Scopas of Aetolia Scopas ( ) was an Aetolia n general , who served both his native Aetolian League in the Social War ( 220 – 217 BC ) and Ptolemaic Egypt against the Seleucids , with mixed success . He was executed in 196 BC at Alexandria for conspiring to seize the power of the realm for himself . Service in the Social War . At the period of the outbreak of the Social War ( 220 – 217 BC ) , he held a leading position among his countrymen . He was a kinsman of Ariston , who at this time held the office of strategos in the Aetolian League , and the latter confided to him the chief conduct of affairs . On this account it was to Scopas that Dorimachus applied for assistance after the ill success of his predatory expedition against Messenia , and although no pretext had been given for involving the Aetolians in war , these two generals were bold enough to undertake the enterprise on their own account . Accordingly , in the spring of 220 BC they led an expedition against the Messenians , and not only ravaged the territories of the latter , but when Aratus himself at the head of the Achaean army had come to their support , totally defeated him at Caphyae and effected their retreat unmolested ( Polybius IV . 5 , 6 , 9 , 10 — 13 . ) This daring outrage having naturally led to a public declaration of war by the Achaean League and their ally Philip V of Macedon against the Aetolians , the latter chose Scopas for their strategos during the ensuing year , and entrusted to him the conduct of the war which he had himself brought upon them . In the spring of 219 he invaded Macedonia with a large force , laid waste the open country of Pieria without opposition , and having made himself master of Dion , not only destroyed the town , but even plundered and burnt the celebrated temple which gave name to the city . Meanwhile , however , he neglected the defence of Aetolia itself , leaving it open to Philip to obtain important advantages on the side of Acarnania ns ( Polybius IV . 27 , 62 ; V . 11 ) . The next year ( 218 BC ) he was sent by Dorimachus ( who had succeeded him in the supreme command ) with a mercenary force to the assistance of the Eleans ( Polybius , IV . 3 ) , but we have no farther account of his operations in that year , or for the remainder of the Social War . His name does not again occur until the year 211 BC , when we find him again holding the office of general , and in that capacity presiding in the assembly of the Aetolians , which concluded the alliance with the Roman praetor , Marcus Valerius Laevinus . The conquest of Acarnania was the bait held out to allure the Aetolians into this league , and Scopas immediately assembled his forces for the invasion of that country . But the determined resistance of the Acarnanians themselves , and the advance of Philip to their relief , rendered his efforts null . The next year ( 210 BC ) we find him co - operating with Laevinus in the siege of Anticyra in Phocis . After its capture , the city was given up to the Aetolians ( Livy , XXVI . 24 — 26 ) . Service in Egypt . After the end of the war with Philip , we are told that the Aetolians were distracted with civil dissensions , and in order to appease these disorders and so as to provide some remedy against the burden of debts with which the chief persons in the country were oppressed , Scopas and Dorimachus were appointed to reform the constitution , in 204 BC . They were certainly not well qualified for legislators , and Scopas had only undertaken the charge from motives of personal ambition ; on finding himself disappointed , he withdrew to Alexandria . Here he was received with the utmost favour by the ministers who ruled during the minority of the young Ptolemy V Epiphanes , and appointed to the chief command of the army in Coele - Syria , where he had to make head against the ambitious designs of Antiochus the Great . At first he was completely successful , and reduced the whole province of Judaea into subjection to Ptolemy , but was afterwards defeated by Antiochus at the battle of Panium . Shutting himself up within the walls of Sidon , after an ineffectual attempt by Ptolemy to relieve him he was ultimately compelled by famine to surrender ( Polybius XIII . 1 - 2 , XVI . 18 - 19 , 39 ; Josephus , " Antiguities " XII . 3 . 3 ; St . Jerome , " ad Daniel " , XI . 15 - 16 ) . Notwithstanding this ill success he appears to have continued in high favour at the Ptolemaic court , and in 200 BC he was sent to Greece with a large sum of money to raise a mercenary force for the service of Ptolemy , a task which he performed so successfully as to carry back with him to Alexandria a body of above 6000 of the flower of the Aetolian youth ( Livy XXXI . 43 ) . His confidence in the support of so large a force , united to his own abilities , and the vast wealth which he had accumulated in the service of the Egyptian king , appears to have inflamed his ambition , and led him to conceive the design of seizing by force on the chief administration of the kingdom . But his projects were discovered before they were ripe for execution , and a force was sent by Aristomenes , the chief minister of Ptolemy , to arrest him . Scopas was taken by surprise , and unable to offer any resistance . He was at once led before the council of the young king , condemned to death , and executed in prison the next night , in 196 BC . According to Polybius he had well deserved his fate by the reckless and insatiable rapacity which he had displayed during the whole period of his residence in Egypt .