CHAPTER L

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And as the Achæans left everything to him and made him everybody, he changed the arms of the infantry, for, whereas before they bore short spears and oblong shields like those in use among the Celts and Persians (called _thyrei_ and _gerrha_), he persuaded them to wear breastplates and greaves, and also to use the shields in use in Argolis and long spears. And when Machanidas rose to power in Lacedæmon, and war again broke out between the Achæans and the Lacedæmonians under him, Philopœmen was commander in chief of the Achæan force, and in the battle of Mantinea the light-armed Lacedæmonians beat the light-armed troops of the Achæans, and Machanidas pressed upon them in their flight, but Philopœmen forming his infantry into a square routed the Lacedæmonian hoplites, and fell in with Machanidas as he was returning from the pursuit and slew him. Thus the Lacedæmonians, though they lost the battle, were more fortunate from their reverse than one would have anticipated, for they were freed from their tyrant. And not long after, when the Argives were celebrating the Nemean games, Philopœmen happened to be present at the contest of the harpers: and Pylades a native of Megalopolis (one of the most noted harpers of the day who had carried off the victory at the Pythian games), at that moment striking up the tune of the Milesian Timotheus called Persæ, and commencing at the words

“Winning for Hellas the noble grace of freedom,”

all the Greeks gazed earnestly on Philopœmen, and signified by clapping that they referred to him the words of the Ode. A similar tribute of respect was I understand paid to Themistocles at Olympia, where the whole theatre rose up on his entrance. Philip indeed, the son of Demetrius, the king of the Macedonians, who also poisoned Aratus of Sicyon, sent men to Megalopolis with orders to kill Philopœmen, and though unsuccessful in this he was execrated by all Greece. And the Thebans who had beaten the Megarians in battle, and had already got inside the walls at Megara, through treachery on the part of the Megarians, were so alarmed at the arrival of Philopœmen to the rescue, that they went home again without effecting their object. And again there rose up at Lacedæmon a tyrant called Nabis, who attacked the Messenians first of the Peloponnesians, and as he made his attack by night, when they had no expectation of it, he took all Messene but the citadel, but upon Philopœmen’s coming up the next day with an army he departed from it on conditions of war.

And Philopœmen, when the time of his command expired, and other Achæans were chosen as commanders, went a second time to Crete and helped the Gortynians who were pressed hard in war. But as the Arcadians were vexed with him for going abroad he returned from Crete, and found the Romans at war with Nabis. And as the Romans had equipped a fleet against Nabis, Philopœmen in his zeal wished to take part in the contest, but being altogether without experience of the sea, he unwittingly embarked on an unseaworthy trireme, so that the Romans and their allies remembered the lines of Homer, in his Catalogue of the ships, about the ignorance of the Arcadians in maritime affairs.[47] And not many days after this naval engagement Philopœmen and his regiment, taking advantage of a dark night, set the camp of the Lacedæmonians at Gythium on fire. Thereupon Nabis intercepted Philopœmen and all the Arcadians with him on difficult ground, they were very brave but there were very few of them. But Philopœmen changed the position of his troops, so that the advantage of the ground rested with him and not with the enemy, and, defeating Nabis and slaying many of the Lacedæmonians in this night attack, raised his fame still higher among the Greeks. And after this Nabis obtained from the Romans a truce for a certain definite period, but before the time expired he was assassinated by a man from Calydon, who had come ostensibly to negotiate an alliance, but was really hostile, and had been suborned by the Ætolians for this very purpose.

[47] Iliad, ii. 614.

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