35.32
.His
speech was followed by urgent entreaties from the whole assembly.
Eurylochus left hurriedly, and making his way secretly to the city gate fled to
Aetolia, for the Aetolians were now throwing off the mask more and more
every day from their hostile intentions. Thoas, the foremost man amongst
them, happened to return from his mission to Antiochus just at this time,
bringing with him an envoy from the king in the person of Menippus. Before
the meeting of the national council these two men had filled all ears with
descriptions of the land and sea forces which Antiochus had collected. They
declared that a great host of infantry and cavalry were on their way,
elephants had been brought from India and -what they thought would most
of all impress the popular mind -he was bringing gold enough to buy up the
Romans themselves. It was obvious what effect this sort of talk would have
on the council, for their arrival and all their proceedings were duly reported
to the Roman envoy. Although events had almost taken a decisive turn,
Quinctius thought it might not be altogether useless if some representatives
of the friendly cities attended the council who would have the courage to
speak frankly in reply to the king's envoy and remind the Aetolians of their
treaty engagements with Rome. The Athenians seemed best fitted for the
task on account of the prestige which their city enjoyed and also because of
their old alliance with the Aetolians. Quinctius therefore requested them to
send delegates to the Pan-Aetolian Council.
Thoas opened the proceedings by giving a report of his
negotiations. He was followed by Menippus, who asserted that the best thing
for all the peoples of Greece and Asia would have been for Antiochus to
have intervened whilst Philip's power was still unimpaired, everyone would
then have kept what belonged to him, and everything would not have been
completely at the mercy of Rome. "Even now," he continued, "if only you
resolutely carry out the designs you have formed, he will be able with the
help of the gods and the assistance of the Aetolians to restore the fortunes of
Greece, drooping though they are, to their old place in the world. That,
however, must rest on liberty, and a liberty which stands in its own strength
and is not dependent on the will of another." The Athenians, who had
received permission to speak their minds after the king's delegate, made no
allusion to the king, but simply reminded the Aetolians of their alliance with
Rome and the services which T. Quinctius had rendered to the whole of
Greece. They warned them against wrecking that friendship by hasty and
precipitate action; bold and hot-headed counsels were attractive at first sight,
difficult to put into practice, disastrous in their results. The Roman envoys
and Quinctius himself were not far away, it would be better to discuss the
question at issue in friendly debate than to throw Europe and Asia into a
deadly struggle of arms.
