14.
During this time, as it happened, Manius Acilius the consul crossed the sea with twenty thousand infantry, two thousand cavalry, and fifteen elephants,
1 and ordered the military tribunes to lead the infantry to Larisa; he himself with the cavalry went to Philip at Limnaeum.
[
2]
The arrival of the
[p. 199]consul caused surrender to be offered without delay,
2 and the royal garrison was handed over and along with them the Athamanes.
[
3]
From Limnaeum the consul went to Pellinaeum. There the Athamanes first gave themselves up, then Philip of Megalopolis;
[
4]
when by chance King Philip encountered him as he was leaving the garrison, he ordered him hailed as king in mockery, and meeting him face to face, he greeted him as “brother,” a jest by no means befitting his dignity.
3
[
5]
Conducted then before the consul, he was ordered to be placed under guard, and a little later was sent to Rome in chains. The rest of the people of the Athamanes or of the soldiers of King Antiochus who had been in the garrisons of the towns surrendered at this period were delivered to King Philip: they numbered now about four thousand men. The consul proceeded to Larisa, there to hold a council regarding the general conduct of the war.
[
6]
On the way ambassadors came from Cierium and Metropolis surrendering their cities. Philip treated with especial kindness the prisoners of the Athamanes, that through them he might win over the
[
7??]
tribe, and entertaining the hope of gaining possession of Athamania, he led his army thither, sending the captives ahead to their cities.
[
8]
And they had great influence with their fellow-citizens, recalling the kindness and generosity of the king towards them, and Amynander, who, had he been present, might by his majesty have kept some to their allegiance, fearing that
[
9??]
he would be delivered to Philip, long his enemy, or to the Romans, at that time justly angered because of his desertion, left the kingdom with his wife and children and took refuge in Ambracia; thus all. Athamania came under the
[p. 201]sovereignty and power of Philip.
[
10]
The consul, to
4 rest the pack-animals which had been exhausted both by the voyage and by the later marching, delayed a few days at Larisa, and with an army renewed, so to speak, by a brief rest, proceeded to Crannon. On his journey Pharsalus and Scotusa and Pherae and the garrisons of Antiochus which were in them were surrendered.
[
11]
Questioning them as to who were willing to stay with him, he handed over to Philip a thousand volunteers and sent the rest unarmed back to Demetrias. Next he took Proerna and the forts surrounding it. Then he began to lead the army straight towards the Malian gulf.
[
12]
As he drew near the pass above which Thaumaci
5 is situated, the young men left the town, armed themselves and attacked the Roman column from the higher ground.
[
13]
At first the consul sent men to try, by talking to them at close quarters, to deter them from so insane a course; when he saw that they persisted in their purpose, he sent a tribune with the soldiers of two maniples by a roundabout way, closed the road to the city against the soldiers, and captured the undefended town. Then when they heard the shouts from the captured city behind them there was a slaughter by the troops in ambush, as the enemy fled in all directions from the forests.
[
14]
From Thaumaci on the second day the consul came to the Spercheus river and then laid waste the
[
15??]
lands of the Hypataeans.
6