Aetolian War The Aetolian War ( 191 BC – 189 BC ) was fought between the Romans and their Achaean and Macedonian allies and the Aetolian League and their allies , the kingdom of Athamania . The Aetolians had invited Antiochus III the Great to Greece , who after his defeat by the Romans had returned to Asia . This left the Aetolians and the Athamanians without any allies . With Antiochus out of Europe the Romans and their allies attacked the Aetolians . After a year of fighting the Aetolians were defeated and forced to pay 1 , 000 talent s of silver to the Romans . Prelude . After the Macedonian defeat in the Second Macedonian War a dispute broke out between the Romans and the Aetolians over the terms of the treaty . The Romans had the backing of the other allies , the Pergamese and the Rhodians and the Aetolians lost the dispute . The Aetolians wanted revenge and in 192 BC they sent out envoys to the King of Sparta , Nabis , King Philip V of Macedon and the Seleucid emperor , Antiochus III the Great . Nabis who had been forced to comply to humiliating terms in 195 BC after he was defeated by Rome and the Achaean League , accepted only to be assassinated by the Aetolians . Philip who was still paying reparations to Rome after his defeat in the Second Macedonian War and had his son as hostage in Rome refused the offer . Antiochus saw this as an opportunity to expand his European territory and accepted the alliance ; and set out to Greece . Antiochus landed at Demetrias with 10 , 000 infantry and 500 cavalry and set about trying to recruit some nations into his alliances against Rome . The Romans , alarmed by Antiochus ' arrival in Greece , sent the consul Manius Acilius Glabrio with an army to defeat him . The two armies met at Thermopylae , and only 500 of the Seleucids survived . After this defeat , Antiochus and the surviving part of his army returned to Asia . Thessalian Campaign . This left the Aetolians and the Athamanians with no allies and the victorious Roman army marching unopposed in Thessaly . Acilius went with his army to Heraclea . Acilius sent an envoy to the Aetolian garrison in the city telling them to surrender the city and to think about seeking a pardon for their misjudgment from the Senate . The Aetolians didn ' t reply and the Romans began preparing to take the city by force . The Romans started the siege by battering the city wall with battering rams . To counter this the Aetolians made frequent sallies . The siege proved exhausting for the defenders because the Romans had a large number of men and when the men that were fighting grew tired they were replaced by fresh soldiers , while the Aetolians didn ' t have enough soldiers to do this which caused stress for the defenders . After twenty - four days of fighting , the consul knew the Aetolians were exhausted from the length of the siege and from the reports that deserters had given him , thought of a plan . At midnight he gave the signal for all the soldiers to come back to camp . When they returned to camp he kept them inactive until 3 : 00 am when he ordered that the siege operations begin again . The siege operations stopped at midnight . The Aetolians , thinking that the Romans were also exhausted , left their posts and returned at 3am . The consul knowing that his plan had succeeded order an all out assault from three different directions . Acilius ordered Tiberius Sempronius who was in charge of a third of the men to stay alert and await orders thinking the Aetolians who rush to where the shouting was heard . When the sleeping Aetolians heard the Roman army approaching they hurried prepared for battle and tried to make their way to the fighting in the darkness . The Romans started scaling the walls with ladders and climbing over the ruins of some the walls . As all the Aetolians rushed to where the Romans has scaled Acilius signaled for Sempronius to attack the section of the wall that was left undefended . The Aetolians seeing Sempronius group coming retreated to the citadel . The consul then allowed the victorious soldiers to loot the city . When the looting finished Acilius ordered the army to be split into two groups . One group was to go around to the other side of the citadel where there was a hill of equal height as the citadel so the Romans could fire missiles into the citadel from there . The other group was to attack the citadel from the front . Upon seeing the two pronged attack , the Aetolians decided to surrender . Amongst the people that surrendered was the chief of the Aetolians , Damocritus . While the Romans were attacking Heraclea , Philip with his army and a few Romans started besieging Lamia , which was seven miles away from Heraclea . The Romans and the Macedonians displayed great energy as if they were competing against each other . Since they were making little progress in the siege , Philip met with several of the most prominent fearing that if the Romans captured Heraclea first , the Lamians would surrender to the Romans . Philip ' s fears became reality when a Roman messenger ordered him to abandon the siege . Aetolia . The Aetolians still hoping that Antiochus would return to Greece with a new force sent envoys to him . The envoys were also told that if Antiochus couldn ' t come to Greece he should send money and reinforcements . Antichos gave them the money to maintain the war and promised to send reinforcements . But the fall of Heraclea broke the Aetolians fighting spirit and they sent envoys to the Romans . The consul granted them a ten - day truce and he also sent Lucius Valerius Flaccus to discuss the matters the Aetolians wanted to discuss . The Romans demanded the surrender of Dicaarchus , Monestas of Epirus and Amynander of Athamania . The Aetolians decided to obey the Romans and they sent men to collect the commended men . However , a few days later Nicander , one of the envoys who went to Antiochus arrived back in Aetolia after having been detained by Philip of Macedon . His arrival and news that Antiochus was going to send reinforcements convinced the Aetolians to continue fighting . When Acilius heard that the Aetolians wouldn ' t comply to the Roman demands he marched with his army and started to besige Naupactus . The siege had lasted for two months when Titus Quinctius Flamininus came to Naupactus . While he was walking around the city walls he was recognised and many people flocked to the city walls and started calling on him to save them . The leading Aetolian citizens went out to meet Flamininus and they agreed that Flamininus would send an envoy to Rome to bring forward the Aetolians case . The Roman army then abandoned the siege and went to Phocis . When the Aetolians returned from Rome and told the Aetolian leaders there was no hope of peace , the Aetolains seized the passage at Mount Corax so they could block off the pass . The Acheans began ravaging the coast of Aetolian facing the Peloponnese . The Aetolians expected Acilius to attack Naupactus again but instead he launched a sudden attack on Lamia . The Lamians despite the great confusion managed to repulse the first Roman attack . Acilius recalled his men back to camp and told them to only come back to camp if they had captured the city . A few hours later the Romans captured the city . The Romans seeing that they couldn ' t advance to Naupactus instead attacked Amphissa . The Romans deployed their siege engines and they successfully battered down some parts of the walls . However the inhabitants continued to hold out until the new consul , Lucius Cornelius Scipio arrived together with his brother Scipio Africanus . Upon their arrival the inhabitants fled the city and locked themselves inside the citadel . Afterwards , Athenian envoys arrived from Athens and asked the Romans to consider the prospect of peace with the Aetolians .