The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 807 pages of information about The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36.

The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 807 pages of information about The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36.
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 to the arbitration of any state with whom both parties were at peace.”  To this the consul replied, that “the business required neither judge nor arbitrator:  for to whom was it not evident that every injurious consequence of the war was to be imputed to him who first took up arms.  And in this case Philip, unprovoked by any, had first commenced hostilities against all.”  When they next began to treat of those nations which were to be set at liberty, the consul named, first, the Thessalians:  on which the king, fired with indignation, exclaimed, “What harsher terms, Titus Quinctius, could you impose on me if I were vanquished?” With these words he retired hastily from the conference, and they were with difficulty restrained by the river which separated them from assaulting each other with

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The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.