who were upwards of sixty; all those who remained, from the age of fifteen to threescore, engaged them selves by oath never to return except victorious; uttered the most dreadful imprecations against such among them as should break their oaths; and only desired the Epirots to bury, in the same grave, all who should fall in the battle, with the following inscription over them: HERE LIE THE ACARNA

NIANS, WHO DIED FIGHTING FOR THEIR COUNTRY, AGAINST THE VIOLENCE AND INJUSTICE OF THE ÆTOLIANS. Full of courage they set out directly, and advanced to meet the enemy to the very frontiers of their country. Their great resolution and bravery terrified the Etolians, who also received advice that Philip was already upon his march, to the aid of his allies. Upon this they returned home, and Philip did the same.

In the very beginning of the spring, Levinus besieged Anticyra*, which surrendered a little after. He gave this city to the Etolians, keeping only the plunder for himself. Here news was brought him, that he had been nominated consul in his absence, and that P. Sulpitius was coming to succeed him as prætor.

In the treaty concluded between the Romans and Etolians, several other powers had been invited to accede to it; and we find that Attalus, Pleuratus, and Scerdiledes, accepted of the invitation. The Etolians exhorted the Spartans to imitate those princes. Chleneas, their representative, or deputy, put the Lacedæmonians in mind of all the evils which the Macedonians had brought upon them; the design they had always harboured, and still entertained, of enslaving all Greece; particularly the sacrilegious impiety of Philip, in plundering a temple in the city of Therma; and his horrid treachery and cruelty to the Messenians. He

added, that they had no reason to be under any apprehensions from the Achæans, who, after all the losses they had sustained in the last campaign, would think it a great happiness to be able to defend their own country; that with respect to Philip, when he should find the Etolians invade him by land, and the Romans and Attalus by sea, he would not think of carrying his arms into Greece. He concluded, with desiring the Lacedæmonians to persist in their alliance with Ætolia, or at least to stand neuter.

Lyciscus, the representative of the Acarnanians, spoke next, and declared immediately in favour of the Macedonians. He expatiated on the services which Philip, and afterwards Alexander the Great, had done Greece, by invading and ruining the Persians, its most ancient and most cruel enemies. He put the Lacedæmonians in mind of the gentleness and clemency with which Antigonus had treated them, when he took Sparta. He insisted, that it would be ignominious, as well as dangerous, to suffer Barbarians, for so he called the Romans, to enter Greece. He said, that it was worthy of the Spartan wisdom, to foresee from far the storm already gathering in the West; and which would certainly break, first upon Macedonia, and afterwards all Greece, whom it would involve in ruin. "From "what motive did your ancestors (continued he) "throw into a well the man who came in Xerxes's name, to invite them to submit themselves to, and join with, that monarch? Wherefore did "Leonidas your king, with his three hundred Spar"tans, brave and defy death? Was it not merely to "defend the common liberties of Greece? And "now you are advised to give them up to other "Barbarians, who, the more moderate they appear, "are so much the more dangerous. As to the "Etolians (says he) if it be possible for them to stoop so low, they may dishonour themselves by so shameful a prevarication: this, indeed, would

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"be natural for them to do, as they are utter "strangers to glory, and affected with nothing but "sordid views of interest. But as to you, O Spar

tans, who are born defenders of the liberty and "honour of Greece, you will sustain that glorious "title to the end."

The fragment of Polybius, where these two speeches are repeated, goes no farther, and does not inform us what was the result of them. However, the sequel of the history shows, that Sparta joined with the Etolians, and entered into the general treaty. It was at that time divided into two factions, whose intrigues and disputes, being carried to the utmost height, occasioned great disturbances in the city. One faction was warm for Philip, and the other declared openly against him, which latter prevailed. We find it was headed by Machanicas, who, taking advantage of the feuds which infested the commonwealth, seized upon the government, and made himself tyrant of his country.

PP. Sulpitius and king Attalus being arrived with 3796. their fleet to succour the Etolians, the latter were Ant. J.C. flushed with the most sanguine hopes, and the op298. posite party filled with terror; especially as Macha

nidas, the tyrant of Sparta, was already invading the territories of the Achæans, whose near neighbour he was. Immediately the latter people and their allies sent a deputation to king Philip, and solicited him to come into Greece, to defend and support them. Philip lost no time. The Etolians, under Pyrrhias, who that year had been appointed their general in conjunction with king Attalus, advanced to meet him as far as Lamia*. Pyrrhias had been joined by the troops which Attalus and Sulpitius had sent him. Philip defeated him twice; and the Etolians were forced to shut themselves up in

Lamia. As to Philip, he retired to Phalara* with

his army.

During his stay there, ambassadors came from Ptolemy king of Egypt, from the Rhodians, the Athenians, and the inhabitants of Chio; all with instructions to use their utmost endeavours for reestablishing a lasting peace between Philip and the Ætolians. It was not so much out of good will for the latter, as from the uneasiness they were under in seeing Philip engage so strenuously in the affairs of Greece, which might render him more powerful than suited their interests. For his conquests over the Etolians, and their confederates, paved the way for his subjecting all Greece, to which his predecessors had always aspired, and even gave him access to those cities (out of Egypt) which Ptolemy possessed. Philip, however, suspended the debates on the peace, till the next assembly of the Achæans; and in the mean time granted the Ætolians a truce for thirty days. Being come into the assembly, the Etolians made such very unreasonable proposals, as took away all hopes of an accommodation. Philip, offended that the vanquished should take upon them to prescribe laws to him, declared, that at his coming into the assembly, he had not depended in any manner on the justice and sincerity of the Etolians, but that he was very glad to convince his allies, he himself was sincerely desirous of peace; and that the Ætolians were the only people who opposed it. He set out from thence after having left four thou sand troops to defend the Achæans, and went to Argos where the Nemean games were going to be exhibited, the splendour of which he was desirous of augmenting by his presence.

While he was busied in solemnising these games, Sulpitius having set out from Naupactum, and landed between Sicyon and Corinth, laid waste all the open country, Philip upon this news left the games,

A city of Thessaly.

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marched with speed against the enemy, and meeting them laden with spoils, put them to flight, and pursued them to their ships. Being returned to the games he was received with universal applause; and particularly, because he had laid down his diadem and robes of state, and mixed indiscriminately with the rest of the spectators; a very pleasing as well as soothing sight to the inhabitants of free cities. But as his unaffected and popular behaviour had gained him the love of all, so his enormous excesses soon made him odious. It was now his custom to go at night into people's houses in a plebeian dress, and there practise every kind of licentiousness. It was not safe for fathers and husbands to oppose him on these occasions, for fear of being murthered.

Some days after the solemnization of the games, Philip, with the Achæans, whose captain-general was Cycliadus, having crossed the river of Larissa, advances as far as the city of Elis, which had received an Ætolian garrison. The first day he laid waste the neighbouring lands; afterwards he drew near the city in battle array, and caused some bodies of horse to advance to the gates, to force the Etolians to make a sally. Accordingly they came out; but Philip was greatly surprised to find some Roman soldiers among them. Sulpitius having left Naupactum with fifteen gallies, and landed four thousand men, had entered the city of Elis in the night. The fight was very bloody. Demophantes, general of the cavalry of Elis, seeing Philopomen, who commanded that of the Achæans, advanced out of the ranks, and spurred toward him with great impetuosity. The latter waited for him with the utmost resolution; and preventing his blow, laid him dead, with a thrust of his pike, at his horse's feet. Demophantes being thus fallen, his cavalry fled. I mentioned Philopamen before, and shall have occasion to speak more particularly of him hereafter.

Plut. in Philop. p. 360.