History of the World/History of the World (Bureau Development, Inc.)(1992).BIN/dp/0431/04315.txt

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$Title{Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Sections III And IV.}
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$Author{Rollin, Charles}
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$Subject{upon
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$Date{1731}
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Title:       Rollin's Ancient History: History Of Alexander's Successors
Book:        Chapter VIII.
Author:      Rollin, Charles
Date:        1731

Sections III And IV.

Section III: Andriscus, Pretended Son Of Perseus, Causes Himself To Be
Proclaimed King Of Macedonia.

     Fifteen or sixteen years after the defeat and death of Perseus, Andriscus
of Adramytta, a city of Troas, in Asia Minor, a person of the meanest birth,
pretending to be the son of Perseus, took upon him the name of Philip, and
entered Macedonia, in hopes of making the inhabitants of the country
acknowledge him for their king.  He had invented a story in regard to his
birth, which he reported wherever he passed, pretending that he was the son of
Perseus by a concubine, and that the prince his father had caused him to be
secretly brought up at Adramytta, that in case of ill fortune in the war
against the Romans, some branch of the royal line might remain.  That after
the death of Perseus, he had been nurtured and brought up at Adramytta, till
he was twelve years of age; and that the person who passed for his father,
finding himself at the point of death, had revealed the secret to his wife,
and entrusted her with a writing, signed by Perseus with his own hand, which
attested all that has been said; which writing she was to deliver to him,
Philip, as soon as he should attain to years of discretion.  He added that her
husband having conjured her absolutely to conceal the affair till then, she
had been most faithful in keeping the secret, and had delivered that important
writing to him at the appointed time, pressing him to quit the country before
the report should reach the ears of Eumenes, the declared enemy of Perseus,
lest he should cause him to be put to death.  He was in hopes that he should
be believed upon his own word, and make Macedonia rise in his favor.  When he
saw that all continued quiet, he retired into Syria, to the court of Demetrius
Soter, whose sister Perseus had espoused.  That prince, who immediately
perceived the fraud, caused him to be seized, and sent to Rome. ^403

[Footnote 403: A. M. 3852.  Ant. J. C. 152.  Epitom. Liv. l. xlviii. 50. Zonar
ex Dion. l. i. c. 11.  Florus. l. ii. c. 14.]

     As he did not produce any proof of his pretended nobility, and had
nothing in his mien or manner that expressed the prince, no great notice was
taken of him at Rome, and he was treated with great contempt, without much
trouble to keep a strict guard upon him, or to confine him close.  He took
advantage of the negligence of his guards, and made his escape from Rome.
Having found means to raise a considerable army among the Thracians, who
entered into his views for the sake of delivering themselves, by his means,
from the Roman yoke, he made himself master of Macedonia, either by consent or
force, and assumed the marks of the royal dignity.  Not content with this
first conquest, which had cost him little, he attacked Thessaly, and subjected
a part of it to his obedience.

     The affair then began to seem more important to the Romans.  They elected
Scipio Nasica to go thither and appease this tumult in its birth, deeming him
well qualified for that commission.  He had, indeed, the art of managing men's
minds, and of bringing them into his measures by persuasion; and if he should
find it necessary to decide this affair by arms, he was very capable of
forming a project with wisdom, and executing it with valor. As soon as he
arrived in Greece, and had been fully informed of the state of affairs in
Macedonia and Thessaly, he gave the senate advice of them; and without loss of
time, visited the cities of the allies, in order to raise troops immediately
for the defence of Thessaly.  The Achaeans, who continued at that time the
most powerful people of Greece, supplied him with the greatest number,
forgetting past subjects of discontent.  He presently took from the false
Philip all the places he had possessed himself of in Thessaly, and drove him
back into Macedonia.

     It was well known, however, at Rome, from Scipio's letters, that
Macedonia had occasion for a speedy support.  The praetor, P. Juventius
Thalma, had orders to repair thither as soon as possible with an army, which
he did without loss of time.  But, looking upon Andriscus as only a pageant
king, he did not think it incumbent upon him to take any great precautions
against him, and engaged precipitately in a battle, wherein he lost his life,
with part of his army; the rest saving themselves only by favor of the night.
The victor, elated with his success, and believing his authority sufficiently
established, abandoned himself to his vicious inclinations without any
moderation or reserve; as if the being truly a king consisted in knowing no
law nor rule of conduct but his passions.  He was covetous, proud, insolent,
and cruel.  Violence, confiscations of estates, and murders were committed on
all sides.  Taking advantage of the terror occasioned by the defeat of the
Roman army, he soon recovered all he had lost in Thessaly.  An embassy sent to
him from the Carthaginians, who were at that time actually at war with the
Romans, very much augmented his courage. ^404

[Footnote 404: A. M. 3856.  Ant. J. C. 148.]

     Q. Caecilius Metellus lately elected praetor, had succeeded Juventius.
Andriscus had resolved to advance to meet him, but did not think it proper to
remove far from the sea, and halted at Pydna, where he fortified his camp.
The Roman praetor soon followed him.  The two armies were in sight of each
other, and skirmished every day.  Andriscus gained an advantage sufficiently
considerable in a small combat of the cavalry.  Success generally blinds and
proves fatal to people of little experience. Andriscus, believing himself
superior to the Romans, sent off a strong detachment to defend his conquests
in Thessaly.  This was a gross error; and Metellus, whose vigilance nothing
escaped, did not fail to take advantage of it.  The army that remained in
Macedonia was beaten, and Andriscus obliged to fly.  He retired among the
Thracians, from whom he returned soon after with another army.  He was so rash
as to hazard another battle, which was still less successful than the former.
He lost more than twenty-five thousand men in these two battles: and nothing
was wanting to the Roman glory but to seize Andriscus, who had taken refuge
with a petty king of Thrace, to whose fidelity he had committed himself.  But
the Thracians did not stand much upon breach of faith, and made that the means
of their interest.  That prince delivered up his guest and supplicant into the
hands of Metellus, to avoid drawing upon himself the wrath and arms of the
Romans.  Andriscus was sent to Rome.

     Another adventurer, who also called himself the son of Perseus, and took
upon him the name of Alexander, had the same fate with the first, except being
seized by Metellus: he retired into Dardania, where he effectually concealed
himself.

     It was at that time Macedonia was entirely subjected to the Romans, and
reduced into a province.

     A third usurper, some years after, appeared again, and set himself up as
the son of Perseus, under the name of Philip.  His pretended royalty was but
of short duration.  He was overcome and killed in Macedonia by Tremellius,
afterwards surnamed Scrofa, from having said that he would disperse the enemy,
"ut Scrofa Porcos."

Section IV: Troubles In Achaia.  Metellus And Mummius Settle Those Troubles.
The Latter Takes Corinth, And Destroys It.

     Metellus, after having pacified Macedonia, continued there some time.
Great commotions had arisen among the Achaeans of the league, occasioned by
the temerity and avarice of those who held the first offices.  The resolutions
of their assemblies were no longer guided by reason, prudence, and equity, but
by the interest and passions of the magistrates, and the blind caprice of an
untractable multitude.  The Achaean league and Sparta had sent ambassadors to
Rome, upon an affair about which they were divided. Damocritus,
notwithstanding, who was the supreme magistrate of the Achaeans, had caused a
war to be declared against Sparta.  Metellus had sent to desire that
hostilities might cease, till the arrival of the commissioners from Rome who
were appointed for terminating their differences.  But neither he, nor Diaeus,
who succeeded him, paid any regard to that request.  Both of them entered
Laconia with their troops, and laid waste the country. ^405

[Footnote 405: A. M. 3857.  Ant. J. C. 147.  Pausan. in Achaic. pp. 421- 428.
Polyb. Legat. cxliii., cxliv.  Id. in Excerpt. de Virt. et Vit. pp. 181-189.
Justin. l. xxxiv. c. l.  Flor. l. ii. c. 16.]

     The commissioners having arrived, the assembly was summoned to Corinth;
Aurelius Orestes was at the head of the commission.  The senate had given them
orders to weaken the body of the league; and for that end, to separate as many
cities as they could from it.  Orestes notified to the assembly the decree of
the senate, whereby Sparta, Corinth, Argos, Heraclea near Mount Oeta, and
Orchomenos of Arcadia, were secluded from the league, under pretence that
those cities did not originally compose a part of the body of the Achaeans.
When the deputies quitted the assembly, and reported this decree to the
multitude, they grew furious, and fell upon all the Lacedaemonians they found
in Corinth; tore those out of the house of the commissioners who had taken
refuge there; and would have treated themselves no better, had they not
escaped their violence by flight.

     Orestes and his colleagues, on their return to Rome, gave an account of
what had passed.  The senate was highly incensed at it, and immediately
deputed Julius, with some other commissioners, into Achaia; but instructed
them to complain with moderation, and only to exhort the Achaeans not to give
ear to bad counsels, lest by their imprudence they should incur disgrace with
the Romans; a misfortune which they might avoid by punishing those who had
exposed them to it.  Carthage was not yet taken, so that it was necessary to
act with caution in regard to allies so powerful as the Achaeans.  The
commissioners met on their way a deputy sent by the seditious to Rome; they
carried him back with them to Aegium, where the diet of the nation had been
summoned to assemble.  They spoke in it with great moderation and kindness.
They did not let slip a single word in their discourse concerning the ill
treatment of the commissioners, or excuse it better than the Achaeans
themselves would have done; and were as reserved in regard to the cities which
they wished to separate from the league.  They confined themselves to
exhorting them not to aggravate their first fault, nor to irritate the Romans
any farther; and to leave Lacedaemonia in peace.  Such moderate remonstrances
were extremely agreeable to all persons of sense in the assembly.  But Diaeus,
Critolaus, and their faction, all chosen out of the vilest, most impious, and
most pernicious persons in each city, blew up the flame of discord;
insinuating that the lenity of the Romans proceeded only from the bad
condition of their affairs in Africa, where they had been defeated in several
engagements, and from the fear they were in lest the Achaean league should
declare against them.

     The commissioners, however, were treated with sufficient deference. They
were told that Thearidas should be sent to Rome; that they had only to repair
to Tegea, a city on the banks of the Eurotas, to treat there with the
Lacedaemonians, and to incline them to peace.  They went thither accordingly,
and persuaded the Lacedaemonians to an accommodation with the Achaeans, and to
suspend all hostilities, till new commissioners should arrive from Rome to
pacify all differences.  But the faction of Critolaus took their measures in
such a manner, that no person, except that magistrate, went to the congress;
and he did not arrive there till he was almost no longer expected.
Conferences were held with the Lacedaemonians; but Critolaus would not assent
to any measures.  He said that he was not empowered to decide any thing
without the consent of the nation, and that he would report the affair in the
general diet, which could not be summoned in less than six months.  That bad
stratagem exceedingly offended Julius. After having dismissed the
Lacedaemonians, he set out for Rome, where he described Critolaus as a violent
and extravagant man.

     The commissioners were no sooner out of Peloponnesus, than Critolaus went
from city to city, during the whole winter, and summoned assemblies, under the
pretext of communicating what had been said to the Lacedaemonians in the
conferences held at Tegea, but, in fact, to vent invectives against the
Romans, and to put an odious construction upon all they had done, in order to
inspire the same spirit of animosity and aversion, which he himself had
against them; in which he succeeded too well.  He, besides, prohibited all
judges from prosecuting and imprisoning an Achaean for debt, till the
conclusion of the affair between the diet and Lacedaemon.  By that means,
whatever he said had all the effect he desired, and disposed the multitude to
receive such orders as he thought fit to give them.  Incapable of forming
right judgments of the future, they suffered themselves to be caught with the
bait of the first advantage he proposed to them.

     Metellus, having received advice in Macedonia of the troubles in
Peloponnesus, deputed thither four Romans of distinction, who arrived at
Corinth at the time the council was assembled there.  They spoke in it with
great moderation, exhorting the Achaeans not to draw upon themselves, by
imprudent rashness and levity, the resentment of the Romans.  They were
treated with contempt, and ignominiously turned out of the assembly.  An
innumerable crowd of workmen and artificers rose about them, and insulted
them.  All the cities of Achaia were at that time in a kind of delirium; but
Corinth was far more frantic than the rest, and abandoned to a kind of
madness.  They had been persuaded that Rome intended to enslave them all, and
absolutely to destroy the Achaean league.

     Critolaus, seeing with pleasure that every thing succeeded to his wishes,
harangued the multitude, inflamed them against the magistrates who did not
enter into his views; spoke against the ambassadors themselves; animated them
against the Romans; and gave them to understand that it was not without
previous good measures that he had undertaken to resist the Romans; that he
had kings in his party; and that the republics were also ready to join it.  By
these seditious discourses he prevailed to have war declared against the
Lacedaemonians, and, in consequence, indirectly against the Romans.  The
ambassadors then separated.  One of them repaired to Lacedaemonia to observe
the motions of the enemy; another set out for Naupactus: and two waited the
arrival of Metellus at Athens.

     The magistrate of the Boeotians, whose name was Pytheas, equally rash and
violent as Critolaus, entered into his measures, and engaged the Boeotians to
join their arms with those of the Achaeans; they were discontented with a
sentence which Rome had given against them.  The city of Chalcis suffered
itself also to be drawn into their party.  The Achaeans, with such feeble
aids, believed themselves in a condition to support all the weight of the
Roman power, so much were they blinded by their rage and fury.

     The Romans had chosen Mummius for one of the consuls, and charged him
with the Achaean war.  Metellus, to deprive him of the glory of terminating
this war, sent new ambassadors to the Achaeans, with promises that the Roman
people should forget all that had passed, and pardon their faults, if they
would return to their duty, and consent that certain cities, which had been
proposed before, should be dismembered from the league.  This proposal was
rejected with disdain; upon which Metellus advanced with his troops against
the rebels.  He came up with them near the city of Scarphaea in Locris, and
obtained a considerable victory over them, in which he took more than one
thousand prisoners.  Critolaus disappeared in the battle, without its being
known what became of him.  It was supposed that in the flight he had fallen
into the marshes, and been drowned.  Diaeus took upon him the command in his
stead, gave liberty to the slaves, and armed all the Achaeans and Arcadians
capable of bearing arms.  That body of troops amounted to fourteen thousand
foot, and six hundred horse.  He gave orders besides, for the raising of
troops in every city.  The exhausted cities were in the utmost desolation.
Many private persons, reduced to despair, laid violent hands upon themselves:
others abandoned an unhappy country, where they foresaw their destruction was
inevitable.  Notwithstanding the extremity of these misfortunes, they had no
thoughts of taking the only measures that could prevent them.  They detested
the rashness of their chiefs, and yet yielded to their measures. ^406

[Footnote 406: A. M. 3858.  Ant. J. C. 146.]

     Metellus, after the battle before mentioned, fell in with one thousand
Arcadians in Boeotia, near Cheronaea, who were endeavoring to return to their
own country; these were all put to the sword.  From thence he marched with his
victorious army to Thebes, which he found almost entirely deserted.  Moved
with the deplorable condition of that city, he ordered that the temples and
houses should be spared, and that none of the inhabitants, either in the city
or country, should be made prisoners or put to death.  He excepted from that
number Pytheas, the author of all their miseries, who was brought to him and
put to death.  From Thebes, after having taken Megara, the garrison of which
had retired upon his approach, he made his troops march to Corinth, where
Diaeus had shut himself up.  He sent thither three of the principal persons of
the league, who had taken refuge with him, to exhort the Achaeans to return to
their duty and accept the conditions of peace offered them.  Metellus ardently
desired to terminate the affair before the arrival of Mummius.  The
inhabitants, on their side, were equally desirous of seeing a period to their
misfortunes; but that was not in their power, the faction of Diaeus disposing
of every thing.  The deputies were thrown into prison, and would have been put
to death, if Diaeus had not seen the multitude extremely enraged at the
punishment he had inflicted upon Sosicrates, who talked of surrendering to the
Romans.  The prisoners were therefore dismissed.

     Things were in this condition when Mummius arrived.  He had hastened his
march, from the fear of finding every thing pacified at his arrival, and lest
another should have the glory of concluding this war.  Metellus resigned the
command to him, and returned into Macedonia.  When Mummius had assembled all
his troops, he advanced to the city, and encamped before it. A body of his
advanced guard being negligent of duty upon their post, the besieged made a
sortie, attacked them vigorously, killed many, and pursued the rest almost to
the entrance of their camp.  This small advantage very much encouraged the
Achaeans, and thereby proved fatal to them.  Diaeus offered the consul battle.
The latter, to augment his rashness, kept his troops within the camp, as if
fear prevented him from accepting it.  The joy and presumption of the Achaeans
rose to an inconceivable height.  They advanced furiously with all their
troops, having placed their wives and children upon the neighboring eminences,
to be spectators of the battle, and caused a great number of carriages to
follow them, to be laden with the booty they should take from the enemy; so
fully did they assure themselves of the victory.

     Never was there a more rash or ill-founded confidence.  The faction had
removed from the service and counsels all such as were capable of commanding
the troops, or conducting affairs, and had substituted others in their room
without either talents or ability, in order to their being more absolutely
masters of the government, and ruling without opposition.  The chief, without
military knowledge, valor, or experience, had no other merit than a blind and
frantic rage.  They had already committed an excess of folly in hazarding a
battle, which was to decide their fate, without necessity, instead of thinking
of a long and brave defence in so strong a place as Corinth, and of obtaining
good conditions by a vigorous resistance.  The battle was fought near
Leucopetra, a place now unknown, and the defile of the isthmus.  The consul
had posted part of his horse in an ambuscade, which they quitted at a proper
time for charging the Achaean cavalry in flank; who, surprised by an
unforeseen attack, gave way immediately.  The infantry made more resistance;
but as it was neither covered nor sustained by the horse, it was soon broken
and put to flight. If Diaeus had retired into the place, he might have held it
some time, and obtained an honorable capitulation from Mummius, whose sole aim
was to put an end to the war.  But, abandoning himself to his despair, he rode
full speed to Megalopolis, his country; and having entered his house, set fire
to it, killed his wife, to prevent her falling into the hands of the enemy,
drank poison, and in that manner put an end to his life, worthy of the many
crimes he had committed.

     After this defeat the inhabitants lost all hope of defending themselves.
As they found they were without counsel, leaders, courage, or views, no person
had any thought of rallying the wreck of the army, in order to make any
farther resistance, and to oblige the victor to grant them some favorable
conditions, so that all the Achaeans who had retired into Corinth, and most of
the citizens, quitted it the following night, to save themselves where they
could.  The consul, having entered the city, abandoned it to be plundered by
the soldiers.  All the men who were left in it were put to the sword, and the
women and children exposed to sale; and after the statues, paintings, and most
valuable articles were moved for transporting them to Rome, the houses were
set on fire, and the whole city continued in flames for several days.  From
that time the Corinthian brass became more famous than ever, though it had
been in repute long before.  It is pretended that the gold, silver, and brass,
which was melted and ran together in this conflagration, formed a new and
precious metal.  The walls were afterwards demolished and razed to their very
foundations.  All this was executed by order of the senate, to punish the
insolence of the Corinthians, who had violated the law of nations in their
treatment of the ambassadors sent to them by Rome.

     Thus was Corinth ruined, the same year in which Carthage was taken and
destroyed by the Romans, nine hundred and fifty-two years after its foundation
by Aletes, the son of Hippotes, sixth in descent from Hercules. It does not
appear that they had any thoughts of raising new troops for the defence of the
country, or summoned any assembly to deliberate upon the measures it was
necessary to take; nor that any one took upon him to propose any remedy for
the public calamities, or endeavored to appease the Romans, by sending
deputies to implore their clemency.  We might suppose from this general
inactivity, that the Achaean league had been entirely buried in the ruins of
Corinth, so much had the dreadful destruction of that city alarmed, and
universally dismayed the people.

     The cities that had joined in the revolt of the Achaeans were also
punished by the demolition of their walls, and by being disarmed.  The ten
Commissioners sent by the senate to regulate the affairs of Greece, in
conjunction with the consul, abolished popular government in all the cities,
and established magistrates in them, who were to have a certain revenue out of
the public funds.  In other respects they were left in possession of their
laws and liberty.  They abolished also all the general assemblies held by the
Achaeans, Boeotians, Photaeans, and other people of Greece; but they were
re-established soon after.  Greece, from that time, was reduced to a Roman
province, called the province of Achaia; because, at the taking of Corinth,
the Achaeans were the most powerful people of Greece, and the Roman people
sent a praetor every year to govern it.

     Rome, by destroying Corinth in this manner, thought proper to show that
example of severity, in order to deter others, whom its too great clemency
rendered bold, rash, and presuming, from the hope they had of obtaining the
pardon of the Roman people for their faults.  Besides which, the advantageous
situation of that city, where such as revolted might canton themselves and
make it a military station against the Romans, determined them to ruin it
entirely.  Cicero, who did not disapprove of Carthage and Numantia being used
in that manner, wished that Corinth had been spared. ^407

[Footnote 407: Majores nostri - Carthaginem et Numantiam funditus sustulerunt.
Sed credo illos secutos opportunitatem loci maxime, ne posset aliquando ad
bellum faciendum locus ipse adhortati. - Cic. de Offic. l. i. n. 45.]

     The booty taken at Corinth was sold, and considerable sums raised from
it.  Among the paintings, there was a piece drawn by the most celebrated
artist ^408 in Greece, representing Bacchus, ^409 the beauty of which was not
known to the Romans, who were at that time entirely ignorant in the polite
arts.  Polybius, who was then in the country, had the mortification to see
that painting used by the soldiers as a table on which they played at dice.
It was adjudged to Attalus, in the sale made of the booty, for six hundred
thousand sesterces, somewhat more than sixteen thousand dollars.  Pliny
mentions another picture by the same painter, which Attalus also purchased for
one hundred talents.  That prince's riches were immense, and were become a
proverb: "Attalicis conditionibus." These sums, however, seem repugnant to
probability.  The consul, surprised that the price of the painting in question
should rise so high, interposed his authority, and retained it contrary to
public faith, and notwithstanding the complaints of Attalus, because he
imagined there was some hidden virtue in the piece, unknown to him.  He did
not act in that manner for his private interest, nor with the view of
appropriating it to himself, as he sent it to Rome, to be applied in adorning
the city.  In doing which, says Cicero, he adorned and embellished his house
more essentially than if he had placed the picture in it.  The taking of the
richest and most opulent city of Greece, did not enrich him in the least.
Such noble disinterestedness was at that time common in Rome, and seemed less
the virtue of private persons, than of the age itself.  To take advantage of
office and command for enriching a man's self, was not only shameful and
infamous, but a criminal abuse. ^410 The painting we speak of, was set up in
the temple of Ceres, where the judges went to see it out of curiosity, as a
masterpiece of art: and it remained there till it was burned with that temple.

[Footnote 408: This painter was called Aristides.  The picture mentioned here
was in such estimation, that it was commonly said, "All paintings are nothing
in comparison with the Bacchus."]

[Footnote 409: Strab. l. viii. p. 381.  Plin. l. vii. c. 38, et l. xxxv. c. 4,
et 10.]

[Footnote 410: Numquid Lucius Mummius copiosior, cum copiosissimam urbem
funditus sustulisset?  Italiam ornare quam domum suam, maluit.  Quanquam
Italia ornata, domus ipsa mihi videtur ornatior.  Laus abstinentiae non
hominis est solum, sed etiam temporum. - Habere quaestui remp. non modo turpe
est, sic sceleraturm etiam et nefarium. - Cic. de Offic. l. i. n. 76, 77.]

     Mummius was a great warrior, and an excellent man, but had neither
learning, knowledge of arts, nor taste for painting or sculpture, the merit of
which he did not distinguish; not believing there was any difference between
pictures or statues, nor that the name of the great masters of those arts gave
them their value.  This he fully explained upon the present occasion.  He had
ordered persons to take care of transporting many of the paintings and statues
of the most excellent masters to Rome.  No loss could have been so irreparable
as that of such a deposit, consisting of the masterpieces of those
extraordinary artists, who contributed almost as much as the greatest
captains, to render their age glorious to posterity. Mummius, however, in
recommending the care of that precious collection to those to whom he confided
them, threatened them very seriously, that if the statues, paintings, and
other things with which he charged them, should be either lost, or spoiled
upon the way, he would oblige them to find others at their own cost and
charges. ^411

[Footnote 411: Mummious ta rudis fuit, ut capta Corintho, cum maximorum
artificum perfectas manibus tabulas ac statuas in Italiam portendas locaret,
juberet praedici conducentibus, si eas perdidissent, novas eas reddituras.
Non tamen puto dubites.  Vinici, quin pro republica fuerit, manere adhuc rudem
Corinthiorum intellectum, quam in tantam ea intelligi; et quin hac prudentia
illa imprudentia decori publico fuerit convenientior. - Vell. Paterc. l. i. n.
12.]

     Were it not to be wished, says a historian, who has preserved us this
fact, that this happy ignorance still subsisted?  and would not such a
grossness be infinitely preferable, in regard to the public good, to the
exceeding delicacy of taste of the present age for such sort of rarities? He
spoke at a time when that taste for excellent paintings among the magistrates
was the cause of their committing all manner of frauds and robberies in the
provinces.

     I have said that Polybius, on returning into Peloponnesus, had the
affliction to see the destruction and burning of Corinth, and his country
reduced into a province of the Roman empire.  If any thing was capable of
giving him consolation in so mournful a conjuncture, it was the opportunity of
defending the memory of Philopoemen, his master in the art of war.  I have
already observed that a Roman, having formed the design of having the statues
erected to that hero taken down, had the imprudence to prosecute him
criminally, as if he had been still alive, and to accuse him before Mummius of
having been an enemy to the Romans, and of having always opposed their designs
to the utmost of his power.  That accusation was extravagant, but had some
color in it, and was not entirely without foundation. Polybius boldly took
upon him his defence.  He represented Philopoemen as the greatest captain whom
Greece had produced in the latter times; that he might, perhaps, have carried
his zeal for the liberty of his country a little too far; but that he had
rendered the Roman people considerable services upon several occasions, as in
their wars against Antiochus and the Aetolians.  The commissioners before whom
he pleaded so noble a cause, moved with his reasons, and still more with his
gratitude for his master, decreed that the statues of Philopoemen should
continue as they were in all places.  Polybius, taking advantage of the good
disposition of Mummius, demanded also the statues of Aratus and Achaeus; which
were granted him, though they had already been carried out of Peloponnesus
into Acarnania. The Achaeans were so charmed with the zeal which Polybius had
expressed upon this occasion for the honor of the great men of his country,
that they erected a statue of marble to himself. ^412

[Footnote 412: Polyb. in Excerpt. pp. 190-192]

     He gave, at the same time, a proof of his disinterestedness, which did
him as much honor among the citizens, as his defence of the memory of
Philopoemen.  After the destruction of Corinth, it was thought proper to
punish the authors of the insult done to the Roman ambassadors, and their
estates and effects were sold by auction.  When those of Diaeus, who had been
the principal in that affront, were put up, the ten commissioners ordered the
quaestor who sold them, to let Polybius take whatever he thought fit out of
them, without taking from him any thing on that account. He refused that
offer, however advantageous it appeared, and would have thought himself in
some measure an accomplice of that wretch's crimes, had he accepted any part
of his fortune; besides which, he believed it infamous to enrich himself out
of the spoils of his fellow-citizens.  He would not only accept nothing
himself, but exhorted his friends not to desire any thing of what had
appertained to Diaeus; and all who followed his example were highly applauded.

     This action gave the commissioners so high an opinion of Polybius, that,
on their leaving Greece, they desired him to go to all the cities which had
been lately conquered, and to accommodate their differences, till time had
accustomed them to the change which had been made, and to the new laws
prescribed them. ^413 Polybius discharged that honorable commission with so
much goodness, justice, and prudence, that no farther contests arose in
Achaia, either in regard to the government in general, or the affairs of
individuals.  In gratitude for so great a benefit, statues were erected to him
in different places; upon the base of one of which was this inscription, "That
Greece would have been guilty of no errors, if she had hearkened at first to
the counsels of Polybius; but that, after her faults, he alone had been her
deliverer."

[Footnote 413: Polyb, in Excerpt pp. 190, etc.]

     Polybius, after having established order and tranquillity in his country,
returned to join Scipio at Rome, from whence he accompanied him to Numantia,
at the siege of which he was present.  When Scipio was dead, he returned into
Greece; and having enjoyed there the esteem, gratitude, and affection of his
beloved citizens, he died at the age of eighty-two years, of a wound he
received by a fall from his horse. ^414

[Footnote 414: Lucian in Macrob. p. 142.]

     Metellus, on his return to Rome, was honored with a triumph, as conqueror
of Macedonia and Achaia, and surnamed Macedonicus.  The false king Andriscus
was led before his chariot.  Among the spoils, he caused what was called the
troop of Alexander the Great to be carried in the procession.  That prince, at
the battle of the Granicus, having lost twenty-five of his friends, ordered
Lysippus, the most celebrated artist in that way, to make each of them an
equestrian statue, to which he added his own.  These statues were set up in
Dium, a city of Macedonia.  Metellus caused them to be transported to Rome,
and adorned his triumph with them.

     Mummius obtained also the honor of a triumph, and, in consequence of
having conquered Achaia, was surnamed Achaicus.  He exhibited a great number
of statues and paintings in his triumph, which were afterwards made the
ornaments of the public buildings at Rome, and of several other cities of
Italy; but not one of them entered the conqueror's own house.