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When these proceedings were reported to the Achaeans, all the States of the League with one consent proclaimed war against the Lacedaemonians. [2] Winter prevented any immediate operations on a large scale, but their territories were devastated by bodies of raiders both by land and sea, more in the fashion of brigandage than of regular warfare. [3] It was this disturbance that brought the consul to the Peloponnesus, and by his orders a council was summoned to Elis and the Lacedaemonians were invited to state their case. [4] The discussion soon became a heated quarrel, which the consul put an end to. He was anxious to befriend both sides and after giving a reply which committed him to nothing, warned them both to abstain from hostilities until their representatives had appeared before the Senate. Both sides sent delegates to Rome; the Lacedaemonian exiles entrusted their cause to the Achaeans. [5] The leaders of the Achaean embassy were Diophanes and Lycortas, both natives of Megalopolis. [6] They were opposed to one another in their political views and the speeches they delivered showed a similar divergence. Diophanes was for leaving the decision on every point to the Senate as they would settle [7??] the matters in dispute between the Achaeans and the Lacedaemonians in the best possible way. [8] Lycortas, acting on instructions from Philopoemen, claimed the right of the Achaeans to execute their decree in accordance with the treaty and their laws, and pleaded that as the Senate had been the instrument of their freedom, so they should preserve that freedom for them undiminished and unimpaired. [9] At that time the Achaeans stood high in Roman esteem; it was, however, decided that the position of the Lacedaemonians should be in no way changed. [10] The reply of the senate was so ambiguous that while the Achaeans assumed that they had a free hand with regard to Lacedaemon, the Lacedaemonians interpreted it to mean that the Achaeans had not gained all they asked for.
Livy. History of Rome. English Translation by. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 1. Livy. History of Rome. English Translation. Rev. Canon Roberts. New York, New York. E. P. Dutton and Co. 1912. 2.
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