nty-three Roman quinqueremes and thirty-five belonging to the
king, and proceeded to Lemnos. Philip also, that he might be prepared
for every kind of measure, whether it should be necessary to meet
the enemy on land or sea, came down to the coast of Demetrias and
appointed to his army a day on which to meet him at Larissa. On
the news of the king's arrival, ambassadors from his allies came to
Demetrias from all sides. For the Aetolians, inspirited both by
their alliance with the Romans and the approach of king Attalus, were
ravaging the neighbouring states; not only the Acarnanians, Boeotians,
and Euboeans were very much alarmed, but the Achaeans also were
kept in a state of terror, both by the hostile proceedings of the
Aetolians, and also by Machanidas, tyrant of Lacedaemon, who had
encamped at a short distance from the borders of the Argives. All of
these stating the dangers which threatened their possessions, both
by land and sea, entreated succour from the king. Philip received
accounts even from his own kingdom, that things were not in a state of
tranquillity; that both Scerdilaedus and Pleuratus were in motion,
and that some of the Thracians, and particularly the Maedians, would
certainly make incursions on the contiguous provinces of Macedonia,
should the king be occupied with a distant war. The Boeotians, indeed,
and the people inhabiting the inland parts of Greece, told him that
the Aetolians had obstructed by a ditch and rampart the straits of
Thermopylae, where the road is very narrow and confined, in order to
prevent their passing to the assistance of the allied states. So
many disturbances arising on all hands were sufficient to awaken an
inactive general. He dismissed the ambassadors, promising to assist
them all according as opportunity and circumstances allowed. For the
present, he sent to Peparethus a body of troops to garrison the
city, for this was the most urgent business, as information had been
received thence that Attalus, crossing over to Lemnos, was devastating
all the neighbouring country. He sent Polyphantas with a small
detachment to Boeotia, and also Menippus, one of his guards, with one
thousand targeteers (the target is not unlike the ordinary buckler)
to Chalcis. Five hundred Agrianians were added, that every part of the
island might be secured. He went himself to Scotussa, and ordered the
Macedonian soldiers to be removed thither from Larissa. Here he heard
that the Aetolians had been su