CHAP. VIII. SIXTH PERIOD, had on Spanish soil. Gades, of course, opened its gates to the Romans, and obtained favourable conditions of peace, under which it continued for a long time to flourish, as an allied city, subject indeed to Rome, but enjoying 207-205 perfect freedom in the management of its own local affairs.' B.C. cance of Metaurus, Thus Spain was lost, not in consequence of a great Signifidecisive battle, but by the gradual retreat and exhaustion the battle of the Carthaginians. The last effort for the defence of of the Spain had been made when Hasdrubal Barcas appeared with the Spanish army on Italian soil. It was on the Metaurus that the Romans conquered Spain, and Scipio had nothing to do but to follow the traces of the wounded lion to the last recesses, and to scare him away. Before the year closed, he could look upon this task as done. He intrusted the chief command to his legate, M. Junius. Silanus, and returned to Rome, accompanied by Lælius, to secure his election for the consulship of the ensuing year, and to mature his plans for carrying the war into Africa. Macedon. The hopes which Hannibal had entertained from the Policy of alliance and co-operation of King Philip of Macedon had Philip of not been realised. Instead of taking an active part in the operations in Italy, where his excellent Macedonian troops would infallibly have decided the war in favour of the allied powers soon after the battle of Cannæ, Philip attacked those countries on the east of the Adriatic for which he had stipulated as his share of the booty after the defeat of Rome, taking it apparently for granted that, even without his help, Hannibal would be able to accomplish the conquest of Italy. He succeeded in gaining considerable advantages in Illyria, and, regarding himself as already undisputed master of the countries north of the Ambracian Gulf, he seemed to be bent on changing the influence which he enjoyed, as the protector of some of the Greek states, into a real dominion over all. He laid aside more 1 Livy, xxviii. 37; xxxii. 2. Cicero, Pro Balbo, 15, 34; 18, 41. BOOK IV. Condition of the Greek states, and more the qualities of a leader of the Greeks, and There is little use in attempting to determine who was guilty of having caused the interference of Rome in the internal affairs of Greece, Owing to the prevalence of small independent states, the spirit of nationality could not embrace all the Greek peoples, and bind them durably together for common action against any enemies whatever. No abstract considerations of public morality or national duty ever prevented any Greek community from seeking the alliance of a foreign power; they accepted it without the least scruple, if it promised immediate material advantages. Few Greeks ever felt patriotic scruples in availing themselves of Persian money or Macedonian troops to strike down their own immediate neighbours and Hellenic compatriots. Even the great national struggle against Asiatic barbarism, under Miltiades and Themistokles, had not united all the Greeks in their common cause, and since that time no equally grand national enthusiasm had raised them above the petty See above, p. 278. VIII. SIXTH PERIOD, 207-205 B.C. jealousies of local interests. A short time before the inter- CHAP. ference of the Romans, the Achæan league had appealed to the Macedonians, and made them the arbitrators in the internal affairs of Hellas. If, therefore, on the present occasion, the Etolians called in the Romans, we can only condemn them of having committed a sin against their own nation which none of the other Greeks would have scrupled to commit, a sin which is the inevitable curse of internal division in every nation of ancient or modern times. the to the Romans. Nevertheless we must acknowledge that the league League which the Etolians now concluded with the Romans between was distinguished by peculiar turpitude. It was an en- lians and gagement by which the whole Etolian people became Roman mercenaries, and stipulated that their hire should be the plunder of the neighbouring Greek cities. They agreed to make common cause with the Romans, like a band of robbers. The Romans were to furnish ships, the Etolians troops; the conquered countries and towns were to become the spoil of the Etolians, the movable booty that of the Romans. If we recollect that this movable booty' included the inhabitants who might fall into the hands of the conquerors, and who would consequently be sold into slavery, we shall duly appreciate the sense of national dignity that could animate the Ætolians and induce them to conclude so disgraceful an alliance with foreign barbarians for the enslaving of their countrymen. And even this conduct might perhaps have been excused or palliated to some extent if extreme danger, or the necessity of selfdefence, had urged the Etolians, as a last resource, to secure foreign help on these terms. But it was, in truth, nothing but their native robber instinct that induced them, instead of honestly cultivating their fields, to plough with the spear and to reap with the sword. They succeeded by their league with the Romans once more in setting Greece in a blaze of war, in filling the whole length and breadth of the land with untold misery, and in preparing for subjection to a foreign yoke the nation BOOK Effects of the league with the which would not submit to the discipline of a national state. Our indignation at their conduct is mingled with a feeling of satisfaction when we remember that they were the first to feel the weight of this yoke, and that they were almost driven to despair and madness when they felt how galling it was. After the fall of Syracuse and Capua, M. Valerius Lævinus crossed over to Greece with a fleet of fifty ships Ætolians. and one legion,' and made his appearance in the popular assembly of the Etolians, the leading men of which had been previously persuaded to favour the Roman proposals. He found no difficulty in prevailing upon them to renew the war with Philip, as he held out the prospect of conquering the Acarnanian country, which they had coveted for a long time, and of regaining the numerous towns taken from them by the Macedonians. It was supposed that all would join the alliance who, from their own interest, or from old hostility, were the natural enemies of Macedonia, such as the Thracian barbarians in the north, the chiefs Pleuratus and Skerdilaidas in Illyria, the Messenians, Eleans, and Lacedæmonians in Peloponnesus; lastly, in Asia, King Attalus of Pergamum, who, feeling unsafe in his precarious position between the two great monarchies of Macedonia and Syria, welcomed the Romans as his patrons, and thus made an opening for their diplomacy to interfere in the political affairs of the distant East. Valerius promised to assist the Etolians with a fleet of at least twenty-five ships, and both parties engaged not to conclude a separate peace with Macedonia. Thus the Romans had let loose upon Philip a pack of hounds, numerous enough to keep him at bay in his own country and to prevent him from thinking of an invasion of Italy. They were relieved from all anxiety on this score, and were not even obliged to make great efforts for the defence of their eastern coast. War between the It is not necessary for us to follow in detail the course of Livy, xxvi. 1, 24. CHAP. VIII. SIXTH PERIOD, B.C. donia the war in Greece. It was marked, not by great decisive actions, but by a number of petty conflicts and barbarous atrocities, by which the strength of the nation was sapped and wasted. The source of the greatest calamities 207–205 was this, that the hostile territories were not compact masses, separated from one another by a single line of Etolians and Philip frontier, but detached pieces, scattered about irregularly, of Maceand intermingled in the Peloponnesus, in central Greece, and on the islands. Thus the war was not confined to one locality, but raged simultaneously in every quarter. In the Peloponnesus the Achæans were harassed continuously by the Etolians and the Lacedæmonians, who, in this last period of their independence, had exchanged their venerable hereditary monarchy and their aristocratic constitution for the government of a tyrant. The proud Spartans, formerly the sworn enemies and opponents of tyranny in all parts of Greece, had at last succumbed to a tyrant themselves. Machanidas, a brave soldier, had made himself their master, and exercised a military despotism in a state which at one time appeared to the wisest of the Greeks the model of political institutions. The coasts of the Corinthian Gulf and the Ægæan Sea were visited by Roman, Ætolian, and Pergamenian fleets, that plundered and devastated the towns and carried away the inhabitants into slavery. From the north, hordes of barbarians broke in upon Macedonia. Philip was compelled to hasten from one place to another. When he was confronting the Thracians, he was called away by messengers to protect his Peloponnesian allies; and scarcely had he marched southwards, when his hereditary dominions were invaded by Illyrians and Dardanians. He conducted this difficult war not without vigour and ability, and succeeded, by his restless activity and quickness, in showing himself superior to his enemies in every part, in driving back Pleuratus and Skerdilaidas in Illyria, in beating the Etolians (210 B.C.) near Lamia, and chasing them into their own country. Attalus of Pergamum was surprised by Philip, near the town of Opus, which he had taken and |