The chief were; That, within ten days, Nabis should evacuate Argos, and all the rest of the cities of Argolis garrisoned by his troops; that he should restore to the maritime cities all the galleys he had taken from them; and that he himself should keep only two feluccas, with sixteen oars each; that he should surrender up to the cities in alliance with the Romans, all their prisoners, deserters, and slaves; that he should also restore to the Lacedæmonian exiles, such of their wives and children as were willing to follow them, without, however, forcing them to do so; that he should give five hostages, to be chosen by the Roman general, of which his son should be one; that he should pay down an hundred talents of silver, and afterwards fifty talents, annually, during eight years. A truce was granted for six months, that all parties might have time to send ambassadors to Rome, in order that the treaty might be ratified there.

The tyrant was not satisfied with any of these articles; but he was surprised, and thought himself happy, that no mention had been made of recalling the exiles. When the particulars of this treaty were known in the city, it raised a general sedition, from the necessity to which it reduced private persons, of restoring many things they were not willing to be deprived of. Thus, no farther mention was made of peace, and the war began again.

Quintius was now resolved to carry on the siege with great vigour, and began by examining very attentively the situation and condition of the city. Sparta had been a long time without walls? disdaining every other kind of fortification than the bravery of its citizens. Walls had been built in Sparta, only since the tyrants governed it; and those alone in places which lay open, and were easy of access: all the other parts were defended only by their natural situation, and by bodies of troops posted in them. As Quintius's army was very numerous (consisting of above fifty thousand men, because he had sent for all the land as well as the naval forces) he resolved to make it extend quite round the city, and to attack it at the same time on all sides, in order to strike the inhabitants with terror, and render them incapable of knowing on which side to turn themselves. Accordingly, the city being attacked on all sides at the same instant, and the danger being every where equal, the tyrant did not know how to act, either in giving orders, or in sending succours, and was quite distracted.

The Lacedæmonians sustained the attacks of the besiegers, as long as they fought in defiles and narrow places. Their dats and javelins did little execution, because, as they pressed on one another, they could not stand firm on their feet, and

a An hundred thousand crowns.

had not their arms at liberty to discharge them with strength. The Romans drawing near the city, found themselves on a sudden overwhelmed with stones and tiles, thrown at them from the house-tops. However, laying their shields over their heads, they came forward in the form of the testudo, or tortoise, by which they were entirely covered from the darts and tiles. When the Romans advanced into the broader streets, the Lacedæmonians being no longer able to sustain their efforts, nor make head against them, fled and withdrew to the most craggy and rugged eminences. Nabis, imagining the city was taken, was greatly perplexed how to make his escape. But one of his chief commanders saved the city, by setting fire to such edifices as were near the wall. houses were soon in flames; the fire spread on all sides; and the smoke alone was capable of stopping the enemy. Such as were without the city, and attacked the wall, were forced to move to a distance from it; and those who were got into the city, fearing that the spreading of the flames would cut off their communication, retired to their troops. Quintius then caused a retreat to be sounded; and after having almost taken the city, was obliged to march his troops back into the camp.

The

The three following days he took advantage of the terror with which he had filled the inhabitants, sometimes by making new attacks, and at other times by stopping up different places with works; in order that the besieged might have no opportunity to escape, but be lost to all hopes. Nabis, seeing things desperate, deputed Pythagoras, to Quintius, to treat of an accommodation. The Roman general refused at first to hear him, and commanded him to leave the camp. But the petitioner, throwing himself at his feet, after many intreaties, at last obtained a truce upon the same conditions as had been prescribed before. Accordingly the money was paid, and the hostages delivered to Quintius.

Whilst these things were doing, the Argives, who, from the repeated advices they had, imagined that Lacedæmonia was taken, restored themselves to liberty, by driving out their garrison. Quintius, after granting Nabis a peace, and taking leave of Eumenes, the Rhodians, and his brother (who returned to their respective fleets), repaired to Argos, whose inhabitants he found in incredible transports of joy. The Nemæan games, which could not be celebrated at the usual time, because of the war, had been put off till the arrival of the Roman general and his army. He performed all the honours of them, and distributed the prizes, or rather, he bimself was the show. The Argives, especially, could not take off their eyes from a man, who had undertaken that war merely on their account, had freed them from a cruel

and ignominious slavery, and restored them to their ancient liberty.

The Achæans were greatly pleased to see the city of Argos again in alliance with them, and restored to all their privileges; but Sparta being still enslaved, and a tyrant suffered in the midst of Greece, gave an alloy to their joy, and rendered it less perfect.

With regard to the Etolians, it may be affirmed, that the peace granted to Nabis was their triumph. From the time of that shameful and inglorious treaty (for so they called it) they exclaimed in all places against the Romans. They observed, that in the war against Philip, the Romans had not laid down their arms, till after they had forced that prince to evacuate all the cities of Greece. That here, on the contrary, the usurper was maintained in the peaceable possession of Sparta ; whilst the lawful king (meaning Agesipolis) who had served under the proconsul, and so many illustrious citizens of Sparta, were condemned to pass the remainder of their days in banishment. In a word that the Romans had made themselves the tyrant's guards and protectors. The Etolians, in these complaints, confined their views solely to the advantages of liberty; but in great affairs, men should have an eye to all things, should content themselves with what they can execute with success, and not attempt a thousand schemes at once. Such were the motives of Quintius, as he himself will show hereafter.

Quintius returned from Argos to Elatia, from whence he had set out to carry on the war with Sparta. He spent the whole winter in administering justice to the people, in reconciling cities and private families, in regulating the government, and establishing order in all places; things which, properly speaking, are the real fruits of peace, the most glorious employment of a conqueror, and a certain proof of a war's being undertaken on just and reasonable motives. The ambassadors of Nabis being arrived at Rome, demanded and obtained the ratification of the treaty.

In the beginning of the spring, Quintius went to Corinth, where he had convened a general assembly of the deputies of all the cities. There he represented to them, the joy and ardour with which the Romans had complied with the intreaties of the Greeks when they implored their succour; and had made an alliance with them, which he hoped neither side would have occasion to repent. He gave an account, in few words, of the actions and enterprises of the Roman generals his predecessors; and mentioned his own with a modesty of expression that heightened their merit. He was heard with universal applause, except when he began

o A. M. 3810. Ant. J. C. 194.

to speak of Nabis; on which occasion, the assembly, by a modest murmur, discovered their grief and surprise, that the deliverer of Greece should have left, in so renowned a city as Sparta, a tyrant, not only insupportable to his own country, but formidable to all the rest of the cities.

Quintius, who was not ignorant of the disposition of people's minds with regard to him, thought proper to give an account of his conduct in a few words. He confessed, that no accommodation ought to have been made with the tyrant, could this have been done without hazarding the entire destruction of Sparta. But, as there was reason to fear that this considerable city would be involved in the same ruin with Nabis, he therefore had thought it more prudent to let the tyrant live, weakened and incapable of doing harm, as he now was, than perhaps to run the hazard, should they employ too violent remedies, of destroying the city, and that by the very endeavours employed to deliver it.

He added to what he had said of past transactions, that he was preparing to set out for Italy, and to send the whole army thither. That before ten days should be at an end, they should hear that the garrisons of Demetrias and Chalcis were withdrawn, and that he would surrender to the Achæans the citadel of Corinth. That this would show, whether the Romans or Ætolians were most worthy of belief; whether the latter had the least foundation for the report they spread universally, that nothing could be of more dangerous consequence to a people, than to trust the Romans with their liberties; and that they only shifted the yoke, in accepting that republic for their master instead of the Macedonians. He concluded with saying, that it was well known the Ætolians were not over prudent and discreet either in their words or actions.

He hinted to the other cities, that they ought to judge of their friends, not from words but actions; to be cautious whom they trusted, and against whom it was proper for them to guard. He exhorted them to use their liberty with moderation; that with this wise precaution, it was of the highest advantage to private persons as well as to cities; but that, without moderation, it became a burthen to others, and even pernicious to those who abused it. That the chief men in cities, the different orders that compose them, and the citizens themselves in general, should endeavour to preserve a perfect harmony; that so long as they should be united, neither kings nor tyrants would be able to distress them; that discord and sedítion opened a door to dangers and evils of every kind, because the party which finds itself weakest within, seeks for support without; and chooses rather to call in a foreign power to its aid, than submit to its fellow-citizens.

He concluded his speech by conjuring them, in the mildest and most gentle terms, to preserve and maintain by their prudent conduct, the liberty which they owed to foreign arms; and to make the Romans sensible, that in restoring them to their freedom, they had not afforded their protection and beneficence to persons unworthy of it.

This counsel was received as the advice of a father to his children. Whilst he spoke in this manner, the whole assembly wept for joy, and Quintius himself could not refrain from tears. A gentle murmur expressed the sentiments of all that were present. They gazed upon one another with admiration; and every one exhorted his neighbour to receive with gratitude and respect, the words of the Roman general, as so many oracles, and imprint the remembrance of them deeply in their hearts.

After this, Quintius causing silence to be made, desired that they would inquire strictly after such Roman citizens as might still remain in slavery in Greece, and send them to him in Thessaly in two months; adding, that it would ill become them to leave those in captivity to whom they were indebted for their freedom. All the people replied with the highest applauses, and thanked Quintius, in particular, for hinting to them so just and indispensible a duty. The number of these slaves was very considerable. They were taken by Hannibal in the Punic war; but the Romans refusing to redeem them, they had been sold. It cost the Achæans alone an hundred talents, that is, an hundred thousand crowns, to reimburse the masters the price they had paid for the slaves, at the rate of about twelve pounds ten shillings an head; consequently the number here amounted to twelve hundred, The reader may form a judgment, in proportion, of all the rest of Greece. Before the assembly broke up, the garrison was seen marching down from the citadel, and afterwards out of the city. Quintius followed it soon after, and withdrew in the midst of the acclamations of the people, who called him their saviour and deliverer, and implored Heaven to bestow all possible blessings upon him.

He withdrew in the same manner the garrisons from Chalcis and Demetrias, and was received in those cities with the like acclamations. From thence he went into Thessaly, where he found every thing in need of reformation, so general was the disorder and confusion.

At last he embarked for Italy, and upon his arrival at Rome entered it in triumph. The ceremony lasted three days, during which he exhibited to the people (amidst the other pomp) the precious spoils he had taken in the wars against Philip and Nabis. Demetrius, son of the former, and Armenes, of the latter, were among the hostages, and grac

a Five hundred denarii