any reasonable demand
to make, it would surely be infinitely better to send ambassadors to
Rome, whether they chose to argue the case or to make a request to
the senate, than that the Roman people should enter the lists with
Antiochus, while the Aetolians acted as marshals of the field; not
without great disturbance to the affairs of the world, and to
the utter ruin of Greece." That "no people would feel the fatal
consequences of such a war sooner than the first promoters of it."
This prediction of the Roman was disregarded. Thoas, and others of
the same faction, were then heard with general approbation; and they
prevailed so far, that, without adjourning the meeting, or waiting for
the absence of the Romans, a decree was passed that Antiochus should
be invited to vindicate the liberty of Greece, and decide the dispute
between the Aetolians and the Romans. To the insolence of this decree,
their praetor, Damocritus, added a personal affront: for on Quinctius
asking him for a copy of the decree, without any respect to the
dignity of the person to whom he spoke, he told him, that "he had, at
present, more pressing business to despatch; but he would shortly give
him the decree, and an answer, in Italy, from his camp on the banks
of the Tiber." Such was the degree of madness which possessed, at that
time, both the nation of the Aetolians and their magistrates.

34. Quinctius and the ambassadors returned to Corinth. The Aetolians,
that they might appear to intend taking every step through Antiochus,
and none directly of themselves, and, sitting inactive, to be waiting
for the arrival of the king, though they did not, after the departure
of the Romans, hold a council of the whole nation, yet endeavoured,
by their Apocleti, (a more confidential council, composed of persons
selected from the rest,) to devise schemes for setting Greece in
commotion. It was well known to them all, that in the several states
the principal people, particularly those of the best characters, were
disposed to maintain the Roman alliance, and well pleased with the
present state of affairs; but that the populace, and especially
such as were not content with their position, wished for a general
revolution. The Aetolians, at one day's sitting, formed a scheme,
the very conception of which argued not only boldness, but
impudence,--that of making themselves masters of Demetrias, Chalcis,
and Lacedaemon. One of their principal men was sent to each of
these p