Greek Texts & Translations

Thereupon the Roman, as he was getting the worst of the argument, brazenly asserted that every Achaean who had held the office of general was included in his accusation, since one and all had favoured the cause of the Macedonians and Perseus. This he said at the bidding of Callicrates. After him rose Xenon, a man of great repute among the Achaeans, and said “The truth about this accusation is as follows. I myself have served the Achaeans as their general, but I am guilty neither of treachery to Rome nor of friendship to Perseus. I am therefore ready to submit to trial either before the Achaean diet or before the Romans themselves.” This frank speech was prompted by a clear conscience,

but the Roman at once grasped the pretext, and sent for trial before the Roman court all those whom Callicrates accused of supporting Perseus. Never before had Greeks been so treated, for not even the most powerful of the Macedonians, Philip, the son of Amyntas, and Alexander, despatched by force to Macedonia the Greeks who were opposed to them, but allowed them to plead their case before the Amphictyons ^note.

But on this occasion it was decided to send up to Rome every one of the Achaean people, however innocent, whom Callicrates chose to accuse. They amounted to over a thousand men. The Romans, holding that all these had already been condemned by the Achaeans, distributed them throughout Etruria and its cities, and though the Achaeans sent embassy after embassy to plead on behalf of the men, no notice was taken of the petitions.

Sixteen years later ^note, when the number of Achaeans in Italy was reduced to three hundred at most, the Romans set them free, considering that their punishment was sufficient. But those who ran away, either at once when they were being brought up to Rome, or later on from the cities to which the Romans sent them, were saved from punishment by no defence if they were recaptured.

These states had reached the highest degree of renown, and in a famous war of old had poured out their blood like water because of a dispute about boundaries, while later Philip, the son of Amyntas, had acted as arbitrator to settle their differences; yet now Gallus disdained to arbitrate in person, and entrusted the decision to Callicrates, the most abominable wretch in all Greece.

There also came to Gallus the Aetolians living at Pleuron, who wished to detach themselves from the Achaean confederacy. Gallus allowed them to send on their own an embassy to Rome, and the Romans allowed them to secede from the Achaean League. The senate also commissioned Gallus to separate from the Achaean confederacy as many states as he could.

While he was carrying out his instructions, the Athenian populace sacked Oropus, a state subject to them. The act was one of necessity rather than of free-will, as the Athenians at the time suffered the direst poverty, because the Macedonian war had crushed them more than any other Greeks. So the Oropians appealed to the Roman senate. It decided that an injustice had been committed, and instructed the Sicyonians to inflict a fine on the Athenians commensurate with the unprovoked harm done by them to Oropus.

When the Athenians did not appear in time for the trial, the Sicyonians inflicted on them a fine of five hundred talents, which the Roman senate on the appeal of the Athenians remitted with the exception of one hundred talents. Not even this reduced fine did the Athenians pay, but by promises and bribes they beguiled the Oropians into an agreement that an Athenian garrison should enter Oropus, and that the Athenians should take hostages from the Oropians. If in the future the Oropians should have any complaint to make against the Athenians, then the Athenians were to withdraw their garrison from Oropus and give the hostages back again.

After no long interval the Oropians were wronged by certain of the garrison. They accordingly despatched envoys to Athens to ask for the restoration of their hostages and to request that the garrison be withdrawn according to the agreement. The Athenians refused to do either of these things, saying that the blame lay, not with the Athenian people, but with the men of the garrison. They promised, however, that the culprits should he brought to account.

The Oropians then appealed to the Achaeans for aid, but these refused to give it out of friendship and respect for the Athenians. Thereupon the Oropians promised Menalcidas, a Lacedaemonian who was then general of the Achaeans, a gift of ten talents if he would induce the Achaeans to help them. Menalcidas promised half of the money to Callicrates, who on account of his friendship with the Romans had most influence among the Achaeans.