public in Argos. Cecilius coming into this council, after having applauded the zeal of the Achæans, and the wisdom of their government on all other occasions, added, that he could not forbear telling them, that their injurious treatment of the Lacedæmonians had been very much censured at Rome; and therefore he exhorted them to amend, as much as lay in their power, what they had acted imprudently against them on that occasion. The silence of Aristenes, who did not reply a single word, showed that he was of the same opinion with Cecilius, and that they acted in concert. Diophanes of Megalopolis, a man better skilled in war than politics, and who hated Philopomen, without mentioning the affair of Sparta, made other complaints against him. Upon this Philopomen, Lycortas, and Archon, began to speak with the utmost vigour in defence of the republic. They showed, that the whole transaction at Sparta had been conducted with prudence, and even to the advantage of the Lacedæmonians; and that, had it been otherwise, human laws, as well as the reverence due to the gods, must have been violated. When Cecilius quitted the assembly, the members of it, moved with that discourse, came to a resolution, that nothing should be changed in what had been decreed, and that this answer should be made the Roman ambassador.*

When it was told Cecilius, he desired that the general assembly of the country might be convened. To this the magistrates replied, that he must first produce a letter from the senate of Rome, by which the Achæans should be desired to meet. As Cecilius had no such letter, they told him plainly, that they would not assemble; which exasperated him to such a degree, that he left Achaia, and would not hear what the magistrates had to say. It was believed that this ambassador, and before him, Marcus Fulvius, would not have delivered themselves with so much freedom, had they not been sure that Aristenes and Diophanes were in their interest. And, indeed, they were accused of having invited those Romans into that country, merely out of hatred to Philopomen; and accordingly were greatly suspected by the populace.

Cecilius, at his return to Rome, acquainted the senate with whatever had been transacted by him in Greece. After this, the ambassadors of Macedonia and Peloponnesus were brought in. Those of Philip and Eumenes were introduced first, and then the exiles of Enum and Maronea; who all repeated what they had before said in the presence of Cecilius in Thessalonica. The senate, after admitting them to audience, sent to Philip other ambassadors, of whom Appius Claudius was the principal, to examine on the spot whether he was withdrawn, as he had promised Cecílius, from the cities of Perrhœbia ; to command him, at the same time, to evacuate Enum and Maronea; and to draw off his troops from all the castles, territories, and cities, which he possessed on the seacoast of Thrace.t

They next admitted to audience Apollonidas, the ambassador whom the Achæans had sent to give their reasons why they had not made their answers to Cecilius, and to inform the senate of all that had been transacted with regard to the Spartans, who had deputed to Rome Areus and Alcibiades, who both were of the number of the first exiles whom Philopomen and the Achæans had restored to their country. The circumstance which most exasperated the Achæans was, to see that, notwithstanding the precious and recent obligation to their favour, they had charged themselves with the odious commission of accusing those who had saved them so unexpectedly, and had procured them the invaluable blessing of returning to their houses and families. Apollonidas endeavoured to prove, that it would be impossible to settle the affairs of Sparta with greater prudence than Philopomen and the rest of the Achæans had done; and they likewise cleared themselves for their having refused to call a general assembly. On the other side, Areus and Alcibiades represented, in the most affecting manner, the sad calamity to which Sparta was reduced; its walls were demolished; its citizens dragged into Achaia, Polyb. in Legat. c. 41. p. 843, 154.

A. M. 3820. Ant, J. C. 184. Polyb. in Legat. c. 42. Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 33.

and reduced to a state of captivity;* the sacred laws of Lycurgus, which had made it subsist during so long a series of years, and with so much glory, had been entirely abolished.

The senate, after weighing and comparing the reasons on both sides, ordered the same ambassadors to inquire into this affair, as were nominated to inspect those of Macedon; and desired the Achæans to convene their general assembly, whenever the Roman ambassadors should require it; as the senate admitted them to audience in Rome, as often as they asked it.

When Philip was informed by his ambassadors, who had been sent back to him from Rome, that he must absolutely evacuate all the cities of Thrace, in the highest degree of rage, to see his dominions contracted on every side, he vented his fury on the inhabitants of Maronea. Onomastes, who was governor of Thrace, employed Cassander, who was very well known in the city, to execute the barbarous command of the prince. Accordingly, in the dead of night, they led a body of Thracians into it, who fell with the utmost violence on the citizens, and cut a great number of them to pieces. Philip having thus wreaked his vengeance on those who were not of his faction, waited calmly for the commissioners, being firmly persuaded that no one would dare to impeach him.† Some time after, Appius arrived, who, upon being informed of the barbarous treatment which the Maronites had met with, reproached the king of Macedon, in the strongest terms, on that account. The latter resolutely asserted, that he had not been concerned in any manner in that massacre, but that it was wholly, occasioned by an insurrection of the populace. "Some (said he) declaring for Eumenes, and others for me, a great quarrel arose, and they butchered one another." He went so far as to challenge them to produce any person, who pretended to have any articles to lay to his charge. But who would have dared to impeach him? His punishment had been immediate; and the aid he might have expected from the Romans was too far off. "It is to no purpose," said Appius to him, "for you to apologize for yourself; I know what things have been done, as well as the authors of them." These words gave Philip the greatest anxiety. However, matters were not carried farther at this first interview.

But Appius, the next day, commanded him to send immediately Onomastes and Cassander to Rome, to be examined by the senate on the affair in question, declaring, that there was no other way left for him to clear himself. Philip, upon receiving this order, changed colour, wavered within himself, and hesitated a long time before he made answer. At last, he declared that he would send Cassander, whom the commissioners suspected to be the instigator of the massacre; but he was determined not to send Onomastes, who, he declared, so far from having been in Maronea at the time this bloody tragedy happened, was not even in the neighbourhood of it. The true reason of this conduct was, Philip feared that Onomastes, in whom he reposed the utmost confidence, and from whom he had never concealed any thing, should betra, him to the senate. As for Cassander, the instant the commissioners had left Macedon, he put him on board a ship; but, at the same time, sent some persons after him, who poisoned him in Epirus.

After the departure of the commissioners, who were fully persuaded that Philip had procured the massacre in Maronea, and was on the point of breaking with the Romans; the king of Macedon, reflecting in his own mind and with his friends, that the hatred he bore the Romans, and the strong desire he had to wreak his vengeance on that people, must necessarily soon display itself, would have been very glad to take up arms immediately, and declare war against them; but, not being prepared, he conceived it expedient to gain

By the decree of the Achæans, it had been enacted, that such slaves as had been adopted among the citizens of Sparta, should leave the city and all Laconia; in default of which, the Achæans were em powered to seize and sell them as slaves, which had accordingly been executed.

Polyb. in Legat. c. xliv. Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 34, 35,

time. Philip resolved to send his son Demetrius to Rome, who having been many years a hostage, and having acquired great esteem in that city, he judged very well qualified, either to defend him against the accusations with which he might be charged before the senate, or apologize for such faults as he really had committed.

He accordingly made all the preparations necessary for this embassy, and nominated several friends to attend the prince his son on that occasion.

He, at the same time, promised to succour the Byzantines; not that he was sincerely desirous of defending them, but only his bare advancing to aid that people, would strike terror into the petty princes of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of the Propontis, and would prevent their opposing the resolution he had formed of entering into war against the Romans. And accordingly he defeated those petty sovereigns in a battle, and took their chief prisoner, whereby he put it out of their power to annoy him, aud returned into Macedon.

The arrival of the Roman commissioners was expected in Peloponnesus, who were commanded to go from Macedon into Achaia. Lycortas, in order that an answer might be ready for them, summoned a council, in which the affair of the Lacedæmonians was examined. He represented to the assembly such things as they might fear from them; the Romans seeming to favour their interest much more than that of the Achæans. He expatiated chiefly on the ingratitude of Areus and Alcibiades, who, though they owed their return to the Achæans, had however been so base as to undertake the embassy against them to the senate, where they acted and spoke like professed enemies; as if the Achæans had driven them from their country, when it was they who had restored them to it. Upon this, great shouts were heard in every part of the assembly, and the president was desired to bring the affair into immediate deliberation. Nothing prevailing but a passion and a thirst of revenge, Areus and Alcibiades were condemned to die.*

The Roman commissioners arrived a few days after, and the council met at Clitor in Arcadia. This filled the Achæans with the utmost terror; for, seeing Areus and Alcibiades, whom they had just before condemned to die, arrive with the commissioners, they naturally supposed that the inquiry which was going to be made would be no way favourable to them.

Appius then told them, that the senate had been strongly affected with the complaints of the Lacedæmonians, and could not but disapprove of every thing which had been done on that occasion; the murder of those who, on the promise which Philopomen had made them, had come to plead their cause; the demolition of the walls of Sparta; the abolition of the laws and institutions of Lycurgus, which had spread the fame of that city throughout the world, and made it flourish for several ages.

Lycortas, as president of the council, and as having joined with Philopomen, the author of whatever had been transacted against Lacedæmonia, undertook to answer Appius. He showed first, that the Lacedæmonians had attacked the exiles, contrary to the tenor of the treaty, which had expressly forbade them to make any attempt against the maritime cities; these exiles, in the absence of the Romans, could have recourse only to the Achæan league, which could not be justly accused for having assisted them, to the utmost of their power, in so urgent a necessity. That, with regard to the massacre which Appius laid to their charge, they ought not to be accused for it, but the exiles, who were then headed by Areus and Alcibiades; and who, by their own immediate impulse, and without being authorized in any manner by the Achæans, had fallen with the utmost fury and violence on those who they supposed had been the authors of their banishment, and to whom the rest of the calamities they had suffered were owing. "However," added Lycortas, it is pretended that we cannot but own that we were the cause of the aboli

66

Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 35-37

tion of the laws of Lycurgus, and the demolition of the walls of Sparta. This, indeed, is a real fact; but then, how can this double objection be made to us at the same time? The walls in question were not built by Lycurgus, but by tyrants, who erected them some few years ago, not for the security of the city, but for their own safety, and to enable themselves to abolish, with impunity, the discipline and regulations so happily established by that wise legislator. Were it possible for him to rise now from the grave, he would be overjoyed to see those walls destroyed, and say, that he now knows and owns his native country, and ancient Sparta. You should not, citizens of Sparta, have waited for Philopomen or the Achæans, but ought yourselves to have pulled down those walls with your own hands, and destroyed even the slightest trace of tyranny. These were a kind of ignominious scars of your slavery; and after having maintained your liberties and privileges during almost eight hundred years, and been for some time the sovereigns of Greece, without the support and assistance of walls; they, within these hundred years, have become the instruments of your slavery, and in a manner your shackles and fetters. With respect to the ancient laws of Lycurgus, they were suppressed by the tyrants; and we have only substituted our own, by putting you upon a level with us in all things."

Addressing himself afterwards to Appius, "I cannot forbear owning," said he," that the words I have hitherto spoken, were not as from one ally to another, nor of a free nation, but as slaves who speak to their master. For, in fine, if the voice of the herald, who proclaimed us to be free in the presence of the Grecian states, was not a vain and empty ceremony; if the treaty concluded at that time be real and solid; if you are desirous of sincerely preserving an alliance and friendship with us; on what can that infinite disparity, which you suppose to be between you Romans and us Achæans, be grounded? I do not inquire into the treatment which Capua met with, after you had taken that city; why then do you examine into our usage of the Lacedæmonians, after we had conquered them? Some of them were killed, and I will suppose that it was by us. But did not you strike off the heads of several Campanian senators? We levelled the walls of Sparta with the ground; but you not only dispossessed the Campanians of their walls, but of their city and lands. To this I know you will reply, that the equality expressed in the treaties between the Romans and Achæans is merely specious, and a bare form of words; that we really have but a precarious and derivative liberty, but that the Romans are possessed of authority and empire. This, Appius, I am but too sensible of. However, since we must be forced to submit to this, I entreat you at least, however wide a difference you may set between yourselves and us, not to put your enemies and our own upon a level with us, who are your allies; especially, not to show them better treatment. They require us, by forswearing ourselves, to dissolve and annul all that we have enacted by oath; and to revoke that, which by being written on our records, and engraved on marble, in order to preserve the remembrance of it eternally, is become a sacred monument which it is not lawful for us to violate. We revere you, Romans! and, if you will have it so, we also fear you; but we think it glorious to have a greater reverence and fear for the immortal gods." The greatest part of the assembly applauded this speech, and all were unanimous in their opinion, that he had spoken like a true magistrate; it was therefore necessary for the Romans to act with vigour, or resolve to lose their authority. Appius, without descending to particulars, advised them, while they still enjoyed their freedom, and had not received any orders, to make a merit, with regard to the Romans, of making that their own decree, which might afterwards be enjoined them. They were grieved at these words; but were instructed by them, not to persist obstinately in the refusal of what should be demanded. All they therefore desired was, that the Romans would decree whatever they pleased with regard to Sparta; but not to oblige the

Achæans to break their oath, by annulling their decree themselves. As to the sentence that was just before passed against Areus and Alcibiades, it was immediately repealed.

The Romans pronounced judgment the year following. The chief articles of the ordinance were, that those persons who had been condemned by the Achæans should be recalled and restored; that all sentences relating to this affair should be repealed, and that Sparta should continue a member of the Achæan league.* Pausanias adds an article not taken notice of by Livy, that the walls which had been demolished should be rebuilt. Q. Marcius was appointed commissary, to settle the affairs of Macedon, and those of Peloponnesus, where great feuds and disturbances subsisted, especially between the Achæans on one side, and the Messenians and Lacedæmonians on the other. They all had sent ambassadors to Rome; but it does not appear that the senate was in any great haste to put an end to their differences. The answer they made to the Lacedæmonians was, that the Romans were determined not to trouble themselves any farther about their affairs. The Achæans demanded aid of the Romans against the Messenians, pursuant to the treaty; or, at least, not to suffer arms or provisions to be transported out of Italy, to the latter people. It was answered them, that when any cities broke their alliance with the Achæans, the senate did not think itself obliged to enter into those disputes; for this would open a door to ruptures and divisions, and even, in some measure, give a sanction to them.‡

In these proceedings appears the artful and jealous policy of the Romans, which tended solely to weaken Philip and the Achæans, of whose power they were jealous; and who covered their ambitious designs with the specious pretence of succouring the weak and oppressed.

SECTION X.-PHILOPŒMEN BESIEGES MESSENE. HE IS TAKEN PRISONER,

AND PUT TO DEATH. PTOLEMY EPIPHANES DIES.

DINOCRATES the Messenian, who had a particular enmity to Philopomen, had drawn off Messene from the Achæan league; and was meditating how he might best seize upon a considerable post, called Coronne, near that city. Philopomen, then seventy years of age, and generalissimo of the Achæans for the eighth time, lay sick. But the instant the news of this was brought him, he set out, notwithstanding his indisposition, made a counter-march, and advanced toward Messene with small body of forces, consisting of the flower of the Megalopolitan youth. Dinocrates, who had marched out against him, was soon put to flight; but five hundred troopers, who guarded the open country of Messene, happening to come up and reinforce him, he faced about and routed Philopomen. This general, who was solicitous of nothing but to save the gallant youths who had followed him in this expedition, performed the most extraordinary acts of bravery; but happening to fall from his horse, and receiving a deep wound in the head, he was taken prisoner by the enemy, who carried him to Messene. Plutarch considers this ill fortune of Philopoemen, as the punishment for some rash and arrogant words that had escaped him upon his hearing a certain general applauded: "Ought that man," said he, "to be valued, who suffers himself to be taken alive by the enemy, while he has arms to defend himself?"

Upon the arrival of the first news which was carried to Messene, viz. that Philopomen was taken prisoner, and on his way to that city, the Messenians were in such transports of joy, that they all ran to the gates of the city; not being able to persuade themselves of the truth of what they heard, till they saw him themselves; so greatly improbable did this relation appear to them. To satisfy the violent curiosity of the inhabitants, many of whom had

* Liv. l. xxxi. n. 48.

In Achaiac. p. 414.

Polyb. in Legat. c. 51.

A. M. 3821 Ant. J. G. 183. Liv. L xxxix. n. 48. Plut. in Philop. p. 366–308. Polyb. in Legate 52, 53.