case of the Carthaginians, how often had the confederates met Philip himself in conference, yet that it had never been urged that he should resign his kingdom:  and, because he had been defeated in battle, was that a reason that their animosity should become implacable?  Against an armed foe, men ought to engage with hostile resentment; towards the vanquished, the loftiest spirit was ever the most merciful.  The kings of Macedonia were thought to be dangerous to the liberty of Greece.  Suppose that kingdom and nation extirpated, the Thracians, Illyrians, and in time the Gauls, (nations unsubjugated and savage,) would pour themselves into Macedonia first, and then into Greece.  That they should not, by removing inconveniences which lay nearest, open a passage to others greater and more grievous.”  Here he was interrupted by Phaeneas, praetor of the Aetolians, who solemnly declared, that “if Philip escaped now, he would soon raise a new and more dangerous war.”  On which Quinctius said,—­“Cease wrangling, when you ought to deliberate.  The king shall be bound down by such conditions as will not leave it in his power to raise a war.”

13.  The convention was then adjourned; and next day, the king came to the pass at the entrance of Tempe, the place appointed for a conference; and the third day following was fixed for introducing him to a full assembly of the Romans and allies.  On this occasion Philip, with great prudence, intentionally avoided the mention of any of those conditions, without which peace could not be obtained, rather than suffer them to be extorted after discussion; and declared, that he was ready to comply with all the articles which, in the former conference, were either prescribed by the Romans or demanded by the allies; and to leave all other matters to the determination of the senate.  Although he seemed to have hereby precluded every objection, even from the most inveterate of his enemies, yet, all the rest remaining silent, Phaeneas, the Aetolian, said to him,—­“What!  Philip, do you at last restore to us Pharsalus and Larissa, with Cremaste, Echinus, and Thebes in Phthiotis?” On Philip answering, that “he would give no obstruction to their retaking the possession of them,” a dispute arose between the Roman general and the Aetolians about Thebes; for Quinctius affirmed, that it became the property of the Roman people by the laws of war; because when, before the commencement of hostilities, he marched his army thither, and invited the inhabitants to friendship, they, although at full liberty to renounce the king’s party, yet preferred an alliance with Philip to one with Rome.  Phaeneas alleged, that, in consideration of their being confederates in the war, it was reasonable, that whatever the Aetolians possessed before it began, should be restored; and that, besides, there was, in the first treaty, a provisional clause of that purport, by which the spoils of war, of every kind that could be carried or driven, were to belong to the Romans; and that the lands and captured