21.  Then the praetor, Aristaenus, again spoke as follows:—­“Chiefs of Achaea, you are not more at a loss for advice, than you are for words; but every one is unwilling to promote the interest of the public at a risk of danger to himself.  Were I in a private character, perhaps I too should be silent; but, as praetor, it is my duty to declare, that I see evidently, either that an audience of the council ought not to have been accorded to the ambassadors, or that they ought not to be dismissed from it without an answer.  Yet how can I give them an answer, unless by a decree of yours?  And, since not one of you who have been called to this assembly either chooses or dares to make known his sentiments, let us examine (as if they were opinions proposed to our consideration) the speeches of the ambassadors delivered yesterday; supposing the speakers not to have required what was useful to themselves, but to have recommended what they thought most conducive to our advantage.  The Romans, the Rhodians and Attalus, request an alliance and friendship with us; and they demand to be assisted by us in the war in which they are now engaged against Philip.  Philip reminds us of our league with him, and of the obligation of our oath; he requires only, that we declare ourselves on his side; and says, he will be satisfied if we do not intermeddle in the operations of the war.  Does not the reason occur to the mind of any one of you why those, who are not yet our allies, require more than he who is?  This arises not from modesty in Philip, nor from the want of it in the Romans.  It is fortune, which, while it bestows confidence to requisitions on one side, precludes it on the other.  We see nothing belonging to Philip but his ambassador:  the Roman fleet lies at Cenchreae, exhibiting to our view the spoils of the cities of Euboea.  We behold the consul and his legions, at the distance of a small tract of sea, overrunning Phocis and Locris.  You were surprised at Philip’s ambassador, Cleomedon, showing such diffidence yesterday in his application to us to take arms on the side of the king against the Romans.  But if we, in pursuance of the same treaty and oath, the sacredness of which he inculcated on us, were to ask of him, that Philip should protect us, both from Nabis and his Lacedaemonians, and also from the Romans, he would be utterly unable to find, not only a force with which to protect us, but even an answer to return.  As much so in truth as was Philip himself, who endeavoured, by promises of waging war against Nabis, to draw away our youth into Euboea; but finding that we would neither decree such assistance to him, nor choose to be embroiled in a war with Rome, forgot that alliance on which he now lays such stress, and left us to Nabis and the Lacedaemonians to be spoiled and plundered.  Besides, to me the arguments of Cleomedon appeared utterly inconsistent.  He made light of the war with the Romans; and asserted, that the issue of it would be similar to that of the