THE GREEKS.

When Aratus died, the principal man in the Achaean army was
Phil-o-poe'men, a brave and virtuous young man. He was patriotic in
the extreme, and so plain and unassuming that no one would have
suspected his rank.

On one occasion, when he had reached the dignity of general, he was
invited to dine at a house where the hostess was a stranger to him. When
he came to the door, she took him for a servant, on account of his plain
clothes, and curtly bade him go and split wood.

Without saying a word, Philopoemen threw aside his cloak, seized an
ax, and set to work. The host, on coming up a few minutes later, was
horrified to see his honored guest cutting wood, and was profuse in his
apologies for a mistake which only made Philopoemen laugh.

When Philopoemen heard how cruel Nabis was, he wanted to free Sparta
from his tyranny. So he entered the town at the head of an armed force
of men, confiscated the treasures for the benefit of the public, and
drove Nabis away.

The Spartans were at first very grateful to the Achaeans for freeing
them, but they soon began to feel jealous of their power, and again rose
up in revolt against them. This time Philopoemen treated the Spartans
with the utmost severity, even razing the walls of the city, which were
never rebuilt.

Philopoemen was farsighted enough to see from the beginning that the
Roman alliance would prove bad for Greece. He soon discovered that the
Romans intended to subdue the country, and in order to do so most easily
were trying to make the people quarrel among themselves.

All his efforts were therefore directed toward keeping peace, and for a
time he was quite successful. But the Romans, seeing no other way to
bring about a quarrel, at last bribed the Messenians to revolt.

In the course of the war, Philopoemen was led into an artfully
arranged ambuscade, and was taken in chains to Messenia, where,
notwithstanding his gray hair, he was exposed to the jeers of the common
people.

After thus humiliating him, they led him to the place of torture; but
when he heard that his army had escaped from the ambush, he fervently
cried, "I die happy, since the Achaeans are safe."

This only hastened the end of the brave patriot, who has been called the
"Last of the Greeks," because he was the last to try to maintain his
country's independence.

The Achaeans soon after took the town of Messenia, stoned all
Philopoemen's murderers on his tomb, and carried his