36.22
While
Acilius was at Thermopylae he sent a message to the Aetolians, advising
them, now that they had found out how empty the king's promises were, to
return to a right mind and think about delivering up Heraclea and begging
pardon of the senate for their madness and delusion. Other cities in Greece,
he reminded them, had been faithless to their best friends, the Romans, in
that war, but after the flight of the king, whose assurances had seduced them
from their duty, they did not aggravate their fault by willful obstinacy, and
had once more been received as allies. Even in the case of the Aetolians,
though they had not followed the king, but had actually invited him, and
were not his associates but his leaders in the war -even for them there was
still the possibility, if they showed true repentance, of remaining unharmed.
To this message they returned a defiant answer; the question would evidently
have to be decided by arms, and though the king was overcome, the war
with the Aetolians was clearly only just beginning. The consul accordingly
moved his army from Thermopylae to Heraclea, and on the very same day he
rode round the entire circuit of the walls to ascertain the situation of the city.
Heraclea lies at the foot of Mount Oeta; the city itself is situated in a plain,
and it has a citadel which commands it from a position of considerable
elevation and precipitous on all sides. After carefully considering all there
was to be learnt he decided to deliver a simultaneous attack from four
different points. In the direction of the Asopus, where the Gymnasium stood,
he placed L. Valerius in charge of the operations. Towards the citadel
outside the walls, where the houses were almost closer together than in the
city itself, he gave the direction of the assault to Tiberius Sempronius
Longus. On the side facing the Maliac Gulf, where the approach presented
considerable difficulty, M. Baebius was in command. Towards the stream
which they call the Melana, opposite the temple of Diana, he posted Appius
Claudius. Through the strenuous exertions of these commanders, each trying
to outdo the other, the towers and battering rams and all the other
preparations for an assault were completed in a few days. The land round
Heraclea is marshy and covered with tall trees, which furnished a liberal
supply of timber for siege works of every kind, and as the Aetolians living in
the suburb had taken refuge in the city the deserted houses afforded useful
materials for various purposes, including not only beams and planks, but also
bricks and building stones of all shapes and sizes.
