GREECE
[Sidenote: Antiochus the Great at a meeting of Aetolians at Lamia,
autumn of B.C. 192. Livy, 35, 43-46.]
+1.+ The Aetolians chose thirty of the Apocleti[91] to confer with King
Antiochus....
He accordingly summoned a meeting of the Apocleti and consulted them on
the state of affairs....
+2.+ When Antiochus sent an embassy to the Boeotians, they answered
that they would not consider his proposals until the king came in
person....
[Sidenote: Antiochus passes the winter of B.C. 192-191 at Chalcis.
Visit of envoys from Epirus and Elis.]
+3.+ As Antiochus was staying at Chalcis, just as the winter was
beginning, two ambassadors came to visit him, Charops from Epirus,
and Callistratus from Elis. The prayer of the Epirotes was that “The
king would not involve them in the war with Rome for they dwelt on the
side of Greece immediately opposite Italy; but that, if he could, he
would secure their safety by defending the frontier of Epirus: in that
case he should be admitted into all their towns and harbours: but if
he decided not to do so at present, they asked his indulgence if they
shrank from a war with Rome.” The Eleans, in their turn, begged him “To
send a reinforcement to their town; for as the Achaeans had voted war
against them, they were in terror of an attack from the troops of the
league.” The king answered the Epirotes by saying that he would send
envoys to confer with them on their mutual interests; but to Elis he
despatched a thousand foot soldiers under the command of Euphanes of
Crete....
[Sidenote: The decline of Boeotia,]
[Sidenote: from B.C. 371-361.]
[Sidenote: B.C. 245. See Plutarch, _Arat._ 16.]
+4.+ The Boeotians had long been in a very depressed state, which
offered a strong contrast to the former prosperity and reputation of
their country. They had acquired great glory as well as great material
prosperity at the time of the battle of Leuctra; but by some means or
another from that time forward they steadily diminished both the one
and the other under the leadership of Amaeocritus; and subsequently not
only diminished them, but underwent a complete change of character, and
did all that was possible to wipe out their previous reputation. For
having been incited by the Achaeans to go to war with the Aetolians,
they adopted the policy of the former and made an alliance with them,
and thenceforth maintained a steady war with the Aetolians. But on
the Aetolians invading Boeotia, they marched out with their full
available force, and without waiting for the arrival of the Achaeans,
who had mustered their men and were on the point of marching to their
assistance, they attacked the Aetolians; and being worsted in the
battle were so completely demoralised, that, from the time of that
campaign, they never plucked up spirit to claim any position of honour
whatever, and never shared in any enterprise or contest undertaken by
the common consent of the Greeks. They devoted themselves entirely to
eating and drinking, and thus became effeminate in their souls as well
as in their bodies.
[Sidenote: B.C. 222.]
[Sidenote: The rise of the house of Neon.]
[Sidenote: Demetrius II. B.C. 239-229.]
+5.+ Such were, briefly, the steps in the degeneracy of Boeotia.
Immediately after the battle just mentioned they abandoned the Achaeans
and joined the Aetolians.[92] But on the latter presently going to war
with Philip’s father Demetrius, they once more abandoned the Aetolians;
and upon Demetrius entering Boeotia with an army, without attempting
resistance they submitted completely to the Macedonians. But as a
spark of their ancestral glory still survived, there were found some
who disliked the existing settlement and the complete subservience to
Macedonia: and they accordingly maintained a violent opposition to the
policy of Ascondas and Neon, the ancestors of Brachylles, who were
the most prominent in the party which favoured Macedonia. However,
the party of Ascondas eventually prevailed, owing to the following
circumstance. Antigonus (Doson), who, after the death of Demetrius,
was Philip’s guardian, happened to be sailing on some business along
the coast of Boeotia; when off Larymna he was surprised by a sudden
ebb of the tide, and his ships were left high and dry. Now just at
that time a rumour had been spread that Antigonus meant to make a raid
upon the country; and therefore Neon, who was Hipparch at the time,
was patrolling the country at the head of all the Boeotian cavalry to
protect it, and came upon Antigonus in this helpless and embarrassed
position: and having it thus in his power to inflict a serious blow
upon the Macedonians, much to their surprise he resolved to spare them.
His conduct in so doing was approved by the other Boeotians, but was
not at all pleasing to the Thebans. Antigonus, however, when the tide
flowed again and his ships floated, proceeded to complete the voyage
to Asia on which he was bound, with deep gratitude to Neon for having
abstained from attacking him in his awkward position. Accordingly, when
at a subsequent period he conquered the Spartan Cleomenes and became
master of Lacedaemon, he left Brachylles in charge of the town, by
way of paying him for the kindness done him by his father Neon. This
proved to be the beginning of a great rise in importance of the family
of Brachylles. But this was not all that Antigonus did for him: from
that time forward either he personally, or king Philip, continually
supported him with money and influence; so that before long this family
entirely overpowered the political party opposed to them in Thebes, and
forced all the citizens, with very few exceptions, to join the party of
Macedonia. Such was the origin of the political adherence to Macedonia
of the family of Neon, and of its rise to prosperity.
[Sidenote: Disorganised state of Boeotia.]
[Sidenote: Antigonus Gonatas, _ob._ B.C. 239.]
[Sidenote: Cleomenic war B.C. 227-221.]
+6.+ But Boeotia as a nation had come to such a low pitch, that for
nearly twenty-five years the administration of justice had been
suspended in private and public suits alike. Their magistrates were
engaged in despatching bodies of men to guard the country or in
proclaiming national expeditions, and thus continually postponed their
attendance at courts of law. Some of the Strategi also dispensed
allowances to the needy from the public treasury; whereby the common
people learnt to support and invest with office those who would
help them to escape the penalties of their crimes and undischarged
liabilities, and to be enriched from time to time with some portion of
the public property obtained by official favour. No one contributed
to this lamentable state of things more than Opheltas, who was always
inventing some plan calculated to benefit the masses for the moment,
while perfectly certain to ruin them in the future. To these evils was
added another unfortunate fashion. It became the practice for those
who died childless not to leave their property to the members of their
family, as had been the custom of the country formerly, but to assign
it for the maintenance of feasts and convivial entertainments to be
shared in by the testator’s friends in common; and even many who did
possess children left the larger part of their property to the members
of their own club. The result was that there were many Boeotians who
had more feasts to attend in the month than there were days in it.
The people of Megara therefore, disliking this habit, and remembering
their old connexion with the Achaean league, were inclined once more
to renew their political alliance with it. For the Megarians had been
members of the Achaean league since the time of Antigonus Gonatas;
but upon Cleomenes blockading the Isthmus, finding themselves cut off
from the Achaeans they joined the Boeotians, with the consent of the
former. But a little before the time of which we are now speaking,
becoming dissatisfied with the Boeotian constitution, they again joined
the Achaeans. The Boeotians, incensed at what they considered acts
of contempt, sallied out in full force to attack Megara; and on the
Megarians declining to listen to them, they determined in their anger
to besiege and assault their city. But being attacked by a panic, on a
report spreading that Philopoemen was at hand at the head of a force of
Achaeans, they left their scaling ladders against the walls and fled
back precipitately to their own country.
+7.+ Such being the state of Boeotian politics, it was only by
extraordinary good fortune that they evaded destruction in the
dangerous periods of the wars of Philip and Antiochus. But in the
succeeding period they did not escape in the same way. Fortune, on the
contrary, seemed determined to make them pay for their former good luck
by a specially severe retribution, as I shall relate hereafter....
[Sidenote: Antiochus received in Thebes, B.C. 192.]
Many of the Boeotians defended their alienation from the Romans by
alleging the assassination of Brachylles,[93] and the expedition
made by Flamininus upon Coronea owing to the murders of Romans on
the roads.[94] But the real reason was their moral degeneracy,
brought about by the causes I have mentioned. For as soon as the king
approached, the Boeotian magistrates went out to meet him, and after
holding a friendly conversation with him conducted him into Thebes....
[Sidenote: Antiochus wintering in Chalcis, B.C. 192-191.]
+8.+ Antiochus the Great came to Chalcis in Euboea, and there completed
his marriage, when he was fifty years old, and had already undertaken
his two most important labours, the liberation of Greece—as he called
it—and the war with Rome. However, having fallen in love with a young
lady of Chalcis, he was bent on marrying her, though the war was
still going on; for he was much addicted to wine and delighted in
excesses. The lady was a daughter of Cleoptolemus, a man of rank, and
was possessed of extraordinary beauty. He remained in Chalcis all the
winter occupied in marriage festivities, utterly regardless of the
pressing business of the time. He gave the girl the name of Euboea, and
after his defeat[95] fled with his bride to Ephesus....
[Sidenote: Heracleia Trachinia taken by Acilius after the battle of
Thermopylae, B.C. 191.]
[Sidenote: Embassy of the Aetolians.]
+9.+ When the Romans took Heracleia, Phaeneas the Aetolian Strategus,
in view of the danger threatening Aetolia, and seeing what would happen
to the other towns, determined to send an embassy to Manius Acilius to
demand a truce and treaty of peace. With this purpose he despatched
Archidamus, Pantaleon and Chalesus, who on meeting the Roman consul
were intending to enter upon a long argument, but were interrupted in
the middle of their speech and prevented from finishing it. For Acilius
remarked that “For the present he had no leisure to attend to them,
being much engaged with the distribution of the spoils of Heracleia:
he would, however, grant a ten days’ truce and send Lucius Valerius
Flaccus with them, with instructions as to what he was to say.” The
truce being thus made, and Valerius having come to Hypata, a lengthened
discussion took place on the state of affairs. The Aetolians sought
to establish their case by referring to their previous services to
Rome. But Valerius cut this line of argument short by saying that
“Such justification did not apply to the present circumstances; for
as these old friendly relations had been broken off by them, and the
existing hostility was owing entirely to the Aetolians themselves,
the services of the past could be of no assistance to them in the
present. They must therefore abandon all idea of justification, and
adopt a tone of supplication, and beseech the consul’s pardon for
their transgressions.” After a long discussion on various details, the
Aetolians eventually decided to leave the whole matter to Acilius, and
commit themselves without reserve to the good faith of the Romans.
They had no comprehension of what this really involved; but they were
misled by the word “faith” into supposing that the Romans would thereby
be more inclined to grant them terms. But with the Romans for a man
“to commit himself to their good faith” is held to be equivalent to
“surrendering unconditionally.”
[Sidenote: Aetolian embassy to Acilius.]
[Sidenote: Roman terms.]
[Sidenote: The Aetolians fail to ratify the peace.]
+10.+ Having come to this resolution, Phaeneas despatched legates with
Valerius to announce the decision of the Aetolians to Acilius. On being
admitted to the presence of the Consul, these legates, after once
more entering upon a plea of self-justification, ended by announcing
that the Aetolians had decided to commit themselves to the good faith
of the Romans. Hereupon Acilius interrupted them by saying, “Is this
really the case, men of Aetolia?” And upon their answering in the
affirmative, he said: “Well then, the first condition is that none
of you, individually or collectively, must cross to Asia; the second
is that you must surrender Menestratus the Epirote” (who happened at
that time to be at Naupactus, where he had come to the assistance of
the Aetolians), “and also King Amynander, with such of the Athamanians
as accompanied him in his desertion to your side.” Here Phaeneas
interrupted him by saying: “But it is neither just nor consonant with
Greek customs, O Consul, to do what you order.” To which Acilius
replied,—not so much because he was angry, as because he wished to
show him the dangerous position in which he stood, and to thoroughly
frighten him,—“Do you still presume to talk to me about Greek customs,
and about honour and duty, after having committed yourselves to my
good faith? Why, I might if I chose put you all in chains and commit
you to prison!” With these words he ordered his men to bring a chain
and an iron collar and put it on the neck of each of them. Thereupon
Phaeneas and his companions stood in speechless amazement, as though
bereft of all power of thought or motion, at this unexpected turn of
affairs. But Valerius and some others who were present besought Acilius
not to inflict any severity upon the Aetolians then before him, as
they were in the position of ambassadors. And on his yielding to these
representations, Phaeneas broke silence by saying that “He and the
Apocleti were ready to obey the injunctions, but they must consult the
general assembly if they were to be confirmed.” Upon Acilius agreeing
to this, he demanded a truce often days to be granted. This also having
been conceded, they departed with these terms, and on arrival at Hypata
told the Apocleti what had been done and the speeches that had been
made. This report was the first thing which made their error, and the
compulsion under which they were placed, clear to the Aetolians. It
was therefore decided to write round to the various cities and call
the Aetolians together, to consult on the injunctions imposed upon
them. When the news of the reception Phaeneas had met with was noised
abroad, the Aetolian people were so infuriated that no one would even
attend the meeting to discuss the matter at all. It was thus impossible
to hold the discussion. They were further encouraged by the arrival
of Nicander, who just at that time sailed into Phalara, on the Malian
gulf, from Asia, bringing news of the warm reception given him by
Antiochus, and the promises for the future which the king had made;
they therefore became quite indifferent as to the non-completion of the
peace. Thus when the days of the truce had elapsed the Aetolians found
themselves still at war with Rome.
[Sidenote: The fate of Nicander.]
+11.+ But I ought not to omit to describe the subsequent career and
fate of Nicander. He arrived back at Phalara on the twelfth day after
leaving Ephesus, and found the Romans still engaged in Heracleia,
and the Macedonians having already evacuated Lamia, but encamped at
no great distance from the town: he thereupon conveyed his money
unexpectedly into Lamia, and attempted himself to make his way
between the two camps into Hypata. But, falling into the hands of the
Macedonian pickets, he was taken to Philip, while his evening party
was still at the midst of their entertainment, greatly alarmed lest
he should meet with rough treatment from having incurred Philip’s
resentment, or should be handed over to the Romans. But when the
matter was reported to the king, he at once gave orders that the
proper officers should offer Nicander refreshments, and show him
every politeness and attention. After a time he got up from table and
went personally to visit him; and after enlarging at great length
on “the folly of the Aetolians, for having first brought the Romans
into Greece, and afterwards Antiochus,” he still, even at this hour,
urged that “they should forget their past, adhere to their loyalty to
himself, and not show a disposition to take advantage of each other’s
difficulties.” He bade Nicander convey this message to the leaders of
the Aetolians, and exhorting him personally to remember the favours
which he had received at his hands, he despatched him with a sufficient
escort, which he ordered to see him safe into Hypata. This result was
far beyond Nicander’s hopes or expectations. He was restored in due
course to his friends, and from the moment of this adventure remained
devoted to the royal family of Macedonia. Thus, in the subsequent
period of the war with Perseus, the obligations which this favour had
imposed upon him caused him to offer such an unwilling and lukewarm
opposition to the designs of Perseus, that he exposed himself to
suspicion and denunciation, and at last was summoned to Rome and died
there....
[Sidenote: The Spartans wish to offer Philopoemen the palace of Nabis
as a reward, and as an inducement to defend their liberty. Plutarch,
_Philop._ 15.]
+12.+ The Spartans could not find one of their own citizens willing
to address Philopoemen on this subject. To men who for the most part
undertake work for what they can get by it there are plenty of people
to offer such rewards, and to regard them as the means of founding
and consolidating friendship: but in the case of Philipoemen no one
could be found willing to convey this offer to him at all. Finally,
being completely at a loss, they elected Timolaus to do it, as being
his ancestral guest-friend and very intimate with him. Timolaus twice
journeyed to Megalopolis for this express purpose, without daring
to say a word to Philopoemen about it. But having goaded himself to
making a third attempt, he at length plucked up courage to mention
the proposed gifts. Much to his surprise Philopoemen received the
suggestion with courtesy; and Timolaus was overjoyed by the belief
that he had attained his object. Philopoemen, however, remarked that
he would come to Sparta himself in the course of the next few days;
for he wished to offer all the magistrates his thanks for this favour.
He accordingly came, and, being invited to attend the Senate, he said:
“He had long been aware of the kindness with which the Lacedaemonians
regarded him; but was more convinced than ever by the compliments and
extraordinary mark of honour they now offered him. But while gratefully
accepting their intention, he disliked the particular manner of its
exhibition. They should not bestow such honour and rewards on their
friends, the poison of which would indelibly infect the receiver, but
rather upon their enemies; that the former might retain their freedom
of speech and the confidence of the Achaeans when proposing to offer
assistance to Sparta; while the latter, by swallowing the bait, might
be compelled either to support their cause, or at any rate to keep
silence and do them no harm....”
_The remaining events of the war against Antiochus in this year are
related by Livy, 36, 41-45. Acilius was engaged for two months in the
siege of Naupactus: while the Roman fleet under Gaius Livius defeated
that of Antiochus, under his admiral Polyxenidas, off Phocaea._
To see an operation with one’s own eyes is not like merely hearing
a description of it. It is, indeed, quite another thing; and the
confidence which such vivid experience gives is always greatly
advantageous....