Kitap 33
32
The date fixed for the Isthmian Games was now close at hand. These Games always drew vast crowds, owing partly to the innate love of the nation for a spectacle in which they watched contests of every kind, competitions of artistic skill, and trials of strength and speed, and partly owing to the fact that its situation between two seas made it the common emporium of Greece and Asia, where supplies were to be obtained of everything necessary or useful to man. But on this occasion it was not the usual attractions alone that drew the people from every part of Greece; they were in a state of keen expectancy, wondering what would be the future position of the country, and what fortune awaited themselves. All sorts of conjectures were formed and openly expressed as to what the Romans would do, but hardly anybody persuaded himself that they would withdraw from Greece altogether.
