figh, he drank off the poison, and laid down again. He was already brought fo low, that he could not make much ftruggle with the fatal dose, and it dispatched him prefently.

The news of his death filled all Achaia with grief and lamentation. All the youth immediately repaired with the deputies of the feveral cities to Megalopolis, where they refolved, without lofs of time, to take their revenge: For this purpose, having chofen Lycortas * for their general, they entered Meffene, and ravaged the country, till the Meffenians, with one confent, opened their gates and received them. Dinocrates prevented their revenge by killing himself; and those who voted for having Philopomen put to death followed his example +. But fuch as were for having him put to the torture were taken by Lycortas, and reserved for more painful punish

ments.

When they had burnt his remains, they put the ashes in an urn, and returned, not in a diforderly and promifcuous manner, but uniting a kind of triumphal march with the funeral folemnity. Firft came the foot, with crowns of victory on their heads, and tears in their eyes, and attended by their captive enemies in fetters. Polybius, the general's fon, with the principal Achæans about him, carried the urn, which was fo adorned with ribbons and garlands that it was hardly visible. The march was closed by the cavalry, completely armed and fuperbly mounted; they neither expreffed in their looks the melancholy of fuch a mourning, nor the joy of a victory. The people of the towns and villages on their way flocked out, as if it had been to meet him returning from a glorious campaign, touched the urn with great respect, and conducted it to Megalopolis. The old men, the

* This was in the fecond year of the hundred and fortyninth Olympiad. Lycortas was father to Polybius the hiftorian, who was in the action, and might be then about twenty years of age.

+ τετες επ' άικιαις ποιέμενος συνελαμβανεν ὁ Λυκόρτας. He intended to have them beaten with rods before they were put to death.

women, and children, who joined the proceffion, raised fuch a bitter lamentation, that it fpread through the army, and was re-echoed by the city, which, befides her grief for Philopomen, bemoaned her own calamity, as in him fhe thought the loft the chief rank and influence among the Achæans.

His interment was fuitable to his dignity, and the Meffenian prifoners were stoned to death at his tomb. Many ftatues were fet up*, and many honours decreed him by the Grecian cities. But when Greece was involved in the dreadful misfortunes of Corinth, a certain Roman attempted to get them all pulled down †, accufing him in form, as if he had been alive, of implacable enmity to the Romans. When he had finished the impeachment, and Polybius had answered his calumnies, neither Mummius nor his lieutenants would fuffer the monuments of fo illuftrious a man to be defaced, though he had opposed both Flaminius and Glabrio not a little. For they made a proper diftinction between virtue and intereft, between honour and advantage; well concluding that rewards and grateful acknowledgments are always due from perfons obliged to their benefactors, and honour and respect from men of merit to each other. So much concerning Philopomen.

TITUS QUINCTIUS FLAMINIUS.

THE perfon whom we put in parallel with Philopomen is Titus Quinctius Flaminius ‡. Those who are

* Paufanias, in his Arcadic, gives us the infcription the Tegeans put upon one of those statues.

This happened thirty-feven years after his death, that is, the fecond year of the hundred and forty-eighth Olympiad, one hundred and forty-five years before the Christian era.

It ought to be written Flamininus, and not Flaminius. Polybius, Livy, and all the other hiftorians, write it Flaminius. Indeed, the Flaminii were a very different family from the Flaminini. The former were patricians, the latter plebeians. Caius Flaminius, who was killed in the battle at the lake of Thrafymenus, was of the plebeian family. Besides, fome ma

defirous of being acquainted with his countenance and figure need but look upon the ftatue in brass which is erected at Rome, with a Greek inscription upon it, oppofite the Circus Maximus, near the great statue of Apollo, which was brought from Carthage. As to his difpofition, he was quick both to resent an injury, and to do a fervice. But his refentment was not in all respects like his affection, for he punished lightly, and soon forgot the offence; but his attachments and services were lafting and complete. For the perfons whom he had obliged he ever retained a kind regard; as if, inftead of receiving, they had conferred a favour; and confidering them as his greatest treasure, he was always ready to protect and to promote them. Naturally covetous of honour and fame, and not choofing to let others have any fhare in his great and good actions, he took more pleasure in those whom he could affift, than in those who could give him affiftance; looking upon the former as perfons who afforded room for the exertion of virtue, and the latter as his rivals in glory.

From his youth he was trained up to the profeffion of arms; for Rome having then many important wars upon her hands, her youth betook themselves betimes to arms, and had early opportunities to qualify themselves to command. Flaminius ferved like the reft, and was first a legionary tribune under the conful Marcellus *, in the war with Hannibal. Marcellus fell into an ambuscade, and was flain; after which Flaminius was appointed governor of Tarentum, newly retaken, and of the counfcripts, for instance, the Vulcob. an Anon. and one that Dacier confulted, have it Flamininus; which would be fufficient authority to correct it. But that would occafion fome inconvenience, because Plutarch has called him Flaminius in other places, as well as here in his life; and, indeed, several modern writers have done the fame.

* He was appointed a tribune at the age of twenty, in the fourth year of the hundred and forty-fecond Olympiad; con fequently he was born in the first year of the hundred and thirty-eighth Olympiad, which was the year of Rome 526. Livy tells us, he was thirty-three years of age when he proclaimed liberty to Greece.

try about it. In this commiffion he grew no lefs famous for his adminiftration of justice than for his military fkill; for which reafon he was appointed chief director of the two colonies that were fent to the cities of Narnia and Coffa.

This infpired him with fuch lofty thoughts, that, overlooking the ordinary previous steps by which young men afcend, I mean the offices of tribune, prætor, and ædile, he aimed directly at the confulfhip. Supported by thofe colonifts, he prefented himself as a candidate; but the tribunes Fulvius and Manlius opposed him, infifting that it was a strange and unheard-of thing for a man fo young, who was not yet initiated in the first myfteries of government, to intrude, in contempt of the laws, into the highest office in the ftate. The senate referred the affair to the fuffrages of the people; and the people elected him conful, though he was not yet thirty years old, with Sextus Ælius. The lots being caft for the provinces, the war with Philip and the Macedonians fell to Flaminius; and this happened very fortunately for the Roman people, as that department required a general who did not want to do every thing by force and violence, but rather by gentlenefs and perfuafion: For Macedonia furnished Philip with a fufficient number of men for his wars, but Greece was his principal dependence for a war of any length. She it was that supplied him with money and provifions, with ftrong-holds and places of retreat, and, in a word, with all the materials of war; fo that, if fhe could not be difengaged from Philip, the war with him could not be decided by a fingle battle. Befides, the Greeks as yet had but little acquaintance with the Romans; it was now firft to be established by the intercourfe of bufinefs; and, therefore, they would not fo foon have embraced a foreign authority, inftead of that they had been fo long accustomed to, if the Roman general had not been a man of great good-nature, who was more ready to avail himfelf of treaty than of the fword, who had a perfuafive manner where he applied, and was affable and easy of accefs when applied to, and who had a conftant and in

variable regard to juftice. But this will better appear from his actions themselves.

Titus finding that Sulpitius and Publius*, his predeceffors in command, had not entered Macedonia till late in the season, and then did not prosecute the war with vigour, but spent their time in skirmishing to gain fome particular post or pass, or to intercept some provifions, determined not to act like them. They had wafted the year of their consulate in the enjoyment of their new honours, and in the administration of domestic affairs, and towards the clofe of the year they repaired to their province; by which artifice they got their command continued another year, being the first year in character of conful, and the fecond of proconful. But Titus, ambitious to distinguish his confulfhip by fome important expedition, left the honours and prerogatives he had in Rome; and having requested the fenate to permit his brother Lucius to command the naval forces, and felected three thousand men, as yet in full vigour and spirits, and the glory of the field +, from thofe troops who, under Scipio, had fubdued Afdrubal in Spain, and Hannibal in Africa, he croffed the fea, and got fafe into Epirus. There he found Publius encamped over against Philip, who had been a long time defending the fords of the river Apfus and the adjoining ftraits; and that Publius had not been able to effect any thing, by reafon of the natural ftrength of the place.

Titus having taken the command of the army, and fent Publius home, fet himself to confider the nature of the country. Its natural fortifications are equal to those of Tempe, but it is not like Tempe in the beauty of the woods and groves, and the verdure of vallies and delicious meads. To the right and left there is a chain of lofty mountains, between which there is a deep and long channel. Down this runs the river Apfus, like the Peneus, both in its appearance and rapidity. It covers

* Publius Sulpitius Galba was conful two years before. Publius Villius Tappulus was conful the year after Sulpitius, and next before Flaminius.

* ώσπερ ατομωμα as the edge of the weapon.