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Updated: May 14, 2025
This man, after finishing the business of his embassy, set out on his return to Aetolia; and on the twelfth day after he embarked, reached Phalara, on the Malian bay. Having conveyed thence to Lamia the money that he had brought, he, with a few light troops, directed, in the evening, his course toward Hypata, by known paths, through the country which lay between the Roman and Macedonian camps.
Although they requested permission to defend Hypata and Heraclea, yet they defended neither; but one half of them fled to the tops of the mountains, while the others shut themselves up in Heraclea.
Manius Acilius having sold, or given to the soldiers, the booty found near Heraclea, and having learned that the counsels adopted at Hypata were not of a pacific nature, but that the Aetolians had hastily assembled at Naupactum, with intention to make a stand there against the whole brunt of the war, sent forward Appius Claudius, with four thousand men, to seize the heights of the mountains, where the passes were difficult; and he himself, ascending Mount Oeta, offered sacrifices to Hercules, in the spot called Pyra, because there the mortal part of the demi-god was burned.
Phaeneas then said, that "as to himself and his countrymen there present, they knew that his commands must be obeyed: but it was necessary that a council of the Aetolians should meet, to pass decrees accordingly; and that, for that purpose, he requested a suspension of arms for ten days." At the intercession of Flaccus on behalf of the Aetolians, this was granted, and they returned to Hypata.
A few days before the capture of Heraclea, the Aetolians, having assembled a council at Hypata, sent ambassadors to Antiochus, among whom was Thoas, the same who had been sent on the former occasion.
On the other hand, it would become the Aetolians to lay aside, at length, their animosity towards him; and it would become Nicander himself, in his private capacity, to remember that day, on which he had been preserved by him." Having then appointed persons to escort him to a place of safety, Nicander arrived at Hypata, while his countrymen were consulting about the peace with Rome.
The consul, after ravaging the lands of Hypata first, and then those of Heraclea, in both which places the Aetolian detachments proved useless, encamped opposite to the king, in the very entrance of the pass, near the warm springs; both parties of the Aetolians shutting themselves up in Heraclea.
With a very inferior portion of spirit, Antiochus now pitched his camp within the enclosures of this pass, the difficulties of which he increased by raising fortifications; and when he had completely strengthened every part with a double rampart and trench, and, wherever it seemed requisite, with a wall formed of the stones which lay scattered about in abundance, being very confident that the Roman army would never attempt to force a passage there, he sent away one half of the four thousand Aetolians, the number that had joined him, to garrison Heraclea, which stood opposite the entrance of the defile, and the other half to Hypata; for he concluded, that the consul would undoubtedly attack Heraclea, and he received accounts from many hands, that all the districts round Hypata were being laid waste.
When these began to speak, the consul, interrupting them, said, that he had other business to attend to at present; and, ordering them to return to Hypata, granted them a truce for ten days, sending with them Lucius Valerius Flaccus, to whom, he desired, whatever business they intended to have proposed to himself might be communicated, with any other that they thought proper.
On their arrival at Hypata, the chiefs of the Aetolians held a consultation, at which Flaccus was present, on the method to be used in treating with the consul.
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