When Quintus Caecilius in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Macedonia&groupId=723&placeId=428">Macedonia</a> heard of all this, and of the foolish excitement and commotion in the Peloponnesus, he dispatched there as legates Gnaeus Papirius, the younger Popilius Laenas, Aulus Gabinius, and Gaius Fannius.
They happened to arrive when the General Assembly of the Achaeans was being held at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Corinth&groupId=493&placeId=928">Corinth</a>, and when brought before the people addressed them at length in the same conciliatory terms as Sextus and his colleagues had done, employing every effort to prevent the Achaeans from proceeding to acts of declared hostility towards <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, either on account of their difference with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Sparta&groupId=660&placeId=1208">Sparta</a> or owing to their dislike of the Romans themselves.
The people, on listening to them, showed no disposition to comply, but jeered at the legates, hooted and hustled them out of the meeting.
For never had there been collected such a pack of artizans and common men. All the towns, indeed, were in a drivelling state, but the malady was universal and most fierce at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Corinth&groupId=493&placeId=928">Corinth</a>.
There were a few, however, who were exceedingly gratified by the language of the legates.
But Critolaus, thinking he had got hold of the very handle he had been praying for and of an audience ready to share his fervour and run mad, attacked the authorities and inveighed against his political opponents, and used the utmost freedom of language regarding the Roman legates,
saying that he wished to be friends with <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>, but he was not at all minded to make himself subject to despots.
The general tenour of his advice was that if they behaved like men they would be in no want of allies, but if they behaved no better than women they would have plenty of lords and masters.
By dealing freely and systematically in such phrases he continued to excite and irritate the mob.
He much insisted that his policy was by no means a haphazard one, but that some of the kings and states shared his design.
Walbank Commentary