Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/331

Rh the term Achaia applicable to the whole Peloponnesus (B.C. 192). But Sparta was always an unwilling member, and its adhesion had been at the cost of more than one bloody revolution, in the course of which now one and now another party had been exiled. These exiles were always clamouring for restitution; and at least four classes of them appeared by their representatives in Rome in B.C. 184. Philopoemen was murdered in B.C. 183, and Lycortas, the father of Polybius, became the most influential man in the League. His policy was to maintain independence by strictly adhering to the terms of their treaty with Rome, and thus to avoid the interference of Roman commissioners. But this implied internal union and loyalty and the observance of the rule—laid down in the treaty—that only legates from the Central League government were to go to Rome; individual states were not to send any. But with members of the League discontented such embassies were sure to be sent covertly, if not openly; and when the Senate saw reason to be displeased with the League these separate embassies were encouraged. Moreover, the party opposed to Lycortas was led by a certain Callicrates, whose policy was to promote the Roman interests and to make the control of Rome more complete. It was to him, then, that the Spartan exiles looked for help, and a statue-base exists at Olympia in which they record their gratitude for his success in securing their recall, which could only be done by appeal to the Roman Senate. Achaia was a house divided against itself.

Elsewhere in Greece there were also many signs of