50.
He was thought to have replied to both by no means unsuitably; and there was no difficulty in bringing an audience, prepossessed in his favour, to give their approbation to his discourse.
[2]
In fact, there was no debate or doubt started, but all concurred in voting, that the nation of the Achaeans would regard, as their friends or foes, those who were judged to be such by the Roman people, and in ordering war to be declared against both Antiochus and the Aetolians.
[3]
They also, by the direction of Quinctius, sent immediate succours of five hundred men to Chalcis, and five hundred to the Piraeus;
[4]
for affairs at Athens were in a state not far from a civil war, in consequence of the endeavours, used by some, to seduce the venal populace, by hopes of largesses, to take part with Antiochus. But at length Quinctius was called thither by those who were of the Roman party; and Apollodorus, the principal adviser of a revolt, being publicly charged therewith by one Leon, was condemned and driven into exile.
[5]
Thus, from the Achaeans also, the embassy returned to the king with a discouraging answer. The Bœotians made no definitive reply; they only said, that “when Antiochus should come into Bœotia, they would then deliberate on the measures proper to be pursued.”
[6]
When Antiochus heard, that both the Achaeans and king Eumenes had sent reinforcements to Chalcis, he resolved to act with the utmost expedition, that his troops might get the start of them, and, if possible, intercept the others as they came; and he sent thither Menippus with about three thousand soldiers, and Polyxenidas with the whole fleet.
[7]
In a few days after, he marched himself, at the head of six thousand of his own soldiers, and a smaller number of Aetolians, as many as could be collected in haste, out of those who were at Lamia.
[8]
The five hundred Achaeans, and a small party sent by king Eumenes, being guided by Xenoclides, of Chalcis, (the roads being yet open,) crossed the Euripus, and arrived at Chalcis in safety.
[9]
The Roman sol- diers, who were likewise about five hundred, came, after Me- [p. 1606]nippus had fixed his camp under Salganea, at Hermaeus, the place of passage from Bœotia to the island of Eubœa.
[10]
They had with them Mictio, who had been sent from Chalcis to Quinctius, deputed to solicit that very reinforcement;
[11]
and when he perceived that the passes were blocked up by the enemy, he quitted the road to Aulis, and turned away to Delium, with intent to pass over thence to Eubœa.
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