Book 35
12
Nicander took much the same line in his interview with Philip. He spoke with all the greater force because the king had been brought down from a loftier position than the tyrant and had lost more of his power. He reminded the king of the former prestige of Macedonia and the world-wide victories of his nation. Nicander assured him that the policy recommended was a safe one both in its initiation and its execution. On the one hand he was not asking Philip to take any action before Antiochus was in Greece with his army, on the other there was every prospect of final success. With what possible force could the Romans hold their own against him when leagued with Antiochus and the Aetolians after he had, without the help of Antiochus, maintained such a protracted struggle against the Romans and against the Aetolians, who were at the time a more formidable enemy than the Romans? He also spoke about Hannibal as a foe to Rome from his birth, who had slain more of her generals and soldiers than still survived. Such were the arguments employed with Philip. Those advanced by Dicaearchus in his interview with Antiochus were different. The spoils of war, he said, won from Philip belonged to the Romans, but the victory over him to the Aetolians; they and they alone had granted the Romans an entrance into Greece and provided them with the strength which secured victory. He went on to enumerate the amount of infantry and cavalry which they were prepared to furnish to Antiochus, the localities which would be available for his land army and the harbours which could receive his fleet. Then, as Philip and Nabis were not present to check him, he falsely represented them as prepared for immediate hostilities and ready to seize the very first opportunity of recovering what they had lost in war. In this way the Aetolians tried to stir up war against Rome throughout the world.
