Book 7
6.8
This was the policy of all the Peloponnesians at this time. But when the Gauls had somehow crossed in ships to Asia278 B.C., the condition of the Greeks was as follows. No Greek state was preeminent in strength. For the Lacedaemonians were still prevented from recovering their former prosperity by the reverse at Leuctra combined with the union of the Arcadians at Megalopolis and the settlement of Messenians on their border.
6.9
Thebes had been brought so low by Alexander335 B.C. that when, a few years later, Cassander brought back her people, they were too weak even to hold their own. The Athenians had indeed the goodwill of Greece, especially for their later exploits, but they never found it possible to recover from the Macedonian war.
7.1
When the Greeks no longer took concerted action, but each state acted for itself alone, the Achaeans enjoyed their greatest power. For except Pellene no Achaean city had at any time suffered from tyranny, while the disasters of war and of pestilence touched Achaia less than any other part of Greece. So we have what was called the Achaean League, and the Achaeans had a concerted policy and carried out concerted actions.
7.2
As a place of assembly they resolved to have Aegium, for, after Helice had been swallowed up by the sea, Aegium from of old surpassed in reputation the other cities of Achaia, while at the time it enjoyed great power. Of the remaining Greeks the Sicyonians were the first to join the Achaean League, and after the Sicyonians there entered it yet other Peloponnesians, some forthwith and others after an interval. Some too who lived outside the Isthmus were persuaded to join the Achaean League by its unbroken growth in power.
