Rome and the Mediterranean by Titus Livy

Author:Titus Livy
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141960814
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2009-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

30. When the consul Marcus Fulvius had settled matters in Cephallania, and had posted a garrison at Samê, he crossed to the Peloponnese in response to a long-standing invitation from the men of Aegium in particular, and also from the Spartans. From the start of the Achaean League the meetings of the general council had always been held at Aegium, a tribute either to the prestige of the city or to its convenient situation. This year, for the first time, Philopoemen was trying to overthrow this custom; and he was preparing to bring in a regulation that the meetings should be held in all the cities belonging to the Achaean League in turn. Accordingly, at the consul’s approach, when the damiurgi – the head magistrates – of the cities called a meeting at Aegium, Philopoemen – he was then chief League magistrate – gave notice that the council would meet at Argos.11 Since it was evident that almost all the councillors would assemble there, the consul also went to Argos, although he favoured the cause of the Aegians; but when the question had been argued there and he saw that the Aegians were losing their case, he abandoned his intention to support them.

Then the Spartans drew his attention away to their own problems. Their state was particularly troubled by the exiles, a large part of whom were living in the towns on the Laconian coast, the whole of which had been taken away from Sparta. The Spartans resented this, and were determined to secure free access to the sea, in case they should have occasion to send envoys to Rome or elsewhere; and at the same time they wished to have a market for foreign trade and a repository for imported goods to meet their essential needs. In furtherance of this purpose they made a surprise attack by night on a coastal town called Las and seized the place. The townspeople and the exiles living there were at first terrified at this unexpected stroke, then they mustered at daybreak and drove out the Spartans, after a slight struggle. However, the panic spread along the whole coast, through all the towns and villages, and the exiles who had made their homes there sent a joint delegation to the Achaeans.

31. Philopoemen had from the start been friendly to the cause of the exiles, and he had always advised the Achaeans to reduce the power and influence of the Spartans; and now he granted the complainants a hearing before the council, and on his proposal a motion was carried that whereas Titus Quinctius and the Romans had committed the towns and villages of the Laconian shore to the protection and guardianship of the Achaeans, and whereas, although the Spartans were bound by the treaty to let these places alone, the town of Las had been attacked and blood had been shed there, therefore, unless those concerned in this act, as instigators or accessories, were surrendered to the Achaeans, the treaty would be deemed to be violated.

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