IV.  On leaving his schoolmasters he took part in the incursion made by his fellow citizens into the Laconian territory for the purpose of plunder.  In these raids it was his wont always to be first in the attack, and last in the retreat.  In time of peace he would exercise his body, and make it both swift and strong, either by hunting or by tilling the ground.  He possessed a fine estate about twenty furlongs from the city:  to this he would walk after his morning or evening meal, and sleep there on any bed he could find, like one of the farm labourers.  Then he would rise early, help the vine-dressers or cattle-herds to do their work, and, returning to town, take part in public business.  The profits arising from the plunder gained in the forays he used to spend on horses, arms, and the redeeming of captives, while he endeavoured to increase his income by the skilful cultivation of his farm, considering the most just way of making money, and his strict duty to be, so to manage his fortune as to avoid the temptation of wronging others.  He used to listen to conversation and to read treatises upon philosophy, yet not all, but only those which he thought would teach him to be virtuous.  He also devoted much time to reading those passages of Homer which stir up and excite manly courage, His other reading consisted chiefly of Evangelus’s treatise on military tactics, and of the history of Alexander the Great; but he always thought that reading, unless it led to action, was a useless waste of time.  In his studies of tactics he used to disregard the diagrams in the books and consider what could be done in the field itself, observing the slopes and inequalities of the ground, the direction of brooks and water-courses, and the effect which they would have upon a body of troops advancing in line or in column.  These reflections he was wont to make during his walks, and to exercise the minds of his companions by questions about them; for he devoted his whole mind to the study of military matters, regarding war as the widest arena for the display of virtue, utterly despising those who were not soldiers, as useless members of society.

V. When he was thirty years old Kleomenes, the king of the Lacedaemonians, made a night attack upon Megalopolis, forced his way through the guard on the wall and reached the market-place.  Philopoemen came to the rescue, but was not able to dislodge the enemy, although he assaulted them with the greatest spirit.  However, he gained time for the citizens to leave the town, while he bore the whole brunt of the attack of Kleomenes, so that at last he had great difficulty in extricating himself, as he had lost his horse and was wounded.  The citizens of Megalopolis escaped to Messene, whither Kleomenes sent to offer them their town and territory again.  Philopoemen, when he saw his fellow-citizens eager to embrace this offer, restrained them from accepting it by pointing out that Kleomenes did not really offer them their city back again, but meant to get the citizens as well into his power, in order to be able to hold it more securely for the future; because he could not remain there guarding naked walls and empty houses, but would be compelled to leave them and go his way.  By these arguments he withheld the Megalopolitans from coming to terms, but gave Kleomenes a pretext for destroying a great part of the city, and carrying away a great booty from it.