Megalopolis

“ Not sure of this assistance, the Megalopolitans had appealed to Athens, an appeal which gave occasion to the oration of Demosthenes, Περὶ Μέγαλοπολιτῶν. The Spartans were now obliged to conclude peace with Megalopolis and acknowledge her autonomy. Nevertheless their feeling of hostility did not cease, and Megalopolis consequently entered into friendly relations with Philip of Macedon. Twenty years later, when the Spartans and their allies rebelled against the power of Macedon, Megalopolis remained firm in its allegiance, and was subjected to a long siege. ”

“ Lying toward Megalopolis, also a beneficiary of Epaminondas, it seemed to reunite in a new hope the old Arcadia and the old Messenia whose friendship had been so futile. To-day, still a strangely impressive monument, it may serve as a symbol of Messenia’s share in the spirit of Greece. Impotent in literature and art and unsuccessful even in war, the men of this country conserved through many generations and vicissitudes that intense national feeling which existed at the core of every Greek state, shaping Greek history and penetrating Greek literature. ”

“ But not even Epaminondas could make of Arcadia a first-class power, and a sufficient counterpoise to Sparta. Megalopolis is now wholly deserted, and represented only by the little village of Sinanu, half a mile distant, where we stopped at a khan kept by an old soldier of Colocotroni, and ran, while dinner was preparing, to examine the scanty ruins of the great city—interesting only from their association with a great name. ”

“ To the modern traveller Megalopolis still presents features of interest. Its wide and open landscape embraces fertile plains and wooded hills and refreshing streams, which present a pleasing contrast to the dreary stretch of country on the eastern side of Arcadia. There are also some interesting ruins (excavated by the British School of Archæology in 1890-93) , the best preserved of which is the theatre, described by Pausanias as the largest in Greece, and supposed to have been capable of accommodating nearly 20,000 persons. ”

“ But for foreign aid, Megalopolis would now have been in great difficulty. A pressing request was sent to the Thebans, who despatched into Arcadia three thousand hoplites under Pammenes. This force enabled the Megalopolitans, though not without measures of considerable rigor, to uphold the integrity of their city, and keep the refractory members in communion. ”

“ After this battle many of the inhabitants of Megalopolis sought to return to their former homes, and it was only by the assistance of three thousand Thebans under Pammenes that the authorities were able to prevent them from doing so. In 353, when Thebes had her hands full with the so-called Sacred War, the Spartans made an attempt to reduce Megalopolis ”

“ Near this sanctuary is a spring, the water flowing down from which is received by the Helisson.
8.33.1 Megalopolis was founded by the Arcadians with the utmost enthusiasm amidst the highest hopes of the Greeks, but it has lost all its beauty and its old prosperity, being today for the most part in ruins. I am not in the least surprised, as I know that heaven is always willing something new, and likewise that all things, strong or weak, increasing or decreasing, are being changed by Fortune, who drives them with imperious necessity according to her whim. ”

“ In Polybius critical vigilance, scientific austerity, a keen desire for ample and severe history, attain to so high a level that one would feel disposed to treat the historian of Megalopolis like one of those great pagans that medieval imagination admitted to Paradise, or at least to Purgatory, as worthy of having known the true God by extraordinary means and as a reward for their intense moral conscience. ”

“ From Megalopolis are also roads to the interior of Arcadia, as to Methydrium 170 stades from Megalopolis, and 13 stades further to the place called Scias, where are ruins of a temple to Sciadian Artemis, erected tradition says by Aristodemus the tyrant. And 10 stades further there are the ruins of a place called Charisiæ, and another 10 stades further is Tricoloni, which was formerly a town; and there is still on the hill a temple and square statue of Poseidon, and a grove of trees round the temple. ”

“ Most of the citizens escaped to Messene under the leadership of the brave Philopœmen, and the city was afterwards rebuilt, taking a leading part in the Achæan League, until the supremacy of Roman arms could no longer be disputed. Among its citizens at the beginning of the second century B.C., Megalopolis could boast of two of the greatest Greeks of their time, the gallant soldier just mentioned, who humbled the pride of Sparta and extorted the admiration of his Roman adversaries, and his young friend Polybius, the famous historian. ”

“ As we reached the highest point, and were about to descend, Dhemetri pointed out a village, distinguished by a single tall, slender cypress, with the words; 'There is Megalopolis.' This is the city founded by Epaminondas, almost the only statesman of antiquity who seems to have had a dim conception of the modern policy of the balance of power, as a point of union for the jealous and disunited States of Arcadia, and as a sentinel stationed at a chief entrance to Laconia. ”

“ Rugged mountains and gloomy defiles, a harsh and wintry climate, a poor and barren soil, tilled with infinite patience; a home that exiled its children to seek bread at the risk of their blood, a climate more opposed to intelligence and to culture than even Bœotian fogs, a safe retreat of bears and wolves—this is the Arcadia of old Greek history. Politically it has no weight whatever till the days [pg 352] of Epaminondas, and the foundation of Megalopolis. ”

“ Whoever reads attentively the oration delivered by Demosthenes in the Athenian assembly (about ten years after this period) respecting the propriety of sending an armed force to defend Megalopolis against the threats of Sparta—will see, I think, that Athens can never before have sent any military assistance to Megalopolis. Both the arguments which Demosthenes urges, and those which he combats as having been urged by opponents, exclude the reality of any such previous proceeding. ”

“ In 232 B. C., Megalopolis joined the Achaian league, and was taken and ruined by Cleomenes. At that period it was as large a city as Sparta. Its most valuable paintings and sculptures were conveyed to the Laconian capital, and great part of the city destroyed.
The Athenians, soon after, beginning to see the impropriety of not keeping up the balance of power in Greece, Demosthenes signalised himself greatly in endeavouring to persuade them to take part with the Megalopolitans. "It has been a perpetual maxim with us," said he, "to assist the oppressed against the oppressor. ”

“ The new fortress of Megalopolis, instead of supplying a centre of national life, merely accentuated the mutual jealousy of the cities. During the Hellenistic age Megalopolis stood staunchly by Macedonia; the rest of Arcadia rebelled against Antipater (330, 323) and Antigonus Gonatas (266) . Similarly the various cities were divided in their allegiance between the Achaean and the Aetolian leagues, with the result that Arcadia became the battleground of these confederacies, or fell a prey to Sparta and Macedonia. ”

“ Several refused to join, and the inhabitants of one of them, called Trapezus, a very old settlement, rather than give up their independence, preferred to be put to the sword, those who escaped emigrating to their daughter-city of the same name, on the southern shore of the Black Sea. The name Megalopolis was not unsuitable, considering that the walls of the city were more than five and a half miles in circumference, and that the territory attached to it extended twenty-four miles on the north. ”

“ Sparta, favoured by the depression of Thebes in the Phocian War, was threatening Megalopolis. Both Sparta and Megalopolis sent embassies to Athens. Demosthenes supported Megalopolis. The ruin of Megalopolis would mean, he argued, the return of Spartan domination in the Peloponnesus. Athenians must not favour the tyranny of any one city. They must respect the rights of all the cities, and thus promote unity based on mutual confidence. ”

“ But the distance between Aristomachos and Lydiadas may mark the distance between Argos and the first of Grecian cities, when that name had passed away from Argos, Sparta, Athens, and Thebes to Megalopolis, mother of Achaian statesmen.
Still with all this, Argos is a great name. A continuous being, a continuous history, from the Homeric Catalogue to the War of Independence, is something which Megalopolis and even Sparta cannot boast of. Sparta—Lakedaimonia in later phrase—gave way to Misthra; modern Sparta is a new and artificial creation. ”

“ The soldiers followed fully armed and mounted, with looks neither altogether sad as in mourning, nor lofty as in victory. The people from all towns and villages in their way, flocked out to meet him, as at his return from conquest, and, saluting the urn, fell in with the company, and followed on to Megalopolis; where, when the old men, the women and children were mingled with the rest, the whole city was filled with sighs, complaints, and cries, the loss of Philopœmen seeming to them the loss of their own greatness, and of their rank among the Achæans. ”

“ But the North Wind was it seems destined to be a benefactor to all the Greeks, for it shattered most of the Persian ships at the rocks called Sepiades, [33] and the same Wind prevented the capture of Megalopolis, for it broke in pieces Agis’ battering-ram by a strong continuous and irresistible blast. This Agis, whom the North Wind thus prevented taking Megalopolis, is the same who was driven out of Pellene in Achaia by the Sicyonians under Aratus [34] and who afterwards died at Mantinea. And no long time afterwards Cleomenes the son of Leonidas took Megalopolis in time of peace. ”

“ In the following year he delivered a speech which is of considerable interest as showing his view of Greek politics at the time. It was important, he thought, for Athens that there should be, as we say, a balance of power in the Greek world, and that neither Sparta nor Thebes should be too strong. I have explained the circumstances under which Megalopolis was founded in 371 B.C., after the great battle of Leuctra, under Theban influence, as the metropolis of Arcadia, and specially as a check on Sparta. ”

“ When he was king, so much of his policy as did not look to the aggrandizement of his empire was directed to the rehabilitation of Greek cities and temples. Megalopolis, Tegea in Arcadia, Delos, Rhodes, were the beneficiaries of his Philhellenic enthusiasm. The truckling Samaritans—at least the Hellenizing party among them—knew that nothing would make a quicker appeal to him than to rename the sanctuary on Gerizim in honor of Zeus Hellenius. ”

“ In antiquity superb forests of oaks and pines, coverts for many a wild beast, contributed to that general physical wildness which prevented a people untouched by foreign ideas from uniting in a progressive political life. Even against the background of Greek individualism their history is conspicuously one of separate towns. And of these towns few attained to any eminence.
Arcadia contained the oldest and the youngest of all Greek cities. The latter, Megalopolis, is still in civic existence, and is the terminus of the modern railroad ride from Athens for those who are on their way to Bassæ. ”

“ If, on the other hand, Megalopolis makes alliance frankly with us, and the Spartans then refuse to keep the peace, it will surely be clear to all that what the Spartans desire so eagerly is not the re-establishment of Thespiae, but an opportunity of subduing the Peloponnese while the Thebans are involved in the war. [13] 29 And I am surprised to find that there are some who are alarmed at the prospect of the enemies of Sparta becoming allies of Thebes, and yet see nothing to fear in the subjugation of these enemies by Sparta herself ”

“ Behind the government offices is a temple of Fortune with a stone image not less than five feet high. The portico called Myropolis, situated in the agora, was built from the spoils taken when the Lacedemonians fighting under Acrotatus, the son of Cleomenes, suffered the reverse sustained at the hands of Aristodemus, then tyrant of Megalopolis. ”

“ When some one praised that prince for carefully training his army and exercising himself under arms every day, Philopœmen answered, "Who can admire a king of Ptolemy's age who is still practising and not performing." However, the citizens of Megalopolis were much vexed by his conduct, which they considered to be that of a traitor, and would have banished him had they not been restrained by the whole body of the Achæans. ”

“ We found it as impossible to disperse our body guard of boys and girls as had been the case the evening before at Megalopolis. Foreign visitors in Andhritsæna are few enough to be objects of universal but not unkindly curiosity to young and old; and the young, being unfettered by the insistent demands of coffee-drinking, promptly insisted on attending our pilgrimage en masse. ”

“ But when Cleomenes captured Megalopolis, Philopœmen was not dismayed at this [Pg 141] unexpected misfortune, but conveyed off safely two-thirds of the adults and all the women and children to Messene, as the Messenians were at that time their allies and well-disposed to them. And when Cleomenes sent a message to these exiles that he was sorry for what he had done, and that the people of Megalopolis might return if they signed a treaty, Philopœmen persuaded all the citizens to return only with arms in their hands, and not upon any conditions or treaty. ”