Book 33
29
This murder roused Thebes and the whole of Boeotia to an intensely bitter hatred against the Romans; they were quite convinced that Zeuxippus, the foremost man amongst them, would not have been a party to such a crime if he had not been countenanced by the Roman general. To go to war was impossible; they had neither forces nor a leader, but they did the next thing to it, they took to brigandage and assassination. They made away with soldiers who were billeted on them, and others on furlough who were going about on various errands in their winter quarters. Some were caught in the high roads by men who lay in wait for them, others were led on false pretences to lonely inns and then seized and murdered. These crimes were committed from greed quite as much as from hatred, because the men carried silver in their belts for making purchases. As more and more men were amongst the missing every day, the whole of Boeotia acquired an evil reputation, and the men were more afraid to go outside their camp than if they had been in an enemy's country. On this, Quinctius sent officers to the different cities to investigate the murders. Most of them were found to have been committed round Lake Copais; here bodies were dug out of the mud and recovered from the shallows with stones or amphorae fastened to them, to sink them deeper by their weight. Many murders also took place at Acraephia and Coronea. Quinctius issued orders for those who were guilty to be given up to him, and he levied a fine of 500 talents upon the Boeotians for the 500 soldiers who had been murdered.
