Livy

“ All that he asks today is that you will keep that peace unbroken. Once make foreign legions familiar with these shores and bow your necks to the yoke, then you will seek in vain and too late for Philip's support as your ally; you will have the Romans for your masters. Aetolians, Acarnanians, Macedonians are united and disunited by slight and purely temporary causes; with foreigners and barbarians, all Greeks ever have been and ever will be at war. For they are our enemies by nature, and nature is unchanging; their hostility is not due to causes which vary from day to day. ”

“ To leave it as a habitation for men was an act of greater cruelty than its utter destruction would have been. If men of an alien race, separated from you more widely by language, customs and laws than by intervening sea and land, obtain a hold here, it is folly and madness to hope that anything will remain as it is now. You think that Philip's sovereignty is a danger to your liberty. It was your own doing that he took up arms against you, and his sole aim was to have a settled peace with you. ”

“ Capua does indeed survive as the sepulchre and memorial of the Campanian nation, the people themselves are either dead and buried, or else cast forth as exiles. It is a headless and limbless city without a senate, without a plebs, without magistrates, an unnatural portent in the land. ”

“ To one who seldom heard the truth this language seemed too bold to address to a king. "Your youth, your good looks and, above all, the fact of your being a Roman make you too venturesome. It is my wish that you should remember treaty obligations and keep the peace with me, but if you begin the attack, I too am quite ready to fight, and you will find the kingdom and name of Macedon no less renowned in war than those of Rome." After dismissing thus the envoy Philip took possession of the gold and silver which had been collected, but he lost all chance of making prisoners. ”

“ The king was utterly astounded at this outburst of madness and called off his men from the assault, telling them that he would allow the people of Abydos three days in which to die. During this interval the vanquished wrought more horrors upon themselves than the victors would have done, however infuriated they might have been. Not a single man fell into the hands of the enemy alive, save those for whom chains or some other cause beyond their control made death impossible. After leaving a force in occupation of Abydos, Philip returned to his kingdom. ”

“ How greatly the one man surpasses the other, how superior is the one nation to the other! Epirus always has been and is today a very small accession to the kingdom of Macedonia. The whole of the Peloponnese is under the sway of Philip, not excepting even Argos, famous for the death of Pyrrhus, quite as much as for its ancient glory. Now compare our position. Consider the flourishing state of Italy when all those generals and armies were safe and sound which have been since swept away by the Punic War. ”

“ There were certain rights of war which could be justly exercised and therefore must be justly submitted to; the burning of crops, the destruction of dwellings, the carrying off of men and cattle as plunder, cause suffering to those who endure them, but are not felt to be an indignity. What they did complain of was that the man who called the Romans foreigners and barbarians had so completely outraged all law, human and divine, that in his first ravages he made impious war upon the infernal deities, and in his subsequent ones he defied the powers above. ”

“ At the same time we do not deny that Sicily is one of our provinces, and the communities which took the side of the Carthaginians and in full sympathy with them urged war against us are now tributary, and pay us the tenth of all their produce. We do not deny this; on the contrary we with you and the whole world know that each has been treated in accordance with its deserts. ”

“ Philip, who had now arrived in Macedonia, showed no less energy in making preparations for the war. His son Perseus, a mere boy, to whom he had assigned some members of his council to direct and advise him, was sent to hold the pass which leads to Pelagonia. Sciathos and Peparethos, cities of some importance, were destroyed that they might not enrich the hostile fleet with plunder. He sent envoys to the Aetolians to prevent that people, excited at the arrival of the Romans, from breaking faith with him. ”

“ Although both States were allies of Rome, the king would not - so the deputies stated - send either fleet or army to Greece to protect or attack any one without the consent of Rome. If the Romans were at liberty to defend their allies he should remain quietly in his kingdom; if on the other hand the Romans preferred to remain inactive he would himself send such assistance as would easily protect the Athenians against Philip. The senate passed a vote of thanks to the king and assured the deputation that it was the intention of the Roman people to protect their allies ”

“ Those whom a consciousness of guilt drove to suicide were more numerous than those who were punished by us, and though we deprived the survivors of their city and territory we gave them land and a place to dwell in. ”

“ But why do I speak of Capua when even to conquered Carthage we have given peace and liberty? The danger is rather that by showing too much leniency to the conquered we should incite them all the more to try the fortune of war against us. So much in defence of our conduct. With respect to the charges against Philip - the bloodshed in his own family, the murders of his kinsmen and friends, his lust almost more inhuman than his cruelty - you who live nearest to Macedonia know most about them. As regards you Aetolians, it was on your behalf that we undertook war against him ”

“ Many of the applicants had stated that there was land everywhere for sale and they wanted to become purchasers; the senate accordingly made a decree that they should have the option of taking any part of the public domain-land within fifty miles of the City. The consuls would value the land and impose a nominal tax of one as per jugerum as acknowledgment of its being public land, and when the State could pay its debts any of them who wished to have his money rather than the land could have it and restore the land to the people. ”

“ Three years ago you decided on this very spot to make peace with Philip. You are the same men that you were then, he is the same that he was, the Romans who were opposed to it then are just those who want to upset it now. Fortune has altered nothing, I do not see why you should alter your minds."
30 The Macedonians were followed, at the instance of the Romans, by the Athenians, who after the shocking way they had been treated, had every justification for protesting against Philip's barbarous cruelty. ”

“ The Romans, whose main line was about half a mile distant, sent forward their velites and about two squadrons of cavalry, so that the number of their mounted and unmounted men was equal to that of the enemy. The king's troops expected the style of fighting to be that with which they were familiar; the cavalry would make alternate charges and retirements, at one moment using their missiles, then galloping to the rear; the swift-footed Illyrians would be employed in sudden onsets and rushes ”

“ After the statues of the king had been thrown down and mutilated the signal for embarkation was given, and they sailed back to the Piraeus. Had there been a sufficient force of Roman soldiery to allow of Chalcis being occupied without interfering with the protection of Athens, Chalcis and the Euripus would have been wrested from the king; a most important success at the very outset of the war. For the Euripus is the key to Greece by sea as the pass of Thermopylae is by land. ”

“ Now men were fleeing and being cut down in all directions, and no one had yet reached the Roman camp with tidings of the disaster because those who fled thither fell into the hands of the king's troops who were waiting for them; more were killed by those who were blocking the roads than by those who had been sent in pursuit. ”

“ At Prasiae, a place on the mainland of Attica, the Issaeans joined the Roman fleet with twenty fast sailing-vessels. They were sent off to ravage the Carystian country; pending their return the rest of the fleet lay at Geraestus, a well-known port in Euboea. Then they all set sail for the open sea, and leaving Scyros on their right, reached Icus. Here a violent gale from the north detained them for a few days, and as soon as the weather moderated they sailed across to Sciathos, a city which had been devastated and plundered by Philip. ”

“ For such a madness fell on the people that they believed that all who had met their death in battle had been suddenly betrayed, and they accused one another of perjury, especially the priests, for they were surrendering to the enemy those whom they had devoted to death. ”

“ Even then no chance of fighting was offered him, and as foraging was by no means safe while the camps were in such close proximity since Philip's cavalry would attack his men when they were dispersed amongst the fields, he shifted his camp to a place called Ottolobum, about eight miles off, to allow of his foraging more safely owing to the greater distance. As long as the Romans were cutting corn in the neighbourhood of their camp the king kept his men within their lines in order that the enemy might grow more venturesome and careless. ”

“ While the consuls were raising troops and preparing for war, the citizens were occupied with religious observances, especially those which were usual when a fresh war began. The special intercessions and prayers at all the shrines had been duly offered, but that nothing might be omitted the consul to whom Macedonia was allotted was authorised to vow Games in honour of Jupiter and an offering to his temple. ”

“ He would not have left a single man of military age in Aetolia if Damocritus had not kept some of them at home by sternly reminding them of the war which was imminent and the defenceless condition of a country deprived of its manhood. ”

“ As Apustius was on his way back to the consul with a considerable amount of plunder he was attacked during his passage of the river by Athenagoras, one of the king's prefects, and his rear was thrown into confusion. On hearing the shouting and tumult he galloped back, made his men face about and throw their kits into the centre of the column, and formed his line. The king's soldiers did not stand the charge of the Romans, many were killed and more taken prisoners. Apustius brought back his army safely to the consul, and was at once sent off to rejoin the fleet. ”

“ Their army began by laying the land of Attica waste with fire and sword, after which they returned to Acarnania with plunder of every description. So far there was only anger and exasperation on both sides, subsequently, by a decree of the citizens, Athens made a formal declaration of war. For when King Attalus and the Rhodians who were following up Philip in his retreat to Macedonia had reached Aegina, the king sailed across to the Piraeus for the purpose of renewing and confirming his alliance with the Athenians. ”

“ You imagine, I suppose, that the Sicilians enjoy the same rights as you, and that as you hold your council at Naupactus under your own laws, presided over by magistrates of your own choice, and with full power of forming alliances or declaring war as you please, so it is with the councils which meet in the cities of Sicily, in Syracuse or Messana or Lilybaeum. ”

“ After thus scouring the enemy's country, the consul returned to friendly territories and led his force back to Apollonia, which had been his starting-point for the campaign. Philip had been called away by the Aetolians, the Athamanians, the Dardanians and the numerous wars which had broken out in various quarters. The Dardanians were already retiring from Macedonia when he sent Athenagoras with the light infantry and the greater part of the cavalry to attack them from the rear as they retreated, and by harassing their rear make them less eager to send their armies away from home. ”

“ This information was ultimately conveyed by deserters, a class of persons whom want of principle renders useful in all wars for finding out things about the enemy.
34 With the view of doing more to win the affections of his men and make them more ready to meet danger on his behalf, Philip paid special attention to the burial of the men who had fallen in the cavalry action and ordered the bodies to be brought into camp that all might see the honour paid to the dead. But nothing is so uncertain or so difficult to gauge as the temper of a mass of people. ”