of our fathers, unequal to a dispute with a single king of Epirus; what then, I say, must it be in competition with you two?  But it may be asked.  What circumstances induce me to believe that Philip may be brought to a union with us?  First, common utility, which is the strongest cement of union; and next, you, Aetolians, are yourselves my informants.  For Thoas, your ambassador, among the other arguments which he used to urge, for the purpose of drawing Antiochus into Greece, always above all things insisted upon this,—­that Philip expressed extreme indignation that the conditions of servitude had been imposed on him under the appearance of conditions of peace:  comparing the king’s anger to that of a wild beast chained, or shut up, and wishing to break the bars that confined it.  Now, if his temper of mind is such, let us loose his chains; let us break these bars, that he may vent, upon the common foe, this anger so long pent up.  But should our embassy fail of producing any effect on him, let us then take care, that if we cannot unite him to ourselves, he may not be united to our enemies.  Your son, Seleucus, is at Lysimachia; and if, with the army which he has there, he shall pass through Thrace, and once begin to make depredations on the nearest parts of Macedonia, he will effectually divert Philip from carrying aid to the Romans, to the protection, in the first place, of his own dominions.  Such is my opinion respecting Philip.  With regard to the general plan of the war, you have, from the beginning, been acquainted with my sentiments:  and if my advice had been listened to, the Romans would not now hear that Chalcis in Euboea was taken, and a fort on the Euripus reduced, but that Etruria, and the whole coast of Liguria and Cisalpine Gaul, were in a blaze of war; and, what is to them the greatest cause of alarm, that Hannibal was in Italy.  Even as matters stand at present, I recommend it to you, to call home all your land and sea forces; let storeships with provisions follow the fleet; for, as we are here too few for the exigencies of the war, so are we too many for the scanty supplies of necessaries.  When you shall have collected together the whole of your force, you will divide the fleet, and keep one division stationed at Corcyra, that the Romans may not have a clear and safe passage; and the other you will send to that part of the coast of Italy which is opposite Sardinia and Africa; while you yourselves, with all the land forces, will proceed to the territory of Bullium.  In this position you will hold the command of all Greece; you will give the Romans reason to think, that you intend to sail over to Italy; and you will be in readiness so to do, if occasion require.  This is my advice; and though I may not be the most skilful in every kind of warfare, yet surely I must have learned, in a long series of both good and bad fortune, how to wage war against the Romans.  For the execution of the measures which I have advised, I promise you my most faithful and zealous endeavours.  Whatever plan you shall consider the best, may the gods grant it their approbation.”