After passing this decree the Achaeans dispersed to their several cities. When the troops had mustered from their winter quarters, the king at a council of his friends decided to prosecute the war by sea.
This, he was convinced, was the only way by which he could himself fall suddenly on his enemies from every side, while at the same time his adversaries would be deprived of the power of rendering assistance to each other,
separated as they were geographically and each in alarm for their own safety owing to the rapidity and secrecy with which the enemy could descend on them by sea. For it was against the Aetolians, Lacedaemonians, and Eleans that he was fighting.
Having resolved on this he collected at the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Lechaeum&groupId=675&placeId=1234">Lechaeum</a> the Achaean ships and his own, and by constant practice trained the soldiers of the phalanx to row. The Macedonians obeyed his orders in this respect with the utmost alacrity,
for they are not only most intrepid in regular battles on land, but very ready to undertake temporary service at sea, and also industrious in digging trenches,
just as Hesiod represents the sons of Achaeus to be "joying in war as if it were a feast."
The king, then, and the bulk of the Macedonian army remained in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Corinth&groupId=493&placeId=928">Corinth</a> occupied with this training and preparation.
But Apelles, being unable either to keep Philip under his influence or to endure the diminishment of his power that resulted from the king\'s disregard, formed a conspiracy with Leontius and Megaleas by which these two were to remain with Philip and in the actual hour of need damage the king\'s service by deliberate neglect, while he himself would withdraw to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Chalcis&groupId=457&placeId=853">Chalcis</a> and take care that the supplies required for Philip\'s project should not reach him from any quarter.
Having come to this mischievous understanding with these two colleagues, he left for <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Chalcis&groupId=457&placeId=853">Chalcis</a>, alleging some plausible pretext to the king,
and remaining there so effectually kept his sworn word, all yielding him obedience owing to his former credit at court, that at length the king was in such want of money that he was compelled to pawn some of the plate in use at his table and subsist on the proceeds.
When the ships were collected, the Macedonians being now well instructed in rowing, the king, after issuing rations of corn to his troops and paying them, put to sea, and on the second day arrived at Patrae with six thousand Macedonians and twelve hundred mercenaries.
Walbank Commentary