48.
These things, which were done in order to enhance his distinction, were immediately turned into a cause of unpopularity and presently even of ruin to the young man.1
Then the Lacedaemonians were brought
[2]
in. Many and trivial subjects of dispute were talked about; but those which contained the real gist of the matter had to do with the question whether the men whom the Achaeans had condemned should be restored or
[3]
not;2 whether those who had been killed3 had been killed justly or unjustly; and [p. 373]whether the Lacedaemonians should remain in the4 Achaean League or, as had been the case before, their state, alone in the Peloponnesus, should have a separate
[4]
constitution. It was decided that the exiles should be restored and the judgments passed against them reversed, and that Lacedaemon should remain in the Achaean League, and that this decree should be written down and signed by the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans.5
[5]
Quintus Marcius was sent as a commissioner to Macedonia, and was likewise instructed to look into the affairs of the allies in the Peloponnesus. For there were also both the troubles that were survivals from ancient discords, and Messenê had seceded from the Achaean
[6]
League. If I should wish to set forth both the causes and the events of this war,6 I should be unmindful of my purpose, according to which I have determined not to touch further upon foreign affairs except as they are inseparable from Roman history.7
1 This whole episode is based on Polybius, XXIII. (XXIV.) i. —iii. but with a good deal of rearrangement and with the postponement to the next Book of several items. By so doing Livy has improved the rhetorical quality of the passage at the expense of historical accuracy.
2 Livy has not mentioned the exile of any Lacedaemonians by the Achaeans, but it would be very strange if some had not been banished.
3 The victims of the massacre at Compasium: cf. xxxvi. 9 above and the note. In sect. 16 of that chapter Lycortas ruled this question out as unimportant, but the Lacedaemonians did not agree. Apparently the Romans did not decide either way, but see sect. 4 below.
4 B.C. 183
5 Livy has condensed and simplified the account of an affair which, according to Polybius, XXIII. (XXIV.) iv. was far from simple. Neither Livy nor Polybius is clear as to whether the first clause of the decree covered the second question of the Lacedaemonians as well as the first, or what action the Romans took on the Compasium affair.
6 He makes an exception of the Philopoemen episode.
7 Ct. XXXV. xl. 1.
Livy. Books XXXVIII-XXXIX with an English Translation. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1936: published without copyright notice.
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