<head>Tyranny of Charops in Epirus</head>There was a great change for the better in Aetolia<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note43">Death of Charops, B. C. 157.</note>when the civil war was stopped after the death of Lyciscus; and in Boeotia when Mnasippus of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Coronea&groupId=496&placeId=932">Coronea</a> died; and similarly in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Acarnania&groupId=270&placeId=527">Acarnania</a> when Chremas was got out of the way. Greece was as though purified by the removal from life of those accursed pests of the country. For in the same year Charops of Epirus chanced to die at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Brundisium&groupId=411&placeId=762">Brundisium</a>.<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note44">The tyranny of Charops in Epirus</note>Affairs in Epirus had been still in disorder and confusion as before, owing to the cruelty and tyranny of Charops, ever<pb n="462" />since the end of the war with Perseus.<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note45">after the battle of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Pydna&groupId=919&placeId=1647">Pydna</a>, B. C. 168-157.</note>For Lucius Anicius having condemned some of the leading men in the country to death, and transported all others to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a> against whom there was the slightest suspicion, Charops at once got complete power to do what he chose; and thereupon committed every possible act of cruelty, sometimes personally, at others by the agency of his friends: for he was quite a young man himself, and was quickly joined by a crowd of the worst and most unprincipled persons, who gathered round him for the sake of plunder from other people. But what protected him and inclined people to believe that he was acting on a fixed design, and in accordance with the will of the Romans, was his former intimacy with them, and the support of the old man Myrton and his son Nicanor. These two had the character of being men of moderation and on good terms with the Romans; but though up to that time they had been widely removed from all suspicion of injustice, they now gave themselves up wholly to support and share in the lawless acts of Charops. This man, after murdering some openly in the market-place, others in their own houses, others by sending secret assassins to waylay them in the fields or on the roads, and selling the property of all whom he had thus killed, thought of another device.<note anchored="yes" place="marg" id="note46">He extorts money from the rich under threat of exile.</note>He put up lists of such men and women as were rich, condemning them to exile; and having held out this threat, he extracted money out of them, making the bargain himself with the men, and by the agency of his mother Philotis with the women; for this lady was well suited to the task, and for any act of violence was even more helpful than could have been expected in a woman.
Walbank Commentary