n other respects, victory must be won by
sheer courage. He fought the most warlike of the Greeks, the Cretans
and the Lacedaemonians, the first of whom are the most deeply versed in
stratagem, while the latter are most renowned for bravery, and
overcame them both. In addition to this it must be remembered that
Titus found his materials ready for use, as he received the arms and
disciplined troops of his predecessor, while Philopoemen himself
introduced a new method of armament and discipline; so that the one
was obliged to discover the means of obtaining victory, while the
other had only to use them. Philopoemen too did many great feats in
hand to hand fight, whereas Titus did nothing, for which one of the
AEtolians, Archedemus, jeered at him, saying that while he himself was
running sword in hand to attack the Macedonian phalanx, Titus was
standing still and raising his hands to heaven in prayer to the gods.

III. Nevertheless Titus both as a general and an ambassador always met
with complete success, while Philopoemen acted as vigorously and
successfully on behalf of the Achaeans when in a private station as
when he was their general. It was as a private citizen that he drove
Nabis out of Messene and liberated the Messenians, and as a private
citizen he shut the gates of Sparta against Diophanes the Achaean
general and Titus himself when they were on their march against it,
and so saved the Lacedaemonians from destruction. Thus, having the true
spirit of a commander, he knew when to obey and when to override the
laws, acting according to them when it was fitting to do so, but
holding him to be the true general who upheld the spirit of the laws
without being fettered by them. The kindly treatment of the Greeks by
Titus was honourable to him, but the sturdy spirit of independence
which Philopoemen showed towards the Romans was still more honourable,
because it is much easier to grant a request to suppliants, than to
irritate those who are more powerful by opposing them. Since, then, it
is difficult to distinguish their respective merits by comparison, let
us see whether we shall not decide best between them by assigning the
palm for military and soldier-like qualities to Greek, and to the
Roman that for justice and goodness of heart.

LIFE OF PYRRHUS.

I. Historians tell us that after the flood the first king of the
Thesprotians and Molossians was Phaethon, who was one of those who came
into Epirus under Pela