Greek Texts & Translations

But Metellus would not allow either the burning of sanctuaries of the gods or the destruction of buildings, and he forbade his men to kill any Theban or take prisoner any fugitive. If, however, Pytheas should be caught, he was to be brought before him. Pytheas was discovered immediately, brought before Metellus and punished. When the army approached Megara, Alcamenes and his men did not face it, but straightway fled to the camp of the Achaeans at Corinth.

The Megarians surrendered their city to the Romans without a blow, and when Metellus came to the Isthmus he again made overtures to the Achaeans for an agreed peace. For he was possessed of a strong desire to settle by himself the affairs of both Macedonia and Achaia. His efforts, however, were thwarted by the senselessness of Diaeus.

Certain of the Italian troops along with the auxiliaries were stationed by Mummius twelve stades away, to be an outpost for the whole army. The contempt of the Romans made them keep a careless look-out, and the Achaeans, attacking them in the first watch, killed some, drove yet more back to the camp, and took some five hundred shields. Puffed up with this success the Achaeans marched out to battle before the Romans began their attack.

But when Mummius advanced to meet them, the Achaean horse at once took to flight, without waiting for even the first charge of the Roman cavalry. The infantry were depressed at the rout of their horse, but nevertheless received the onslaught of the Roman men-at-arms; overwhelmed by numbers and faint with their wounds they offered a spirited resistance, until a thousand picked Romans fell upon their flank and utterly routed them.

If after the battle Diaeus had boldly thrown himself into Corinth and received the fugitives within the walls, the Achaeans might have been able to get favorable terms from Mummius, by putting him to the trouble of a protracted siege. As it was, when the Achaeans were but beginning to yield, Diaeus fled straight for Megalopolis, his conduct towards the Achaeans showing a marked contrast to that of Callistratus, the son of Empedus, towards the Athenians.

This man commanded some cavalry in Sicily, and when the Athenians and their partners in the expedition were being massacred at the river Asinarus, he courageously cut a way through the enemy at the head of his horsemen. He brought most of them safe to Catana, and then returned by the same way back to Syracuse. Finding the enemy still plundering the Athenian camp, he cut down some five of them, and then both he and his horse received mortal wounds and died.

So he won glory for the Athenians and for himself, by saving the men under his command and seeking his own death. But Diaeus having ruined the Achaeans came to tell the tidings of disaster to the people of Megalopolis, killed his wife with his own hand, just to save her from being taken prisoner, and then committed suicide by drinking poison. He may be compared to Menalcidas for his avarice, and proved equally like him in the cowardice of his death.

As soon as night fell, the Achaeans who had escaped to Corinth after the battle fled from the city, and there fled with them most of the Corinthians themselves. At first Mummius hesitated to enter Corinth, although the gates were open, as he suspected that an ambush had been laid within the walls. But on the third day after the battle he proceeded to storm Corinth and to set it on fire.

The majority of those found in it were put to the sword by the Romans, but the women and children Mummius sold into slavery. He also sold all the slaves who had been set free, had fought on the side of the Achaeans, and had not fallen at once on the field of battle. The most admired votive offerings and works of art were carried off by Mummius; those of less account he gave to Philopoemen, the general sent by Attalus; even in my day there were Corinthian spoils at Pergamus.