The Achæan League had gradually languished and in 150 B. C. war with
Rome began, as a last effort on behalf of Greece. It ended in the defeat
of the forces of the League by the Roman general Mummius, and the
capture of Corinth (146 B. C.), which was plundered, and burned to the
ground; the Achæan League was formally dissolved, and Greece was made
into the Roman province Achaia, in 146 B. C. The city of Athens was
allowed to retain a kind of freedom, and became, along with Alexandria,
a university town of the civilized world, in which students of art,
philosophy and literature found the best models, the best instruction,
and the highest inspirations.