regard to the renown
of their former kings, the ancient fame of that nation, and the vast
extent of their empire, in which they had formerly comprehended a
large part of Europe, and the greater part of Asia. The contest with
Philip, which had begun about ten years before, had been intermitted
for the three last years; the Aetolians having been the occasion both
of the war and the peace. The entreaties of the Athenians whom, having
ravaged their lands, Philip had driven into their city, excited the
Romans to a renewal of the war, left, as they were, disengaged by
the Carthaginian peace, and incensed against him as well for his
treacherous negotiation of peace with the Aetolians and the other
allies in that region, as on account of the auxiliaries sent by him
with money into Africa to Hannibal and the Carthaginians.

2. About the same time, ambassadors arrived both from king Attalus,
and from the Rhodians, with information that the Macedonian was
tampering with the states of Asia. To these embassies an answer was
given, that the senate would give attention to the affairs of Asia.
The determination with regard to the making war on him, was left open
to the consuls, who were then in their provinces. In the mean time,
three ambassadors were sent to Ptolemy, king of Egypt, namely,
Caius Claudius Nero, Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Publius
Sempronius Tuditanus, to announce their conquest of Hannibal and the
Carthaginians; to give thanks to the king for his faithful adherence
to his engagements in the time of their distress, when even the
nearest allies of the Romans abandoned them; and to request that if,
compelled by ill treatment, they should undertake a war with Philip,
he would preserve his former disposition towards the Roman people. In
Gaul, about this time, the consul, Publius Aelius, having heard that,
before his arrival, the Boians had made inroads on the territories
of the allies, levied two occasional legions on account of this
disturbance; and adding to them four cohorts from his own army,
ordered Caius Oppius, the praefect, to march with this tumultuary
band through Umbria, (which is called the Sappinian district,) and to
invade the territories of the Boians. He himself led his own troops
thither openly, over the intervening mountains. Oppius, on entering
the same, for some time committed depredations with tolerable success
and safety. But afterwards, having pitched on a place near a fort
called Mutilum, convenien