tolerable ease and expedition.  But when they came to Corax, a very high mountain between Callipolis and Naupactum, great numbers of the beasts of burden, together with their loads, tumbled down the precipices, and many of the men were hurt.  This clearly showed with how negligent an enemy they had to do, who had not secured so difficult a pass by a guard, and so blocked up the passage; for, even as the case was, the army suffered considerably.  Hence he marched down to Naupactum; and having erected a fort against the citadel, he invested the other parts of the city, dividing his forces according to the situation of the walls.  Nor was the siege likely to prove less difficult and laborious than that of Heraclea.

[Footnote 1:  The funeral pile.]

31.  At the same time, the Achaeans laid siege to Messene, in Peloponnesus, because it refused to become a member of their body:  for the two states of Messene and Elis were unconnected with the Achaean confederacy, and sympathized with the Aetolians.  However, the Eleans, after Antiochus had been driven out of Greece, answered the deputies, sent by the Achaeans, with more moderation:  that “when the king’s troops were removed, they would consider what part they should take.”  But the Messenians had dismissed the deputies without an answer, and prepared for war.  Alarmed, afterwards, at their own situation, when they saw the enemy ravaging their country without control, and pitching their camp close to their city, they sent deputies to Chalcis, to Titus Quinctius, the author of their liberty, to acquaint him, that “the Messenians were willing, both to open their gates, and surrender their city, to the Romans, but not to the Achaeans.”  On hearing this Quinctius immediately set out, and despatched from Megalopolis a messenger to Diophanes, praetor of the Achaeans, requiring him to draw off his army instantly from Messene, and to come to him.  Diophanes obeyed the order; raising the siege, he hastened forward himself before the army, and met Quinctius near Andania, a small town between Megalopolis and Messene.  When he began to explain the reasons for commencing the siege, Quinctius, gently reproving him for undertaking a business of that importance without consulting him, ordered him to disband his forces, and not to disturb a peace which had been established advantageously to all.  He commanded the Messenians to recall the exiles, and to unite themselves to the confederacy of the Achaeans; and if there were any particulars to which they chose to object, or any precautions which they judged requisite for the future, they might apply to him at Corinth.  He then gave directions to Diophanes, to convene immediately a general council of the Achaeans, that he might settle some business with them.