were sorry for what they had done; and, accordingly, shut their gates against the Romans, which obliged them to besiege it in form. Same made a very vigorous defence, insomuch that it was four months before the consul could take it.

From thence he went to Peloponnesus, whither he was called by the people of Egium and Sparta, to decide the differences which interrupted their tranquillity.

The general assembly of the Acheans had, from time immemorial, been held at Egium. But Philopemen, who then was an officer of state, resolved to change that custom, and to cause the assembly to be held successively in all the cities which formed the Achean league; and, that very year he summoned it to Argos. The consul would not oppose this motion; and, though his inclination led him to favour the inhabitants of Egium, because he thought their cause the most just; yet, seeing that the other party would certainly prevail, he withdrew from the assembly, without declaring his opinion.

But the affair relating to Sparta was still more intricate, and, at the same time, of greater importance. Those, who had been banished from that city by Nabis the tyrant, had fortified themselves in towns and castles along the coast, and from thence infested the Spartans. The latter had attacked, in the night, one of those towns, called Las, and carried it, but were soon after driven out of it. This enterprise alarmed the exiles, and obliged them to have recourse to the Acheans. Philopemen, who, at that time, was in employment,

• Liv. 1. xxxviii. n. 30-34.

secretly favoured the exiles; and endeavoured, on all occasions, to lessen the credit and authority of Sparta. On his motion, a decree was enacted, the purport of which was, that Quintius and the Romans, having put the towns and castles of the seacoast of Laconia under the protection of the Acheans, and having for. bid the Lacedemonians access to it; and the latter having, however, attacked the town called Las, and killed some of the inhabitants; the Achean assembly demanded, that the contrivers of that massacre should be delivered up to them; and, that otherwise, they should be declared violators of the treaty. Ambassadors were deputed to give them notice of this decree. A demand, made in so haughty a tone, exceedingly exasperated the Lacedemonians. They immediately put to death thirty of those who had held a correspondence with Philopemen, and the exiles; dissolved their alliance with the Acheans, and sent ambassadors to Fulvius, the consul, who was then in Cephalenia, in order to put Sparta under the protection of the Romans, and to entreat him to come and take possession of it. When the Acheans received advice of what had been transacted in Sparta, they unanimously declared war against that city, which began by some slight incursions, both by sea and land; the season being too far advanced for undertaking any thing considerable.

The consul, being arrived in Peloponnesus, heard both parties in a public assembly. The debates were exceedingly warm, and carried to a great height on both sides. Without coming to any determination, the first thing he did, was, to command them to lay

down their arms, and to send their respective ambassadors to Rome; and, accordingly, they repaired thither immediately, and were admitted to audience. The league with the Acheans was in great consideration at Rome; but, at the same time, the Romans did not care to disgust the Lacedemonians entirely. The senate, therefore, returned an obscure and ambiguous answer, which has not come down to us, whereby the Acheans might flatter themselves, that they were allowed full power to infest Sparta; and, the Spartans, that such power was very much limited and restrained.

The Acheans extended it as they thought proper. Philopemen had been continued in his employment of first magistrate. He marched the army to a small distance from Sparta, without loss of time; and again demanded to have those persons surrendered to him, who, had concerted the enterprise against the town of Las; declaring, that they should not be condemned, or punished, till after being heard. Upon this promise, those who had been nominated expressly set out, accompanied by several of the most illustrious citizens, who looked upon their cause as their own, or rather, as that of the public. Being arrived at the camp of the Acheans, they were greatly surprised to see the exiles at the head of the army. The latter, advancing out of the camp, came to them with an insulting air, and began to vent the most injurious expressions against them; after this, the quarrel growing warmer, they fell upon them with great violence, and treated them very ignominiously. In vain did the Spartans implore both gods and men,, and claimed the right of nations; the rabble of the Acheans, animated by the

seditious cries of the exiles, joined with them, notwithstanding the protection due to ambassadors, and in spite of the prohibition of the supreme magistrate. Seventeen were immediately stoned to death, and seventy three rescued by the magistrate out of the hands of those furious wretches. It was not that he intended, in any manner, to pardon them; but he would not have it said, that they had been put to death without being heard. The next day, they were brought before that enraged multitude, who, almost without so much as hearing them, condemned, and executed them all.

The reader will naturally suppose, that so unjust, so cruel a treatment, threw the Spartans into the deepest affliction, and filled them with alarms. The Acheans imposed the same conditions upon them, as they would have done on a city that had been taken by storm. They gave orders that the walls should be demolished; that all such mercenaries as the tyrants had kept in their service, should leave Laconia; that the slaves whom those tyrants had set at liberty, and there were a great number of them, should also be obliged to depart the country in a certain limited time, upon pain of being seized by the Acheans, and sold or carried wheresoever they thought proper; that the laws and institutions of Lycurgus should be annulled. In fine, that the Spartans should be associated in the Achean league, with whom they should thenceforth form but one body, and follow the same customs and usages.

The Lacedemonians were not much afflicted at the demolition of their walls; with which they began the execution of the orders prescribed them; and indeed

it was no great misfortune to them. Sparta had long subsisted without any other walls or defence but the bravery of its citizens. Pausanias informs us, that the walls of Sparta were begun to be built in the time of the inroads of Demetrius, and afterwards of Pyrrhus; but that they had been completed by Nabis. Livy relates also that the tyrants, for their own security, had fortified with walls, all such parts of the city as were most open and accessible. The Spartans were therefore not much grieved at the demolition of these walls. But it was with inexpressible regret they saw the exiles, who had caused its destruction, returning into it, and who might justly be considered as its most cruel enemies. Sparta, enervated by this last blow, lost all its pristine vigor, and was for many years dependent on, and subjected to the Acheans. The most fatal circumstance with regard to Sparta, was, the abolition of the laws of Lycurgus, which had continued in force seven hundred years, and had been the source of all its grandeur and glory.

d Fuerat quondam sine muro Sparta. Tyranni nuper locis patentibus planisque objecerant murum; altiora loca et difficiliora aditu stationibus armatorum pro munimento objectis tutabantur. Liv. l. xxxiv. n. 38. Spartani urbem, quam semper armis non muris defenderant, tum contra responsa fatorum et veterem majorum gloriam, armis diffisi, murorum præsidio includunt. Tantum eos degeneravisse a majoribus, ut cum multis seculis. murus urbi civium virtus fuerit, tunc cives salvos se fore non existimaverint, nisi intra muros laterant. Justin. 1. xiv. c. 5.

'Justin informs us, that Sparta was fortified with walls, at the time that Cassander meditated the invasion of Greece.

Nulla res tanto erat damno, quam disciplina Lycurgi, cui per septingentos annos assueverant, sublata. Liv.