346 HISTORICAL TALES.

conquest. Of the celebrated cities of Greece two
had already fallen. Thebes had been swept from
the face of the earth in the wind of Alexander's
wrath. Sparta had been reduced to a feeble vil-
lage by the anger of Philopemen. Corinth, now
the largest and richest city of Greece, was to be
razed to the ground for daring to defy Rome; and
Athens was to be plundered and humiliated by a
conquering Roman army.

It will not take long to tell how all this came
about. The story is a short one, but full of vital
consequences. Philopcemen, the great general of
the Achwan League, died of poison 183 B.c. In the
same year died in exile Hannibal, the greatest foo
Rome ever knew, and Scipio, one of its ablest gen-
erals. Rome was already master of Greece. But
the Roman senate feared trouble from the growth of
the Achezan League, and, to weaken it, took a thon-
sand of its noblest citizens, under various charges,
and sent them as hostages to Rome. Among them
was the celebrated historian Polybius, who wrote the
history of Hannibal’s wars.

These exiles were not brought to trial on the weak
charges made against them, but they were detained
in Italy for seventeen years. By the end of that time
many of them had died, and Rome at last did what it
was not in the habit of doing, it took pity on those
who were left and let them return home.

Roman pity in this case proved disastrous to
Greece. Many of the exiles were exasperated by
their treatment, and were no sooner at home than
they began to stir up the people to revolt. Polybius