Whereas, in the present case, the Romans, after bringing to a final conclusion the Punic war, which they had supported for sixteen years in the bowels, as it were, of Italy, sent not auxiliaries to the Aetolians in their quarrels, but, being themselves principals, made a hostile invasion on Macedonia with land and sea forces at once.

Their third consul is now pushing forward the war with the utmost vigour.

Sulpicius, engaging the king within the territory of Macedonia itself, has overthrown and put him to flight; and afterwards despoiled the most opulent part of his kingdom.
Then, again, when he was in possession of the strait of Epirus, where, from the nature of the ground, his fortifications, and the strength of his army, he thought himself secure, Quinctius drove him out of his camp; pursued him, as he fled into Thessaly; and, almost in the view of Philip himself, stormed the royal garrisons and the cities of his allies.

Supposing that there were no truth in what the Athenian ambassadors mentioned yesterday, respecting the cruelty, avarice, and lust of the king; supposing the crimes committed, in the country of Attica, against the gods, celestial and infernal, concerned us not all; that we had less to complain of than what the people of Cius and Abydos, who are far distant from us, have endured: let us then, if you please, forget even our own wounds; let the murders and ravages committed at Messana, and in the heart of Peloponnesus, the killing of his host Garitenes at Cyparissia, almost in the very midst of a feast, in contempt of laws divine and human; the murder of the two Aratuses of Sicyon, father and son, though he was wont to call the unfortunate old man his parent; his carrying away the son's wife into Macedonia for the gratification of his vicious appetites, and all his violations of virgins and matrons;--let all these, I say, be consigned to oblivion.

Let us suppose our business were not with Philip, through dread of whose cruelty you are all thus struck dumb; for what other cause could keep you silent, when you have been summoned to a council?
Let us imagine that we are treating with Antigonus, a prince of the greatest mildness and equity, to whose kindness we have all been highly indebted; would he require us to perform what at the time was impossible?
Peloponnesus is a peninsula, united to the continent by the narrow passage of an isthmus particularly exposed and open to the attacks of naval armaments.