University of Virginia Library

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.