Book 30
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The first object of the Athenian embassy was the The Athenians ask for the restoration of Haliartus; failing that, to have its territory, with Delos and Lemnos themselves. restoration of Haliartus;Haliartus had been taken by the praetor L. Lucretius Gallus in B.C. 171, its inhabitants sold into slavery, and its houses and its houses and walls entirely destroyed. Its crime was siding with Perseus. Livy, 42, 63. Supra bk. 27, ch. 5; 29, 12. but when they met with a refusal on that point, they changed the subject of their appeal and put forward their own claim to the possession of Delos, Lemnos, and the territory of Haliartus. No one could properly find fault with them for this, as far as Delos and Lemnos were concerned, for they had of old laid claim to them; but there is good reason for reproaching them in respect to the territory of Haliartus. Haliartus was nearly the most ancient city in Boeotia; had met with a heavy misfortune: instead of endeavouring in every possible way to restore it,—to contribute to its utter annihilation, and to deprive its dispossessed inhabitants of even their hopes for the future, was an act which would be thought worthy of no Greek nation, and least of all of the Athenians. They open their own territory to all comers; and to take away that of others can never appear consonant with the spirit of their State. However, the Senate granted them Delos and Lemnos. Such was the decision in the Athenian business. . . .
21
As to Lemnos and Delos they had, according to the proverb, got the wolf by the ears:The possession of these places a misfortune to Athens. See 32, 17. for they suffered much ill fortune from their quarrels with the Delians; and from the territory of Haliartus they reaped shame rather than profit. . . .
