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Updated: October 11, 2025
A part of the Achæan army flying, Machanidas hotly pursued. Philopoemen held back his main body until the enemy had become scattered in pursuit, when he charged upon them with such energy that they were repulsed, and over four thousand were killed.
Their proceedings might have claimed indulgence at any rate, if not approval, had their leaders been resolved to fight, and had they preferred the destruction of the nation to its bondage; but neither Philopoemen nor Lycortas thought of any such political suicide they wished, if possible, to be free, but they wished above all to live.
In 207 Philopoemen gained at Mantinea a signal victory over the Lacedaemonians, who had joined the Roman alliance; 4000 of them were left upon the field, and among them Machanidas who had made himself tyrant of Sparta.
Machanidas returning in haste, strove to cross a deep ditch between him and his foe; but as he was struggling up its side, Philopoemen transfixed him with his javelin, and hurled him back dead into the muddy ditch. This victory greatly enhanced the fame of the Arcadian general.
Rome, which Pyrrhus had gone to Italy to seek, had its armies now in Greece itself, and the independence of that country would soon be no more. The next exploit of Philopoemen had to do with Messenia. Nabis, the new Spartan king, had taken that city at a time when Philopoemen was out of command, the generalship of the League not being permanent.
But as Philopoemen condemned wrestling, wherein he excelled, because the preparatives that were therein employed were differing from those that appertain to military discipline, to which alone he conceived men of honour ought wholly to apply themselves; so it seems to me that this address to which we form our limbs, those writhings and motions young men are taught in this new school, are not only of no use, but rather contrary and hurtful to the practice of fight in battle; and also our people commonly make use of particular weapons, and peculiarly designed for duel; and I have seen, when it has been disapproved, that a gentleman challenged to fight with rapier and poignard appeared in the array of a man-at-arms, and that another should take his cloak instead of his poignard.
I can prepare my own dinner with as much address as Philopoemen cut wood; but no one seeing me thus engaged would think it an office in which I ought to be employed." Jane was thus prepared by Providence for that career which she rendered so illustrious through her talents and her sufferings.
The next year Philopoemen took part in a battle between King Antigonus of Macedonia and the Spartans, in which the victory was due to his charging the enemy at the head of the cavalry against the king's orders. "How came it," asked the king after the battle, "that the horse charged without waiting for the signal?"
On the loss of the commander's ship, the rest of the fleet fled as fast as each could by means of its oars. Philopoemen himself made his escape in a light advice-boat, nor did he stop his flight until he arrived at Patrae. This untoward event did not in the least damp the spirit of a man so well versed in military affairs, and who had experienced so many vicissitudes of fortune.
I shall quote the passage in Livy at length, as it runs parallel with the practice I would recommend to the painter, sculptor, or architect. "Philopoemen was a man eminent for his sagacity and experience in choosing ground, and in leading armies; to which he formed his mind by perpetual meditation, in times of peace as well as war.
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