36.20
Whilst
the consul was taking his army through Phocis and Boeotia the citizens of
the revolted towns, conscious of their guilt and fearing lest they should be
treated as enemies, stood outside their gates in suppliant garb. The army,
however, marched past all their cities one after the other, without doing any
damage, just as though they were in friendly territory, till they came to
Coronea. Here great indignation was aroused by the sight of a statue of
Antiochus set up in the temple of Minerva Itonia, and the soldiers were
allowed to plunder the temple domain. It occurred, however, to the consul
that as the statue had been placed there by a decree of the national council of
Boeotia it was unfair to take vengeance on the territory of Coronea alone.
He at once recalled the soldiers and stopped the pillaging, and contented
himself with sternly rebuking the Boeotians for their ingratitude to Rome
after the many benefits she had so lately conferred upon them. At the time of
the battle ten of the king's ships, with Isidorus in command, were standing
off Thronium in the Maliac Gulf. Alexander the Acarnanian, who had been
severely wounded, fled thither with tidings of the defeat, and the ships sailed
hurriedly away to Cenaeus in Euboea. Here Alexander died and was buried.
Three vessels, which had come from Asia and were making for the same
port, on hearing of the disaster which had overtaken the army, returned to
Ephesus. Isidorus left Cenaeus for Demetrias, in case the king's flight should
have carried him there. During this time A. Atilius, who was in command of
the Roman fleet, intercepted a large convoy of supplies for the king which
had passed through the strait between Andros and Euboea. Some of the
vessels he sank, others he captured; those in the rearmost line turned their
course towards Asia. Atilius sailed back with his train of captured ships and
distributed the large stock of corn on board to the Athenians and the other
friendly cities in that quarter.