43.  There are no dispositions more prone to envy than those of persons whose mental qualifications are inferior to their birth and rank in life; because they are indignant both at the merit and the possessions of another.  The design of the expedition, to be commanded by Hannibal, the only one thought of that could be of use, in the beginning of the war, was immediately laid aside.  The king, highly flattered by the defection of Demetrias from the Romans to the Aetolians, resolved to delay no longer his departure into Greece.  Before the fleet weighed anchor he went up from the shore to Ilium, to offer sacrifice to Minerva.  Immediately on his return he set sail with forty decked ships and sixty open ones, followed by two hundred transports, laden with provisions and warlike stores.  He first touched at the island of Imbrus; thence he passed over to Sciathus; whence, after collecting the ships which had been separated during the voyage, he proceeded to Pteleum, toe nearest part of the continent.  Here, Eurylochus the Magnetarch, and other principal Magnetians from Demetrias, met him.  Being greatly gratified by their numerous appearance, he carried his fleet the next day into the harbour of their city.  At a small distance from the town he landed his forces, which consisted of ten thousand foot, five hundred horse, and six elephants; a force scarcely sufficient to take possession of Greece alone, much less to sustain a war with Rome.  The Aetolians, as soon as they were informed of Antiochus’s arrival at Demetrias, convened a general council, and passed a decree, inviting him into their country.  The king had already left Demetrias, (for he knew that such a decree was to be passed,) and had advanced as far as Phalara on the Malian bay.  Here the decree was presented to him, and then he proceeded to Lamia, where he was received by the populace with marks of the warmest attachment, with clapping of hands and shouting, and other signs by which the extravagant joy of the vulgar is testified.

44.  When he came into the council he was introduced by Phaeneas, the praetor, and other persons of eminence, who, with difficulty, made way for him through the crowd.  Then, silence being ordered, the king addressed himself to the assembly.  He began with accounting for his having come with a force so much smaller than every one had hoped and expected.  “That,” he said, “ought to be deemed the strongest proof of the warmth of his good-will towards them; because, though he was not sufficiently prepared in any particular, and though the season was yet too early for sailing, he had, without hesitation, complied with the call of their ambassadors, and had believed that when the Aetolians should see him among them they would be satisfied that in him, even if he were unattended, they might be sure of every kind of support.  But he would also abundantly fulfil the hopes of those, whose expectations seemed at present to be disappointed.  For as soon as the season