Freedom of the Ancient Greeks
By Rolf Lindgren
Prologue: Freedom of the Greeks is no longer well-known. It was well known during the Renaissance and up to the late 1800s. Our modern schools have failed us.
It was late spring in 196 BC at the Panhellenic Festival in Corinth. A momentous event in the history of human liberty was about to happen.
In the previous year, Titus Quinctius Flamininius had won a massive victory over King Philip V of Macedon at the Battle of Cynoscephalae. Flamininus was a general for the Republic of Rome. Philip V was a powerful tyrant who controlled most of Greece. (Note – this is not the same Philip of Macedon who was the father of Alexander the Great. That Philip lived 150 years earlier.)
In the momentous Battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC, Flamininus utterly destroyed the army of Macedon, even though the armies were numerically equal. This was a war that seemed to some like two great powers fighting over who controlled a bunch of small Greek city-states.
But things were different this time. Flamininius gathered together thousands of Greeks whose land was now controlled by Rome. The Greeks expected their people to be taxed and enslaved. The Greeks expected their lands to be seized. The Greeks expected raping and pillaging and large quantities of booty to be hauled off. They expected to pay tribute to Rome for many years.
The assembled Greeks sat nervously in the stadium, awaiting their fate. Then a herald sent by Flamininius addressed them. The herald said:
“The Roman Senate and Titus Quinctius Flamininus, proconsular general, having conquered King Philip and the Macedonians, restore to freedom, without garrisons and without imposts, and to the enjoyment of their ancient laws, the Corinthians, the Locrians, the Phocians, the Euboeans, the Achaeans of Phthiotis, the Magnesians, the Thessalians, and the Perrhaebians.”
The overjoyed Greeks cheered so loud that flying birds fell from the sky (per Livy and Plutarch).
Plutarch reported:
“The shout grew so immense that it reached the sea. Crows that happened to be flying over the stadium fell down into the middle of it from the sky.”
Plutarch speculated that the loud cheering created a vacuum, which sucked down the birds. Or that sound waves knocked down the birds.
The situation was staggering!
The address had to be read a second time before it was truly believed.
Another way to put it:Â The Greeks were now free and the Roman army went home to Italy.
Rolf Lindgren is the Pints & Politics Director of the Republican Party of Dane County. He is also a singer known as Wisco Rolf and his website is WiscoRolf.com – The Badger State’s Musical Maverick & Liberty’s Voice
