Description of Greece

And here Diaeus sank into utter folly. Although he knew that Critolaus and the whole force of Achaia had put up such a poor fight against Metellus, he nevertheless detached about four thousand, put them under the command of Alcamenes, and despatched them to Megara to garrison the city, and to stay the advance of Metellus and the Romans, should they march that way.

When the picked Arcadian troops had been overthrown near Chaeroneia, Metellus moved his army and marched against Thebes, for the Thebans had joined the Achaeans in investing Heracleia, and had taken part in the engagement of Scarpheia. Then the inhabitants, of both sexes and of all ages, abandoned the city and wandered about Boeotia, or took refuge on the tops of the mountains.

But Metellus would not allow either the burning of sanctuaries of the gods or the destruction of buildings, and he forbade his men to kill any Theban or take prisoner any fugitive. If, however, Pytheas should be caught, he was to be brought before him. Pytheas was discovered immediately, brought before Metellus and punished. When the army approached Megara, Alcamenes and his men did not face it, but straightway fled to the camp of the Achaeans at Corinth.

The Megarians surrendered their city to the Romans without a blow, and when Metellus came to the Isthmus he again made overtures to the Achaeans for an agreed peace. For he was possessed of a strong desire to settle by himself the affairs of both Macedonia and Achaia. His efforts, however, were thwarted by the senselessness of Diaeus.

Mummius, bringing with him Orestes, the commissioner sent earlier to deal with the dispute between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans, reached the Roman army at early dawn, and sending Metellus and his forces to Macedonia, himself waited at the Isthmus for his whole force to assemble. There came three thousand five hundred cavalry, while the infantry amounted to twenty-three thousand. They were joined by a company of Cretan archers and by Philopoemen, at the head of some troops sent by Attalus from Pergamus on the Caicus.

Certain of the Italian troops along with the auxiliaries were stationed by Mummius twelve stades away, to be an outpost for the whole army. The contempt of the Romans made them keep a careless look-out, and the Achaeans, attacking them in the first watch, killed some, drove yet more back to the camp, and took some five hundred shields. Puffed up with this success the Achaeans marched out to battle before the Romans began their attack.

But when Mummius advanced to meet them, the Achaean horse at once took to flight, without waiting for even the first charge of the Roman cavalry. The infantry were depressed at the rout of their horse, but nevertheless received the onslaught of the Roman men-at-arms; overwhelmed by numbers and faint with their wounds they offered a spirited resistance, until a thousand picked Romans fell upon their flank and utterly routed them.