"While you have no defence to offer for any of these acts you pride yourselves on having resisted the attack of the barbarians on <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Delphi&groupId=534&placeId=363">Delphi</a>, and say that the Greeks ought to be grateful to you for this.
But if thanks are due to the Aetolians for this single service, how highly should we honour the Macedonians, who for the greater part of their lives never cease from fighting with the barbarians for the sake of the security of Greece?
For who is not aware that Greece would have constantly stood in the greatest danger, had we not been fenced by the Macedonians and the honourable ambition of their kings?
The best proof is this. The moment that the Gauls after defeating Ptolemy Ceraunus conceived a contempt for the Macedonians, Brennus making light of all other opponents marched into the middle of Greece with his army, a thing that would often have happened if our frontiers were not protected by the Macedonians.
"I have much more to say about the past, but have said, I think, enough.
Among Philip\'s actions they cite his destruction of the temple as an instance of impiety, but they do not add a word about the criminal outrages they committed at the temples of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Dium&groupId=542&placeId=1019">Dium</a> and Dodona and the precincts of the gods there. They should have mentioned these first.
But you Aetolians while you tell this meeting of the evils you suffered, greatly exaggerating their gravity, are silent regarding the far more numerous evils you did to others unprovoked,
well knowing that all impute the blame for injustice and injuries to those who first resort to such violence.
Walbank Commentary