Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VIII.djvu/212

 200 GREECE were honored by the addition of two new tribes, the Demetrias and Antigonias. In 306 Demetrius, being called away. from Athens, gained a great victory over Ptolemy at Salamis En Cyprus. Antigonus in Asia Minor, Seleucus in Babylonia, Ptolemy in Egypt, and Lysim- achus in Thrace now assumed the title of king. Demetrius Poliorcetes again returned to Greece, while Cassander was besieging Athens. Cassan- der retired, and Demetrius was again received with honors. The struggle between Antigonus and his rivals was brought to a close by the battle of Ipsus in Phrygia (301), in which An- tigonus was defeated and slain ; after this the Athenians refused to receive Demetrius. Cas- sander became master of Greece ; Seleucus and Lysimachus divided the kingdom of Antigo- nus, the former receiving the lion's share, part of Asia Minor and the whole of Syria. In 800 Demetrius ravaged the Thracian Cherso- nesus, and formed an alliance with Seleucus, marrying his daughter, and then made another attack upon Athens, driving out the tyrant Lachares. Soon afterward Demetrius con- quered Macedonia, distracted by the rival pre- tensions of the sons of Cassander. He at- tempted to recover the Asiatic provinces of his father; but Macedonia was invaded by Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, and Lysimachus, and Demetrius was obliged to fly. He died in Syria in 283. The further wars between the succes- sors of Alexander hardly belong to the history of Greece. In the midst of the Macedonian domination an important movement took place in Achaia, a narrow strip of country on the northern coast of the Peloponnesus. A league, chiefly for religious purposes, had existed from ancient times among the cities of this region, and though it had been suppressed by the Macedonians, Aratus of Sicyon revived it in 251, with a political organization under a chief entitled the strategus, or general, a secretary, and a council of ten demiurgi, the sovereign- ty residing in a general assembly composed of citizens who had reached the age of 30, which met twice a year at JEgium. The con- federacy rapidly increased in extent and power, but in 227 was involved in a war with Sparta. Aratus was then strategus. He invited assis- tance from Macedon, then ruled by Antigonus Doson. In 223 he compelled the Spartan king Cleoraenes to withdraw to Laconia. In 221 Cle- omenes was defeated by Antigonus in the battle of Sellasia. The ^Etolians, who had long been unit* (1 in a league of tribes, made incursions into the Peloponnesus, and coming into collision with the Achcoans under Aratus, near Caphyae, the latter were defeated. This led to an alliance between the Achceans and Philip, the young king of Macedon, in 220. After gaining several victories, he made a peace with the ^Etolians in 217. The war between Rome and Carthage now attracted the attention of the Macedonian king, who in 216 concluded a treaty with Hannibal, and went so far as to meditate an invasion of Italy. While laying siege to Apol- lonia he was attacked by the Roman consul, M. Valerius Laevinus, and compelled to retire. Having differences with Aratus with respect to some of his proceedings in Greece, he caused him to be taken off by poison in 213. In 211 the Romans made an alliance with the JEtolians, and declared war against Philip. They took several islands, which they surrendered to the ^Etolians in the course of the year. In 209 the Achaeans again solicited the aid of Philip. They were at this time led by Philopcemen, the "last of the Greeks," and in 208 he was elected strategus of the league. In 207 he de- feated the Lacedaemonians at Mantinea; and as the Romans, having made peace with Philip in 205, retired from Greece, the country was left in a state of tranquillity for several years. In 200 they declared war against him, and a Roman fleet relieved Athens, which he was besieging ; but in retiring he committed great ravages in the suburbs of the city. In 198 the Achaean league joined the Roman alliance, under the influence of the consul T. Quintius Flamininus. In 197 Philip was defeated in the battle of Cynoscephalae, and peace was made in the following year, the Macedonians being compelled to renounce their supremacy, and to pay 1,000 talents for the expenses of the war. The Greeks assembled at the Isthmian games received the announcement of their new liberty with shouts of joy ; but their dis- sensions continued, and soon broke out in fresh conflicts. The JStolians having persuaded An- tiochus the Great of Syria to come with an army into Greece, he was defeated at Thermopylae in 191, and the ^Etolians were obliged to ask for peace, and to submit to the most humiliating conditions. Philopoemen in the mean time had joined Sparta to the Achsean league ; but that city proving intractable, he marched upon it, razed the walls, and compelled the citizens to adopt a democratic constitution. In 183 Philo- poamen was taken prisoner by the Messenians, who had revolted from the league, and put to death. In 179 Philip died, and was succeeded by Perseus, who found large preparations made for a renewal of the war with the Romans. In 171 the Romans declared war against him, and the consul L. ^Emilius Paulus was sent to Macedonia in 168. The war was ended by the battle of Pydna and the surrender of Perseus, who was carried to Rome to adorn the triumph of his captor. Commissioners were sent from Rome to arrange the affairs of Macedonia ; but it was a quarrel between Athens and Oropus which finally gave the Romans an opportunity to bring all Greece into subjection, by destroy- ing the Achaean league. The Oropians com- plained to the Roman senate ; the Romans ap- pointed the Sicyonians arbitrators, and they having condemned the Athenians to pay a fine of 500 talents, the latter sent an embassy of three philosophers, Diogenes the Stoic, Crito- laus the Peripatetic, and Carncades the Aca- demic, who succeeded in reducing the fine to 100 talents. Still fresh aggressions occurring,