Page:Greece from the Coming of the Hellenes to AD. 14.djvu/366

336 victory of Pharsalia, however (September, B.C. 48), there was a sudden change. Megara, indeed, held out and was taken by force, and many of its citizens slaughtered or sold into slavery. But the Athenians at once submitted, and sent envoys to seek for pardon, which Caesar granted easily, with the remark: “How often is the glory of your ancestors to save you?”—and the humbled people were fain to erect his statue as their “saviour and benefactor.” Calenus then went to Patrae, which made no resistance, and the whole of the Peloponnese fell into his hands. He remained in military occupation till Caesar's return from Alexandria in the autumn of B.C. 47, when Greece was put as a separate province under the rule of an eminent lawyer, Servius Sulpicius Rufus. This arrangement, as we shall see, was at first only temporary, but the appointment of Sulpicius seems to have been meant to be a measure of conciliation. He had been an anti-Caesarian, but probably had not actually been engaged in the war, having retired to Samos, while his son was actually serving on Caesar's staff. He was a man of learning, and would have some sympathy with Greek ideas, while his legal training would incline him to follow the precedent of Scaevola in Asia by respecting the local laws and rights of jurisdiction in the cities.

The end of the Alexandrine war, which left Caesar practically master of Egypt, though it was still nominally independent, was followed by a visitation of Greek cities in Asia. The fervour of their new