Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/306

276 was only one Strategus with a vice-president or hypo-Strategus, a hipparch to command the cavalry, and a navarch to command a squadron of ten ships which was maintained by the League.

The next step in the history of the League was the adhesion of Sicyon under the influence of Aratus, who may be regarded almost as its second founder (B.C. 251–245). One after another the chief towns in the Peloponnese were freed from their Macedonian garrisons, or their pro-Macedonian tyrants, and by B.C. 229 the League included two-thirds of the Peloponnese—Laconia, Messenia, and Elis standing aside. The most determined opponent was Sparta, under its reforming king Cleomenes III.; for the ascendency of the Achaeans was not only a blow to Spartan prestige, but it prevented the recovery of its seaports. The Ætolians were on the side of Sparta, because they hoped to share in the spoil if the League were broken up. They were accused by Polybius of intrigue with Antigonus Gonatas, King of Macedonia (B.C. 277–239) and with Antigonus Doson (B.C. 229–220) to secure their interference in the affairs of the Peloponnese against the Achaeans.

But after all it was the Achaean Aratus himself who brought the Macedonian arms into the fray. It had hitherto been the policy of Aratus to seek help rather from Egypt. About B.C. 250 Ptolemy II. had supplied him with 150 talents; and in B.C. 240 Ptolemy III. was nominated "General of the Achaean League by land and sea," and apparently assisted in the maintenance of the League fleet. When, therefore, a series of mutual provocations issued in a war