to confer with the Roman general; and, on the latter exhorting
him to change sides immediately, and surrender the city he answered in
such a manner as showed an inclination rather to defer than to refuse
the matter. From Corinth, Quinctius sailed over to Anticyra, and
sent his brother thence, to sound the disposition of the people of
Acarnania. Attalus went from Argos to Sicyon. Here, on one side, the
state added new honours to those formerly paid to the king; and, on
the other, the king, besides having on a former occasion, redeemed for
them, at a vast expense, a piece of land sacred to Apollo, unwilling
to pass by the city of his friends and allies without a token of
munificence, made them a present of ten talents of silver,[1] and ten
thousand bushels of corn, and then returned to Cenchreae to his fleet.
Nabis, leaving a strong garrison at Argos, returned to Lacedaemon;
and, as he himself had pillaged the men, he sent his wife to Argos
to pillage the women. She invited the females to her house, sometimes
singly, and sometimes several together, who were united by family
connexion; and partly by fair speeches, partly by threats, stripped
them, not only of their gold, but, at last, even of their garments,
and every article of female attire.

[Footnote 1: 1937l. 10s.]

BOOK XXXIII.

_Titus Quinctius Flamininus, proconsul, gains a decisive
victory over Philip at Cynoscephalae. Caius Sempronius
Tuditanus, praetor, cut off by the Celtiberians. Death of
Attalus, at Pergamus. Peace granted to Philip, and liberty to
Greece. Lucius Furius Purpureo and Marcus Claudius Marcellus,
consuls, subdue the Boian and Insubrian Gauls. Triumph
of Marcellus. Hannibal, alarmed at an embassy from Rome
concerning him, flies to Antiochus, king of Syria, who was
preparing to make war on the Romans_.

1. Such were the occurrences of the winter. In the beginning of
spring, Quinctius, having summoned Attalus to Elatia, and being
anxious to bring under his authority the nation of the Boeotians, who
had until then been wavering in their dispositions, marched through
Phocis, and pitched his camp at the distance of five miles from
Thebes, the capital of Boeotia. Next day, attended by one company of
soldiers, and by Attalus, together with the ambassadors, who had come
to him in great numbers from all quarters, he proceeded towards the
city, having ordered the spearmen of two legions, being two
thousand