ng sail from Brundusium earlier than had
been usual with former consuls, reached Corcyra, with, eight thousand
foot and eight hundred horse. From this place, he passed over, in a
quinquereme, to the nearest part of Epirus, and proceeded, by long
journeys, to the Roman camp. Here, having dismissed Villius, and
waiting a few days, until the forces from Corcyra should come up and
join him, he held a council, to determine whether he should endeavour
to force his way straight forward through the camp of the enemy; or
whether, without attempting an enterprise of so great difficulty and
danger, he should not rather take a circuitous and safe road, so as to
penetrate into Macedonia by the country of the Dassaretians and Lycus.
The latter plan would have been adopted, had he not feared that, in
removing to a greater distance from the sea, the enemy might slip out
of his hands; and that if the king should resolve to secure himself in
the woods and wilds, as he had done before, the summer might be spun
out without any thing being effected. It was therefore determined, be
the event what it might, to attack the enemy in their present post,
disadvantageous as it was. But they more easily resolved on this
measure, than devised any safe or certain method of accomplishing it.

10. Forty days were passed in view of the enemy, without making any
kind of effort. Hence Philip conceived hopes of bringing about a
treaty of peace, through the mediation of the people of Epirus; and a
council, which was held for the purpose, having appointed Pausanias,
the praetor, and Alexander, the master of the horse, as negotiators,
they brought the consul and the king to a conference, on the banks
of the river Aous, where the channel was narrowest. The sum of the
consul's demands was, that the king should withdraw his troops from
the territories of the several states; that, to those whose lands and
cities he had plundered, he should restore such of their effects as
could be found; and that the value of the rest should be estimated by
a fair arbitration. Philip answered, that "the cases of the several
states differed widely from each other. That such as he himself had
seized on, he would set at liberty; but he would not divest himself
of the hereditary and just possessions which had been conveyed down
to him from his ancestors. If those states, with whom hostilities had
been carried on, complained of any losses in the war, he was ready
to submit the matter t