he not
debased and marred all by his intolerable lust; for he ranged
night and day through the houses of married people with one or two
companions, and in proportion as he was less conspicuous by lowering
his dignity to a private level, the less restraint he felt; thus
converting that empty show of liberty, which he had made to others,
into a cover for the gratification of his own unbounded desires. For
neither did he obtain his object in all cases by money or seductive
arts, but he also employed violence in the accomplishment of his
flagitious purposes; and it was dangerous both to husbands and parents
to have presented any impediment to the gratification of royal lust,
by an unseasonable strictness. From one man, Aratus, of the highest
rank among the Achaeans, his wife, named Polycratia, was taken away
and conveyed into Macedonia under the hope of a matrimonial connexion
with royalty. After passing the time appointed for the celebration
of the Nemaean games, and a few days more, in the commission of these
profligate acts, he set out for Dymae to expel the garrison of the
Aetolians, which had been invited by the Eleans, and received into the
town. Cycliadas, who had the chief direction of affairs, met the king
at Dymae, together with the Achaeans, who were inflamed with hatred
against the Eleans, because they had disunited themselves from the
rest of the Achaeans, and were incensed against the Aetolians, because
they considered that they had stirred up a Roman war against them.
Setting out from Dymae, and uniting their forces, they passed the
river Larissus, which separates the Elean from the Dymaean territory.

32. The first day on which they entered upon the enemy's confines,
they employed in plundering. The following day they approached the
city in battle-array, having sent their cavalry in advance, in order
that, by riding up to the gates, they might provoke the Aetolians to
make a sally, a measure to which they were naturally inclined. They
were not aware that Sulpicius had passed over from Naupactus to
Cyllene with fifteen ships, and landing four thousand armed men, had
entered Elis during the dead of night, that his troops might not be
seen. Accordingly, when they recognised the Roman standards and arms
among the Aetolians, so unexpected an event occasioned the greatest
terror; and at first the king had wished to withdraw his troops; but
afterwards, an engagement having taken place between the Aetolians and
Tra