committed at Messana, and in the heart of Peloponnesus, the killing of his host Garitenes at Cyparissia, almost in the very midst of a feast, in contempt of laws divine and human; the murder of the two Aratuses of Sicyon, father and son, though he was wont to call the unfortunate old man his parent; his carrying away the son’s wife into Macedonia for the gratification of his vicious appetites, and all his violations of virgins and matrons;—­let all these, I say, be consigned to oblivion.  Let us suppose our business were not with Philip, through dread of whose cruelty you are all thus struck dumb; for what other cause could keep you silent, when you have been summoned to a council?  Let us imagine that we are treating with Antigonus, a prince of the greatest mildness and equity, to whose kindness we have all been highly indebted; would he require us to perform what at the time was impossible?  Peloponnesus is a peninsula, united to the continent by the narrow passage of an isthmus particularly exposed and open to the attacks of naval armaments.  Now, if a hundred decked ships, and fifty lighter open ones, and thirty Issean barks, shall begin to lay waste our coasts, and attack the cities which stand exposed, almost on the very shore, shall we then retreat into the inland towns, as if we were not afflicted with an intestine war, though in truth it is rankling in our very bowels?  When Nabis and the Lacedaemonians by land, and the Roman fleet by sea, shall press us, whence must I implore the support due from the king’s alliance, whence the succours of the Macedonians?  Shall we ourselves, with our own arms, defend, against the Roman forces, the cities that will be attacked?  Truly, in the former war, we defended Dymae excellently well!  The calamities of others afford us abundant examples; let us not seek how we may render ourselves an example to others.  Do not, because the Romans voluntarily desire your friendship, contemn that which you ought to have prayed for, nay, laboured with all your might to obtain.  But, it is insinuated, that they are impelled by fear, in a country to which they are strangers; and that, wishing to shelter themselves under your assistance, they have recourse to your alliance in the hope of being admitted into your harbours, and of there finding supplies of provisions.  Now, at sea they are absolute masters; and instantly reduce to subjection every place at which they land.  What they request, they have power to enforce.  Because they wish to treat you with tenderness they do not allow you to take steps that must lead you to ruin.  Cleomedon lately pointed out, as the middle and safest way, to remain inactive, and abstain from taking up arms But that is not a middle way; it is no way at all.  For, besides the necessity of either embracing or rejecting the Roman alliance, what other consequence can ensue from such conduct, than that, while we show no steady attachment to either side, as if we waited the event with design to adapt