he throne of
Macedonia; and, with the exception of two or three years (274-272)
during which he was temporarily expelled by Pyrrhus, he continued to
retain possession of it till his death in 239. The struggle between
Antigonus and Pyrrhus was brought to a close at Argos in 272. Pyrrhus
had marched into the Peloponnesus with a large force in order to make
war upon Sparta, but with the collateral design of reducing the places
which still held out for Antigonus. Pyrrhus having failed in an
attempt to take Sparta, marched against Argos, where Antigonus also
arrived with his forces. Both armies entered the city by opposite
gates; and in a battle which ensued in the streets Pyrrhus was struck
from his horse by a tile hurled by a woman from a house-top, and was
then despatched by some soldiers of Antigonus. Such was the inglorious
end of one of the bravest and most warlike monarchs of antiquity; whose
character for moral virtue, though it would not stand the test of
modern scrutiny, shone out conspicuously in comparison with that of
contemporary sovereigns.

Antigonus Gonatas now made himself master of the greater part of
Peloponnesus, which he governed by means of tyrants whom he established
in various cities.

While all Greece, with the exception of Sparta, seemed hopelessly
prostrate at the feet of Macedonia, a new political power, which sheds
a lustre on the declining period of Grecian history, arose in a small
province in Peloponnesus, of which the very name has been hitherto
rarely mentioned since the heroic age. In Achaia, a narrow slip of
country upon the shores of the Corinthian gulf, a league, chiefly for
religious purposes, had existed from a very early period among the
twelve chief cities of the province. The league, however, had never
possessed much political importance, and it had been suppressed by the
Macedonians. At the time of which we are speaking Antigonus Gonatas
was in possession of all the cities formerly belonging to the league,
either by means of his garrisons or of the tyrants who were subservient
to him. It was, however, this very oppression that led to a revival of
the league. The Achaean towns, now only ten in number, as two had been
destroyed by earthquakes, began gradually to coalesce again; but Aratus
of Sicyon, one of the most remarkable characters of this period of
Grecian history, was the man who, about the year 251 B.C., first called
the new league into active political existence