B.C. 183. } He obliged to surrender at discretion, a great number of their B.C. leading men were slain by the exiles who had joined 191. S the invading army, and the laws of Lycurgus, which they had ever looked on as the great source of their strength, were totally abolished. 23. The Romans believed, or pretended to believe, that too much severity had been shown to the Lacedæmo'nians, and compelled the Achæans to restore those whom they had driven into exile; but this humanity was a mere pretext to conceal their jealousy of the Achæan confederacy, on which now rested the last hopes of Grecian independence. 24. Soon after the city of Messe'ne revolted from the league, with the tacit approbation of the Romans, and Philopo'men was sent to reduce it to obedience. In passing through a defile, the aged general was unfortunately surprised, and made prisoner. was sent to Messe'ne under a strong guard, but the magistrates of the city, dreading his influence with the people, ordered him to be immediately put to death. 25. Thus fell the last of the long list of Grecian heroes, at the moment when his country stood most in need of his abilities. His valour had subdued the enemies of the Achæans in the Peloponnesus, and his political wisdom had shielded them from the still greater danger of affording the Romans a pretence for interfering in their domestic arrangements; though living in a democratic government, he did not court the favour of the people, and yet always commanded their respect, and during the forty years that he managed the affairs of government, his integrity was never even suspected. 26. The Achæans soon avenged the murder of their favourite general; the Messe'nians were compelled to surrender to a numerous army, commanded by Lycor'tas; all that had participated in the crime were put to death, and the city was reunited to the confederacy. At 27. While these events were occurring in the Peloponnesus, the state of affairs in northern Greece boded a speedy termination to the peace between Rome and Macedon. the conclusion of the former war, Philip had sent his son Demetrius as a hostage to Rome, where the young prince soon became a universal favourite; in consequence of Philip's fidelity during the war with Antio'chus, all the Macedonian hostages were set at liberty, and Demetrius returned home. But the favour shown to the young prince had excited the jealous suspicions of Philip, which the artifices of his other son, Perseus, continually increased, until at length the king ordered his unfortunate son to be poisoned. 28. The brief remainder of Philip's days were imbittered by remorse; he soon learned the innocence of Deme'trius and the guilt of Perseus; he knew that his subjects hated him for his tyrannical government, the Romans were eagerly seeking an opportunity to attack him, and his son Per'seus was notoriously eager for the moment of his dissolution. The anxiety and agony of mind produced by these combined causes was too much to bear; he was seized with a morta, disease, and died unlamented. 29. Immediately after his accession to the throne, B.C. Perseus sent an embassy to Rome, which was ho- 180. nourably received. He then laboured, and not without success, to efface the memory of his crimes from the minds both of his own subjects and the other Greeks; but in spite of all his caution there were occasional bursts of violence, which showed that his gentleness of disposition was only assumed, to answer a particular purpose. The Romans soon discovered that a new contest for the supremacy of Greece was impending, and exerted all their influence to prevent the Macedonian monarch from being received into alliance with the Achæans. In this they were seconded by Eu'menes, king of Per'gamus, the hereditary enemy of the Macedonian house, and a long diplomatic contest was the prelude to fiercer and more destructive hostilities. The Achæans rejected the alliance of Perseus, but he had more success with some of the minor states, and besides he saw that the native resources of his kingdom had been retrieved during the long interval of tranquillity that followed the defeat of Philip. B.C. 172. 30. War was at length declared by the Roman senate, an army ordered to be levied under the command of the consul Licin'ius, and commissioners sent into Greece to exhort the allies to preserve their fidelity. At this important crisis the courage of Per'seus began to fail, he solicited a truce from the commissioners, which, as the Romans had not completed their preparations, was readily granted, but his offers of peace were rejected, and he had the additional mortification to see the Roman party triumph in Boo'tia, while the truce prevented him from bringing assistance to his friends. 31. The consul soon landed with his army, and advanced through Epi'rus into Thessaly, where he was joined by Eu'menes and some other auxiliaries. Some indecisive engagements followed, in which Per'seus, on the whole, had the advantage, but he neglected to follow up his success, and showed his timidity by repeatedly sending embassies to solicit peace, while the Romans rose in their demands after every reverse of fortune. The war lingered in the three following campaigns, the generals sent out by the Romans showed but little skill, and the commissioners disgusted the allies by their pride and avarice; on the other side, Per'seus neglected many opportunities of. attacking his enemies when their rashness exposed them to certain defeat, and failed in obtaining the aid of any allies, except the barbarous Illyrians. B.C. 32. At length the conduct of the Macedonian war 168. was intrusted to the consul Lucius Emil'ius Paul'us, a warrior of distinguished abilities. He first sent the prætor Anutius into Illyria, by whom that kingdom was totally subdued in thirty days. Æmilius himself advanced into Macedonia, and found Perseus strongly intrenched on the banks of the river Enip'eus. The Romans were unable to force the enemies' lines, but a detachment which had been sent over Mount Olympus having surprised the Macedonian guard, Perseus found his position no longer tenable, and therefore retreated to Pyd'na. 33. The consul soon followed him, but the caution of the two commanders delayed for a time a decisive engagement. While the armies lay encamped in sight of each other, the Macedonians were terrified by an eclipse of the moon, which they superstitiously believed to forebode the ruin of their kingdom; the Romans were not affected with similar fear, for Gal'lus, one of their officers, was sufficiently acquainted with science to calculate the time of its occurrence and explain its cause. 34. On the following day accident brought on an engagement, in which Perseus was totally defeated, and more than twenty thousand of his soldiers slain. Within a few days after the battle all Macedonia submitted to the conqueror, and its wretched monarch, after many vain attempts to escape, was forced to yield himself a prisoner. He was taken to Rome by the consul, and led as a captive in his triumphal procession, after which he was thrown into prison, where grief soon terminated his miserable life. Questions for Examination. 1. What was the condition of Athens at this time? 2. Why was Philip jealous of Attalus? 3. What circumstances brought on a new war? 4. How did Philip begin the war? 5. By what means did the Romans capture Chalcis? 6. How did Philip attempt to take revenge? 7. Why did the Achæans refuse the alliance of Philip? 8. What induced the Etolians to join the Romans? 9. Where was the fate of the war decided? 10. How was the battle won ? 11. Why was Flaminius anxious to conclude the war? 12. Did the Romans on this occasion obtain the gratitude of the Greeks? 13. How does it appear that Flaminius was sincere ? 14. What new confederacy was formed against the Romans? 15. Of what treachery were the Etolians guilty? 16. What was the result of this treachery? 17. By whose persuasion did Antiochus renew the war? 18. Of what errors was Antiochus guilty? 19. How did the war terminate? 20. How were the Etolians treated by the Romans? 21. What caused a fresh war between the Achæans and Spartans? 22. How were the Lacedæmonians treated? 23. Did the Romans interfere in these transactions? 24. What circumstances caused the murder of Philopœmen? 25. What was his character? 26. Did the Achæans avenge his death? 27. Why did Philip put his son Demetrius to death? 28. What was the consequence of this crime? 29. What led to the second Macedonian war? 30 How did Perseus show his incapacity in the very outset? 31. In what manner was the war conducted? 32, Where did Æmilius bring Perseus to an engagement? 33. What curious circumstance took place before the decisive battle! 34. How was the second Macedonian war terminated? CHAPTER XVIII. SUBJUGATION OF GREECE BY THE ROMANS. 1. THE Epi'rotes had revolted from the Romans, in the beginning of the war, and were now by the defeat of Perseus left totally at the mercy of the consul. Emilius at first received their submission, but soon after by order of the senate he gave up all their cities to be pillaged, and reduced the inhabitants to slavery. The soldiers sent to execute this barbarous decree, timed their departure so well, that the desolation commenced at the same time in every part of Epi'rus. Thus in one day seventy cities were destroyed, and 150,000 men sold as slaves; an instance of atrocious revenge not to be paralleled in history. The 2. Macedonia, Thes'saly, and Epi'rus, being reduced into a Roman province, though permitted to retain a qualified independence, the Achæans next engaged the attention of the ambitious republic. The senate began secretly to encourage some of the Peloponnesian states to withdraw from the confederacy, and prohibited the Achæans from attempting to bring them back by force of arms. popular indignation at this unmerited display of hostility was violent in all the Achæan cities, but the nobility, who knew well the overwhelming power of Rome, were unwilling to risk the hazard of a contest. 3. At length Critola'us, who had been always remarkable for his hatred of foreign influence, being chosen general of the league, the long-concealed hostility terminated in open war. Metellus, who had been sent to quell a rebellion in Macedon, raised by an impostor named Andris'cus, who pretended to be the son of Per'seus, sent an embassy to the Achæans which was treated with contempt. 4. He then marched his forces into Phthio'tis, a province of Thes'saly, where Critola'us was besieging Heraclei'a, a city that had revolted from the league. On the approach of the Roman army, the Achæan general retreated through the straits of Thermop'ylæ, where he did not even attempt to make a stand; but notwithstanding his precipitation he was overtaken near Scarphe'ia in eastern Lo'cris, and forced to come to an engagement, in which his army was totally defeated and himself slain. 5. This victory was followed by the submission of all Hellas, and Metellus was about to lead his victorious army into the Peloponnesus, when he was obliged to resign his command to the consul Mum'mius, and return to his Macedonian province. 6. Di'æus, who had succeeded Critola'us, concentrated his forces in Corinth, which Mummius immediately invested. Some slight success obtained by the negligence of the besiegers, induced the Achæans to venture on a pitched battle, in which they were totally defeated. Di'æus fled to Megalop'olis, where he died by his own hand; the garrison, deserted by their leader, abandoned the B.C 147. } |