Pausanias Analysis

Although the Oropians had gained no advantage at all from the Achaeans, Menalcidas nonetheless exacted money from them. Once he had the bribe in his possession, he considered it a disaster even to share the profits with Callicrates. At first, indeed, he resorted to delays and tricks regarding the payment, but not long after he openly dared to deprive him of it entirely.

Indeed it confirms the saying that there is a fire burning more fiercely than other flames, and a wolf wilder than other wolves, and a hawk swifter in flight than other hawks—if in fact Callikrates, the most impious of all men at that time, surpassed even Menalkidas in treachery. Callikrates, who, inferior in every form of gain and not acting for any private profit, yet hated by the Athenian city, pursued Menalkidas, after his retirement from office, before the Achaeans, pressing for his death sentence. He asserted that Menalkidas had conducted an embassy contrary to the interests of the Achaeans at Rome, and had especially exerted himself zealously to detach Sparta from the confederacy of the Achaeans.

When Menalcidas found himself thus brought into complete peril, he handed over three talents from the funds he had taken from Oropus to Diaeus of Megalopolis. Now Diaeus had become his successor to leadership among the Achaeans, and being then eager for monetary gain, he intended to secure Menalcidas' safety even against the will of the Achaeans. Accordingly, the Achaeans, individually as well as collectively, blamed Diaeus for permitting Menalcidas' acquittal; but Diaeus diverted their accusations against himself by enticing them towards the hope of greater matters, employing for their deceit a pretext such as follows.

The Lacedaemonians appealed to the Roman Senate regarding a disputed territory. But the Roman Senate had already previously instructed them to have their disputes judged by the Achaean assembly, in all issues except those involving capital punishment. Such was the Senate's response; Diaeus, however, did not truthfully report this to the Achaeans, but deceiving them, he claimed that the Roman Senate had granted them authority even to pronounce a sentence of death against a man from Sparta.

The Achaeans demanded that judgment against the Spartans be carried out even upon each individual's person, but the Lacedaemonians neither admitted that Diaeus spoke the truth nor wished to bring the matter before the Roman Senate. The Achaeans then took up another argument, that cities subject to the Achaean League possessed no independent right to send embassies privately to Rome without the League's common consent.

Thus from these disputes war began between the Achaeans and the Lacedaemonians. Realizing they were not equal to the Achaeans in strength, the Lacedaemonians sent embassies both to their cities and privately to Diaeus himself. The cities made their replies uniformly, saying it was not lawful to disobey their general when he called for a campaign. At that time Diaeus held command of the Achaeans, and he declared that he was not marching against Sparta itself, but against those who were causing trouble within it.

When the elders asked him how many individuals he thought guilty, he sent them the names of twenty-four men who held foremost authority in all Sparta. At this point, the counsel of Agasisthenes prevailed, a man already esteemed for his wisdom, but who advanced even further in reputation after this advice. He urged that these men depart voluntarily from Lacedaemon rather than remain and become the cause of war against Sparta. He also predicted that if they fled to Rome, they would soon thereafter be brought back by the Romans.

Those who had departed were led into court by the Spartans and condemned to death by law. The Achaeans also sent Callicrates and Diaeus to Rome so that they might oppose before the Senate the Spartans who had fled. On the journey Callicrates died of disease, nor do I know whether his arrival in Rome would have benefited the Achaeans, or would rather have been the beginning of even greater misfortunes. Diaeus, however, in his debate with Menalcidas before the Senate, spoke at length, but what he heard in response was not favorable.

And the Senate answered them that it would send envoys to arbitrate all the matters of dispute between the Lacedaemonians and the Achaeans. But the journey of the ambassadors from Rome was somewhat delayed, so that Diaeus from the very beginning deceived the Achaeans, and Menalcidas the Lacedaemonians. Diaeus led the Achaeans to believe that the Roman Senate had already decided entirely in their favor against the Lacedaemonians, while Menalcidas utterly deceived the Lacedaemonians by saying that the Romans had freed them completely from political union with the Achaeans.