by Plutarch
4. His training was not finished when he reached the end of his formal education. In the regular thieving and plundering raids which his countrymen made into Laconia,18 he disciplined himself to be the first to march out and the last to return; and he spent his spare time developing his agility and strength through hunting or farming on his fine estate. This was some 2½ miles away from Megalopolis, and he would walk out to it every day after dinner or supper, then throw himself down on any mat he found and take his sleep just like any of the workmen. Next morning he would get up early and help with pruning the vines and herding the cattle, then go back to the city and join his friends and the magistrates in managing the business of public affairs.19 When money came in from his campaigns he would spend it on horses and weapons and ransoming prisoners, not on his own household or property: that, he thought, was to be maintained and improved from his farming, the most virtuous way of making money. And, indeed, farming was no sideline, for Philopoemen thought it entirely right for a man to have wealth of his own if he was going to keep his hands off other people’s.
He listened to philosophers’ lectures and read their books, but he was selective, choosing only those he thought would help him in developing virtue and courage; and he had similar tastes in Homer, favouring those passages which would encourage bravery and stimulate the imagination. Apart from Homer, his favourite reading matter was the Tactics of Evangelus,20 and he knew the histories of Alexander’s campaigns;21 he thought that literature was conducive to action, provided it was not read just to pass the time or to provide topics for idle conversation.
When it came to tactical problems, he did not bother with the maps or diagrams in notebooks: he examined the topographical questions and tried things out on the battlefields themselves. He would examine how slopes would meet one another, or where a plain suddenly fell away, and as he walked around he would think questions over and put them to his companions: what would happen to the shape of a phalanx22 when it met a stream or a ditch or a narrow pass, and was drawn out and then compressed back in upon itself? It really does seem that this man spent more of his energy and ambition on military matters than he should have done, welcoming warfare as the most challenging and varied sphere in which excellence shows itself, and despising as idlers anyone who fell short of his standards.
5. He was already thirty when King Cleomenes23 of Sparta suddenly attacked Megalopolis by night, overcame the guards and burst in and took control of the central square. Philopoemen rushed to the rescue, but was unable to force the enemy out, despite fighting vigorously and boldly. Still, in a way he managed to steal his countrymen away from the city by fighting against their pursuers and drawing Cleomenes’ attack on to himself; he staggered back last of all, wounded and without his horse.
They got away to Messene,24 and Cleomenes sent a messenger to them offering to restore the city with all its possessions and its territory.25 The Megalopolitans were delighted by this, and eager to return; but when Philopoemen saw how keen they were he spoke against accepting the offer. Cleomenes was not giving back the city, he explained, he was simply acquiring its citizens as well, so that the city would be even more firmly within his power:26 for he would hardly be able to sit idly guarding empty walls and houses, but would have to abandon the city if it were deserted. These arguments27 convinced the citizens and they rejected the offer, but Philopoemen thus gave Cleomenes the excuse to destroy and dismantle most of the city, and return to Sparta loaded with its wealth.
6. Soon King Antigonus28 arrived and marched with the Achaeans against Cleomenes, who occupied the heights and passes around Sellasia.29 Antigonus drew up his army nearby, intending to attack Cleomenes and force a passage. Philopoemen was stationed among the cavalry30 with his fellow-countrymen, and next to them were the Illyrians,31 who had been given the flank to defend as they were so numerous and such fierce fighters. Their32 orders were to remain stationary in reserve until the king raised a signal – a purple cloak on a spear – from the other wing.
The commanders tried to force the Spartans back by launching the Illyrians against them, and as this was happening the Achaeans kept to their orders and waited in their ranks. Cleomenes’ brother Eucleidas33 realized that this was creating a gap in the enemy line of battle, and quickly sent his lightest troops around the rear; they were told to attack the Illyrians from behind, and, now that they were separated from the cavalry, to draw them away completely. That is exactly what happened, and the light troops were beginning to detach the Illyrians and throw them into disorder. But Philopoemen saw that it was not difficult to attack these light troops, and that this was the right moment to strike. First of all he told the king’s officers, but they ignored his advice – indeed, they thought he must be mad, for he did not yet have the sort of great reputation which would have lent credibility to such an ambitious stratagem. So he led his countrymen into action himself. First of all there was confusion, then some of the enemy light troops fled and many were killed.
At this point Philopoemen wanted to give Antigonus’ men even more encouragement, and bring them swiftly into action while the enemy were in such disorder. So he leapt from his horse and went on foot to some rough, winding terrain, full of streams and gullies. As he was still wearing his cavalryman’s breastplate and heavy armour, it was a difficult and exhausting struggle. Then he was wounded, with both his thighs pierced through by a single javelin. The wound was not mortal, but it was certainly grave: the point was even sticking out on the other side. To start with he was completely immobilized by it, and he could not think what to do, for the javelin’s thong made it difficult to pull the point back through the wound. No one even dared to touch it. But the battle was reaching its critical point, and Philopoemen was chafing with eagerness to return to the fight. By moving his legs backwards and forwards he managed to break the javelin in the middle, and he immediately gave orders to pull each half outwards.34 Once he was freed, he grabbed his sword and rushed through the front line against the enemy, an encouraging and inspiring sight to his fellow-soldiers.
Antigonus went on to win the battle,35 and later he asked the Macedonians why they had moved the cavalry forward without his orders. They explained, rather defensively, that it was not their fault: they had no option but to join battle with the enemy, because a young Megalopolitan lad36 had started the attack. Antigonus laughed aloud: ‘That lad’, he said, ‘has done the job of a great general.’37
7. Philopoemen predictably became famous for this exploit, and Antigonus was eager for him to join his own staff, offering him a command and a rich reward. But Philopoemen politely declined. He would always find it hard to take orders meekly, and he knew it. But he did not want to be inactive or to have time on his hands, so to continue his military training and exercise he went to fight in Crete. There he spent a long time38 practising his skills among men whose fighting ability was as formidable and varied as their lifestyle was restrained and disciplined, and on his return to Achaea his reputation was such that he was immediately appointed hipparch.39
He took over a cavalry force which was deplorable. When it came to a campaign, they would grab whatever wretched horse they could find; they avoided most of the campaigns themselves, sending substitutes instead; they were totally and dreadfully inexperienced and cowardly; and yet the commanders turned a blind eye to all this, because the cavalry was made up of the most powerful men in Achaea, and could exercise particular authority40 over rewards and punishments.
Undeterred, Philopoemen put a stop to all this. He even went around every city himself, speaking individually to all the young men, stirring them up with ambition and punishing any who needed it; he instituted exercises and parades and competitions with the maximum number of spectators; and in a short time he instilled an extraordinary vigour and enthusiasm into everyone. Most important of all, in tactical terms, he made them nimble and agile in turning and wheeling, both by squadron and by single horseman. After this training, the whole formation would change its position wit
h such natural ease that it seemed just like an individual moving his body at will.41
When the fierce battle was fought at the River Larissus42 against the Aetolians and Eleians, the Eleian hipparch Damophantus43 rode straight for him, but Philopoemen responded to the attack by getting in his spear-thrust first and cutting him down. As soon as he had fallen the enemy fled, and Philopoemen’s reputation rose even further. The young could not rival his bravery nor the old his insight, and, in fighting as in leadership, he was peerless.
8. It was Aratus who first brought power and prestige to the Achaean League.44 Previously it had been unimportant and fragmented, but Aratus gave it unity – a peculiarly humane political achievement, indeed, and one which was worthy of Greece. When land forms in the middle of rivers, the process tends to start from just a few small particles which solidify, and then more material flows in and is captured, so that eventually everything combines to become firm, stable and hard.45 In just the same way, Greece had at that time been weak and drifting, often fragmenting into its individual cities, but the Achaeans had begun the process of consolidation. First they themselves united, then they added some of their surrounding cities by helping them to liberate themselves from their tyrants;46 they added others to the alliance by diplomacy, building on a communion of interests; and they aspired to bring the whole Peloponnese together as a single body and a single power.47
While Aratus was still alive,48 most of their acquisitions were gained with the help of Macedonian arms, as they paid court first to Ptolemy and then to Antigonus and Philip, kings who were playing a central role in Greek affairs.49 But when Philopoemen’s primacy began the Achaeans were generally strong enough to fight powerful enemies on their own, and the days of imported champions were over. Aratus himself had a reputation for ineffectuality in warfare, and owed most of his successes to his charm, his gentle tact and his friendships with the kings, as I have explained in his own Life.50 Philopoemen was different. He was a fine warrior, effective in arms, and with a record of good fortune and success which had begun with his very first encounters. He raised the Achaeans’ confidence along with their power, and with him they grew used to victory and triumph in most of their conflicts.
9. First he reformed the Achaean tactics and weaponry,51 which were in a sorry state. They used light shields which were easy to wield but too slender to protect the body, and spears which were much smaller than the Macedonian pikes: all this certainly made them mobile, and they were effective and formidable at long range, but the enemy held the advantage in close exchanges. The Achaeans were not used to forming up in companies, either, and in the phalanx they neither couched their pikes nor linked their shields in the Macedonian fashion,52 so that they could readily be pressed together or dragged apart. Philopoemen pointed out the problems, and persuaded them to switch from light shield and spear to heavy shield and pike. They adopted helmets, breastplates and greaves, and practised a standing and stationary rather than mobile and light-armed style of combat.
Once he had persuaded the young men to take up arms, the next thing was to inspire a confident belief in their own invincibility, then shrewdly to redirect their tastes for luxury and extravagance in a new direction. It was not possible to remove their empty and shallow vanity completely – it was too ingrained, with their taste for fancy clothing and dyed coverlets, and their preoccupation with outdoing one another in their smart dinner parties and fine tableware. But Philopoemen began to divert this dandyism from inessentials to things which were vital and honourable, and swiftly persuaded everyone to cut back on their everyday consumption: they now competed instead in the conspicuous splendour of their military outfits. Soon the workshops could be seen full of men breaking up goblets and Thericlean cups,53 and using the gold and silver to plate cuirasses, shields and bridles; every stadium was packed with colts being trained and young men practising at fighting with their arms; the women had their hands full dyeing helmets and crests and embroidering horsemen’s tunics and soldiers’ cloaks.
The sight spurred the Achaeans’ confidence, and inspired a bold eagerness to take risks and face dangers. For conspicuous extravagance on anything else makes people soft and effeminate: it is as if the tingles of sensation break down the power of the mind. But expenditure that is directed in this way makes the spirit strong and grand. When Achilles’ new arms were laid beside him, Homer made him swell with vigour at the sight, inflamed by the thought of using them.54 Philopoemen’s young men were similarly inspired. Next he trained and exercised them in tactical movements, and they responded eagerly and ambitiously; they were also extraordinarily enthusiastic about the close order in which he drew them up, for it seemed to give a firm solid barrier which could withstand anything; and their body armour came to feel light and manageable, as in sheer delight at its splendour and beauty they fondled it and made a habit of wearing it. They could not wait to use their weapons in action and fight it out with the enemy.
10. This was the time when the Achaeans were fighting their war against Machanidas,55 tyrant of Sparta, a man who had designs on the whole Peloponnese, and the resources and power to carry them through. News arrived that Machanidas had invaded Mantinea,56 and Philopoemen led the army out against him. The generals drew up their armies close to the city: each deployed great numbers of mercenaries, as well as virtually all their citizen forces. The two armies closed with one another, and Machanidas’ mercenaries routed the Achaean advanced detachment (this consisted of javelin-throwers and light cavalry57); but then, instead of moving straight on the main fighting force and breaking up their position, they fell away in pursuit and rushed straight past the Achaean phalanx, which steadfastly kept its ranks.
This was certainly a considerable reverse for Philopoemen, coming as it did right at the start of the battle – indeed, it appeared that the day was entirely lost. But Philopoemen made a show of disregarding it, pretending it was nothing serious. He realized too that the enemy were making a grave mistake in breaking off in pursuit in this way, for it detached them from their main phalanx and left a gap in their lines. So he made no move to prevent their attack on the section which was in flight, but let them go past until the gap became vast; then, when he saw that the Spartan phalanx was left exposed, he immediately led a charge against their hoplites,58 swiftly moving out to launch a flank attack. The Spartans had been left leaderless, and they had not the slightest expectation that they would be engaged; indeed, they had an impression of total victory once they saw that Machanidas was off in pursuit. Philopoemen drove them back, with dreadful carnage – more than 4,000 are said to have died; then he charged against Machanidas himself as he returned with the mercenaries from his pursuit.
There was a broad, deep ditch separating the generals, and the two men rode along it opposite one another; the one was anxious to cross it and escape, the other equally determined to stop him. They hardly seemed like commanders in battle, but more like a wild beast at bay and a skilful hunter confronting him. Then the tyrant’s horse – a strong, fierce animal, bloodstained on both flanks by his spurs – tried to leap across, but his forequarters caught on the bank, and he tried to struggle out with his front legs. Philopoemen’s closest fighting companions in any battle were always Simmias and Polyaenus,59 and now these two both charged at Machanidas, levelling their spears to strike – but Philopoemen reached him first. He saw that the struggling horse was raising his head in such a way as to protect Machanidas, and so turned his own horse a little to one side; then he grasped his spear firmly in the centre, thrust Machanidas to the ground and pressed the point home with all his weight. There is a bronze statue60 of Philopoemen at Delphi showing him in exactly that attitude, set up by the Achaeans to show their admiration both for his heroism and for his tactical brilliance.
11. There is a story, too, which is told about the Nemean festival.61 It was not long after the victory at Mantinea, and Philopoemen was general for the second time.62 He was at leisure, for fighting had stopped for the festival. But first he
put his phalanx on parade before the assembled Greeks, arrayed in their finery and moving through the exercises with their usual rapidity and vigour. Then he entered the theatre just as the musical competition was taking place, accompanied by his young men in their military cloaks and their purple tunics; all were in the peak of physical condition, all of the same age, and their demeanour conveyed their respect for the leader and their fierce youthful confidence, born of many glorious contests. They had just arrived when it chanced that the lyre-player Pylades,63 performing Timotheus’ Persians,64 sang the opening line: ‘He wrought Greece her freedom, her grand and glorious crown.’
His voice had an amplitude which went perfectly with the resonance of the verse. The whole theatre turned its eyes on Philopoemen, and applauded in jubilation: they thought of Greece’s ancient glory, and began to hope for it once more. Their belief in themselves now recaptured something of that spirit of old.
12. When a young horse misses its usual master and is ridden by a stranger, it often shies and bridles and behaves unnaturally. The Achaean League was rather like that when it came to battles or dangers. When anyone else was in command, its morale was low, and it turned its gaze longingly to Philopoemen; but the moment he was seen, it sprang up again and was immediately full of confidence and vigour. One reason for this was that they could see that he had a corresponding effect on the enemy. He was the one general whom they could not bear to face, so great was their fear of his reputation and his name. Their actions made that very plain.