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.