incursions into
the Peloponnesus. That people were a species of freebooters, and the
terror of their neighbours; yet they were united, like the Achaeans, in
a confederacy or league. The Aetolian League was a confederation of
tribes instead of cities, like the Achaean. The diet or council of the
league, called the Panaetolicum, assembled every autumn, generally at
Thermon, to elect the strategus and other officers; but the details of
its affairs were conducted by a committee called APOCLETI, who seem to
have formed a sort of permanent council, The AEtolians had availed
themselves of the disorganised state of Greece consequent upon the
death of Alexander to extend their power, and had gradually made
themselves masters of Locris, Phocis, Boeotia, together with portions
of Acarnania, Thessaly, and Epirus. Thus both the Amphictyonic Council
and the oracle of Delphi were in their power. They had early wrested
Naupactus from the Achaeans, and had subsequently acquired several
Peloponnesian cities.

Such was the condition of the AEtolians at the time of Philip's
accession. Soon after that event we find them, under the leadership of
Dorimachus, engaged in a series of freebooting expeditions in Messenia,
and other parts of Peloponnesus. Aratus marched to the assistance of
the Messenians at the head of the Achaean forces, but was totally
defeated in a battle near Caphyae. The Achaeans now saw no hope of
safety except through the assistance of Philip. That young monarch was
ambitious and enterprising possessing considerable military ability and
much political sagacity. He readily listened to the application of the
Achaeans, and in 220 entered into an alliance with them. The war which
ensued between the AEtolians on the one side, and the Achaeans,
assisted by Philip, on the other, and which lasted about three years,
has been called the Social War. Philip gained several victories over
the AEtolians, but he concluded a treaty of peace with them in 217,
because he was anxious to turn his arms against another and more
formidable power.

The great struggle now going on between Rome and Carthage attracted the
attention of the whole civilized world. If was evident that Greece,
distracted by intestine quarrels, must be soon swallowed up by
whichever of those great states might prove successful; and of the two,
the ambition of the Romans, who had already gained a footing on the
eastern shores of the Adriatic was by far the mor