The Romans, having chosen Mummius for one of the consuls, charged him with the management of the Achaian war. When Mummius had assembled all his troops, he advanced to the city, and encamped before it. A body of his advanced guard being negligent of duty upon their post, the besieged made a sally, attacked them vigorously, killed many, and pursued the rest almost to the entrance of their camp. This small advantage very much encouraged the Achaians, and thereby proved fatal to them. Diæus offered the consul battle. The latter, to augment his rashness, kept his troops within the camp, as if fear prevented him from accepting it. The joy and presumption of the Achaians rose in consequence to an inexpressible height. They advanced furiously with all their troops, having placed their wives and children upon the neighbouring eminence, to be spectators of the battle, and caused a great number of carriages to follow them, to be laden with the booty they should take from the enemy; so fully did they assure themselves of the victory.
Never was there a more rash or ill-founded confidence. The faction had removed from the service and councils all such as were capable of commanding the troops, or conducting affairs; and had substituted others in their room, without either talents or ability, in order to their being more absolutely masters of the government, and ruling without opposition. The chiefs, without military knowledge, valour, or experience, had no other merit than a blind and frantic rage. They had already committed an excess of folly in hazarding a battle, which was to decide their fate, without necessity, instead of thinking of a long and brave defence in so strong a place as Corinth, and of obtaining good conditions by a vigorous resistance. The battle was fought near Leucopetra, and the defile of the isthmus. The consul had posted part of his horse in ambuscade, which they quitted at a proper time for charging the Achaian cavalry in flank; who, surprised by an unforeseen attack, gave way immediately. The infantry made a little more resistance; but, as it was neither covered, nor sustained by the horse, it was soon broken and put to flight. Diæus, upon this, abandoned himself to despair. He rode full speed to Megalopolis, and having entered his house, set fire to it; killed his wife, to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy; drank poison; and in that manner put an end to his life, worthy of the many crimes he had committed.
After this defeat, the inhabitants lost all hope of defending themselves; so that all the Achaians who had retired into Corinth, and most of the citizens, quitted it the following night, to save themselves how they could. The consul having entered the city, abandoned it to be plundered by the soldiers. All the men who were left in it were put to the sword, and the women and children sold; and after the statues, paintings, and richest moveables were removed, in order to their being carried to Rome, the houses were set on fire, and the whole city continued in flames for several days. From that time the Corinthian brass became more valuable than ever, though it had been in reputation long before. It is pretended that the gold, silver, and brass, which were melted, and ran together in this conflagration, formed a new and precious metal. The walls were afterwards desolated, and razed to their very foundations. All this was executed by order of the Senate, to punish the insolence of the Corinthians, who had violated the law of nations, in their treatment of the ambassadors sent to them by Rome.
The booty taken at Corinth was sold, and considerable sums raised from it. Amongst the paintings there was a piece drawn by the most celebrated hand in Greece, representing Bacchus, the beauty of which was not known to the Romans, who were at that time entirely ignorant of the polite arts. Polybius, who was then in the country, had the mortification to see the painting serve the soldiers for a table to play at dice upon. It was afterwards sold to Attalus for £3625 sterling. Pliny mentions another picture by the same painter, which the same Attalus purchased for 110 talents. The consul, surprised that the price of the painting in question should rise so high, interposed his authority, and retained it contrary to public faith, and notwithstanding the complaints of Attalus, because he imagined there was some hidden virtue in the prize, unknown to him. He did not act in that manner for his private interest, nor with the view of appropriating it to himself, as he sent it to Rome, to be applied in adorning the city. When it arrived at Rome, it was set up in the temple of Ceres, whither the judges went to see it out of curiosity, as a masterpiece of art; and it remained there till it was burned with that temple.
Mummius was a great warrior, and an excellent man; but he had neither learning, knowledge of arts, nor taste for painting or sculpture. He ordered particular persons to take care of transporting many of the paintings and statues of the most excellent masters to Rome. Never had loss been so irreparable, as that of such a deposite, consisting of the masterpieces of those rare artists, who contributed almost as much as the great captains, to the rendering of their age glorious to posterity. Mummius, however, in recommending the care of that precious collection to those to whom he confided them, threatened them very seriously, that if the statues, paintings, and other things with which he charged them, should be either lost or destroyed by the way, he would oblige them to find others at their own cost[199];—a saying deservedly ridiculed by all persons of sense, as a most egregious solecism in taste and delicacy[200].
It is amusing to observe the difference between Mummius and Scipio;—the one the conqueror of Corinth, the other of Carthage; both in the same year[201]. Scipio, to the courage and virtue of ancient heroes, joined a profound knowledge of the sciences, with all the genius and ornaments of wit. His patronage was courted by every one who made any figure in learning. Panætius, whom Tully calls the prince of the Stoics, and Polybius the historian, were his bosom friends, the assisters of his studies at home, and the constant companions of his expeditions abroad. To which may be added, that he passed the more agreeable hours of his life in the conversation of Terence, and is even thought to have taken part in the composition of his comedies.
The period in which the Isthmian games were to be celebrated being at hand, the expectation of what was to be transacted drew thither an incredible multitude of people, and persons of the highest rank. The conditions of peace, which were not yet entirely made public, were the topic of all conversations, and various constructions were put upon them; but very few could be persuaded that the Romans would evacuate all the cities they had taken. All Greece was in this uncertainty, when the multitude being assembled in the stadium to see the games, a herald comes forward, and publishes with a loud voice:—"The senate and people of Rome, and Titus Quintius the general, having overcome Philip and the Macedonians, ease and deliver from all garrisons and taxes and imposts, the Corinthians, the Locrians, the Phocians, the Eubœans, the Phthiot Achaians, the Magnesians, the Thessalians, and the Perrhœbians; declare them free, and ordain that they shall be governed by their respective laws and usages."
At these words all the spectators were filled with excessive joy. They gazed upon and questioned one another with astonishment, and could not believe either eyes or ears; so like a dream was what they saw and heard. But being at last assured of their happiness, they abandoned themselves again to the highest transports of joy, and broke out into such loud acclamations, that the sea resounded them to a distance; and some ravens, which happened to fly that instant over the assembly, fell down into the stadium; so true it is, that of all the blessings of this life, none are so dear as that of liberty!
Corinth, nevertheless, remained after this in a ruined and desolate state many years. At length, Cæsar, after he had subdued Africa, and while his fleet lay at anchor at Utica, gave order for rebuilding Carthage; and soon after his return to Italy, he likewise caused Corinth to be rebuilt. Strabo and Plutarch agree in ascribing the rebuilding of Carthage and Corinth to Julius Cæsar; and Plutarch remarks this singular circumstance with regard to these cities, viz.—that as they were taken and destroyed in the same year, they were rebuilt and repeopled at the same time.
Under the eastern emperors, Corinth was the see of an archbishop, subject to the patriarch of Constantinople. Roger, king of Naples, obtained possession of it under the empire of Emanuel. It had, afterwards, its own sovereign, who ceded it to the Venetians; from whom it was taken by Mahomet II., A. D. 1458. The Venetians retook it in 1687, and held it till the year 1715, when they lost it to the Turks, in whose possession it remained till, a few years since, Greece was erected into an independent state. The grand army of the Turks[202] (in 1715) under the prime vizier, to open themselves a way into the heart of the Morea, attacked Corinth, upon which they made several attacks. The garrison being weakened, and the governor, seeing it was impossible to hold out against a force so superior to their own, beat a parley; but while they were treating about the articles, one of the magazines in the Turkish camp, wherein they had 600 barrels of powder, blew up by accident, whereby between 600 and 700 men were killed; which so enraged the infidels, that they would not grant any capitulation, but stormed the place with so much fury that they took it, and put most of the garrison, with the governor, Signior Minotti, to the sword. The rest they made prisoners of war. This subject formed the foundation of Lord Byron's poem of the Siege of Corinth.