Truce With the Aetolians
On the return of the Aetolian envoys for the purpose of
consulting their countrymen, Echedemus and his colleagues
joined the council of the
apocleti in their deliberations on
this subject. One of the alternatives was impossible owing to
the amount of money demanded, and the other was rendered
alarming in their eyes by the deception they had experienced
before, when, after submitting to the surrender,
they had narrowly escaped being thrown into
chains.
Being then much perplexed and quite unable to
decide, they sent the same envoys back to beg the Scipios that
they would either abate part of the money, so as to be within
their power to pay, or except from the surrender the persons
of citizens, men and women. But upon their arrival in the
Roman camp and delivering their message, Lucius Scipio merely
replied that "The only terms on which he was commissioned
by the Senate to treat were those which he had recently
stated." They therefore returned once more, and were followed
by Echedemus and his colleagues to Hypata, who advised the
Aetolians that "Since there was at present a hitch in the
negotiations for peace, they should ask for a truce; and,
having thus at least delayed the evils threatening them, should
send an embassy to the Senate. If they obtained their
request, all would be well; but, if they did not, they must trust
to the chapter of accidents: for their position could not be
worse than it was now, but for many reasons might not impossibly be better." The advice of Echedemus was thought
sound, and the Aetolians accordingly voted to send envoys
to obtain a truce; who, upon reaching Lucius
Scipio, begged that for the present a truce
of six months might be granted them, that
they might send an embassy to the Senate.
A six months' truce with the Aetolians. |
Publius Scipio,
who had for some time past been anxious to begin the
campaign in Asia, quickly persuaded his brother to grant
their request. The agreement therefore was reduced to
writing, and thereupon Manius Acilius handed over his army
to Lucius Scipio, and returned with his military tribunes to
Rome. . . .
