,
while the Corinthians insulted the Roman ambassadors. A Roman general
named Quintus Metellus was sent to subdue them, and routed the
Macedonians at the battle of Scarphaea, but after that another general
named Mummius was sent out. The Achaians had collected all their
strength against him, and in the first skirmish gained a little success;
and this encouraged them to risk a battle, in which they were so
confident of victory that they placed their wives and children on a hill
to watch them, and provided waggons to carry away the spoil. The battle
was fought at Leucoptera, near the Isthmus, and all this boasting was
soon turned into a miserable defeat. Diaeus, who commanded the Greeks,
was put to flight, and riding off to Megalopolis in utter despair, he
killed his wife and children, to prevent their falling into the hands of
the enemy, and then poisoned himself.

The other Achaians at first retreated into Corinth, and in the course of
the night scattered themselves each to his own city. In the morning
Mummius marched in and gave up the unhappy city to plunder. All the men
were slain, all the women and children taken for slaves, and when all the
statues, pictures, and jewels had been gathered out of the temples and
houses, the place was set on fire, and burnt unceasingly for several
days; the walls were pulled down, and the city blotted out from Greece.
There was so much metal of all kinds in the burning houses that it all
became fused together, and produced a new and valuable metal called
Corinthian brass. The Romans were at this time still very rude and
ignorant, and did not at all understand the value and beauty of the works
of art they carried off. Polybius saw two soldiers making a dice-board
of one of the most famous pictures in Greece; and Mummius was much
laughed at for telling the captains of the ships who took home some of
the statues to exhibit in his triumph that if they lost them they should
supply new ones at their own cost. The Corinthians suffered thus for
having insulted the ambassadors. The other cities submitted without a
blow, and were left untouched to govern themselves, but in subjection to
Rome, and with Roman garrisons in their citadels. Polybius was sent
round them to assure them of peace, and they had it for more than 500
years, but the freedom of Greece was gone for ever.

[Picture: Figures carrying vases]

CHAP. XXXIX.--THE GOSPEL IN GREECE. B.C. 146-A.