The first day on which they entered upon the enemy's confines, they employed in plundering.

The following day they approached the city in battle-array, having sent their cavalry in advance, in order that, by riding up to the gates, they might provoke the Aetolians to make a sally, a measure to which they were naturally inclined.

They were not aware that Sulpicius had passed over from Naupactus to Cyllene with fifteen ships, and landing four thousand armed men, had entered Elis during the dead of night, that his troops might not be seen.

Accordingly, when they recognised the Roman standards and arms among the Aetolians, so unexpected an event occasioned the greatest terror; and at first the king had wished to withdraw his troops; but afterwards, an engagement having taken place between the Aetolians and Trallians, a tribe of Illyrians, when he saw his men hard pressed, the king himself with his cavalry charged a Roman cohort.

Here his horse being pierced with a javelin threw the king, who fell over his head; when a conflict ensued, which was desperate on both sides; the Romans making a furious attack upon the king, and the royal party protecting him.