THUS HE WAS DEPOSED FROM HIS COMMAND. BUT SULPICIUS TOGETHER WITH ATTALUS OCCUPIED OREUS BY TREACHERY AND OPUS BY MAIN FORCE. PHILIP WAS UNABLE TO SEND THEM SPEEDY AID AS THE AETOLIANS HAD SEIZED THE PASSES IN ADVANCE. BUT AT LAST HE DID ARRIVE ON THE SCENE AND FORCED ATTALUS BACK TO HIS SHIPS. PHILIP, HOWEVER, WISHED TO CONCLUDE A TRUCE WITH THE ROMANS. AND AFTER SOME PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION THE PEACE PROPOSITION WAS WITHDRAWN, BUT HE MOVED THE AETOLIANS OUT OF THEIR POSITION OF ALLIANCE WITH THE ROMANS AND MADE THEM HIS OWN FRIENDS INSTEAD. Hannibal for a time kept quiet, satisfied if he might only retain such advantages as were already his. And the consuls thinking that his power had slowly wasted away without a battle also waited. [Sidenote: B.C. 205 (_a.u._ 549)] The succeeding year Publius Scipio and [Sidenote: FRAG. 56^48] LICINIUS CRASSUS BECAME CONSULS. And THE LATTER STAYED IN ITALY, but Scipio had received orders to leave there for Sicily and Libya to the end that in case he should not capture Carthage he might at least eventually draw Hannibal from Italy. He did not succeed in securing an army of any real value nor in getting an expenditure for triremes, because the honors accorded to his prowess had made him an object of jealousy. The people would scarcely supply him with the necessities. While he set out with the fleet of the allies and a few volunteers drawn from the populace, Mago left the island and after sailing along the Italian coast disembarked in Liguria. Crassus was in Bruttium lying in wait for Hannibal. Philip, however, had become reconciled with the Romans; for on ascertaining that Publius Sempronius had reached Apollonia with a large force he was glad to make peace.