When Archias was archon at Athens, the Romans elected Marcus Aemilius and Titus Quinctius consuls.2 During their term of office the Phocian War, after lasting for ten3 years, was terminated in the following manner. Since the Boeotians and the Phocians were utterly dejected by the length of the war, the Phocians dispatched envoys to Lacedaemon asking for reinforcements, and the Spartans sent a thousand hoplites in charge of whom as general they placed their king Archidamus. [2] Similarly the Boeotians sent an embassy to Philip proposing an alliance, and Philip, after taking over the Thessalians, entered Locris with a large army. And when he had overtaken Phalaecus, who had again been granted the generalship and had the main body of the mercenaries, Philip prepared to decide the war by a pitched battle. But Phalaecus, who was tarrying in Nicaea4 and saw that he was no match for Philip, sent ambassadors to the king to treat for an armistice. [3] An agreement was reached whereby Phalaecus with his men should depart whithersoever he wished, and he then, under terms of the truce, withdrew to the Peloponnese with his mercenaries to the number of eight thousand,5 but the Phocians, whose hopes were now completely crushed, surrendered to Philip. [4] The king, having without a battle unexpectedly terminated the Sacred War, sat in council with the Boeotians and the Thessalians. As a result he decided to call a meeting of the Amphictyonic Council and leave to it the final decision on all the issues at stake.
