to take part with Antiochus. But at length Quinctius was
called thither by those who were of the Roman party; and Apollodorus,
the principal adviser of a revolt, being publicly charged therewith by
one Leon, was condemned and driven into exile. Thus, from the Achaeans
also, the embassy returned to the king with a discouraging answer.
The Boeotians made no definitive reply; they only said, that "when
Antiochus should come into Boeotia, they would then deliberate on the
measures proper to be pursued." When Antiochus heard, that both the
Achaeans and king Eumenes had sent reinforcements to Chalcis, he
resolved to act with the utmost expedition, that his troops might
get the start of them, and, if possible, intercept the others as they
came; and he sent thither Menippus with about three thousand soldiers,
and Polyxenidas with the whole fleet. In a few days after, he marched
himself, at the head of six thousand of his own soldiers, and a
smaller number of Aetolians, as many as could be collected in haste,
out of those who were at Lamia. The five hundred Achaeans, and a small
party sent by king Eumenes, being guided by Xenoclides, of Chalcis,
(the roads being yet open,) crossed the Euripus, and arrived at
Chalcis in safety. The Roman soldiers, who were likewise about five
hundred, came, after Menippus had fixed his camp under Salganea, at
Hermaeus, the place of passage from Boeotia to the island of
Euboea. They had with them Mictio, who had been sent from Chalcis to
Quinctius, deputed to solicit that very reinforcement; and when he
perceived that the passes were blocked up by the enemy, he quitted
the road to Aulis, and turned away to Delium, with intent to pass over
thence to Euboea.

51. Delium is a temple of Apollo, standing over the sea five miles
distant from Tanagra; and the passage thence, to the nearest part of
Euboea, is less than four miles. As they were in this sacred building
and grove, sanctified with all that religious awe and those privileges
which belong to temples, called by the Greeks asylums, (war not being
yet either proclaimed, or so far commenced as that they had heard of
swords being drawn, or blood shed any where,) the soldiers in perfect
tranquillity, amused themselves, some with viewing the temple and
groves; others with walking about unarmed, on the strand; and a great
part had gone different ways in quest of wood and forage; when, on a
sudden, Menippus attacked them in that scattered condition, sl