32.37
On
their arrival in Rome the delegates of the allies were received in audience
before those from Philip. Their address to the senate was mainly taken up
with personal attacks on the king, but what weighed most with the senate
was their description of that part of the world and the distribution of sea and
land. From this they showed clearly that as long as Philip held Demetrias in
Thessaly, Chalcis in Euboea, and Corinth in Achaia Greece could not be free;
Philip himself with as much truth as insolence called these the fetters of
Greece. The king's envoys were then introduced and had commenced a
somewhat lengthy address when they were interrupted by the pointed
question: "Is he prepared to evacuate those three cities?" They replied that
they were not mentioned in their instructions. On this they were dismissed
and the negotiations broken off, the question of peace or war being left
entirely to Quinctius. As it was quite evident that the senate were not averse
from war, and as Quinctius himself was more anxious for victory than for
peace, he refused any further interview with Philip, and said that he would
not admit any envoys from him unless they came to announce that he was
withdrawing entirely from Greece.
