The League being thus materially increased in extent and power, the Aetolians, owing to that unprincipled passion for which is natural to them, either out of envy or rather in the hope of partitioning the cities, as they had partitioned those of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Acarnania&groupId=270&placeId=527">Acarnania</a> with Alexander and had previously proposed to do regarding <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Achaea&groupId=272&placeId=533">Achaea</a> with Antigonus Gonatas,
went so far as to join hands with Antigonus Doson, then regent of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> and guardian to Philip, who was still a child, and Cleomenes, king of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>.
They saw that Antigonus was undisputed master of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> and at the same time the open and avowed enemy of the Achaeans owing to their seizure by treachery of the Acrocorinthus,
and they supposed that if they could get the Lacedaemonians also to join them in their project, exciting first their animosity against the League, they could easily crush the Achaeans by attacking them at the proper time all at once and from all quarters.
This indeed they would in all probability soon have done, but for the most important factor which they had overlooked in their plans. They never took into consideration that in this undertaking they would have Aratus as their opponent, a man capable of meeting any emergency.
Consequently the result of their intrigues and unjust aggression was that not only did they entirely fail in their designs, but on the contrary consolidated the power of the League, and of Aratus who was then Strategus, as he most adroitly diverted and spoilt all their plans.
How he managed all this the following narrative will show.
Walbank Commentary