Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/321

 Rh a fruitless appeal to the Senate, the war was renewed, and Philip was utterly beaten in the autumn at Cynoscephalae in Thessaly.

The battle was decisive, and it was not an isolated event. In other parts of Greece, about the same time, the Macedonian cause had received a series of blows. The Rhodians had re-possessed themselves of their Peraea in Caria; the troops of the Achaeans had defeated the Macedonian commander at Acrocorinthus; and the Acarnanians had been forced to submit by a Roman fleet. The question for Greeks was whether the victory at Cynoscephalae meant recovered freedom or a change of masters. There had been Greeks fighting on both sides, as usual, and to neither was the answer clear. One state quickly showed its dissatisfaction. The Aetolians gave themselves annoying airs over their part in the victory, and had shown great cupidity in appropriating plunder. When Philip, recognising his position, had agreed to evacuate all Greek towns, the Aetolians claimed the restoration of those in Thessaly and elsewhere which had once belonged to their league; but Flamininus laid down the principle that towns which had voluntarily surrendered to Rome were under the protection of the Senate, and could only be disposed of by it. Only those which had resisted and had been captured were, according to the terms of the treaty of B.C. 211, to pass back to the Aetolians. This confirmed their discontent, which had already been roused by the terms granted to Philip. They had hoped for the dismembering of Macedonia, and the consequent