28.8
Philip
was extremely disappointed and vexed at finding that in spite of his rapid
movements he was always too late to do anything, and that Fortune mocked
his energy and activity by snatching away every opportunity from before his
eyes. However, he concealed his disappointment in the presence of the
council, and spoke in a very confident tone. Appealing to gods and men he
declared that at no time or place had he ever failed to go with all possible
speed wherever the clash of hostile arms was heard. It would be difficult, he
continued, to estimate whether the enemy's anxiety to flee or his own
eagerness to fight played the greater part in the war. In this way Attalus got
away from Opus, and Sulpicius from Chalcis, and now Machanidas had
slipped out of his hands. But flight did not always mean victory, and it was
impossible to regard as serious a war in which when once you have come
into touch with the enemy, you have conquered. The most important thing
was the enemy's own admission that they were no match for him, and in a
short time he would win a decisive victory, the enemy would find the result
of the battle no better than they had anticipated. His allies were delighted
with his speech. He then made over Heraea and Triphylia to the Achaeans,
and on their bringing forward satisfactory evidence that Aliphera in
Megalopolis had formed part of their territory, he restored that place also to
them. Subsequently with some vessels furnished by the Achaeans -three
quadriremes and as many biremes -he sailed to Anticyra. He had previously
sent into the Gulf of Corinth seven quinqueremes and more than twenty light
vessels, intending to strengthen the Carthaginian fleet, and with these he
proceeded to Eruthrae in Aetolia near Eupalium, where he disembarked. The
Aetolians were aware of his landing, for all the men who were in the fields or
in the neighbouring forts of Potidania or Apollonia fled to the woods and the
mountains; their flocks and herds which they were unable in their haste to
drive away Philip secured and placed on board. The whole of the plunder
was despatched in charge of Nicias the praetor of the Achaeans to Aegium;
Philip, sending his army overland through Boeotia, went himself to Corinth,
and from there to Cenchreae. Here he re-embarked, and sailing past the
coast of Attica, round the headland of Sunium and almost through the hostile
fleets, arrived at Chalcis. In his address to the citizens he spoke in the highest
terms of their loyalty and courage in refusing to be moved by either threats
or promises, and he urged them, in case they were attacked, to show the
same determination to be true to their ally if they thought their own position
preferable to that of Opus or Oreus. From Chalcis he sailed to Oreus, where
he entrusted the administration and defence of the city to those magnates
who had fled on the capture of the place rather than betray it to the Romans.
Then he returned to Demetrias, the place from which he had started to
render assistance to his allies. He now proceeded to lay down the keels of
100 war-ships at Cassandrea, and a large number of shipwrights were
assembled for their construction. As matters were now quiet in Greece,
owing to the departure of Attalus and the effective assistance which Philip
had given to his allies in their difficulties, he returned to Macedonia to
commence operations against the Maedi.