l into his
power, in order to be able to hold it more securely for the future;
because he could not remain there guarding naked walls and empty
houses, but would be compelled to leave them and go his way. By these
arguments he withheld the Megalopolitans from coming to terms, but
gave Kleomenes a pretext for destroying a great part of the city, and
carrying away a great booty from it.

VI. When King Antigonus some time after this joined the Achaean forces
in a campaign against Kleomenes, they came upon his army
advantageously posted so as to command the defiles near Sellasia.
Philopoemen was among the cavalry that day with his fellow-citizens,
and next to him were posted the Illyrians, numerous and warlike, who
covered the flank of the allies. Their orders were to remain in
reserve until they saw a red flag raised upon a pike by king
Antigonus on the other wing. The generals of the allies attacked the
Lacedaemonians with the Illyrian troops, but Eukleides, the brother of
Kleomenes, perceiving that by this movement the foot were completely
severed from the horse, sent the swiftest of his light-armed troops to
outflank them and cut them off. When this was done, and the Illyrians
were thrown into great disorder, Philopoemen saw that the cavalry could
charge the Lacedaemonian light troops with great effect, and pointed
this out to Antigonus's generals. Meeting with a scornful refusal, as
his reputation was not yet sufficiently great to warrant his
suggesting such a manoeuvre, he collected his own fellow-countrymen and
charged with them alone. At the first onset he threw the light-armed
troops into confusion, and presently routed them with great slaughter.
Wishing to encourage the allies and to come more quickly to blows with
the retreating enemy, he dismounted, and with great difficulty,
encumbered by his heavy horseman's cuirass and accoutrements, pursued
over a rough piece of ground full of water-courses and precipitous
rocks. While struggling over these obstacles he was struck through
both thighs by a javelin with a strap attached to it, a wound which
was not dangerous, though the javelin struck him with such force as to
drive the iron head quite through. This wound for the time rendered
him helpless, as it bound both his legs as if with a chain, while the
strap made it hard to pull the javelin out again through the wound. As
his friends hesitated, not knowing what to do, while the battle now at
its height, excited his