38.3
His
crown recovered, Amynander sent a delegation to the senate and another to
the Scipios, who were staying at Ephesus after the battle with Antiochus. He
asked to be allowed to remain on a peaceful footing with Rome, and in
excusing himself for having sought the aid of the Aetolians in winning back
his ancestral throne, threw the whole responsibility for the war on Philip.
From Athamania the Aetolians marched into Amphilochia, and the voluntary
surrender of the majority of the population made them masters of the whole
country. After recovering Amphilochia which had formerly belonged to
them, they invaded Aperantia, hoping for equal success, and this State also
to a large extent surrendered without offering any resistance. The Dolopians
had never been under Aetolia; they had formed part of Philip's dominions. At
first they flew to arms, but when they learnt that the Amphilochians had
joined the Aetolians, that Philip had fled from Athamania and his force had
been cut up, they too revolted from him and joined the Aetolians. With these
States all round them, the Aetolians considered themselves secure on every
side from the Macedonians. But in the midst of their security they received
intelligence of the defeat of Antiochus at the hands of the Romans in Asia,
and not long after, their envoys returned from Rome bringing no hope of
peace and announcing that the consul Fulvius had already landed in Greece
with an army. Appalled at these tidings they begged Rhodes and Athens to
send delegates to Rome so that with the support of these friendly nations
their own petitions which had been lately rejected might find readier access
to the ear of the senate. They then sent their leaders to Rome as their last
hope, having taken no precautions to avoid war until the enemy was almost
in sight. M. Fulvius had now brought his army up to Apollonia and was
consulting the Epirot leaders as to where he should open the campaign. They
thought the best course would be to begin with an attack on Ambracia,
which had by that time joined the Aetolian League. They pointed out that if
the Aetolians came to its relief, the open and level country afforded a
favourable field of battle; if they avoided an engagement, the siege would be
by no means a difficult one as there was abundance of timber in the
neighbourhood for constructing the raised galleries and all the other siege
works; the Aretho, a navigable river and well adapted for transporting all
necessary materials, flowed past the very walls; and in the last place,
summer, the season for active operations, was approaching.
