Book 10
25
The case is just like that of the disposition of the Alliance between Aetolians and Rome against Philip, negotiated by Scopas and Dorimachus, B. C. 211. See Livy, 26, 24. various kinds of troops on the field of battle. The light-armed and most active men bear the brunt of the danger, are the first to be engaged and the first to perish, while the phalanx and the heavy-armed generally carry off the glorySo in this case, the Aetolians, and such of the Peloponnesians as are in alliance with them, are put in the post of danger; while the Romans, like the phalanx, remain in reserve. And if the former meet with disaster and perish, the Romans will retire unharmed from the struggle; while if they are victorious, which Heaven forbid ! the Romans will get not only them but the rest of the Greeks also into their power. . . .On the margin of one MS. the following is written, which may be a sentence from the same speech, or a comment of the Epitomator: A confederacy with democratic institutions always stands in need of external support, owing to the fickleness of the multitude.
