irst concerned.
Machanidas, the Spartan king, having attacked the city of Mantinea,
Philopoemen marched against him, and soon gave him other work to do. A
part of the Achaean army flying, Machanidas hotly pursued. Philopoemen
held back his main body until the enemy had become scattered in pursuit,
when he charged upon them with such energy that they were repulsed, and
over four thousand were killed. Machanidas returning in haste, strove to
cross a deep ditch between him and his foe; but as he was struggling up
its side, Philopoemen transfixed him with his javelin, and hurled him
back dead into the muddy ditch.

This victory greatly enhanced the fame of the Arcadian general. Some
time afterwards he and a party of his young soldiers entered the theatre
during the Nemean games, just as the actor was speaking the opening
words of the play called "The Persians:"

"Under his conduct Greece was glorious and was free."

The whole audience at once turned towards Philopoemen, and clapped
their hands with delight. It seemed to them that in this valiant warrior
the ancient glory of Greece had returned, and for the time some of the
old-time spirit came back. But, despite this momentary glow, the sun of
Grecian freedom and glory was near its setting. A more dangerous enemy
than Macedonia had arisen. Rome, which Pyrrhus had gone to Italy to
seek, had its armies now in Greece itself, and the independence of that
country would soon be no more.

The next exploit of Philopoemen had to do with Messenia. Nabis, the
new Spartan king, had taken that city at a time when Philopoemen was
out of command, the generalship of the League not being permanent. He
tried to persuade Lysippus, then general of the Achaeans, to go to the
relief of Messenia, but he refused, saying that it was lost beyond hope.
Thereupon Philopoemen set out himself, followed by such of his fellow
citizens as deemed him their general by nature's commission. The very
wind of his coming won the town. Nabis, hearing that Philopoemen was
near at hand, slipped hastily out of the city by the opposite gates,
glad to get away in safety. He escaped, but Messenia was recovered. The
martial spirit of Philopoemen next took him to Crete, where fighting
was to be had to his taste. Yet he left his native city of Megalopolis
so pressed by the enemy that its people were forced to sow grain in
their very streets. However, he came back at length, met Nabis in the
field, rescued the army fr