After this Greece ceased to bear good men. For Miltiades, the son of Cimon, overcame in battle the foreign invaders who had landed at Marathon, stayed the advance of the Persian army, and so became the first benefactor of all Greece, just as Philopoemen, the son of Craugis, was the last. Those who before Miltiades accomplished brilliant deeds, Codrus, the son of Melanthus, Polydorus the Spartan, Aristomenes the Messenian, and all the rest, will be seen to have helped each his own country and not Greece as a whole. Pausanias 8.5.2

Philopoemen (Φιλοποίμην) (253-184 B.C.), Greek general, the so-called "Last of the Hellenes" was born at Megalopolis, and educated by the academic philosophers Ecdemus and Demophanes or Megalophanes, who had distinguished themselves as champions of freedom. Avoiding the fashionable and luxurious gymnasia, he devoted himself to military studies, bunting and border forays. In 233/2 Philopoemen skilfully evacuated Megalopolis before the attack of Cleomenes III, and distinguished himself at Sellasia (222). The next eleven years he spent as a condottiere in Crete. Elected commander of the Leagues cavalry on his return, he reorganized that force and defeated the Aetolians on the Elean frontier (210). Appointed to the chief command two years later, he introduced heavy armour and close formation for the infantry, and with a well-trained army beat Machanidas of Sparta, near Mantinea. The new liberator was now so famous that Philip V. of Macedon attempted to poison him. In 202 Philopoemen drove Nabis, the Spartan tyrant, from Messene and routed him off Tegea. After another long sojourn in Crete he again received the command against Nabis. Though unsuccessful at sea, he almost annihilated Nabiss land force near Gythium, but was prevented by the Roman Flamininus from taking Sparta. In 190 Philopoemen protected Sparta, which meanwhile had joined the League and thereupon seceded, but punished a renewed defection so cruelly as to draw the censure of Rome upon his country. At Messene he likewise checked a revolt (189), but when that city again rebelled, in 184, he was captured in a skirmish and promptly executed. His body was recovered by the Achaeans and buried with great solemnity.

Philopoemen, Louvre LP1556

Philopoemen's great merit lies in his having restored to his compatriots that military efficiency without which the Achaean League for all its skilful diplomacy could never stand. Towards Rome he advocated a courteous but independent attitude. In politics he was a democrat, and introduced reforms of a popular character.

Polybius Histories (x.xxiii.) are our chief authority. These and a special treatise on Philopoemen (now lost) were used by Plutarch (Philopoemen), Pausanias (viii. 49SI), Livy (xxxi.xxxviii.), and indirectly by Justin (xxx.xxxiv).

This article is derived from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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