History of Rome, Vol III by Titus Livius

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19. The Celtiberians, summoned forth by the enemy for hire, as above
mentioned, rendered the war in Turditania more difficult to the
praetor, Publius Manlius. The consul, therefore, in compliance with a
letter from the praetor, led his legions thither. The Celtiberians
and Turditanians were lying in separate camps at the approach of
the Romans, who began immediately to skirmish with the Turditanians,
making attacks on their advanced guards; and they constantly came
off victorious from every engagement, however rashly undertaken. The
consul ordered some military tribunes to enter into a conference with
the Celtiberians, and to offer them their choice of three proposals:
first, to come over, if they wished it, to the Romans, and receive
double the pay for which they had agreed with the Turditanians: the
second, to depart to their own homes, on receiving assurance, under
the sanction of the public faith, that it should not operate to their
injury that they had joined the enemies of the Romans: the third was,
that, if they were absolutely determined on war, they should appoint a
day and place to decide the matter with him by arms. The Celtiberians
desired a day's time for consideration; and an assembly was held, but
in great confusion, from the Turditanians mingling in it, so that no
resolution could be come to. Although it was uncertain whether
there was to be war or peace with the Celtiberians, the Romans,
nevertheless, just as though the latter were determined on, brought
provisions from the lands and forts of the enemy, and soon ventured
to go within their fortifications, relying on private truces, as
they would on a common intercourse established by authority. When the
consul found that he could not entice the enemy to a battle, he first
led out a number of cohorts, lightly accoutred, in regular order, to
ravage a part of the country which was yet unhurt; then hearing that
all the baggage of the Celtiberians was deposited at Saguntia,
he proceeded thither to attack that town, but was unable,
notwithstanding, to provoke them to stir. Paying, therefore, his own
troops and those of Minucius, he left the bulk of his army in the
praetor's camp, and, with seven cohorts, returned to the Iberus.

20. With that small force he took several towns. The Sidetonians,
Ausetanians, and Suessetanians came over to his side. The Lacetanians,
a remote and wild nation, still remained in arms; partly through their
natural ferocity, and partly through consciousness of guilt, in having
laid waste, by sudden incursions, the country of the allies, while the
consul and his army were employed in the war with the Turditanians.
He therefore marched to attack their capital, not only with the Roman
cohorts, but also with the troops of the allies, who were justly
incensed against them. The town was stretched out into considerable
length, but had not proportionable breadth. At the distance of about
four hundred paces from it he halted, and leaving there a party
composed of chosen cohorts, he charged them not to stir from that spot
until he himself should come to them; and then he led round the rest
of the men to the farther side of the town. The greater part of his
auxiliary troops were Suessetanians, and these he ordered to advance
and assault the wall. The Lacetanians, knowing their arms and
standards, and remembering how often they had themselves, with
impunity, committed every kind of outrage and insult in their
territory, how often defeated and routed them in pitched battles,
hastily threw open a gate, and all, in one body, rushed out against
them. The Suessetanians scarcely stood their shout, much less their
onset; and the consul, on seeing this happen, just as he had foreseen,
galloped back under the enemy's wall to his cohorts, brought them up
quickly to that part of the city where all was silence and solitude,
in consequence of the Lacetanians having sallied out on the
Suessetanians, and took possession of every part of it before the
Lacetanians returned; who, having nothing now left but their arms,
soon surrendered themselves also.

21. The conqueror marched thence, without delay, to the fort of
Vergium. This was, almost entirely, a receptacle of robbers and
plunderers, and thence incursions were made on the peaceable parts
of the province. One of the principal inhabitants deserted out of
the place to the consul, and endeavoured to excuse himself and his
countrymen; alleging, that "the management of affairs was not in their
hands; for the robbers, having gained admittance, had reduced the
fort entirely under their own power." The consul ordered him to return
home, and pretend some plausible reason for having been absent; and
then, "when he should see him advancing to the walls, and the robbers
intent on defending the city, to seize the citadel with such men as
favoured his party." This was executed according to his directions.
The double alarm, from the Romans scaling the walls in front, and the
citadel being seized on their rear, at once entirely confounded the
barbarians. The consul, having taken possession of the place, ordered,
that those who had secured the citadel should, with their relations,
be set at liberty, and enjoy their property, the rest of the natives
he commanded the quaestor to sell; and he put the robbers to death.
Having restored quiet in the province, he settled the iron and silver
mines on such a footing, that they produced a large revenue; and, in
consequence of the regulations then made, the province daily increased
in riches. On account of these services performed in Spain, the senate
decreed a supplication for three days.

22. During this summer, the other consul, Lucius Valerius Flaccus,
fought a pitched battle with a body of the Boians in Gaul, near the
forest of Litanae, and gained a complete victory. Eight thousand
of the Gauls are said to have been slain; the rest, desisting from
further opposition, retired quietly to their several villages and
lands. During the remainder of the summer, the consul kept his army
near the Po, at Placentia and Cremona, and repaired the buildings in
these cities which had been demolished in the war. While the affairs
of Italy and Spain were in this posture, Titus Quinctius had spent the
winter in Greece, in such a manner, that excepting the Aetolians, who
neither had gained rewards of victory adequate to their hopes, nor
were capable of being long contented with a state of quiet, all
Greece, being in full enjoyment of the blessings of peace and liberty,
were highly pleased with their present state; and they admired
not more the Roman general's bravery in arms, than his temperance,
justice, and moderation in victory. And now a decree of the senate
was brought to him, containing a denunciation of war against Nabis
the Lacedaemonian. On reading it, Quinctius summoned a convention of
deputies from all the allied states, to be held, on a certain day, at
Corinth. Whither when many persons of the first rank came together,
from all quarters, forming a very full assembly, from which even the
Aetolians were not absent, he addressed them in this manner:--"The
Romans and Greeks, in the war which they waged against Philip, were
united in affections and councils, and they had each no less their
separate reasons for entering into it. For he had violated friendship
with the Romans; first by aiding our enemies, the Carthaginians; and
then by attacking our allies here: and, towards you, his conduct was
such, that even if we had been willing to forget our own injuries,
those offered by him to you would have constituted a sufficient
occasion of war. But the business to be considered this day has
relation wholly to yourselves: for the subject which I propose to your
consideration is, whether you choose to suffer Argos, which, as you
know, has been seized by Nabis, to remain under his dominion; or
whether you judge it reasonable, that a city of such high reputation
and antiquity, seated in the centre of Greece, should be restored to
liberty, and placed in the same state with the rest of the cities of
Peloponnesus and of Greece. This question, as you see, merely respects
yourselves; it concerns not the Romans in any decree, excepting so
far as the one city being left in subjection to tyranny hinders their
glory, in having liberated Greece, from being full and complete.
If, however, you are not moved by regard for that city, nor by the
example, nor by the danger of the contagion of that evil spreading
wider, we, for our parts, shall rest content. On this subject I desire
your opinions, resolved to abide by whatever the majority of you shall
determine."

23. After the address of the Roman general, the several deputies
proceeded to give their opinions. The ambassador of the Athenians
extolled, to the utmost of his power, and expressed the greatest
gratitude for the kindness of the Romans towards Greece, "in having,
when applied to for assistance, brought them succours against Philip;
and now, without being applied to, voluntarily offering assistance
against the tyrant Nabis." He at the same time severely censured
the conduct of some, who, in their discourses, "depreciated those
kindnesses, and propagated evil surmises of the future, when it would
better become them rather to return thanks for the past." It was
evident that this was pointed at the Aetolians: wherefore Alexander,
deputy of that nation, having first inveighed against the Athenians,
who, having formerly been the most strenuous supporters of liberty,
now betrayed the general cause, for the sake of recommending
themselves by flattery. He then complained that "the Achaeans,
formerly soldiers of Philip, and lately, on the decline of his
fortune, deserters from him, had regained possession of Corinth, and
were so acting as that they might acquire Argos; while the Aetolians,
who had first opposed their arms to Philip, who had always been
allies of the Romans, and who had stipulated by treaty, that, on the
Macedonian being conquered, the lands and cities should be theirs,
were defrauded of Echinus and Pharsalus." He charged the Romans with
insincerity, because, "while they put forth empty professions of
establishing liberty, they held possession of Demetrias and Chalcis
by their garrisons; though, when Philip hesitated to withdraw his
garrisons from those places, they always urged against him that the
Grecians would never be free while Demetrias, Chalcis, and Corinth
were in the hands of the others. And, lastly, that they named Argos
and Nabis merely as a pretext for remaining in Greece, and keeping
their armies there. Let them carry away their legions to Italy;
and the Aetolians were ready to undertake, either that Nabis should
voluntarily withdraw his forces from Argos, on terms; or they would
compel him by force of arms to comply with the unanimous judgment of
Greece."

24. This arrogant speech called up, first, Aristaenus, praetor of the
Achaeans, who said:--"Forbid it, Jupiter, supremely good and great,
and imperial Juno, the tutelar deity of Argos, that that city should
be staked as a prize between the Lacedaemonian tyrant and the Aetolian
plunderers, under such unhappy circumstances, that its being retaken
by you should be productive of more calamitous consequences than its
capture by him. Titus Quinctius, the sea lying between us, does not
secure us from those robbers; what then will become of us, should they
procure themselves a stronghold in the centre of Peloponnesus? They
have nothing Grecian but the language, as they have nothing human but
the shape. They live under customs and rites more brutally savage than
any barbarians, nay, than wild beasts themselves. Wherefore, Romans,
we beseech you, not only to recover Argos from Nabis, but also to
establish the affairs of Greece on such a footing, as to leave these
countries adequately secured from the robberies of the Aetolians." The
rest concurring in these censures on the Aetolians, the Roman general
said, that "he had himself intended to have answered them, but that
he perceived all so highly incensed against those people, that the
general resentment required rather to be appeased than irritated.
Satisfied, therefore, with the sentiments entertained of the Romans,
and of the Aetolians, he would simply put this question: What was the
general opinion concerning war with Nabis, in case of his refusing to
restore Argos to the Achaeans?" When all had pronounced for war, he
recommended to them, to send in their shares of auxiliary troops, each
state in proportion to its ability. He even sent an ambassador to the
Aetolians; rather to make them disclose their sentiments, which was
the actual result, than with any hope of obtaining their concurrence.
He gave orders to the military tribunes, to bring up the army from
Elatia. To the ambassadors of Antiochus, who, at this time, proposed
to treat of an alliance, he answered, that "he could say nothing on
the subject in the absence of the ten ambassadors. They must go to
Rome, and apply to the senate."

25. As soon as the troops arrived from Elatia, Quinctius set out to
lead them towards Argos. When near Cleonae he was met by the praetor,
Aristaenus, with ten thousand Achaean foot and one thousand horse; and
having joined forces, they pitched their camp at a small distance from
thence. Next day they marched down into the plains of Argos, and
fixed their post about four miles from that city. The commander of the
Lacedaemonian garrison was Pythagoras, the tyrant's son-in-law, and
his wife's brother; who, on the approach of the Romans, posted strong
guards in both the citadels, for Argos has two, and in every other
place that was commodious for defence, or exposed to danger. But,
while thus employed, he could by no means dissemble the dread inspired
by the approach of the Romans; and, to the alarm from abroad, was
added an insurrection within. There was an Argive, named Damocles,
a youth of more spirit than prudence, who held conversations, with
proper persons, on a design of expelling the garrison; at first, with
the precaution of imposing an oath, but afterwards, through his
eager desire to add strength to the conspiracy, he estimated people's
sincerity with too little caution. While he was in conference with
his accomplices, an officer, sent by the commander of the garrison,
summoned him to appear before him, and he perceived that his design
was betrayed; on which, exhorting the conspirators, who were present,
to take arms with him, rather than be tortured to death, he went on
with a few companions towards the forum, crying out to all who wished
the preservation of the state, to follow him as the vindicator and
author of their liberty. He could prevail on none to join him; for
they saw no prospect of any attainable advantage, and much less any
sufficiently powerful support. While he exclaimed in this manner, the
Lacedaemonians surrounded him and his party, and put them to death.
Many others were afterwards seized, the greater part of whom were
executed, and the remaining few thrown into prison. During the
following night, great numbers, letting themselves down from the walls
by ropes, came over to the Romans.

26. As these men affirmed, that if the Roman army had been at the
gates, this commotion would not have ended without effect; and that,
if the camp was brought nearer, the Argives would not remain inactive;
Quinctius sent some horsemen and infantry, lightly accoutred, who,
meeting at the Cylarabis, a place of exercise, less than three hundred
paces from the city, a party of Lacedaemonians, who sallied out of a
gate, engaged them, and, without much difficulty, drove them back into
the town; and the Roman general encamped on the very spot where the
battle had been fought. There he passed one day, on the look-out if
any new commotion might arise; but perceiving that the inhabitants
were quite depressed by fear, he called a council concerning the
besieging of Argos. All the deputies of Greece, except Aristaenus,
were of one opinion, that, as that city was the sole object of the
war, with it the war should commence. This was by no means agreeable
to Quinctius; but he listened, with evident marks of approbation,
to Aristaenus, arguing in opposition to the joint opinion of all
the rest; while he himself added, that "as the war was undertaken in
favour of the Argives, against the tyrant, what could be less proper
than to leave the enemy in quiet, and lay siege to Argos? For his
part, he was resolved to point his arms against the main object of the
war, Lacedaemon and the tyrant." He then dismissed the meeting, and
sent out light-armed cohorts to collect forage. Whatever was ripe in
the adjacent country, they reaped, and brought together; and what
was green they trod down and destroyed, that the enemy might not
subsequently get it. He then proceeded over Mount Parthenius, and,
passing by Tegaea, encamped on the third day at Caryae; where he
waited for the auxiliary troops of the allies, before he entered the
enemy's territory. Fifteen hundred Macedonians came from Philip, and
four hundred horsemen of the Thessalians; and now the Roman general
had no occasion to wait for more auxiliaries, having abundance; but he
was obliged to stop for supplies of provisions, which he had ordered
the neighbouring cities to furnish. He was joined also by a powerful
naval force; Lucius Quinctius had already come from Leucas, with forty
ships; eighteen ships of war had arrived from the Rhodians; and king
Eumenes was cruising among the Cyclades, with ten decked ships, thirty
barks, and smaller vessels of various sorts. Of the Lacedaemonians
themselves, also, a great many, who had been driven from home by the
cruelty of the tyrants, came into the Roman camp, in hopes of being
reinstated in their country; for the number was very great of those
who had been banished by the several despots, during many generations
since they first got Lacedaemon into their power. The principal person
among the exiles was Agesipolis, to whom the sovereignty of Lacedaemon
belonged in right of his birth; but who had been driven out when an
infant by Lycurgus, after the death of Cleomenes, who was the first
tyrant of Lacedaemon.

27. Although Nabis was enclosed between such powerful armaments on
land and sea, and, on a comparative view of his own and his enemy's
strength, could scarcely conceive any degree of hope; yet he did not
desist from the war, but brought, from Crete, a thousand chosen young
men of that country in addition to a thousand whom he had before; he
had, besides, under arms, three thousand mercenary soldiers, and ten
thousand of his countrymen, with the peasants, who belonged to the
fortresses. He fortified the city with a ditch and rampart; and lest
any intestine commotion should arise, curbed the people's spirits by
fear, punishing them with extreme severity, as he could not hope for
good wishes towards a tyrant. As he had his suspicions respecting some
of the citizens, he drew out all his forces to a field called Dromos,
(the course,) and ordered the Lacedaemonians to be called to an
assembly without their arms. He then formed a line of armed men round
the place where they were assembled, observing briefly, "that he ought
to be excused, if, at such a juncture, he feared and guarded against
every thing that might happen; and that, if the present state of
affairs subjected any to suspicion, it was their advantage to be
prevented from attempting any design, rather than to be punished
for attempting it: he therefore intended," he said, "to keep certain
persons in custody, until the storm, which then threatened, should
have passed over; and would discharge them as soon as the enemy should
have been driven away, from whom the danger would be less, when proper
precaution was taken against internal treachery." He then ordered the
names of about eighty of the principal young men to be called over,
and as each answered to his name, he put them in custody. On the night
following, they were all put to death. Some of the Helotes, a race of
rustics, who have been feudal vassals even from the earliest times,
being charged with an intention to desert, they were driven with
stripes through all the streets, and put to death. The terror which
this excited so confounded the multitude, as to deter them from
all attempts to effect a revolution. He kept his forces within the
fortifications, knowing that he was not a match for the enemy in the
field; and, besides, he was afraid to leave the city, while all men's
minds were in a state of such suspense and uncertainty.

28. Quinctius, when all his preparations were now sufficiently made,
decamped; and, on the second day, came to Sellasia, on the river
Oenus, on the spot where it is said Antigonus, king of Macedonia,
fought a pitched battle with Cleomenes, tyrant of Lacedaemon. Being
told that the ascent from thence was difficult, and the passes narrow,
he made a short circuit by the mountains, sending forward a party to
make a road, and came, by a tolerably broad and open passage, to the
river Eurotas, where it flows almost immediately under the walls of
the city. Here, the tyrant's auxiliary troops attacked the Romans,
while they were forming their camp, together with Quinctius himself,
(who, with a division of cavalry and light troops, had advanced beyond
the rest,) and threw them into a state of alarm and confusion; not
expecting any thing of the kind, as no one had opposed them throughout
their whole march, and they had passed, as it were, through a friendly
territory. The disorder lasted a considerable time, the infantry
calling for aid on the cavalry, and the cavalry on the infantry, each
having but little confidence in himself. At length, the foremost ranks
of the legions came up; and no sooner had the cohorts of the vanguard
taken part in the fight, than those who had lately been an object of
dread were driven back in terror into the city. The Romans, retiring
so far from the wall as to be out of the reach of weapons, stood there
for some time in battle-array; and then, none of the enemy coming out
against them, retired to their camp. Next day Quinctius led on his
army in regular order along the bank of the river, passed the city, to
the foot of the mountain of Menelaus, the legionary cohorts marching
in front, and the cavalry and light infantry bringing up the rear.
Nabis kept his mercenary troops, on whom he placed his whole reliance,
in readiness, and drawn up in a body, within the walls, intending to
attack the rear of the enemy; and, as soon as the last of their troops
passed by, these rushed out of the town, from several places at once,
with as great fury as the day before. The rear was commanded by Appius
Claudius, who having beforehand prepared his men to expect such an
event, that it might not come upon them unawares, instantly made
his troops face about, and presented an entire front to the enemy. A
regular engagement, therefore, took place, as if two complete lines
had encountered, and it lasted a considerable time; but at length
Nabis's troops betook themselves to flight, which would have been
attended with less dismay and danger, if they had not been closely
pressed by the Achaeans, who were well acquainted with the ground.
These made dreadful havoc, and dispersing them entirely, obliged
the greater part to throw away their arms. Quinctius encamped near
Amyclae; and afterwards, when he had utterly laid waste all the
pleasant and thickly inhabited country round the city, not one of the
enemy venturing out of the gates, he removed his camp to the river
Eurotas. From thence he ravaged the valley lying under Taygetus, and
the country reaching as far as the sea.

29. About the same time, Lucius Quinctius got possession of the towns
on the sea-coast; of some, by their voluntary surrender; of others, by
fear or force. Then, learning that the Lacedaemonians made Gythium the
repository of all their naval stores, and that the Roman camp was at
no great distance from the sea, he resolved to attack that town
with his whole force. It was, at that time, a place of considerable
strength; well furnished with great numbers of native inhabitants and
settlers from other parts, and with every kind of warlike stores. Very
seasonably for Quinctius, when commencing an enterprise of no easy
nature, king Eumenes and the Rhodian fleet came to his assistance. The
vast multitude of seamen, collected out of the three fleets, finished
in a few days all the works requisite for the siege of a city so
strongly fortified, both on the land side and on that next the sea.
Covered galleries were soon brought up; the wall was undermined, and,
at the same time, shaken with battering rams. By the frequent shocks
given with these, one of the towers was thrown down, and, by its fall,
the adjoining wall on each side was laid flat. The Romans, on this,
attempted to force in, both on the side next the port, to which the
approach was more level than to the rest, hoping to divert the enemy's
attention from the more open passage, and, at the same time, to enter
the breach caused by the falling of the wall. They were near effecting
their design of penetrating into the town, when the assault was
suspended by the prospect which was held out of the surrender of
the city. This however, was subsequently dissipated. Dexagoridas and
Gorgopas commanded there, with equal authority. Dexagoridas had sent
to the Roman general a message that he would give up the city; and,
after the time and the mode of proceeding had been agreed on, he
was slain as a traitor by Gorgopas, and the defence of the city was
maintained with redoubled vigour by this single commander. The further
prosecution of the siege would have been much more difficult, had not
Titus Quinctius arrived with a body of four thousand chosen men. He
showed his army in order of battle, on the brow of a hill at a small
distance from the city; and, on the other side, Lucius Quinctius plied
the enemy hard with his engines, both on the quarter of the sea, and
of the land; on which Gorgopas was compelled to adopt that proceeding,
which, in the case of another, he had punished with death. After
stipulating for liberty to carry away the soldiers whom he had there
as a garrison, he surrendered the city to Quinctius. Previous to the
surrender of Gythium, Pythagoras, who had been left as commander
at Argos, having intrusted the defence of the city to Timocrates of
Pellene, with a thousand mercenary soldiers, and two thousand Argives,
came to Lacedaemon and joined Nabis.