University of Virginia Library

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.