shouted and rode about him at a distance. As he often faced about, and left his main body, on account of his young men, each of whom he was solicitous to put out of danger, at last he found himself alone amidst a number of the enemy. Even then they durst not attack him hand to hand, but, hurling their darts at a distance, they drove him upon steep and craggy places, where he could scarcely make his horse go, though he spurred him continually. He was still active through exercise, and for that reason his age was no hindrance to his escape; but being weakened by sickness, and extremely fatigued with his journey, his horse threw him, now heavy and encumbered upon the stones. His head was

wounded with the fall, and he lay a long time speechless, so that the enemy thinking him dead, began to turn him, in order to strip him of his arms. But finding that he raised his head and opened his eyes, they gathered thick about him, bound his hands behind his back, and led him off with such unworthy treatment and gross abuse, as Philopomen could never have supposed he should come to suffer, even from Dinocrates.

The Messenians, elated at the news, flocked to the gates. But when they saw Philopomen dragged along in a manner so unworthy of the glory of his achievements and trophies, most of them were touched with pity and compassion for his misfortune. They shed tears, and contemned all human greatness as a faithless support, as vanity and nothing. Their tears, by little and little, turned to kind words, and they began to say, they ought to remember his former benefits, and the liberty he had procured them by expelling the tyrant Nabis. A few there were indeed, who, to gratify Dinocrates, talked of putting Philopomen to torture and to death, as a dangerous and implacable enemy, and the more to be dreaded

by Dinocrates, if he escaped after being made prisoner, and treated with such indignity. At last they put him in a dungeon called the Treasury*, which had neither air nor light from without, and which having no doors was closed with a great stone. In this dungeon they shut him up with the stone, and placed a guard around it.

Meanwhile, the Achæan cavalry recollecting themselves after their flight, found that Philopomen was not with them, and probably might have lost his life. They made a stand, and called him with loud cries, blaming each other for making a base and shameful escape, by abandoning their general, who had been prodigal of his own life in order to save theirs. By much search and inquiry about the country, they got intelligence that he was taken prisoner, and carried the heavy news to the states of Achaia: who, considering it as the greatest of losses, resolved to send an embassy to demand him of the Messenians; and in the mean time prepared for war.

While the Achæans were taking these resolutions, Dinocrates, who most of all dreaded time, as the thing most likely to save Philopomen, determined to be beforehand with the league. Therefore, when night was come and the multitude retired, he opened the dungeon, and sent in one of his servants with a dose of poison, and orders not to leave him till he had taken it. Philopomen was laid down in his cloak, but not asleep: Vexation and resentment kept him awake. When he saw the light, and a man standing by him with a cup of poison, he raised himself up, as well as his weakness would permit, and, receiving the cup, asked him, "Whether he had heard any thing of his cavalry, and particularly of

*The public treasure was kept there; and it was shut up with an immense stone, moved to it by an engine. Liv. lib. xxxix.

Lycortas?" The executioner answering that they almost all escaped, he nodded his head in sign of satisfaction; and looking kindly upon him, said, “ Thou bringest good tidings, and we are not in all respects unhappy." Without uttering another word, or breathing the least sigh, he drank off the poison, and laid down again. He was already brought so low that he could not make much struggle with the fatal dose, and it despatched him presently.

The news of his death filled all Achaia with grief and lamentation. All the youth immediately repaired with the deputies of the several cities to Megalopolis, where they resolved, without loss of time, to take their revenge. For this purpose, having chosen Lycortas* for their general, they entered Messene, and ravaged the country, till the Messenians with one consent opened their gates and received them. Dinocrates prevented their revenge by killing himself and those who voted for having Philopomen put to death, followed his example. But such as were for having him put to the torture, were taken by Lycortas, and reserved for more painful punishments.

When they had burned his remains, they put the ashes in an urn, and returned not in a disorderly and promiscuous manner, but uniting a kind of triumphal march with the funeral solemnity. First came the foot with crowns of victory on their heads, and tears in their eyes; and attended by their captive enemies in fetters. Polybius, the general's son, with the principal Achæans about him, carried the urn, which was adorned with ribbons and garlands, that it was hardly visible. The march was closed

*This was in the second year of the hundred and fortyninth olympiad. Lycortas was father to Polybius the historian, who was in the action, and might be then about twenty years of age.

by the cavalry completely armed and superbly mounted; they neither expressed in their looks the melancholy of such a mourning nor the joy of a victory. The people of the towns and villages on their way, flocked out, as if it had been to meet him returning from a glorious campaign, touched the urn with great respect, and conducted it to Megalopolis. The old men, the women, and children, who joined the procession, raised such a bitter lamentation, that it spread through the army, and was reechoed by the city, which, besides her grief for Philopomen, bemoaned her own calamity, as in him she thought she lost the chief rank and influence among the Achæans.

His interment was suitable to his dignity, and the Messenian prisoners were stoned to death at his tomb. Many statues were set up, and many honours decreed him by the Grecian cities. But when Greece was involved in the dreadful misfortunes of Corinth, a certain Roman attempted to get them all pulled down* accusing him in form, as if he had been alive, of implacable enmity to the Romans. When he had finished the impeachment, and Polybius had answered his calumnies, neither Mummius nor his lieutenants would suffer the monuments of so illustrious a man to be defaced, though he had opposed both Flaminius and Glabrio not a little. For they made a proper distinction between virtue and interest, between honour and advantage; well concluding, that rewards and grateful acknowledgments are always due from persons obliged to their benefactors, and honour and respect from men of merit to each other. So much concerning Philopomen:

*This happened thirty-seven years after his death, that is, the second year of the hundred and forty-eighth olympiad, one hundred and forty-five years before the Christian æra.

TITUS QUINCTIUS FLAMINIUS.

THE person whom we put in parallel with Philopomen, is Titus Quinctius Flaminius*. Those who are desirous of being acquainted with his countenance and figure, need but look upon the statue in brass, which is erected at Rome with a Greek inscription upon it, opposite the Circus Maximus, near the great statue of Apollo, which was brought from Carthage. As to his disposition, he was quick both to resent an injury, and to do a service. But his resentment was not in all respects like his affection, for he punished lightly, and soon forgot the offence; but his attachments and services were lasting and complete. For the persons whom he had obliged he ever retained a kind regard; as if, instead of receiving, they had conferred a favour; and considering them as his greatest treasure, he was always ready to protect and to promote them. Naturally covetous of honour and fame, and not choosing to let others have any share in his great and good actions, he took more pleasure in those whom he could

It ought to be written Flamininus, not Flaminius. Polybius, Livy, and all the other historians write it Flamininus. Indeed, the Flaminii, were a very different family from the Flamininii. The former were patricians, the latter plebeians. Caius Flaminius, who was killed in the battle at the lake of Thrasymenus, was of the plebeian family. Besides, some manuscripts, for instance the Vulcob. an Anon, and one that Dacier consulted, have it Flamininus: which would be sufficient authority to correct it. But that would occasion some inconvenience, because Plutarch has called him Flaminius in other places as well as here in his life; and, indeed, several modern writers have done the same.