d rise early, help the vine-dressers or
cattle-herds to do their work, and, returning to town, take part in
public business. The profits arising from the plunder gained in the
forays he used to spend on horses, arms, and the redeeming of
captives, while he endeavoured to increase his income by the skilful
cultivation of his farm, considering the most just way of making
money, and his strict duty to be, so to manage his fortune as to avoid
the temptation of wronging others. He used to listen to conversation
and to read treatises upon philosophy, yet not all, but only those
which he thought would teach him to be virtuous. He also devoted much
time to reading those passages of Homer which stir up and excite manly
courage, His other reading consisted chiefly of Evangelus's treatise
on military tactics, and of the history of Alexander the Great; but he
always thought that reading, unless it led to action, was a useless
waste of time. In his studies of tactics he used to disregard the
diagrams in the books and consider what could be done in the field
itself, observing the slopes and inequalities of the ground, the
direction of brooks and water-courses, and the effect which they would
have upon a body of troops advancing in line or in column. These
reflections he was wont to make during his walks, and to exercise the
minds of his companions by questions about them; for he devoted his
whole mind to the study of military matters, regarding war as the
widest arena for the display of virtue, utterly despising those who
were not soldiers, as useless members of society.

V. When he was thirty years old Kleomenes, the king of the
Lacedaemonians, made a night attack upon Megalopolis, forced his way
through the guard on the wall and reached the market-place. Philopoemen
came to the rescue, but was not able to dislodge the enemy, although
he assaulted them with the greatest spirit. However, he gained time
for the citizens to leave the town, while he bore the whole brunt of
the attack of Kleomenes, so that at last he had great difficulty in
extricating himself, as he had lost his horse and was wounded. The
citizens of Megalopolis escaped to Messene, whither Kleomenes sent to
offer them their town and territory again. Philopoemen, when he saw his
fellow-citizens eager to embrace this offer, restrained them from
accepting it by pointing out that Kleomenes did not really offer them
their city back again, but meant to get the citizens as wel