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.
In the spring of 219 Scopas 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 plundered and burnt the celebrated temple which gave its name to the city.
Meanwhile, however, Scopas neglected the defense of Aetolia itself, leaving it open to Philip to obtain important advantages on the side of the Acarnanians (Polybius IV.
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.
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.
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.
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, Antiquities XII.3.3; St. Jerome, ad Daniel, XI.15-16).