the year 251 P.C., first called the new league into active political existence. He had long lived in exile at Argos, whilst his native city groaned under the dominion of a succession of tyrants. Having collected a band of exiles, he surprised Sicyon in the night time, and drove out the last and most unpopular of these tyrants Instead of seizing the tyranny for himself, as he might easily have done, Aratus consulted only the advantage of his country, and with this view united Sicyon with the Achæan league. The ac cession of so important a town does not appear to have altered the constitution of the confederacy. The league was governed by a Strategus, or general, whose functions were both military and civil; a Grammateus, or secretary; and a council of ten Demiurgi. The sovereignty, however, resided in the general assembly, which met twice a year in a sacred grove near Ægium. It was composed of every Achæan who had attained the age of thirty, and possessed the right of electing the officers of the league, and of deciding all questions of war, peace, foreign alliances, and the like. In the year 245 B.C. Aratus was elected Strategus of the league, and again in 243. In the latter of these years he succeeded in wresting Corinth from the Macedonians by another nocturnal surprise, and uniting it to the league. The confederacy now spread with wonderful rapidity. It was soon joined by Trazen, Epidaurus, Hermioné, and other cities; and ultimately embraced Athens, Megara, Ægina, Salamis, and the whole Peloponnesus, with the exception of Sparta, Elis, and some of the Arcadian towns.

Sparta, it is true, still continued to retain her independence, but without a shadow of her former greatness and power. The primitive simplicity of Spartan manners had been completely destroyed by the collection of wealth into a few hands, and by the consequent progress of luxury. The number of Spartan citizens had been reduced to 700; but even of these there were not above a hundred who possessed a sufficient quantity of land to maintain themselves in independence. The young king, Agis IV., who succeeded to the crown in 244, attempted to revive the ancient Spartan virtue by restoring the institutions of Lycurgus, by cancelling all debts, and by making a new distribution of lands; and with this view he relinquished all his own property, as well as that of his family, for the public good. But Agis perished in this attempt, and was put to death as a traitor to his order. A few years afterwards, however, Cleomenes, the son of Leonidas, succeeded in effecting the reforms which had been contemplated by Agis, as well as several others which regarded military discipline. The effect of these new measures soon became visible in the increased success of the Spartan arms. Aratus was so hard pressed that he was compelled

to solicit the assistance of the Macedonians. Both Antigonus Gonatas and his son Demetrius II.-who had reigned in Macedonia from 239 to 229 B.C.-were now dead, and the government was administered by Antigonus Dōson, as guardian of Philip, the youthful son of Demetrius II. Antigonus Dōson was the grandson of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and the nephew of Antigonus Gonatas. The Macedonians compelled him to accept the crown; but he remained faithful to his trust as guardian of Philip, whose mother he married; and though he had children of his own by her, yet Philip succeeded him on his death.* It was to Antigonus Dōson that Aratus applied for assistance; and though Cleomenes maintained his ground for some time, he was finally defeated by Antigonus Dōson in the fatal battle of Sellasia in Laconia (B.c. 221). The army of Cleomenes was almost totally annihilated; he himself was obliged to fly to Egypt; and Sparta, which for many centuries had remained unconquered, fell into the hands of the victor.

In the following year Antigonus was succeeded by Philip V., the son of Demetrius II., who was then about sixteen or seventeen years of age. His youth encouraged the Ætolians to make predatory incursions into the Peloponnesus. That people were a species of freebooters, and the terror of their neighbours; yet they were united, like the Achæans, in a confederacy or league. The Ætolian League was a confederation of tribes instead of cities, like the Achæan. The diet or council of the league, called the Panatolicum, assembled every autumn, generally at Thermon, to elect the strategus and other officers; but the details of its affairs were conducted by a committee called Apocleti, who seem to have formed a sort of permanent council. The Etolians had availed themselves of the disorganized state of Greece consequent upon the death of Alexander to extend their power, and had gradually made themselves masters of Locris, Phocis, Boeotia, together with

The succession of Macedonian kings from Alexander the Great to the ex tinction of the monarchy will be seen from the following table:

portions of Acarnania, Thessaly, and Epirus. Thus both the Am phictyonic Council and the oracle of Delphi were in their power. They had early wrested Naupactus from the Achæans, and had subsequently acquired several Peloponnesian cities.

He

Such was the condition of the Etolians at the time of Philip's accession. Soon after that event we find them, under the leader. ship of Dorimachus, engaged in a series of freebooting expeditions in Messenia, and other parts of Peloponnesus. Aratus marched to the assistance of the Messenians at the head of the Achæan forces; but was totally defeated in a battle near Caphyæ. The Achæans now saw no hope of safety except through the assistance of Philip. That young monarch was ambitious and enterprising, possessing considerable military ability and much political sagacity. readily listened to the application of the Achæans, and in 220 en tered into an alliance with them. The war which ensued between the Etolians on the one side, and the Achæans, assisted by Philip, on the other, and which lasted about three years, has been called the Social War. Philip gained several victories over the Etolians, but he concluded a treaty of peace with them in 217, because he was anxious to turn his arms against another and more formidable power.

The great struggle now going on between Rome and Carthage attracted the attention of the whole civilized world. It was evident that Greece, distracted by intestine quarrels, must be soon swallowed up by whichever of those great states might prove successful; and of the two, the ambition of the Romans, who had al ready gained a footing on the eastern shores of the Adriatic, was by far the more formidable to Greece. After the conclusion of the peace with the Etolians, Philip prepared a large fleet, which he employed to watch the movements of the Romans, and in the following year (216) he concluded a treaty with Hannibal, which, among other clauses, provided that the Romans should not be allowed to retain their conquests on the eastern side of the Adriatic.

He even meditated an invasion of Italy, and, with that view, endeavoured to make himself master of Apollonia and Oricum. But, though he succeeded in taking the latter city, the Romans surprised his camp whilst he was besieging Apollonia, and compelled him to burn his ships and retire. Meanwhile Philip had acted in a most arbitrary manner in the affairs of Greece; and when Aratus remonstrated with him respecting his proceedings, he got rid of his former friend and counsellor by means of a slow and secret poison (B.c. 213).

In B.C. 209, the Achæans, being hard pressed by the Ætolians, were again induced to call in the aid of Philip. The spirit of the Achæans was at this time revived by Philopomen, one of the few noble characters of the period, and who has been styled by Plutarch"the last of the Greeks." He was a native of Megalopolis in Arcadia, and in 208 was elected Strategus of the league. In both these posts Philopœmen made great alterations and improvements in the arms and discipline of the Achæan forces, which he assimilated to those of the Macedonian phalanx. These reforms, as well as the public spirit with which he had inspired the Achæans, were attended with the most beneficial results. In 207 Philopœmen gained at Mantinea a signal victory over the Lacedæmonians, who had joined the Roman alliance; 4000 of them were left upon the field, and among them Machanidas, who had made himself tyrant of Sparta. This decisive battle, combined with the withdrawal of the Romans, who, being desirous of turning their undivided attention towards Carthage, had made peace with Philip (205), secured for a few years the tranquillity of Greece. It also raised the fame of Philopomen to its highest point; and in the next Nemean festival, being a second time general of the league, he was hailed by the assembled Greeks as the liberator of their country.

Upon the conclusion of the second Punic war the Romans renewed their enterprises in Greece, and declared war against Philip (B.C. 200). For some time the war lingered on without any decided success on either side; but in 198 the consul T. Quinctius Flamininus succeeded in gaining over the Achæan league to the Roman alliance; and as the Ætolians had previously deserted Philip, both those powers fought for a short time on the same side. In 197 the struggle was brought to a termination by the battle of Cynoscephalæ, near Scotussa, in Thessaly, which decided the fate of the Macedonian monarchy. Philip was obliged to sue for peace, and in the following year (196) a treaty was ratified by which the Macedonians were compelled to renounce their supremacy, to withdraw their garrisons from the Grecian towns, to sur

render their fleet, and to pay 1000 talents for the expenses of the war. At the ensuing Isthmian games Flaminīnus solemnly proclaimed the freedom of the Greeks, and was received by them with overwhelming joy and gratitude.

The Etolians, dissatisfied with these arrangements, persuaded Antiochus III., king of Syria, to enter into a league against the Romans. He passed over into Greece with a wholly inadequate force, and was defeated by the Romans at Thermopyla (B.c. 191). The Etolians were now compelled to make head against the Ro mans by themselves. After some inffectual attempts at resistance they were reduced to sue for peace, which they at length obtained, but on the most humiliating conditions (B.c. 189). They were required to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome, to renounce all the conquests they had recently made, to pay an indemnity of 500 talents, and to engage in future to aid the Romans in their wars. The power of the Ætolian league was thus for ever crushed, though it seems to have existed, in name at least, till a much later period.

The Achæan league still subsisted, though destined before long to experience the same fate as its rival. At first, indeed, it enjoyed the protection of the Romans, and even acquired an extension of members through their influence, but this protectorate involved a state of almost absolute dependence. Philopomen also had succeeded, in the year 192, in adding Sparta to the league, which now embraced the whole of Peloponnesus. But Sparta having displayed symptoms of insubordination, Philopomen marched against it in 188, and captured the city; when he put to death eighty of the leading men, razed the walls and fortifications, abolished the institutions of Lycurgus, and compelled the citizens to adopt the democratic constitution of the Achæans. Meanwhile the Romans regarded with satisfaction the internal dissensions of Greece, which they foresaw would only render her an easier prey, and neglected to answer the appeals of the Spartans for protection. In 183 the Messenians, under the leadership of Dinocrates, having revolted from the league, Philopomen, who had now attained the age of 70, led an expedition against them; but, having fallen from his horse in a skirmish of cavalry, he was captured, and conveyed with many circumstances of ignominy to Messēné, where, after a sort of mock trial, he was executed. His fate was avenged by Lycortas, the commander of the Achæan cavalry, the father of the historian Polybius.

In B.C. 179 Philip died, and was succeeded by his son Perseus, the last monarch of Macedonia. The latter years of the reign of Philip had been spent in preparations for a renewal of the war,