> of Rome did Greece begin to learn the art of unity, and then the lesson

came too late. The Achaean League, which combined the nations of the

Peloponnesus into a federal republic, was in its early days kept busy in

forcing its members to remain true to their pledge. If it had survived

for a century it would probably have brought all Greece into the League,

and have produced a nation capable of self-defence. But Rome already had

her hand on the throat of Greece, and political wisdom came to that land

too late to avail.






We have come, indeed, to the end of the story of Grecian liberty. Twice

Greece rose in arms against the power of Rome, but in the end she fell

hopelessly into the fetters forged for the world by that lord of

conquest. Of the celebrated cities of Greece two had already fallen.

Thebes had been swept from the face of the earth in the wind of

Alexander's wrath. Sparta had been reduced to a feeble village by the

anger of Philopoemen. Corinth, now the largest and richest city of

Greece, was to be razed to the ground for daring to defy Rome; and

Athens was to be plundered and humiliated by a conquering Roman army.



It will not take long to tell how all this came about. The story is a

short one, but full of vital consequences. Philopoemen, the great

general of the Achaean League, died of poison 183 B.C. In the same year

died in exile Hannibal, the greatest foe Rome ever knew, and Scipio, one

of its ablest generals. Rome was already master of Greece. But the Roman

senate feared trouble from the growth of the Achaean League, and, to

weaken it, took a thousand of its noblest citizens, under various

charges, and sent them as hostages to Rome. Among them was the

celebrated historian Polybius, who wrote the history of Hannibal's wars.



These exiles were not brought to trial on the weak charges made against

them, but they were detained in Italy for seventeen years. By the end of

that time many of them had died, and Rome at last did what it was not in

the habit of doing, it took pity on those who were left and let them

return home.



Roman pity in this case proved disastrous to Greece. Many of the exiles

were exasperated by their treatment, and were no sooner at home than

they began to stir up the people to revolt. Polybius held them back for

a time, but during his absence the spirit of sedition grew. It was

intensified by the action of Rome, which, to weaken Greece, resolved to

dissolve the Achaean League, or to take from it its strongest cities.

Roman ambassadors carried this edict to Corinth, the great city of the

League. When their errand become known the people rose in riot, insulted

the ambassadors, and vowed that they were not and would not be the

slaves of Rome.



If they had shown the strength and spirit to sustain their vow they

might have had some warrant for it. But the fanatics who stirred the

country to revolt against the advice of its wisest citizens proved

incapable in war. Their army was finally put to rout in the year 146

B.C. by a Roman army under the leadership of Lucius Mummius, consul of

Rome.



This Roman victory was won in the vicinity of Corinth. The routed army

did not seek to defend itself in that city, but fled past its open

gates, and left it to the mercy of the Roman general. The gates still

stood open. No defence was made. But Mummius, fearing some trick, waited

a day or two before entering. On doing so he found the city nearly

deserted. The bulk of the population had fled. The greatest and richest

city which Greece then possessed had fallen without a blow struck in its

defence.



Yet Mummius chose to consider it as a city taken by storm. All the men

who remained were put to the sword; the women and children were kept to

be sold as slaves; the town was mercilessly plundered of its wealth and

treasures of art.



But this degree of vengeance did not satisfy Rome. Her ambassadors had

been insulted,--by a mob, it is true; but in those days the law-abiding

had often to suffer for the deeds of the mob. The Achaean League, with

Corinth at its head, had dared to resist the might and majesty of Rome.

A lesson must be given that would not be easily forgotten. Corinth must

be utterly destroyed.



Such was the deliberate decision of the Roman senate; such the order

sent to Mummius. At his command the plundering of the city was

completed. It was fabulously rich in works of art. Many of these were

sent to Rome. Many of them were destroyed. The Romans were ignorant of

their value. Their leader himself was as incompetent and ignorant as any

Roman general could well be. He had but one thought, to obey the orders

of the senate. The plundered city was thereupon set on fire and burned

to the ground, its walls were pulled down, the spot where it had stood

was cursed, its territory was declared the property of the Roman people.

No more complete destruction of a city had ever taken place. A century

afterwards Corinth was rebuilt by order of Julius Caesar, but it never

became again the Corinth of old.



As for the destruction of works of priceless value, it was pitiable.

When Polybius returned and saw the ruins, he found common soldiers

playing dice on paintings of the most celebrated artists of Greece.

Mummius, who was as honest as he was dull-witted, strictly obeyed orders

in sending the choicest of the spoil to Rome, and made himself forever

famous as a marvel of stupidity by a remark to those who were charged

with the conveyance of some of the noblest of Grecian statues.



"Take good care that you do not lose these on the way," he said; "for if

you do you shall be made to replace them by others of equal value."



Rome could conquer the world, but honest Mummius had set a task which

Rome throughout its whole history was not able to perform.



Thus ended the death-struggle of Greece. The chiefs of the party of

revolt were put to death; the inhabitants of Corinth who had fled were

taken and sold as slaves. The walls of all the cities which had resisted

Rome were levelled to the ground. An annual tribute was laid on them by

the conquerors. Self-government was left to the states of Greece, but

they were deprived of their old privilege of making war.



Yet Greece might have flourished under the new conditions, for peace

heals the wounds made by war, had its states not been too much weakened

by their previous conflicts, and had not a new war arisen just when they

were beginning to enjoy some of the fruits of peace.



This war, which broke out sixty years later, had its origin in Asia.

Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, had made himself master of all

Asia Minor, where he ordered that all the Romans found should be killed.

It is said that eighty thousand were slaughtered. Then he sent an army

into Greece, under his general Archelaus, and there found the people

ready and willing to join him, in the hope of gaining their freedom by

his aid. Rome just then seemed weak, and they deemed it a good season to

rebel.



Archelaus took possession of Athens and the Piraeus, from which all the

friends of Rome were driven into exile. Meanwhile, Rome was distracted

by the struggle between the two great leaders Marius and Sulla. But

leaving Rome to take care of itself, Sulla marched an army against

Mithridates, entered Greece, and laid siege to Athens.



This was in the year 87 B.C. The siege that followed was a long one.

Archelaus lay in Piraeus, with abundance of food, and had command of the

sea. But the long walls that led to Athens had long since vanished. Food

could not be conveyed from the port to the city, as of old. Hunger came

to the aid of Rome. Resistance having almost ceased, Sulla broke into

the famous old city March 1, 86 B.C., and gave it up to rapine and

pillage by his soldiers.



Yet Athens was not destroyed as Corinth had been. Sulla had some respect

for art and antiquity, and carefully preserved the old monuments of the

city, while such of its people as had not been massacred were restored

to their civil rights as subjects of Rome. Soon the Asiatics were driven

from Greece and Roman dominion was once more restored. Thus ended the

last struggle for liberty in Greece. Nineteen hundred years were to pass

away before another blow for freedom would be struck on Grecian soil.