Titus Livius (Livy), The History of Rome, Book 38
Evan T. Sage, Ph.D., Ed.

9. To these proposals, both because they were¹ severe and because the ambassadors knew that the tempers of their people were fierce and changeable, they made no reply but returned home, that they might again and again consult the praetor and the chiefs as to what was to be done while they were still uncommitted to a decision. [2] They were received with abusive shouts, being asked how long they would drag things out, and were ordered to bring back any sort of peace whatsoever, but when they were returning to Ambracia they were caught in an ambush set beside the road by the Acarnanians, with whom they were at war, and were taken to Thyrreum for confinement. [3] This caused a delay to the peace, although ambassadors of the Athenians and the Rhodians, who had come to intercede for them, were now with the consul. [4] Amynander also, the king of the Athamanians, had come to the Roman camp under a safeguard, more concerned for the city of Ambracia, where he had spent the greater part of his exile, than for the Aetolians. [5] Being informed by them of the misfortune of the ambassadors, the consul ordered them to be brought from Thyrreum; after their arrival the discussion of peace began. [6] Amynander, since this was his particular mission, laboured earnestly to induce the Ambraciots to surrender. [7] When he met with little success in this, approaching the walls and conferring with the chiefs, finally, by permission of the consul, he entered the city, and partly by advice and partly by entreaty he prevailed upon them to entrust themselves to the Romans. [8] The Aetolians too received notable assistance from Gaius Valerius, son of the Laevinus,² who had concluded the first treaty of friendship with that people, Gaius being the brother of the consul and [p. 31]born of the same mother.³ [9] The Ambraciots, having⁴ first bargained that the Aetolian auxiliaries should be released in safety, opened their gates. Then terms of peace were given to the Aetolians: they were to pay five hundred Euboean⁵ talents, two hundred of these at once and three hundred in equal instalments through six years; they were to restore the prisoners and deserters to the Romans; [10] they were to bring under their jurisdiction no city which since the time when Titus Quinctius had crossed to Greece had either been captured by force by the Romans or had voluntarily entered into friendship with them; the island of Cephallania⁶ was to be outside the scope of the [11] treaty.⁷ Although these terms were much lighter than they had anticipated, the request of the Aetolians that they should submit them to their council was [12] granted. There was a brief dispute about the cities, since they took it hard that towns which had once been under their control should be torn, as it were, from their body, yet all unanimously agreed that the peace should be accepted. The Ambraciots presented the consul with a golden crown of one hundred and fifty pounds' [13] weight.⁸ The bronze and marble statues and the paintings with which Ambracia was more lavishly adorned than the other cities of this region, because the palace of Pyrrhus had been [p. 33]there, were all removed and carried away; nothing⁹ else was touched or harmed.¹⁰

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