treasures; and
the Aetolians, as if they had stormed the city, of which they wished
to be thought the deliverers, betook themselves to plunder. The
insolence of their behaviour, and at the same time contempt of their
numbers, gave the Lacedaemonians courage to assemble in a body, when
some said, that they ought to drive out the Aetolians, and resume
their liberty, which had been ravished from them at the very time when
it seemed to be restored; others, that, for the sake of appearance,
they ought to associate with them some one of the royal family, as the
director of their efforts. There was a very young boy of that family,
named Laconicus, who had been educated with the tyrant's children; him
they mounted on a horse, and taking arms, slew all the Aetolians whom
they met straggling through the city. They then assaulted the palace,
where they killed Alexamenus, who, with a small party, attempted
resistance. Others of the Aetolians, who had collected together round
the Chalciaecon, that is, the brazen temple of Minerva, were cut to
pieces. A few, throwing away their arms, fled, some to Tegea, others
to Megalopolis, where they were seized by the magistrates, and sold as
slaves. Philopoemen, as soon as he heard of the murder of the tyrant,
went to Lacedaemon, where, finding all in confusion and consternation,
he called together the principal inhabitants, to whom he addressed a
discourse, (such as ought to have been made by Alexamenus,) and united
the Lacedaemonians to the confederacy of the Achaeans. To this they
were the more easily persuaded, because, at that very juncture, Aulus
Atilius happened to arrive at Gythium with twenty-four quinqueremes.

37. Meanwhile, Thoas, in his attempt on Chalcis, had by no means
the same good fortune as Eurylochus had in getting possession of
Demetrias; although, (by the intervention of Euthymidas, a man of
considerable consequence, who, after the arrival of Titus Quinctius
and the ambassadors, had been banished by those who adhered to the
Roman alliance; and also of Herodorus, who was a merchant of Cios,
and who, by means of his wealth, possessed a powerful influence at
Chalcis,) he had engaged a party, composed of Euthymidas's faction, to
betray the city into his hands. Euthymidas went from Athens, where
he had fixed his residence, first to Thebes, and thence to Salganea;
Herodorus to Thronium. At a small distance, on the Malian bay, Thoas
had two thousand foot and two hundred horse, wi