o at the head of all his forces, and if
they hesitated, terrify them into compliance.

7. Although the present debate turned chiefly on these points,
Hannibal, being called on by name to give his opinion, led the king,
and those who were present, into the consideration of the general
conduct of the war, by a speech to this effect:--"If I had been
employed in your councils since we came first into Greece, when you
were consulting about Euboea, the Achaeans, and Boeotians, I would
have offered the same advice which I shall offer you this day, when
your thoughts are employed about the Thessalians. My opinion is, that,
above all things, Philip and the Macedonians should by some means or
other be brought into a participation in this war. For, as to Euboea,
as well as the Boeotians and Thessalians, who can doubt that, having
no strength of their own, they will ever court the power that is
present; and will make use of the same fear, which governs their
councils, as an argument for obtaining pardon? That, as soon as
they shall see a Roman army in Greece, they will turn away to that
government to which they have been accustomed? Nor are they to blame,
if, when the Romans were at so great a distance, they did not choose
to try your force, and that of your army, who were on the spot. How
much more advisable, therefore, and more advantageous would it be, to
unite Philip to us, than these; as, if he once embarks in the cause,
he will have no room for retreat, and as he will bring with him such
a force, as will not only be an accession to a power at war with Rome,
but was able, lately, of itself, to withstand the Romans! With such an
ally, (I wish to speak without offence,) how could I harbour a doubt
about the issue; when I should see the very persons through whom the
Romans prevailed against Philip, now ready to act against them?
The Aetolians, who, as all agree, conquered Philip, will fight
in conjunction with Philip against the Romans. Amynander and the
Athamanian nation, who, next to the Aetolians, performed the greatest
services in that war, will stand on our side. Philip, at the time when
you remained inactive, sustained the whole burden of the war. Now, you
and he, two of the greatest kings, will, with the force of Asia and
Europe, wage war against one state; which, to say nothing of my own
fortune with them, either prosperous or adverse, was certainly, in
the memory of our fathers, unequal to a dispute with a single king of