Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
reinstated her in her former liberties.
Thus they entertained their tongues and thoughts; whilst Titus by his
actions made good what had been proclaimed. For he immediately
dispatched away Lentulus to Asia, to set the Bargylians free,
Titillius to Thrace, to see the garrisons of Philip removed out of
the towns and islands there, while Publius Villius set sail, in order
to treat with Antiochus about the freedom of the Greeks under him.
Titus himself passed on to Chalcis, and sailing thence to Magnesia,
dismantled the garrisons there, and surrendered the government into
the people's hands. Shortly after, he was appointed at Argos to
preside in the Nemean games, and did his part in the management of
that solemnity singularly well; and made a second publication there
by the crier, of liberty to the Greeks; and, visiting all the cities,
he exhorted them to the practice of obedience to law, of constant
justice, and unity, and friendship one towards another. He
suppressed their factions, brought home their political exiles; and,
in short, his conquest over the Macedonians did not seem to give him
a more lively pleasure, than to find himself prevalent in reconciling
Greeks with Greeks; so that their liberty seemed now the least part
of the kindness he conferred upon them.
The story goes, that when Lycurgus the orator had rescued Xenocrates
the philosopher from the collectors who were hurrying him away to
prison for non-payment of the alien tax, and had them punished for
the license they had been guilty of, Xenocrates afterwards meeting
the children of Lycurgus, "My sons," said he, "I am nobly repaying
your father for his kindness; he has the praises of the whole people
in return for it." But the returns which attended Titus Quintius and
the Romans, for their beneficence to the Greeks, terminated not in
empty praises only; for these proceedings gained them, deservedly,
credit and confidence, and thereby power, among all nations, for many
not only admitted the Roman commanders, but even sent and entreated
to be under their protection; neither was this done by popular
governments alone, or by single cities; but kings oppressed by kings,
cast themselves into these protecting hands. Insomuch that in a very
short time (though perchance not without divine influence in it) all
the world did homage to them. Titus himself thought more highly of
his liberation of Greece than of any other of his actions, as appears
by the inscription with which he dedicated some silver targets,
together with his own shield, to Apollo at Delphi: --
Ye Spartan Tyndarids, twin sons of Jove,
Who in swift horsemanship have placed your love,
Titus, of great Aeneas' race, leaves this
In honor of the liberty of Greece.
He offered also to Apollo a golden crown, with this inscription: --
This golden crown upon thy locks divine,
O blest Latona's son, was set to shine
By the great captain of the Aenean name.
O Phoebus, grant the noble Titus fame!
The same event has twice occurred to the Greeks in the city of
Corinth. Titus, then, and Nero again in our days, both at Corinth,
and both alike at the celebration of the Isthmian games, permitted
the Greeks to enjoy their own laws and liberty. The former (as has
been said) proclaimed it by the crier; but Nero did it in the public
meeting place from the tribunal, in a speech which he himself made to
the people. This, however, was long after.
Titus now engaged in a most gallant and just war upon Nabis, that
most profligate and lawless tyrant of the Lacedaemonians, but in the
end disappointed the expectations of the Greeks. For when he had an
opportunity of taking him, he purposely let it slip, and struck up a
peace with him, leaving Sparta to bewail an unworthy slavery; whether
it were that he feared, if the war should be protracted, Rome would
send a new general who might rob him of the glory of it; or that
emulation and envy of Philopoemen (who had signalized himself among
the Greeks upon all other occasions, but in that war especially had
done wonders both for matter of courage and counsel, and whom the
Achaeans magnified in their theaters, and put into the same balance
of glory with Titus,) touched him to the quick; and that he scorned
that an ordinary Arcadian, who had but commanded in a few re-
encounters upon the confines of his native district, should be spoken
of in terms of equality with a Roman consul, waging war as the
protector of Greece in general. But, besides, Titus was not without
an apology too for what he did, namely, that he put an end to the war
only when he foresaw that the tyrant's destruction must have been
attended with the ruin of the other Spartans.
The Achaeans, by various decrees, did much to show Titus honor: none
of these returns, however, seemed to come up to the height of the
actions that merited them, unless it were one present they made him,
which affected and pleased him beyond all the rest; which was this.
The Romans, who in the war with Hannibal had the misfortune to be
taken captives, were sold about here and there, and dispersed into
slavery; twelve hundred in number were at that time in Greece. The
reverse of their fortune always rendered them objects of
compassion; but more particularly, as well might be, when they now
met, some with their sons, some with their brothers, others with
their acquaintance; slaves with their free, and captives with their
victorious countrymen. Titus, though deeply concerned on their
behalf, yet took none of them from their masters by constraint. But
the Achaeans, redeeming them at five pounds a man, brought them
altogether into one place, and made a present of them to him, as he
was just going on shipboard, so that he now sailed away with the
fullest satisfaction; his generous actions having procured him as
generous returns, worthy a brave man and a lover of his country.
This seemed the most glorious part of all his succeeding triumph; for
these redeemed Romans (as it is the custom for slaves, upon their
manumission, to shave their heads and wear felt-hats) followed in
that habit in the procession. To add to the glory of this show,
there were the Grecian helmets, the Macedonian targets and long
spears, borne with the rest of the spoils in public view, besides
vast sums of money; Tuditanus says, 3,713 pounds weight of massy
gold, 43,270 of silver, 14,514 pieces of coined gold, called
Philippics, which was all over and above the thousand talents which
Philip owed, and which the Romans were afterwards prevailed upon,
chiefly by the mediation of Titus, to remit to Philip, declaring him
their ally and confederate, and sending him home his hostage son.
Shortly after, Antiochus entered Greece with a numerous fleet, and a
powerful army, soliciting the cities there to sedition and revolt;
abetted in all and seconded by the Aetolians, who for this long time
had borne a grudge and secret enmity to the Romans, and now suggested
to him, by way of a cause and pretext of war, that he came to bring
the Greeks liberty. When, indeed, they never wanted it less, as they
were free already, but, in lack of really honorable grounds, he was
instructed to employ these lofty professions. The Romans, in the
interim, in great apprehension of revolutions and revolt in Greece,
and of his great reputation for military strength, dispatched the
consul Manius Acilius to take the charge of the war, and Titus, as
his lieutenant, out of regard to the Greeks; some of whom he no
sooner saw, but he confirmed them in the Roman interests; others, who
began to falter, like a timely physician, by the use of the strong
remedy of their own affection for himself, he was able to arrest in
the first stage of the disease, before they had committed themselves
to any great error. Some few there were whom the Aetolians were
beforehand with, and had so wholly perverted that he could do no good
with them; yet these, however angry and exasperated before, he saved
and protected when the engagement was over. For Antiochus, receiving
a defeat at Thermopylae, not only fled the field, but hoisted sail
instantly for Asia. Manius, the consul, himself invaded and besieged
a part of the Aetolians, while king Philip had permission to reduce
the rest. Thus while, for instance, the Dolopes and Magnetians on
the one hand, the Athamanes and Aperantians on the other, were
ransacked by the Macedonians, and while Manius laid Heraclea waste,
and besieged Naupactus, then in the Aetolians' hands, Titus, still
with a compassionate care for Greece, sailed across from Peloponnesus
to the consul; and began first of all to chide him, that the victory
should be owing alone to his arms, and yet he should suffer Philip to
bear away the prize and profit of the war, and sit wreaking his anger
upon a single town, whilst the Macedonians overran several nations
and kingdoms. But as he happened to stand then in view of the
besieged, they no sooner spied him out, but they call to him from
their wall, they stretch forth their hands, they supplicate and
entreat him. At the time, he said not a word more, but turning about
with tears in his eyes, went his way. Some little while after, he
discussed the matter so effectually with Manius, that he won him over
from his passion, and prevailed with him to give a truce and time to
the Aetolians, to send deputies to Rome to petition the senate for
terms of moderation.
But the hardest task, and that which put Titus to the greatest
difficulty was, to entreat with Manius for the Chalcidians, who had
incensed him on account of a marriage which Antiochus had made in
their city, even whilst the war was on foot; a match noways suitable
in point of age, he an elderly man being enamored with a mere girl;
and as little proper for the time, in the midst of a war. She was
the daughter of one Cleoptolemus, and is said to have been
wonderfully beautiful. The Chalcidians, in consequence, embraced the
king's interests with zeal and alacrity, and let him make their city
the basis of his operations during the war. Thither, therefore, he
made with all speed, when he was routed, and fled; and reaching
Chalcis, without making any stay, taking this young lady, and his
money and friends with him, away he sails to Asia. And now Manius's
indignation carrying him in all haste against the Chalcidians, Titus
hurried after him, endeavoring to pacify and to entreat him; and, at
length, succeeded both with him and the chief men among the Romans.
The Chalcidians, thus owing their lives to Titus, dedicated to him
all the best and most magnificent of their sacred buildings,
inscriptions upon which may be seen to run thus to this day: THE
PEOPLE DEDICATE THIS GYMNASIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; so again:
THE PEOPLE CONSECRATE THE DELPHINIUM TO TITUS AND TO HERCULES; and
what is yet more, even in our time, a priest of Titus was formally
elected and declared; and after sacrifice and libation, they sing a
set song, much of which for the length of it we omit, but shall
transcribe the closing verses: --
The Roman Faith, whose aid of yore,
Our vows were offered to implore,
We worship now and evermore.
To Rome, to Titus, and to Jove,
O maidens, in the dances move.
Dances and Io-Paeans too
Unto the Roman Faith are due,
O Savior Titus, and to you.
Other parts of Greece also heaped honors upon him suitable to his
merits, and what made all those honors true and real, was the
surprising good-will and affection which his moderation and equity of
character had won for him. For if he were at any time at variance
with anybody in matters of business, or out of emulation and rivalry,
(as with Philopoemen, and again with Diophanes, when in office as
General of the Achaeans,) his resentment never went far, nor did it