Description of Greece

​The Romans, informed both by the men they had sent to Greece and by the letters which Metellus sent, judged that the Achaeans had acted unjustly; and since Mummius had been chosen by them as consul at that time, they ordered him to lead a fleet and a land army against the Achaeans. Meanwhile Metellus immediately learned that Mummius and his army had set out against the Achaeans; and he made haste, hoping that he himself might appear to have put an end to the war before Mummius arrived in Greece.

​Therefore he sent messengers to the Achaeans, ordering them to release the Lacedaemonians and all the other cities mentioned by the Romans from the contribution, and he promised that no anger from the Romans would come upon them for their previous disobedience. At the same time that he was making these proposals, he also marched his army from Macedonia, making his journey through Thessaly and along the Lamian Gulf. But Critolaus and the Achaeans accepted no proposal leading to an agreement, and they sat down to besiege Heracleia, which did not wish to contribute to the Achaean League.

​But then, when Critolaus learned from his scouts that Metellus and the Romans had crossed the Spercheius, he fled to Scarpheia in Locris, not even daring to draw up the Achaeans in the pass between Heracleia and Thermopylae to await Metellus; but he arrived at such a pitch of fear that he could not even make the place a ground for better hope, where the Lacedaemonians had performed deeds against the Medes for the sake of the Greeks, and the Athenians against the Gauls, deeds no less famous than those.

​The men with Metellus caught up with the fleeing Critolaus and the Achaeans a little before Scarpheia, and they killed many in number and took about a thousand alive. Critolaus was neither seen alive after the battle nor found among the dead; but if he dared to plunge into the swamp of the sea near Oeta, he was bound to perish completely unknown and unheard of in the deep.

​Concerning the death of Critolaus, indeed, there are other things to conjecture; but a thousand chosen men of the Arcadians, who had shared in the work with Critolaus, advanced as far as Elateia in Phocis and were received into the city by them on account of some ancient kinship; but when the disaster of Critolaus and the Achaeans was reported to the Phocians, they ordered the Arcadians to depart from Elateia.

​As they were returning back to the Peloponnese, Metellus and the Romans appeared near Chaeroneia; there indeed a divine justice from the Greeks overtook the Arcadians, who, having abandoned the Greeks fighting against Philip and the Macedonians at Chaeroneia, were then slaughtered by the Romans in that very same place.

​The leadership of the army came again to Diaeus for the Achaeans; and he released slaves to freedom, imitating the plan of Miltiades and the Athenians before the action at Marathon, and he assembled those of age from the cities of the Achaeans and Arcadians; and the force assembled, with slaves mixed in together, amounted to about six hundred cavalry, and fourteen thousand hoplites.

​Then Diaeus arrived at the height of folly, who, knowing that Critolaus and the whole preparation of the Achaeans had fought so badly against Metellus, himself selected about four thousand men; and he appointed Alcamenes as commander over them. And they were sent to Megara to be a garrison for the Megarians of the city, and, if Metellus and the Romans should attack, to prevent them from advancing further.

​But Metellus, when the chosen men of the Arcadians had been cut down near Chaeroneia, moved his army and marched against Thebes; for the Thebans had besieged Heracleia with the Achaeans and had shared in the battle near Scarpheia. At that time they themselves and the women, people of every age, having abandoned the city, wandered through Boeotia and fled to the summits of the mountains.

​But Metellus allowed them neither to burn the temples of the gods nor to throw down the buildings, and he forbade killing any of the other Thebans or capturing them as they fled; but if they caught Pytheas, he ordered them to bring him to him; and Pytheas was indeed found immediately, and being brought up, he was executed. And when the army came near Megara, those with Alcamenes did not hold their ground and immediately went fleeing to Corinth to the camp of the Achaeans.

​And the Megarians surrendered the city to the Romans without a fight, and Metellus, when he arrived near the Isthmus, made proposals even then to the Achaeans, inviting them to peace and agreement; for a strong desire lay upon him that both the affairs in Macedonia and those of the Achaeans should be settled by himself. While he was eager for these things, Diaeus opposed him because of his senselessness.