16.3.3He was courteous in his intercourse with men and sought to win over the multitudes by his gifts and his promises to the fullest loyalty, and endeavoured to counteract by clever moves the crowd of impending dangers. For instance, when he observed that the Athenians were centring all their ambition upon recovering Amphipolis and for this reason were trying to bring Argaeus back to the throne, he voluntarily withdrew from the city, after first making it autonomous. note
16.3.4Then he sent an embassy to the Paeonians, and by corrupting some with gifts and persuading others by generous promises he made an agreement with them to maintain peace for the present. In similar fashion he prevented the return of Pausanias by winning over with gifts the king note who was on the point of attempting his restoration.
16.3.5Mantias, the Athenian general, who had sailed into Methone, note stayed behind there himself but sent Argaeus with his mercenaries to Aegae. note And Argaeus approached the city and invited the population of Aegae to welcome his return and become the founders of his own kingship.
16.3.6When no one paid any attention to him, he turned back to Methone, but Philip, who suddenly appeared with his soldiers, engaged him in battle, slew many of his mercenaries, and released under a truce note the rest, who had fled for refuge to a certain hill, after he had first obtained from them the exiles, whom they delivered to him.
Now Philip by his success in this first battle encouraged the Macedonians to meet the succeeding contests with greater temerity.
16.3.7While these things were going on, the Thasians settled the place called Crenides, note which the king afterward named Philippi for himself and made a populous settlement.
16.3.8Among the writers of history Theopompus of Chios note began his history of Philip at this point and composed fifty-eight books, of which five are lost.
ch. 4 note
16.4.1When Eucharistus was archon at Athens, the Romans elected as consuls Quintus Servilius and Quintus Genucius. During their term of office Philip sent ambassadors to Athens and persuaded the assembly to make peace with him on the ground that he abandoned for all time any claim to Amphipolis. note
16.4.2Now that he was relieved of the war with the Athenians and had information that the king of the Paeonians, Agis, was dead, he conceived that he had the opportunity to attack the Paeonians. Accordingly, having conducted an expedition into Paeonia and defeated the barbarians in a battle, he compelled the tribe to acknowledge allegiance to the Macedonians.
16.4.3And since the Illyrians were still left as enemies, he was ambitious to defeat them in war also. So, having quickly called an assembly and exhorted his soldiers for the war in a fitting speech, he led an expedition into the Illyrian territory, having no less than ten thousand foot-soldiers and six hundred horsemen.
16.4.4Bardylis, note the king of the Illyrians, having learned of the presence of the enemy, first dispatched envoys to arrange for a cessation of hostilities on the condition that both sides remained possessed of the cities which they then controlled. But when Philip said that he indeed desired peace but would not, however, concur in that proposal unless the Illyrians should withdraw from all the Macedonian cities, the envoys returned without having accomplished their purpose, and Bardylis, relying upon his previous victories and the gallant conduct of the Illyrians, came out to meet the enemy with his army; and he had ten thousand picked infantry soldiers and about five hundred cavalry.
16.4.5When the armies approached each other and with a great outcry clashed in the battle, Philip, commanding the right wing, which consisted of the flower of the Macedonians serving under him, ordered his cavalry to ride past the ranks of the barbarians and attack them on the flank, while he himself falling on the enemy in a frontal assault began a bitter combat. note
16.4.6But the Illyrians, forming themselves into a square, courageously entered the fray. And at first for a long while the battle was evenly poised because of the exceeding gallantry displayed on both sides, and as many were slain and still more wounded, the fortune of battle vacillated first one way then the other, being constantly swayed by the valorous deeds of the combatants; but later as the horsemen pressed on from the flank and rear and Philip with the flower of his troops fought with true heroism, the mass of the Illyrians was compelled to take hastily to flight.
16.4.7When the pursuit had been kept up for a considerable distance and many had been slain in their flight, Philip recalled the Macedonians with the trumpet and erecting a trophy of victory buried his own dead, while the Illyrians, having sent ambassadors and withdrawn from all the Macedonian cities, obtained peace. But more than seven thousand Illyrians were slain in this battle.
