Page:History of Greece Vol XII.djvu/402

 370 HISTORY OF GREECE. sinated hj some private enemies. Nevertheless his widow Krac tesipolis, a woman of courage and energy^, still maintained her- self in considerable force at Sikyon.^ Ka-;sander's most obsti- nate enemies were the ^tolians, of whom we now first hear for- mal mention as a substantive confederacy.^ These --Etolians be- came the allies of Antigonus as they had been before of Poly- sperchon, extending their predatory ravages even as far as Atti- ca. Protected against foreign garrisons, partly by their rude and fierce habits, partly by their mountainous territory, they were almost the only Greeks who could still be called free. Kassander tried to keep them in check through their neighbors the Akarnanians, whom he induced to adopt a more concentrated habit of residence, consolidating their numerous petty townships into a few considerable towns, — ' Stratus, Sauria, and Agrinium — convenient posts for Macedonian garrisons. He also made himself master of Leukas, Apollonia, and Epidamnus, defeating the Illyrian king Glaukias, so that his dominion now extended across from the Thermaic to the Adriatic Gulf.'* His general Philippus gained two important victories over the ^tolians and Epirots, forcing the former to relinquish some of their most ac- cessible towns.* The power of Antigonus in Asia underwent a material dimin- ution, by the successful and permanent estabUslunent which Se- leukus now acquired in Babylonia ; from which event the era of the succeeding Seleukidie takes its origin. In Greece, however, Antigonus gained ground on Kassander. He sent thither his nephew Ptolemy with a large force to liberate the Greeks, or in other words, to expel the Kassandrian garrisons ; while he at the same time distracted Kassander's attention by threatening to cross the Hellespont and invade Macedonia. This Ptolemy (not the Egyptian) expelled the soldiers of Kassander from Euboea, 1 Diodor. xix. 62, 67. 6iKuio7MyT}ad[iEvo^, TTpoerphparo rti n?if/-d}j (3o7i'9elv toI^ 'Avnyovov irpu-f uaaiv, etc. 'Diodor. xix. 67, 68; Justin, xv. 2. See Brandstater, Geschichte des ^tolischen Volkes und Bundes, p. 178 (Berlin, 1844).
 * Diordor. xix. 66. 'Apiarodtjfiog, en I tov ko ivov tQv AituXuv
 * Diodor. xix. 74.