Lukewarmness of the Allies
These events occurred in the previous Olympiad, note note
what
I am now going to relate belong to the 140th.
The resolutions passed by the Achaean
note
federal assembly were these. That embassies
should be sent to Epirus, Boeotia, Phocis,
Acarnania, and Philip, to declare how the Aetolians, in defiance
of treaty, had twice entered Achaia with arms,
and to call upon them for assistance in virtue of
their agreement, and for their consent to the
admission of the Messenians into the alliance.
Next, that the Strategus of the Achaeans should
enrol five thousand foot and five hundred horse,
and support the Messenians in case the Aetolians were to invade their territory; and to arrange with the Lacedaemonians
and Messenians how many horse and foot were to be supplied
by them severally for the service of the league. These decrees
showed a noble spirit on the part of the Achaeans in the
presence of defeat, which prevented them from abandoning
either the cause of the Messenians or their own purpose.
Those who were appointed to serve on these embassies to the
allies proceeded to carry them out; while the Strategus at once,
in accordance with the decree, set about enrolling the troops
-- 291 --
from Achaia, and arranged with the Lacedaemonians and
Messenians to supply each two thousand five hundred infantry
and two hundred and fifty cavalry, so that the whole army for
the coming campaign should amount to ten thousand foot and
a thousand horse.
On the day of their regular assembly the Aetolians also
met and decided to maintain peace with the Spartans and
Messenians; hoping by that crafty measure to tamper with the
loyalty of the Achaean allies and sow disunion among them.
With the Achaeans themselves they voted to maintain peace,
on condition that they withdrew from alliance with Messenia,
and to proclaim war if they refused,—than which nothing
could have been more unreasonable. For being themselves in
alliance, both with Achaeans and Messenians, they proclaimed
war against the former, unless the two ceased to be in
alliance and friendly relationship with each other; while if
the Achaeans chose to be at enmity with the Messenians,
they offered them a separate peace. Their proposition was
too iniquitous and unreasonable to admit of being even
considered.
