Kitap 37
6
The walls had, however, been shaken down in many places when news reached Acilius that his successor had landed in Apollonia, and was advancing through Epirus and Thessaly. The consul was coming with 13,000 infantry and 500 cavalry; he had already reached the Maliac Gulf, and had sent a detachment to Hypata to demand the surrender of that city. The reply was that the inhabitants refused to do so without the sanction of the national council of Aetolia. Not wishing to lose time in the siege of Hypata while Amphissa was still holding out, he sent his brother Africanus on in advance and marched on Amphissa. Just before their arrival the citizens had abandoned their city, which was now to a large extent denuded of its walls, and had retreated, combatants and non-combatants alike, into the citadel which they held to be impregnable. The consul encamped about six miles distant from the place. A deputation from Athens arrived there to intercede for the Aetolians, and went first to Publius Scipio, who had, as stated above, gone on in advance, and then to the consul. They received a conciliatory reply from Africanus, who was keeping Asia and Antiochus in view and trying to find some honourable pretext for abandoning the Aetolian war. He told them that they must endeavour to persuade the Aetolians as well as the Romans to prefer peace to war. In consequence of the representations of the Athenians, a large deputation of Aetolians very soon came from Hypata and had an interview with Africanus. Their hopes of peace were considerably raised by what he said to them, as he pointed out how many tribes and nations in Spain and subsequently in Africa had thrown themselves on his protection, and how he had left everywhere nobler memorials of his clemency and kindness than of his military successes. They had to all appearance gained their end, when the consul, on being approached, gave them the very same answer as that with which they had been turned out of the senate. This unexpected treatment was a great blow to the Aetolians, for they saw that they had gained nothing either through the intervention of the Athenians or the considerate reply of Africanus.
