They had with them Mictio, who had been sent from Chalcis to Quinctius, deputed to solicit that very reinforcement; and when he perceived that the passes were blocked up by the enemy, he quitted the road to Aulis, and turned away to Delium, with intent to pass over thence to Euboea.
51.

Delium is a temple of Apollo, standing over the sea five miles distant from Tanagra; and the passage thence, to the nearest part of Euboea, is less than four miles.

As they were in this sacred building and grove, sanctified with all that religious awe and those privileges which belong to temples, called by the Greeks asylums, (war not being yet either proclaimed, or so far commenced as that they had heard of swords being drawn, or blood shed any where,) the soldiers in perfect tranquillity, amused themselves, some with viewing the temple and groves; others with walking about unarmed, on the strand; and a great part had gone different ways in quest of wood and forage; when, on a sudden, Menippus attacked them in that scattered condition, slew many, and took fifty of them prisoners.

Very few made their escape, among whom was Mictio, who was received on board a small trading vessel.
Though this event caused much grief to Quinctius and the Romans, on account of the loss of their men, yet it seemed to add much to the justification of their cause in making war on Antiochus.

Antiochus, when arrived with his army so near as Aulis, sent again to Chalcis a deputation, composed partly of his own people, and partly of Aetolians, to treat on the same grounds as before, but with heavier denunciations of vengeance: and, notwithstanding all the efforts of Mictio and Xenoclides to the contrary, he easily gained his object, that the gates should be opened to him.