813 



, PHILOPCEMEN. 



PHILOSTORGItTS. 



811 



men, and despised those who were not versed in it." When he 

 attained the age of manhood, he engaged in predatory incursions which 

 the people of Megalopolis, the constant enemies of Sparta, made into 

 Laconiea. In his leisure he applied himself to agricultural pursuits 

 for the purpose of improving his paternal estate. 



Philopcemen was thirty years of age when Cleomenes, king of Sparta, 

 surprised Megalopolis by night [CLEOMENES III.], and he was one of 

 the last to leave the town. Some time after, the Achteans, in order to 

 oppose Cleomenes, having by the advice of Aratus allied themselves 

 with Antigonus Doson, king of Macedonia, that prince came into 

 Peloponnesus, and defeated Cleomenes at the battle of Sellasia, 

 B.C. 222, to which victory Philopcemen mainly contributed. He 

 received a severe wound in this battle. His reputation now rose high, 

 and he was offered by Antigonus a command in his army, which he 

 declined. Philopcemen now repaired to Crete, and engaged as a 

 volunteer in the war which, distracted that island. During this cam- 

 paign he greatly improved himself in strategy. Aratus died B.C. 213, 

 and Philopcemen, on his return home, was made general of the 

 Aohnean cavalry. He improved the discipline of that body, recruited 

 its strength, and made it completely efficient. In a battle which was 

 fought near the river Larissus, he defeated the united jEtolians and 

 Eleans, and killed with his own baud Demophantus, the Elean general. 

 He also effected many improvements in the tactics and discipline of 

 the Achican infantry, and introduced the Macedonian order of battle. 

 War having broken out between the Achaeans and Machanidas, tyrant 

 of Sparta, Philopcemen marched against the Spartan, and defeated 

 him near Mantineia. Machanidas fell in the battle, by the hand of 

 Philopcemen. In consequence of this exploit, the Achaeans voted him 

 a statue of bronze, which was placed in the temple of Delphi. In 

 B.C. 201 Philopcemen was made strategos, or captain-general, of the 

 Achaean league, of which, from that time till his death, he was con- 

 sidered as the principal leader, having succeeded Aratus in the confi- 

 dence of the people. Philopcemen being a great obstacle in the way 

 of Philip of Macedonia, who wished to extend his sway over the inde- 

 pendent states of Greece, the king tried to have him assassinated, but 

 the plot was discovered, and only served to increase the influence of 

 Philopcemcn. Nabis, who had succeeded Machanidas as tyrant of 

 Sparta, seized Messenia ; but Philopcemen drove him out of that 

 country, and restored the Mi s-enians to their independence as allies 

 of the Achicang. Wanting employment at home, he went a second 

 time to Crete, at the request of the Gortynians, and served in the 

 wars of that island. Returning home about B.C. 197, he found Philip 

 beaten by the Romans under Flamininue, and obliged to sue for peace, 

 the Acbacans allied to Rome, and Nabis at war both with the Achacans 

 and with Rome. Philopcemen equipped a fltet against Nabis, but he 

 failed in his naval operations. He then attacked him by land and 

 defeated him; and Gytbium and the other sea-ports of Laconiea, being 

 taken from Nabis, were occupied by Achaean garrisons under an agree- 

 lui lit with Flamininus, the Roman commander. When Nabis was 

 murdered by his Jitolian auxiliaries, B.C. 192, Philopcemen marched 

 upon Sparta, which was in a state of great confusion, and obliged the 

 citizens to join the Achaean League, which then included all the 

 Peloponnesus, with the exception of Klis. 



During the subsequent war between Antiochus and the Romans, 

 Philopocmen, who was more clear-sighted than most of hi* country- 

 men with respect to the ambitious policy of Rome, recommended 

 caution, and tried to confirm the Spartans in their friendship with the 

 Achxans. Some time after however the citizens of Sparta, impatient 

 at being cut off from the sea-coast, attempted to surprise a seaport 

 called Las, but were repulsed by the Achaeans, joined to the Lacedae- 

 monian emigrants who had been exiled by Nabis. The Achaeans 

 passed a decree requiring Sparta to give up the authors of the attempt 

 upon Las. The pride of the Spartans was roused ; they refused 

 compliance, put to death several of their countrymen who were in 

 favour of the Achscana, and cent envoys to the Roman Proconsul 

 Fulvius, who had just effected the subjugation of the .lEtolians, B.O. 

 189. Philopccmen, who was strategos of the Aehaeans for that year, 

 devastated Laconiea. Fulvius came into Peloponnesus, and advised 

 both parties to send messengers to Rome, and to suspend hostilities. 

 The Aehaeans sent Diophanes and Lycortas, the father of the historian 

 Polybius. The senate returned an ambiguous answer, which the 

 Acbeeans interpreted in their favour ; and Philopcemen, being re-elected 

 atrategon for the following year, B.C. 188, marched into Laconiea, and 

 again demanded the authors of the attack upon Las and of the with- 

 drawal from the Achaean alliance, with a promise that they should not 

 be punihed without a trial. Upon this several of the persons impli- 

 cated in this affair came forward and went voluntarily to the Achaean 

 camp, accompanied by others of the principal citizens of Sparta. As 

 they approached the Achaean camp, the emigrants who formed the 

 Achaean advanced-guard fell upon their own countrymen, and killed 

 seventeen of them, when Pbilopocmen interfered and saved the rest 

 (sixty-three in number) from immediate destruction. The next day 

 he brought them before the assembled Achrams and Lacedaemonian 

 emigrants, and, after a mock trial, they were sentenced to death and 

 executed. The Spartans in dismay submitted to Philopcemcn, who 

 dictated to them hard conditions, namely, that the walls of the town 

 should be razed, that all emigrants should be restored, that all the 

 mercenary troops should quit Laconiea, as well as all the slaves who 



had been emancipated by Nabis and other tyrants. About 3000 of 

 these refusing to leave the country, Philopcemen sold them, and 

 opplied the money thus produced to rebuilding a portico in Megalo- 

 polis which had been destroyed by Cleomenes. But the hardest 

 condition which Philopcemen imposed upon Sparta was that of abolish- 

 ing the laws and discipline of Lycurgus, and obliging the Spartans to 

 adopt the institutions of the Aehaeans and bring up their children 

 after the Achaean fashion, being convinced, says Plutarch, " that their 

 spirit could never be humbled so long as they adhered to their old 

 institutions." Thus, in the year B.C. 188, the laws of Lycurgus were 

 abrogated, after having subsisted for ssven centuries, (though for a 

 long time ill-observed) during which Sparta had maintained a proud 

 station among the states of Greece. The Spartans again appealed to 

 Rome, and the consul Q. C. Metellus, on his return from Macedonia, 

 where he had been on an embassy, appeared before the council of the 

 Achaeans assembled at Argos, and complained that they had treated 

 the Spartana with undue severity. Arisfaenus, the strategos for the 

 year, was in the Roman interest, and Diophanes also blamed the 

 conduct of Philopcemen ; but Lycortas defended his conduct, and the 

 council resolved that the decree concerning Sparta should not be 

 repealed. It was perhaps on this occasion that PMlopcemen, indignant 

 at the servility exhibited by Aristanus towards the Romans, is reported 

 by Plutarch to have exclaimed, "And why in eueh haste, wretched 

 man, to see an end of Greece?" Envoys were sent to Rome by tho 

 Achaeans to justify their conduct, and the Spartans, on their side, sent 

 two of the restored exiles, who took a violent part against the 

 Achaeans. The senate, having heard both parties, sent Appius Clau- 

 dius and others as commissioners to the Peloponnesus. A general 

 congress of the Achaoans being called, Appius Claudius declared that 

 the senate was displeased with the manner in which Sparta had been 

 treated, tho massacre of eighty of its citizens, the demolition of its 

 walls, and the abrogation of the laws of Lycurgus. It was on this 

 occasion that Lycortas made that eloquent speech in reply which is 

 given by Livy (xxxix. 36, 37), in which, after defending the conduct of 

 the Aehaeans, he retorted upon the Romans their own conduct towards 

 the free state of Capua during the second Punie war. Appius haughtily 

 advised the Achaeans to do with a good grace that which otherwise 

 they would be obliged to do against their will. The congress then 

 declared, that rather than reverse their own decrees, they left it to 

 the senate to make what changes they thought proper. TLe senate, 

 seemingly satisfied with this submission, allowed Sparta to continue in, 

 the Achasan league, on the condition of a general amnesty and the 

 restoration of all political exiles. 



In the year beginning May 183 B.C., Philopcemen, then seventy 

 years of age, was elected strategos for the eighth time. About this 

 time, Messene, through the influence of one of its citizens named 

 Dinocrates, threw off its alliance with the Achoaans. Flamininus, the 

 Roman general, who had been just appointed ambassador to Prusias, 

 king of Bithynia, to demand of him the person of Hannibal, on 

 arriving at Naupactus, wrote to Philopcemen, requesting him to call 

 together a general congress of the Achaxuis to discuss the affairs of 

 Slessene. Philopccmea, knowing that he had no instructions from the 

 senate for the purpose, declined to do so, and prepared for war against 

 Messene. He marched with a body of cavalry, but finding a stout 

 resistance, he was obliged to fall back. Being the last to retire, he 

 was surrounded by the enemy, thrown from his horse, wounded in 

 the fall, and taken prisoner to Messene. The citizens of Messene felt 

 for his age and his misfortune, but a few of the leading men of the 

 faction of Dinocrates determined on getting rid of him. They put 

 him in a dark dungeon called " the Treasury," and in the night they 

 sent the executioner to him with a cup of poison. Philopcemen asked 

 the man whether he knew what had become of the AcliEcan cavalry, 

 and especially of his friend Lycortas 1 The man answered that they 

 had retired in safety. " Then we are not altogether unhappy," 

 observed the aged general, and he took the cup and drank the poison 

 winch soon put an end to his life (B.C. 182). The news spread rapidly 

 through Achsea. Lyeortas, being appointed strategos, marched to 

 avenge the death of his friend. The Messenians opened their gates, 

 Dinocrates killed himself, and the remains of PMlopcemeu being 

 burned, the ashes were collected in an urn, which was carried by 

 young Polybius in solemn procession of the Achaean army to Megalo- 

 polis. The Messenian prisoners wlio had been concerned in the death 

 of Philopcemen were stoned to death. Statues to his honour were 

 set up in most Grecian cities. Philopccmen has been styled by some 

 the last of the Greeks : he was certainly the last of their successful 

 commanders. 



PHILOSTO'RGIUS, a native of Cappadocia, wos born A.D. 364. 

 He went to Constantinople to complete his studies, and afterwards 

 wrote a History of the Church, in twelve books, from the beginning 

 of the schism of Arius, to A.D. 425. The work is lost, but we. have an 

 epitome of it by Photius, independent of a short notice of it in his 

 ' Bibliotheca." (' Myrobiblon,' Cod. 40.) Photius inveighs against the 

 author as a heretic, and an apologist of Arius, Eusebius of Nicorneclia, 

 Apollinaris, and other heretics. Philostorgius was a man of general 

 information, and he inserted in his narrative many geographical and 

 other details of remote countries, especially of Asia and Africa. He 

 was rather credulous with regard to prodigies, monsters, and other 

 wonderful things, and Photius censures his credulity in attributing 



