and which he desired.
Meantime Antiochus had collected a vast army from all parts of his
dominions, and, advancing northward from Ephesus, laid waste the kingdom
of Pergamus. But upon the approach of the Roman army, which entered Asia
by crossing the Hellespont, Antiochus retreated southward; and the
decisive battle was fought near Magnesia, at the foot of Mount Sipylus.
The Romans obtained an easy and bloodless victory over the vast but
disorderly rabble of the Syrian monarch. Only 400 Romans fell, while
Antiochus lost 53,000 men. He at once gave up the contest in despair,
and humbly sued for peace. The conditions were hard. He had to cede all
his dominions west of Mount Taurus (that is, the whole of Asia Minor),
to pay 15,000 Euboic talents within twelve years, to give up his
elephants and ships of war, and to surrender to the Romans Hannibal and
some others who had taken refuge at his court. Hannibal foresaw his
danger, and made his escape to Crete, from whence he afterward repaired
to the court of Prusias, king of Bithynia.

L. Scipio returned to Rome in the following year, bringing with him
enormous treasures. In imitation of his brother, he assumed the surname
of ASIATICUS.

The Romans were now at leisure to punish the AEtolians, who had to make
head against the Romans by themselves. The Consul M. Fulvius Nobilior
(B.C. 189) took their chief town, Ambracia, after an obstinate
resistance, and compelled them to sue for peace. This was granted, but
on the most humiliating conditions. They were required to acknowledge
the supremacy of Rome, to renounce all the conquests they had recently
made, to pay an indemnity of 500 talents, and to engage in future to aid
the Romans in their wars. The power of the AEtolian league was thus
forever crushed, though it seems to have existed, in name at least, till
a much later period.

The colleague of M. Fulvius Nobilior was Cn. Manlius Vulso, who had
received Asia as his province, that he might conclude the peace which
his predecessor, Scipio Asiaticus, had made with Antiochus, and arrange
the affairs of Asia. But Manlius was not content with the subordinate
part allotted to him; and being anxious for booty as much as for glory,
he attacked the Galatians in Asia Minor, without waiting for any
instructions from the Senate, and in direct opposition to the ten
commissioners who had been sent to arrange conjointly with him the
affairs of Asia. This was the first instance in which a R