32.14
Amynander and the Athamanians, on
hearing of the Roman victory, did not remain inactive. As he felt little
confidence in his soldiers Amynander begged the consul to lend him a small
detachment with which to attack Gomphi. He began by seizing Phaeca, a
place lying between Gomphi and the pass over Pindus which divides
Athamania from Thessaly. Then he marched to the attack on Gomphi. For
several days the inhabitants defended their city most vigorously, but when
the scaling-ladders were at last placed against the walls their fears drove
them to surrender. The fall of Gomphi created the liveliest alarm throughout
Thessaly. The garrisons of Argenta, Pherinium, Timarum, Ligynae, Stimo
and Lampsus surrendered in rapid succession together with other
unimportant fortified posts in the neighbourhood. Whilst the Athamanians
and the Aetolians, delivered from the Macedonian peril, were thus making
their gain out of the victory which others had won, and Thessaly, doubtful
whom to count as friend or foe, was being devastated by three armies at
once, the consul marched through the defile which the flight of the enemy
had left open to him and entered the country of Epirus. He knew perfectly
well which side the Epirotes, with the exception of Charopas, had favoured,
but as he saw that they were anxious to repair their past mistakes by doing
their utmost to carry out his commands, he measured them by their present
rather than their former attitude, and through his clemency and readiness to
forgive he secured their attachment for the future. After despatching
instructions to Corcyra for the transports to come into the Ambracian Gulf
he advanced by easy stages for four days and fixed his camp at the foot of
the Cercetian range of mountains. Amynander was requested to bring up his
troops to the same place, not so much because his assistance was required as
because the consul wished to have them as his guides into Thessaly. Most of
the Epirotes were allowed to volunteer for service also.