CHAPTER XII

.

And the Oropians, though no help had come from the Achæans, yet had to pay the money promised to Menalcidas. And he, when he had received his bribe, thought it a misfortune that he would have to share any part of it with Callicrates. So at first he practised putting off the payment of the gift and other wiles, but soon afterwards he was so bold as to deprive him of it altogether. My statement is confirmed by the proverb, “One fire burns fiercer than another fire, and one wolf is fiercer than other wolves, and one hawk flies swifter than another hawk, since the most unscrupulous of all men, Callicrates, is outdone in treachery by Menalcidas.” And Callicrates, who was never superior to any bribe, and had got nothing out of his hatred to Athens, was so vexed with Menalcidas that he deprived him of his office, and prosecuted him on a capital charge before the Achæans, _viz._ that he had tried to undermine the Achæans on his embassy to Rome, and that he had endeavoured to withdraw Sparta from the Achæan league. Menalcidas in this crisis gave 3 of the talents from Oropus to Diæus of Megalopolis, who had been his successor as General of the Achæans, and now, being zealous in his interest on account of his bribe, was bent on saving Menalcidas in spite of the Achæans. But the Achæans both privately and publicly were vexed with Diæus for the acquittal of Menalcidas. But Diæus turned away their charges against him to the hope of greater gain, by using the following wile as a pretext. The Lacedæmonians had gone to the Senate at Rome about some debateable land, and the Senate had told them to try all but capital cases before the Achæan League. Such was their answer. But Diæus told the Achæans what was not the truth, and deluded them by saying that the Roman Senate allowed them to pass sentence of death upon a Spartan. They therefore thought the Lacedæmonians could also pass sentence of life and death on themselves: but the Lacedæmonians did not believe that Diæus was speaking the truth, and wished to refer the matter to the Senate at Rome. But the Achæans objected to this, that the cities in the Achæan League had no right without common consent to send an embassy privately to Rome. In consequence of these disputes war broke out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians, and the Lacedæmonians, knowing they were not able to fight the Achæans, sent embassies to their cities and spoke privately to Diæus. All the cities returned the same answer, that if their general ordered them to take the field they could not disobey. For Diæus was in command, and he said that he intended to fight not against Sparta but against all that troubled her. And when the Spartan Senate asked who he thought were the criminals, he gave them a list of 24 men who were prominent in Sparta. Thereupon the opinion of Agasisthenes prevailed, a man previously held in good repute, and who for the following advice got still more highly thought of. He persuaded all those men whose names were mentioned to exile themselves from Lacedæmon, and not by remaining there to bring on a war on Sparta, and if they fled to Rome he said they would be soon restored by the Romans. So they departed and were nominally tried in their absence in the Spartan law-courts and condemned to death: but Callicrates and Diæus were sent by the Achæans to Rome to plead against these Spartan exiles before the Senate. And Callicrates died on the road of some illness, nor do I know whether if he had gone on to Rome he would have done the Achæans any good, or been to them the source of greater evils. But Diæus carried on a bitter controversy with Menalcidas before the Senate, not in the most decorous manner. And the Senate returned answer that they would send Ambassadors, who should arbitrate upon the differences between the Lacedæmonians and Achæans. And the journey of these ambassadors from Rome was somehow taken so leisurely, that Diæus had full time to deceive the Achæans, and Menalcidas the Lacedæmonians. The Achæans were persuaded by Diæus that the Lacedæmonians were directed by the Roman Senate to obey them in all things. While Menalcidas deceived the Lacedæmonians altogether, saying that they had been put by the Romans out of the jurisdiction of the Achæan League altogether.

##