Dangers of the Treaty With Rome
"Put then before your eyes your own folly. You
profess to be at war against Philip on behalf of the Greeks,
that they may escape from servitude to him; but your war is
really for the enslavement and ruin of
Greece. That is the
tale told by your treaty with
Rome, which formerly existed
only in written words, but is now seen in full operation.
Heretofore, though mere written words, it was a disgrace to
you: but now your execution of it has made that disgrace
palpable to the eyes of all the world. Moreover, Philip merely
lends his name and serves as a pretext for the war: he is not
exposed to any attack: it is against his allies,—the majority of
the Peloponnesian states,
Boeotia,
Euboea,
Phocis,
Locris,
Thessaly,
Epirus,—that you have made this treaty, bargaining
that their bodies and their goods shall belong to
the Romans, their cities and their territory to
the Aetolians.
And though personally, if you took a city, you
would not stoop to violate the freeborn, or to burn the buildings, because you look upon such conduct
as cruel and barbarous; yet you have made a treaty by which you have handed
over all other Greeks to the barbarians, to be exposed to the
most shameful violence and lawlessness. And all this was
hitherto kept a secret. But now the fate of the people of
Oreus, and of the miserable Aeginetans, has betrayed you to
every one,—Fortune having, as though of set purpose, suddenly
brought your infatuation before the scenes.
"So much for the origin of the war and its events up to
now. But as to its result,—supposing everything to go to
your wish,—what do you expect that to be? Will it not be
the beginning of great miseries to all
Greece?
