Book 36
7
"What considerations then give me ground for believing that Philip can be made our ally? One is the identity of interests, which is the surest bond of alliance. The other is your own assurance, Aetolians. For amongst the reasons which your envoy Thoas gave for inducing Antiochus to come to Greece, the strongest was his constant asseveration that Philip was complaining and chafing under the servile conditions imposed upon him in the guise of peace. He used to compare the king's rage to that of some animal chained or shut up and longing to burst his prison bars. If that is his state of mind, let us loose his chains and burst the bars that hold him in so that he can vent his long-restrained rage on our common foe. But if our delegates are unable to influence him, let us at all events see to it that if we cannot get him on our side the enemy does not get him on his side. Your son Seleucus is at Lysimachia; if with the army he has with him he traverses Thrace and begins to lay waste the adjacent parts of Macedonia, he will easily turn Philip aside from actively assisting the Romans to the defence of his own dominions.
