his two confidents,

↳ Polyb. 1. v. p. 350, 365.

* Fifty thousand crowns. + Seventeen thousand crowns.

to behave with negligence in the employments with which they should be intrusted. As for himself, he went to Chalcis, upon pretence of having some affairs to transact there; as his orders were punctually obeyed by every one, he stopped.the convoys of money which were sending to the king; and thereby reduced him to such necessity, that he was forced to pawn his plate to subsist himself and his household.

Philip having put to sea, arrived the second day at Patræ; and sailing from thence to * Cephalenia, laid siege to Paleis, a city whose situation would be of great advantage to him, as a place of arms; and enable him to infest the territories of his enemies. He caused the machines of war to be advanced, and mines to be run. One of the ways of making breaches was, to dig up the earth under the very foundation of the walls. When they were got to these, they propped and supported the walls with great wooden beams, to which the miners afterwards set fire, and then retired; when presently great part of the wall would fall down. As the Macedonians had worked with incredible ardour, they very soon made a breach of six hundred fathoms wide. Leontius was commanded to mount this breach with his troops. Had he exerted himself ever so little, the city would certainly have been taken: But he attacked the enemy very faintly, so that he was repulsed, lost a great number of his men, and Philip was obliged to raise the siege.

The moment he began it, the enemy had sent Lycurgus with some troops into Messenia, and Dorimachus with half of the army into Thessaly, to oblige Philip, by this double diversion, to lay aside his enterprise. Deputies had arrived soon from the Acarnanians and Messenians. Philip, having raised the siege, assembled his council, to debate on which side he should turn his arms. The Mesenians re

* An island in the Ionian fea,

presented, that in one day the forces might march from Cephalenia into their country, and at once overpower Lycurgus, who did not expect to be so suddenly attacked. Leontius enforced this advice very strongly. His secret reason was, that as it would be impossible for Philip to return, as the winds would be directly contrary at that time, he therefore would be forced to stay there, by which means the campaign would be spent, and nothing done. The Acarnanians, on the contrary, were for marching directly into Etolia, which was then unprovided with troops: Declaring, that the whole country might be laid waste without the least resistance; and that Dorimachus, would be prevented from making an irruption into Macedonia. Aratus did not fail to declare in favour of the latter opinion; and the king, who from the cowardly attack at Paleis, began to suspect Leontius, went thither also.

Having provided for the urgent necessities of the Messenians, he went from Cephalenia, arrived the second day at Leucadia, from thence entered the gulph of Ambracia, and came a little before daybreak to Limnæa. Immediately he commanded the soldiers to take some refreshment, to rid themselves of the greatest part of their baggage, and be ready for marching. In the afternoon, Philip having left the baggage under a strong guard, set out from Limnæa; and marching abouty fixty furlongs, he halted, to give his army some refreshment and rest. He then marched all night, and arrived at day-break atthe river Achelous, intending to fall suddenly and unexpectedly upon Thermæ. Leontius advised the king to halt for some time, giving for his reason, that as the soldiers had been fatigued with the length of their march, it would be proper for them to take breath, but, in reality, to give the Etolians time to prepare for their defence. Aratus, on the contrary, knowing that opportunity is swift-winged, and that Leontius's advice was manifestly traitorous,

conjured Philip to seize the favourable moment, and march out that instant.

The king, who was already offended at Leontius, and began to suspect him, sets out that instant, crosses the Achelous, and marches directly to Thermæ, through a very rugged and almost impervious road cut between very steep rocks. This was the capital city of the country, in which the Etolians every year held their fairs and solemn assemblies, as well for the worship of the gods, as for the election of magistrates. As this city was thought impregnable, because of the advantage of its situation, and that no enemy had ever dared to approach it; the Etolians used to leave their richest effects and all their wealth there, imagining they were very safe. But how great must be their surprize, when, at the close of the day, they saw Philip enter it with his army!

After having taken immense spoils in the night, the Macedonians pitched their camp. The next morning it was resolved that the most valuable effects should be carried away; and making a heap of the rest, at the head of the camp, they set fire to that pile. They did the same with regard to the arms which hung on the galleries of the temple; the best were laid by for service, and the remainder, amounting to upwards of fifteen thousand, were burnt to ashes. Hitherto every thing which had been transacted was just, and agreeable to the laws of war.

But the Macedonians did not stop here. Transported with fury at the remembrance of the wild havoc which the Etolians had made in Dium and Dodona, they set fire to the galleries of the temple, tore down all the offerings which hung on them, among which were some of exceeding beauty and prodigious value. Not satisfied with burning the roofs, they razed the temple. The statues, of which there were at least two thousand, were thrown down. A great number of them were broke to pieces; and

those only spared which were known, by their form or inscriptions, to represent gods. They wrote the following verse on the walls:

Remember Dium: Dium sends you this.

Doubtless, the horror with which the sacrileges committed by the Etolians at Dium inspired Philip and his allies, convinced them that they might revenge it by the commission of the like crimes; and that they were then making just reprisals. However, says Polybius, the reader will allow me to think otherwise. To support his opinion, he cites three great examples, taken even from the family of the prince whose conduct he here censures. Antigonus, after having defeated Cleomenes king of the Lacedæmonians, and possessed himself of Sparta, so far from extending his rage to the temples and sacred things, did not even make those he had conquered feel the effects of it; on the contrary, he restored to them the form of government which they had received from their ancestors, and treated them with the highest testimonies of kindness and friendship. Philip, to whom the royal family owed all its splendour, and who defeated the Athenians at Chæronea, made them sensible of his power and victory by no other marks than his beneficence; restoring their prisoners without ransom; himself taking care even of the dead, ordering Antipater to convey their bones to Athens, and giving clothes to such of the prisoners as were most in want of them. In fine, Alexander the Great, in the height of his fury against Thebes, which he razed to the ground, so far from being forgetful of the veneration due to the gods, took care not to suffer his soldiers (even through imprudence) to do the least injury to the temples, and other sacred places: And a circumstance still more worthy our admiration, in his war with the Persians, who had plundered and burned most of the temples in Greece, Alexander spared and re