d
us, with a pleasant smile, that the variety was owing to the dressing,
and that what appeared to be the flesh of many different wild animals,
was entirely of tame swine. This may be aptly applied to the forces
of the king, which were so ostentatiously displayed a while ago; that
those various kinds of armour, and multitudinous names of nations,
never heard of before, Dahans, and Medes, and Caducians, and
Elymaeans, are nothing more than Syrians, a race possessed of such
grovelling souls, as to be much fitter for slaves than for soldiers. I
wish, Achaeans, that I could exhibit to your view the rapid excursions
of this mighty monarch from Demetrias; first, to Lamia, to the council
of the Aetolians; then to Chalcis. You should behold, in the royal
camp, about the number of two small legions, and these incomplete. You
should see the king, now, in a manner begging corn from the Aetolians,
to be measured out to his soldiers; then, striving to borrow money
at interest to pay them; again, standing at the gates of Chalcis, and
presently, on being refused admittance, returning thence into Aetolia,
without having effected any thing, except indeed the taking a peep at
Aulis and the Euripus. Both Antiochus had done wrong in trusting
to the Aetolians, and the Aetolians in trusting to the king's vain
boastings. For which reason, you ought the less to be deceived by
them, and rather to confide in the tried and approved fidelity of the
Romans. For, with respect to your not interfering in the war, which
they recommend as your best course, nothing, in fact, can be more
contrary to your interest: for then, without gaining thanks or esteem,
you will become the prize of the conqueror."

50. He was thought to have replied to both by no means unsuitably; and
there was no difficulty in bringing an audience, prepossessed in his
favour, to give their approbation to his discourse. In fact, there
was no debate or doubt started, but all concurred in voting, that the
nation of the Achaeans would regard, as their friends or foes, those
who were judged to be such by the Roman people, and in ordering war
to be declared against both Antiochus and the Aetolians. They also,
by the direction of Quinctius, sent immediate succours of five hundred
men to Chalcis, and five hundred to the Piraeus; for affairs at
Athens were in a state not far from a civil war, in consequence of the
endeavours, used by some, to seduce the venal populace, by hopes of
largesses,