Description of Greece

The Romans had equipped a fleet against Nabis, and Philopoemen was too enthusiastic to keep out of the quarrel. But being entirely ignorant of nautical affairs he unwittingly embarked on a leaky trireme, so that the Romans and their allies were reminded of the verses of Homer, where in the Catalogue[*](Hom. Il. 2.614) he remarks on the ignorance of the Arcadians of nautical matters.

A few days after the sea-fight, Philopoemen and his band, waiting for a moonless night, burnt down the camp of the Lacedaemonians at Gythium. Thereupon Nabis caught Philopoemen himself and the Arcadians with him in a disadvantageous position. The Arcadians, though few in number, were good soldiers,

and Philopoemen, by changing the order of his line of retreat, caused the strongest positions to be to his advantage and not to that of his enemy. He overcame Nabis in the battle and massacred during the night many of the Lacedaemonians, so raising yet higher his reputation among the Greeks.

After this Nabis secured from the Romans a truce for a fixed period, but died before this period came to an end, being assassinated by a man of Calydon, who pretended that he had come about an alliance,[*](192 B.C) but was in reality an enemy who had been sent for this very purpose of assassination by the Aetolians.

At this time Philopoemen flung himself into Sparta and forced her to join the Achaean League. Shortly afterwards Titus, the Roman commander in Greece, and Diophanes, the son of Diaeus, a Megalopolitan who had been elected general of the Achaeans, attacked Lacedaemon, accusing the Lacedaemonians of rebellion against the Romans. But Philopoemen, though at the time holding no office, shut the gates against them.

For this reason, and because of his courage shown against both the despots, the Lacedaemonians offered him the house[*](The word οἶκοςincludes more than the buildings—slaves, implements, etc.) of Nabis, worth more than a hundred talents. But he scorned the wealth, and bade the Lacedaemonians court with gifts, not himself, but those who could persuade the many in the meeting of the Achaeans—a suggestion, it is said, directed against Timolaus. He was again appointed general of the Achaeans.