Epirus; what then, I say, must it be in competition with you two? But
it may be asked. What circumstances induce me to believe that Philip
may be brought to a union with us? First, common utility, which is the
strongest cement of union; and next, you, Aetolians, are yourselves
my informants. For Thoas, your ambassador, among the other arguments
which he used to urge, for the purpose of drawing Antiochus into
Greece, always above all things insisted upon this,--that Philip
expressed extreme indignation that the conditions of servitude had
been imposed on him under the appearance of conditions of peace:
comparing the king's anger to that of a wild beast chained, or shut
up, and wishing to break the bars that confined it. Now, if his temper
of mind is such, let us loose his chains; let us break these bars,
that he may vent, upon the common foe, this anger so long pent up. But
should our embassy fail of producing any effect on him, let us then
take care, that if we cannot unite him to ourselves, he may not be
united to our enemies. Your son, Seleucus, is at Lysimachia; and if,
with the army which he has there, he shall pass through Thrace, and
once begin to make depredations on the nearest parts of Macedonia, he
will effectually divert Philip from carrying aid to the Romans, to
the protection, in the first place, of his own dominions. Such is my
opinion respecting Philip. With regard to the general plan of the war,
you have, from the beginning, been acquainted with my sentiments: and
if my advice had been listened to, the Romans would not now hear that
Chalcis in Euboea was taken, and a fort on the Euripus reduced, but
that Etruria, and the whole coast of Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul, were
in a blaze of war; and, what is to them the greatest cause of alarm,
that Hannibal was in Italy. Even as matters stand at present, I
recommend it to you, to call home all your land and sea forces; let
storeships with provisions follow the fleet; for, as we are here too
few for the exigencies of the war, so are we too many for the scanty
supplies of necessaries. When you shall have collected together the
whole of your force, you will divide the fleet, and keep one division
stationed at Corcyra, that the Romans may not have a clear and safe
passage; and the other you will send to that part of the coast of
Italy which is opposite Sardinia and Africa; while you yourselves,
with all the land forces, will proceed to the territory of Bullium. In