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REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE ROMANS RESPECTING THE GRECIAN STATES, AND THE KINGS OF EUROPE AND ASIA.

THE reader may perceive in the events above related, one of the principal characteristics of the Romans, which will soon determine the fate of all the states of Greece, and produce an almost general change in the universe; I mean, a spirit of sovereignty and dominion. This characteristic does not display itself at first in its full extent; it reveals itself by degrees; and it is only by an insensible progress, which at the same time is sufficiently rapid, that we see it carried at last to its greatest height.

It must be confessed, that this people, on some occasions, show a moderation and disinterestedness, which from a superficial view, seem to exceed every thing we meet with in history, and which we feel it incumbent on us to praise.

Was there ever a more glorious day, than that in which the Romans, after having carried on a long and dangerous war, after crossing seas, and exhausting their treasures, caused a herald to proclaim in a general assembly, that the Roman people restored all the cities to their liberty; and desired to reap no other fruit by their victory, than the noble pleasure of doing good to nations, the bare remembrance of whose ancient glory sufficed to endear them to the Romans? The description of that immortal day can hardly be read without tears, and without being affected with a degree of enthusiasm of esteem and admiration.

Had this deliverance of the Grecian states proceeded merely from a principle of generosity, void of all interested motives; had the whole tenor of the conduct of the Romans been of the same nature with such exalted sentiments, nothing could possibly have been more august, or more capable of doing honour to a nation. But if we penetrate ever so little beyond this glaring outside, we soon perceive, that this specious moderation of the Romans was entirely founded on a profound policy; wise indeed, and prudent, according to the ordinary rules of government, but, at the same time, very remote from that noble disinterestedness so highly extolled on the present occasion. It may be affirmed, that the Grecians then abandoned themselves to a stupid joy; fondly imagining that they were really free, because the Romans declared them so.

Greece, in the times I am now speaking of, was divided between two powers; I mean the Grecian republics and Macedonia; and they were always engaged in war; the former, to preserve the remains of their ancient liberty, and the latter, to complete their subjection. The Romans, perfectly well acquainted with this state of Greece, were sensible, that there was no necessity of apprehending any difficulty from those little republics, which were grown weak through length of years, by intestine feuds, mutual jealousies, and the wars they had been forced to support against foreign powers. But Macedonia, which was possessed of well-disciplined troops, inured to all the toils of war; which had continually in view the glory of her former monarchs; which had formerly extended her conquests to the extremities of the globe; which still harboured an ardent, though chimerical desire, of attaining universal empire; and which had a kind of natural alliance with the kings of Egypt and Syria, sprung from the same origin, and united by the common interests of monarchy; Macedonia, I say, gave just alarms to the Romans, who, from the ruin of Carthage, had no obstacles left with regard to their ambitious designs, but those powerful kingdoms that shared the rest of the world between them, and especially Macedonia, as it lay nearest to Italy.

To balance, therefore, the power of Macedon, and to dispossess Philip of the aids he flattered himself he should receive from the Greeks, which, indeed, had they united all their forces with his, in order to oppose his common enemy, would perhaps have made him invincible with regard to the Romans, they declared loudly in favour of those republics; made it their glory to

take them under their protection, and that with no other design, in outward appearance, than to defend them against their oppressors; and farther, to attach them by a still stronger tie, they hung out to them a specious bait, as a reward for their fidelity; I mean liberty, of which all the republics in question were inexpressibly jealous, and which the Macedonian monarchs had perpetually disputed with them.

The bait was artfully prepared, and as eagerly swallowed by the generality of the Greeks, whose views penetrated no farther. But the most judicious and most clear-sighted among them, discovered the danger that lay concealed beneath this charming bait; and, accordingly, they exhorted the people from time to time, in their public assemblies, to beware of this cloud that was gathering in the west; and which, changing on a sudden into a dreadful tempest, would break like thunder over their heads, to their utter destruction.

Nothing could be more gentle and equitable than the conduct of the Romans in the beginning. They acted with the utmost moderation toward such states and nations as addressed them for protection; they succoured them against their enemies; took the utmost pams in terminating their differences, and in suppressing all troubles which arose among them; and did not demand the least recompense for all these services done for their allies. By these means, their authority gained strength daily, and prepared the nations for entire subjection.

Under the pretence of manifesting their good will, of entering into their interests, and of reconciling them, they rendered themselves the sovereign arbiters of those whom they had restored to liberty, and whom they now considered, in some measure, as their freed-men. They used to depute commissioners to them, to inquire into their complaints, to weigh and examine the reasons on both sides, and to decide their quarrels; but when the articles were of such a nature, that there was no possibility of reconciling them on the spot, they invited them to send their deputies to Rome. But afterwards, they used to summon those who refused to be reconciled; obliged them to plead their cause before the senate, and even to appear in person there. From arbiters and mediators having become supreme judges, they soon assumed a magisterial tone, looked upon their decrees as irrevocable decisions, were greatly offended when the most implicit obedience was not paid to them, and gave the name of rebellion to a second resistance. Thus there arose, in the Roman senate, a tribunal, which judged all nations and kings, and from which there was no appeal. This tribunal, at the end of every war, determined the rewards and punishments due to all parties. They dispossessed the vanquished nations of part of their territories, to bestow them on their allies, from which they reaped a double advantage; for they thereby engaged in the interest of Rome, such kings as were in no way formidable to them and weakened others, whose friendship the Romans could not expect, and whose arms they had reason to dread.

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We shall hear one of the chief magistrates in the republic of the Achæans inveigh strongly in a public assembly against this unjust usurpation, and ask by what title the Romans were empowered to assume so haughty an ascendant over them; whether their republic was not as free and independent as that of Rome; by what right the latter pretended to force the Achæans to account for their conduct: whether they would be pleased should the Achæans, in their turn, officiously pretend to inquire into their affairs; and whether there ought not to be an equality between them. All these reflections were very reasonable, just, and unanswerable, and the Romans had no advantage in the question but force.

They acted in the same manner, and their politics were the same, with regard to their treatment of kings. They first won over to their interest such among them as were the weakest, and consequently the less formidable; they

gave them the title of allies, whereby their persons were rendered, in some measure, sacred and inviolable, and was a kind of safeguard against other kings more powerful than themselves; they increased their revenues, and enlarged their territories, to let them see what they might expect from their protection, which had raised the kingdom of Pergamus to such a pitch of grandeur.

After this, the Romans invaded, upon different pretences, those great potentates who divided Europe and Asia. And how haughtily did they treat them even before they had conquered! A powerful king, confined within a narrow circle by a private man of Rome, was obliged to make his answer before he quitted it; how imperious was this! But, how did they treat vanquished kings? They commanded them to deliver up their children, and the heirs of their crowns, as hostages and pledges of their fidelity and good behaviour; obliged them to lay down their arms; forbade them to declare war, or to conclude any alliance, without first obtaining their leave; banished them to the other side of the mountains; and left them, in strictness of speech, only an empty title, and a vain shadow of royalty, divested of its rights and advantages.

We have no room to doubt that Providence had decreed to the Romans the sovereignty of the world, and the scriptures had prophesied their future grandeur; but they were strangers to those divine oracles; and besides, the bare prediction of their conquests was no justification with regard to them. Although it be difficult to affirm, and still more so to prove, that this people had from their first rise, formed a plan, in order to conquer and subject all nations; it cannot be denied, if we examine their whole conduct attentively, that it will appear that they acted as if they had a foreknowledge of this; and that a kind of instinct determined them to conform to it in all things.

But be this as it may, we see, by the event, to what this so much boasted lenity and moderation of the Romans was confined. Enemies to the liberty of all nations, having the utmost contempt for kings and monarchy, looking upon the whole universe as their prey, they grasped, with insatiable ambition, the conquest of the whole world; they seized indiscriminately all provinces and kingdoms, and extended their empire over all nations; in a word, they prescribed no other limits to their vast projects, than those which deserts and seas made it impossible to pass.

SECTION VIII.—ETOLIANS AND ASIATIC GAULS SUBDUED BY FULVIUS AND MANLIUS. DEATH OF ANTIOCHUS, AND DANIEL'S PROPHECY. DURING the expedition of the Romans in Asia, some commotions had happened in Greece. Amynander, by the aid of the Etolians, was restored to his kingdom of Athamania, after having driven out of his cities the Macedonian garrisons which held them for king Philip. He deputed some ambassadors to the senate of Rome; and others into Asia to the two Scipios, who were then at Ephesus, after their signal victory over Antiochus, to excuse his having employed the arms of the Etolians against Philip, and also to make his complaints against that prince.*

The Etolians had likewise undertaken some enterprises against Philip, in which they had met with tolerable success; but, when they heard of the defeat of Antiochus, and found that the ambassadors they had sent to Rome were returning from thence, without being able to obtain any of their demands, and that Fulvius the consul was actually marching against them, they were seized with real alarms. Finding it would be impossible for them to resist the Romans by force of arms, they again had recourse to entreaties; and, in order to enforce them, they engaged the Athenians and Rhodians to join their ambassadors to those whom they were about to send to Rome, to sue for peace.

A. M. 3815. Ant. J. C. 189. Liv. 1. xxxviii. n. 1—11. Polyb. in Excerpt. Leg. c. 28–28.

The consul on arriving in Greece, had, in conjunction with the Epirots, laid siege to Ambracia, in which was a strong garrison of Etolians, who made a vigorous defence. Being at last persuaded that it would be impossible for them to hold out long against the Roman arms, they sent new ambassadors to the consul, investing them with full powers to conclude a treaty on any conditions. Those which were proposed to them being judged exceedingly severe, the ambassadors, notwithstanding their full powers, desired that leave might be granted them to consult the assembly once more; but the members of it were displeased with them for it, and therefore sent them back, with orders to terminate the affair. During this interval, the Athenian and Rhodian ambassadors, whom the senate had sent back to the consul, were come to him, to whom Amynander had also repaired. The latter, having great influence in the city of Ambracia, where he had spent many years of his banishment, prevailed with the inhabitants to surrender themselves at last to the consul. A peace was also granted to the Etolians. The chief conditions of the treaty were as follows: they should first deliver up their arms and horses to the Romans; should pay them a thousand talents of silver, one half immediately; should restore both to the Romans, and their allies, all the deserters and prisoners; should look upon, as their enemies and friends, all those who were such to the Romans; in fine, should give up forty hostages, to be chosen by the consul. Their ambassadors having arrived in Rome, to ratify the treaty there, found the people highly exasperated against the Etolians, as well on account of their past conduct, as the complaints made against them by Philip, in his letters written on that head. At last, however, the senate were moved by their entreaties, and those of the ambassadors of Athens and Rhodes, who concurred in them; and therefore they ratified the treaty, conformably to the conditions which the consul had prescribed.

The Etolians were permitted to pay in gold the sum imposed on them, in such a manner, that every piece of gold should be estimated at ten times the value of ten pieces of silver of the same weight; which shows the proportion between gold and silver at that time.

Fulvius the consul, after he had terminated the war with the Etolians, crossed into the island of Cephalenia, in order to subdue it. All the cities, at the first summons, surrendered immediately. The inhabitants of Same only, after submitting to the conqueror, regretted what they had done, and accordingly shut their gates against the Romans, which obliged them to besiege it in form. Same made a very vigorous defence, insomuch that it was four months before the consul could take it.*

From thence he went to Peloponnesus, whither he was called by the people of Ægium and Sparta, to decide the differences which interrupted their tranquillity.

The general assembly of the Achæans had from time immemorial been held at Egium; but Philopomen, who was an officer of state, resolved to change that custom, and to cause the assembly to be held successively in all the cities which formed the Achæan league: and that very year he summoned it to Argos. The consul would not oppose this motion: and though his inclination led him to favour the inhabitants of Egium, because he thought their cause the most just, yet, seeing that the other party would certainly prevail, he withdrew from the assembly without declaring his opinion.

The affair relating to Sparta was still more intricate, and, at the same time, of greater importance. Those who had been banished from that city by Nabis the tyrant, had fortified themselves in towns and castles along the coast, and from thence infested the Spartans. The latter had attacked in the night one of those towns, called Las, and carried it, but were soon after driven out of it. This enterprise alarmed the exiles, and obliged them to have recourse

* Liv. 1. xxxviii. n. 28-30.

to the Achæans. Philopomen, who at that time was in employment, secretly favoured the exiles, and endeavoured, on all occasions, to lessen the authority of Sparta. On his motion, a decree was enacted, the purport of which was, that Quintius and the Romans having put the towns and castles of the seacoast of Laconia, under the protection of the Achæans, and having forbidden the Lacedæmonians access to it, and the latter having attacked the town called Las, and killed some of the inhabitants, the Achæan assembly demanded that the instigators of that massacre should be delivered up to them; and that otherwise they should be declared violaters of the treaty. Ambassadors were deputed to give them notice of this decree. A demand, made in so haughty a tone, exceedingly exasperated the Lacedæmonians, and they immediately put to death thirty of those who had held a correspondence with Philopomen and the exiles, dissolved their alliance with the Achæans, and sent ambassadors to Fulvius the consul, who was then in Cephalenia, in order to put Sparta under the protection of the Romans, and to entreat him to come and take possession of it. When the Achæans received advice of what had been done in Sparta, they unanimously declared war against that city, which began by some slight incursions both by sea and land, the season being too far advanced for undertaking any thing considerable.* When the consul arrived in Peloponnesus, he heard both parties in a public assembly. The debates were exceedingly warm, and carried to a great height on both sides. Without coming to any determination, the first thing he did was, to command them to lay down their arms, and to send their respective ambassadors to Rome; and they accordingly repaired thither immediately, and were admitted to audience. The league with the Achæans was in great consideration at Rome, but, at the same time, the Romans did not care to disgust the Lacedæmonians entirely. The senate therefore returned an obscure and ambiguous answer, which has not come down to us, whereby the Achæans might flatter themselves, that they were allowed full power to infest Sparta; and the Spartans, that such power was very much limited and restrained.

The Achæans extended it as they thought proper. Philopomen had been continued in his employment of first magistrate. He marched the army to a small distance from Sparta without loss of time; and again demanded to have those persons surrendered to him, who had concerted the enterprise against the town of Las; declaring that they should not be condemned or punished, till after being heard. Upon this promise, those who had been nominated expressly, set out, accompanied by several of the most illustrious citizens, who looked upon their cause as their own, or rather as that of the public. On reaching the camp of the Achæans, they were greatly surprised to see the exiles at the head of the army. The latter, advancing out of the camp, came to them with an insulting air, and began to vent the most injurious expressions against them; after this, the quarrel growing warmer, they fell upon them with great violence, and treated them very ignominiously. In vain did the Spartans implore both gods and men, and claim the right of nations; the rabble of the Achæans, animated by the seditious cries of the exiles, joined with them, notwithstanding the protection due to ambassadors, and in spite of the prohibition of the supreme magistrate. Seventeen were immediately stoned to death, and seventy-three rescued by the magistrate out of the hands of those furious wretches. It was not that he intended, in any manner, to pardon them; but he would not have it said, that they had been put to death without being heard. The next day, they were brought before that enraged multitude, who, almost without so much as hearing them, condemned, and executed them all.

The reader will naturally suppose, that so unjust, so cruel a treatment, threw the Spartans into the deepest affliction, and filled them with alarms.