35.46
On the
break-up of the council the members dispersed to their respective cities. 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. 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. 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. They said that he had sailed across to Europe
not to levy war but to liberate Greece, not with empty professions as the
Romans had done, but to make her really free. 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. 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. 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. 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. They did not reject the proffered friendship
of the king nor even of the Aetolians, but the first proof of 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 their
walls or even enter into any alliance with them without the authority of the
Roman Government.