ngagement with the enemy. Nor would the Boians have declined
a battle, if their spirits had not been depressed by hearing of the
defeat of the Insubrians. Upon this, deserting their commander and
their camp, they dispersed themselves through the several towns, each
wishing to take care of his own effects. Thus they changed the enemy's
method of carrying on the war: for, no longer hoping to decide the
matter by a single battle, he began again to lay waste the lands,
burn the houses, and storm the villages. At this time, Clastidium
was burned, and the legions were led thence against the Ilvatian
Ligurians, who alone refused to submit. That state, also, on learning
that the Insubrians had been defeated in battle, and the Boians so
terrified that they had not dared to try the fortune of an engagement,
made a submission. Letters from the consuls, containing accounts
of their successes, came from Gaul to Rome at the same time. Marcus
Sergius, city praetor, read them in the senate, and afterwards, by
direction of the fathers, in an assembly of the people; on which a
supplication, of four days' continuance, was decreed.

32. It was by this time winter; and while Titus Quinctius, after the
reduction of Elatia, had his winter quarters distributed in Phocis and
Locris, a violent dissension broke out at Opus. One faction invited
to their assistance the Aetolians who were nearest at hand; the other,
the Romans. The Aetolians arrived first; but the other party, which
was the more powerful, refused them admittance, and, despatching a
courier to the Roman general, held the city until his arrival. The
citadel was possessed by a garrison belonging to the king, and they
could not be prevailed on to retire from thence, either by the threats
of the people of Opus, or by the authority of the Roman consul's
commands. What prevented their being immediately attacked was, the
arrival of an envoy from the king, to solicit the appointing of a time
and place for a conference. This was granted to the king with great
reluctance; not that Quinctius did not wish to see war concluded under
his own auspices, partly by arms, and partly by negotiation: for he
knew not, yet, whether one of the new consuls would be sent out as his
successor, or whether he should be continued in the command; a point
which he had charged his friends and relations to labour for with
all their might. But he thought that a conference would answer this
purpose; that it would put i