by Plutarch
The behaviour of the Achaeans towards Mantinea230 has also been condemned as contrary to the values of the Greeks. For after they had conquered the Mantineans, with the assistance of Antigonus, they put to death the most illustrious or eminent of its citizens. Of the rest of the population, some they sold into slavery, others they sent to Macedon in chains, and they enslaved their children and wives. They divided among themselves a third of the money thus acquired, and the other two thirds they handed over to the Macedonians. Admittedly, these actions conform to the law of reprisal, for although it is an odious thing to treat men of the same race and blood in this way out of anger, nevertheless ‘in the midst of necessity even cruelty becomes sweet’,231 as Semonides puts it, applying, as it were, healing and restoration to an anguished and festering soul. Where the subsequent treatment of this city is concerned, however, Aratus can hardly be excused by appealing either to honour or necessity. After the Achaeans received this city as a gift from Antigonus, they decided to resettle it and chose Aratus as its founder. He was also general at the time and secured a decree abolishing the name of Mantinea and instead naming the city Antigonea, which it is called even today.232 And so, because of Aratus, the name of ‘lovely Mantinea’233 appears to have been altogether blotted out, while its current name preserves the honour of those who exterminated and killed its citizens.
46. Later Cleomenes was defeated in a decisive battle234 near Sellasia. He then quit Sparta and sailed for Egypt.235 Antigonus, after he had shown Aratus every just and friendly consideration, led his forces back to Macedon. There he fell ill, and so he sent the successor to his throne, Philip, who was still quite a young man,236 to the Peloponnese. He urged Philip to attach himself very closely to Aratus, and through him to be introduced to the cities and become known to the Achaeans. And indeed, Philip was so warmly welcomed by Aratus that, when he returned to Macedon, he was teeming with goodwill towards the man and charged with ambition and zeal for the affairs of the Greeks.
47. After the death of Antigonus,237 the Aetolians began to despise the Achaeans for their laxity, since, now that they had got into the habit of letting themselves be rescued by foreign hands and shielding themselves behind Macedonian arms, they had fallen into sloth and indiscipline. Accordingly, the Aetolians thrust themselves into the affairs of the Peloponnese. Pillaging the territories of Patrae and Dyme238 along the way, the Aetolians invaded Messenia and ravaged it.239 Aratus was enraged by this, but he perceived that Timoxenus, who was general at the time, was hesitating and temporizing because his term of office was nearly at its end. Aratus had been elected to succeed him, and so took office five days early in order to go to the aid of the Messenians. He assembled a force of Achaeans, but, because they were unfit and untrained, they met with defeat at Caphyae.240 Aratus was criticized for conducting this operation impetuously, and so, checked yet again, gave his plans up for lost and abandoned his hopes. Thereafter, even though the Aetolians gave him many openings, he ignored them, letting them romp wantonly and insolently through the Peloponnese as if they were revellers at a party. So once more the Achaeans stretched out their hands towards Macedon and sought to bring Philip into Greek affairs, not least because, owing to the king’s goodwill and loyalty to Aratus,241 they expected to find him disposed to be both helpful and compliant in all matters.
48. It was then,242 for the first time, that the king let himself be persuaded by the calumnies against Aratus voiced by Apelles and Megaleas243 and certain other courtiers. As a consequence, he associated himself with the Achaean faction opposing Aratus and encouraged the Achaeans to elect Eperatus244 as their general. This man, however, was thoroughly despised by the Achaeans, and, so long as Aratus remained uninvolved, Achaean affairs failed to prosper. Philip then perceived the magnitude of his error245 and reverted to his former association with Aratus, entrusting himself entirely to his advice. By and by, as their common endeavours tended to enhance his own power and reputation, Philip attached himself even more closely to Aratus, for he was convinced that it was due to this man that he was increasing in both glory and grandeur. And everyone agreed that Aratus was a sound tutor, not only for a democracy but also for a monarchy. For his conduct and his character were reflected, like splashes of colour, in the deeds of the king. Indeed, instances of this include the young king’s moderation towards the Lacedaemonians when they had wronged him,246 his negotiations with the Cretans, through which he brought the whole island over to his side in only a few days247 and his marvellously energetic campaign against the Aetolians. All of these achievements added to Philip’s reputation for taking good advice and to Aratus’ for having good advice to give. These successes only inflamed the jealousy of the king’s courtiers, who, having failed to do Aratus any harm by way of their secret calumnies, now began to insult him openly at their banquets, abusing him with great vulgarity and insolence. Once they went so far as to pursue him and throw stones at him as he was returning to his tent after dinner. Philip was incensed by this and at once fined them 20 talents.248 Later, however, because these men continued to appear detrimental to his affairs and a source of trouble, he put them to death.249
49. But soon the king, elevated by his successes and his steady flow of good fortune, began to develop many grand passions, and his native perversity, proving too strong for his artificial pretence to virtue, stripped it away, little by little laying bare and revealing his true character. He began by committing a private transgression against the younger Aratus, when he seduced his wife,250 a misdeed that went undetected for a long time because he was a guest in their home. Then he started treating the Greek cities harshly, and it soon became clear that he no longer intended to be guided by his association with Aratus. It was at Messene that Philip first exhibited suspicious behaviour.251 The city was beset by factional strife and Aratus was late in coming to its aid, whereas Philip arrived a day before him and had no sooner entered the city than, like a gadfly, began to excite the factions one against the other. In private, he asked the generals of the Messenians if they had laws they could enforce against the multitude, and, again in private, he asked the leaders of the multitude if they had hands they could raise against the tyrants. Encouraged by this, the magistrates tried to arrest the demagogues, but they, advancing at the head of the multitude, killed the magistrates as well as nearly 200 other citizens.
50. After Philip had brought about this dreadful massacre and while he continued to aggravate the mutual hostilities of the Messenians, Aratus arrived. He did not hide his indignation at what had taken place, nor did he curb his son when he reproached Philip bitterly and insulted him. Now the young man, so it seems, was a lover of Philip, and during his speech on that occasion said to Philip that there was no longer anything beautiful in his appearance, after committing a deed so foul, but he had instead become the ugliest of all men. Philip did not respond to this, although everyone expected him to do so, since more than once during the young Aratus’ speech he had burst out in anger. Instead, he acted as if he bore these strictures meekly, like a man whose nature was moderate and civil, and, taking the senior Aratus by his right hand, he guided him from the theatre.
He led him to the Ithomatas252 in order to make a sacrifice to Zeus and to inspect the place, for it is no less well fortified than the Acrocorinth and, should a garrison be installed there, it would be a formidable stronghold very difficult for its neighbours to take by force. Philip went up and sacrificed, and, when the seer presented him with the entrails of the ox, he took them in both hands and showed them to Aratus and Demetrius253 of Pharus. He leaned towards each of them in turn, asking what it was they detected in the sacrifice: should he become master of the citadel or restore it to the Messenians? Demetrius laughed and answered, ‘If you have the soul of a seer, you will release the place, but, if you have the soul of a king, you will seize the bull by both horns.’ He was speaking metaphorically, indicating that, if Philip added the Ithomatas to the Acrocorinth, then the whole of the Peloponnese would be tamed and subje
cted to his will. Aratus for a long time said nothing, but, when Philip pressed him to give his opinion, said, ‘There are, Philip, many tall mountains in Crete, and many citadels exist in Boeotia and Phocis; and throughout Acarnania,254 both inland and on its shores, there are many admirably well fortified places, not one of which you occupy, and yet all these peoples willingly obey you.255 Brigands cling to cliffs and dwell on precipices, whereas for a king there is no stronger or surer protection than loyalty and gratitude. It is owing to these that the Cretan sea and the Peloponnese lie open to you. And it is owing to these that you, at your young age, are already leader here, and master there.’256 As he was speaking, Philip handed the entrails to the seer. He then took Aratus by the hand and said, ‘Come, then, let us take the same road,’ indicating he had been dislodged from his position by Aratus and would give up the city.
51. Soon, however, Aratus began to withdraw from the court and gradually retired from his intimate association with Philip. When the king was crossing into Epirus and asked Aratus to join him in this expedition,257 he refused and stayed behind, for he was afraid of tainting himself with the dark reputation Philip was earning. After Philip, hard pressed by the Romans, disgracefully destroyed his fleet and his entire enterprise collapsed in failure,258 he returned to the Peloponnese, where he again tried to cheat the Messenians. When he was found out, he injured them openly by ravaging their lands.259 After this, Aratus shunned the king in every way, nor did he trust him in the least, for he had become aware of the scandalous affair taking place in the women’s quarters of his household.260 He was sorely grieved by this matter, but hid it from his son, who, should he learn of the outrage, could do nothing to avenge himself. Indeed, Philip seemed to have undergone a profound and inexplicable transformation, from a gentle king and a sober youth into a lecherous man and an odious tyrant. But in fact there was no alteration in Philip’s nature. Instead, once he believed he could act with impunity, he at last revealed his perversity,261 which he had long disguised out of fear.
52. From the very beginning, Philip had been accustomed to regard Aratus with a mixture of shame and fear, and this became clear from the way he treated Aratus now. For he was eager to see him dead, thinking that he could never enjoy the independence of a free man, much less the licence of a tyrant or a king, so long as Aratus lived. But he did not want Aratus killed by force. Instead, he ordered Taurion,262 one of his officers and friends, to carry this out in some secret way, preferably by poisoning him at a time when the king was not present. So Taurion became a regular associate of Aratus and administered poison to him – not one that works violently and quickly but one that starts by causing gentle fevers and a weak cough and only gradually brings about death. None of this went unnoticed by Aratus, but, since there was nothing to be gained by making accusations, he endured his suffering silently and in a mild spirit, as if he had an illness of a common and familiar kind. Only once did he deviate from this. When one of his friends, who happened to be with him in his room, saw him spit blood and was surprised, Aratus said, ‘These, Cephalon, are the wages of royal friendship.’
53. This is how he died, at Aegium, while general for the seventeenth time.263 The Achaeans strongly desired that he be buried there and that he receive a memorial worthy of the life he had led, but the Sicyonians felt it would be a misfortune if he were not interred in their city, and they persuaded the Achaeans to hand over his body. But there was an ancient law that no one could be buried within the city’s walls, and this law was scrupulously and superstitiously observed,264 so they sent to Delphi to consult the Pythia265 about this matter and she answered them with this oracle:
Do you wish, Sicyon, to honour Aratus eternally for the lives he saved,
With sacred celebrations in the name of your departed lord?
Whatever place is distressed by this man or distresses him
Is unholy, be it made of earth or sky or sea.266
When this response was reported, all the Achaeans rejoiced, especially the Sicyonians, who, changing at once from grief to festivity, donned garlands and white garments in order to bring the body of Aratus from Aegium into their city amid paeans and choruses. They chose a commanding site and buried him there, hailing him as the founder and saviour of their city. Even today this place is called the Arateium and there they offer him sacrifices.267 One is performed on the day when he freed the city from tyranny, which is the fifth day of the month Daesius, which the Athenians call Anthesterion.268 They call this sacrifice the Soteria.269 The other one takes place on the anniversary of his birth. The first of these sacrifices is performed by the priest of Zeus the Saviour, the second by the priest of Aratus, who wears a headband which is not entirely white but white and purple. Hymns are sung to the accompaniment of the lyre by members of the Artists of Dionysus.270 The gymnasiarch271 also takes part in the procession, leading the boys and young men of military age, and he is followed by the city’s council and all other citizens who wish to take part. These sacred rites, performed on their prescribed days, are still observed, but only a few traces of the ancient ceremonies remain. Most of these honours have lapsed, owing to the passage of time and changing circumstances.
54. Such, according to historians, was the life and character of the senior Aratus. As for his son, he was robbed of his reason by Philip, who was by nature an abominable man, marked by insolence and cruelty alike. He gave him poisons that, although they did not kill him, nonetheless left him crazed. Indeed, Philip reduced him to a creature possessed of frantic desires – at once frightening and strange – for bizarre adventures and for experiences that were both shameful and destructive. Consequently, his death, although it came when he was still a young man and in the full bloom of life, was not a misfortune but rather a deliverance from evil, and his salvation.
For his unholy crime, however, Philip never ceased, so long as he lived, paying just penalties to Zeus, protector of hospitality and friendship. For when he was vanquished in war by the Romans and submitted himself to their dominion, he was deprived of most of his empire, surrendered all his navy except five ships, promised to pay an indemnity of 1,000 talents and sent his son to Rome as a hostage.272 Owing only to the Romans’ pity did he keep Macedon and its tributaries. He was continually executing the noblest of his subjects as well as his closest kinsmen, as a result of which his entire kingdom feared and hated him. Amid so many evils, he enjoyed only one spot of good fortune, a son273 who excelled in virtue. But he killed him too, out of envy and jealousy of the honour paid him by the Romans. His kingdom, then, he left to his other son, Perseus, who, we learn, was not his legitimate son but spurious, the offspring of a seamstress named Gnathaenion.274 It is Perseus whom Aemilius led in triumph, and in him the royal line of the Antigonids came to its end.275 By contrast, the line of Aratus continues in Sicyon and Pellene down to my own time.
PHILOPOEMEN
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Introduction to Philopoemen
Last of the Greeks
Only in his pairing of Philopoemen and Flamininus does Plutarch set two contemporaries in parallel, men who, although allies, were, at times at least, rivals as well. In a sense, then, although Philopoemen and Flamininus were relatively early entries to the Parallel Lives,1 in their composition and themes they reflect many of the concerns of Plutarch’s entire literary project. Which is to say that here Plutarch finds space to comment on the cultural situation of Greece in a world increasingly dominated by Rome – while focusing most closely on the timeless moral condition of two gifted men who, even if they do not entirely overcome the deficiencies in their character, remain great men nonetheless.
Philopoemen was remembered as ‘the last of the Greeks’, a description that in Plutarch underscores his importance as a representative of Greek national character.2 Although a controversial figure in his own time, he was idolized by the historian Polybius, who knew and admired him and who, like his father Lycortas, shared his political orientation. Polybius composed an encomium of Philopoemen in three bo
oks, though that work is now lost, and he is a central figure in the historian’s account of the politics of the Achaean League. Polybius’ Philopoemen is every inch the Greek hero: strong and valorous, hard working and honest, and a patriot under whose leadership Achaea at last brings unity to the Peloponnese. Plutarch’s treatment of Philopoemen, by contrast, although it relies heavily on Polybius and shares his favourable view of the man, eschews hagiography.3
Philopoemen and the Achaean League
Despite his fame, Philopoemen’s career was unevenly recorded. He was born at Megalopolis around 253 BC and was a young man during the Cleomenean War of 228–222 BC, the event which attached the Achaean League to Macedon.4 When, in 223 BC, Sparta’s king, Cleomenes, captured Megalopolis, Philopoemen played a leading role in rallying the city’s populace and aiding its escape to Messene. In the next year, at the battle of Sellasia, he led a bold cavalry charge wrongly represented in later sources as decisive to its outcome. Still, this feat certainly brought him to the attention of Antigonus Doson, the king of Macedon and the leader, or hegemon, of the Hellenic League (to which the Achaean League by then belonged). For the next ten years of Philopoemen’s life he campaigned in Crete on behalf of the city of Gortyn. We know almost nothing of that period – plainly it did not interest Polybius – but it has plausibly been argued that in Crete Philopoemen worked in the interests of Macedon and against those of Sparta. While he was away, Philip V succeeded Antigonus on the Macedonian throne, and the leading figure in the Achaean League, Aratus, died. When Philopoemen returned from Crete, in 211 or 210 BC, he was immediately elected the league’s hipparch, the commander of its cavalry, for 210/9, proof that his time in Crete had added to his reputation and influence at home.5