His speech was followed by urgent entreaties from the whole assembly. Eurylochus left hurriedly, and making his way secretly to the city gate fled to Aetolia, for the Aetolians were now throwing off the mask more and more every day from their hostile intentions. Thoas, the foremost man amongst them, happened to return from his mission to Antiochus just at this time, bringing with him an envoy from the king in the person of Menippus. Before the meeting of the national council these two men had filled all ears with descriptions of the land and sea forces which Antiochus had collected. They declared that a great host of infantry and cavalry were on their way, elephants had been brought from India and-what they thought would most of all impress the popular mind-he was bringing gold enough to buy up the Romans themselves. It was obvious what effect this sort of talk would have on the council, for their arrival and all their proceedings were duly reported to the Roman envoy. Although events had almost taken a decisive turn, Quinctius thought it might not be altogether useless some representatives of the friendly cities attended the council who would have the cour age to speak frankly in reply to the king's envoy and remind the Aetolians of their treaty engagements with Rome. The Athenians seemed best fitted for the task on account of the prestige which their city enjoyed and also because of their old alliance with the Aetolians. Quinctius therefore requested ,them to send delegates to the Pan-Aetolian Council. Thoas opened the proceedings by giving a report of his negotiations. He was followed by Menippus, who asserted that the best thing for all the peoples of Greece and Asia would have been for Antiochus to have intervened whilst Philip's power was still unimpaired. eV ,ery one would then have kept what belonged to him. anti evervt hing would not have been completely at the ，J mercv of Rome.“Even now.'’he continued.“if onlv you ，‘，，，。，，·产，户’.’‘。，，，J一，， resoluteiv carry out the aesigns you nave tormea. ne will oe able 护护几J砂J with the help of the gods and the assistance of the Aetolians to restore the fortunes of Greece, drooping though they are, to their old place in the world. That, however, must rest on liberty, and a liberty which stands in its own strength and is not dependent on the will of another." had received permission to speak their The Athenians, whominds after the king'sbut simply reminded t delegate, made no allusion to the king, he Aetolians of their alliance with Rome and the services which T. Quinctius had rendered to the whole of Greece. They warned them against wrecking that friendship by hasty and precipitate action;bold and hot-headed counsels were attractive at first sight, difficult to put into practice. 马..声产J‘二声 disastrous in their results. The Roman envoys and Quinctius himself were not far away, it would be better to discuss the question at issue in friendly debate than .to throw Europe and Asia into a deadly struggle of arms.