ed, strictly obeyed orders
in sending the choicest of the spoil to Rome, and made himself forever
famous as a marvel of stupidity by a remark to those who were charged
with the conveyance of some of the noblest of Grecian statues.

"Take good care that you do not lose these on the way," he said; "for if
you do you shall be made to replace them by others of equal value."

Rome could conquer the world, but honest Mummius had set a task which
Rome throughout its whole history was not able to perform.

Thus ended the death-struggle of Greece. The chiefs of the party of
revolt were put to death; the inhabitants of Corinth who had fled were
taken and sold as slaves. The walls of all the cities which had resisted
Rome were levelled to the ground. An annual tribute was laid on them by
the conquerors. Self-government was left to the states of Greece, but
they were deprived of their old privilege of making war.

Yet Greece might have flourished under the new conditions, for peace
heals the wounds made by war, had its states not been too much weakened
by their previous conflicts, and had not a new war arisen just when they
were beginning to enjoy some of the fruits of peace.

This war, which broke out sixty years later, had its origin in Asia.
Mithridates the Great, king of Pontus, had made himself master of all
Asia Minor, where he ordered that all the Romans found should be killed.
It is said that eighty thousand were slaughtered. Then he sent an army
into Greece, under his general Archelaus, and there found the people
ready and willing to join him, in the hope of gaining their freedom by
his aid. Rome just then seemed weak, and they deemed it a good season to
rebel.

Archelaus took possession of Athens and the Piraeus, from which all the
friends of Rome were driven into exile. Meanwhile, Rome was distracted
by the struggle between the two great leaders Marius and Sulla. But
leaving Rome to take care of itself, Sulla marched an army against
Mithridates, entered Greece, and laid siege to Athens.

This was in the year 87 B.C. The siege that followed was a long one.
Archelaus lay in Piraeus, with abundance of food, and had command of the
sea. But the long walls that led to Athens had long since vanished. Food
could not be conveyed from the port to the city, as of old. Hunger came
to the aid of Rome. Resistance having almost ceased, Sulla broke into
the famous old city March 1, 86 B.C., and gave it up to rapine and
pillage by