odged the guard, put to flight the
Aetolians who kept the pass of Thermopylae, and drove the enemy in
confusion to Heraclea, marching in one day to Elatia in Phocis, a
distance of above sixty miles. Almost on the same day the town of Opus
was taken and plundered by Attalus. Sulpicius had given it up to the
king because Oreum had been plundered a few days before by the Roman
soldiers, the royal soldiers not having shared the booty. The Roman
fleet having retired thither, Attalus, who was not aware of Philip's
approach, wasted time in levying contributions from the principal
inhabitants, and so sudden was his coming, that had he not been
descried by some Cretans, who happened to go farther from the town
than usual in quest of forage, he might have been surprised. He fled
hastily to the sea and his ships, without arms, and in the greatest
disorder. Just as they were putting off from the land Philip arrived,
and even from the shore created much alarm among the mariners. He
returned thence to Opus, accusing both gods and men, because he had
lost an opportunity of so great importance, almost snatched from his
hands. He also reproached the Opuntians with the like anger, because
they had, immediately on sight of the enemy, made almost a voluntary
surrender, though they might have prolonged the siege till his
arrival. Having settled affairs at Opus, he proceeded thence to
Thronium. Attalus, too, at first retired from Oreum; but there
receiving intelligence that Prusias, king of Bithynia, had invaded his
kingdom, he withdrew his attention from the Romans and the Aetolian
war, and passed over into Asia. Sulpicius also withdrew his fleet to
Aegina, from whence he had set out in the beginning of spring. Philip
took Thronium with as little difficulty as Attalus had at Opus. It was
inhabited by foreigners, fugitives from Thebes in Phthiotis, who, on
the capture of their own town by Philip, had fled to the protection of
the Aetolians, and received from them a city as a settlement which
had been laid waste and desolated in a former war by the same Philip.
Having recovered Thronium, as has been a little before mentioned, he
set out thence; and having taken Tritonos and Drymae, inconsiderable
towns of Doris, he came thence to Elatia, where he had ordered
the ambassadors of Ptolemy and the Rhodians to wait for him. While
consulting there as to the best method of bringing the Aetolian war to
a conclusion, (for these ambassadors attended the