The other Achaians at first retreated into Corinth, and in the course of the night scattered themselves each to his own city.  In the morning Mummius marched in and gave up the unhappy city to plunder.  All the men were slain, all the women and children taken for slaves, and when all the statues, pictures, and jewels had been gathered out of the temples and houses, the place was set on fire, and burnt unceasingly for several days; the walls were pulled down, and the city blotted out from Greece. There was so much metal of all kinds in the burning houses that it all became fused together, and produced a new and valuable metal called Corinthian brass.  The Romans were at this time still very rude and ignorant, and did not at all understand the value and beauty of the works of art they carried off.  Polybius saw two soldiers making a dice-board of one of the most famous pictures in Greece; and Mummius was much laughed at for telling the captains of the ships who took home some of the statues to exhibit in his triumph that if they lost them they should supply new ones at their own cost.  The Corinthians suffered thus for having insulted the ambassadors.  The other cities submitted without a blow, and were left untouched to govern themselves, but in subjection to Rome, and with Roman garrisons in their citadels.  Polybius was sent round them to assure them of peace, and they had it for more than 500 years, but the freedom of Greece was gone for ever.