assault and gaining control of the rest
of the towns by capitulation. This effected, he set sail for home
after he had received a large price for peace from Ariarathes, king of
Cappadocia.

IX, 21.--The AEtolians when they had sent ambassadors to Rome the
second time in regard to peace themselves raised the standard of
rebellion. Hence the Romans immediately dismissed the ambassadors and
referred the conduct of affairs in Greece to Marcus Fulvius. He set
out first for the large city of Ambracia (it had once been the royal
residence of Pyrrhus and was now occupied by the AEtolians) and
proceeded to besiege it. So the AEtolians held a conference with him
about peace, but finding him disinclined to a truce they sent a part
of their army into Ambracia. The Romans undertook to capture the town
by an underground passage and pushed their mine straight forward,
temporarily eluding the notice of the besieged party; but the latter
began to suspect the true state of affairs when the excavated earth
attained some dimensions. As they were not aware in what direction the
trench was being dug, they kept applying a bronze shield to the
surface of the ground all about the circuit of the walls. By means of
the resonance they found out the place and went to work in their turn
to dig a tunnel from inside and approached the Romans, with whom they
battled in obscurity. Finally they devised the following sort of
defence. They filled a huge jar with feathers and put fire in it. To
this they attached a bronze cover that had a number of holes bored in
it. Then, after carrying the jar into the mine and turning the mouth
of it toward the enemy, they inserted a bellows in the bottom, and by
blowing this bellows with vigor they caused a tremendous amount of
unpleasant smoke, such as feathers would naturally create, to pour
out, so that not one of the Romans could endure it. Hence the Romans
in despair of succeeding made a truce and raised the siege. When they
had agreed to treat, the AEtolians also changed their course and
secured an armistice. Subsequently they obtained a peace from the
People by the gift of considerable money and many hostages. Fulvius
induced Cephallenia to capitulate and reduced to order the
Peloponnesus, which was in a state of factional turmoil.

[Sidenote: B.C. 187 (_a.u._ 567)] After a little, in the consulship of
Gaius Flaminius and AEmilius Lepidus, Antiochus died and his son
Seleucus succeeded him. Much later, at the d