trates replied, that he must first produce a letter from the senate of Rome, by which the Achæans should be desired to meet. As Cecilius had no such letter, they told him plainly, that they would not assemble; which exasperated him to such a degree, that he left Achaia, and would not hear what the magistrates had to say. It was believed that this ambassador, and before him Marcus Fulvius, would not have delivered themselves with so much freedom, had they not been sure that Aristhenes and Diophanes were in their interest; and indeed they were accused of having invited those Romans into that country, purely out of hatred to Philopomen; and accordingly were greatly suspected by the populace.

Cecilius, at his return to Rome, acquainted the senate with whatever had been transacted by him in Greece. After this, the ambassadors of Macedonia and Peloponnesus were brought in. Those of Philip and Eumenes were introduced first, and then the exiles of Ænum and Maronea; who all repeated what they had before said in the presence of Cecilius, in Thessalonica. The senate, after admitting them to audience, sent to Philip other ambassadors, of whom Appius Claudius was the principal, to examine on the spot whether he was withdrawn, as he had promised Cecilius, from the cities of Perrhæbia; to command him at the same time to evacuate Ænum and Maronea; and to draw off his troops from all the castles, territories, and cities, which he possessed on the sea coast of Thrace.

They next admitted to audience Apollonidas, the ambassador whom the Achæans had sent, to give their reasons why they had not made their answers to Cecilius, and to inform the senate of all that had been transacted with regard to the Spartans, who had deputed to Rome Areus and Alcibiades, who both were of the number of the first exiles whom Philoponen and the Achæans had restored to their country. The circumstance which most exasperated the Achæans was, to see that, notwithstanding the precious and recent obligation to their favour, they had, however, charged themselves with the odious commission of accusing those who had saved them so unexpectedly, and had procured them the invaluable blessing of returning to their houses and families. Apollonidas endeavoured to prove, that it would be impossible to settle the affairs of Sparta with greater prudence than Philopomen and the rest of the Achæans had done; and they likewise cleared themselves, for their having refused to call a general assembly. On the other side, Areus and

*A. M. 3820. Ant. J. C. 184.

xxxix. n. 33.

Polyb. in Legat. c. 42. Liv. 1.

Alcibiades represented, in the most affecting manner, the sad calamity to which Sparta was reduced; its walls were demolished; its citizens dragged into Achaia, and reduced to a state of captivity: the sacred laws of Lycurgus, which had made it subsist during so long a series of years, and with so much glory, had been entirely abolished.

The senate, after weighing and comparing the reasons on both sides, ordered the same ambassadors to inquire into this affair as were nominated to inspect those of Macedon, and desired the Achæans to convene their general assembly whenever the Roman ambassadors should require it, as the senate admitted them to audience in Rome as often as they asked it.

† When Philip was informed by his ambassadors, who had been sent back to him from Rome, that he must absolutely evacuate all the cities of Thrace; in the highest degree of rage, to see his dominions contracted on every side, he vented his fury on the inhabitants of Maronea. Onomastes, who was governor of Thrace, employed Cassander, who was very well known in the city, to execute the barbarous command of the prince. Accordingly, in the dead of night, they led a body of Thracians into it, who fell with the utmost violence upon the citizens, and cut a great number of them to pieces. Philip having thus wreaked his vengeance on those who were not of his faction, waited calmly for the commissioners, being firmly persuaded that no one would dare to impeach him.

Some time after, Appius arrives, who, upon being informed of the barbarous treatment which the Maronites had met with, reproached the king of Macedon, in the strongest terms, on that account. The latter absolutely asserted, that he had not been concerned in any manner in that massacre, but that it was wholly occasioned by an insurrection of the populace. "Some," says he, "declaring for Eumenes, and others for me, a great ❝quarrel arose, and they butchered one another." He went so far as to challenge them to produce any person who pretended to have any articles to lay to his charge. But who would have dared to impeach him? His punishment had been immediate; and the aid he might have expected from the Romans 'was too far off. "It is to no purpose," says Appius to him, "for you to apologise for yourself; I know what things have

By the decree of the Achæans, it had been enacted, that such slaves as had been adopted among the citizens of Sparta should leave the city and all Laconia; in default of which the Achæans were empowered to seize and sell them as slaves; which had accordingly been executed.

† Polyb. in Legat. c. 44. Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 34, 35.

"been done, as well as the authors of them." These words gave Philip the greatest anxiety. However, matters were not carried farther at this first interview.

But Appius, the next day, commanded him to send immedi ately Onomastes and Cassander to Rome, to be examined by the senate on the affair in question, declaring, that there was no other way left for him to clear himself. Philip, upon receiving this order, changed colour, wavered within himself, and hesitated a long time before he made answer. At last he declared that he would send Cassander whom the commissioners suspected to be the contriver of the massacre; but he was determined not to send Onomastes, who, he declared, so far from having been in Maronea at the time this bloody tragedy happened, was not even in the neighbourhood of it. The true reason of this conduct was, Philip was afraid lest Onomastes, in whom he had reposed the utmost confidence, and had never concealed any thing from, should betray him to the senate. As for Cassander, the instant the commissioners had left Macedon, he put him on board a ship, but at the same time sent some persons after him, who poisoned him in Epirus.

After the departure of the commissioners, who were fully persuaded that Philip had contrived the massacre in Maronea, and was upon the point of breaking with the Romans, the king of Macedon reflecting in his own mind and with his friends, that the hatred he bore the Romans, and the strong desine he had to wreak his vengeance on that people, must necessarily soon display itself, would have been very glad to take up arms immediately, and declare war against that people; but, being not prepared, he conceived an expedient to gain time. Philip resolved to send his son Demetrius to Rome, who, having been many years an hostage, and having acquired great esteem in that city, he judged very well qualified either to defend him against the accusations with which he might be charged before the senate, or apologise for such faults as he really had committed.

He accordingly made all the preparations necessary for this embassy, and nominated several friends to attend the prince his son on that occasion.

He, at the same time, promised to succour the Byzantines; not that he was sincerely desirous of defending them, but only his bare advancing to aid that people, would strike terror into the petty princes of Thrace, in the neighbourhood of the Propontis, and would prevent their opposing the resolution he had formed of entering into war against the Romans. And accord

ingly he defeated these petty sovereigns in a battle, and took prisoner their chief, whereby he put it out of their power to annoy him, and returned into Macedon.

*The arrival of the Roman commissioners was expected in Peloponnesus, who were commanded to go from Macedon into Achaia. Lycortas, in order that an answer might be ready for them, summoned a council, in which the affair of the Lacedæmonians was examined. He represented to the assembly such things as they might fear from them, the Romans seeming to favour their interest much more than that of the Achæans. He expatiated chiefly on the ingratitude of Areus and Alcibiades, who, though they owed their return to the Achæans, had however been so base as to undertake the embassy against them to the senate, where they acted and spoke like professed enemies; as if the Achæans had driven them from their country, when it was they who had restored them to it. Upon this, great shouts were heard in every part of the assembly, and the president was desired to bring the affair into immediate deliberation. Nothing prevailing but a passion and a thirst of revenge, Areus and Alcibiades were condemned to die.

The Roman commissioners arrived a few days after, and the council met at Clitor in Arcadia. This filled the Achæans with the utmost terror; for, seeing Areus and Alcibiades, whom they had just before condemned to die, arrive with the commissioners, they naturally supposed that the inquiry which was going to be made would be no way favourable to them.

Appius then told them, that the senate had been strongly affected with the complaints of the Lacedæmonians, and could not but disapprove of every thing which had been done on that occasion: the murder of those who, on the promise which Philopomen had made them, had come to plead their cause; the demolition of the walls of Sparta; the abolition of the laws and institutions of Lycurgus, which had spread the fame of that city throughout the world, and made it flourish, for several ages. Lycortas, as president of the council, and as having joined with Philopomen, the author of whatever had been transacted against Lacedæmonia, undertook to answer Appius. He showed first, that as the Lacedæmonians had attacked the exiles, contrary to the tenor of the treaty, which expressly forbid them to make any attempt against the maritime cities; these exiles, in the absence of the Romans, could have recourse only to the Achæan league, which could not be justly accused, for having

* Liv. 1. xxxix. n. 35-37.

assisted them to the utmost of their power, in so urgent a necessity that, with regard to the massacre which Appius laid to their charge, they ought not to be accused for it, but the exiles, who were then headed by Areus and Alcibiades; and who, by their own immediate impulse, and without being authorized in any manner by the Achæans, had fallen with the utmost fury and violence on those who they supposed had been the authors of their banishment, and to whom the rest of the calamities they had suffered were owing. "However," added Lycortas, "it is pretended that we cannot but own that we "were the cause of the abolition of Lycurgus's laws, and the "demolition of the walls of Sparta. This, indeed, is a real "fact; but then, how can this double objection be made to us "at the same time? The walls in question were not built by "Lycurgus, but by tyrants, who erected them some few years

ago, not for the security of the city, but for their own safety, " and to enable themselves to abolish with impunity, the disci"pline and regulation so happily established by that wise le"gislator. Were it possible for him to rise now from the (( grave, he would be overjoyed to see those walls destroyed, "and say, that he now knows and owns his native country and "ancient Sparta. You should not, O citizens of Sparta, have "waited for Philopomen or the Achæans, but ought your"selves to have pulled down those walls with your own hands, ❝nd destroyed even the slightest trace of tyranny. These were a kind of ignominious scars of your slavery: and after "having maintained your liberties and privileges during almost "800 years, and been for some time the sovereigns of Greece, "without the support and assistance of walls; they within "these hundred years have become the instruments of your slavery, and, in a manner, your shackles and fetters. With 66 respect to the ancient laws of Lycurgus, they were suppress❝ed by the tyrants; and we have only substituted our own, by "putting you upon a level with us in all things."

Addressing himself afterwards to Appius, "I cannot forbear "owning," says he, "that the words I have hitherto spoken, "were not as from one ally to another, nor of a free nation, "but as slaves who speak to their master. For, in fine, if the "voice of the herald who proclaimed us to be free in the front "of the Grecian states, was not a vain and empty ceremony; "if the treaty concluded at that time be real and solid; if you "are desirous of sincerely preserving an alliance and friend"ship with us, on what can that infinite disparity, which you suppose to be between you Romans and us Achæans, be