32.10
This
led Philip to hope that he might arrange a peace through the mediation of the
Epirotes. A national council was held at which Pausanias, their
captain-general, and Alexander, the commander of their cavalry, were
chosen to undertake the task, and they arranged a conference between the
king and the consul at a point where the Aous contracts to its narrowest
width. The sum and substance of the consul's demands were that the king
should withdraw his garrisons from the various States, that he should restore
to those of them whose cities and fields he had plundered all that they could
recover, and make compensation for the rest upon a fair valuation. In reply
Philip asserted that the cities were differently circumstanced. Those which he
had himself taken he would liberate, but as to those which had been
bequeathed to him by his predecessors he would not give up what he had
inherited as his lawful possession. If any of the States with whom he had
been at war made complaint of the losses they had sustained he would
submit the question to arbitration before any neutral nation whom they
chose. To this the consul replied that in this matter at all events there was no
need whatever for any arbitration, for who could fail to see that the
responsibility for all wrongs lay with the aggressor, and in every case Philip
had been the aggressor without having received any provocation? The
discussion then turned upon the question, which communities were to be
liberated. The consul mentioned the Thessalians to begin with. Philip was so
furious at this suggestion that he exclaimed, "What heavier condition, T.
Quinctius, could you impose upon a defeated foe?" and with these words
hastily left the conference. It was with difficulty that the two armies were
prevented from fighting with missiles, separated as they were by the breadth
of the river. The next day the patrols on either side engaged in numerous
skirmishes over the broad plain between the camps. Then the king's troops
retired and the Romans in their eagerness for battle followed them on to
confined and broken ground. They had the advantage in their order and
discipline and in the nature of their armour which afforded protection to the
whole person; the Macedonians were helped by the strength of their
position, which enabled catapults and ballistae to be posted on almost every
rock as though on a city wall. After many on both sides had been wounded
and some had even fallen as in a regular battle, night put an end to the
fighting.
