Achaean War

The Roman Republic had developed close ties to the Achaean League through similar religious and military beliefs and a cooperation in the previous Macedonian Wars. But despite co-operation in the latter part of the third century and early second century, political problems in Achaea soon came to a head. Two factions began to emerge - one, championed by the Achaean statesmen Philopoemen and Lycortas, which called for Achaea to determine its own foreign policy according to its own law, and one, championed by figures like Aristaenus and Diophanes, who believed in yielding to Rome on all matters of foreign policy.[1]

Achaea was, in addition, undergoing internal pressures beyond the question over the nature of the influence of Rome. The withdrawal of Messene from the Achaean League[2] and further disputes with Sparta over the nature of its position in the League led to growing amounts of micromanagement by the Romans, including the sending in 184 of a Roman, Appius Claudius, to judge the case between Sparta and Achaea.[3][4]

One of the hostages was the future historian Polybius of Megalopolis; he would become an important source for the Hellenistic Period and the Punic Wars

The taking of thousands of hostages by Rome in order to guarantee the compliance of Achaea during the Third Macedonian War, which involved the deportation of the future historian Polybius to Rome, was the source of much diplomatic quarrel between Achaea and Rome, and it is arguable that this contributed in large part to the souring of relations between the two powers. No fewer than five embassies were sent by Achaea to Rome seeking the return of the hostages and Roman intransigence demonstrates the power difference between the two.[5] The diplomatic stand-off would trigger a chain of events that ultimately led to the Achaean War.

Extent of the Achaean League on the eve of the war, showing the invasion routes of Mummius and Metellus

The Achaeans were aware that they were entering a suicidal war of defiance, as Rome had just soundly conquered Macedon, a much more powerful kingdom. Two Roman armies were sent to put down the uprising - one under Mummius, who was now consul, sent from Italy, and the other under praetor Quintus Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus, who had recently defeated Andriscus and put down the Macedonian uprising. Critolaos was besieging Heraclea in Trachis, which had rebelled from the League, when he learnt that Metellus was marching from Macedonia to fight him.[9] He retreated to Scarpheia, but Metellus caught up with him and decisively defeated him at the Battle of Scarpheia, after which he put his army into winter quarters. Critolaos died during or after the battle, either drowning in the marshes of Mount Oeta or poisoning himself.[10][11]

The defeat and death of Critolaos caused great confusion and panic in the Greek world, with some cities such as Elis and Messene now surrendering to the Romans.[12] However, many elements of the League, especially Corinth, rallied around Diaeus, electing him as strategos to replace Critolaos and resolving to continue the war, with harsh levies and confiscations of property and wealth.[13] Metellus now advanced through Boeotia, capturing Thebes, which had been allied to the Achaeans. He made an offer of peace to the League, but was rebuffed by Diaeus, who also had pro-peace and pro-Roman politicians arrested or killed.[14][15]

Mummius now arrived, and after ordering Metellus back to Macedonia, gathered all available Roman forces - 23,000 infantry and 3,500 cavalry - for an assault on Corinth. Diaeus also rallied what forces he could, amounting to 13,500 infantry and 650 cavalry. After success in an initial skirmish, Diaeus gained confidence and decided to engage the Romans directly in battle. In the ensuing Battle of Corinth, however, his inferior cavalry was quickly driven off by the Roman cavalry. This exposed his flank to an attack by 1,000 picked Roman infantry, routing his army.[16][17]

Sack of Corinth

The Sack of Corinth, by Thomas Allom

The surviving Achaean troops could have been organized to defend the city, but Diaeus abandoned them and fled to Megalopolis, where he committed suicide after killing his wife.[18] Demoralized, the Achaean troops and most Corinthians fled the city, leaving it defenseless, allowing the Romans to secure it, though only three days after the battle, as Mummius feared an ambush. Any remaining Greek holdouts now surrendered. The consul granted freedom to all Greeks, except the Corinthians.[19] In Corinth, however, the Romans massacred the entire adult male population and enslaved all the women and children, after which they destroyed the city. This apparently needless display of cruelty in Corinth, is explained by Mommsen as due to the instructions of the senate, prompted by the mercantile party, which was eager to dispel a dangerous commercial rival. According to Polybius, Mummius was unable to resist the pressure of those around him.[20][21] According to Dio, Mummius took care not to enslave any non-Corinthians.[22]

The Jockey of Artemision, which may have been taken from Corinth in the looting of the city by Mummius

Polybius writes of the carelessness of Roman soldiers, who destroyed works of art or treated them like objects of entertainment.[23] However, they did show respect to the statues of Philopoemen, both for his fame and as he was the first ally of Rome in Greece.[24] Mummius was extremely ignorant in matters of art - when transporting priceless statues and paintings to Italy, he gave orders that the contractors should be warned that if they lost them, they would have to replace them by new ones.[25] As in the Sack of Syracuse, the sack of Corinth saw the inflow of many Greek works of art into the Roman world, exposing it further to Greek culture and paving the way for the development of the Greco-Roman world.[26]

In the immediate aftermath of the conquest, Mummius ordered the walls of all cities that had taken part in the revolt to be torn down, and forced all cities to hand over their weapons and military equipment.[27]

Soon, the senate dispatched ten commisioners to Achaea to aid the consul in the task of reorganising Greece.[28] The Greeks had to pay war indemnities and tributes, all leagues and other political entities were dissolved, and power was given to pro-Roman elites. Eventually, however, some financial relief was given, and autonomy was granted to some cities, including Athens and Sparta.[29] Politically, the Greek states were grouped into the Roman province of Macedonia, though Achaea would become a separate province under Augustus in 27 BC.[30]

The Roman Republic at the end of the second century BC, after the Achaean War, the Lusitanian and Numantine Wars and the accession of Pergamon to Rome

Mummius celebrated a triumph and gained the agnomen Achaicus. With wealth from his Greek campaigns, he erected a theatre with improved acoustical conditions and seats after the Greek model, thus marking a distinct advance in the construction of places of entertainment.[20]

The war marked the end of Greek political independence, and the beginning of the end of the Hellenistic period. Pergamon, the only significant remaining power in the Aegean, was generally pro-Roman, and its last king, Attalus III, bequeathed it to Rome through his will upon his death in 133 BC. Thus, seventy years after Rome was first involved in Greek affairs in the First Macedonian War, it was now in control of all of the classical Greek world, and had cemented its position as the dominant power in the Mediterranean.[30]

The annexation would also mark the beginning of a new, Greco-Roman culture, as Greek and Roman culture intermingled, a process that had begun in the wake of the conquest of Greek cities in Sicily by the Romans a century before.[31]

• Wilson, N. G. Encyclopedia of Ancient Greece. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print. Google Books.
• Wright, Edmund (2006). A dictionary of World History. York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-192-80700-7.
• Velleius Paterculus, i.12
• Dillon, Matthew; Garland, Lynda (2005). Ancient Rome: From the Early Republic to the Assassination of Julius Caesar. Taylor & Francis. pp. 267–. ISBN 978-0-415-22458-1.
• Dunstan, William (2010). Ancient Rome. ISBN 978-0-74256-834-1.
• Henrichs, Albert (1995). "Graecia Capta: Roman Views of Greek Culture". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology. 97: 243–261. JSTOR 311309.

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Mummius, Lucius". Encyclopædia Britannica. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 966–967.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Achaean War.