leader Flamininus should have deliberately incurred unlimited expense
and danger, for the sole purpose of freeing Greece, deserved their
admiration; and it was also a great thing that their power was equal to
their intention. But the greatest thing of all is that Fortune foiled
their attempt by none of her usual caprices, but that every single
thing came to a successful issue at the same time: so that all Greeks,
Asiatic and European alike, were by a single proclamation become “free,
without garrison or tribute, and enjoying their own laws.”
[Sidenote: Answer of commissioners to King Antiochus.]
[Sidenote: Final arrangements.]
+47.+ The Isthmian festival having come to an end, the first persons
with whom the commissioners dealt were the ambassadors from Antiochus.
They instructed them that “Their master must abstain from attacking
those cities in Asia which were autonomous, and go to war with none
of them; and must evacuate those that had been subject to Ptolemy or
Philip. In addition to this they forbade him to cross over into Europe
with an army; for no Greek henceforth was to be attacked in war or
to be enslaved to any one. Finally, they said that some of their own
number would go to visit Antiochus.” With this answer Hegesianax and
Lysias returned to Antiochus. They next summoned the representatives
of all the nations and cities, and declared to them the decisions of
the commissioners. The Macedonian tribe of the Orestae, on the ground
of their having joined Rome during the war, they declared autonomous;
the Perrhaebians, Dolopes, and Magnesians they declared to be free.
To the Thessalians, in addition to their freedom, they assigned the
Phthiotid Achaeans, with the exception, however, of Phthiotid Thebes
and Pharsalus: for the Aetolians made such a point of their claim to
Pharsalus, as also to Leucas, on the ground of the rights secured
them by the original treaty, that the commissioners referred the
consideration of their demand in regard to these places back again to
the Senate, but allowed them to retain Phocis and Locris as members of
their league, as they had been before. Corinth, Triphylia, and Heraea
they handed over to the Achaeans. Oreus and Eretria the majority wished
to give to King Eumenes, but on the instance of Flamininus this design
was not confirmed; and, accordingly, a short time afterwards these
towns, with Carystus, were declared free by the Senate. To Pleuratus
they assigned Lychnis and Parthus in Illyria, towns which had been
subject to Philip; and Amynandros they allowed to retain all such
strongholds as he had taken from Philip during the war.
[Sidenote: The commissioners separate and go to various parts of
Greece.]
[Sidenote: Two go to Antiochus and others to Philip.]
[Sidenote: Gnaeus Cornelius at the congress of the Aetolian league.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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