Philopoemen

But being now seventy years of age, and for the eighth time general of the Achaeans,[*](In 182 B.C. Plutarch passes over the years 187-183, during which the Achaean league and Philopoemen came increasingly into collision with the Roman power.) he hoped not only to pass that year of office without war, but also that affairs would permit him to spend the rest of his life in peace and quiet. For as our diseases seem to lose their virulence as our bodily strength declines, so among the Greek cities the spirit of contention lapsed as their power waned.

Nevertheless, some divine displeasure threw him down, like an all but victorious runner, at the very goal of his life. For it is recorded that at some conference, when others present were lavishing praise upon one who was reputed to be a redoubtable general, Philopoemen contemptuously said: Yet why should any account be made of this man, who has been taken alive by his enemies?

And a few days afterwards Deinocrates the Messenian, a man who had a private quarrel with Philopoemen[*](Cf. the Flamininus, xvii. 3. ) and was obnoxious to everybody else because of his baseness and unbridled life, induced Messene to revolt from the Achaean league, and was reported about to seize the village called Colonis. Philopoemen at the time lay sick of a fever at Argos, but on learning these facts, he hastened to Megalopolis in a single day, a journey of more than four hundred furlongs.

From there he at once set out for the rescue, taking with him the horsemen. These were the city’s most prominent men, but altogether young, and serving as volunteers under Philopoemen out of good will and admiration for him. They rode off towards Messene and encountered Deinocrates, who came to meet them at Evander’s hill. Him they put to flight;