The Aetolians
FROM the unbroken continuity of their wars, and the extravagance of their daily lives, the Aetolians became involved
Straitened finances in Aetolia cause a revolution, B. C. 204. |
in debt, not only without others noticing it, but
without being sensible of it themselves.
therefore naturally disposed to a change in
their constitution, they elected Dorimachus and
Scopas to draw out a code of laws, because they
saw that they were not only innovators by disposition, but were
themselves deeply involved in private debt. These men accordingly were admitted to the office and drew up the laws.
When they produced them they were opposed by Alexander
of Aetolia, who tried to show by many instances that innovation
was a dangerous growth which could not be checked, and invariably ended by inflicting grave evils upon those who fostered
it. He urged them therefore not to look solely to the exigencies of the hour, and the relief from their existing contracts,
but to the future also. For it was a strange inconsistency to
be ready to forfeit their very lives in war to preserve their
children, and yet in their deliberations to be entirely careless
of the future.
Scopas Goes to Egypt
Having failed to obtain the office, for the sake of which
he had had the boldness to draw up these laws, Scopas
turned his hopes to Alexandria, in the expectation of finding means there of restoring his
broken fortunes, and satisfying to a fuller extent
his grasping spirit. He little knew that it is impossible to
assuage the ever-rising desires of the soul without correcting
this passion by reason, any more than it is to stay or quench
the thirst of the dropsical body by supplying it with drink,
without radically restoring its healthy condition. Scopas,
indeed, is a conspicuous example of this truth; for though on
his arrival at Alexandria, in addition to his military pay, which
he possessed independently as commander-in-chief, the king
assigned him ten minae a day, and one mina a day to those
next him in rank, still he was not satisfied; but continued to
demand more, until he disgusted his paymasters by his cupidity,
and lost his life and his gold together.
Philip's Treacherous Conduct, B. C. 204
Philip now entered upon a course of treachery which no
one would venture to say was worthy of a king; but which
some would defend on the ground of its necessity in the conduct of public affairs, owing to the prevailing bad faith of the
time. For the ancients, so far from using a fraudulent policy
towards their friends, were scrupulous even as to using it to
conquer their enemies; because they did not regard a success
as either glorious or secure, which was not obtained by such a
victory in the open field as served to break the confidence of
their enemies. They therefore came to a mutual understanding not to use hidden weapons against each other, nor such as
could be projected from a distance; and held the opinion that
the only genuine decision was that arrived at by a battle fought
at close quarters, foot to foot with the enemy. It was for this
reason also that it was their custom mutually to proclaim their
wars, and give notice of battles, naming time and place at which
they meant to be in order of battle. But nowadays people
say that it is the mark of an inferior general to perform any
operation of war openly. Some slight trace, indeed, of the
old-fashioned morality still lingers among the Romans; for
they do proclaim their wars, and make sparing use of ambuscades, and fight their battles hand to hand and foot to foot.
So much for the unnecessary amount of artifice which it is the
fashion for commanders in our days to employ both in politics
and war.
Philip Intrigues Against Rhodes
Philip gave Heracleides a kind of problem to work out,
—how to circumvent and destroy the Rhodian fleet. At the
same time he sent envoys to Crete to excite and provoke them
to go to war with the Rhodians. Heracleides,
who was a born traitor, looked upon the commission as the very thing to suit his plans; and
after revolving various methods in his mind, presently started
and sailed to Rhodes.
Philip employs Heracleides of Tarentum. |
He was by origin a Tarentine, of a
low family of mechanics, and he had many qualities which
fitted him for bold and unscrupulous undertakings. His boyhood had been stained by notorious immorality; he had great
acuteness and a retentive memory; in the presence of the
vulgar no one could be more bullying and audacious; to those in
high position no one more insinuating and servile. He had been
originally banished from his native city from a suspicion of
being engaged in an intrigue to hand over Tarentum to the
Romans: not that he had any political influence, but being an
architect, and employed in some repairs of the walls, he got
possession of the keys of the gate on the landward side of the
town. He thereupon fled for his life to the Romans. From
them, being detected in making communications by letters and
messages with Tarentum and Hannibal, he again fled for fear
of consequences to Philip. With him he obtained so much
credit and influence that he eventually was the most powerful
element in the overthrow of that great monarchy.
Distrust between Philip and the Rhodians
The Prytanies of Rhodes were now distrustful of Philip,
owing to his treacherous policy in Crete,
1 and they began to
Suspect that Heracleides was his agent.
But Heracleides came before them and explained the reasons which had caused him to
The false pretences of Heracleides at Rhodes. |
fly from Philip. . . .
Philip was anxious above everything that the Rhodians
should not discover his purpose in these transactions; whereby
he succeeded in freeing Heracleides from suspicion.
Nature, as it seems to me, has ordained that Truth should
be a most mighty goddess among men, and has
endowed her with extraordinary power.
At
least, I notice that though at times everything combines to
crush her, and every kind of specious argument is on the side
of falsehood, she somehow or another insinuates herself by
her own intrinsic virtue into the souls of men. Sometimes
she displays her power at once; and sometimes, though obscured for a length of time, she at last prevails and overpowers
falsehood. Such was the case with Heracleides when he came
from king Philip to Rhodes.
2 . . .
Damocles, who was sent with Pythio as a spy upon the
Romans, was a person of ability, and possessed of many
endowments fitting him for the conduct of affairs. . . .
Nabis, Tyrant of Sparta, B.C. 207-192
Nabis, tyrant of Sparta, being now in the third year of
The character of Nabis's tyranny. |
his reign, ventured upon no undertaking of importance, owing
to the recent defeat of Machanidas by the
Achaeans; but employed himself in laying the
foundations of a long and grinding tyranny. He
destroyed the last remains of the old Spartan nobles; drove
into banishment all men eminent for wealth or ancestral glory;
and distributed their property and wives among the chief men
of those who remained, or among his own mercenary soldiers.
These last were composed of murderers, housebreakers, footpads, and burglars. For this was, generally speaking, the class
of men which he collected out of all parts of the world, whose
own country was closed to them owing to their crimes and
felonies. As he put himself forward as the patron and king of
such wretches, and employed them as attendants and bodyguards, there is evidently no cause for surprise that his impious
character and reign should have been long remembered. For,
besides this, he was not content with driving the citizens into
banishment, but took care no place should be secure, and no
refuge safe for the exiles. Some he caused to be pursued and
killed on the road, while others he dragged from their place of
retreat and murdered. Finally, in the cities where they were
living, he hired the houses next door to these banished men,
wherever they might be, by means of agents who were not
suspected; and then sent Cretans into these houses, who made
breaches in the party walls, and through them, or through such
windows as already existed, shot down the exiles as they stood
or lay down in their own houses; so that there was no place
of retreat, and no moment of security for the unfortunate
Lacedaemonians.
Nabis's Wife
When he had by these means put the greater number of
them out of the way, he next had constructed
a kind of machine, if machine it may be called,
which was the figure of a woman, clothed in costly garments,
and made to resemble with extraordinary fidelity the wife of
Nabis. Whenever then he summoned one of the citizens
with a view of getting some money from him, he used first to
employ a number of arguments politely expressed, pointing
out the danger in which the city stood from the threatening
attitude of the Achaeans, and explaining what a number of
mercenaries he had to support for their security, and the expenses which fell upon him for the maintenance of the national
religion and the needs of the State. If the listeners gave in
he was satisfied; but if they ever refused to comply with his
demand, he would say, "Perhaps I cannot persuade you, but I
think this lady Apéga will succeed in doing so." Apéga was
the name of his wife. Immediately on his saying these words,
the figure I have described was brought in. As soon as the
man offered his hand to the supposed lady to raise her from
her seat, the figure threw its arms round him and began drawing him by degrees towards its breasts. Now its arms, hands,
and breasts were full of iron spikes under its clothes. When
the tyrant pressed his hands on the back of the figure, and
then by means of the works dragged the man by degrees
closer and closer to its breasts, he forced him under this
torture to say anything. A good number of men who refused
his demands he destroyed in this way.
3
Nabis Finds a Pretext for War
The rest of his conduct was on a par with this beginning.
The beginning of the war between Nabis and the Achaeans. |
He made common cause with the Cretan pirates,
and kept temple-breakers, highway-robbers, and
murderers all over the Peloponnese; and as he
shared in the profits of their nefarious trades, he
allowed them to use Sparta as their base of operations. Moreover, about this time some visitors from Boeotia, who happened
to be staying at Lacedaemon, enticed one of his grooms to
make off with them, taking a certain white horse which was
considered the finest in the royal stud. They were pursued
by a party sent by Nabis as far as Megalopolis, where the
tyrants found the horse and groom, and took them off without any one interfering. But they then laid hands on the
Boeotians, who at first demanded to be taken before the
magistrate; but as no attention was paid to the demand, one
of them shouted out "Help!" Upon a crowd of the people
of the place collecting and protesting that the men should be
taken before the magistrate, Nabis's party were obliged to let
them go and retire. Nabis, however, had been long looking
out for a ground of complaint and a reasonable pretext for a
quarrel, and having seized on this one, he harried the cattle
belonging to Proagoras and some others; which was a commencement of the war.
4 . . .
Antiochus in Arabia, B.C. 205-204
Labae, like Sabae, is a city of Chattenia, which is a
territory of the Gerraei. . . . In other respects, Chattenia is a
rugged country, but the wealth of the Gerraei who inhabit it
has adorned it with villages and towers. It lies along the
Arabian Sea, and Antiochus gave orders to spare it. . . .
In a letter to Antiochus the Gerraei demanded that he should
not destroy what the gods had given them—perpetual peace
and freedom; and this letter having been interpreted to him
he granted the request. . . .
Their freedom having been confirmed to the Gerraei, they
presented King Antiochus at once with five hundred talents
of silver, one thousand of frankincense, and two hundred of
oil of cinnamon, called stacte, all of them spices of the country
on the Arabian Sea. He then sailed to the island of Tylos,
and thence to Seleucia. . . .