2 LIVES: VOLUME the THIRD. CONTAINING PHILOPOEMEN, SYLLA, T. Q. FLAMINIUS, CIMON, Printed for J. and R. TONSON in the Strand. MDCCLVIII. O PHILO POE ME N. C ASANDER (1) was a man of great quality and power in the city of Mantinea, but by a revolution of fortune happened to be driven from thence. There being an intimate friendship betwixt him and Craufis (2), the father of Philopamen, who was a person of extraordinary worth, he fettled at Megalopolis, where, while his friend lived, he was fplendidly maintained. When Craufis died, he repaid the father's hospitable kindness by the care of his orphan fon; by: which means Philopamen was educated by him, as Homer fays Achilles was by Phenix, and from his infancy formed (1) Some manufcripts read (2) Paufanias calls him CrauCleander; and fo he is called by Paufanias. VOL. III. gis. A 2 (3) Pau formed to noble and virtuous inclinations. But Ecdemus and Demophanes (3) had the principal care of him, after he was past the years of childhood: they were both Megalopolitans; they profeffed the academick philofophy, which they had learned from Arcefilaus (4), and above all men of their time applied the precepts of philosophy to action and state affairs. They had freed their country from flavery, by employing fome perfons privately to kill Ariftodemus; they had affifted Aratus in driving out the tyrant Nicocles from Sicyon; and at the request of the Cyreneans, when their city was in great confufion, went thither by fea, inftituted for them excellent laws, and admirably regulated their commonwealth. Of all their actions, they most valued the education of Philopamen, thinking that by inftructing him in the precepts of philofophy, they had rendered him a general bleffing to Greece. And indeed, as he was born the laft of fo many famous generals, Greece looked upon him as the child of her old age, loved him extremely, and as his reputation encreased, enlarged his power. A certain Roman, to praise him, calls him the laft of the Grecians; as if after him Greece had produced no great man, nor any who deferved the name of Grecian. His countenance was not, as fome fancy, deformed, (5) for his ftatue is yet to be seen at Delphi. As for the mistake of his hoftefs at Megara, they fay it was occafioned by the meannefs of his habit, the homeliness of his garb, and the easy plainnefs of his conversation. She having word brought her that the General of the Achæans was coming to her house in the absence of her husband, was in a great hurry about providing his fupper. Philopamen juft at that time arriving in a mean garb, fhe took him for one of his own attendants, and defired him to affift her in her houfhold work; he prefently threw off his cloak, and began to cleave fome wood. The husband returning, and finding him thus employed, (3) Paufanias calls them Ecde- middle academy. lus and Megalopbanes, (5) Paufanias afferts the contrary. He affures us, that for (4) Arcefilaus was founder of the fize and ftrength of body, he was not employed, faid, What is the meaning of this Philopœmen? I am, replied he in his Dorick dialect, paying the fine of my deformity. Flaminius feeming to rally the form of his body, told him one day, he had well-fhaped hands and feet, but no belly: and he was indeed very flender in the waift. But this raillery was meant of the poverty of his fortune; for he had good foldiers both horfe and foot, but often wanted money to pay them. These are stories which are told in the fchools concerning Philopamen. As he was infatiably covetous of honour, his temper was fomewhat rough and cholerick. He ftrove to refemble Epaminondas, and came not much behind him in valour, good conduct, and uncorruptible integrity: but his boiling contentious humour not fuffering him in civil contests to keep within the bounds of gravity mildness and humanity, he was thought more proper for the camp than for the city; for he was strongly inclined to war, even from his childhood, and applied himself to fuch arts as related to it, taking great delight in managing of horfes, and handling of weapons. Because he was naturally well-formed for wrestling, his friends and tutors perfuaded him to bestow fome pains upon that art. But he would firft be fatisfied, whether it would not hinder his improvement as a foldier. They told him the truth, that the habit of body, the manner of life, the diet and exercife of a foldier and a wreftler were quite different; that the wrestler slept much and fed plentifully, was punctually regular in his fet times of exercise and reft, every little excess, or breach of his ufual method, being injurious to him; whereas the foldier, by all variety of irregular changes, was to bring himself to endure hunger and watching without difficulty. Philopamen hearing this, not only laid by all thoughts of wrestling, and contemned it then, but when he came to be General, difcouraged not inferior to any man in Peloponnefu, but that he was very illfavoured, τὸ δὲ εἶδος ἦν τῷ προ☛úme xaxós; and it must be con " feft that this homeliness best ac counts for Philopamen's answer to the woman at Megara, A 3 (6) This |