be heard. The ambassador of king
Attalus demanded "restitution of the ships and prisoners taken in
the sea-fight at Cius; and that Nicephorium, and the temple of Venus,
which Philip had pillaged and defaced, should be restored as though
they had not been injured." The Rhodians laid claim to Peraea, a tract
on the continent, lying opposite to their island, which from early
times had been under their jurisdiction; and they required that "the
garrisons should be withdrawn from Tassus, Bargylii, and Euroma, and
from Sestus and Abydos on the Hellespont; that Perinthus should be
restored to the Byzantians, in right of their ancient title, and
that all the sea-port towns and harbours of Asia should be free."
The Achaeans demanded the restoration of Corinth and Argos. Phaeneas
nearly repeated the demands made by the Romans, that the troops should
withdraw out of Greece, and the Aetolians be put in possession of the
cities which had formerly been under their dominion. He was followed
by Alexander, a man of eminence among the Aetolians, and, considering
his country, not uneloquent. He said, that "he had long kept silence,
not because he expected that any business would be effected in that
conference, but because he was unwilling to interrupt any of the
allies in their discourse." He asserted, that "Philip was neither
treating for peace with sincerity; and that he had never waged war
with true courage, at any time: that in negotiating, he was insidious
and fradulent; while in war he never fought on equal ground, nor
engaged in regular battles; but, skulking about, burned and pillaged
towns, and, when worsted, destroyed the prizes of victory. But not in
that manner did the ancient kings of Macedon behave; they decided the
fate of the war in the field, and spared the towns as far as they were
able, in order to possess the more opulent empire. For what sort of
conduct was it, to destroy the objects for the possession of which the
contest was waged, and thereby leave nothing to himself but fighting?
Philip had, in the last year, desolated more cities of his allies
in Thessaly, than all the enemies that Thessaly ever had. On the
Aetolians themselves he had made greater depredations, when he was in
alliance with them, than since he became their enemy. He had seized
on Lysimachia, after dislodging the praetor and garrison of the
Aetolians. Cius also, a city belonging to their government, he razed
from the foundation. With the same injusti