Fortune and Degeneracy of the Boeotians
Such being the state of Boeotian politics, it was only by
extraordinary good fortune that they evaded destruction in the
dangerous periods of the wars of Philip and Antiochus. But
in the succeeding period they did not escape in the same way.
Fortune, on the contrary, seemed determined to make them
pay for their former good luck by a specially severe retribution,
as I shall relate hereafter. . . .
Many of the Boeotians defended their alienation from
Antiochus received in Thebes, B. C. 192.
the Romans by alleging the assassination of
and the expedition made by Flamininus upon Coronea owing to the murders of
Romans on the roads.2
But the real reason was their moral
degeneracy, brought about by the causes I have mentioned.
For as soon as the king approached, the Boeotian magistrates
went out to meet him, and after holding a friendly conversation with him conducted him into Thebes. . . .