ployed the arms of the Etolians against Philip, and also to make his complaints of that prince.

The Etolians had likewise undertaken some enterprises against Philip, in which they had met with tolerable success: but when they heard of Antiochus's defeat, and found that the ambassadors they had sent to Rome were returning from thence, without being able to obtain any of their demands, and that Fulvius the consul was actually marching against them, they were seized with real alarms. Finding it would be impossible for them to resist the Romans by force of arms, they again had recourse to intreaties; and, in order to enforce them, they engaged the Athenians and Rhodians to join their ambassadors to those whom they were going to send to Rome, in order to sue for peace.

The consul being arrived in Greece, had, in conjunction with the Epirots, laid siege to Ambracia, in which the Ætolians had a strong garrison, who made a vigorous defence. However, being at last persuaded that it would be impossible for them to hold out long against the Roman arms, they sent new ambassadors to the consul, investing them with full powers to conclude a treaty on any conditions. Those which were proposed to them being judged exceedingly severe, the ambassadors, notwithstanding their full powers, desired that leave might be granted them to consult the assembly once more; but the members of it were displeased with them. for it, and therefore sent them back, with orders to terminate the affair. During this interval, the Athenian and Rhodian ambassadors, whom the senate had sent back to the consul, were come to him, to whom Amynander had also repaired. The latter having great influence in the city of Ambracia, where he had spent many years during his banishment, prevailed with the inhabitants to surrender themselves at last to the consul. A peace was also granted to the Etolians. The chief conditions of the treaty were as follow: they should first deliver up their

arms and horses to the Romans; should pay the one thousand talents of silver (about an hundred and fifty thousand pounds) half to be paid down directly: should restore to both the Romans, and their allies, all the deserters and prisoners: should look upon, as their enemies and friends, all those who were such to the Romans and lastly, should give up forty hostages, to be chosen by the consul. Their ambassadors being arrived in Rome, to procure the ratification of the treaty there, found the people highly exasperated against the Ætolians, as well on account of their past conduct, as the complaints made against them by Philip in the letters which he had written on that subject. At last, however, the senate were moved by their entreaties, and those of the ambassadors of Athens and Rhodes, who concurred in them, and therefore they ratified the treaty conformably to the conditions which the consul had prescribed. The Etolians were permitted to pay in gold the sum imposed on them, in such a manner, that every piece of gold should be estimated at the value of ten pieces of silver of the same weight, which shows the proportion between gold and silver at that time.

b

Fulvius the consul, after he had terminated the war with the Ætolians, crossed into the island of Cephalenia, in order to subdue it. All the cities, at the first summons, surrendered immediately. The inhabitants of Same only, after submitting to the conqueror, were sorry for what they had done, and accordingly shut their gates against the Romans, which obliged them to besiege it in form. Same made a very vigorous defence, insomuch that it was four months before the consul could take it.

From thence he went to Peloponnesus, whither he was called by the people of Egium and Sparta, to decide the differences which interrupted their tranquillity.

The general assembly of the Achæans had from

Liv. 1. xxxviii. n. 28-30.

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ne immemorial been held at Ægium: But Philo pomen, who was then in office, resolved to change that custom, and to cause the assembly to be held successively in all the cities which formed the Achæan league; and that very year he summoned it to Argos. The consul would not oppose this motion; and though his inclination led him to favour the inhabitants of Ægium, because he thought their cause the most just; yet, seeing that the other party would certainly prevail, he withdrew from the assembly, without declaring his opinion.

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But the affair relating to Sparta was still more intricate, and, at the same time, of greater importance. Those who had been banished from that city by Nabis the tyrant, had fortified themselves in towns and castles along the coast, and from thence infested the Spartans. The latter had attacked, in the night, one of those towns, called Las, and carried it, but were soon after driven out of it. This enterprise alarmed the exiles, and obliged them to have recourse to the Achæans. Philopomen, who at that time was in office, secretly favoured the exiles and endeavoured on all occasions to lessen the credit and authority of Sparta. On his motion, a decree was enacted, the purport of which was, that Quintius and the Romans, having put the towns and castles of the sea-coast of Laconia under the protection of the Achæans, and having forbidden the Lacedæmonians access to it; and the latter having, however, attacked the town called Las, and killed some of the inhabitants; the Achæan assembly demanded that the contrivers of that massacre should be delivered up to them; and that otherwise they should be declared violators of the treaty. Ambassadors were deputed to give them notice of this decree. A demand, made in so haughty a tone, exceedingly exasperated the Lacedæmonians. They immediately put to death thirty of those who had

<Liv. 1, xxxviii. n. 30–34.

held a correspondence with Philopomen and the exiles; dissolved their alliance with the Achæans; and sent ambassadors to Fulvius the consul, who was then in Cephalenia, in order to put Sparta under the protection of the Romans, and to intreat him to come and take possession of it. When the Achæans received advice of what had been transacted in Sparta, they unanimously declared war against that city, which began by some slight incursions both by sea and land; the season being too far advanced for undertaking any thing considerable.

The consul, being arrived in Peloponnesus, heard both parties in a public assembly. The debates were exceedingly warm, and carried to a great height on both sides. Without coming to any determination, he commanded them to lay down their arms, and to send their respective ambassadors to Rome; and accordingly they repaired thither immediately, and were admitted to audience. The Achæan league was in great consideration at Rome, but, at the same time, the Romans were unwilling to disgust the Lacedæmonians entirely. The senate therefore returned an obscure and ambiguous answer (which has not come down to us) whereby the Achæans might flatter themselves, that they were allowed full power to infest Sparta; and the Spartans, that such power was very much limited and restrained.

The Achæans extended it as they thought proper. Philopomen had been continued in his employment of first magistrate. He marched the army to a small distance from Sparta without loss of time; and again demanded to have those persons surrendered to him, who had concerted the enterprise against the town of Las; declaring that they should not be condemned nor punished till after being heard. Upon this promise, those who had been expressly nominated set out, accompanied by several of the most illustrious citizens, who looked upon their cause as their own, or rather as that of the public. Being arrived at the camp of the Achæans, they

were greatly surprised to see the exiles at the head of the army. The latter, advancing out of the camp, came to meet them with an insulting air, and began to overwhelm them with reproaches and invectives; after this, the quarrel growing warmer, they fell upon them with great violence, and treated them very ignominiously. In vain did the Spartans implore both gods and men, and claimed the right of nations: the rabble of the Achæans, animated by the seditious cries of the exiles, joined with them, notwithstanding the protection due to ambassadors, and in spite of the prohibition of the supreme magistrate. Seventeen were immediately stoned to death, and seventy-three rescued by the magistrate out of the hands of those furious wretches. It was not that he intended to pardon them; but he would not have it said, that they had been put to death without being heard. The next day, they were brought before that enraged multitude, who, almost without so much as hearing them, condemned, and executed them all.

The reader will naturally suppose, that so unjust, and cruel a treatment threw the Spartans into the deepest affiiction, and filled them with alarms. The Achæans imposed the same conditions on them, as they would have done on a city that had been taken by storm. They gave orders that the walls should be demolished; that all such mercenaries as the tyrants had kept in their service, should leave Laconia ; that the slaves whom those tyrants had set at liberty (and there were a great number of them) should also be obliged to depart the country in a certain limited time, upon pain of being seized by the Achæans, and sold or carried whithersoever they thought proper; that the laws and institutions of Lycurgus should be annulled; and in fine, that the Spartans should be associated in the Achæan league, with whom they should thenceforth form but one body, and follow the same customs and usages.

The Lacedæmonians were not much afflicted at