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fight with him. So across he came with his forces, pre- tending, as a specious cause of the war, that it was to free the Greeks, who had indeed no need of it, they having been but newly dehvered from the power of king Phihp and the Macedonians, and made independent, with the free use of their own laws, by the goodness of the Eo- mans themselves ; so that all Greece was in commotion and excitement, having been corrupted by the hopes of royal aid which the popular leaders in their cities put them into. Mauius, therefore, sent ambassadors to the dif' ferent cities ; and Titus Flamininus (as is written in the ac- count of him) suppressed and quieted most of the attempts of the innovators, without any trouble. Cato brought over the Corinthians, those of Patrae and of ^gium, and spent a good deal of time at Athens. There is also an oration of his said to be extant, which he spoke in Greek to the people ; in which he expressed his admira- tion of the virtue of the ancient Athenians, and signified that he came with a great deal of pleasure to be a spec- tator of the beauty and greatness of their city. But this is a fiction ; for he spoke to the Athenians by an inter- preter, though he was able to have spoken himself; but he wished to observe the usage of his own country, and laughed at those who admired nothing but what was in Greek. Jesting upon Postumius Albinus, who had writ- ten an historical work in Greek, and requested that allow- ances might be made for his attempt, he said, that allow- ance indeed might be made, if he had done it under the express compulsion of an Amphictyonic decree. The Athe- nians, he says, admired the quickness and vehemence of his speech ; for an interpreter would be very long in re- peating what he expressed with a great deal of brevity ; but on the whole he professed to believe, that the words of the Greeks came only from their lips, whilst those of the Romans came from their hearts.