Book 7
15.1
The Romans, learning the news from the envoys sent to Greece and from the despatches of Metellus, decided that the Achaeans were in the wrong, and they ordered Mummius, the consul elected for that year, to lead a fleet with a land force against them. As soon as Metellus learned that Mummius and his army were comingThe reading of the MSS., ἀφίκοιτο, should mean “had arrived,” a meaning inconsistent with the end of the sentence. It seems likely, therefore, that Kayser's emendation, ἀφίξοιτο, is right. to fight the Achaeans, he was full of enthusiasm to bring the war to a conclusion without help before Mummius reached Greece.
15.2
So he despatched envoys to the Achaeans, bidding them release from the League the Lacedaemonians and the other states mentioned in the order of the Romans, promising that the Romans would entirely forgive them for their disobedience on the previous occasion. While making these proposals for peace he marched from Macedonia through Thessaly and along the gulf of Lamia. But Critolaus and the Achaeans would listen to no suggestions for an agreement, and sat down to besiege Heracleia, which refused to join the Achaean League.
15.3
Then, when Critolaus was informed by his scouts that the Romans under Metellus had crossed the Spercheius, he fled to Scarpheia in Locris, without daring even to draw up the Achaeans in the pass between Heracleia and Thermopylae, and to await Metellus there. To such a depth of terror did he sink that brighter hopes were not suggested even by the spot itself, the site of the Lacedaemonian effort to save Greece480 B.C., and of the no less glorious exploit of the Athenians against the Gauls279 B.C..
