thence to
Rome to put up for the consulship, he appointed Titus Quintus
Crispinus to command the fleet and the old camp in his room. He
himself fortified his camp, and built huts for his troops at a
distance of five miles from Hexapylum, at a place called Leon. These
were the transactions in Sicily up to the beginning of the winter.

40. The same summer the war with king Philip, as had been before
suspected, broke out. Ambassadors from Oricum came to Marcus Valerius,
the praetor, who was directing his fleet around Brundusium and the
neighbouring coasts of Calabria, with intelligence, that Philip had
first made an attempt upon Apollonia, having approached it by sailing
up the river with a hundred and twenty barks with two banks of oars;
after that, not succeeding so speedily as he had hoped, that he had
brought up his army secretly to Oricum by night; which city, as it was
situated on a plain, and was not secured either by fortifications or
by men and arms, was overpowered at the first assault. At the same
time that they delivered this intelligence, they entreated him to
bring them succour, and repel that decided enemy of the Romans by land
or by a naval force, since they were attacked for no other cause than
that they lay over against Italy. Marcus Valerius, leaving Publius
Valerius lieutenant-general charged with the protection of that
quarter, set sail with his fleet equipped and prepared, having put on
board of ships of burthen such soldiers as there was not room for in
the men of war, and reached Oricum on the second day; and as that city
was occupied by a slight garrison, which Philip had left on his
departure thence, he retook it without much opposition. Here
ambassadors came to him from Apollonia, stating that they were
subjected to a siege because they were unwilling to revolt from the
Romans, and that they would not be able any longer to resist the power
of the Macedonians, unless a Roman force were sent for their
protection. Having undertaken to perform what they wished, he sent two
thousand chosen armed men in ships of war to the mouth of the river,
under the command of Quintus Naevius Crista, praefect of the allies, a
man of enterprise, and experienced in military affairs. Having landed
his troops, and sent back the ships to join the rest of the fleet at
Oricum, whence he had come, he marched his troops at a distance from
the river, by a way not guarded at all by the king's party, and
entered the city by ni