Chapter XXXIII: Book IX: Extract From the Preface (2)

[Sidenote: Agrigentum taken by Marcus Valerius Laevinus, late in the year B.C. 210, _jam magna parte anni circumacta_. Livy, 26, 40.]

+27.+ The city of Agrigentum is not only superior to most cities in the particulars I have mentioned, but above all in beauty and elaborate ornamentation. It stands within eighteen stades of the sea, so that it participates in every advantage from that quarter; while its circuit of fortification is particularly strong both by nature and art. For its wall is placed on a rock, steep and precipitous, on one side naturally, on the other made so artificially. And it is enclosed by rivers: for along the south side runs the river of the same name as the town, and along the west and south-west side the river called Hypsas. The citadel overlooks the city exactly at the south-east, girt on the outside by an impassable ravine, and on the inside with only one approach from the town. On the top of it is a temple of Athene and of Zeus Atabyrius as at Rhodes: for as Agrigentum was founded by the Rhodians, it is natural that this deity should have the same appellation as at Rhodes. The city is sumptuously adorned in other respects also with temples and colonnades. The temple of Zeus Olympius is still unfinished, but in its plan and dimensions it seems to be inferior to no temple whatever in all Greece....

* * * * *

[Sidenote: The treatment of the refugees and desperadoes who had collected at Agathyrna in Sicily. See Livy, 26, 40 _fin._]

Marcus Valerius persuaded these refugees, on giving them a pledge for the security of their lives, to leave Sicily and go to Italy, on condition that they should receive pay from the people of Rhegium for plundering Bruttium, and retain all booty obtained from hostile territory....

GREECE

_Speech of Chlaeneas, the Aetolian, at Sparta. In the autumn of_ B.C. 211 _the Consul-designate, M. Valerius Laevinus, induced the Aetolians, Scopas being their Strategus, to form an alliance with them against Philip. The treaty, as finally concluded, embraced also the Eleans, Lacedaemonians, King Attalus of Pergamum, the Thracian King Pleuratus, and the Illyrian Scerdilaidas. A mission was sent from Aetolia to persuade the Lacedaemonians to join. See Livy, 26, 24._

[Sidenote: B.C. 347.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Chaeronea, B.C. 338.]

[Sidenote: Succession of Alexander the Great, B.C. 336.]

[Sidenote: Destruction of Thebes, B.C. 335.]

“That the Macedonian supremacy, men of Sparta, was the beginning of slavery to the Greeks, I am persuaded that no one will venture to deny; and you may satisfy yourselves by looking at it thus. There was a league of Greeks living in the parts towards Thrace who were colonists from Athens and Chalcis, of which the most conspicuous and powerful was the city of Olynthus. Having enslaved and made an example of this town, Philip not only became master of the Thraceward cities, but reduced Thessaly also to his authority by the terror which he had thus set up. Not long after this he conquered the Athenians in a pitched battle, and used his success with magnanimity, not from any wish to benefit the Athenians—far from it, but in order that his favourable treatment of them might induce the other states to submit to him voluntarily. The reputation of your city was still such that it seemed likely, that, if a proper opportunity arose, it would recover its supremacy in Greece. Accordingly, without waiting for any but the slightest pretext, Philip came with his army and cut down everything standing in your fields, and destroyed the houses with fire. And at last, after destroying towns and open country alike, he assigned part of your territory to the Argives, part to Tegea and Megalopolis, and part to the Messenians: determined to benefit every people in spite of all justice, on the sole condition of their injuring you. Alexander succeeded Philip on the throne, and how he destroyed Thebes, because he thought that it contained a spark of Hellenic life, however small, you all I think know well.

[Sidenote: Battle of Crannon, ending the Lamian war, 7th Aug., B.C. 322.]

[Sidenote: Defeat of Brennus at Delphi, B.C. 279. Pausan. 10, 15; 20-23.]

+29.+ “And why need I speak in detail of how the successors of this king have treated the Greeks? For surely there is no man living, so uninterested in public affairs, as not to have heard how Antipater in his victory at Lamia treated the unhappy Athenians, as well as the other Greeks; and how he went so far in violence and brutality as to institute man-hunters, and send them to the various cities to catch all who had ever spoken against, or in any way annoyed, the royal family of Macedonia: of whom some were dragged by force from the temples, and others from the very altars, and put to death with torture, and others who escaped were forced to leave Greece entirely; nor had they any refuge save the Aetolian nation alone. For the Aetolians were the only people in Greece who withstood Antipater in behalf of those unjustly defrauded of safety to their lives: they alone faced the invasion of Brennus and his barbarian army: and they alone came to your aid when called upon, with a determination to assist you in regaining your ancestral supremacy in Greece.[332] Who again is ignorant of the deeds of Cassander, Demetrius, and Antigonus Gonatas? For owing to their recency the knowledge of them still remains distinct. Some of them by introducing garrisons, and others by implanting despots in the cities, effectually secured that every state should share the infamous brand of slavery. But passing by all these I will now come to the last Antigonus,[333] lest any of you, viewing his policy unsuspiciously, should consider that you are under an obligation to the Macedonians. For it was with no purpose of saving the Achaeans that he undertook the war against you, nor from any dislike of the tyranny of Cleomenes inducing him to free the Lacedaemonians. If any man among you holds this opinion, he must be simple indeed. No! It was because he saw that his own power would not be secure if you got the rule of the Peloponnese; and because he saw that Cleomenes was of a nature well calculated to secure this object, and that fortune was splendidly seconding your efforts, that he came in a tumult of fear and jealousy, not to help Peloponnesians, but to destroy your hopes and abase your power. Therefore you do not owe the Macedonians so much gratitude for not destroying your city when they had taken it, as hostility and hatred, for having more than once already stood in your way, when you were strong enough to grasp the supremacy of Greece.

[Sidenote: Philip V.]

+30.+ “Again, what need to speak more on the wickedness of Philip? For of his impiety towards the gods his outrages on the temples at Thermus are a sufficient proof; and of his cruelty towards man, his perfidy and treachery to the Messenians.

“So much for the past. But as to the present resolution before you, it is in a way necessary to draft it, and vote on it, as though you were deciding on war, and yet in real truth not to regard it as a war. For it is impossible for the Achaeans, beaten as they are, to damage your territory: but I imagine that they will be only too thankful to heaven if they can but protect their own, when they find themselves surrounded by war with Eleans and Messenians as allied to us, and with ourselves at the same time. And Philip, I am persuaded, will soon desist from his attack, when involved in a war by land with Aetolians, and by sea with Rome and King Attalus. The future may be easily conjectured from the past. For if he always failed to subdue Aetolians when they were his only enemies, can we conceive that he will be able to support the war if all these combine?

+31.+ “I have said thus much with the deliberate purpose of showing you that you are not hampered by previous engagements, but are entirely free in your deliberations as to which you ought to join—Aetolians or Macedonians. If you are under an earlier engagement, and have already made up your minds on these points, what room is there for further argument? For if you had made the alliance now existing between yourselves and us, previous to the good services done you by Antigonus, there might perhaps have been some reason for questioning whether it were right to neglect an old treaty in gratitude for recent favours. But since it was subsequent to this much vaunted freedom and security given you by Antigonus, and with which they are perpetually taunting you, that, after deliberation and frequent consideration as to which of the two you ought to join, you decided to combine with us Aetolians; and have actually exchanged pledges of fidelity with us, and have fought by our side in the late war against Macedonia, how can any one entertain a doubt on the subject any longer? For the obligations of kindness between you and Antigonus and Philip were cancelled then. It now remains for you to point out some subsequent wrong done you by Aetolians, or subsequent favour by Macedonians: or if neither of these exist, on what grounds are you now, at the instance of the very men to whom you justly refused to listen formerly, when no obligation existed, about to undo treaties and oaths—the strongest bonds of fidelity existing among mankind.”

Such was the conclusion of what was considered a very cogent speech by Chlaeneas.

+32.+ After him the ambassador of the Acarnanians, Lyciscus, came forward: and at first he paused, seeing the multitude talking to each other about the last speech; but when at last silence was obtained, he began his speech as follows:—

[Sidenote: Speech of Lyciscus, envoy from Acarnania, which country was to fall to the Aetolians by the proposed new treaty. See Livy, 26, 24.]

“I and my colleagues, men of Sparta, have been sent to you by the common league of the Acarnanians; and as we have always shared in the same prospects as the Macedonians, we consider that this mission also is common to us and them. For just as on the field of war, owing to the superiority and magnitude of the Macedonian force, our safety is involved in their valour; so, in the controversies of diplomacy, our interests are inseparable from the rights of the Macedonians. Now Chlaeneas in the peroration of his address gave a summary of the obligations existing between the Aetolians and yourselves. For he said, 'If subsequent to your making the alliance with them any fresh injury or offence had been committed by Aetolians, or any kindness done by Macedonians, the present proposal ought properly to be discussed as a fresh start; but that if, nothing of the sort having taken place, we believe that by quoting the services of Antigonus, and your former decrees, we shall be able to annul existing oaths and treaties, we are the greatest simpletons in the world.’ To this I reply by acknowledging that I must indeed be the most foolish of men, and that the arguments I am about to put forward are indeed futile, if, as he maintains, nothing fresh has happened, and Greek affairs are in precisely the same position as before. But if exactly the reverse be the case, as I shall clearly prove in the course of my speech,—then I imagine that I shall be shown to give you some salutary advice, and Chlaeneas to be quite in the wrong. We are come, then, expressly because we are convinced that it is needful for us to speak on this very point: namely, to point out to you that it is at once your duty and your interest, after hearing of the evils threatening Greece, to adopt if possible a policy excellent and worthy of yourselves by uniting your prospects with ours; or if that cannot be, at least to abstain from this movement for the present.

+33.+ “But since the last speaker has ventured to go back to ancient times for his denunciations of the Macedonian royal family, I feel it incumbent on me also to say a few words first on these points, to remove the misconception of those who have been carried away by his words.

[Sidenote: Sacred war, B.C. 357-346. Onomarchus killed near the gulf of Pagasae, B.C. 352. See Diodor. 16, 32-35.]

[Sidenote: Philip elected generalissimo against Persia in the congress of allies at Corinth, B.C. 338.]

“Chlaenaes said, then, that Philip son of Amyntas became master of Thessaly by the ruin of Olynthus. But I conceive that not only the Thessalians, but the other Greeks also, were preserved by Philip’s means. For at the time when Onomarchus and Philomelus, in defiance of religion and law seized Delphi and made themselves masters of the treasury of the god, who is there among you who does not know that they collected such a mighty force as no Greek dared any longer face? Nay, along with this violation of religion, they were within an ace of becoming lords of all Greece also. At that crisis Philip volunteered his assistance; destroyed the tyrants, secured the temple, and became the author of freedom to the Greeks, as is testified even to posterity by the facts. For Philip was unanimously elected general-in-chief by land and sea, not, as my opponent ventured to assert, as one who had wronged Thessaly; but on the ground of his being a benefactor of Greece: an honour which no one had previously obtained. 'Ay, but,’ he says, 'Philip came with an armed force into Laconia.' Yes, but it was not of his own choice, as you know: he reluctantly consented to do so, after repeated invitations and appeals by the Peloponnesians, under the name of their friend and ally. And when he did come, pray observe, Chlaeneas, how he behaved. Though he could have availed himself of the wishes of the neighbouring states for the destruction of these men’s territory and the humiliation of their city, and have won much gratitude too by his act, he by no means lent himself to such a policy; but, by striking terror into the one and the other alike, he compelled both parties to accommodate their differences in a congress, to the common benefit of all: not putting himself forward as arbitrator of the points in dispute, but appointing a joint board of arbitration selected from all Greece. Is that a proceeding which deserves to be held up to reproach and execration?

[Sidenote: Alexander’s services to Greece.]

+34.+ “Again, you bitterly denounced Alexander, because, when he believed himself to be wronged, he punished Thebes: but of his having exacted vengeance of the Persians for their outrages on all the Greeks you made no mention at all, nor of his having released us all in common from heavy miseries, by enslaving the barbarians, and depriving them of the supplies which they used for the ruin of the Greeks,—sometimes pitting the Athenians against the ancestors of these gentlemen here, at another the Thebans; nor finally of his having subjected Asia to the Greeks.

[Sidenote: The Diadochi.]

[Sidenote: The Aetolian policy.]

“As for Alexander’s successors how had you the audacity to mention them? They were indeed, according to the circumstances of the time, on many occasions the authors of good to some and of harm to others: for which perhaps others might be allowed to bear them a grudge. But to _you_ Aetolians it is in no circumstance open to do so,—you who have never been the authors of anything good to any one, but of mischief to many and on many occasions! Who was it that called in Antigonus son of Demetrius to the partition of the Achaean league? Who was it that made a sworn treaty with Alexander of Epirus for the enslaving and dismembering of Acarnania? Was it not you? What nation ever sent out military commanders duly accredited of the sort that you have? Men that ventured to do violence to the sanctity of asylum itself! Timaeus violated the sanctuary of Poseidon on Taenarum, and of Artemis at Lusi. Pharylus and Polycritus plundered, the former the sacred enclosure of Here in Argos, the latter that of Poseidon at Mantinea. What again about Lattabus and Nicostratus? Did not they make a treacherous attack on the assembly of the Pan-boeotians in time of peace, committing outrages worthy of Scythians and Gauls? You will find no such crimes as these committed by the Diadochi.

[Sidenote: B.C. 279.]

[Sidenote: Defeat and death of Ptolemy Ceraunus in the battle with the Gauls, B.C. 280. See Pausan. 10, 19, 7.]

+35.+ “Not being able to say anything in defence of any of these acts, you talk pompously about your having resisted the invasion of Delphi by the barbarians, and allege that for this Greece ought to be grateful to you. But if for this one service some gratitude is owing to the Aetolians; what high honour do the Macedonians deserve, who throughout nearly their whole lives are ceaselessly engaged in a struggle with the barbarians for the safety of the Greeks? For that Greece would have been continually involved in great dangers, if we had not had the Macedonians and the ambition of their kings as a barrier, who is ignorant? And there is a very striking proof of this. For no sooner had the Gauls conceived a contempt for the Macedonians, by their victory over Ptolemy Ceraunus, than, thinking the rest of no account, Brennus promptly marched into the middle of Greece. And this would often have happened if the Macedonians had not been on our frontiers.

“However, though I have much that I could say on the past, I think this is enough. Of all the actions of Philip, they have selected his destruction of the temple, to fasten the charge of impiety upon him. They did not add a word about their own outrage and crime, which they perpetrated in regard to the temples in Dium, and Dodona, and the sacred enclosures of the gods. The speaker should have mentioned this first. But anything you Aetolians have suffered you recount to these gentlemen with exaggeration: but the things you have inflicted unprovoked, though many times as numerous as the others, you pass over in silence; because you know full well that everybody lays the blame of acts of injustice and mischief on those who give the provocation by unjust actions themselves.

+36.+ “Of Antigonus I will only make mention so far, as to avoid appearing to despise what was done, or to treat as unimportant so great an undertaking. For my part I think that history does not contain the record of a more admirable service than that which Antigonus performed for you: indeed it appears to me to be unsurpassable. And the following facts will show this. Antigonus went to war with you and conquered you in a pitched battle. By force of arms he became master of your territory and city at once. He might have exercised all the rights of war upon you: but he was so far from inflicting any hardships upon you, that, besides other benefits, he expelled your tyrant and restored your laws and ancestral constitution. In return for which, in the national assemblies, calling the Greeks to witness your words, you proclaimed Antigonus your benefactor and preserver.

“What then ought to have been your policy? I will speak what I really think, gentlemen of Sparta: and you will I am sure bear with me. For I shall do this now from no wish to go out of my way to bring railing accusations against you, but under the pressure of circumstances, and for the common good. What then am I to say? This: that both in the late war you ought to have allied yourselves not with Aetolians but with Macedonians; and now again, in answer to these invitations, you ought to join Philip rather than the former people. But, it may be objected, you will be breaking a treaty. Which will be the graver breach of right on your part,—to neglect a private arrangement made with Aetolians, or one that has been inscribed on a column and solemnly consecrated in the sight of all Greece? On what ground are you so careful of breaking faith with this people, from whom you have never received any favour, while you pay no heed to Philip and the Macedonians, to whom you owe even the very power of deliberating to-day? Do you regard it as a duty to keep faith with friends? Yet it is not so much a point of conscience to confirm written pledges of faith, as it is a violation of conscience to go to war with those who preserved you: and this is what, in the present instance, the Aetolians are come to demand of you.

+37.+ “Let it, however, be granted that what I have now said may in the eyes of severe critics be regarded as beside the subject. I will now return to the main point at issue, as they state it. It was this: 'If the circumstances are the same now as at the time when you made alliance with the Aetolians, then your policy ought to remain on the same lines.’ That was their first proposition. 'But if they have been entirely changed, then it is fair that you should now deliberate on the demands made to you as on a matter entirely new and unprejudiced.' I ask you therefore, Cleonicus and Chlaeneas, who were your allies on the former occasion when you invited this people to join you? Were they not all the Greeks? But with whom are you now united, or to what kind of federation are you now inviting this people? Is it not to one with the foreigner? A mighty similarity exists, no doubt, in your minds, and no diversity at all! _Then_ you were contending for glory and supremacy with Achaeans and Macedonians, men of kindred blood with yourselves, and with Philip their leader; _now_ a war of slavery is threatening Greece against men of another race, whom you think to bring against Philip, but have really unconsciously brought against yourselves and all Greece. For just as men in the stress of war, by introducing into their cities garrisons superior in strength to their own forces, while successfully repelling all danger from the enemy, put themselves at the mercy of their friends,—just so are the Aetolians acting in the present case. For in their desire to conquer Philip and humble Macedonia, they have unconsciously brought such a mighty cloud from the west, as for the present perhaps will overshadow Macedonia first, but which in the sequel will be the origin of heavy evils to all Greece.

[Sidenote: B.C. 492. Herod. 6, 48; 7, 133.]

[Sidenote: B.C. 480]

+38.+ “All Greeks indeed have need to be on the alert for the crisis which is coming on: but Lacedaemonians above all. For why was it, do you suppose, men of Sparta, that your ancestors, when Xerxes sent an ambassador to your town demanding earth and water, thrust the man into a well, and, throwing earth upon him, bade him take back word to Xerxes that he had got from the Lacedaemonians what he had demanded from them,—earth and water? Why was it again, do you suppose, that Leonidas and his men started forth to a voluntary and certain death? Was it not that they might have the glory of being the forlorn hope, not only of their own freedom, but of that of all Greece also? And it would indeed be a worthy action for descendants of such heroes as these to make a league with the barbarians now, and to serve with them; and to war against Epirotes, Achaeans, Acarnanians, Boeotians, Thessalians, and in fact against nearly every Greek state except Aetolians! To these last it is habitual to act thus: and to regard nothing as disgraceful, so long only as it is accompanied by an opportunity of plunder. It is not so, however, with you. And what must we expect these people to do, now that they have obtained the support of the Roman alliance? For when they obtained an accession of strength and support from the Illyrians, they at once set about acts of piracy at sea, and treacherously seized Pylus; while by land they stormed the city of Cleitor, and sold the Cynethans into slavery. Once before they made a treaty with Antigonus, as I said just now, for the destruction of the Achaean and Acarnanian races; and now they have done the same with Rome for the destruction of all Greece.

[Sidenote: Herod. 7, 132.]

+39.+ “With a knowledge of such transactions before his eyes who could help suspecting an attack from Rome, and feeling abhorrence at the abandoned conduct of the Aetolians in daring to make such a treaty? They have already wrested Oeniadae and Nesus from the Acarnanians, and recently seized the city of the unfortunate Anticyreans, whom, in conjunction with the Romans, they have sold into slavery.[334] Their children and women are led off by the Romans to suffer all the miseries which those must expect who fall into the hands of aliens; while the houses of the unhappy inhabitants are allotted among the Aetolians. Surely a noble alliance this to join deliberately! Especially for Lacedaemonians: who, after conquering the barbarians, decreed that the Thebans, for being the only Greeks that resolved to remain neutral during the Persian invasion, should pay a tenth of their goods to the gods.

“The honourable course then, men of Sparta, and the one becoming your character, is to remember from what ancestors you are sprung; to be on your guard against an attack from Rome; to suspect the treachery of the Aetolians. Above all to recall the services of Antigonus: and so once more show your loathing for dishonest men; and, rejecting the friendship of the Aetolians, unite your hopes for the future with those of Achaia and Macedonia. If, however, any of your own influential citizens are intriguing against this policy, then at least remain neutral, and do not take part in the iniquities of these Aetolians....”

* * * * *

_In the autumn of B.C. 211, Philip being in Thrace, Scopas made a levy of Aetolians to invade Acarnania. The Acarnanians sent their wives, children, and old men to Epirus, while the rest of them bound themselves by a solemn execration never to rejoin their friends except as conquerors of the invading Aetolians. Livy, 26, 25._

+40.+ When the Acarnanians heard of the intended invasion of the Aetolians, in a tumult of despair and fury they adopted a measure of almost frantic violence....

If any one of them survived the battle and fled from the danger, they begged that no one should receive him in any city or give him a light for a fire. And this they enjoined on all with a solemn execration, and especially on the Epirotes, to the end that they should offer none of those who fled an asylum in their territory....

* * * * *

_When Philip was informed of the invasion he advanced promptly to the relief of Acarnania; hearing of which the Aetolians returned home._ _Livy_, l. c.

* * * * *

Zeal on the part of friends, if shown in time, is of great service; but if it is dilatory and late, it renders the assistance nugatory,—supposing, of course, that they wish to keep the terms of their alliance, not merely on paper, but by actual deeds.[335]...

INVESTMENT OF ECHINUS BY PHILIP

[Sidenote: In the campaigns of Philip, during the time that Publius Sulpicius Galba as Proconsul commanded a Roman fleet in Greek waters, _i.e._ from B.C. 209 to B.C. 206. See Livy, 26, 22, 28; 28, 5-7; 29, 12.]

+41.+ Having determined to make his approach upon the town at the two towers, he erected opposite to them diggers’ sheds and rams; and opposite the space between the towers he erected a covered way between the rams, parallel to the wall. And when the plan was complete, the appearance of the works was very like the style of the wall. For the super-structures on the pent-houses had the appearance and style of towers, owing to the placing of the wattles side by side; and the space between looked like a wall, because the row of wattles at the top of the covered way were divided into battlements by the fashion in which they were woven. In the lowest division of these besieging towers the diggers employed in levelling inequalities, to allow the stands of the battering-rams to be brought up, kept throwing on earth, and the ram was propelled forward: in the second story were water vessels and other appliances for quenching fires, and along with them the catapults: and on the third a considerable body of men were placed to fight with all who tried to damage the rams; and they were on a level with the city towers. From the covered way between the besieging towers a double trench was to be dug towards the wall, between the city towers. There were also three batteries for stone-throwing machines, one of which carried stones of a talent weight, and the other two half that weight. From the camp to the pent-houses and diggers’ sheds underground tunnels had been constructed, to prevent men, going to the works from the camp or returning from the works, being wounded in any way by missiles from the town. These works were completed in a very few days, because the district round produced what was wanted for this service in abundance. For Echinus is situated on the Melian Gulf, facing south, exactly opposite the territory of Thronium, and enjoys a soil rich in every kind of produce; thanks to which circumstance Philip had no scarcity of anything he required for his purpose. Accordingly, as I said, as soon as the works were completed, they begun at once pushing the trenches and the siege machinery towards the walls....

[Sidenote: Spring of B.C. 209.[336]

+42.+ While Philip was investing Echinus, and had secured his position excellently on the side of the town, and had strengthened the outer line of his camp with a trench and wall, Publius Sulpicius, the Roman proconsul, ] and Dorimachus, Strategus of the Aetolians, arrived in person,—Publius with a fleet, and Dorimachus with an army of infantry and cavalry,—and assaulted Philip’s entrenchment. Their repulse led to greater exertions on Philip’s part in his attack upon the Echinaeans, who in despair surrendered to him. For Dorimachus was not able to reduce Philip by cutting off his supplies, as he got them by sea....

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Aegina taken before the end of 208 B.C., for Sulpicius wintered there between 208-207 B.C. See Livy, 27, 32.]

When Aegina was taken by the Romans, such of the inhabitants as had not escaped crowded together at the ships, and begged the proconsul to allow them to send ambassadors to cities of their kinsmen to obtain ransom. Publius at first returned a harsh answer, saying, that “When they were their own masters was the time that they ought to have sent ambassadors to their betters to ask for mercy, not now when they were slaves. A little while ago they had not thought an ambassador from him worthy of even a word; now that they were captives they expected to be allowed to send ambassadors to their kinsfolk: was that not sheer folly?” So at the time he dismissed those who came to him with these words. But next morning he called all the captives together and said that, as to the Aeginetans, he owed them no favour; but for the sake of the rest of the Greeks he would allow them to send ambassadors to get ransom, since that was the custom of their country....

ASIA

[Sidenote: July 26.]

[Sidenote: The transport of the army of Antiochus in his eastern campaigns. See _supra_, 8, 25.]

+43.+ The Euphrates rises in Armenia and flows through Syria and the country beyond to Babylonia. It seems to discharge itself into the Red Sea; but in point of fact it does not do so: for its waters are dissipated among the ditches dug across the fields before it reaches the sea. Accordingly the nature of this river is the reverse of that of others. For in other rivers the volume of water is increased in proportion to the greater distance traversed, and they are at their highest in winter and lowest in midsummer; but this river is fullest of water at the rising of the dog-star, and has the largest volume of water in Syria, which continually decreases as it advances. The reason of this is that the increase is not caused by the collection of winter rains, but by the melting of the snows; and its decrease by the diversion of its stream into the land, and its subdivision for the purposes of irrigation. It was this which on this occasion made the transport of the army slow, because as the boats were heavily laden, and the stream very low, the forces of the current did exceedingly little to help them down.

EMBASSY FROM ROME TO PTOLEMY

[Sidenote: M. Atilius and Manius Glabrio sent to Alexandria with presents to Ptolemy Philopator and Queen Cleopatra. Livy, 27, 4, B.C. 210.]

+44.+ The Romans sent ambassadors to Ptolemy, wishing to be supplied with corn, as they were suffering from a great scarcity of it at home; and, moreover, when all Italy had been laid waste by the enemy’s troops up to the gates of Rome, and when all supplies from abroad were stopped by the fact that war was raging, and armies encamped, in all parts of the world except in Egypt. In fact the scarcity at Rome had come to such a pitch, that a Sicilian medimnus was sold for fifteen drachmae.[337] But in spite of this distress the Romans did not relax in their attention to the war.

END OF VOL. I

FOOTNOTES:

[1] Vita Nicolai V. a _Dominico Georgio_, Rome, 1742, p. 206.

[2] Casaubon mentions in his preface several partial editions and translations which had appeared by Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, and Belgians. But he says all such translations were founded on the faulty Latin translation of Perotti; and none were of any value. The only fairly good one was a German translation.

[3] Unless the avoidance of the hiatus be counted one, which has been pointed out by Hultsch. I cannot forbear from quoting here the admirable words of Casaubon on the style of Polybius:—_Non deest sed non eminet in Polybio facundia. Nihil vero est iniquius illis, qui nullam putant esse eloquentiam, nisi uti nihil est præter eloquentiam. Semper mihi apprime placuit Diodori Siculi sententia, vehementius in historico eloquentiae studium improbantis. Verborum enim curam nimiam veri fere par sequitur incuria. Oratio vultus animi est: ut hic fuerit gravis aut solutus, ita etiam illa vel severa erit vel mollis._ The nearest Greek to that of Polybius is II. Maccabees.

[4] Livy, 38, 30-34.

[5] Polyb. 23, 1, 7, 9.

[6] Polyb. 24, 6.

[7] Polyb. 29, 24.

[8] Plutarch, _Timol._ ch. 39; Plato, _Laws_, 947.

[9] Cicero, _Ep. ad Fam._ 5, 12

[10] Lucian, _Macrobii_, § 22.

[11] Livy, 36, 31.

[12] Pausan. 7, 9, 4.

[13] As Callicrates in B.C. 179; Polyb. 36, 2.

[14] 25, 9.

[15] 26, 3. Callicrates at the same time secured a party in his favour, during his year of office B.C. 179, by restoring the Spartan and Messenian exiles; in return for which the former set up his statue at Olympia, the base of which is preserved. Hicks’s _Greek Inscriptions_, p. 330.

[16] 28, 3.

[17] 28, 6.

[18] See 11, 8.

[19] 28, 12.

[20] The decree was brought into the Peloponnese by C. Popilius and Cn. Octavius in B.C. 171. See Livy, 43, 17, _ne quis ullam rem in bellum magistratibus Romanis conferret præter quam quod Senatus censuisset_. Cp. Polyb. 28, 3.

[21] 28, 13-14.

[22] 28, 7.

[23] 29, 23.

[24] 29, 25, 26.

[25] Thus Appius Claudius Cento would be hostile from the rejection of his illegal demand for 5000 men. One of the common grounds of offence had long been the refusal of Philopoemen and other Strategi to summon an assembly to meet a Roman officer unless he came duly authorised with a definite communication from the Senate. On this ground Quintus Caecilius was refused in B.C. 185 (Polyb. 23, 19) and also Titus Flamininus in B.C. 183 (Polyb. 24, 5). See Freeman’s _Federal Government_, pp. 652-655. And no doubt other cases of a similar nature would occur, generally leading to an unfavourable report at Rome.

[26] Polyb. 30, 13. Thirlwall, vol. viii. p. 419.

[27] Pausanias, 7, 10, 7-12.

[28] Some few, it appears, had managed to escape, though at the risk of certain execution if caught.

[29] Polyb. 29, 21. Plutarch, _Aemilius_, ch. 28.

[30] Diodorus Sic. _fr. lib._ 31; Plutarch, _Apophth. Scip. min._ 2.

[31] 32, 8-16.

[32] Thus he seems to have searched the Archives of the Pontifices. Dionys. Halicarn. 1, 73. And he observed and criticised all Roman customs, as, for instance, the provision for boys’ education at Rome. Cic. _de Rep._ 4, 3.

[33] 31, 19-21.

[34] 35, 6.

[35] Livy, _Ep._ 49; Appian, _Pun._ 74-77.

[36] I infer this, not very confidently, from 9, 25.

[37] 37, 3.

[38] Scipio was born B.C. 185.

[39] 9, 25.

[40] 39, 3.

[41] Pliny, _N. H._ 5, § 9.

[42] Pausanias, 7, 11-12.

[43] _Ib._ 13.

[44] _Ib._ 14; Polyb. 38, 7-8.

[45] 38, 7-10.

[46] Thucyd. 3. 92.

[47] Livy says the battle was at Thermopylae. This was near enough for a general statement, but Scarpheia is some miles to the south. Livy, _Ep._ 52, Pausan. 7. 15.

[48] 39, 8 _sq._ Pausan. 7, 12 _sq._

[49] This has been much disputed. See Thirlwall’s note, vol. viii. p. 455. If the fragment, 29, 13 (40, 7) is given correctly by Strabo, it seems certain that he must have arrived either before or immediately after the fall of Corinth.

[50] 39, 13-14.

[51] 39. 15.

[52] Livy, _Ep._ 52.

[53] Pausan. 7, 16, 9. Polyb. 39, 16.

[54] Thus in B.C. 44 Brutus going out as propraetor to take the province of Macedonia, goes first to Athens, and there, as well as in the rest of Greece, collects troops and money. See the note in Mommsen’s _History of Rome_, vol. III. p. 50 (book IV. c. 1.)

[55] Pausan. 8, 9, 1.

[56] _Id._ 8, 30, 8.

[57] _Id._ 8, 37, 2.

[58] _Id._ 8, 44, 5.

[59] _Id._ 8, 48, 8.

[60] The base of this has been discovered with its inscription—

Ἡ πόλις ἡ τῶν Ἠλείων Πολύβιον
Λυκόρτα Μεγαλοπολείτην.

Hê polis tôn Hêleiôn Polybion
Lykorta Megalopoleitên.

[61] Cicero, _Ep. ad Fam._ 5, 12. For the Numantine war (B.C. 134-132) the authorities are Appian, _Hisp._ 48-98; Eutrop. 4, 17; Cicero _de Off._ 1, 11, Strabo, 3, p. 162.

[62] 34, 14. Strabo, p. 677.

[63] 1, 1.

[64] 3, 4. It is clear that such passages, as for instance the beginning of 2, 42, must have been written before B.C. 146, and perhaps published, and therefore not altered. Cp. the answer of Zeno of Rhodes to corrections sent by Polybius, that he could not make alterations, as his work was already published (16, 20).

[65] 3, 57, cp. 34, 5.

[66] 21, 38.

[67] Lucian, _Macrobii_, §22.

[68] 9, 20.

[69] 10, 21.

[70] Cicero, _Epist. ad Fam._ 5, 12.

[71] 29, 10.

[72] 22, 14.

[73] _Off._ 3, 32.

[74] Republ. 2, 14, § 27.

[75] 3, 48.

[76] 3, 33.

[77] 3, 59.

[78] 9, 25.

[79] 10, 11.

[80] 16, 15.

[81] Dionys. Halic. 1, 17.

[82] 3, 22 _sqq._

[83] 31, 38.

[84] 34, 14.

[85] 12, 5.

[86] The elder Africanus died in B.C. 183.

[87] I append a list of all writers referred to by Polybius, the index will show the places where they are mentioned. Aeneas Tacticus, Alcaeus a grammarian, Antiphanes of Berga, Antisthenes of Rhodes, Aratus of Sicyon, Archedicus, Aristotle, Callisthenes, Demetrius of Phalerum, Demosthenes, Dicaearchus, Echecrates, Ephorus of Cumae, Epicharmus of Cos, Eratosthenes, Eudoxus, Euemerus, Euripides, Fabius Pictor, Hesiod, Homer, Philinus, Phylarchus, Pindar, Plato, Pytheas, Simonides of Ceos, Stasinus, Strabo, Theophrastus of Lesbos, Theopompus of Chios, Thucydides, Timaeus, Xenophon, Zaleucus, Zeno of Rhodes.

[88] 1, 14, 15.

[89] See bk. 12.

[90] 12, 15.

[91] Athenaeus, vi. 272 _b_.

[92] Plutarch, _Nicias_, 1, _Arat._ 38.

[93] In the reference to the Seven Magi (5, 43), and to the story of Cleobis and Bito (22, 20).

[94] Cornelius Nepos, _Alcib._ 11. Plutarch, _Lys._ 30. Lucian, _Quomodo hist. conscr._ § 59.

[95] The History of the Achaean league is given with unrivalled learning, clearness, and impartiality by Bishop Thirlwall in the eighth volume of his _History of Greece_. Its constitution has been discussed with great fulness by Professor E. A. Freeman in his _History of Federal Government_. Recently Mr. Capes has published an edition of the parts of Polybius referring to it which will be found useful; and Mr. Strachan-Davidson has an able essay upon it in his edition of Extracts from Polybius. Still some brief statement of the main features of this remarkable attempt to construct a durable Hellenic Federation could not be altogether omitted here.

[96] Take for instance the oath of the Pylagorae (Aeschin. _de Fal. L._ 121): “We will destroy no city of the Amphictyony, nor cut off its streams in peace or war; if any shall do so, we will march against him and destroy his cities; should any pillage the property of the god, or be privy to or plan anything against what is in his temple, we will take vengeance on him with hand and foot and voice and all our might.” This is indeed the language rather of a Militant Church than a state; but it is easily conceivable that, had these principles been carried out (which they were not), something nearer a central and sovereign parliament might have arisen.

[97] Herodotus, vi. 7, 11-12.

[98] See Herod. 9, 15; Thucyd. 2, 2; 4, 91; 5, 37; Xenophon _Hellen._ 3, 4, 4, Boeckh, _C. I. G._ vol. i. p. 726.

[99] Herod. 7, 145-169.

[100] _Id._ 7, 172-174.

[101] Herod. 9, 88; Polyb. 9, 39. Equally abortive proved another attempt at combination in B.C. 377, when the ξύνεδροι from the islands met for a time at Athens. Grote, vol. ix. p. 319.

[102] Herod. 6, 49.

[103] Polybius (12, 26 _c_.) says that in his time the schools were generally in disrepute. But is not this generally the verdict of “practical” men on universities? The excitement at Rome at the visit of the philosophers (B.C. 155) seems to show that they still enjoyed a world-wide reputation.

[104] Herod. 8, 73.

[105] Thucy. 1, 103.

[106] _Id._ 3, 94-98.

[107] Xen. _Hellen._ 4, 6, 13, 14.

[108] Pausan. 10, 38, 10.

[109] Demosth. 3 _Phil._ 120.

[110] Pausan. 1, 4, 4.

[111] 18, 4 and 5.

[112] Herod. 1, 145. Instead of Rhypes and Aegae, the first of which seems to have been burnt, and the other to have for some reason been deserted, Polybius (2, 41) mentions Leontium and Caryneia.

[113] Thucyd. 1, 111, 115.

[114] Thucyd. 4, 21.

[115] 2, 38, 39.

[116] 2, 39, 40.

[117] Plutarch, _Arat._ ch. 9.

[118] Plutarch, _Arat._ ch. 22.

[119] Though this law was several times broken, certainly in the case of Philopoemen, and probably in that of Aratus also. It is very difficult to arrive at a satisfactory arrangement of Aratus’s seventeen generalships if the strict alternation is preserved. See Freeman’s _Federal Government_, p. 601.

[120] 2, 46.

[121] Plutarch, _Cleomenes_, 3-16.

[122] Plutarch, _Cleom._ 3. Messenia had been free from the Spartans since the battle of Leuctra (B.C. 371). Epaminondas had meant by the foundation of Megalopolis and Messene (B.C. 371-370) to form a united Messenian and Arcadian state as a counterpoise to Sparta. The Messenians had drifted away from this arrangement, but were now members of the Achaean league. Polyb. 4, 32.

[123] 2, 46.

[124] Plutarch, _Cleom._ 15.

[125] See the remarks of Plutarch, _Arat._ 38.

[126] He was believed to have been long in secret communication with Antigonus. Plutarch, _l.c._

[127] Polyb. 8, 14; Plutarch, _Arat._ 52.

[128] 10, 22, 24

[129] 11, 9-10.

[130] Plutarch, _Philop._ 12, 13.

[131] Plutarch, _Philop._ 16; Livy, 38, 32-34.

[132] 2, 38.

[133] 26, 3 _sq._

[134] The title of Achaean Strategus seems to have been revived under the Empire. _C. I. G._ 1124. The principal authorities for the history of the last hundred years of Greek Independence, including that of the Achaean league, are Polybius, beginning with book 2, and in its turn going on throughout the rest of his work which remains; scattered notices in Livy from 27, 29 to the end of his extant work, and the epitomes of the last books, mostly translated directly from Polybius; Plutarch’s Lives of Agis, Cleomenes, Aratus, Philopoemen, Flamininus, Aemilius; Pausanias, 7, 6-16; parts of Diodorus; Justinus (epitome of Trogus); and some fragments of Greek historians collected by Müller.

[135] I speak of course of the restored league after the election of one Strategus began, B.C. 255.

[136] For the change of time of the election see note on 5, 1.

[137] We hear nothing of a secretary under the new league after the abolition of the dual presidency. But he probably still existed (2, 43).

[138] 10, 22.

[139] See ch. 46.

[140] This is certainly the meaning of the words of Polybius. But he has confused matters. The two new Consuls designated at the comitia of 249 were C. Aurelius Cotta II and P. Servilius Geminus II, whereas Lucius Junius Pullus was the existing Consul with the disgraced P. Claudius Pulcher. What really happened is made clear by Livy, Ep. 19. The Senate sent Junius with these supplies, recalled Claudius, and forced him to name a Dictator. Claudius retaliated by naming an obscure person, who was compelled to abdicate, and then Atilius Calatinus was nominated.

[141] The dangerous nature of the S. Coast of Sicily was well known to the pilots. See above, ch. 37.

[142] About £500,000. For the value of the talent, taking the Euboic and Attic talent as the same, see note on Book 34, 8.

[143] ἱστορήσαντας. There seems no need to give this word the unusual sense of _narratum legere_ here, as some do.

[144] Sicca Venerea, so called from a temple of Venus, was notorious for its licentiousness. Valer. Max. 2, 6, 15.

[145] A line of the text appears to have been lost, probably containing an allusion to Hiero.

[146] The southernmost point of Italy is Leucopetra (Capo dell' Armi). Cocinthus (Punta di Stilo) is much too far to the north; yet it may have been regarded as the conventional point of separation between the two seas, Sicilian and Ionian, which have no natural line of demarcation.

[147] Really 3/16; for 16 ases = 6 obols (one drachma or denarius) see 34, 8. The Sicilian medimnus is about a bushel and a half; the metretes 8½ gallons.

[148] Livy, 5, 17, 33-49; Plutarch, _Camillus_, 16; Mommsen, _History of Rome_, vol. i. p. 338 (Eng. tr.)

[149] Compare the description of the Gauls given by Caesar, B.G. 6, 11-20. They had apparently made considerable progress in civilisation by that time, principally perhaps from the influence of Druidism. But the last characteristic mentioned by Polybius is also observed by Caesar (15), _omnes in bello versantur atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clienteeque habet. Hanc unam gratiam potentiamque habent._ Even in the time of Cato they were at least beginning to add something to their warlike propensities. Or, 2, 2 (Jordan) _Pleraque Gallia duas res industrissime persequitur, rem militare et argute loqui_. Cf. Diod. 5, 27 _sq._

[150] Lucius Caecilius, Livy, Ep. 12.

[151] For a more complete list of Gallic invasions in this period, see Mommsen, _H.R._ i. p. 344. The scantiness of continuous Roman history from B.C. 390, and its total loss from 293 to the first Punic war renders it difficult to determine exactly which of the many movements Polybius has selected.

[152] Ch. 13.

[153] This clause is bracketed by Hultsch, Mommsen, and Strachan-Davidson. See the essay of the last named in his Polybius, p. 22. Livy, Ep. 20, gives the number of Romans and Latins as 300,000.

[154] Others read Ananes and Marseilles [’Ανάνων ... Μασσαλίας]; but it seems impossible that the Roman march should have extended so far.

[155] That is, each city struck its own coin, but on a common standard of weight and value. See P. Gardner’s Introduction to Catalogue of Greek Coins (Peloponnesus) in the British Museum, p. xxiv.

[156] The Pythagorean clubs, beginning in combinations for the cultivation of mystic philosophy and ascetic life, had grown to be political,— a combination of the upper or cultivated classes to secure political power. Thus Archytas was for many years ruler in Tarentum (Strabo, 1, 3, 4). The earliest was at Croton, but they were also established in many cities of Magna Graecia. Sometime in the fourth century B.C. a general democratic rising took place against them, and their members were driven into exile. Strabo, 8, 7, 1; Justin, 20, 4; Iamblichus _vit. Pythag._, 240-262.

[157] The MS. vary between ὁμάριος and ὁμόριος. The latter form seems to mean “god of a common frontier.” But an inscription found at Orchomenus gives the form ἀμάριος, which has been connected with ἡμάρα “day.”

[158] There was still an under-strategus (ὑποστρατηγὸς), see 5, 94; 23, 16; 30, 11. But he was entirely subordinate, and did not even succeed to power on the death of a strategus during the year of office, as the vice-president in America does.

[159] Alexander II. of Epirus, son of Pyrrhus, whom he succeeded B.C. 272. The partition of Acarnania took place in B.C. 266.

[160] Near Bellina, a town on the north-west frontier of Laconia, which had long been a subject of dispute between Sparta and the Achaeans. Plutarch _Arat._ 4; Pausan. 8, 35, 4.

[161] Ptolemy Euergetes (B.C. 247-222).

[162] The treaty, besides securing the surrender of the Acrocorinthus, provided that no embassy should be sent to any other king without the consent of Antigonus, and that the Achaeans should supply food and pay for the Macedonian army of relief. Solemn sacrifices and games were also established in his honour, and kept up long after his death at Sicyon, see 28, 19; 30, 23. Plutarch, _Arat._ 45. The conduct of Aratus in thus bringing the Macedonians into the Peloponnese has been always attacked (see Plut. _Cleom._ 16). It is enough here to say that our judgment as to it must depend greatly on our view of the designs and character of Cleomenes.

[163] Phylarchus, said by some to be a native of Athens, by others of Naucratis, and by others again of Sicyon, wrote, among other things, a history in twenty-eight books from the expedition of Pyrrhus into the Peloponnese (B.C. 272) to the death of Cleomenes. He was a fervent admirer of Cleomenes, and therefore probably wrote in a partisan spirit; yet in the matter of the outrage upon Mantinea, Polybius himself is not free from the same charge. See Mueller’s _Histor. Graec._ fr. lxxvii.-lxxxi. Plutarch, though admitting Phylarchus’s tendency to exaggeration (_Arat._ 38), yet uses his authority both in his life of Aratus and of Cleomenes; and in the case of Aristomachus says that he was both racked and drowned (_Arat._ 44).

[164] ἡγεμόνα καὶ στρατηγὸν. It is not quite clear whether this is merely a description of the ordinary office of Strategus, or whether any special office is meant, such as that conferred on Antigonus. In 4, 11 ἡγεμόνες includes the Strategus and other officers. See Freeman, _Federal Government_, p. 299.

[165] Of Chaereas nothing seems known; a few fragments of an historian of his name are given in Müller, vol. iii. Of Sosilus, Diodorus (26, fr. 6) says that he was of Ilium and wrote a history of Hannibal in seven books. Nepos (Hann. 13) calls him a Lacedaemonian, and says that he lived in Hannibal’s camp and taught him Greek.

[166] _i.e._ in Latium.

[167] ἐπιλάβηται _injecerit manum_, the legal form of claiming a slave.

[168] 1, 83.

[169] Saguntum of course is south of the Iber, but the attack on it by Hannibal was a breach of the former of the two treaties. Livy (21, 2) seems to assert that it was specially exempted from attack in the treaty with Hasdrubal.

[170] From ch. 21.

[171] βασιλεύς. The two Suffetes represented the original Kings of Carthage (6, 51). The title apparently remained for sacrificial purposes, like the ἄρχων βασιλεύς, and the _rex sacrificulus_. Polybius, like other Greek writers, calls them βασιλεῖς. _Infra_, 42. Herod. 7, 165. Aristot. Pol. 2, 8.

[172] A promontory in Bruttium, _Capo del Colonne_.

[173] This division of the world into three parts was an advance upon the ancient geographers, who divided it into two, combining Egypt with Asia, and Africa with Europe. See Sall. _Jug._ 17; Lucan, _Phars._ 9, 411; Varro de L. L. 5, § 31. And note on 12, 25.