<w lemma=""></w> <w lemma=""></w> <foreign lang="la">Polybius Achivus quamvis tunc in Africa cum Scipione fuerit, tamen quia domesticam cladem ignorare non potuit, semel in Achaia pugnatum Critolao duce asserit. Diaeum vero adducentem ex Arcadia militem ab eodem Metello praetore oppressum cum exercitu docet.</foreign>—
No Shuckburgh translation
Walbank Commentary
Overview
38.14.1 - 38.14.2
<p rend="Plain Text">The character of Pytheas the Theban commander</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">This excerpt from de uirt. et uit. concerns the Boeotian leader involved in the war against <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Rome&groupId=935&placeId=1669">Rome</a>; for its position here see p. 48 (rejecting Niese's proposal to transpose it to between 11 and 12).</p>
38.14.3 - 38.14.3
<p rend="Plain Text">A reference to the campaigns of 146</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">This passage from Oros. v. 3. 3, hardly a fragment, refers briefly to P.'s account of the campaigns of Critolaus and Diaeus; for its position here see p. 48.</p>
38.14.3 - 38.14.3
<p rend="Plain Text">cf. 19 n.</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold">semel in Achaia pugnatum Critolao duce:</emph>
Orosius is using 'Achaia' in the later sense of the Roman province; there is no reason to suppose that he shared Florus' (i. 37. 3) ludicrous belief that Critolaus' defeat was beside the Alpheus in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elis&groupId=560&placeId=1048">Elis</a>. The site of the battle was at Scarpheia in East Locris. semel is 'once' (not 'there was only one battle' (Paton)). According to Paus. vii. 15. 2–3, on hearing that L. Mummius, cos. 146, was coming out to succeed him, Metellus sent messengers with a final appeal to the Achaeans to acquiesce in the Senate's orders (probably the embassy of Cn. Papirius: 12. 2 n.) and set out with his army through <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Thessaly&groupId=1028&placeId=1816">Thessaly</a> and along the Lamian Gulf. Meanwhile <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Heraclea&groupId=624&placeId=1147">Heraclea</a> in Trachis (cf. x. 42. 4 n.), which had joined the Achaean Confederation at some time since 167 (the date is uncertain since <w lang="el-GR">Ἀχαιοί</w> is a false reading in IG, ix. 1. 226; against Vollgraff, BCH, 1901, 228, see Kirsten, RE, 'Oitaioi', col. 2294not known to De Sanctis, iv. 3. 147 n. 161), revolted, whereupon Critolaus and the Achaeans marched north to reduce it, being joined by the Thebans (Paus. vii. 15. 9). Deininger, Phil. 1967, 287–91, argues convincingly that 16. 11 and 16. 12 refer to Critolaus' reaction to Metellus'
<milestone unit="page" n="709">[709]</milestone>
appearance; but it does not follow (as he claims) that the Achaeans had no expectation of having to fight the Romans. The collaboration of Thebes and perhaps other central Greek states (cf. 3. 8 n.) and the bringing up of the Arcadian contingent (next note) and the men from Patrae (16. 4) imply a bigger and less domestic operation than the mere reduction of a dissident member of the Confederacy. Critolaus probably hoped to reduce <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Heraclea&groupId=624&placeId=1147">Heraclea</a> quickly and Metellus' sudden appearance south of the Spercheius took him by surprise. It is reasonable to suppose, with Larsen (GFS, 495), that the original plan was based on a line involving the control of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Heraclea&groupId=624&placeId=1147">Heraclea</a> and the defence of Thermopylae (cf. Paus. vii. 15. 3).
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">With the Achaeans and Thebans Critolaus fled through Thermopylae to Scarpheia in Locris, but was overtaken just before he reached it. Many fell and Metellus took about 1,000 prisoners; Critolaus perished (Paus. vii. 15. 4; below, 15. 1 n.).</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold">Diaeum . . . oppressum cum exercitu:</emph>
on Diaeus see 10. 8 n. He had led 1,000 chosen Arcadian troops to assist Critolaus <w lang="el-GR">(οἳ Κριτολάῳ τοῦ ἔργου μετέσχον</w> (Paus. vii. 15. 5), which must mean 'who shared the job (sc. of reducing <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Heraclea&groupId=624&placeId=1147">Heraclea</a>) with Critolaus'; <w lang="el-GR">ἔργου</w> is the task assigned, and their late arrival made them ineffective partners in it, but there is no need, with De Sanctis, iv. 3. 105 n. 165 to read 〈<w lang="el-GR">οὐ</w>〉 <w lang="el-GR">μετέσχον)</w>. He got as far as <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Elatea&groupId=558&placeId=1045">Elatea</a> in <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phocis&groupId=892&placeId=1606">Phocis</a>, but when news of Scarpheia reached them the Phocians (who seem to have been willing to allow the passage of troops, but not to break their own neutrality: Larsen, GFS, 496) asked this Arcadian contingent to leave, and Metellus caught up with them near <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Chaeronea&groupId=455&placeId=849">Chaeronea</a>. Pausanias (hardly here following P.; cf. xviii. 14. 13–15) regards this as divine retribution for the Arcadians' absence from the battle against Philip II in 338 (Paus. vii. 15. 5–6). Metellus then moved on to Thebes; for his defeat of a body of troops from Patrae see 16. 4 n.
</p>
Specifics
38.14.1 - 38.14.1
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">Πυθέας . . . ἀδελφὸς Ἀκαστίδου</w>:</emph>
according to IG, ii
<emph rend="superscript">2</emph>
. 2314 ll. 9 and 11, <w lang="el-GR">Ἀκαστίδας Κλεομνάστου Βοιώτιο[ς]</w> was victor at the Panathenaea in the wrestling and in the pentathlon at a date soon after 191. Hence the corrections of the text, which reads <w lang="el-GR">ἀκατιδουσ</w> and <w lang="el-GR">κλεομενουσ</w>, to <w lang="el-GR">Ἀκαστίδου</w> (Bergk) and <w lang="el-GR">Κλεομνάστου</w> (Bttner-Wobst). The date need not be an obstacle, since Acastidas would gain his victory as a young man, whereas Pytheas, perhaps a younger brother, would be Theban commander only as a man of mature years; true, he had children (16. 10), but his wife can have been much younger than he. After mentioning the war-decision at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Corinth&groupId=493&placeId=928">Corinth</a>, Paus. vii. 14. 6–7 records that Pytheas, who was at that time (spring 146) commander at Thebes (Plutarch incorrectly calls him Boeotarch), also incited the Achaeans, and the Thebans promised to join in the war. The pretext was a fine imposed by Metellus for injuries done to <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phocis&groupId=892&placeId=1606">Phocis</a>, <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Euboea&groupId=584&placeId=1091">Euboea</a>, and Amphissa (cf. Schober, RE, 'Thebai (Boiotien)', col. 1489). Larsen, GFS, 495 n. 3, seems to regard this fine as imposed later and so evidence that the Thebans invaded <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Phocis&groupId=892&placeId=1606">Phocis</a> to make the Phocians fight; but Pausanias says <w lang="el-GR">ἑαλώκεσαν</w> (not decisive) and, more to the point, fines imposed on Boeotia for
<milestone unit="page" n="708">[708]</milestone>
its part in the war came later and at the hands of Mummius (Paus. vii. 16. 10). See Kirchner, RE, 'Akastidas', col. 1157; Ziegler, RE, 'Pytheas (4)', col. 369 (inaccurate on the name of Pytheas' father); Schober, RE, 'Thebai (Boiotien)', cols. 1489–90; Deininger, 233 n. 6.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">δοκῶν . . . τὴν πρώτην ἡλικίαν</w>:</emph>
such allegations were common form and, in a society where homosexuality was prevalent, no doubt often true; see xii. 13. 1 n. on Demochares; FGH, 76 F 8 for Duris' recording of sexual allegations against Demosthenes.
</p>
38.14.2 - 38.14.2
<p rend="Plain Text">
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">δι᾿ Εὐμένους καὶ Φιλεταίρου σεσωματοποιημένος</w>:</emph>
Eumenes II of Pergamum and his brother Philetaerus; cf. xviii. 41. 10 n. By a coincidence the two won the chariot race at the same Panathenaea as Acastidas was victor (IG. ii
<emph rend="superscript">2</emph>
. 2314 ll. 84 ff.; Deininger, 233 n. 6).
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">
〈
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">διὰ</w></emph>
〉
<emph rend="bold"><w lang="el-GR">τὰς προειρημέ?νας αἰτίας</w>:</emph>
possibly mentioned in an earlier passage; it need not refer to <w lang="el-GR">δοκῶν . . . παρακεχρῆσθαι τὴν . . . ἡλικίαν</w>,, as Bttner-Wobst assumes (index, s.v. <w lang="el-GR">Φιλέταιρος</w> and <w lang="el-GR">Εὐμένης)</w>.
</p>
<p rend="Plain Text">〈See p. 49 for the arguments in favour of putting 16. 11 and 16. 12 here, between 14. 2 and 14. 3; both passages seem to refer to Critolaus (not Diaeus).〉</p>
Walbank Commentary