39.37
"'Well
but,' you say, 'these things are your doing, Achaeans -the abolition of the
laws and discipline of Lycurgus which have come down from a remote
antiquity, and the destruction of the walls.' Now, how can both these charges
be made by the same people, seeing that the walls were built, not by
Lycurgus but only a few years ago, and built, too, for the purpose of
undermining the discipline of Lycurgus? It is quite recently that the tyrants
raised them as a stronghold and defence for themselves, not for the city; and
if Lycurgus could today rise from the dead, he would be glad to see them in
ruins, and would say that he now recognised his old Sparta. For like
disfiguring brands they marked you as slaves, and you ought to have torn
down and demolished with your own hands, Lacedaemonians, every vestige
of the tyrant's rule, and not have waited for Philopoemen and the Achaeans
to do it. Whilst for 800 years you were without walls, you were free and for
some time the foremost power in Greece, but when shut in by walls, bound
as it were by fetters, you have for the last century been slaves. As for the
deprivation of their laws and constitution, I consider that the tyrants
deprived the Lacedaemonians of their ancient laws; we did not deprive them
of their laws and constitution, for they had none; but we gave them our own
laws, nor did we in any way do the city a wrong when we made it a member
of our council and incorporated it in our League, so that there might be one
political body and one common council for the whole of the Peloponnese. If
we ourselves had been living at the time under different laws from those
which we imposed on them, they could, in my opinion, have complained and
felt justly indignant at not enjoying equal rights with us.
"I am quite aware, Appius Claudius, that the language I have so far
used is not the language that allies should hold towards allies, nor does it
befit a nation of freemen; it is really appropriate to the bickerings of slaves
before their masters. If there is any meaning in the words of the herald in
which you ordered that the Achaeans should be the first of all the Greeks to
be free; if our treaty is still in force; if the terms of amity and alliance are
kept equally for both sides, why should I not ask what you Romans did when
you took Capua, as you demand from us an account for what we Achaeans
did to the Lacedaemonians, after we had conquered them in war? 'Some of
them were killed.' Suppose they were killed by us, what then? Did not you,
senators, behead the Campanians? We destroyed the walls; you deprived the
Campanians not only of their walls but of their city and their fields. The
treaty, you say, is on the face of it just to both sides. As a matter of fact, the
Achaeans enjoy a precarious freedom; the supreme power rests with the
Romans. I am sensible of this, and I do not, unless compelled, protest against
it; but I do implore you, however great the difference between the Romans
and the Achaeans, not to let our common enemies stand in as favourable
position with you as we, who are your allies, still less in a more favourable
one. For we put them on an equality with ourselves when we gave them our
laws. What satisfies the victors is too little for the vanquished; enemies
demand more than allies receive. The agreement which has been sworn to
and inscribed in stone for a perpetual memorial as being sacred and
inviolable, that agreement they are preparing to do away with, and make us
forsworn. We have a profound respect for you, Romans, and if you wish it,
we hold you in fear, but we have a more profound respect for and a greater
fear of the immortal gods."
His speech was received with general approbation; all recognised
that he had spoken as befitted the high position he held, so that it was quite
clear that the Romans could not maintain their authority, if they did not take
a strong line. Appius said that he would strongly advise the Achaeans to
court the favour of the Romans whilst they could do so of their own
free-will, lest they should soon be compelled to do so against their will.
These words called forth a general murmur, but they were afraid of what
might happen if they refused to comply with the Roman demands. They only
requested the Romans to make such changes with regard to the
Lacedaemonians as seemed desirable, and not involve the Achaeans in the
guilt of perjury by making them undo what they had sworn to. The only
decision arrived at was the cancelling of the sentence against Areus and
Alcibiades.
