Greek Texts & Translations

Thereupon, as the danger he ran was extreme, Menalcidas gave three of the talents he received from Oropus to Diaeus of Megalopolis, who had succeeded him as general of the Achaeans, and on this occasion was so active, because of the bribe, that he succeeded in saving Menalcidas in spite of the opposition of the Achaeans. The Achaeans, individually and as a body, held Diaeus responsible for the acquittal of Menalcidas, but he distracted their attention from the charges made against him by directing it towards more ambitious hopes, using to deceive them the following pretext.

The Lacedaemonians appealed to the Roman senate about a disputed territory, and the senate replied to the appeal by decreeing that all except capital cases should be under the jurisdiction of the Achaean League. Such was the senate's answer, but Diaeus did not tell the Achaeans the truth, but cajoled them by the declaration that the Roman senate had committed to them the right to condemn a Spartan to death.

So the Achaeans claimed the right to try a Lacedaemonian on a capital charge, but the Lacedaemonians would not admit that Diaeus spoke the truth, and wished to refer the point to the Roman senate. But the Achaeans seized another pretext, that no state belonging to the Achaean League had the right to send an embassy on its own to the Roman senate, but only in conjunction with the rest of the League.

These disputes were the cause of a war between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans, and the former, realizing that they were not a match for their opponents, sent envoys to their cities and entered into personal negotiations with Diaeus. The cities all made the same reply, that it was unlawful to turn a deaf ear to their general when he proclaimed a campaign; for Diaeus, who was in command of the Achaeans, declared that he would march to make war, not on Sparta but on those that were troubling her.

When the Spartan senate inquired how many he considered were guilty, he reported to them the names of twenty-four citizens of the very front rank in Sparta. Thereupon was carried a motion of Agasisthenes, whose advice on this occasion enhanced the already great reputation he enjoyed. He bade the twenty-four to go into voluntary exile from Lacedaemon, instead of bringing war upon Sparta by remaining where they were; if they exiled themselves to Rome, he declared, they would before long be restored to their country by the Romans.

So they departed, underwent a nominal trial at Sparta, and were condemned to death. The Achaeans on their side despatched to Rome Callicrates and Diaeus to oppose the exiles from Sparta before the senate. Callicrates died of disease on the journey, and even if he had reached Rome I do not know that he would have been of any assistance to the Achaeans—perhaps he would have been the cause of greater troubles. The debate between Diaeus and Menalcidas before the senate was marked by fluency rather than by decency on either side.

The answer of the senate to their remarks was that they were sending envoys to settle the disputes between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans. The journey of the envoys from Rome proved rather slow, giving Diaeus a fresh opportunity of deceiving the Achaeans and Menalcidas of deceiving the Lacedaemonians. Diaeus misled the Achaeans into the belief that the Roman senate had decreed the complete subjection to them of the Lacedaemonians; Menalcidas deceived the Lacedaemonians into thinking that the Romans had entirely freed them from the Achaean League.

but Metellus urged the envoys, sent by the Roman senate to settle the affairs of Asia, to parley with the chiefs of the Achaeans before making the crossing. They were to order them not to attack Sparta, but to await the arrival from Rome of the envoys sent for the purpose of arbitrating between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans.

They delivered their instructions to the Achaeans under Damocritus when these had already begun a campaign against Lacedaemon, and so, realizing that the Achaeans were set against their advice, proceeded on their way to Asia. The Lacedaemonians, with a spirit greater than their strength, took up arms, and sallied forth to defend their country. But they were soon crushed; a thousand of their bravest youths fell in the battle, and the rest of the soldiery fled towards the city with all the haste they could.