Pausanias' description of Greece, Volume II.

by active approximately 150-175 Pausanias

CHAPTER VII.

The Achæans were most powerful in the days when the Greeks were not banded together, but each looked after their own personal interests. For none of their towns except Pellene had any experience of tyrants at any time. And misfortunes from wars and the plague did not so much touch the Achæans as all the other Greeks. Accordingly what is called the Achæan League was by common consent the design and act of the Achæans. And this League was formed at Ægium because, next to Helice which had been swept away by a flood, it had been the foremost town in Achaia in former times, and was at this time the most powerful. And of the other Greeks the Sicyonians first joined this Achæan League. And next to the Sicyonians some of the other Peloponnesians joined it, some immediately, some rather later: and outside the Isthmus what brought people in was seeing that the Achæan League was becoming more and more powerful. And the Lacedæmonians were the only Greeks that were unfriendly to the Achæans and openly took up arms against them. For Pellene an Achæan town was taken by Agis, the son of Eudamidas, King of Sparta, though he was soon driven out again by Aratus and the Sicyonians. And Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas and grandson of Cleonymus, a king of the other family, when Aratus and the Achæans were gathered together at Dyme against him routed them badly in battle, though he afterwards concluded peace with the Achæans and Antigonus. Antigonus was at this time ruler of the Macedonians, being Regent for Philip, the son of Demetrius, who was quite a boy; he was Philip’s uncle and also stepfather. With him and the Achæans Cleomenes made peace, but soon violated his engagements, and reduced to slavery Megalopolis in Arcadia. And the reverse which the Lacedæmonians met with at Sellasia at the hands of the Achæans and Antigonus was in consequence of Cleomenes’ violation of his word. But Cleomenes we shall mention again when we come to Arcadia. And Philip the son of Demetrius, when he came to age, received the rule over the Macedonians from his stepfather Antigonus, who was glad to surrender it, and inspired great fear in all the Greeks by closely imitating Philip the son of Amyntas, (who was no ancestor of his, but a true despot), as in bribing people to betray their country. And at banquets he would offer the cup of fellowship and kindness filled not with wine but deadly poison, a thing which Philip the son of Amyntas in my opinion never thought of, but to Philip the son of Demetrius poisoning appeared a very trifling crime. And three towns he turned into garrison-towns as points d’appui against Greece, and in his insolence and haughty disregard of the Greeks he called these towns the keys of Greece. One was Corinth in the Peloponnese, the citadel of which he strongly fortified, and for Eubœa and Bœotia and Phocis he had Chalcis near the Euripus, and for Thessaly and Ætolia he garrisoned Magnesia under Mount Pelion. And by perpetual raids and plundering incursions he harassed the Athenians and Ætolians especially. I have mentioned before in my account of Attica the Greeks or barbarians who assisted the Athenians against Philip, and how in consequence of the weakness of their allies the Athenians were obliged to rely on an alliance with Rome. The Romans had sent some soldiers not long before nominally to assist the Ætolians against Philip, but really to spy out what the Macedonians were aiming at. But now they sent an army under the command of Otilius, that was his best known name, for the Romans are not called like the Greeks merely after their father’s name, but have 3 names at least and sometimes more. This Otilius had orders from the Romans to protect the Athenians and Ætolians against Philip. Otilius in all other respects obeyed his orders, but did one thing that the Romans were not pleased at. For he captured and rased to the ground Hestiæa (a town in Eubœa) and Anticyra in Phocis, places which had submitted to Philip simply from necessity. This was I think the reason why the Senate when they heard of it superseded him by Flaminius.

CHAPTER VIII.

Flaminius on his arrival immediately defeated the Macedonian garrison at Eretria and plundered the town, and next marched to Corinth which was occupied by Philip’s garrison, and sat down to a regular siege, and sent to the Achæans urging them to come to Corinth with an army, so as to be reckoned the allies of the Romans, and in friendship to the Greeks generally. But the Achæans took it ill that Flaminius and still earlier Otilius had handled so savagely old Greek cities, that had committed no offence against Rome, and were under the Macedonians against their wish. They foresaw also that instead of Philip and the Macedonians they would merely have the Romans as dictators in Greece. But after many speeches from different points of view had been delivered in the council, at last the party friendly to the Romans prevailed, and the Achæans joined Flaminius in the siege of Corinth. And the Corinthians, being thus freed from the Macedonian yoke, at once joined the Achæan League, which indeed they had formerly joined, when Aratus and the Sicyonians drove out the garrison from the citadel of Corinth and slew Persæus, who had been put in command of the garrison by Antigonus. And from that time forward the Achæans were called the allies of the Romans, and were devoted to them at all times, and followed them into Macedonia against Philip, and joined them in an expedition against the Ætolians, and fought on their side against Antiochus and the Syrians.

In fighting against the Macedonians and Syrians the Achæans were animated only by friendship to the Romans: but in fighting against the Ætolians they were satisfying a long-standing grudge. And when the power at Sparta of Nabis, a man of the most unrelenting cruelty, had been overthrown, the Lacedæmonians became their own masters again, and as time went on the Achæans got them into their League, and were very severe with them, and rased to the ground the fortifications of Sparta, which had been formerly run up hastily at the time of the invasion of Demetrius and afterwards of Pyrrhus and the Epirotes, but during the power of Nabis had been very strongly fortified. And not only did the Achæans rase the walls of Sparta, but they prevented their youths from training as Lycurgus had ordained, and made them train in the Achæan way. I shall enter into all this in more detail in my account about Arcadia. And the Lacedæmonians, being sorely vexed with these harassing decrees of the Achæans, threw themselves into the arms of Metellus and his colleagues, who had come on an embassy from Rome, not to try and stir up war against Philip and the Macedonians, for a peace had been previously solemnly concluded between Philip and the Romans, but to try the charges made against Philip either by the Thessalians or the Epirotes. Philip himself indeed and the Macedonian supremacy had actually received a fatal blow from the Romans. For fighting against Flaminius and the Romans on the range of hills called Cynoscephalæ Philip got the worst of it, and having put forth all his strength in the battle got so badly beaten that he lost the greater part of his army, and was obliged by the Roman terms to remove his garrisons from all the Greek towns which he had seized and reduced during the war. The peace indeed with the Romans which he obtained sounded specious, but was only procured by various entreaties and at great expenditure of money. The Sibyl had indeed foretold not without the god the power which the Macedonians would attain to in the days of Philip the son of Amyntas, and how all this would crumble away in the days of another Philip. These are the very words of her oracle—

“Ye Macedonians, that boast in the Argeadæ as your kings, to you Philip as ruler shall be both a blessing and a curse. The first Philip shall make you ruler over cities and people, the last shall lose you all your honour, conquered by men both from the West and East.”

The Romans that overthrew the Macedonian Empire lived in the West of Europe, and Attalus and the Mysian force that cooperated with them may be said to have been Eastern Nations.

CHAPTER IX.

But now Metellus and his colleagues resolved not to neglect the quarrels of the Lacedæmonians and Achæans, so they convened before their council-board the most prominent Achæans, that they might publicly advise them to treat the Lacedæmonians in a kindlier spirit. And the Achæans returned answer that they would give no hearing to them or anyone else, who should approach them on any subject whatever, except they were armed with a decree from the Roman Senate. And Metellus and his colleagues, thinking they were treated by the Achæans with rather too much hauteur, on their return to Rome told the Senate many things against the Achæans which were not all true. And further charges still were brought against the Achæans by Areus and Alcibiades, who were held in great repute at Sparta, but who did not act well to the Achæans: for when they were exiled by Nabis the Achæans had kindly received them, and after the death of Nabis had restored them to Sparta contrary to the wish of the Lacedæmonian people. But now being admitted before the Roman Senate they inveighed against the Achæans with the greatest zeal. And the Achæans on their return from Rome sentenced them to death in their Council. And the Roman Senate sent Appius and some others to put the differences between the Achæans and Lacedæmonians on a just footing. But this embassy was not likely to please the Achæans, inasmuch as in Appius’ suite were Areus and Alcibiades, whom the Achæans detested at this time. And when they came into the council chamber they endeavoured by their words to stir up rather the animosity of the Achæans than to win them over by persuasion. Lycortas of Megalopolis, a man in merit behind none of the Arcadians, and who had friendly relations with Philopœmen upon whom he relied, put forward in his speech the just claims of the Achæans, and at the same time covertly blamed the Romans. But Appius and his suite jeered at Lycortas’ speech, and passed a vote that Areus and Alcibiades had committed no crime against the Achæans, and allowed the Lacedæmonians to send envoys to Rome, thus contravening the previous convention between the Romans and Achæans. For it had been publicly agreed that envoys of the Achæans might go to the Roman Senate, but those states which were in the Achæan League were forbidden to send envoys privately. And when the Achæans sent a counter-embassy to that of the Lacedæmonians, and the speeches on both sides were heard in the Senate, then the Romans despatched Appius and all his former suite as plenipotentiaries between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And they restored to Sparta those that had been exiled by the Achæans, and they remitted the fines of those who had absconded before judgment, and had been condemned in their absence. And they did not remove the Lacedæmonians from the Achæan League, but they ordered that foreign[6] courts were to try capital cases, but all other cases they could themselves try, or submit them to the Achæan League. And the Spartans again built walls all round their city from the foundation. And those Lacedæmonians who were restored from exile meditated all sorts of contrivances against the Achæans, hoping to injure them most in the following way. The Messenians who were concerned in the death of Philopœmen, and who were banished it was thought on that account by the Achæans, these and other exiles of the Achæans they persuaded to go and take their case to Rome. And they went with them and intrigued for their return from exile. And as Appius greatly favoured the Lacedæmonians, and on all occasions went against the Achæans, whatever the Messenian or Achæan exiles wished was sure to come off without any difficulty, and letters were sent by the Senate to Athens and Ætolia, ordering them to restore the Messenians and Achæans to their rights. This seemed the unkindest cut of all to the Achæans, who upon various occasions were treated with great injustice by the Romans, and who saw that all their past services went for nothing, for after having fought against Philip and the Ætolians and Antiochus simply to oblige the Romans, they were neglected for exiles whose lives were far from pure. Still they thought they had better submit. Such was the state of affairs up to this point.

[6] Meaning Roman I take it.