§38.31.1Philopoemen praetor, iam inde ab initio exulum causae amicus, et auctor semper Achaeis minuendi opes et auctoritatem Lacedaemoniorum, §38.31.2concilium querentibus dedit, decretumque referente eo factum est, cum in fidem Achaeorum tutelamque T. Quinctius et Romani Laconicae orae castella et vicos tradidissent, et, cum abstinere iis ex foedere Lacedaemonii deberent, Las vicus oppugnatus esset, caedesque ibi facta, qui eius rei auctores adfinesque essent, nisi dederentur Achaeis, violatum videri foedus.
The praetor Philopoemen, who had been a friend to the cause of the exiles from the very beginning, and always an advocate to the Achaeans for diminishing the power and authority of the Lacedaemonians, granted an assembly to the complainants, and on his motion a decree was passed: that since T. Quinctius and the Romans had delivered the fortresses and villages of the Laconian coast into the faith and protection of the Achaeans, and, whereas the Lacedaemonians ought to have abstained from them according to the treaty, the village of Las had been attacked and a slaughter committed there, the treaty should be deemed violated unless those who were the authors and accomplices of that deed were surrendered to the Achaeans.
§38.31.3ad exposcendos eos legati extemplo Lacedaemonem missi sunt.
Ambassadors were immediately sent to Lacedaemon to demand them.
id imperium adeo superbum et indignum Lacedaemoniis visum est, ut, si antiqua civitatis fortuna esset, haud dubie arma extemplo capturi fuerint.
This command appeared so arrogant and unworthy to the Lacedaemonians that, had the former fortune of their state remained, they would undoubtedly have taken up arms at once.
§38.31.4maxime autem consternavit eos metus, si semel primis imperiis oboediendo iugum accepissent, ne, id quod iam diu moliretur Philopoemen, exulibus Lacedaemonem traderet.
But what terrified them most of all was the fear lest, if they once accepted the yoke by obeying these first commands, Philopoemen might deliver Lacedaemon to the exiles, a thing which he had already long been scheming.
§38.31.5furentes igitur ira triginta hominibus ex factione, cum qua consiliorum aliqua societas Philopoemeni atque exulibus erat, interfectis decreverunt renuntiandam societatem Achaeis legatosque extemplo Cephallaniam mittendos, qui consuli M. Fulvio quique Romanis Lacedaemonem dederent orarentque eum, §38.31.6ut veniret in Peloponnesum ad urbem Lacedaemonem in fidem dicionemque populi Romani accipiendam.
Furious with rage, therefore, after putting to death thirty men of the faction with which Philopoemen and the exiles had some association of counsels, they decreed that the alliance with the Achaeans should be renounced, and that ambassadors should be sent immediately to Cephallania to surrender Lacedaemon to the consul M. Fulvius and to the Romans, and to entreat him to come to the Peloponnesus to receive the city of Lacedaemon into the protection and dominion of the Roman people.