Thermus
At the end of this distance he arrived at the village of
Pamphia; and having, as in the case of Panapa, secured it by
a guard, he continued his advance towards Thermus: the road
now being not only steep and exceedingly rough, but with
deep precipices also on either side, so as to make the path in
places very dangerous and narrow; and the whole ascent being
nearly thirty stades. But having accomplished this also in a
short time, thanks to the energy with which the Macedonians
conducted the march, he arrived late in the day at Thermus.
The plundering of Thermus. |
There he pitched a camp, and allowed his men to go off
plundering the neighbouring villages and
scouring the plain of Thermus, as well as to
sack the dwelling-houses in Thermus itself,
which were full, not only of corn and such like provisions, but
of all the most valuable property which the Aetolians
possessed. For as the annual fair and most famous games, as
well as the elections, were held there, everybody kept their most
costly possessions in store at Thermus, to enable them to entertain their friends, and to celebrate the festivals with proper
magnificence. But besides this occasion for the employment
of their property, they expected to find the most complete
security for it there, because no enemy had ever yet ventured
to penetrate to that place; while its natural strength was so
great as to serve as an acropolis to the whole of
Aetolia. The
place therefore having been in the enjoyment of peace from
time immemorial, not only were the buildings immediately round
the temple filled with a great variety of property, but the
homesteads on the outskirts also. For that night the army
bivouacked on the spot laden with booty of every description;
but the next morning they selected the most valuable and
portable part of it, and making the rest into a heap in front of
their tents, set fire to it. So also in regard to the dedicated
arms which were hanging up in the porticoes,—those of them
which were valuable they took down and carried off, some
they exchanged for their own, while the rest they collected
together and burnt. The number of these was more than
fifteen thousand.
