<head>Philip V</head>Philip, king of Macedon, after celebrating the Nemean games, returned to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Argos&groupId=361&placeId=689">Argos</a> and laid aside his diadem and purple robe, wishing to produce the impression that he was on a level with the others and a lenient and popular prince.
But the more democratic the clothes he wore, the greater and more absolute was the power he assumed.
For he no longer confined himself to attempting to seduce widows or to corrupting married women, but used to send and order any woman he chose to come to him, and insulted those who did not at once obey his behests, making noisy processions to their houses.
Summoning their sons or husbands on absurd pretexts he intimidated them, and on the whole behaved in a most outrageous and lawless manner.
Consequently by this excessive exercise of arbitrary power during his stay in the country he vexed many of the Achaeans and especially the most respectable men,
but pressed as they were on all sides by war they had perforce to put up with which was naturally offensive to them. . . .
of the former kings possessed more of the qualities which make a good or bad ruler than Philip,
and in my opinion his good qualities were natural to him, but his defects were acquired as he advanced in age, as is the case with some horses when they grow old.
I, however, do not, like other writers, deliver such judgements in the preface of my work, but always in dealing with actual facts employ terms suited to the situation to convey my opinion of kings and other prominent men,
thinking that this method of indicating it is most proper for writers and most agreeable to readers.
Walbank Commentary