Aratus Elected Strategus
When the next winter came, Philip having departed
, and the Achaean Strategus
Eperatus having incurred the contempt of the
Achaean soldiers and the complete disregard
of the mercenaries, no one would obey his orders, and
no preparation was made for the defence of the country.
This was observed by Pyrrhias, who had been
sent by the Aetolians to command the Eleans.
Disorder in Achaia owing to the incompetence of the Strategus Eperatus.
He had under him a force of thirteen hundred
Aetolians, and the mercenaries hired by the
Eleans, as well as a thousand Elean infantry and
two hundred Elean cavalry, amounting in all to three thousand:
and he now began committing frequent raids, not only upon
the territories of Dyme
and Pharae, but upon that of Patrae
also. Finally he pitched his camp on what is called the Panachaean Mountain, which commands the town of Patrae
began wasting the whole district towards Rhium and Aegium.
The result was that the cities, being exposed to much suffering,
and unable to obtain any assistance, began to make difficulties
about paying their contribution to the league; and the soldiers
finding their pay always in arrear and never paid at the right
time acted in the same way about going to the relief of the
towns. Both parties thus mutually retaliating on each other,
affairs went from bad to worse, and at last the foreign contingent broke up
May, B.C. 217. Aratus the elder elected Strategus.
And all this was the result of the
incompetence of the chief magistrate. The time for the next election finding Achaean
affairs in this state, Eperatus laid down his office,
and just at the beginning of summer Aratus the elder was
Such was the position of affairs in Europe
. We have now
arrived at a proper juncture, both of events
and of time, to transfer our narrative to the
history of Asia
. I will therefore resume my
story of the transactions which occurred there during the same