Callicrates Turns Traitor
For he said that "The Romans were themselves responsible for the Greeks neglecting their letters
Callicrates, instead of obeying his instructions, denounces his opponents, and persuades the Senate that their interference is necessary. |
and orders instead of obeying them. For in
all the democratic states of the day there were
two parties,—one recommending obedience to
the Roman rescripts, and holding neither law
nor tablet nor anything else to be superior to the
will of Rome; the other always quoting oaths and
tablets, and exhorting the people to be careful
about breaking them. Now the latter policy was by far the
most popular in Achaia, and the most influential with the
multitude; consequently the Romanisers were discredited and
denounced among the populace—their opponents glorified.
If then the Senate would give some sign of their interest in
the matter, the leaders, in the first place, would quickly change
to the Romanising party, and, in the next place, would be
followed by the populace from fear. But if this were neglected
by the Senate, the tendency towards the latter of the two
parties would be universal, as the more creditable and honourable in the eyes of the populace. Thus it came about that at
that very time certain statesmen, without any other claims whatever, had obtained the highest offices in their own cities, merely
from coming forward to speak against the rescripts of the
Senate, with the view of maintaining the validity of the laws
and decrees made in the country. If then the Senate was
indifferent about having their rescripts obeyed by the Greeks, by
all means let it go on as it is now doing. But if the Senate
wished that its orders should be carried out, and its rescripts
be despised by no one, it must give serious attention to that
subject. If it did not do so, he knew only too well that the
exact opposite of the Senate's wishes would come about, as
in fact had already been the case. For but lately, in the
Messenian disturbance, though Quintus Marcius had taken
many precautions to prevent the Achaeans adopting any
measures with regard to the Messenians without the consent of
the Romans, they had disobeyed that order; had voted the war
on their own authority; had not only wasted the whole county
in defiance of justice, but had in some cases driven its noblest
citizens into exile, and in others put them to death with every
extremity of torture, though they had surrendered, and were
guilty of no crime but that of appealing to Rome on the points
in dispute. Again, too, though the Senate had repeatedly
written to order the restoration of the Lacedaemonian exiles,
the Achaeans were so far from obeying, that they had actually
set up an engraved tablet, and made a sworn agreement with the
men actually in possession of the city that these exiles should
never return. With these instances before their eyes, the
Romans should take measures of precaution for the future."