Further Arrangements
To round out our discussion of political restructuring and formal arrangements of Mummius and the commission of ten, we may note that Mummius heard at least one interstate dispute, the old struggle over ownership of the Denthaliatis region contested by Messene and Sparta.[103] The land had been granted to Messene by Philip II and his decision confirmed by Antigonus Doson, but the Lacedaemonians, encouraged no doubt by Rome's recent support against the Achaean League, took advantage of Mummius's presence to resurrect their claim; they were, however, disappointed, for Mummius decided for the Messenians. It is true that Messene had not played an active role in the war, but this remains a noteworthy example of resistance to the temptation of unscrupulously rewarding Rome's loyal friends. The hearing of such disputes as part of a general settlement was a normal task of Roman victors, and we can prob-
ably assume that there were others in 146-145.[104] A fragmentary inscription from Nemea has been thought to imply that in 145 Mummius judged the dispute between Cleonae and Argos over the direction of the Nemean games, but the references in the text to laws and Mummius and the commission of ten may rather suggest that the dispute was negotiated not by Mummius himself but in accordance with regulations for such disputes established by him in consultation with the ten commissioners.[105]
After only six months in Greece, in the spring of 145 the commission of ten returned to Rome; Mummius presumably followed closely, bringing most if not all of his army home for a triumph in 145.[106] Greece was declared "free."[107] But this did not conclude the work to be done. We have always known that the commissioners instructed Polybius to travel through the cities, settling disputes and helping the transition to the new laws and politeia (39.5.2-3); we now know, however, that a Roman proconsul, Q. Fabius Maximus Servilianus, had taken Mummius's place and was supervising the process of adjustment.[108] But soon after ca. 144 (when Servilianus is known to have been at Patrae) Roman troops, we must assume, withdrew from Greece yet again, as they had in 194, 187, and 167.
A very different picture of Mummius's settlement of the Achaean War begins to emerge from a painstaking analysis of the evidence for his acts of reorganization and restructuring. In chapter 2 we saw that there is no reason to posit the reduction of any part of Greece to a province; now we see also that it is most improbable that tribute was levied in Greece in 146-145, and that whatever constitutional modifications Mummius introduced are unlikely to have brought radical change in local governance in the long run. The settlement of Greece of 146-145 no longer appears to signal a break with past Roman behavior; indeed, the continuities are striking. As in the past, the Roman victor "gave laws" (leges dedit ) to the defeated peoples to govern their reconstruction, and then withdrew; some of the measures—the enrollment of officials according to a property valuation,
and provisions for interstate jurisdiction—recall precedents set by Flamininus.[109] Financial exploitation of victory in perpetuum was evidently a consideration secondary to others: Rome declined to extend its administrative and military responsibilities, even though they might have been made to pay for themselves through the levying of tribute.[110] None of this, of course, implied the abdication of imperium : quite the contrary, as I believe the most notorious Roman action—the destruction of Corinth—shows.