τότε δὲ τῷ Μετέλλῳ καὶ τῇ ἄλλῃ πρεσβείᾳ μὴ ὑπεριδεῖν Λακεδαιμονίων ἤρεσε καὶ Ἀχαιῶν, τοὺς δὲ τὰς ἀρχὰς ἔχοντας ἐς τὸ συνέδριον ἠξίουν συγκαλέσαι τοὺς Ἀχαιούς, ἵνα ἐν κοινῷ διδάξωσιν αὐτοὺς ἠπιώτερον μεταχειρίζεσθαι τὰ ἐν Λακεδαίμονι. οἱ δέ σφισιν ἀπεκρίναντο μήτε ἐκείνοις Ἀχαιοὺς ἐς σύλλογον μήτε ἄλλῳ συνάξειν, ὅστις μὴ ἐπὶ τῷ πράγματι ἐφʼ ὅτῳ ποιεῖται τὴν πρόσοδον παρὰ τῆς Ῥωμαίων βουλῆς ἔχει δόγμα. Μέτελλος δὲ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν περιυβρίσθαι νομίζοντες, ἐπειδὴ ἀφίκοντο ἐς Ῥώμην, πολλὰ ἐπὶ τῆς βουλῆς καὶ οὐ τὰ πάντα ἀληθῆ κατηγόρουν τῶν Ἀχαιῶν.
τούτων δὲ πλείονα ἐνεκάλουν Ἀχαιοῖς Ἀρεὺς καὶ Ἀλκιβιάδας, Λακεδαιμόνιοι μὲν καὶ δόκιμοι τὰ μάλιστα ἐν τῇ Σπάρτῃ, τὰ δὲ ἐς Ἀχαιοὺς οὐ δίκαιοι· γενομένους γὰρ ὑπὸ Νάβιδος φυγάδας ὑπεδέξαντο αὐτοὺς οἱ Ἀχαιοὶ καὶ ἀποθανόντος Νάβιδος παρὰ γνώμην Λακεδαιμονίων τοῦ δήμου κατάγουσιν ἐς Σπάρτην. τότε οὖν ἀναβεβηκότες καὶ οὗτοι παρὰ τὴν βουλὴν προθυμότατα ἐνέκειντο Ἀχαιοῖς· Ἀχαιοὶ δέ σφισιν ἀπελθοῦσιν ἐπιβάλλουσιν ἐν τῷ συνεδρίῳ θάνατον ζημίαν.
Ῥωμαίων δὲ ἡ βουλὴ πέμπουσιν ἄλλους τε ἄνδρας καὶ Ἄππιον Λακεδαιμονίοις καὶ Ἀχαιοῖς τὰ δίκαια ὁρίσαι. Ἄππιος δὲ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ ἔμελλον μὲν οὐδὲ ὀφθέντες Ἀχαιοῖς ἔσεσθαι καθʼ ἡδονήν, οἳ Ἀρέα καὶ Ἀλκιβιάδαν ἅμʼ αὐτοῖς ἐπήγοντο ἐν τῷ τότε Ἀχαιοῖς ἐχθίστους· ἐλύπησαν δὲ καὶ ἐς πλέον τοὺς Ἀχαιούς, ἐπειδὴ ἐς τὸν σύλλογον αὐτῶν ἐπελθόντες σὺν ὀργῇ μᾶλλον ἐποιοῦντο ἢ πειθοῖ τοὺς λόγους.
Λυκόρτας δὲ ὁ Μεγαλοπολίτης, οὔτε ἀξιώματι οὐδενὸς Ἀρκάδων ὕστερος καί τι καὶ φρόνημα κατὰ φιλίαν προσειληφὼς τὴν Φιλοποίμενος, λόγῳ τε ἀπέφαινε τὰ ὑπὲρ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν δίκαια καὶ ὁμοῦ τοῖς λόγοις καὶ μέμψιν τινὰ ὑπέτεινεν ἐς τοὺς Ῥωμαίους. Ἄππιος δὲ καὶ οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ Λυκόρταν λέγοντα ἐποιοῦντο ἐν χλευασμῷ καὶ Ἀρέως ἀποψηφίζονται καὶ Ἀλκιβιάδα μηδὲν ἀδίκημα ἐξ αὐτῶν ἐς Ἀχαιοὺς εἶναι, Λακεδαιμονίοις τε ἀποστεῖλαι πρέσβεις ἐφιᾶσιν ἐς Ῥώμην, ἐναντία ἐφιέντες ἢ Ῥωμαίοις συγκείμενα ἦν καὶ Ἀχαιοῖς· Ἀχαιῶν μὲν γὰρ εἴρητο ἀπὸ τοῦ κοινοῦ παρὰ τὴν Ῥωμαίων βουλὴν ἀπιέναι πρέσβεις, ἰδίᾳ δὲ ἀπείρητο μὴ πρεσβεύεσθαι τὰς πόλεις ὅσαι συνεδρίου τοῦ Ἀχαιῶν μετεῖχον.
ἀντιπρεσβευσαμένων δὲ καὶ Ἀχαιῶν Λακεδαιμονίοις καὶ λόγων ῥηθέντων ὑπὸ ἀμφοτέρων ἐπὶ τῆς βουλῆς, τοὺς αὐτοὺς ἀποστέλλουσιν αὖθις οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι Λακεδαιμονίοις γενέσθαι καὶ Ἀχαιοῖς δικαστάς, Ἄππιον καὶ ὅσοι σὺν ἐκείνῳ πρότερον ἐς τὴν Ἑλλάδα ἀφίκοντο. οἱ δὲ τούς τε ἐκβληθέντας ὑπὸ Ἀχαιῶν κατάγουσιν ἐς Σπάρτην καὶ ὅσων πρὸ κρίσεως ἀπελθόντων κατέγνωστο ὑπὸ τῶν Ἀχαιῶν ἀδικεῖν, καὶ τὰ ἐπὶ τούτοις τιμήματα ἔλυσαν· καὶ συντελείας μὲν Λακεδαιμονίους τῆς ἐς τὸ Ἀχαϊκὸν οὐκ ἀφιᾶσι, περὶ δὲ τῇ ἑκάστου ψυχῇ ξενικά σφισι διδόασιν εἶναι δικαστήρια, ὅσα δὲ ἄλλα ἐγκλήματα, λαμβάνειν τε αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐν τῷ Ἀχαϊκῷ ὑπέχειν τὰς κρίσεις. ἐτειχίσθη δὲ καὶ ἐξ ἀρχῆς αὖθις Σπαρτιάταις ὁ κύκλος τοῦ ἄστεως.
Λακεδαιμονίων δὲ οἱ κατελθόντες, βουλεύοντες παντοῖα ἐπὶ Ἀχαιοῖς, λυπήσειν σφᾶς ἐπὶ τοιῷδε μάλιστα ἤλπιζον. Μεσσηνίους τοὺς Φιλοποίμενι θανάτου συναιτίους γενέσθαι νομισθέντας καὶ κατὰ τὴν αἰτίαν ταύτην ὑπὸ Ἀχαιῶν ἐκπεπτωκότας, τούτους τε καὶ Ἀχαιῶν αὐτῶν τοὺς φεύγοντας ἀναβῆναι πείθουσιν ἐς Ῥώμην· σὺν δέ σφισιν ἀνεληλυθότες καὶ αὐτοὶ γενέσθαι τοῖς ἀνδράσιν ἔπρασσον κάθοδον. ἅτε δὲ τοῦ Ἀππίου Λακεδαιμονίοις συμπροθυμουμένου μεγάλως, Ἀχαιοῖς δὲ ἐπὶ παντὶ ἀντιβαίνοντος, ἔμελλεν οὐ χαλεπῶς Μεσσηνίων καὶ Ἀχαιῶν τοῖς φεύγουσι τὰ βουλεύματα ἐς δέον χωρήσειν· γράμματά τε αὐτίκα ὑπὸ τῆς βουλῆς ἔς τε Ἀθήνας κατεπέμπετο καὶ ἐς Αἰτωλίαν κατάγειν σφᾶς Μεσσηνίους καὶ Ἀχαιοὺς ἐπὶ τὰ οἰκεῖα.
τοῦτο Ἀχαιοὺς ἐς τὰ μάλιστα ἠνίασεν, ὡς οὔτε ἄλλως πάσχοντας δίκαια ὑπὸ Ῥωμαίων καὶ ἐς τὸ ἀνωφελὲς προϋπηργμένων σφίσιν ἐς αὐτούς, οἳ ἐπὶ τὰ Φιλίππου καὶ Αἰτωλῶν ἐναντία καὶ αὖθις Ἀντιόχου στρατεύσαντες χάριτι τῇ ἐς Ῥωμαίους ἐγίνοντο ὕστεροι φυγάδων ἀνθρώπων καὶ οὐ καθαρῶν χεῖρας· ὅμως δὲ εἴκειν σφίσιν ἐδόκει.
Metellus and his colleagues resolved not to overlook the affairs of the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans. They requested the officers of the League to summon a diet with a view to advising the assembled confederacy to treat the Lacedaemonians with greater lenity. The officers replied that they would summon the diet neither for them nor for anybody else who could not produce a decree of the Roman Senate sanctioning the proposal with which he intended to come before the assembly. Deeply affronted, Metellus and his colleagues, on their return to Rome, denounced the Achaeans to the Senate in unmeasured and not always accurate terms.
Still more numerous were the charges brought against the Achaeans by Areus and Alcibiadas, Lacedaemonians of the highest standing, who, however, did not act fairly by the Achaeans. For when they were driven into exile by Nabis, they had been hospitably received by the Achaeans, who, on the death of Nabis, restored them to Sparta against the wishes of the Lacedaemonian commons. They now appeared before the Senate, and loudly inveighed against the Achaeans; wherefore on their return the Achaean diet sentenced them to death.
The Senate sent a commission, with Appius at its head, to arbitrate between the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans. But the very sight of the commissioners could not but be distasteful to the Achaeans, since in their suite were Areus and Alcibiadas, the men against whom at that moment the Achaeans were most exasperated. The feelings of the Achaeans were wounded still more deeply by the speeches addressed by the commissioners to the diet, for their tone was angry rather than conciliatory. But Lycortas of Megalopolis, a man of the highest reputation in Arcadia, who had caught some of his friend Philopoemen’s high spirit, asserted the rights of the Achaeans in a speech, in the course of which he insinuated a covert reflection on the Romans. His speech was received with jeers by Appius and his colleagues, who absolved Areus and Alcibiadas from all guilt touching the Achaeans, and allowed the Lacedaemonians to send ambassadors to Rome, thereby violating the treaty between the Romans and Achaeans, by which it had been provided that the right of sending ambassadors to the Roman Senate should be vested in the Achaean confederacy as such, and that none of the federal states should send a separate embassy of its own. After the Achaeans had despatched a counter embassy, and both sides had been heard by the Senate, the Romans sent once more the same commissioners (namely, Appius and those who had accompanied him to Greece before) to arbitrate between the Lacedaemonians and Achaeans. The commissioners restored to Sparta the men who had been expelled by the Achaeans, and they remitted the punishments to which the Achaeans had sentenced all who had withdrawn without standing their trial. They did not indeed release the Lacedaemonians from their connection with the Achaean League, but they established foreign courts for the trial of capital charges: all other cases they left to the federal jurisdiction.
Also the circuit of the walls of Sparta was rebuilt. Of all the plots on which the restored Lacedaemonian exiles embarked, the one by which they hoped to mortify the Achaeans most cruelly was the following. They prevailed on the Achaean exiles, and those Messenians who had been banished by the Achaeans for their supposed share in the death of Philopoemen, to go to Rome, and accompanying them they intrigued to have them restored to their native lands.
As Appius was a warm partisan of Lacedaemon and a steady adversary of the Achaeans, the intrigues of the Messenian and Achaean exiles were assured of an easy success. Despatches were at once forwarded by the Senate to Athens and Aetolia, containing instructions to restore the Messenians and Achaeans to their homes. This touched the Achaeans to the quick: they reflected what scanty justice they had received at the hands of the Romans, and how all the services they had done them had been done in vain. To please the Romans they had turned their arms against Philip, against the Aetolians, and afterwards against Antiochus, and now they were treated as of less account than a pack of exiles who had imbrued their hands in blood. Nevertheless, they resolved to yield.
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