The Peril of the Republic of the United States of America - Percy T. Magan

number, his own familiar friend, the historian
Polybius. But the manner in which Cato pleaded
their cause deserves to be recorded. He represented
the Achaian prisoners as unworthy of the notice of
the senate of Rome. ‘We sit here all day,’ said he,
‘as if we had nothing to do, debating about the fate
of a few wretched old Greeks, whether the
undertakers of Rome or of Achaia are to have the
burying of them.’ We have dwelt the more fully on
this treatment of the Achaians, because it sets in
the clearest light the character of the Roman
government; and enables us to appreciate the state
of the world under the Roman dominion, when
such men as Polybius were subject to the worst
oppression and insolence from a nation which
boasted of Cato the censor as one of its greatest
ornaments.
“Hitherto, however, Achaia and the rest of
Greece still enjoyed a nominal independence,
notwithstanding the real supremacy of the Roman
power. But within little more than twenty years
from the overthrow of Perseus, even these poor
remains of freedom were destroyed.”[12]
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