Flamininus went about Greece, and some he persuaded not to revolt, others already revolted he won back, except the AEtolians and a few towns elsewhere.  The AEtolian league had bound itself to Antiochus and was forming a union out of some states that were willing and others that were unwilling.  Antiochus in spite of the winter time hastened forward to fulfill the hopes of the AEtolians, and this explains why he did not bring along a respectable force.  With what he had, however, he took Chalcis and gained control of the rest of Euboea.  Finding some Romans among the captives he released them all.  Then he entered Chalcis to spend the winter, [Sidenote:  FRAG. 59^1] WITH THE RESULT THAT HE HIMSELF AND HIS GENERALS AND HIS SOLDIERS HAD THEIR MENTAL ENERGIES RUINED BEFOREHAND; FOR BY HIS GENERAL INDOLENCE AND HIS PASSION FOR A CERTAIN GIRL HE DRIFTED INTO LUXURIOUS LIVING AND AT THE SAME TIME RENDERED THE BEST UNFIT FOR WARFARE.

The people of Rome learning that he was in Greece and had captured Chalcis took up the war in earnest. [Sidenote:  B.C. 191 (a.u. 563)] Of the consuls they retained Scipio Nasica to guard Italy and sent Manius Glabrio with a large army into Greece.  Nasica conducted a war against the Boii, and Glabrio drove Antiochus out of Greece.  He also went to Thessaly and with the help of Baebius and Philip gained control of many of the towns there.  He captured Philip of Megalopolis and sent him to Rome, and drove Amynander out of his domain, which he then gave to the Macedonian ruler.

Antiochus meanwhile was staying at Chalcis and keeping quiet.  Afterward he entered Boeotia and at Thermopylae withstood the Romans who came to meet him.  Considering the fewness of his soldiers he thought it best to seek an ally in the natural advantages of his position.  And in order to avoid having himself such an experience as the Greeks had met who were arrayed there against the Persian he sent a division of the AEtolians up to the summit of the mountains to keep guard there.  Glabrio cared little for the location and did not postpone a battle:  however, he despatched his lieutenants Porcius Cato and Valerius Flaccus by night against the AEtolians on the summit and himself engaged in conflict with Antiochus just about dawn.  As long as he fought on level ground he had the best of it, but when Antiochus fell back to a position higher up, he found himself inferior till Cato arrived in the enemy’s rear.  Cato had come upon the AEtolians asleep and had killed most of them and scattered the rest; then he hurried down and participated in the battle going on below.  So they routed Antiochus and captured his camp.  The king forthwith retired to Chalcis, but learning that the consul was approaching went back unobserved to Asia.