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A debate concerning the Argives, also, was set on foot by king Attalus, who charged Nabis with holding their city by force, which was put into his hands by the treachery of Philocles; while Nabis insisted, that he had been invited by the Argives themselves to afford them protection. The king required a general assembly of the Argives to be convened, that the truth of that matter might be known.

To the Roman general, six hundred Cretans were given by Nabis, who agreed with the praetor of the Achaeans to a cessation of arms for four months, and thus they departed from the conference. Quinctius proceeded to Corinth, advancing to the gates with the cohort of Cretans, in order that it might be evident to Philocles, the governor of the city, that the tyrant had deserted the cause of Philip.

This discourse being received with general approbation, he added, "It is but reasonable, however, that while I am employed in protecting your property by my arms, my own should not be deprived of protection; therefore, if you think proper, provide such a number of troops as will be sufficient to secure Orcus, Chalcis, and Corinth; that my affairs being in a state of safety behind me, I may without anxiety make war on Nabis and the Lacedaemonians."

His whole narration was heard with the warmest approbation, except when he came to make mention of Nabis; and then they expressed their opinion, that it was utterly inconsistent with the character of the deliverer of Greece to have left seated, in the centre of one of its most respectable states, a tyrant, who was not only insupportable to his own country, but a terror to all the states in his neighbourhood.

These arrived at the first watch, and brought intelligence, that Nabis, with a few attendants, had made his way into the city, and that the rest of his army, unarmed and dispersed, were straggling through all parts of the woods; whereupon, he ordered them to refresh themselves, while he himself chose out a party of men, who, having come earlier into camp, were by this time, both recruited by food and a little rest; and, ordering them to carry nothing with them but their swords, he marched them out directly, and posted them in the roads which led from two of the gates, one towards Pherae, the other towards the Barbosthenes: for he supposed, that through these the flying enemy would make their retreat.

The Macedonian and Roman armies the latter of which had been reinforced by contingents of the Apolloniates and the Athamanes, by the Cretans sent by Nabis, and especially by a strong band of Aetolians contained nearly equal numbers of combatants, each about 26,000 men; the Romans, however, had the superiority in cavalry.

Nabis attacked Gythium, one of the towns of the free Laconians that by the last treaty had been annexed to the Achaean league, and took it; but the experienced -strategus- of the Achaeans, Philopoemen, defeated him at the Barbosthenian mountains, and the tyrant brought back barely a fourth part of his army to his capital, in which Philopoemen shut him up.

Cease, therefore, to vaunt your good faith, and the obligations of treaties; and, dropping a popular style of discourse, speak as a tyrant, and as an enemy." Aristaenus then began, at first to advise, and afterwards even to beseech Nabis, while it was yet in his power, and he had the opportunity, to consider what was best for himself and his interests.

Not unlike these instances was the plan taken by the Etolians to rid themselves of Nabis, the Spartan tyrant, to whom, under pretence of succouring him, they sent Alasamenes, their fellow-citizen, with two hundred foot soldiers and thirty horsemen. For they imparted their real design to Alasamenes only, charging the rest, under pain of exile, to obey him in whatever he commanded.

It is possible that Flamininus, who knew Nabis and could not but be aware how desirable it was that he should personally be superseded, omitted to take such a step from the mere desire to have done with the matter and not to mar the clear impression of his successes by complications that might be prolonged beyond all calculation; it is possible, moreover, that he sought to preserve Sparta as a counterpoise to the power of the Achaean confederacy in the Peloponnesus.