During the revolutions which agitated Macedonia, after the death of Cassander, it was invaded and overrun by an immense body of Gauls, who pursued their course like a torrent, and poured upon the enfeebled states of Greece with the utmost fury. They were successfully resisted in the defiles of Thermopylx, by the Grecian army under Calippus the Athenian ; but, forcing their way by the path over mount Oeta, by which the Persians had penetrated under Xerxes, they directed their march to Delphos, with the design of plundering the temple of its accumulated treasures. But, meeting with a brave resistance from those who were assembled to protect the sacred spot, and, being thrown into confusion by a violent storm and earthquake, they fled in the utmost terror, and turned their arms upon one another, in the darkness of the night. They were keenly assailed by the Greeks in their flight, and the great er part of them cut to pieces. Scarcely recovering from the inroad of those barbarians, the states of Peloponne sits were involved in new calamities, by the ambitious arms of Pyrrhus king of Epire, who had reduced the greater part of Macedonia, and having been invited by Cleonymus, an exiled Spartan prince, to redress his grievances, led a powerful army to the gates of Sparta, while their king and the best of their troops were absent in Crete. But the inhabitants of the city, even the women, assisting in its defence, made so heroic a resistance, that time was al lowed for the arrival of reinforcements; and Pyrrhus, being compelled to retreat, was slain in an attempt to en ter the city of Argos. Antigonus, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, being again replaced on the throne of Mace donia, began to meditate the complete subjugation of Greece, and commenced his operations with the siege of Athens, which he speedily reduced, and garrisoned with Macedonian troops. Pursuing his schemes of conquest, lie gained possession of Corinth by artifice, but was arrest ed in his ambitious career by the hand of death. His son Demetrius maintained a commanding influence in the dif ferent states of Greece, not by attempting to hold the sove reignty himself, but by supporting those who found means to usurp the supreme authority. His successor, Antigonus Doson, a prince distinguished by his justice and modera tion, avoided all interference in the affairs of foreign states; and the cities of Greece, imitating the example of the Adman league, made one last attempt to recover their long lost independence.
During the distracted times of Macedonia, undcr Lysi machus and Ptolemy Ccraunus, the cities of Achaia gra dually recovered their liberties, and renewed their ancient confederacy : (Sec ACHJEANS.) Aratus of Sicyon, having freed his native city from the government of-Nicocles, joined the Achxan league, and was chosen praetor of the associated states. Intent upon delivering Peloponncsus from foreign dominion, and hoping to render the Achman confederation a barrier against future invasion, he surpris ed the Macedoniangarrison in Corinth, and attached the liberated city to the Achxans. He peruaded the gover nor of Megalopolis to abdicate his power, and follow the example of the Corinthians. Protected by the king of Egypt against the Macedonians, the Adman confederacy was thus extended on all sides, and might soon have united all the peninsula as one nation, under one government, when its progress was interrupted by the hostility of Sparta. The ancient institutions of that distinguished city had fallen into total disuse, and the manners of its inhabitants had become entirely changed. Many of its kings had incurred depo sition, exile, and death, by their attempts to resist the tor rent of corruption ; and Agis particularly, a young and vir tuous prince, had fallen a sacrifice to his well-intended, but ill-executed scheme for restoring the laws of Lycurgus. Cleomenes, one of his successors, revived the prosecution of the plan, but pushed its accomplishment with the spirit of a tyrant, rather than of a reformer. Having massacred the Ephori, arid banished the citizens who were unfriendly to his views, and rendered himself despotic at home; he turned his arms against the Achmans, either for the pur pose of gratifying his ambition, by acquiring the direction of the confederacy, or, perhaps, only with a view of secur ing his usurped authority in Sparta, by having an army at his disposal. So strong was the antipathy of the Achxan
republics to the prospect of Spartan domination, and so great at the same time their dread of its powerful tyrant, that Aratus was urged to the ruinous resource of•calling in the aid of Antigonus Doson, king of Macedonia.* Cleo mcnes, defeated by Antigonus in the famous battle of Sela sia, abandoned his ambitious projects, advised his subjects to submit to the conqueror, and sought a refuge for him self in Egypt. The Spartans were treated by Antigonus with the greatest moderation; but, from that period of its subjection to a foreign power, it sunk into insignificance, and the race of the Heraclidx became extinct with the successor of Cleomenes. The Achxan league was still preserved entire and powerful, by the able conduct and prudent measures of Aratus ; but having sought assistance from Philip of Macedonia, the son of Antigonus, against the Etolians, the inveterate enemies of Achaia, that ambi tious ally, conceiving a design to subjugate the cities of Greece, and regarding the integrity of Aratus as an in surmountable obstacle in his way, caused the virtuous pa triot to be secretly taken off by poison. The Romans, however, having formed an alliance with the Etolians, in order to occupy the arms of Philip, who had become the active ally of their formidable opponent Hannibal of Car thage, thus acquired a footing in Greece, which gradual ly led to its final subjugation, as a part of their empire. Philopcemen, the successor of Aratus, supported the cause of Philip as the professed protector of the liberties of Greece, and inspired the confederated stales will, an ar dent love of independence, which long withstood the en croachments 01 the policy and power of Rome. The strug gle maintained in Greece between the Macedonian and Roman interests, was languid and indecisive, while the latter were intent upon reducing the power of Carthage. But, after the conclusion of the second Punic war, more active measures were pursued against Philip. Titus Quin tus Flaminius, the consul, Nrtly by the vigour of his arms, but still more by his political dexterity, detached the Eto Hans, Achxans, and the most considerable of the other states, from all connection with Macedon; compelled the discomfited Philip to accept the must humiliating terms of peace ; made a pompous proclamation, at the public games, of the freedom of Greece ; withdrew, according to his promise, every Roman garrison from the different states ; and left. them in full possession of all that politi cal independence which was compatible with the alliance of Rome. Antiochus, king of Syria, instigated by Hanni bal, and aided by the Etolians attempting an invasion of Greece, recalled to that devoted country the armies of Rome, and afforded them an opportunity which they did not fail to embrace, of subjecting all that part of Europe to their growing dominion. After reducing and dismem bering the kingdom of Macedonia, they were invited to assist the Spartans in a contest with the Achan states : they soon succeeded in breaking the power of the confe deracy, by seducing a part of the cities of which it was composed ; and Philopcemen, generally designated the last of the Greeks, having fallen in an expedition against the revolted Messenians, it became no difficult task to accom plish the total overthrow of the confederacy, of which he had been so long the principal ornament and support. Above a thousand of the Achxan chiefs, accused of hav ing acted in concert with Macedonia, were transported to Rome, to answer for their conduct at the tribunal of the senate. The Achxan constitution was, soon after, entire ly dissolved ; the whole of Greece reduced to the state of a Roman province, under the name of Achaia; and, from that period, its history comes properly to be includ ed under that of Rome. See ACHMANS, MACEDONIA, and ROME.