Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 36
Cyrus Evans, Ed.

17. When the consul saw that the heights were possessed by the Aetolians, he sent against those posts two men of consular rank, who acted as lieutenant-generals, with two thousand chosen troops; —Lucius Valerius Flaccus against Rhoduntia and Tichiuns, and Marcus Porcius Cato against Callidromus. [2] Then, before he led on his forces against the enemy, he called them to an assembly, and thus briefly addressed them: “Soldiers, I see that the greater part of you who were present, of all ranks, are men who served in this same province, under the conduct and auspices of Titus Quinctius. [3] Now, in the Macedonian war, the pass at the river Aous was much more difficult than this before us. [4] For this is only a gate, a single passage, formed as it were by nature; every other in the whole tract, between the two seas, being impassable. In the former case, there were stronger fortifications, and placed in more advantageous situations. [5] The enemy's army was both more numerous, and composed of very superior men; for they were Macedonians, Thracians, and Illyrians, —all nations of the fiercest spirit; your present opponents are Syrians, and Asiatic Greeks, the most unsteady of men, and born for slavery. [6] The commander, there, was a king of extraordinary warlike abilities, improved by practice from his early youth, in wars against his neighbours, the Thracians and Illyrians, and all the adjoining nations. But this man is one who (to say nothing of his former life) after coming over from Asia into Europe to make war on the Roman [p. 1627]people, has, [7??] during the whole length of the winter, accomplished no more memorable exploit, than the taking a wife, for passion's sake, out of a private house, and a family obscure even among its neighbours; and now as a newly married man, surfeited as it were with nuptial feasts, comes out to fight. [8] His chief reliance and strength was in the Aetolians, —a nation of all others the most faithless and ungrateful, as you have formerly experienced, and as Antiochus now experiences; for they neither joined him with numbers, nor could they be kept in the camp; and, besides, they are now in a state of dissension among themselves. [9] Although they requested permission to defend Hypata and Heraclea, yet they defended neither; but one half of them fled to the tops of the mountains, while the others shut themselves up in Heraclea. [10] The king himself, plainly confessing that, so far from daring to meet us in battle on the level plain, he durst not even encamp in open ground, has abandoned all that tract in front, which he boasted of having taken from us and Philip, and has hid himself behind the rocks; not even appearing in the opening of the pass, as it is said the Lacedaemonians did formerly, but drawing back his camp completely within it. [11] What difference is there, as a demonstration of fear, between this and his shutting himself up within the walls of a city to stand a siege? But neither shall the straits protect Antiochus, nor the hills which they have seized, the Aetolians. [12] Sufficient care and precaution have been used on every quarter, that you shall have nothing to contend with in the fight but the enemy himself. On your parts, you have to consider, that you are not fighting merely for the liberty of Greece; [13] although, were that all, it would be an achievement highly meritorious to deliver that country now from Antiochus and the Aetolians, which you formerly delivered from Philip; and that the wealth in the king's camp will not be the whole prize of your labour; but that the great collection of stores, daily expected from Ephesus, will likewise become your prey; and also, that you will open a way for the Roman power into Asia and Syria, and all the most opulent realms to the extremity of the East. [14] What then must be the consequence, but that, from Gades to the Red Sea, we shall have no limit but the ocean, which encircles in its embrace the whole orb of the earth; and that all mankind shall regard the Roman name with a de- [p. 1628]gree of veneration next to that which they pay to the divinities? [15] For the attainment of prizes of such magnitude, prepare a spirit adequate to the occasion, that, to-morrow, with the aid of the gods, we may [16??] decide the matter in the field.”