As the consul was leading his army through Phocis and Boeotia, the revolted states, conscious of their defection, and dreading lest they should be exposed as enemies to the ravages of the soldiers, presented themselves at the gates of their cities, with the badges of suppliants; but the army proceeded, during the whole time, just as if they were in the country of friends, without offering violence of any sort, until they reached the territory of Coronea. Here a statue of king Antiochus, standing in the temple of Minerva Itonia, kindled their indignation, and permission was given to the soldiers to plunder the lands adjacent to the edifice. But the reflection quickly occurred, that, as the statue had been erected by a general vote of all the Boeotian states, it was unreasonable to resent it on the single district of Coronea. The soldiers were therefore immediately recalled, and the depredations stopped. The Boeotians were only reprimanded for their ungrateful behaviour to the Romans in return for such great obligations, so recently conferred. At the very time of the battle, ten ships belonging to the king, with their commander Isidorus, lay at anchor near Thronium, in the Malian bay. To them Alexander of Acarnania, being grievously wounded, made his escape, and gave an account of the unfortunate issue of the battle; on which the fleet, alarmed at the immediate danger, sailed away in haste to Cenaeus in Euboea. There Alexander died, and was buried. Three other ships, which came from Asia to the same port, on hearing the disaster which had befallen the army, returned to Ephesus. Isidorus sailed over from Cenaeus to Demetrias, supposing that the king might perhaps have directed his flight thither. About this time Aulus Atilius, commander of the Roman fleet, intercepted a large convoy of provisions going to the king, just as they had passed the strait at the island of Andros: some of the ships he sunk, and took many others. Those who were in the rear turned their course to Asia. Atilius, with the captured vessels in his train, sailed back to Piraeus, from whence he had set out, and distributed a vast quantity of corn among the Athenians and the other allies in that quarter.
21
Antiochus, quitting Chalcis before the arrival of the consul, sailed first to Tenus, and thence passed over to Ephesus. When the consul came to Chalcis, the gates were open to receive him: for Aristoteles, who commanded for the king, on hearing of his approach, had withdrawn from the city. The rest of the cities of Euboea also submitted without opposition; and peace being restored all over the island within the space of a few days, without inflicting punishment on any city, the army, which had acquired much higher praise for moderation after victory, than even for the victory itself, was led back to Thermopylae. From this place, the consul despatched Marcus Cato to Rome, that through him the senate and people might learn what had been achieved from unquestionable authority. He set sail from Creusa, a sea-port belonging to the Thespians, seated at the bottom of the Corinthian Gulf, and steered to Patrae, in Achaia. From Patrae, he coasted along the shores of Aetolia and Acarnania, as far as Corcyra, and thence he passed over to Hydruntum, in Italy. Proceeding hence, with rapid expedition, by land, he arrived on the fifth day at Rome. Having come into the city before day, he went on directly from the gate to Marcus Junius, the praetor, who, at the first dawn, assembled the senate. Here, Lucius Cornelius Scipio, who had been despatched by the consul several days before Cato, and on his arrival had heard that the latter had outstripped him, and was then in the senate, came in, just as he was giving a recital of the transactions. The two lieutenant-generals were then, by order of the senate, conducted to the assembly of the people, where they gave the same account, as in the senate, of the services performed in Aetolia. Hereupon a supplication of three days' continuance was decreed, and that the praetor should offer sacrifice to such of the gods as his judgment should direct, with forty victims of the larger kinds. About the same time, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior, who, two years before, had gone into Farther Spain, in the office of praetor, entered the city in ovation. He carried in the procession a hundred and thirty thousand silver denarii,[[47]] and besides the coin, twelve thousand pounds' weight of silver, and a hundred and twenty-seven pounds' weight of gold.
22
The consul Manius Acilius sent on, from Thermopylae, a message to the Aetolians in Heraclea, admonishing them, "then at least, after the experience which they had of the emptiness of the king's professions, to return to their senses; and, by surrendering Heraclea, to endeavour to procure from the senate a pardon for their past madness, or error: that other Grecian states also had, during the present war, revolted from the Romans, to whom they were under the highest obligations; but that, inasmuch as, after the flight of the king, in reliance upon whom they had departed from their duty, they had not added obstinacy to their misbehaviour, they were re-admitted into friendship. In like manner, although the Aetolians had not followed in the steps of the king, but had invited him, and had been principals in the war, not auxiliaries; nevertheless, if they could bring themselves to repentance they might still insure their safety." As their answer to these suggestions showed nothing like a pacific disposition, and it was evident that the business must be determined by force of arms, and that, notwithstanding the defeat of the king, the war of Aetolia was as far from a conclusion as ever, Acilius removed his camp from Thermopylae to Heraclea; and on the same day rode on horseback entirely round the walls, in order to acquaint himself with the localities of the city. Heraclea is situated at the foot of Mount Oeta; the town itself is in the plain, but has a citadel overlooking it, which stands on an eminence of considerable height, terminated on all sides by precipices. Having examined every part which he wished to see, the consul determined to make the attack in four places at once. On the side next the river Asopus, where is also the Gymnasium, he gave the direction of the works and the assault to Lucius Valerius. He assigned to Tiberius Sempronius Longus the attack of a part of the suburbs, which was as thickly inhabited as the city itself. He appointed Marcus Baebius to act on the side opposite the Malian bay, a part where the access was far from easy; and Appius Claudius on the side next to another rivulet, called Melas; opposite to the temple of Diana. By the vigorous emulation of these the towers, rams, and other machines used in the besieging of towns, were all completed within a few days. The lands round Heraclea, naturally marshy, and abounding with tall trees, furnished timber in abundance for every kind of work; and then, as the Aetolians had fled into the city, the deserted suburbs supplied not only beams and boards, but also bricks and mortar, and stones of every size for all their various occasions.
23
The Romans carried on the assault upon this city by means of works more than by their arms; the Aetolians, on the contrary, maintained their defence by dint of arms. For when the walls were shaken by the ram they did not, as is usual, intercept and turn aside the strokes by the help of nooses formed on ropes, but sallied out in large armed bodies, with parties carrying fire, which they threw into the works. They had likewise arched passages through the parapet, for the purpose of making sallies; and when they built up the wall anew, in the room of any part that was demolished, they left a great number of these, that they might rush out upon the enemy from many places at once. In several days at the beginning, while their strength was unimpaired, they carried on this practice in numerous parties, and with much spirit, but afterwards in smaller numbers and more languidly. For though they had a multiplicity of difficulties to struggle with, what above all things utterly consumed their vigour was the want of sleep, as the Romans, having plenty of men, relieved each other regularly in their posts; while among the Aetolians, their numbers being small, the same persons had their strength consumed by unremitting labour night and day. During a space of twenty-four days, without any time being unemployed in the conflict, their toil was kept up against the attacks carried on by the enemy in four different quarters at once. When the consul, from computing the time, and from the reports of deserters, judged that the Aetolians were thoroughly fatigued, he adopted the following plan:--At midnight he gave the signal of retreat, and drawing off all his men at once from the assault, kept them quiet in the camp until the third hour of the next day. The attacks were then renewed, and continued until midnight, when they ceased, until the third hour of the day following. The Aetolians imagined that the Romans suspended the attack from the same cause by which they felt themselves distressed,--excessive fatigue. As soon, therefore, as the signal of retreat was given to the Romans, as if themselves were thereby recalled from duty, every one gladly retired from his post, nor did they again appear in arms on the walls before the third hour of the day.