Aristophanes the Acarnanian Joins Forces with Philip
Before they started, Aristophanes the Acarnanian
note
Strategus arrived with the full levy of his people.
For having in former times suffered many severe
injuries at the hands of the Aetolians, they were
now inspired with a fierce determination to be
revenged upon them and damage them in every
possible way: they gladly therefore seized this opportunity
of getting the help of the Macedonians; and the men who now
appeared in arms were not confined to those forced by law to
serve, but were in some cases past the military age. The
Epirotes were quite as eager to join, and for the same motives;
but owing to the wide extent of their country, and the
suddenness of the Macedonian arrival, they had not been able
to muster their forces in time. As to the Aetolians, Dorimachus
had taken half their army with him, as I have said, while the
the other half he had left at home; thinking that it would be
an adequate reserve to defend the towns and district against
unforeseen contingencies. The king, leaving a sufficient guard
for his baggage, started from Limnaea in the evening, and after
a march of sixty stades pitched his camp: but, having dined
and given his men a short rest, he started again; and marching
right through the night, arrived just as the day was breaking
at the river Achelous, between the towns of Stratus and
Conope, being anxious that his entrance into the district of
Thermus should be sudden and unexpected.
