here. These had formally apportioned
among them the regions of Asia Minor, and each one of the three
cantons raised its fixed tribute from the territory laid under
contribution. Doubtless the burgesses of Pergamus, under the vigorous
guidance of their presidents who had thereby become hereditary
princes, had rid themselves of the unworthy yoke; and the fair
afterbloom of Hellenic art, which had recently emerged afresh from the
soil, had grown out of these last Hellenic wars sustained by a
national public spirit. But it was a vigorous counterblow, not a
decisive success; again and again the Pergamenes had to defend with
arms their urban peace against the raids of the wild hordes from the
eastern mountains, and the great majority of the other Greek cities
probably remained in their old state of dependence.(7)

If the protectorate of Rome over the Hellenes was to be in Asia more
than a name, an end had to be put to this tributary obligation of
their new clients; and, as the Roman policy at this time declined,
much more even in Asia than on the Graeco-Macedonian peninsula, the
possession of the country on its own behalf and the permanent
occupation therewith connected, there was no course in fact left but
to carry the arms of Rome up to the limit which was to be staked off
for the domain of Rome's power, and effectively to inaugurate the new
supremacy among the inhabitants of Asia Minor generally, and above all
in the Celtic cantons.

This was done by the new Roman commander-in-chief, Gnaeus Manlius
Volso, who relieved Lucius Scipio in Asia Minor. He was subjected
to severe reproach on this score; the men in the senate who were
averse to the new turn of policy failed to see either the aim, or
the pretext, for such a war. There is no warrant for the former
objection, as directed against this movement in particular; it
was on the contrary, after the Roman state had once interfered
in Hellenic affairs as it had done, a necessary consequence of this
policy. Whether it was the right course for Rome to undertake the
protectorate over the Hellenes collectively, may certainly be called
in question; but regarded from the point of view which Flamininus
and the majority led by him had now taken up, the overthrow of the
Galatians was in fact a duty of prudence as well as of honour. Better
founded was the objection that there was not at the time a proper
ground of war against them; for they had not been, strictly speaking,
in