38.1
Whilst the war was
going on in Asia, even Aetolia did not remain free from disturbance. The
Athamanians were the cause of the trouble. After the expulsion of
Amynander, the country was held down by the governors whom Philip had
established and provided with troops, and their arbitrary and lawless rule
made the people feel keenly the disappearance of their king. He was
spending his time of exile in Aetolia, and the letters of his friends and their
description of the condition of Athamania led him to hope that he might
recover his crown. He sent messengers to Argithea, their capital, to inform
their leaders that if he were fully assured of the sympathies of his
compatriots, he would obtain assistance from the Aetolians and enter the
country with the members of the Aetolian council and their captain-general,
Nicander. When he saw that they were prepared for all eventualities, he told
them at very short notice the day on which he intended to enter Athamania
with an army. The movement against the Macedonians was begun by four
men; they each selected six comrades, then feeling no confidence in so small
a number, which was more adapted to conceal than to execute their project,
they doubled the number of their fellow-conspirators. Having thus grown to
fifty-two, they formed themselves into four parties; one was to make for
Heraclea, a second for Tetraphylia where the royal treasure used to be kept,
the third was to go to Theudoria, and the fourth to Argithea. They had all
agreed to show themselves in the forums without making any disturbance, as
though they had come on private business, and on a fixed day they were to
raise the populations in the different cities and expel the Macedonian
garrisons from their citadels. When the day came and Amynander was on the
frontier with 1000 Aetolians, the Macedonian garrisons were simultaneously
driven out of the four cities, and letters were sent to all the other cities
urging them to shake themselves free from the tyranny of Philip and win
back their ancestral and legitimate monarchy. The Macedonians were
expelled from all parts of the country. Xeno, the commandant of the garrison
in Theium, intercepted the message sent to that city, and by seizing the
citadel was able to stand a siege for a few days. At last that place, too,
surrendered to Amynander, and the whole of Athamania, with the exception
of the fort of Athenaeum, which lay close to the frontier of Macedonia, was
now in his power.
