Philopoemen
From the time he was appointed as strategos in 209 BC, Philopoemen helped turn the Achaean League into an important military power in Greece.
Philopoemen first came to the attention of key Greek politicians when he helped defend Megalopolis against the Spartan king Cleomenes III in 223 BC.
[1] The king of Macedonia, Antigonus III Doson, was keen to restore Macedonian influence in the Peloponnese for the first time in almost two decades.
With his rear secured by treaties, Antigonus invaded the Peloponnese and drove the Spartans out of Argos, taking Orchomenus and Mantineia in the process.
Returning to mainland Greece in 210 BC, Philopoemen was appointed commander of the cavalry in the Achaean League.
[1] In the same year, in one of the battles associated with the First Macedonian War between Macedonia and the Roman Republic, Philopoemen faced Damophantus, whose army was composed of Aetolians and Eleans, near the Larissa river (on the border of Elis).
Bravely, Philopoemen didn't retreat, but waited with his lance, which he mortally thrust into Damophantus' chest.
Philopoemen used his position to modernise and increase the size of the Achaean army and updated the soldiers’ equipment and battle tactics.
His efforts to make the Achaeans an effective fighting force bore fruit a couple of years later.
Afterward, the Achaeans erected at Delphi a bronze statue which captured the fight between Machanidas and Philopoemen.
Following Machanidas' death, Nabis, a nobleman from the royal house of the Eurypontids, a descendant of King Demaratus, rose to power in Sparta and became the new regent for Pelops.
After checking the ambitions of the Spartan tyrant, Nabis, the Roman forces under Flamininus withdrew from Greece in 194 BC.
With the Romans no longer having a military presence in Greece, the dominant powers in the region were the kingdom of Macedon, the Aetolians, the strengthened Achaean League and a weakened Sparta.
The Achaeans responded to Sparta's renewed interest in recovering lost territory by sending an envoy to Rome with a request for help.
Not waiting for the Roman fleet to arrive, the Achaean army and navy headed towards Gythium under the command of Philopoemen.
On land, the Achaeans were unable to defeat the Spartan forces outside Gythium and Philopoemen retreated to Tegea.
Philopoemen's plans for capturing Sparta itself were put on hold at the request of the Roman envoy, Flaminius, after his arrival in Greece.
As a result, his opponents in Sparta appealed directly to the Roman Senate, which repeatedly suggested solutions to the disagreements, all of which Philopoemen and his supporters rejected.
In the ensuing battle, Philopoemen found himself behind the enemy's lines and was captured by the Messeneans after his horse threw him.
At his public funeral, the historian Polybius carried the urn with Philopoemen's ashes and later wrote a biography and defended his memory in his Histories.
Pausanias in his Description of Greece wrote that after Philopoemen's death, 'Greece ceased to bear good men'.
