seize and
secure the tops of the hills, so that the Romans might not be able to
pass them at any part. When this message was received, a dissension
arose among the Aetolians: some insisted that they ought to obey
the king's orders, and go; others, that they ought to lie still at
Heraclea, and wait the issue, whatever it might be; for if the king
should be defeated by the consul, their forces would be fresh, and in
readiness to carry succour to their own states in the neighbourhood;
and if he were victorious, they could pursue the Romans, while
scattered in their flight. Each party not only adhered positively to
its own plan, but even carried it into execution; two thousand lay
still at Heraclea; and two thousand, divided into three parties, took
possession of the summits called Callidromus, Rhoduntia, and Tichiuns.

17. When the consul saw that the heights were possessed by the
Aetolians, he sent against those posts two men of consular rank, who
acted as lieutenant-generals, with two thousand chosen troops;--Lucius
Valerius Flaccus against Rhoduntia and Tichiuns, and Marcus Porcius
Cato against Callidromus. Then, before he led on his forces against
the enemy, he called them to an assembly, and thus briefly addressed
them: "Soldiers, I see that the greater part of you who were present,
of all ranks, are men who served in this same province, under the
conduct and auspices of Titus Quinctius. Now, in the Macedonian war,
the pass at the river Aous was much more difficult than this before
us. For this is only a gate, a single passage, formed as it were by
nature; every other in the whole tract, between the two seas, being
impassable. In the former case, there were stronger fortifications,
and placed in more advantageous situations. The enemy's army was
both more numerous, and composed of very superior men; for they were
Macedonians, Thracians, and Illyrians,--all nations of the fiercest
spirit; your present opponents are Syrians, and Asiatic Greeks, the
most unsteady of men, and born for slavery. The commander, there, was
a king of extraordinary warlike abilities, improved by practice from
his early youth, in wars against his neighbours, the Thracians and
Illyrians, and all the adjoining nations. But this man is one who
(to say nothing of his former life) after coming over from Asia into
Europe to make war on the Roman people, has, during the whole length
of the winter, accomplished no more memorable exploit, than the takin