Titus Livius (Livy), Ab urbe condita, Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor), 39.36

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[1] Before they did anything, fear struck the Achaeans and the thought came to them on how unequal grounds the argument was likely to be

[2] conducted, because they saw Areus and Alcibiades, who had been condemned to death by them at the latest council, with the commissioners; nor did anyone dare to open his mouth.

[3] Appius stated that the conduct of which the Lacedaemonians had complained before the senate was displeasing to the senate: first, the slaughter which took place at Compasium of those¹ Lacedaemonians who had come in response to the summons of Philopoemen to plead their cause;²

[4] second, that after they had treated men with such violence, that they might overlook no form of cruelty, they had torn down the walls of a most illustrious city, had repealed their most ancient laws, and had done away with the discipline of Lycurgus, famed as it was throughout the world.

[5] When Appius had said this, Lycortas, both because he was praetor and because he belonged to the party of Philopoemen, who was responsible for whatever had been done in Lacedaemon, replied thus: "It is more difficult for us, Appius Claudius, to speak in your presence than it was recently in Rome before the senate.³

[6] For then our task was to answer the accusations of the Lacedaemonians: now we have been accused by you, before whom we must plead our cause.

[7] This disadvantage of situation we accept in the hope that you will listen in the spirit of a judge, laying aside the vehemence of a prosecutor with which you spoke a little while ago.

[8] I at any rate, when these complaints which were presented, both here previously before Quintus Caecilius⁴ and in Rome later by the Lacedaemonians, were repeated by you a little while ago, shall believe that I am replying, not to you, but to them in your presence. You bring up the murder of those men who were killed when they had been summoned by the praetor Philopoemen to plead their cause. This charge, in my opinion, should not only⁵ not have been made against us by you, Romans, but not even by them before you. Why so?

[9] Because it was stated in your treaty that the Lacedaemonians should keep their hands off the towns on the coast. At the time when they took up arms and seized, by a night attack, those cities which they had been ordered to let alone, if Titus Quinctius, if a Roman army, as before, had been in the Peloponnesus, the captured and oppressed would doubtless have fled to them.⁶ Since you were far away, where else could they flee except to us, whom they had previously seen bringing aid to Gytheum and besieging Lacedaemon in common cause with you? On your behalf, then, we undertook a legal and righteous

[10] war. Since others applaud it, since not even the Lacedaemonians can criticize it, and since the very gods themselves, by giving us the victory, have approved it, how can those things which took place under the law of war come into dispute? Yet the greatest part of those things have nothing to do with

[11] us. It is our affair that we summoned to plead their cause those who had called the multitude to arms, who had captured the coast towns, who had plundered them, who had caused the murder of the leading men. But as to the fact that they were killed while they were coming to our camp, that is your affair, Areus and Alcibiades —who now (heaven help us!) are accusing us —not

[12] ours. The exiles of the Lacedaemonians, to which number even these two belonged, were indeed at that time with us, and because they had chosen as their places of residence the towns on the coast believing that they were being sought out, they made an attack on those men thanks to whose efforts they saw with indignation that they, exiles from home,⁷ could not grow old even in a safe place of

[13] exile. Lacedaemonians, then, were killed by Lacedaemonians, not by Achaeans; whether they were killed justly or unjustly it is not important to

[14] inquire.⁸

Ab urbe condita. Titus Livius (Livy). Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor). Medford, MA. .

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

History of Rome (English) (Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Sage, Evan T.; Schlesinger, Alfred C., translators. Cambridge, Mass.; London: Harvard University Press; William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959. (Loeb Classical Library))

Editions (3)

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Pars I-IV, Libri I-XL. Editio Stereotypica. Weissenborn, Wilhelm; Mueller, Moritz, editors. Leipzig: Teubner, 1884-1911.) — 39.36 focus

[1] priusquam agerent quicquam, terror Achaeis iniectus erat et cogitatio, quam non ex aequo disceptatio futura esset,

[2] quod Areum et Alcibiadem capitis ab se concilio proximo damnatos cum legatis videbant;

[3] nec hiscere quisquam audebat. Appius ea, quae apud senatum questi erant Lacedaemonii, displicere senatui ostendit: caedem primum ad Compasium factam eorum, qui a Philopoemene ad causam dicendam evocati venissent;

[4] deinde cum in homines ita saevitum esset, ne ulla parte crudelitas eorum cessaret, muros dirutos urbis nobilissimae esse, leges vetustissimas abrogatas, inclutamque per gentes disciplinam Lycurgi sublatam.

[5] haec cum Appius dixisset, Lycortas, et quia praetor et quia Philopoemenis, auctoris omnium quae Lacedaemone acta fuerant, factionis erat, ita respondit.

[6] “difficilior nobis, Ap. Claudi, apud vos oratio est quam Romae nuper apud senatum fuit.

[7] tunc enim Lacedaemoniis accusantibus respondendum erat: nunc a vobis ipsis accusati sumus, apud quos causa est dicenda.

[8] quam iniquitatem condicionis subimus illa spe, iudicis animo te auditurum esse, posita contentione qua paulo ante egisti. ego certe, cum ea, quae et hic antea apud Q. Caecilium et postea Romae questi sunt Lacedaemonii, a te paulo ante relata sint, non tibi sed illis me apud te respondere credam. caedem obicitis eorum,

[9] qui a Philopoemene praetore evocati ad causam dicendam interfecti sunt. hoc ego crimen non modo a vobis, Rorani, sed ne apud vos quidem nobis obiciendum fuisse arbitror. quid ita? quia in vestro foedere erat, ut maritimis urbibus abstinerent Lacedaemonii.

[10] quo tempore armis captis urbes, a quibus abstinere iussi erant, nocturno impetu occupaverunt, si T. Quinctius, si exercitus Romanus, sicut antea, in Peloponneso fuisset, eo nimirum capti et oppressi confugissent.

[11] cum vos procul essetis, quo alio nisi ad nos, socios vestros, quos antea Gytheo opem ferentes, quos Lacedaemonem vobiscum simili de causa oppugnantes viderant, confugerent?

[12] pro vobis igitur iustum piumque bellum suscepimus. quod cum alii laudent, reprehendere ne Lacedaemonii quidem possint, dii quoque ipsi comprobaverint, qui nobis victoriam dederunt, quonam modo ea, quae belli iure acta sunt, in disceptationem veniunt? quorum tamen maxima pars nihil pertinet ad nos.

[13] nostrum est, quod evocavimus ad causam dicendam eos, qui ad arma multitudinem exciverant, qui expugnaverant maritima oppida, qui diripuerant, qui caedem principum fecerant. quod vero illi venientes in castra interfecti sunt,

[14] vestrum est, Areu et Alcibiade, qui nunc nos, si diis placet, accusatis, non nostrum.

[15] exsules Lacedaemoniorum, quo ex numero hi quoque duo fuerunt, et tunc nobiscum erant, et quod domicilio sibi delegerant maritima oppida, se petitos credentes, in eos, quorum opera patria extorres ne in tuto quidem exsilio posse consenescere se indignabantur, impetum fecerunt. Lacedaemonii igitur Lacedaemonios,

[16] non Achaei interfecerunt; nec iure an iniuria caesi sint, argulnentari argumentari refert.

Ab urbe condita Perseus (Livy in Fourteen Volumes. Foster, Benjamin Oliver; Moore, Frank Gardener; Schlesinger, Alfred C., editors. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd., 1919-1959 (printing).) — 43.23 focus

[1]

Rex cum non ¹ minore vexatione iumentorum hominumque quam venerat in Macedoniam rediit; Appium tamen ab obsidione Phanotes fama ducentis ad Stratum Persei summovit.

[2] Cleuas cum praesidio impigrorum iuvenum insecutus sub radicibus prope inviis montium ² ad mille hominum ex agmine impedito occidit, ad ducentos cepit.

[3] Appius superatis angustiis in campo quem Meleona vocant stativa dierum paucorum habuit. interim Cleuas assumpto Philostrato, qui quingentos ex ³ Epirotarum gente habebat, in agrum Antigonensem transcendit. ⁴ Macedones ad depopulationem profecti;

[4] Philostratus⁵ cum cohorte sua in insidiis loco ⁶ obscuro consedit. in palatos populatores cum erupissent ab Antigonea armati, ⁷ fugientes eos persequentes effusius in vallem insessam ab hostibus praecipitant.

[5] ibi ad mille ⁸ occisis, centum ferme captis, et ubique prospere gesta re prope stativa Appi castra movent, ne qua vis sociis suis ab Romano exercitu inferri possit.

[6] Appius nequiquam in his locis terens tempus, dimissis Chaonum Thesprotorumque ⁹ et si qui alii Epirotae erant praesidiis, cum Italicis militibus in Illyricum regressus, per Parthinorum ¹⁰ socias urbes in hiberna militibus divisis, ¹¹ ipse Romam sacrificii causa redit.

[7] Perseus ex Penestarum gente mille pedites, ducentos equites revocatos Cassandream, praesidio ut essent, misit.

[8] Ab Gentio eadem adferentes redierunt. nec deinde alios atque alios mittendo temptare eum destitit, cum appareret, quantum in eo praesidii esset, nec tamen impetrare ab animo posset, ut impensam in rem maximi ad omnia momenti faceret.

Ab urbe condita libri, erklärt von M. Weissenborn Perseus (Weissenborn, W.; Müller, H. J., editors. Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1873-1883.) — 39.36 focus

[1]

priusquam agerent quicquam, terror Achaeis iniectus erat et cogitatio, quam non ex aequo disceptatio futura esset,

[2] quod Areum et Alcibiadem capitis ab se concilio proximo damnatos cum legatis videbant;

[3] nec hiscere quisquam audebat. Appius ea, quae apud senatum questi erant Lacedaemonii, displicere senatui ostendit, caedem primum ad Compasium factam eorum, qui a Philopoemene ad causam dicendam evocati venissent;

[4] deinde cum in homines ita saevitum esset, ne ulla parte crudelitas eorum cessaret, muros dirutos urbis nobilissimae esse, leges vetustissimas abrogatas ¹ inclutamque per gentes disciplinam Lycurgi sublatam.

[5] haec cum Appius dixisset, Lycortas, et quia praetor et quia Philopoemenis, auctoris omnium, quae Lacedaemone acta fuerant, factionis erat, ita respondit:

[6] ”difficilior nobis, Ap. Claudi , apud vos oratio est, quam Romae nuper apud senatum fuit.

[7] tunc enim Lacedaemoniis accusantibus respondendum erat; nunc a vobis ipsis accusati sumus, apud quos causa est dicenda.

[8] quam iniquitatem condicionis subimus illa spe, iudicis animo te auditurum esse posita contentione, qua paulo ante egisti. ego certe, cum ea, quae et hic antea apud Q. Caecilium et postea Romae questi sunt Lacedaemonii, a te paulo ante relata sint, non tibi, sed illis me apud te respondere credam.

[9] caedem obicitis eorum, qui a Philopoemene praetore evocati ad causam dicendam interfecti sunt. hoc ego crimen non modo a vobis, Romani, sed ne apud vos quidem nobis obiciendum fuisse arbitror. quid ita? quia in vestro foedere erat, ut maritimis urbibus abstinerent Lacedaemonii.

[10] quo tempore armis captis urbes, a quibus abstinere iussi erant, nocturno impetu occupaverunt si T. Quinctius , si exercitus Romanus, sicut antea, in Peloponneso fuisset, eo nimirum capti et obpressi confugissent;

[11] cum vos procul essetis, quo alio, nisi ad nos, socios vestros, quos antea Gytheo opem ferentes, quos Lacedaemonem vobiscum simili de causa obpugnantes viderant, confugerent?

[12] pro vobis igitur iustum piumque bellum suscepimus. quod cum alii laudent, reprehendere ne ² Lacedaemonii quidem possint, dii quoque ipsi comprobaverint, qui nobis victoriam dederunt, quonam modo ea, quae belli iure acta sunt, in disceptationem veniunt? quorum tamen maxima pars nihil pertinet ad nos.

[13] nostrum est, quod evocavimus ad causam dicendam eos, qui ad arma multitudinem exciverant, qui expugnaverant maritima oppida, qui diripuerant, qui caedem principum fecerant;

[14] quod vero illi venientes in castra interfecti sunt, vestrum est, Areu et Alcibiade, qui nunc nos, si diis placet, accusatis, non nostrum.

[15] exules Lacedaemoniorum, quo in numero hi quoque duo fuerunt, et tunc nobiscum erant, et, quod domicilio sibi delegerant maritima oppida, se petitos credentes, in eos, quorum opera patria extorres ne in tuto quidem exilio posse consenescere se indignabantur, impetum fecerunt.

[16] Lacedaemonii igitur Lacedaemonios, non Achaei interfecerunt; nec iure an iniuria caesi sint argumentari refert”

Translations (2)

History of Rome Perseus (Spillan, D.; Edmonds, Cyrus; McDevitte, William A., translators. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1849-1868. (Bohn's Classical Library)) — 39.36 focus

[1]

Before they transacted any business, alarm was excited in the Achaeans, accompanied by the reflection, how unlikely the dispute was to

[2] receive impartial judgment, when they saw in company with the ambassadors Areus and Alcibiades, whom in their last council they had condemned to death; yet none of them dared to utter a word.

[3] Appius acquainted them that the senate was much displeased at those matters, of which the Lacedaemonians made complaint before them;

first, the massacre that took place at Compasium of those who, in obedience to the summons of Philopœmen, came to stand a trial;

[4]

then after such barbarity had been exercised towards men, that their cruelty might be felt in every part, the having demolished the wall of that famous city, having abrogated its laws of the greatest antiquity, and abolished the discipline of Lycurgus, so famed throughout the world.

[5] After Appius had spoken to this effect, Lycortas, both because he was praetor and because he was of the faction of Philopœmen, the adviser of all that was done at Lacedaemon, answered him thus:

[6] "Appius Claudius, our speech before you is attended with more difficulties than we had lately before the senate at Rome;

[7] for then we had to answer the accusations of the Lacedaemonians, but now we stand accused by yourselves, before whom our cause is to be heard.

[8] But to this disadvantage of situation we submit with this hope, that you will hear us with the temper of a judge, laying aside the character of an advocate, in which you just now appeared. I at least, though the matters of which the Lacedaemonians complained formerly in this place, before Quintus Caecilius, and afterwards at Rome, have been just recapitulated by you, yet shall consider myself as answering for them, not to you, but before you. You charge us with the murder of those men, who being called out by the praetor, Philopœmen, to trial, were put to death.

[9] This I think a charge of such a nature, that it ought not to be advanced against us, either by you, Romans, or by any in your presence. Why so? Because it was written in the treaty with you, that the Lacedaemonians should not intermeddle with the cities on the coast.

[10] At the time when they, taking up arms, seized by assault in the night those towns with which they had been forbidden to interfere; if Titus Quintius, if a Roman army had been in Peloponnesus, as formerly, the captured and oppressed inhabitants would surely have fled to them for relief.

[11] As you were at a great distance, to whom else would they fly but to us, your allies, whom they had seen at a former time bringing aid to Gythium; whom they had seen in conjunction with you, besieging Lacedaemon on their account?

[12] In your stead, therefore, we undertook a just and rightful war. And when other men approve of this step, and even the Lacedaemonians cannot censure it; the gods themselves, also, by giving us the victory, have shown their approbation of it; how then can acts done under the laws of war come under civil disquisition? Of these acts, however, the greatest part nowise affect us.

[13] The summoning to trial men, who had excited the populace to arms, who had stormed and plundered the towns on the coast, who had murdered the principal inhabitants, was our act; but the putting them to death when they were coming into the camp was yours, Areus and Alcibiades, who now, since it is the will of the gods, arraign us, and not ours.

[14] The Lacedaemonian exiles (in the number of whom these two men then were) were then in our camp, and believing that

[15] they were the objects of attack because they had chosen the maritime towns for their residence, made an assault on those by whose means they had been banished, and who they perceived with indignation would not suffer them even to grow old in exile with safety.

[16] Lacedaemonians therefore, not Achaeans, slew Lacedaemonians; nor is it of any consequence to dispute, whether they were slain justly or unjustly.

History of Rome Perseus (Volumes 1-2. Roberts, Canon, Rev, translator. London, New York: J. M. Dent and Sons; E. P. Dutton and Co., 1912.) — 39.36 focus

[1]

A few days later the Roman commissioners arrived. The council was convened to meet them at Clitoris in Arcadia.

[2] Before the business began, the Achaeans saw Areus and Alcibiades, who had been condemned to death at the last meeting, sitting with the commissioners.

[3] They were thoroughly alarmed and did not consider that the coming discussion would be very favourable to them; no one, however, dared to open his mouth. Appius pointed out how the various things that the Lacedaemonians complained of were viewed with displeasure by the senate-the assassination at Campasium of the delegates

[4] who on the invitation of Philopoemen had gone to make their defence, and then after this cruelty towards men, their filling up the measure of savagery by razing the walls of a great and famous city and annulling the immemorial laws and world-famed discipline of Lycurgus.

[5] After this speech, Lycortas in his capacity of captain-general, and also as a supporter of Philopoemen, the prime mover in all that had happened in Lacedaemon, rose to reply.

[6] "It is more difficult," he began, "for us to speak before you, Appius Claudius, than it was the other day before the Roman senate.

[7] Then we had to answer the accusations of the Lacedaemonians; now it is you who are our accusers, you before whom the issue is to be tried.

[8] Whilst labouring under this disadvantage, we still hope that you will lay aside the heated temper in which you spoke just now, and listen to us in a judicial frame of mind. At all events, as regards the complaints which the Lacedaemonians laid before Q. Caecilius and afterwards at Rome, and which you yourself have now repeated, it is to them, and not to you, that I shall suppose myself to be replying.

"You bring up against us the assassination of the delegates who had gone on the invitation of Philopoemen to make their defence.

[9] I hold this charge ought never to have been made by you, Romans, or even by others in your presence. Why so? Because it was laid down in your treaty with the Lacedaemonians that they should not interfere with the cities on the coast.

[10] Had T. Quinctius been in the Peloponnese; had there been a Roman there at the time when the Lacedaemonians made an armed attack upon the cities which they were pledged to leave alone, the inhabitants would, of course, have taken refuge with the Romans. As you were far away, with whom else could they have found shelter but with us, your allies?

[11] They had previously seen us carrying succour to Gytheum and attacking Lacedaemon on similar grounds in conjunction with you. On your behalf, then, we undertook the war as a just one, prompted by our sense of duty.

[12] Since others commend our conduct, and not even the Lacedaemonians can find fault with it, since the gods themselves, who have given us the victory, showed their approval of it, how can what we did by right of war admit of question? And yet the thing they lay most stress upon in no way concerns us.

[13] We are responsible for having called to trial the men who had excited the population to take up arms, who had stormed and plundered the maritime towns and massacred their leading men; but the putting them to death as they were coming into the camp was your doing, Areus and Alcibiades; and now, good heavens!

[14] you are actually accusing us of it! The Lacedaemonian refugees, these two men amongst them, were with us at the time, and because they had selected the maritime towns for

[15] their residence, they believed that their lives were in danger, and in retaliation made an attack upon those who had been the instruments of their banishment and would not suffer them to pass their lives in security, even though it were in exile.

[16] It was not, therefore, the Achaeans but the Lacedaemonians who slew Lacedaemonians, whether justly or unjustly, we are not concerned to discuss.

Notes on the current edition

Ab Urbe Condita With An English Translation, books 1-10, 21-45, with periochae 11-20

1. B.C. 184

2. Cf. XXXVIII. xxxiii. The scene of the episode has not been mentioned before. Rome had apparently given no indication of its attitude towards this affair, except as it might be inferred from their general attitude towards the Achaeans.

3. He probably means the embassy reported in xxxiii. 7 above, although it is not recorded that Lycortas himself was a member of that embassy, and Livy has not mentioned any argument with the Lacedaemonians at that time. Lycortas was also at Rome in 189 B.C. (XXXVIII. xxxii. 5-10).

4. There must have been unofficial conferences with the commissioners even if no meeting of the council was held: cf. xxxiii. 6 above.

5. B.C. 184

6. Cf. XXXVIII. xxx. 10 —xxxi. and the note to xxx. 6.

7. B.C. 184

8. Lycortas overlooks the fact that on the day after the riot 63 Lacedaemonians were put to death after a sort of trial, apparently before the Achaeans (XXXVIII. xxxiii. 11). The responsibility of the exiles can extend, then, only to the 17 who were killed in the rioting. It may be remarked that the Achaeans show no sympathy for the victims of Nabis on the ground of their aristocratic tendencies, and are interested in them, so far as one can judge, solely because they provided a means of creating internal discord in Lacedaemon.

Titus Livius (Livy) Ab urbe condita 39.36

Benjamin Oliver Foster, Ph.D. (Editor), Frank Gardener Moore (Editor), Evan T. Sage, Ph.D. (Editor), Alfred C. Schlesinger, Ph.D. (Editor)

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