maintain an army of over five thousand men, nor possess a navy beyond
five ships of war. He was also required to pay a contribution of one
thousand talents. He was thus left in possession only of as much power as
was necessary to guard the frontiers of Hellas against the barbarians. All
the States of Greece were declared free, and most of them were
incorporated with the Achaean League, a confederation of the old cities,
which were famous before the Dorian migration, to resist the Macedonian
domination. This famous league was the last struggle of Greece for
federation to resist overpowering foes. As the Achaean cities were the
dominant States of Greece at the Trojan war, so the expiring fires of
Grecian liberty went out the last among that ancient race.

(M881) The liberator of Greece, as Flaminius may be called, assembled the
deputies of all the Greek communities at Corinth, exhorted them to use the
freedom which he had conferred upon them with moderation, and requested,
as the sole return for the kindness which the Romans had shown, that they
would send back all the Italian captives sold in Greece during the war
with Hannibal, and then he evacuated the last fortresses which he held,
and returned to Rome with his troops and liberated captives. Rome really
desired the liberation and independence of Greece, now that all fears of
her political power were removed, and that glorious liberty which is
associated with the struggles of the Greeks with the Persians might have
been secured, had not the Hellenic nations been completely demoralized.
There was left among them no foundation and no material for liberty, and
nothing but the magic charm of the Hellenic name could have prevented
Flaminius from establishing a Roman government in that degenerate land. It
was an injudicious generosity which animated the Romans, but for which the
war with Antiochus might not have arisen.

(M882) Antiochus III., the great-great-grandson of the general of
Alexander who founded the dynasty of the Seleucidae, then reigned in Asia.
On the fall of Philip, who was his ally, he took possession of those
districts in Asia Minor that formerly belonged to Egypt, but had fallen to
Philip. He also sought to recover the Greek cities of Asia Minor as a part
of his empire. This enterprise embroiled him with the Romans, who claimed
a protectorate over all the Hellenic cities. And he was further
complicated by the arrival at Ephesus, his capital, of Hannibal, to