CHAPTER X

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But the most impious of all crimes, the betrayal of one’s country and fellow citizens for gain, was destined to bring about the destruction of the Achæans, a crime that has ever troubled Greece. For in the days of Darius (the son of Hystaspes) king of the Persians the Ionian affairs were ruined by all the Samian captains but eleven treacherously surrendering their ships. And after the subjugation of the Ionians the Medes enslaved Eretria; when those held in highest repute in Eretria played the traitor, as Philagras, the son of Cyneus, and Euphorbus, the son of Alcimachus. And when Xerxes went on his expedition to Greece, Thessaly was betrayed by the Aleuadæ, and Thebes was betrayed by Attaginus and Timegenidas, its foremost men. And during the Peloponnesian war Xenias, a native of Elis, endeavoured to betray Elis to the Lacedæmonians and Agis. And those who were called Lysander’s friends never ceased the attempt to betray their countries to Lysander. And in the reign of Philip, the son of Amyntas, one will find that Lacedæmon was not the only one of the Greek cities that were betrayed: the cities of Greece were more ruined through treason than they had been formerly by the plague. But Alexander the son of Philip had very little success indeed by treason. And after the reverse to the Greeks at Lamia Antipater, wishing to cross over with all despatch to the war in Asia Minor, was content to patch up a peace speedily, as it mattered nothing to him whether he left Athens or indeed all Greece free. But Demades and other traitors at Athens persuaded Antipater not to act friendly to the Greeks, and, by frightening the commonalty of the Athenians, they were the means of the introduction into Athens and most other towns of the Macedonian garrisons. What confirms my account is that the Athenians after the reverse in Bœotia did not become subject to Philip, though 1,000 were killed in the action, and 2,000 taken prisoners after: but at Lamia, although only 200 fell, they became slaves of the Macedonians. Thus at no time were wanting to Greece people afflicted with this itch for treason. And the Achæans at this time were made subject to the Romans entirely through the Achæan Callicrates. But the beginning of their troubles was the overthrow of Perseus and the Macedonian Empire by the Romans.

Perseus the son of Philip was originally at peace with the Romans according to the terms of agreement between them and his father Philip, but he violated these conditions when he led an army against Abrupolis, the king of the Sapæans, (who are mentioned by Archilochus in one of his Iambic verses) and dispossessed them, though they were allies of the Romans. And Perseus and the Macedonians having been beaten in war on account of this outrage upon the Sapæans, ten Roman Senators were sent to settle affairs in Macedonia according to the interests of the Romans. And when they came to Greece Callicrates insinuated himself among them, letting slip no occasion of flattering them either in word or deed. And one of them, who was by no means remarkable for justice, was so won over by Callicrates that he was persuaded by him to enter the Achæan League. And he went to one of their general meetings, and said that when Perseus was at war with the Romans the most influential Achæans had furnished him with money, and assisted him in other respects. He bade the Achæans therefore pass a sentence of death against these men: and he said if they would do so, then he would give them their names. This seemed an altogether unfair way of putting it, and those present at the general meeting said that, if any of the Achæans had acted with Perseus, their names must be mentioned first, for it was not fair to condemn them before. And when the Roman was thus confuted, he was so confident as to affirm that all the Achæan Generals were implicated in the charge, for all were friendly to Perseus and the Macedonians. This he said at the instigation of Callicrates. And Xeno rose up next, a man of no small renown among the Achæans, and spoke as follows. “As to this charge, I am a General of the Achæans, and have neither acted against the Romans, nor shewn any good will to Perseus. And I am ready to be tried on this charge before either the Achæan League or the Romans.” This he said in the boldness of a good conscience. But the Roman Senator at once seized the opportunity his words suggested, and sent all whom Callicrates accused of being friendly to Perseus to stand their trial at Rome. Nothing of the kind had ever previously happened to the Greeks. For the Macedonians in the zenith of their power, as under Philip, the son of Amyntas, and Alexander, had never forced any Greeks who opposed them to be sent into Macedonia, but had allowed them to be tried by the Amphictyonic Council. But now every Achæan, however innocent, who was accused by Callicrates, had to go to Rome, so it was decreed, and more than 1,000 so went. And the Romans, treating them as if they had been already condemned by the Achæans, imprisoned them in various towns in Etruria, and, although the Achæans sent various embassies and supplications about them, returned no answer. But 17 years afterwards they released some 300 or even fewer, (who were all that remained in Italy of the 1,000 and more Achæans), thinking they had been punished sufficiently. And all those who escaped either on the journey to Rome in the first instance, or afterwards from the towns to which they had been sent by the Romans, were, if captured, capitally punished at once and no excuse received.

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