ABSTRACT
Philopoemen’s drastic and brutal intervention at Sparta in 188 served among other things to restore the political unity of the Peloponnese that Achaea had at last achieved, with grudging Roman acquiescence, in 191. Rome’s attitude to the restoration of Spartan exiles was clear in principle, but something or someone more was required to convince Rome that words were no longer sufficient and to persuade the Achaeans to adopt a more flexible, pragmatic submissive attitude towards Rome’s increasingly impatient directives. Achaea’s brave experiment in federalism —‘the first attempt on a large scale to reconcile local independence with national strength’ — was thus brutally terminated after a century and a third. Sparta, of course, fared much better under the new Roman dispensation, since she had played no active part in the Achaean War. Formally, Sparta was exempt from the burden of tribute. Sparta’s political impotence and dependence on Rome the suzerain cannot be gainsaid.
