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Book 16 - Chapter 13

1
<head lang="la">II. Res Graeciae</head><w lemma="%2A%28%2Foti">Ὅτι</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="%2Apelopo%2Fnnhson">Πελοπόννησον</w> <w lemma="ti%2Fna">τίνα</w> <w lemma="me%5Cn">μὲν</w> <w lemma="e%29c">ἐξ</w> <w lemma="a%29rxh%3Ds">ἀρχῆς</w> <w lemma="proai%2Fresin">προαίρεσιν</w> <w lemma="e%29nesth%2Fsato">ἐνεστήσατο</w> <w lemma="%2Ana%2Fbis">Νάβις</w> <w lemma="o%28">ὁ</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="%2Alakedaimoni%2Fwn">Λακεδαιμονίων</w> <w lemma="tu%2Frannos">τύραννος</w>, <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="pw%3Ds">πῶς</w> <w lemma="e%29kbalw%5Cn">ἐκβαλὼν</w> <w lemma="tou%5Cs">τοὺς</w> <w lemma="poli%2Ftas">πολίτας</w> <w lemma="h%29leuqe%2Frwse">ἠλευθέρωσε</w> <w lemma="tou%5Cs">τοὺς</w> <w lemma="dou%2Flous">δούλους</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="sunw%2F%7Ckise">συνῴκισε</w> <w lemma="tai%3Ds">ταῖς</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="despotw%3Dn">δεσποτῶν</w> <w lemma="gunaici%5C">γυναιξὶ</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="qugatra%2Fsin">θυγατράσιν</w>,
2
<w lemma="o%28moi%2Fws">ὁμοίως</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="ti%2Fna">τίνα</w> <w lemma="tro%2Fpon">τρόπον</w> <w lemma="a%29nadei%2Fcas">ἀναδείξας</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="e%28autou%3D">ἑαυτοῦ</w> <w lemma="du%2Fnamin">δύναμιν</w> <w lemma="oi%28%3Don">οἷον</w> <w lemma="a%29%2Fsulon">ἄσυλον</w> <w lemma="i%28ero%5Cn">ἱερὸν</w> <w lemma="toi%3Ds">τοῖς</w> <w lemma="h%29%5C">ἢ</w> <w lemma="di%27">δι᾽</w> <w lemma="a%29se%2Fbeian">ἀσέβειαν</w> <w lemma="h%29%5C">ἢ</w> <w lemma="ponhri%2Fan">πονηρίαν</w> <w lemma="feu%2Fgousi">φεύγουσι</w> <w lemma="ta%5Cs">τὰς</w> <w lemma="e%28autw%3Dn">ἑαυτῶν</w> <w lemma="patri%2Fdas">πατρίδας</w> <w lemma="h%28%2Fqroise">ἥθροισε</w> <w lemma="plh%3Dqos">πλῆθος</w> <w lemma="a%29nqrw%2Fpwn">ἀνθρώπων</w> <w lemma="a%29nosi%2Fwn">ἀνοσίων</w> <w lemma="ei%29s">εἰς</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="%2Aspa%2Frthn">Σπάρτην</w>, <w lemma="e%29n">ἐν</w> <w lemma="toi%3Ds">τοῖς</w> <w lemma="pro%5C">πρὸ</w> <w lemma="tou%2Ftwn">τούτων</w> <w lemma="dedhlw%2Fkamen">δεδηλώκαμεν</w>.
3
<w lemma="pw%3Ds">πῶς</w> <w lemma="de%5C">δὲ</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="ti%2Fna">τίνα</w> <w lemma="tro%2Fpon">τρόπον</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="tou%5Cs">τοὺς</w> <w lemma="proeirhme%2Fnous">προειρημένους</w> <w lemma="kairou%5Cs">καιροὺς</w> <w lemma="su%2Fmmaxos">σύμμαχος</w> <w lemma="u%28pa%2Frxwn">ὑπάρχων</w> <w lemma="%2Aai%29twloi%3Ds">Αἰτωλοῖς</w>, <w lemma="%2A%29hlei%2Fois">Ἠλείοις</w>, <w lemma="%2Amesshni%2Fois">Μεσσηνίοις</w>, <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="pa%3Dsi">πᾶσι</w> <w lemma="tou%2Ftois">τούτοις</w> <w lemma="o%29fei%2Flwn">ὀφείλων</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="tou%5Cs">τοὺς</w> <w lemma="o%28%2Frkous">ὅρκους</w> <w lemma="kai%5C">καὶ</w> <w lemma="kata%5C">κατὰ</w> <w lemma="ta%5Cs">τὰς</w> <w lemma="sunqh%2Fkas">συνθήκας</w> <w lemma="bohqei%3Dn">βοηθεῖν</w>, <w lemma="ei%29%2F">εἴ</w> <w lemma="tis">τις</w> <w lemma="e%29p%27">ἐπ᾽</w> <w lemma="au%29tou%5Cs">αὐτοὺς</w> <w lemma="i%29%2Foi">ἴοι</w>, <w lemma="par%27">παρ᾽</w> <w lemma="ou%29de%5Cn">οὐδὲν</w> <w lemma="poihsa%2Fmenos">ποιησάμενος</w> <w lemma="ta%5Cs">τὰς</w> <w lemma="proeirhme%2Fnas">προειρημένας</w> <w lemma="pi%2Fsteis">πίστεις</w> <w lemma="e%29peba%2Fleto">ἐπεβάλετο</w> <w lemma="paraspondh%3Dsai">παρασπονδῆσαι</w> <w lemma="th%5Cn">τὴν</w> <w lemma="tw%3Dn">τῶν</w> <w lemma="%2Amesshni%2Fwn">Μεσσηνίων</w> <w lemma="po%2Flin">πόλιν</w>, <w lemma="nu%3Dn">νῦν</w> <w lemma="e%29rou%3Dmen">ἐροῦμεν</w>. —
<head>II. Affairs of Greece</head><head>Attempt of Nabis on Messene</head>I have already narrated which was the policy initiated in the Peloponnesus by Nabis the tyrant of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, how he sent the citizens into exile and freeing the slaves married them to their masters\' wives and daughters, how again by advertising his powerful own protection as a kind of inviolable sanctuary to those who had been forced to quit their own countries owing to their impiety and wickedness he gathered round him at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> a host of infamous men.
I will now describe how being at the time I mention the ally of the Aetolians, Eleans, and Messenians, bound by oath and treaty to come to the help of them if they were attacked, he paid no respect to these solemn obligations, but attempted to betray Messene.

Walbank Commentary

Overview
16.13.0 - 16.20.0
<p rend="Plain Text">Criticism of Zeno and Antisthenes</p> <p rend="Plain Text">14. 1 makes it clear that this criticism is introduced in connexion with these historians' account of events in Greece and Asia Minor with which P. is himself concerned.</p>
Specifics
16.13.1 - 16.13.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἠλευθέρωσε τοὺς δούλους</w>:</emph> this accusation is not contained in the fragments surviving from xiii, where Nabis is said to have married the wives of the exiles to his chief supporters and mercenaries (xiii. 6. 3–4). That Nabis did not free all the helots is now generally agreed; see, against the view of W. S. Robins, University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 1958, 93–98, that since the fifth century a large part of the helots had become neodamodeis, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Shimron&groupId=19&placeId=84">Shimron</a>, CP, 1966, 1–7; Late <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, 89 ff. </p>
16.13.2 - 16.13.2
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἥθροισε πλῆθος ἀνθρώπων ἀνοσίων</w>:</emph> cf. xiii. 6. 4, 8. 2. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">ἐν τοῖς πρὸ τούτων</w>:</emph> xiii. 6–8. </p>
16.13.3 - 16.13.3
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">κατὰ τοὺς προειρημένους καιρούς</w>:</emph> 'at the time I have mentioned'; but it is not clear whether this refers to the time of Nabis' original institution of his policy of terrorism (§§ 1–2), or behind that to the lost passage in which P. introduces Nabis again in the context of 201. Holleaux, 262, thinks the reference is to 205/4, but 201 seems more likely. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">σύμμαχος ὑ?πάρχων Αἰτωλοῖς, Ἠλείοις, Μεσσηνίοις</w>:</emph> <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, Aetolia, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a> were all allies during the first Macedonian War (cf. ix. 28 ff., 30. 6, 31. 3), and the full alliance of that time seems to have continued as a defensive alliance after Aetolia made peace with the Greek Symmachy (Livy, xxix. 12. 1; cf. Livy, xxxvi. 31. 11) in 206. Whether <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a> were included in that peace is disputed. Livy does not mention them in that context, but his reference to the peace is brief (Livy, xxix. 12. 1); moreover in the similar context of the Peace of Naupactus (v. 101–5) P. makes no mention of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, though it is clear that they were also covered by that treaty. It is at any rate fairly certain that the three Peloponnesian states did not continue as belligerents after the defection of Aetolia (cf. Holleaux, 261 f.). Livy (xxix. 12. 34), however, includes them in the Peace of Phoenice between Philip and the Romans, and Badian, 59, argues that though not actual parties to either treaty they were ascripti in both. It is a little hard to see how <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> can have allowed themselves to be ascripti in the treaty between Aetolia and Philip without breaking their obligations to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> (obligations probably defined in separate treaties: cf. Livy, xxxiv. 31. 5, uetustissimum foedus (between <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>: not denied by Flamininus, Livy, xxxiv. 32. 1), 32. 16, Messene linked to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> eodem iure foederis as <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>: cf. Larsen, CP, 1935, 211; Badian, 59); that these obligations continued is clear from Livy, xxxiv. 32. 16, where Flamininus, addressing Nabis, refers to both <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> and Messene as socii in 201. (Holleaux's argument, 263–4 n. 4, that Flamininus is here discussing a hypothetical situation the conditions in which amicitia persiststhe relevance of which to Nabis he denies, and that Livy has misunderstood P., is clearly a counsel of despair.) See also xviii. 42. 7 n. for <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a> and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a> as Roman allies in 197. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> It has been argued (cf. Walbank, Philip, 101 n. 3, 103–4 n. 6) that <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Messenia&groupId=760&placeId=1380">Messenia</a>, and <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> were ignored at Phoenice, and that their presence in Livy's account of the treaty is due to an annalist; but <milestone unit="page" n="516">[516]</milestone> Roman neglect of these states both in the Second Macedonian War and in the embassies preceding it is easily explicable on geographical groundsthey were of little importance in a war against <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> (cf. Larsen, CP, 1935, 210 f.). Thus the continuing relations with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> support the view that, as Livy says, these states were included in the Treaty of Phoenice. On the other hand, if they were abandoned by Aetolia in her separate peace of 206, they can hardly have been her allies in 202/1; and it is unsatisfactory to reject P.'s specific statement on the grounds of his hostility to Nabis (so Piraino, Riv. fil. 1955, 67). Hence, despite the difficulties mentioned above, perhaps the solution of Badian is the least unsatisfactory, that the Peloponnesian states were ascripti in both treaties (cf. Niese, ii. 501–2). The defensive alliance mentioned here may be simply a continuation of the former alliance, provided for in the original terms (cf. vii. 9. 15, a similar clause in the treaty between Philip and Hannibal) or it may have been sworn in or after 206. </p> <p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">νῦν ἐροῦ?μεν</w>:</emph> P.'s account of this has not survived; but we have some comment on it in relation to Zeno and Antisthenes (16. 1–17. 7). See Livy, xxxiv. 32. 16, 35. 6; Plut. Philop. 12. 4–6; Paus. iv. 29. 10, viii. 50. 5; Syll. 595, l. 3; and in general Aymard, PR, 40–41. It evidently took place in summer 201. </p>
Addenda & corrigenda
16.13.1 - 16.13.1
<p rend="Plain Text"> <emph rend="bold">13. 1. <w lang="el-GR">ἠλευθέρωσε τοὺς δούλους</w>:</emph> that Nabis did not free all the helots is now generally agreed; see, against the view of W. S. Robins, University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 1958, 93–98, that since the fifth century a large part of the helots had become neodamodeis, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Shimron&groupId=19&placeId=84">Shimron</a>, CP, 1966, 1–7; Late <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a>, 89 ff. </p>

Commentary