University of Virginia Library

38.31

From the first, Philopoemen had championed the cause of the exiles and had always tried to persuade the Achaeans to abridge the power and influence of the Lacedaemonians. He now summoned a council to hear the envoys, and on his initiative a decree was passed in the following terms: "Whereas T. Quinctius and the Romans have committed to the good faith and protection of the Achaeans the villages and forts on the coast of Laconia, and whereas the village of Las has been attacked by the Lacedaemonians who were bound by treaty not to interfere with them, and blood has been shed there, we decree that unless the authors and abettors of this outrage are surrendered to the Achaeans, the treaty shall be held to be broken." A mission was at once despatched to Lacedaemon to insist on this demand. So arbitrary and arrogant did it appear in the eyes of the Lacedaemonians that if that city had been in the position it once held they would undoubtedly have taken up arms. What they feared most of all was that if they submitted to the yoke so far as to comply with this initial demand, Philopoemen would carry out the policy he had long contemplated of handing Lacedaemon to the exiles. In a frenzy of anger they put to death thirty men who belonged to the party who were in league with Philopoemen and the exiles, and then passed a decree denouncing the alliance with the Achaeans and ordering the immediate despatch of a mission to Cephallania to make a formal surrender of Lacedaemon to the consul and to Rome, begging him to come to the Peloponnesus and receive their city into the protection and suzerainty of the people of Rome.