If we once accept this, it is easy to make up our minds about the extent to which their principles differed.
For just as Philip on this occasion took the advice of Aratus and kept his faith to the Messenians regarding their citadel, and as the saying is, did a little to heal the terrible wound inflicted by his massacres,
so in Aetolia by following the advice of Demetrius he was not only guilty of impiety to the gods by destroying the offerings consecrated to them, but he sinned against men by transgressing the laws of war, and spoilt his own projects by showing himself the implacable and cruel foe of his adversaries. The same holds for his conduct in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Crete&groupId=505&placeId=949">Crete</a>.
There, too, as long as he was guided by Aratus in his general policy, not only was he not guilty of injustice to any of the islanders, but he did not give the least offence to any; so that he had all the Cretans at his service, and by the strictness of his principles attracted the affection of all the Greeks.
Again by letting himself be guided by Demetrius and inflicting on the Messenians the disasters I described above, he lost both the affection of his allies and the confidence of the other Greeks.
Of such decisive importance for young kings, as leading either to misfortune or to the firm establishment of their kingdom, is the judicious choice of the friends who attend on them, a matter to which most of them, with a sort of indifference, devote no care at all. . . .
Walbank Commentary