48. Valerius Antias says, that at the time when Marcus Fulvius Nobilior and Cneius Manlius Vulso were consuls, a rumour prevailed strongly at Rome, and was received as almost certain, that the consul, Lucius Scipio, and with him Publius Africanus, had been invited by the king to a conference, under pretence of restoring young Scipio, and were both seized, and that when the leaders were thus made prisoners, the enemy’s army was immediately led up to the Roman camp, that this was stormed, and the forces entirely cut off; that in consequence of this, the Ætolians had taken courage and refused to obey orders; and that several of their principal men had gone into Macedonia, Dardania, and Thrace, to hire auxiliaries; that Aulus Tarentius Varro, and Marcus Claudius Lepidus, had been sent by Aulus Cornelius, proprætor, from Ætolia, to carry this intelligence to Rome. To this story Valerius annexed that the Ætolian ambassadors were asked in the senate this question among others, from whom they had heard that the Roman generals were made prisoners by king Antiochus in Asia, and the army cut off; and that the Ætolians answered, that they had been informed of it by their own ambassadors, who were with the consul. As I have no other authority for this report, it has neither been confirmed in my opinion, nor has it been overlooked as groundless. 49. When the Ætolian ambassadors were brought to an audience of the senate, although their cause and their circumstances required, that they, by an ample confession, should suppliantly seek pardon for what was either their misfortune or their fault, yet having begun with enumerating their services to the Roman people, and talking reproachfully of their own valour in the war with Philip, they offended the ears of the senators by the insolence of their discourse. By calling up old and forgotten matters, they brought the affair to this, that the memory of many more injuries than services done by that nation occurred to the minds of the senate; and that they, who needed compassion, provoked anger and hatred. They were asked by one senator whether they yielded the disposal of themselves to the Roman people; then, by another, whether they would have the same allies and enemies as the Roman people: when they gave no answer, they were ordered to withdraw from the senate-house. The whole senate then, almost with one voice, cried out, that “the Ætolians were still entirely devoted to Antiochus; and that on that solitary hope their spirits depended. Wherefore the war ought to be carried on against such decided enemies, and their haughty spirits tamed.” Another circumstance inflamed the resentment of the senate, because that, in the very moment in which they were soliciting peace from the Romans, they were making war on Dolopia and Athamania. A decree of the senate was passed, on the motion of Manius Acilius, who had defeated Antiochus and the Ætolians, that “the Ætolian ambassadors