Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/32

  and Mantlneia, which hdd joined the Aetolion League and had been ceded by the latter to the Spartans, war broke out between Sparta and the Achaean League, B.C. 227. In this war, called by Polybius the Cleomenic war, the Achaeans were defeated in several battles and lost some important places; and so unsuccessful had they been, that they at length resolved to form a coalition or alliance with Sparta, acknowledging Cleomenes as their chief. Aratus was unable to brook this humiliation, and in an evil hour applied to Antigonas Doson for help, thus undoing the great work of his life, and making the Achaean cities again dependent upon Macedonia. Antigonas willingly promised his assistance; and the negotiations with Cleomenes were broken off, B.C. 224. The war was brought to an end by the defeat of Cleomenes by Antigonus at the decisive battle of Sellasia, B.C. 221. Cleomenes immediately left the country and sailed away to Egypt. Antigonas thus became master of Sparta; but he did not annex it to the Achaean League, as it was no part of his poliy to aggrandize the latter. The next war, in which the Achaeans were engaged, again witnessed their humiliation and dependence upon Macedonia. In B.C. 220 commenced the Social war, as it is usually called. The Aetolians invaded Peloponnesas and defeated the Achaeans, whereupon Aratos applied for aid to Philip, who had succeeded Antigonas on the Macedonian throne. The young monarch conducted the war with striking ability and success; and the Aetolians having become weary of the contest were glad to conclude a peace in B.C. 217. The Achaeans now remained at peace for some years; but they had lost the proud pre-eminence they had formerly enjoyed, and had become little better than the vassals of Macedonia. But the influence of Aratus excited the jealousy of Philip, and it was commonly believed that his death (B.C. 213) was occasioned by a slow poison administered by the king's order. The regeneration of the League was due to Philopoemen, one of the few great men produced in the latter days of Grecian independence. He introduced great reforms in the organization of the Achaean army, and accustomed them to the tactics of the Macedonians and to the close array of the phalanx. By the ascendancy of his genius and character, he acquired great influence over his countrymen, and breathed into them a martial spirit. By these means he enabled them to fight their own cause, and rendered them to some extent independent of Macedonia. His defeat of Machanidas, tyrant of Sparta (B.C. 208), both established his own reputation, and caused the Achaean arms again to be respected in Greece. In the war between the Romans and Philip, the Achaeans espoused the cause of the former, and concluded a treaty of peace with the republic, B.C. 198. About this time, and for several subsequent years, the Achaeans were engaged in hostilities with Nabis, who had succeeded Machanidas as tyrant of Sparta. Nabis was slain by some Aetolians in B.C. 192; whereupon Philopoemen hastened to Sparta and induced the city to join the League. In the following year (B.C. 191) the Messenians and the Eleans also joined the League. Thus the whole of Peloponnesus was at length annexed to the League; but its independence was now little more than nominal, and its conduct and proceedings were regulated to a great extent by the decisions of the Roman senate. When the Achaeans under Philopoemen ventured to punish Sparta in B.C. 188 by razing the fortifications of the city and abolishing the laws of Lycorgus, their conduct was severely censured by the senate; and every suceeding transaction between the League and the senate showed still more clearly the subject condition of the Achaeans. The Romans, however, still acknowledged in name the independence of the Achaeans; and the more patriotic part of the nation continued to offer a constitutional resistance to all the Roman encroachments upon the liberties of the League, whenever this could be done without affording the Romans any pretext for war. At the head of this party was Philopoemen, and after his death, Lycortas, Xenon, and Polybius. Callicrates on the other hand was at the head of another party, which counselled a servile submission to the senate, and sought to obtain aggrandizement by the subjection of their country. In order to get rid of his political opponents, Callicrates, after the defeat of Perseus by the Romans, drew up a list of 1000 Achaeans, the best and purest part of the nation, whom the Romans carried off to Italy (B.C. 167) under the pretext of their having afforded help to Perseus. The Romans never brought these prisoners to trial, but kept them in the towns of Italy; and it was not till after the lapse of 17 years, and when their number was reduced to 300, that the senate gave them permission to return to Greece. Among those who were thus restored to their country, there were some men of prudence and ability, like the historian Polybius; but there were others of weak judgment and violent passions, who had been exasperated by their long and unjust confinement, and who now madly urged their country into a war with Rome. A dispute having arisen between Sparta and the League, the senate sent an embassy into Greece in B.C. 147, and required that Sparta, Corinth, Argos, and other cities should be severed from the League, thus reducing it almost to its original condition when it included only the Achaean towns. This demand was received with the utmost indignation, and Critolaus, who was their general, used every effort to inflame the passions of the people against the Romans. Through his influence the Achaeans resolved to resist the Romans, and declared war against Sparta. This was equivalent to a declaration of war against Rome itself, and was so understood by both parties. In the spring of 146 Critolaus marched northwards through Boeotia into the S. of Thessaly, but retreated on the approach of Metellus, who advanced against him from Macedonia. He was, however, overtaken by Metellus near Scarphea, a little S. of Thermopylae; his forces were put to the rout, and he himself was never heard of after the battle. Metellos followed the fugitives to Corinth. Diaeus, who had succeeded Callicrates in the office of General, resolved to continue the contest, as he had been one of the promoters of the war and knew that he had no hope of pardon from the Romans. Meantime the consul Mummius arrived at the Isthmus as the successor of Metellus. Encouraged by some trifling success against the Roman outposts, Diaeus ventured to offer battle to the Romans. The Achaeans were easily defeated and Corinth surrendered without a blow. Signal vengeance was taken upon the unfortunate city. The men were put to the sword; the women and children were reserved as slaves: and after the city had been stript of all its treasures and works of art, its buildings were committed to the flames, B.C. 146. [.] Thus perished the Achaean 