Tyranny of Charops in Epirus
There was a great change for the better in Aetolia
Death of Charops, B. C. 157. |
when the civil war was stopped after the death of Lyciscus;
and in Boeotia when Mnasippus of Coronea died; and similarly
in Acarnania when Chremas was got out of the way. Greece
was as though purified by the removal from
life of those accursed pests of the country.
For in the same year Charops of Epirus
chanced to die at Brundisium.
The tyranny of Charops in Epirus |
Affairs in Epirus had been
still in disorder and confusion as before, owing
to the cruelty and tyranny of Charops, ever
since the end of the war with Perseus.
after the battle of Pydna, B. C. 168-157. |
For
Lucius Anicius having condemned some of the
leading men in the country to death, and transported all others to Rome against whom there was the slightest
suspicion, Charops at once got complete power to do what he
chose; and thereupon committed every possible act of cruelty,
sometimes personally, at others by the agency of his friends:
for he was quite a young man himself, and was quickly joined
by a crowd of the worst and most unprincipled persons, who
gathered round him for the sake of plunder from other people.
But what protected him and inclined people to believe that he
was acting on a fixed design, and in accordance with the will
of the Romans, was his former intimacy with them, and the support of the old man Myrton and his son Nicanor. These two
had the character of being men of moderation and on good
terms with the Romans; but though up to that time they had
been widely removed from all suspicion of injustice, they now
gave themselves up wholly to support and share in the lawless
acts of Charops. This man, after murdering some openly in
the market-place, others in their own houses, others by sending secret assassins to waylay them in the fields or on the
roads, and selling the property of all whom he had thus
killed, thought of another device.
He extorts money from the rich under threat of exile. |
He put up
lists of such men and women as were rich, condemning them to exile; and having held out
this threat, he extracted money out of them,
making the bargain himself with the men, and by the
agency of his mother Philotis with the women; for this lady
was well suited to the task, and for any act of violence was
even more helpful than could have been expected in a
woman.