§37.6.1multis tamen locis decussus murus erat, cum adlatum est successorem Apolloniae exposito exercitu per Epirum ac Thessaliam venire.
However, the wall had been battered down in many places, when news was brought that the successor, having landed his army at Apollonia, was coming through Epirus and Thessaly.
§37.6.2cum tredecim milibus peditum et quingentis equitibus consul veniebat.
The consul was coming with thirteen thousand infantry and five hundred cavalry.
iam in sinum Maliacum venerat; et praemissis Hypatam, qui tradere urbem iuberent, postquam nihil responsum est nisi ex communi Aetolorum decreto facturos, ne teneret se oppugnatio Hypatae nondum Amphissa recepta, praemisso fratre Africano Amphissam ducit.
He had already arrived at the Malian Gulf; and after sending messengers ahead to Hypata to order them to surrender the city, when no reply was made except that they would act in accordance with the common decree of the Aetolians, lest the siege of Hypata delay him while Amphissa was not yet taken, he sent his brother Africanus ahead and led his army to Amphissa.
§37.6.3sub adventum eorum oppidani relicta urbe — iam enim magna ex parte moenibus nudata erat — in arcem, quam inexpugnabilem habent, omnes armati atque inermes concessere.
Upon their arrival, the townspeople abandoned the city—for indeed it had already been largely stripped of its walls—and all, both armed and unarmed, withdrew into the citadel, which they held to be impregnable.
§37.6.4consul sex milia fere passuum inde posuit castra.
The consul pitched his camp about six miles from there.
eo legati Athenienses primum ad P. Scipionem praegressum agmen, sicut ante dictum est, deinde ad consulem venerunt, deprecantes pro Aetolis.
Thither Athenian envoys came, first to Publius Scipio who had gone ahead of the column, as was mentioned before, and then to the consul, pleading on behalf of the Aetolians.
§37.6.5clementius responsum ab Africano tulerunt, qui causam relinquendi honeste Aetolici belli quaerens Asiam et regem Antiochum spectabat, iusseratque Athenienses non Romanis solum, ut pacem bello praeferrent, sed etiam Aetolis persuadere.
They received a milder answer from Africanus, who, seeking a pretext for honorably abandoning the Aetolian war, was looking toward Asia and King Antiochus, and had ordered the Athenians to persuade not only the Romans but also the Aetolians to prefer peace to war.
§37.6.6celeriter auctoribus Atheniensibus frequens ab Hypata legatio Aetolorum venit, et spem pacis eis sermo etiam Africani, quem priorem adierunt, auxit, commemorantis multas gentes populosque in Hispania prius, deinde in Africa in fidem suam venisse; in omnibus se maiora clementiae benignitatisque quam virtutis bellicae monumenta reliquisse.
Promptly, at the instigation of the Athenians, a numerous embassy of Aetolians came from Hypata, and their hope of peace was further increased by the talk of Africanus, whom they approached first, as he recalled that many nations and peoples, first in Spain and then in Africa, had come under his protection, and that among them all he had left greater monuments of clemency and kindness than of military valor.
§37.6.7perfecta videbatur res, cum aditus consul idem illud responsum rettulit, quo fugati ab senatu erant.
The matter seemed settled, when the consul, on being approached, returned that very same answer by which they had been dismissed by the senate.
eo tamquam novo cum icti Aetoli essent — nihil enim nec legatione Atheniensium nec placido Africani responso profectum videbant —, referre ad suos dixerunt velle.
When the Aetolians were struck by this as if by a new blow—for they saw that nothing had been accomplished either by the embassy of the Athenians or by the mild response of Africanus—they said they wished to refer the matter to their people.