44.
When the party arrived at Chalcis, a thing very pleasing to the Romans occurred, for the chief men of the other states each by their own particular decree rejected the alliance with the king and associated themselves with the Romans; Ismenias thought it proper to put the Boeotian League in the care of the Romans.1
[2]
Thereupon a dispute arose, and save that he escaped to the headquarters2 of the Roman envoys, Ismenias lacked little of meeting his death at the hands of the exiles and their partisans.
[3]
Thebes itself, the capital of Boeotia, was also in a great uproar, as some urged the city toward the king, [p. 425]others toward the Romans; and a mob from Coronea3 and Haliartus had assembled to defend the vote of alliance with the king.
[4]
But due to the steadfastness of the chief men4 in demonstrating by the disasters which had befallen Philip and Antiochus how great was the might and good fortune of the Roman State, the commons were at length overcome and voted to cancel the alliance with the king, besides sending to Chalcis those who had been sponsors of sanctioning the friendly relations to make amends to the envoys, and ordering that the city be recommended to the care of the envoys.
[5]
Marcius and Atilius heard the Thebans with joy and recommended both to these and severally to the various others that they send envoys to Rome to renew friendly relations.
[6]
First of all they ordered that the exiles be restored, and condemned by their own decree the sponsors of alliance with the king.5 Thus having obtained their fondest desire, the disruption of the Boeotian League, they set out for the Peloponnese after summoning Servius Cornelius to Chalcis.
[7]
An assembly was called for them at Argos;6 there they asked nothing of the Achaean League but the contribution of one thousand soldiers.
[8]
This garrison was sent to guard Chalcis7 until the Roman army could be brought over to Greece. Marcius and Atilius, having accomplished their mission in Greece, as winter came on returned to Rome. [p. 427]
1 As Polybius XXVII. 1. 2-3 points out, this was unacceptable to the Romans, who wanted to destroy the Boeotian League (cf. 6 below).
2 The exact meaning of tribunal (usually, an official platform) here is uncertain; Polybius 1. 6 speaks of δίθυρα (lit. double doors) translated “porch” by Paton, L.C.L.
3 B.C. 172
4 According to Polybius XXVII 1. 9 Olympichus of Coronea swung over to the Roman side, and carried the assembly with him; Livy trusts the upper classes, and suspects the worst of the commons, cf. e.g. above ch. xxx. 1; the attitude is that adopted by the Romans as a principle of provincial management.
5 According to Polybius XXVII. 2. 8-9, Ismenias and Dicetas were imprisoned and committed suicide; Neon, the third pro-Macedonian leader, escaped to Macedonia.
6 Cf. Polybius, loc. cit., 11.
7 Chalcis was one of the three “fetters of Greece,” cf. XXXI. xxiii. 11-12, XXXII. xxxvii. 3, XXXIII. xxxi. 4 and 11, XXXV. xxxiv. 4.
Livy. Books XL-XLII With An English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1938: published without copyright notice.
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