43.22
He
encamped on the frontier of Aetolia and the following day appeared before
Stratus. Forming his camp near the Inachus, he waited in the expectation
that the Aetolians would come in crowds from all the gates and make terms
with him. He found the gates shut, and on the very night of his arrival a
Roman detachment under C. Popilius had been admitted within the city. As
long as Archidamus was in the city he had sufficient influence to compel the
aristocratical party to invite the king, but after he had left to meet him, they
showed less activity and gave the opposite party an opportunity of calling in
Popilius from Ambracia with 1000 infantry. Dinarchus, too, the commandant
of the Aetolian cavalry, came in just at the right moment with 600 infantry
and 100 cavalry. It was clear that he had gone to Stratus with the intention
of supporting Perseus and then changing his mind with the change of
circumstances joined the Romans whom he had come to oppose. Surrounded
by such fickle people, Popilius neglected no proper precaution. He at once
took into his own hands the keys of the gates and the defence of the walls;
he removed Dinarchus and his Aetolians and also the fighting force of
Stratus into the citadel ostensibly to defend it. Perseus attempted to hold
conversations from the hills which looked down on the upper part of the
city, but when he found that their determination was unshaken, and that they
even prevented his nearer approach by hurling missiles at him, he withdrew
to a spot five miles from the city on the side of the River Petitarus where he
fixed his camp. Here he held a council of war. Archidamus and the Epirot
refugees were for his staying there, but the Macedonian leaders gave it as
their opinion that he ought not to fight against the inclemency of the season,
with no reserve of supplies, for the besiegers would suffer from the effects of
scarcity sooner than the besieged. What alarmed Perseus most was that the
enemy's winter quarters were not far away, and he shifted his camp to
Aperantia. Archidamus had great weight and influence with that nation and
Perseus's presence among them was universally welcomed. Archidamus
himself was appointed their governor and furnished with a force of 800 men.
