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12. But neither the Boii nor the Spaniards, with whom war was carried on that year, were so hostile and so dangerous to the Romans as the people of the Aetolians.1 [2] After the evacuation of Greece by the armies they had at first been in hopes that Antiochus would come to occupy masterless Europe2 and that neither Philip3 nor Nabis4 would remain quiet. [3] When they saw that no movement was being made, thinking that some agitation and confusion should be caused, lest their scheming should become feeble from lack of exercise, they called a council at Naupactus.5 [4] There Thoas, their chief magistrate, complained of the injuries inflicted by the Romans and of the condition of Aetolia, because of all the states and cities of Greece they were the [5??] least honoured, after that victory for which they [p. 35]themselves had been the chief cause, and proposed that6 ambassadors should be sent around to the kings, who should not only sound out their sentiments but should rouse each, by proper inducements, to a Roman war. [6] Damocritus was dispatched to Nabis, Nicander7 to Philip, Dicaearchus, the praetor's brother, to Antiochus. [7] To the Spartan tyrant Damocritus pointed out the weakening of the tyranny from the loss of the coast towns;8 thence he had drawn soldiers, thence ships and naval allies; shut up, almost, within his own walls, he saw the Achaeans lording it in the Peloponnesus; [8] he would never have a chance to recover his own if he let pass the one which then existed; there was, moreover, no Roman army in Greece; Gytheum and the other Spartan towns on the coast would not be considered by the Romans an adequate reason why they should again transport their legions to Greece. [9] This was said to rouse the zeal of the tyrant, that, when Antiochus had crossed to Greece, the consciousness that the Roman friendship had been violated by the injuries done their allies might unite him with Antiochus. [10] As to Philip, Nicander tried to provoke him by a somewhat similar argument; there was also more material for his persuasiveness, in proportion to the greater height from which the king had fallen, in comparison with the tyrant, and in proportion to the heavier losses he had suffered. [11] In addition, he spoke of the ancient renown of the kings of Macedonia and the victorious progress of that race throughout the earth. [12] He said, moreover, that the advice which he offered was safe, whether in the beginning or at the end: for he would not counsel Philip to move before Antiochus with his [p. 37]army should cross to Greece, and [13??] when he, who9 without Antiochus had so long sustained the war against the Romans and the Aetolians, was joined by Antiochus and had as allies the Aetolians, who had been at that time more dangerous foes than the Romans, with what strength, pray, could the Romans withstand him? [14] He spoke further of the general Hannibal, born an enemy to the Romans, who had destroyed both their commanders and their soldiers in greater numbers than now remained. [15] Such was Nicander's message to Philip; Dicaearchus approached Antiochus in another fashion, and first of all he said that the booty from Philip had become the Romans', the victory was the Aetolians'; none other than the Aetolians had given the Romans ingress to Greece and furnished them with the strength to conquer. [16] Finally, he told Antiochus how great forces, infantry and cavalry, they would furnish him for the war, what stations for his land forces, what harbours for his navies. [17] Then he employed a gratuitous lie regarding Philip and Nabis: each was ready to rebel and would seize the earliest opportunity to regain what he had lost in war. Thus throughout the whole world at once the Aetolians were arousing war against the Romans.

[18]

1 Livy here turns to the Roman campaigns in the east, and for his annalistic sources he substitutes Polybius. A settlement in Greece had been effected by Flamininus after the defeat of Philip in 197 B.C., but the Aetolians had been from the first dissatisfied with the arrangements (cf. XXXIV. xxiii. 5 ff., etc.), and grasped every opportunity to unsettle the minds of their neighbours. Their activity and its consequences are described in the following chapters.

2 Livy here employs a legal phrase (in vacuam possessionem intrare), used to express the act of taking possession of property which had no real or apparent owner (dominus). Greece had been “liberated” by the Romans.

3 Philip was represented by the Aetolians as resentful at his defeat.

4 Nabis was tyrant or king, according to the point of view, of Sparta.

5 This council was held late in the fall of 194 B.C. or during the following winter, and Livy is gathering up and summarizing earlier events, preparatory to continuing the narrative.

6 B.C. 193

7 Polybius (XXI. xxxi) gives his name as Mnestas.

8 In XXXIV. xxxv, Livy gives the terms of peace between Rome and Nabis in 195 B.C. There the loss of the coast towns is implied rather than expressly stated.

9 B.C. 193

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  • Commentary references to this page (26):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.1
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 31-32, commentary, 31.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.38
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.4
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 33.49
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 33-34, commentary, 34.35
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 35.44
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 36.11
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 36.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 36.28
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 37.37
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.10
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.17
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.22
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.30
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 35-38, commentary, 38.53
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 39.25
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.32
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 39-40, commentary, 40.36
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 43.14
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.33
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, books 43-44, commentary, 44.46
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.12
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn, book 45, commentary, 45.22
  • Cross-references to this page (15):
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Nabis
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Naupactum
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Nicander
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Philippus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Thoas
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Aetoli
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Amicitia
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Damocritus
    • Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Index, Dicaearchus
    • Harper's, Nabis
    • Smith's Bio, Damo'critus
    • Smith's Bio, Dicaearchus
    • Smith's Bio, Nabis
    • Smith's Bio, Nicander
    • Smith's Bio, Thoas
  • Cross-references in general dictionaries to this page (8):
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