XV.  When Antiochus entered Greece with a large naval and military force, many of the Greek states joined him, especially the AEtolians, who eagerly espoused his cause because of their old quarrel with Rome.  They gave out as a pretext for beginning the war, that they intended to restore freedom to the Greeks, who required nothing of the sort, being free already.  This, however, was merely said because it was the most plausible excuse for their conduct, for which they could not assign any creditable reason.  The Romans were much alarmed at the importance of this insurrection.  They sent Manius Acilius as consul and commander-in-chief to conduct the war, and dispatched Titus Flamininus on a diplomatic mission to the cities of Greece.  The mere sight of him confirmed the wavering loyalty of some of these states, while his personal influence induced many which had taken the first steps towards revolt, to return to their allegiance.  Some few, however, were hopelessly lost to the Roman cause, having been previously won over by the AEtolians; yet, vexed and exasperated as he was by their conduct, he took care, after the victory had been won, that even these should not be destroyed.  Antiochus, it is well known, was defeated at Thermopylae, and at once set sail for Asia Minor, while the consul Manius besieged some of the AEtolian strongholds himself, and arranged for others to be taken by King Philip of Macedon.  But when the towns in Dolopia, Magnesia, and Aperantia were being despoiled by Philip, and the consul Manius had taken Heraklea and was besieging Naupaktus, an AEtolian fortress, Flamininus, pitying the Greeks, left Peloponnesus and sailed to the consul at Naupaktus.  At first he reproached him with conquering Antiochus, and then allowing Philip to reap all the advantages of his victory, and with wasting time in besieging one city out of pique, while the Macedonians were adding tribes and kingdoms to their empire.  After this, as the besieged, when they saw him, called upon him by name from the walls, and stretched out their hands to him with tears and entreaties, he made no answer to them but turned away and wept.  Afterwards, however, he reasoned with Manius, and persuaded him to put aside his resentment, and to grant the AEtolians a truce, and time to send an embassy to Rome to arrange reasonable terms of peace.

XVI.  He was given most trouble of all by the petitions of the Chalkidians to Manius for peace.  These people were especially obnoxious to the Romans because Antiochus, at the commencement of the war, had married the daughter of a citizen of Chalkis.  The match was both unseasonable in point of time, and unequal in respect of age, as he was an elderly man when he fell in love with the girl, who was the daughter of one Kleoptolemus, and is said to have been of exceeding beauty.  This marriage caused the Chalkidians to become eager partizans of King Antiochus, and even to offer him their city for his headquarters during the war.  After his defeat he retreated