having arranged this, he put an end to the intestine disputes of the Megalopolitans by a decree of the Achaeans.
They had only recently been ejected from their city by Cleomenes, and as the saying is, utterly uprooted, and consequently they were in absolute want of many things and were ill provided with everything.
It is true that they retained their high spirit; but in every respect the shortage of their supplies both in public and private was a source of weakness to them.
In consequence disputes, jealousies, and mutual hatred were rife among them, as usually happens both in public and private life when men have not sufficient means to give effect to their projects.
The first matter of dispute was the fortification of the city, some saying that it ought to be reduced to a size which would enable them to complete the wall if they undertook to build one and to defend it in time of danger. It was just its size, they said, and the sparseness of the inhabitants which had proved fatal to the town.
The same party proposed that landowners should contribute the third part of their estates, for making up the number of additional citizens required.
Their opponents neither approved of reducing the size of the city nor were disposed to contribute the third part of their property.
The most serious controversy of all, however, was in regard to the laws framed for them by Prytanis, an eminent member of the Peripatetic school, whom Antigonus had sent to them to draw up a code.
Such being the matters in dispute, Aratus exerted himself by every means in his power to reconcile the rival factions,
and the terms on which they finally composed their difference were engraved on a stone and set up beside the altar of Hestia in the Homarium.
Walbank Commentary