they came to refute the charges made against them, they spoke with that degree of confidence which innocence inspires.  At last, they even ventured to utter some complaints, and to charge the proceedings against them with injustice and cruelty; and this had such an effect on the minds of all present, that, with one consent, they annulled all the decrees passed against them.  Nevertheless, they came to a resolution, to renounce the friendship of the Romans, and return to the alliance with Philip.

17.  These decrees were passed at Leucas, the capital of Acarnania, the place where all the states usually met in council.  As soon, therefore, as the news of this sudden change reached the lieutenant-general Flamininus, in Corcyra, he instantly set sail with the fleet for Leucas; and coming to an anchor at a place called Heraeus, advanced thence towards the walls with every kind of machine used in the attacking of cities; supposing that the first appearance of danger might bend the minds of the inhabitants to submission.  But seeing no prospect of effecting any thing, except by force, he began to erect towers and sheds, and to bring up the battering-rams to the walls.  The whole of Acarnania, being situated between Aetolia and Epirus, faces towards the west and the Sicilian sea.  Leucadia, now an island, separated from Acarnania by a shallow strait which was dug by the hand, was then a peninsula, united on its eastern side to Acarnania by a narrow isthmus:  this isthmus was about five hundred paces in length, and in breadth not above one hundred and twenty.  At the entrance of this narrow neck stands Leucas, stretching up part of a hill which faces the east and Acarnania:  the lower part of the town is level, lying along the sea, which divides Leucadia from Acarnania.  Thus it lies open to attacks, both from the sea and from the land; for the channel is more like a marsh than a sea, and all the adjacent ground is solid enough to render the construction of works easy.  In many places, therefore, at once the walls fell down, either undermined, or demolished by the ram.  But the spirit of the besieged was as invincible as the town itself was favourably situated for the besiegers:  night and day they employed themselves busily in repairing the shattered parts of the wall; and, stopping up the breaches that were made, fought the enemy with great spirit, and showed a wish to defend the walls by their arms rather than themselves by the walls.  And they would certainly have protracted the siege to a length unexpected by the Romans, had not some exiles of Italian birth, who resided in Leucas, admitted a band of soldiers into the citadel:  notwithstanding which, when those troops ran down from the higher ground with great tumult and uproar, the Leucadians, drawing up in a body in the forum, withstood them for a considerable time in regular fight.  Meanwhile the walls were scaled in many places; and the besiegers, climbing over the rubbish, entered the town through the breaches.  And now the lieutenant-general himself surrounded the combatants with a powerful force.  Being thus hemmed in, many were slain, the rest laid down their arms and surrendered to the conqueror.  In a few days after, on hearing of the battle at Cynoscephalae, all the states of Acarnania made their submission to the lieutenant-general.