men, to follow him at the distance of a mile. About midway,
Antiphilus, praetor of the Boeotians, met him: the rest of the people
stood on the walls, watching the arrival of the king and the Roman
general. Few arms and few soldiers appeared around them--the hollow
roads, and the valleys concealing from view the spearmen, who followed
at a distance. When Quinctius drew near the city, he slackened his
pace, as if with intention to salute the multitude, who came out to
meet him; but the real motive of his delaying was, that the spearmen
might come up. The townsmen pushed forward, in a crowd, before the
lictors, not perceiving the band of soldiers who were following them
close, until they arrived at the general's quarters. Then, supposing
the city betrayed and taken, through the treachery of Antiphilus,
their praetor, they were all struck with astonishment and dismay.
It was now evident that no room was left to the Boeotians for a free
discussion of measures in the assembly, which was summoned for the
following day. However, they concealed their grief, which it would
have been both vain and unsafe to have discovered.

2. When the assembly met, Attalus first rose to speak, and he began
his discourse with a recital of the kindnesses conferred by his
ancestors and himself on the Greeks in general, and on the Boeotians
in particular. But, being now too old and infirm to bear the exertion
of speaking in public, he lost his voice and fell; and for some time,
while they were carrying him to his apartments, (for he was deprived
of the use of one half of his limbs,) the proceedings of the assembly
were for a short time suspended. Then Aristaenus spoke on the part of
the Achaeans, and was listened to with the greater attention, because
he recommended to the Boeotians no other measures than those which he
had recommended to the Achaeans. A few words were added by Quinctius,
extolling the good faith rather than the arms and power of the Romans.
A resolution was then proposed, by Dicaearchus of Plataea, for forming
a treaty of friendship with the Roman people, which was read; and no
one daring to offer any opposition, it was received and passed by the
suffrages of all the states of Boeotia. When the assembly broke up,
Quinctius made no longer stay at Thebes than the sudden accident
to Attalus made necessary. When it appeared that the force of the
disorder had not brought the king's life into any immediate danger,
but had only occasioned