B.C. 190.]

FALL OF THE SYRIAN EMPIRE.

499

out the legions being ever engaged, we can readily believe that the Asiatics lost 50,000 men, at a cost to the Romans of only 24 horsemen and 300 foot soldiers.

As the battle of Magnesia was the last, in ancient history, of those unequal conflicts, in which oriental armies yielded like unsubstantial shows to the might of disciplined freedom, so it sealed the fate of the last of the great oriental empires; for the kingdom left to the heirs of Seleucus was only strong enough to indulge them in the luxuries of Antioch and the malignant satisfaction of persecuting the Jews. All resistance ceased in Asia Minor; that great peninsula was ceded as far as the Taurus and the Halys, with whatever remained nominally to Antiochus in Thrace; and, with characteristic levity, he thanked the Romans for relieving him of the government of too large a kingdom. The peace was not finally ratified for two years (B.c. 188); and meanwhile the king had to bear the cost of the occupation of Asia Minor, amounting to 3000 talents, nearly £750,000; and the treaty of peace imposed on him, besides, a war-contribution of 15,000 Euboic talents, about £5,000,000. "With the day of Magnesia, Asia was erased from the list of great states; and never perhaps did a great power fall so rapidly, so thoroughly, and so ignominiously as the kingdom of the Seleucidæ under this Antiochus the Great. He himself was soon afterwards slain by the indignant inhabitants of Elymaïs at the head of the Persian Gulf, on occasion of the plundering of a temple of Bel, with the treasures of which he had sought to replenish his empty coffers " (B.c. 187).

Lucius Scipio Asiaticus, in retiring at the expiration of his consulship (B.c. 189), still left his successor, Cneius Manlius Vulso, work to do and laurels to win in the subjugation of the allies of Antiochus. The petty princes of Phrygia soon submitted to the power and exactions of the new lords of Western Asia; but the powerful Celtic tribes of Galatia made a stand in the fastnesses of Mount Oympus. Here, however, they were reached by the Roman slingers and archers, and after the flower of the cantons of the Tolistoboii and Tectosages had been slain or taken prisoners, the remnant found a refuge with the Trocmi beyond the Halys. That river, fixed by the treaty with Antiochus as the eastern limit of Roman power in Asia, was respected as the present terminus of their conquests, without putting a bound to their influence. Ariarthes, king of Cappadocia, was admitted to their alliance, at the intercession of his brother-in-law Eumenes, on paying a mitigated penalty of 300 talents; and the satraps of the

Greater and Lesser Armenia exchanged their allegiance to Antiochus for the friendship of Rome. The satrapy of Pontus, which became, as we have seen, an independent state during the last years of the Persian rule, was now held by Mithridates IV., the father-in-law of Antiochus. It was not till two generations later, that Mithridates V. formed an alliance with the Romans and aided them in the third Punic War; and a century had still to elapse from the death of Antiochus, before Mithridates the Great renewed the enterprise of seeking in Greece a battle-field for the sovereignty of Asia (B.c. 87). Of the states to the west of the Halys, Prusias was left in possession of Bithynia; but his dependence upon Rome was soon proved by his shameful betrayal of Hannibal: and the Gauls were bound to remain within their own territories. The exemption thus secured to the Greek cities from the contributions which they had been obliged to pay the barbarians won their warmest gratitude to Rome. These cities received their freedom, except where it could only have been granted at the expense of Eumenes, who consented, however, to grant special privileges to those which were still bound to pay him tribute. For the rest, this prince was justly rewarded for his sufferings and services by the apportionment of the greater part of the territories ceded by Antiochus to the aggrandizement of his kingdom. Pergamus became the most powerful state of Western Asia, including nearly the whole of Asia Minor up to the Halys and the Taurus, except Bithynia and Galatia on the one side, and on the other Lycia and the greater part of Caria, which went to recompense the fidelity of the Rhodians; and to these Asiatic possessions were added, in Europe, the Thracian Chersonese and the city of Lysimachia. Secure of having in the dynasty of the Attalids devoted allies, who were now as able as they always had been willing to keep a check upon Antiochus on the one hand and Philip on the other, the Romans were able to retire from Asia. Their last acts evinced their firm determination neither to interfere with any state beyond the Taurus, nor to acquire transmarine possessions by means of their fleet. "The Romans," says Mommsen, "brought nothing home from the East but honour and gold, which were, even at this period, usually conjoined in the practical shape assumed by the address of thanks-the golden chaplet." Even the honour of their arms was placed in peril by the losses which they suffered from the attacks of the barbarians on their homeward march through Thrace, under the proconsul Manlius, after the ratification of the treaty with Antiochus (B.c. 188).

B.C. 188.]

SETTLEMENT OF GREECE.

501

A policy precisely similar guided their settlement of the affairs of Greece. When the consul Manlius passed over into Asia, his colleague, M. Fulvius Nobilior, landed at Apollonia to coerce the Etolians, who had flagrantly violated the armistice made with Scipio (B.c. 189). A single campaign reduced them to complete submission; and besides the payment of a large contribution, they lost a great part of their possessions, including the port of Ambracia and the island of Cephallenia; but the latter, with the neighbouring island of Samé, had to be reduced by force. These islands and Zacynthus were retained by the Romans, to strengthen the hold which Corcyra already gave them of the Adriatic. With this exception, and their slip of territory on the Illyrian coast, they resolved not to be tempted over the seas which divided Italy from Greece; and all the other gains of the recent war were divided between Philip and the Achæans. But even their policy of moderation was carried out in such a manner as to offend both these allies, and to sow the seeds of future disagreement. The Macedonian king, who had not only resisted the temptations of Antiochus, but had fought against the Etolians and smoothed the passage of the legions through Thrace, saw a rival planted in that country in a spirit of manifest suspicion. The Achæans reluctantly gave up the island of Zacynthus and their claims upon Ægina, and were humiliated by being advised to confine themselves to the Peloponnesus. The patriot party chafed at finding themselves not only subject to Roman intervention, but invoking it by their utter inability to keep their own confederacy in order. The accession of Sparta to the league, and the enforced inclusion of Messene, which had prayed to be admitted to the Roman alliance as an independent state, revived ancient national antipathies. Sparta broke out into open revolt, and suffered severe punishment as a conquered city, even the institutions of Lycurgus being superseded by the Achæan laws (B.c. 188). The Roman Senate, constantly appealed to as arbiters in these disputes, showed a reluctance to interfere, which was partly founded on the frivolous weakness displayed by the envoys; and it has been well observed that, instead of their carrying strife to Greece, it was the Greeks that carried their dissensions to Rome. The revolt of Messene, in B.C. 183, led to the death of Philopomen, who was taken prisoner and compelled to swallow poison in his dungeon. His death was amply avenged, and his remains interred with heroic honours at Megalopolis, the urn containing his ashes being carried by the historian Polybius.

THE SUBJUGATION OF GREECE. B.C. 187 TO B.C. 146.

DISCONTENT OF PHILIP-HIS RENEWED PREPARATIONS FOR WAR-HIS SONS DEMETRIUS AND PERSEUS-MURDER OF DEMETRIUS-DEATH OF PHILIP-HIS CHARACTER-ACCESSION OF PERSEUS-HIS PREPARATIONS AGAINST ROME-BARBARIAN ALLIANCES-STATE OF HELLENIC FEELING THIRD MACEDONIAN WAR-INDECISIVE CAMPAIGNS-THE ROMAN GENERALS INCOMPETENT: THEIR ARMIES DISORGANIZED-Q. MARCIUS PHILIPPUS-INVASION OF MACEDONIA-THE ARMIES AT TEMPE-LUCIUS EMILIUS PAULUS ELECTED CONSUL-HIS CHARACTER-DECISIVE BATTLE OF PYDNA-FINAL DESTRUCTION OF THE MACEDONIAN PHALANX-CAPTURE AND FATE OF PERSEUS-SETTLEMENT OF MACEDONIA-NEW RELATIONS OF ROME TO THE HELLENIC STATES-PERGAMUS AND THE RHODIANS AFFAIRS OF SYRIA AND EGYPT-ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES AND THE ROMAN ENVOY-HOW TO CIRCUMSCRIBE A CIRCLE ABOUT A KING-ROMAN ALLIANCE WITH THE MACCABEES-POLICY OF ROME TOWARDS FOREIGN STATES-SETTLEMENT OF GREECE-PATRIOT AND ROMAN PARTIES -EXECUTIONS AND DEPORTATIONS-THE ACHEAN LEAGUE-LYCORTAS AND CALLICRATES -DEPORTATION OF 1000 ACHEANS-THE HISTORIAN POLYBIUS-DEVASTATION OF EPIRUS -TRIUMPH AND DEATH OF EMILIUS-THE ADELPHI OF TERENCE QUARREL OF ATHENS AND OROPUS-EMBASSY OF THE PHILOSOPHERS TO ROME-oropus, SPARTA, AND THE ACHEAN LEAGUE-RETURN OF THE ACHEAN EXILES-ANDRISCUS, THE MACEDONIAN PRETENDER-ROMAN COMMISSIONERS IN GREECE-RIOTS AT CORINTH-WAR WITH THE ACHEANS-SACK OF CORINTH BY MUMMIUS-GREECE BECOMES THE ROMAN PROVINCE OF

ACHAIA.

WHILE the Romans were contending in the East with Philip and Antiochus, they had been compelled to meet resistance and insurrection in the West. It will be convenient, however, to reserve the little that need be said of the Gallic, Ligurian, and Spanish wars, with the more important subject of the internal history of Rome, till we have traced the brief closing chapters of the contest of the Latin with the Hellenic and Phoenician nations. Macedonia and Carthage were in a very similar position towards Rome; too deeply humiliated ever to be fully trusted; and exposed by that humiliation to constant aggressions and complaints from their more favoured neighbours, out of which some pretext of necessity must inevitably arise for putting an end to their embarrassing existence. The fate of Macedonia involved that of Greece, where the Roman settlement had left the smouldering embers of discontent, which internal discord was ready to fan into a flame.

B.C. 179.]

DEATH AND CHARACTER OF PHILIP.

503

Philip, whose warm support of the Romans in the late war had doubtless been confirmed by resentment against Antiochus, not unmingled with the hope of recovering the ancient possessions of Macedonia in Thrace, saw the kingdom of Lysimachus revived in favour of the Attalids, the greatest enemies of his house. His occupation of the conquests of Antiochus in Northern Greece, which has been bestowed upon him by the Romans, was resisted by the Thessalians. He was continually denounced in the diet of the Greek confederations, and the perpetual complaints made against him at Rome were followed by decisions which gave him numerous causes for resentment. But he had the power of dissembling what he was resolved no longer to endure, and his only reply to the taunts of his enemies was, in the words of the poet, 66 our last sun is not yet set." Meanwhile he was aided in keeping on good terms with the republic by his younger son Demetrius, who, having been sent as a hostage to Rome, entered warmly into the views of the philo-Hellenic party. But when Philip was informed by the Senate that they forgave his provocations for his son's sake, he began to view the latter with suspicion, and his elder son Perseus found means to give his jealousy a fatal issue. Demetrius, who had returned to Macedonia, was accused of being a party to the intrigues which were constantly on foot to form a Roman party; and appearances at least were so much against him, that he meditated flight to Rome. This intention, made known to Philip, acquired the character of a plot from an intercepted letter of Flamininus; and the father ordered the execution of his son. The deed was scarcely done, when Philip discovered the intrigues of Perseus, whose punishment he was meditating, when he died, overwhelmed with remorse and disappointment, in the fifty-ninth year of his age and the forty-second of his reign.

"Philip V. was a genuine king, in the best and worst sense of the term. A strong desire to rule in person and unaided was the fundamental trait of his character; he was proud of his people, but he was no less proud of other gifts, and he had reason to be so. He not only showed the valour of a soldier and the eye of a general, but he displayed a high spirit in the conduct of public affairs whenever his Macedonian sense of honour was offended. Full of intelligence and wit, he won the hearts of all whom he wished to gain, and especially of those who were ablest and most refined, such as Flamininus and Scipio: he was a pleasant boon companion, and, not by virtue of his rank alone, a dangerous wooer. But he was at the same time one of the most arrogant and flagitious