Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/368

252 DEMOSTHENES IN AETOLIA [ill easily subjugate the adjoining part of the mainland to the Athenians. The Aetolians, they said, though a large and warlike people, dwelt in unwalled villages, which were widely scattered, and as they had only light-armed soldiers, they would be subdued without difficulty before they could combine. They told him that he should first attack the Apodotians, then the Ophioneans, and after them the Eurytanians. The last are the largest tribe of the Aetolians ; they speak a dialect more unintelligible than any of their neighbours, and are believed to eat raw flesh. They said that, if he conquered these, the rest would readily come over to him. 95 He was influenced by his regard for the Messenians, He determines to and Still more by the consideration that make his way through without reinforcements from Athens, illZZiThThopes and with no other help than that of the to attack with an allied allies On the mainland, to whom he f'^*'"- hoped to add the Aetolians, he could make his way by land to attack Boeotia. He might proceed through the Ozolian Locri to the Dorian Cytinium, keeping Mount Parnassus on the right, until he came down upon the Phocians. They would probably be eager to join in the expedition because they had always been friendly to Athens, or, if unwilling, they might be coerced; and once in Phocis he would be on the borders of Boeotia. So he left Leucas with all his army, much against the will of the Acarnanians, and sailed to Sollium. He there communicated his design to them, but they would not accompany him because he had refused to blockade Leucas ; so with the remainder of his army, which con- sisted of Cephallenians, Messenians, Zacynthians, and three hundred marines belonging to the Athenian fleet % the fifteen Corcyraean vessels having left, he marched against the Aetolians, starting from Oeneon in Locris. The Ozolian Locrians were allies of the Athenians, and Cp. ch. 94 init.