Philip Appears At Sparta
Then, without making any stay in Corinth, he gave the
note
Macedonians marching orders; and came at the
end of a two days' march by way of Argos to
Tegea. There he took on the Achaean troops that had
assembled, and advanced by the mountain road, being very
desirous to effect an entrance into the territory of the
-- 375 --
Lacedaemonians before they became aware of it. note Thus after
a circuitous route through an uninhabited
district he came out upon the hills facing the
town, and continued his advance right upon
Amyclae, keeping the Menelaïum on his right. The Lacedaemonians were dismayed and terrified at seeing from the town
the army passing along the hills, and wondered what was happening. For they were still in a state of excitement at the news
of Philip which had arrived,—his destruction
of Thermus, and his whole campaign in Aetolia;
and there was even some talk among them of
sending Lycurgus to the assistance of the Aetolians. note But no
one had so much as thought of danger coming so quickly to
their own gates from such a distance, especially as the youth
of the king still gave room for a certain feeling of contempt.
The event therefore being totally contrary to their expectations,
they were naturally in a state of great dismay. For the
courage and energy beyond his years, with which Philip acted,
reduced all his enemies to a state of the utmost difficulty and
terror. For setting out, as I have shown, from the centre of
Aetolia, and crossing the Ambracian gulf by night, he passed
over to Leucas; and after a two days' halt there, on the third
he renewed his voyage before daybreak, and after a two days'
sail, during which he ravaged the sea-board of the Aetolians, he
dropped anchor in Lechaeum; thence, after seven days'
continuous march, he arrived on the heights above Sparta in
the neighbourhood of the Menelaïum,—a feat which most of
those even who saw it done could scarcely believe.
