Philip, as if giving Heracleides a proper subject for the exercise of his talents, ordered him to think of the best means of damaging and destroying the navy of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>, and at the same time sent envoys to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a> to provoke the Cretans and incite them to make war on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>.
Heracleides, a born mischief-maker, thinking this commission a godsend and forming some kind of scheme in his mind, waited a little and then set out on his voyage and appeared at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rhodes&groupId=931&placeId=1665">Rhodes</a>.
This Heracleides was of Tarentine origin, his parents were vulgar mechanics and he possessed advantages admirably qualifying him to be a daredevil and arrant knave .
For he, to begin with, in his early years he had openly prostituted his person, but later he showed great sharpness and an excellent memory, and while he was a terrible bully and most bold-faced in dealing with his inferiors he was most obsequious to his superiors. He was originally expelled from his native town as he was suspected of a design of betraying Tarentum to the Romans, not that he had any political power, but because he was an architect and owing to some repairs they were making in the wall had been entrusted with the keys of the gate leading to the interior. He then took refuge with the Romans, but later when he was detected in sending letters and messages from the Roman camp to Tarentum and to Hannibal, he foresaw what would be the result and this time sought safety with Philip,
at whose court he acquired such credit and power that he was almost the chief instrument of the ruin of that mighty kingdom. . . .
Walbank Commentary