then went over to their former sovereign, who soon after gained the throne of Mac' edon, which he held until his death.

33. The death of Pyr' rhus forms an important epoch in Grecian history, as it put an end to the struggle for power among Alexander's successors in the West, and left the field clear for the final contest between the liberty of Greece and the power of Mac' edon, which was only terminated by the ruin of both. When Antigonus returned to Mac' edon, its acknowledged sovereign, he cherished the hope of ultimately reducing all Greece to his sway, little dreaming that the power centered in a recent league of a few Achæ' an cities was destined to become a formidable adversary to his house.

34. The Acha' an League comprised at first twelve towns of Achaia, which were associated together for mutual safety, forming a little federal republic-all the towns having an equality III. ACHE' AN of representation in the general government, to which LEAGUE. all matters affecting the common welfare were intrusted, each town at the same time retaining the regulation of its own domestic policy. The Acha' an league did not become of sufficient political importance to attract the attention of Antig' onus until about twenty years after the death of Pyr' rhus, when Arátus, an exile from Sic' yon, at the head of a small band of followers, surprised the city by night, and without any bloodshed delivered it from the dominion of the tyrants who, under Macedónian protection, had long oppressed it with despotic sway. (251 B. C.) Fearful of the hostility of Antig' onus, Arátus induced Sic' yon to join the Acha' an league, and although its power greatly exceeded that of any Achæ' an town, it claimed no superiority of privilege over the other members of the confederacy, but obtained only one vote in the general council of the league; a precedent which was afterwards strictly adhered to in the admission of other cities. Arátus received the most distinguished honors from the Acha' ans, and, a few years after the accession of Sic' yon, was placed at the head of the armies of the confederacy. (B. C. 246.)

35. Corinth, the key to Greece, having been seized by a stratagem of Antig' onus, and its citadel occupied by a Macedónian garrison, was rescued by a bold enterprise of Arátus, and induced to join the league. (243 B. C.) Other cities successively gave in their adherence, until the confederacy embraced nearly the whole of Peloponnésus. Although Athens did not unite with it, yet Arátus obtained the withdrawal of its Macedónian garrison. Sparta opposed the league-induced Ar' gos and Corinth to withdraw from it-and by

her successes over the Acha' ans, eventually induced them to call in the aid of the Macedónians, their former enemies.

36. Antig' onus II., readily embracing the opportunity of restor ing the influence of his family in Southern Greece, marched against the Lacedæmónians, over whom he obtained a decisive victory, which placed Sparta at his mercy. But he used his victory moderately, and granted the Spartans peace on liberal terms. On his death, which occurred soon after, he was succeeded on the throne of Mac' edon by his nephew and adopted son, Philip II., a youth of only seventeen.

37. The Etolians,' the rudest of the Grecian tribes, who had acquired the character of a nation of freebooters and pirates, had at this time formed a league similar to the Achæ' an, and counting on the inexperience of the youthful Philip, and the weakness of the Acha' ans, began a series of unprovoked aggressions on the surrounding States. The Messénians, whose territory they had invaded by way of the western coast of the Peloponnésus, called upon the Achæ' ans for assistance, but Arátas, going to their relief, was attacked unexpectedly, and defeated. Soon after, the youthful Philip was placed at the head of the Achæ'an League, when a general war began between the Macedónians, Acha' ans, and their confederates, on the one side, and the Ætólians, who were aided by the Spartans and E'leans, on the other.

38. The war continued four years, and was conducted with great cruelty and obstinacy on both sides; but Philip and the Ache' ans were on the whole successful, and the Etólians and their allies became desirous of peace, while new and ambitious views more eagerly inclined Philip to put an end to the unprofitable contest. At this time the Carthaginians and Romans were contending for mastery in the second Punic war, and Philip began to view the struggle as one in which an alliance with one of the parties would be desirable, by opening to himself prospects of future conquest and glory. By siding with the Carthaginians, who were the most distant party, and from whom he would have less to fear than from the Romans, he hoped to be able eventually to insure to himself the sovereignty of all Greece, and to make additions to Macedónia on the side of Italy. He therefore proposed terms of peace to the Ætólians; and a treaty

1. Etólia was a country of Northern Greece, bounded on the north by Thes' saly, on the east by Doris, Phócis, and Locris, on the south by the Corinthian Gulf, and on the west by Acarnania. It was in general a rough and mountainous country, although some of the valleys were remarkable for their fertility. (Map No. I.)

was concluded at Naupac' tus, which left all the parties in the war in the enjoyment of their respective possessions. (217 B. C.)

39. After the great battle of Can' næ,a which seemed to have extinguished the last hopes of Rome, Philip sent envoys to Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, and concluded with him a treaty of strict alliance. He next sailed with a small fleet up the Adriat' ic, and while besieging Appollónia,' a town in Illyr' ia, was met and defeated by the Roman prætor, M. Valérius, who had been sent to succor the Illyrians. (215 B. C.) Philip was forced to burn his ships, and retreat over land to Macedónia, leaving his baggage, and the arms of many of his troops, in the enemy's hands. Such was the unfortunate issue of his first encounter with the Roman soldiery.

40. Soon after his return to Macedónia, finding Arátus in the way of his projects against the liberties of Southern Greece, he contrived to have the old general removed by slow poison;-a crime which filled all Greece with horror and indignation. In the meantime, the Romans, while recovering ground in Italy, contrived to keep Philip busy at home, by inciting the Etólians to violate the recent treaty, and inducing Sparta and E' lis to join in a war against Mac' edon. Still Philip, supported for awhile by the Acha' ans, under their renowned leader, Philopo' men, maintained his ground, until, first, the Athenians, no longer able to protect their fallen fortunes, solicited aid from the Romans; and finally, the Achæ' ans themselves, being divided into factions, accepted terms of peace.

41. Philip continued to struggle against his increasing enemies, until, being defeated in a great battle with the Romans, he purchased peace by the sacrifice of the greater part of his navy, the payment of a tribute, and the resignation of his supremacy over the Grecian States. At the celebration of the Isth' mian games at Corinth the terms of the Roman senate were made known to the Grecians, who received, with the height of exultation, the proclamation that the independence of Greece was restored, under the auspices of the Roman arms. (196 B. C.)

42. Probably nothing was farther from the intention of the Roman senate than to allow the Grecian States to regain their ancient power and sovereignty, and it was sufficient to damp the joy of the more

1. Apollónia was situated on the northern side of the river Aóus (now Vojutza), near its mouth. Its ruins still retain the name of Pollini. Apollónia was founded by a colony from Corinth and Corcyra, and, according to Strabo, was renowned for the wisdom of its laws.

a. See p. 158.

b. Battle of Cynocephalæ, 197 B. C. See p. 161.

considerate that the boon of freedom which Rome affected to bestow was tendered by a master who could resume it at his pleasure. At the first opportunity of interference, therefore, which opened to the Romans, the Etólians, who had espoused the cause of Antiochus, king of Syria, the enemy of Rome, were reduced to poverty and deprived of their independence. At a later period Per' seus, the successor of Philip on the throne of Mac' edon, being driven into a war by Roman ambition, finally lost his kingdom in the battle of Pyd' na,' in which twenty thousand Macedónians were slain, and ten thousand taken prisoners, while the Roman army, commanded by Lúcius Emil' ius Paulus, lost scarcely a hundred men. (168 B. C.) The Macedónian monarchy was extinguished, and Per' seus himself, a wanderer from his country, was taken prisoner in an island of the E' gean, and conveyed to Rome to grace the triumph of the con

queror.

43. Soon after the fall of Per' seus, the Acha' ans were charged with having aided him in the war against Rome, and, without a shadow of proof, one thousand of their worthiest citizens, among whom was the historian Polyb' ius, were sent to Rome to prove their innocence of this charge before a Roman tribunal. (167 B. C.) Here they were detained seventeen years without being able to obtain a hearing, when three hundred of the number, the only surviving remnant of the thousand, were finally restored to their country. The exiles returned, burning with vengeance against the Romans; other causes of animosity arose; and when a Roman embassy, sent to Corinth, declared the will of the Roman senate that the Achæ' an League should be reduced to its original limits, a popular tumult arose, and the Roman ambassadors were publicly insulted.

44. War soon followed. The Achae' ans and their allies were defeated by the consul Mum' mius near Corinth, and that city, then the richest in Greece, after being plundered of its treasures, was consigned to the flames. The last blow to the liberties of the Hellénic race had been struck, and all Greece, as far as Epírus and Macedónia, now become a Roman province, under the name of Acháia. (146 B. C.) "The end of the Acha' an war," says Thirwall, "was the last stage of the lingering process by which Rome enclosed her victim in the coils of her insidious diplomacy, covered it with the

1. Pyd' na was a city near the south-eastern extremity of Macedónia, on the western shore of the Thermaic Gulf, (now Gulf of Saloniki.) The ancient Pydna is now called Kidros. Dr. Clarke observed here a vast mound of earth, which he considered, with much probability, as marking the site of the great battle fought there by the Romans and Macedonians. (Map No. I.)

slime of her sycophants and hirelings, crushed it when it began to struggle, and then calmly preyed upon its vitals."

45. We have now arrived at the proper termination of Grecian history. Niebuhr has remarked, that, "as rivers flow into the sea, so does the history of all the nations, known to have existed previously in the regions around the Mediterranean, terminate in that of Rome." Henceforward, then, the history of Greece becomes involved in the changing fortunes of the Roman empire, to whose early annals we shall now return, after a brief notice of the cotemporary history of surrounding nations. With the loss of her liberties the glory of Greece had passed away. Her population had been gradually diminishing since the period of the Persian wars; and from the epoch of the Roman conquest the spirit of the nation sunk into despondency, and the energies of the people gradually wasted, until, no later than the days of Strabo,' Greece existed only in the remembrance of the past. Then, many of her cities were desolate, or had sunk to insignificant villages, while Athens alone maintained her renown for philosophy and the arts, and became the instructor of her conquerors;-large tracts of land, once devoted to tillage, were either barren, or had been converted into pastures for sheep, and vast herds of cattle; while the rapacity of Roman governors had inflicted upon the sparse population impoverishment and ruin.

COTEMPORARY HISTORY: 490 To 146 B. C.

1. Of the cotemporary annals of other nations during the authentic period of Grecian history, there is little of importance to be narrated beyond what will be found connected with Roman affairs in a subsequent chapter; although the Grecian cities of Italy, Sicily, and Cyrenaica, considered not as dependent colonies of the parent State, but as separate powers, will require some further notice. Of the history of the Medes and Persians we have already given the most interesting portion. Of Egyptian history little is known, beyond what has been narrated, until the beginning of the dynasty of the Ptol' emies (301 B. C.,) and of the events from that period down to the time of Roman interference in the affairs of Egypt, we have room for only occasional notices, as connected with the more important 1. HISTORY histories of other nations. Of the civil annals of the OF THE JEWS. Jews we shall give a brief sketch, so as to continue, from a preced 1. Strabo was a celebrated geographer, born at Amásia in Pontus, about the year 54 B. C.