Philopoemen And The Fall Of Sparta
The history of Greece may well seem remarkable to modern readers, since
it brings us in contact with conditions which have ceased to exist
anywhere upon the earth. To gain some idea of its character, we should
have to imagine each of the counties of one of our American States to be
an independent nation, with its separate government, finances, and
history, its treaties of peace and declarations of war, and its frequent
would have its central city, surrounded by high walls, and its citizens
ready at any moment to take arms against some other city and march to
battle against foes of their own race and blood. In some cases a single
county would have three or four cities, each hostile to the others, like
the cities of Thebes, Plataea, Thespiae, and Orchomenos, in Boeotia;
standing ready, like fierce dogs each in its separate kennel, to fall
upon one another with teeth and claws. It may further be said that of
the population of these counties five out of every six were slaves, and
that these slaves were white men, most of them of Greek descent. The
general custom in those days was either to slay prisoners in cold blood,
or sell them to spend the remainder of their lives in slavery.
This state of affairs was not confined to Greece. It existed in Italy
until Rome conquered all its small neighbor states. It existed in Asia
until the great Babylonian and Persian empires conquered all the smaller
communities. It was the first form of a civilized nation, that of a city
surrounded by enough farming territory to supply its citizens with food,
each city ready to break into war with any other, and each race of
people viewing all beyond its borders as strangers and barbarians, to be
dealt with almost as if they were beasts of prey instead of men and
brothers.
The cities of Greece were not only thus isolated, but each had its
separate manners, customs, government, and grade of civilization. Athens
was famous for its intellectual cultivation; Thebes had a reputation for
the heavy-headed dulness of its people; Sparta was a rigid war school,
and so on with others. In short, the world has gone so far beyond the
political and social conditions of that period that it is by no means
easy for us to comprehend the Grecian state.
Among those cities Sparta stood in one sense alone. While the others
were enclosed in strong walls, Sparta remained open and free,--its only
wall being the valorous hearts and strong arms of its inhabitants. While
other cities were from time to time captured and occasionally destroyed,
no foeman had set foot within Sparta's streets. Not until the days of
Epaminondas was Laconia invaded by a powerful foe; and even then Sparta
remained free from the foeman's tread. Neither Philip of Macedon, nor
his son Alexander, entered this proud city, and it was not until the
troublous later times that the people of Sparta, feeling that their
ancient warlike virtue was gone, built around their city a wall of
defence.
But the humiliation of that proud city was at hand. It was to be entered
by a foeman; the laws of Lycurgus, under which it had risen to such
might, were to come to an end; and lordly Sparta was to sink into
insignificance, and its glory remain but a memory to man.
About the year 252 B.C. was born Philopoemen, the last of the great
generals of Greece. He was the son of Craugis, a citizen of Megalopolis,
the great city which Epaminondas had built in Arcadia. Here he was
thoroughly educated in philosophy and the other learning of the time;
but his natural inclination was towards the life of a soldier, and he
made a thorough study of the use of arms and the management of horses,
while sedulously seeking the full development of his bodily powers.
Epaminondas was the example he set himself, and he came little behind
that great warrior in activity, sagacity, and integrity, though he
differed from him in being possessed of a hot, contentious temper, which
often carried him beyond the bounds of judgment.
Philopoemen was marked by plain manners and a genial disposition, in
proof of which Plutarch tells an amusing story. In his later years, when
he was general of a great Grecian confederation, word was brought to a
lady of Megara that Philopoemen was coming to her house to await the
return of her husband, who was absent. The good lady, all in a tremor,
set herself hurriedly to prepare a supper worthy of her guest. While she
was thus engaged a man entered dressed in a shabby cloak, and with no
mark of distinction. Taking him for one of the general's train who had
been sent on in advance, the housewife called on him to help her prepare
for his master's visit. Nothing loath, the visitor threw off his cloak,
seized the axe she offered him, and fell lustily to work in cutting up
fire-wood.
While he was thus engaged, the husband returned, and at once recognized
in his wife's lackey the expected visitor.
"What does this mean, Philopoemen?" he cried, in surprise.
"Nothing," replied the general, "except that I am paying the penalty of
my ugly looks."
Philopoemen had abundant practice in the art of war. Between Arcadia
and Laconia hostility was the normal condition, and he took part in many
plundering incursions into the neighboring state. In these he always
went in first and came out last. When there was no fighting to be done
he would go every evening to an estate he owned several miles from town,
would throw himself on the first mattress in his way and sleep like a
common laborer, and rising at break of day would go to work in the
vineyard or at the plough. Then returning to the town, he would employ
himself in public business or in friendly intercourse during the
remainder of the day.
When Philopoemen was thirty years old, Cleomenes, the Spartan king,
one night attacked Megalopolis, forced the guards, broke in, and seized
the market-place. The citizens sprang to arms, Philopoemen at their
head, and a desperate conflict ensued in the streets. But their efforts
were in vain, the enemy held their ground. Then Philopoemen set
himself to aid the escape of the citizens, making head against the foe
while his fellow-townsmen left the city. At last, after losing his horse
and receiving several wounds, he fought his way out through the gate,
being the last man to retreat. Cleomenes, finding that the citizens
would not listen to his fair offers for their return, and tired of
guarding empty houses, left the place after pillaging it and destroying
all he readily could.
The next year Philopoemen took part in a battle between King Antigonus
of Macedonia and the Spartans, in which the victory was due to his
charging the enemy at the head of the cavalry against the king's orders.
"How came it," asked the king after the battle, "that the horse charged
without waiting for the signal?"
"We were forced into it against our wills by a young man of
Megalopolis," was the reply.
"That young man," said Antigonus, with a smile, "acted like an
experienced commander."
During this battle a javelin, flung by a strong hand, passed through
both his thighs, the head coming out on the other side. "There he stood
awhile," says Plutarch, "as if he had been shackled, unable to move. The
fastening which joined the thong to the javelin made it difficult to
get it drawn out, nor would any one about him venture to do it. But the
fight being now at its hottest, and likely to be quickly decided, he was
transported with the desire of partaking in it, and struggled and
strained so violently, setting one leg forward, the other back, that at
last he broke the shaft in two; and thus got the pieces pulled out.
Being in this manner set at liberty, he caught up his sword, and running
through the midst of those who were fighting in the first ranks,
animated his men, and set them afire with emulation."
As may be imagined, a man of such indomitable courage could not fail to
make his mark. Antigonus wished to engage him in his service, but
Philopoemen refused, as he knew his temper would not let him serve
under others. His thirst for war took him to Crete, where he brought the
cavalry of that island to a state of perfection never before known in
Greece.
And now a new step in political progress took place in the Peloponnesus.
The cities of Achaea joined into a league for common aid and defence.
Other cities joined them, until it was hoped that all Peloponnesus would
be induced to combine into one commonwealth. There had been leagues
before in Greece, but they had all been dominated by some one powerful
city. The Achaean League was the first that was truly a federal republic
in organization, each city being an equal member of the confederacy.
Philopoemen, whose name had grown to stand highest among the soldiers
of Greece, was chosen as general of the cavalry, and at once set
himself to reform its discipline and improve its tactics. By his example
he roused a strong warlike fervor among the people, inducing them to
give up all display and exercise but those needed in war. "Nothing then
was to be seen in the shops but plate breaking up or melting down,
gilding of breastplates, and studding buckles and bits with silver;
nothing in the places of exercise but horses managing and young men
exercising their arms; nothing in the hands of the women but helmets and
crests of feathers to be dyed, and the military cloaks and riding frocks
to be embroidered.... Their arms becoming light and easy to them with
constant use, they longed for nothing more than to try them with an
enemy, and fight in earnest."
Two years afterwards, in 208 B.C., Philopoemen was elected
strategus, or general in-chief, of the Achaean league. The martial
ardor of the army he had organized was not long left unsatisfied. It was
with his old enemy, the Spartans, that he was first concerned.
Machanidas, the Spartan king, having attacked the city of Mantinea,
Philopoemen marched against him, and soon gave him other work to do. A
part of the Achaean army flying, Machanidas hotly pursued. Philopoemen
held back his main body until the enemy had become scattered in pursuit,
when he charged upon them with such energy that they were repulsed, and
over four thousand were killed. Machanidas returning in haste, strove to
cross a deep ditch between him and his foe; but as he was struggling up
its side, Philopoemen transfixed him with his javelin, and hurled him
back dead into the muddy ditch.
This victory greatly enhanced the fame of the Arcadian general. Some
time afterwards he and a party of his young soldiers entered the theatre
during the Nemean games, just as the actor was speaking the opening
words of the play called "The Persians:"
"Under his conduct Greece was glorious and was free."
The whole audience at once turned towards Philopoemen, and clapped
their hands with delight. It seemed to them that in this valiant warrior
the ancient glory of Greece had returned, and for the time some of the
old-time spirit came back. But, despite this momentary glow, the sun of
Grecian freedom and glory was near its setting. A more dangerous enemy
than Macedonia had arisen. Rome, which Pyrrhus had gone to Italy to
seek, had its armies now in Greece itself, and the independence of that
country would soon be no more.
The next exploit of Philopoemen had to do with Messenia. Nabis, the
new Spartan king, had taken that city at a time when Philopoemen was
out of command, the generalship of the League not being permanent. He
tried to persuade Lysippus, then general of the Achaeans, to go to the
relief of Messenia, but he refused, saying that it was lost beyond hope.
Thereupon Philopoemen set out himself, followed by such of his fellow
citizens as deemed him their general by nature's commission. The very
wind of his coming won the town. Nabis, hearing that Philopoemen was
near at hand, slipped hastily out of the city by the opposite gates,
glad to get away in safety. He escaped, but Messenia was recovered. The
martial spirit of Philopoemen next took him to Crete, where fighting
was to be had to his taste. Yet he left his native city of Megalopolis
so pressed by the enemy that its people were forced to sow grain in
their very streets. However, he came back at length, met Nabis in the
field, rescued the army from a dangerous situation, and put the enemy to
flight. Soon after he made peace with Sparta, and achieved a remarkable
triumph in inducing that great and famous city to join the Achaean
League. In truth, the nobles of Sparta, glad to have so important an
ally, sent Philopoemen a valuable present. But such was his reputation
for honor that for a time no man could be found who dared offer it to
him; and when at length the offer was made he went to Sparta himself,
and advised its nobles, if they wanted any one to bribe, to let it not
be good men, but those ill citizens whose seditious voices needed to be
silenced.
In the end Sparta was destined to suffer at the hands of its
incorruptible ally, it having revolted from the League. Philopoemen
marched into Laconia, led his army unopposed to Sparta, and took
possession of that famous seat of Mars, within which no hostile foot had
hitherto been set. He razed its walls to the ground, put to death those
who had stirred the city to rebellion, and took away a great part of its
territory, which he gave to Megalopolis. Those who had been made
citizens of Sparta by tyrants he drove from the country, and three
thousand who refused to go he sold into slavery; and, as a further
insult, with the money received from their sale he built a colonnade at
Megalopolis.
Finally, as a death-blow to Spartan power, he abolished the time-honored
laws of Lycurgus, under which that city had for centuries been so great,
and forced the people to educate their children and live in the same
manner as the Achaeans. Thus ended the glory of Sparta. Some time
afterwards its citizens resumed their old laws and customs, but the city
had sunk from its high estate, and from that time forward vanished from
history.
At length, being then seventy years of age, misfortune came to this
great warrior and ended his warlike career. An enemy of his had induced
the Messenians to revolt from the Achaean League. At once the old
soldier, though lying sick with a fever at Argos, rose from his bed, and
reached Megalopolis, fifty miles away, in a day. Putting himself at the
head of an army, he marched to meet the foe. In the fight that followed
his force was driven back, and he became separated from his men in his
efforts to protect the rear. Unluckily his horse stumbled in a stony
place, and he was thrown to the ground and stunned. The enemy, who were
following closely, at once made him prisoner, and carried him, with
insult and contumely, and with loud shouts of triumph, to the city
gates, through which the very tidings of his coming had once driven a
triumphant foe.
The Messenians rapidly turned from anger to pity for their noble foe,
and would probably have in the end released him, had time been given
them. But Dinocrates, their general and his enemy, resolved that
Philopoemen should not escape from his hands. He confined him in a
close prison, and, learning that his army had returned and were
determined upon his rescue, decided that that night should be
Philopoemen's last.
The prisoner lay--not sleeping, but oppressed with grief and trouble--in
his prison cell, when a man entered bearing poison in a cup.
Philopoemen sat up, and, taking the cup, asked the man if he had heard
anything of the Achaean horsemen.
"The most of them got off safe," said the man.
"It is well," said Philopoemen, with a cheerful look, "that we have
not been in every way unfortunate."
Then, without a word more, he drank the poison and lay down again. As he
was old and weak from his fall, he was quickly dead.
The news of his death filled all Achaea with lamentation and thirst for
revenge. Messenia was ravaged with fire and sword till it submitted.
Dinocrates and all who had voted for Philopoemen's death killed
themselves to escape death by torture. All Achaea mourned at his funeral,
statues were erected to his memory, and the highest honors decreed to
him in many cities. In the words of Pausanias, a late Greek writer,
"Miltiades was the first, and Philopoemen the last, benefactor to the
whole of Greece."
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On the 16th of September, 1571, there sailed from the harbor of Messina one of the greatest fleets the Mediterranean had ever borne upon its waves. It consisted of more than three hundred vessels, most of them small, but some of great bulk for tha... St Bartholomew's Day
"Kill! kill! kill!" was the cry in Paris. "Blood! blood! death to the Huguenots!" came from the lips of thousands of maddened murderers. Blood flowed everywhere; men dabbled in blood, almost bathed in blood. A crimson tide flowed in the streets of P... Sten Sture's Great Victory Over The Danes
Historical tales have much to do with war and bloodshed, with rides and raids, with schemes and stratagems, with plunder and piracy, and with outrage and oppression. These are the things to which historians give the most space in their pages and whi... Stuart's Famous Chambersburg Raid
Of all the minor operations of the Civil War, the one most marked at once by daring and success was the pioneer invasion of the Northern States, the notable Chambersburg raid of the most famous cavalry leader of the Confederacy, General J. E. B. Stu... Suwarrow The Unconquerable
Of men born for battle, to whose ears the roar of cannon and the clash of sabres are the only music, the smoke of conflict their native atmosphere, Suwarrow (Suvarof, to give him his Russian name) stands among the foremost. A little, wrinkled, sto... Sverre The Cook's Son And The Birchlegs
In the year 1177 those people in Norway who loved a joke must have laughed to their hearts' content, when the tidings reached them that the son of a cook, followed by seventy ragged and half armed men, had set out to win the throne of the kingdom. S... Tacon The Governor And Marti The Smuggler
In 1834 Don Miguel Tacon, one of the most vigorous and tyrannical of the governor-generals of Cuba, took control of the island, which he ruled with a stern will and an iron hand. One of the purposes in which he was most earnest was that of suppres... The Advance Of Russia In Asia
The Emperor of Russia, lord of his people, absolute autocrat over some one hundred and twenty-five millions of the human race, to-day stands master not only of half the soil of Europe but of more than a third of the far greater continent of Asia. ... The Adventure Of The Magic Ship
After Galahad had rescued Percivale from the twenty knights, he rode into a vast forest, through which he journeyed for many days, meeting there many strange adventures. Then fortune took him past a castle where a tournament was in progress, and w... The Adventures Of A Fugitive Prince
A new dynasty came to the throne of the caliphs of Damascus in 750. The line of the Ommeyades, who had held the throne since the days of the Prophet Mohammed, was overthrown, and the line of the Abbassides began. Abdullah, the new caliph, bent on ... The Adventures Of A Royal Fugitive
It was early September of 1651, the year that tolled the knell of royalty in England. In all directions from the fatal field of Worcester panic-stricken fugitives were flying; in all directions blood-craving victors were pursuing. Charles I. had l... The Adventures Of Democedes
When Pythagoras, the celebrated Greek philosopher, settled in the ancient Italian city of Crotona (between 550 and 520 B.C.) there was living in that town a youthful surgeon who was destined to have a remarkable history. Democedes by name, the son... The Adventures Of Gustavus Vasa
In the parish of Orkesta, in Upland, Sweden, there may be seen the remains of an old tower, now a mere heap of stones, but once the centre of the proud manor-seat of Lindholm. It was a noble and lordly castle, built of red bricks and grey granite, s... The Ancient Scythians
Far over the eastern half of Europe extends a vast and mighty plain, spreading thousands of miles to the north and south, to the east and west, in the north a land of forests, in the south and east a region of treeless levels. Here stretches the B... The Assassination Of Caesar
The republic of Rome was at an end. The army had become the power, and the will of the head of the army was the law, of the state. Caesar celebrated his victories with grand triumphs; but he celebrated them more notably still by a clemency that sign...