with about three thousand soldiers, and Polyxenidas with the whole fleet.  In a few days after, he marched himself, at the head of six thousand of his own soldiers, and a smaller number of Aetolians, as many as could be collected in haste, out of those who were at Lamia.  The five hundred Achaeans, and a small party sent by king Eumenes, being guided by Xenoclides, of Chalcis, (the roads being yet open,) crossed the Euripus, and arrived at Chalcis in safety.  The Roman soldiers, who were likewise about five hundred, came, after Menippus had fixed his camp under Salganea, at Hermaeus, the place of passage from Boeotia to the island of Euboea.  They had with them Mictio, who had been sent from Chalcis to Quinctius, deputed to solicit that very reinforcement; and when he perceived that the passes were blocked up by the enemy, he quitted the road to Aulis, and turned away to Delium, with intent to pass over thence to Euboea.

51.  Delium is a temple of Apollo, standing over the sea five miles distant from Tanagra; and the passage thence, to the nearest part of Euboea, is less than four miles.  As they were in this sacred building and grove, sanctified with all that religious awe and those privileges which belong to temples, called by the Greeks asylums, (war not being yet either proclaimed, or so far commenced as that they had heard of swords being drawn, or blood shed any where,) the soldiers in perfect tranquillity, amused themselves, some with viewing the temple and groves; others with walking about unarmed, on the strand; and a great part had gone different ways in quest of wood and forage; when, on a sudden, Menippus attacked them in that scattered condition, slew many, and took fifty of them prisoners.  Very few made their escape, among whom was Mictio, who was received on board a small trading vessel.  Though this event caused much grief to Quinctius and the Romans, on account of the loss of their men, yet it seemed to add much to the justification of their cause in making war on Antiochus.  Antiochus, when arrived with his army so near as Aulis, sent again to Chalcis a deputation, composed partly of his own people, and partly of Aetolians, to treat on the same grounds as before, but with heavier denunciations of vengeance:  and, notwithstanding all the efforts of Mictio and Xenoclides to the contrary, he easily gained his object, that the gates should be opened to him.  Those who adhered to the Roman interest, on the approach of the king, withdrew from the city.  The soldiers of the Achaeans, and Eumenes, held Salganea; and the few Romans, who had escaped, raised, for the security of the place, a little fort on the Euripus.  Menippus laid siege to Salganea, and the king himself to the fort.  The Achaeans and Eumenes’ soldiers first surrendered, on the terms of being allowed to retire in safety.  The Romans defended the Euripus with more obstinacy.  But even these, when they were completely invested both by land and sea, and saw the machines and engines prepared for an assault, sustained the siege no longer.  The king, having thus got possession of the capital of Euboea, the other cities of the island did not even refuse to obey his authority; and he seemed to himself to have signalized the commencement of the war by an important acquisition, in having brought under his power so great an island, and so many cities conveniently situated.