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Phillidas and the Aetolian Troops Arrive

Philip, then, was acquiring a great reputation, not only
Character of Philip V.
among those actually in his army, but among the other Peloponnesians also, for his behaviour to the allies serving with him, as well as for his ability and courage in the field. Indeed it would not be easy to find a king endowed with more natural qualities requisite for the acquisition of power. He had in an eminent degree a quick understanding, a retentive memory, and a winning grace of manner, joined to a look of royal dignity and authority; and most important of all, ability and courage as a general. What neutralised all these excellent qualities, and made a cruel tyrant of a naturally well-disposed king, it is not easy to say in a few words: and therefore that inquiry must be reserved for a more suitable time than the present.

Starting from Olympia by the road leading to Pharae,

Philip continues his campaign.
Philip came first to Telphusa, and thence to Heraea. There he had the booty sold by auction, and repaired the bridge over the Alpheus, with the view of passing over it to the invasion of Triphylia.

Just at that time the Aetolian Strategus, Dorimachus, in answer to a request of the Eleans for protection against the devastation they were enduring, despatched six hundred Aetolians, under the command of Phillidas, to their aid.

Arrival of Aetolian troops under Phillidas, B. C. 218.
Having arrived in Elis, and taken over the Elean mercenaries, who were five hundred in number, as well as a thousand citizen soldiers and the Tarentine cavalry,1 he marched to the relief of Triphylia.
Triphylia.
This district is so called from Triphylus, one of the sons of Arcas, and lies on the coast of the Peloponnese between Elis and Messenia, facing the Libyan Sea, and touching the south-west frontier of Arcadia. It contains the following towns, Samicum, Lepreum, Hypana, Typaneae, Pyrgos, Aepium, Bolax, Stylangium, Phrixa; all of which, shortly before this, the Eleans had conquered and annexed, as well as the city of Alipheira, which had originally been subject to Arcadia and Megalopolis, but had been exchanged with the Eleans, for some private object of his own, by Lydiadas when tyrant of Megalopolis.

1 The local name of Tarentine, though doubtless originating in fact, had come to indicate a species of mercenary cavalry armed in a particular way. Arrian, Tact. 4 distinguishes two sorts of light cavalry for skirmishing, Tarentines armed with javelins (δορατία), and horse archers (ἱπποτοξόται). Cp. 11, 12, Livy 35, 29; 37, 40.

Histories. Polybius. Evelyn S. Shuckburgh. translator. London, New York. Macmillan. 1889. Reprint Bloomington 1962.

Robert B. Strassler provided support for entering this text.

This text was converted to electronic form by professional data entry, Running heads in Walbank's reprint have been converted to chapter titles, and titles have been added, usually from the marginal notes, for chapters without them. Some pages have notes of the form "line X: A should read B," which I believe are Walbank's; they have "resp=fww". Summaries of missing sections are encoded as inline notes with "resp=ess." A very few unidentified quotations are marked in notes with "resp=aem" (the markup editor) Citations are marked using Perseus abbreviations. and has been proofread to a high level of accuracy.

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hide References (18 total)
  • Commentary references to this page (1):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 32.5
  • Cross-references to this page (13):
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ALIPHE´RA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), ELIS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HERAEA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), HY´PANA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), LE´PREUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PHRIXA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), PYRGUS
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), SA´MICUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), STYLLA´NGIUM
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), THELPU´SA
    • Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), TYPA´NEAE
    • Smith's Bio, Phylidas
    • Smith's Bio, Tri'phylus
  • Cross-references in notes to this page (1):
  • Cross-references in notes from this page (3):
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 35, 29
    • Livy, The History of Rome, Book 37, 40
    • Arrian, Tactica, 4
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