VI.  When King Antigonus some time after this joined the Achaean forces in a campaign against Kleomenes, they came upon his army advantageously posted so as to command the defiles near Sellasia.  Philopoemen was among the cavalry that day with his fellow-citizens, and next to him were posted the Illyrians, numerous and warlike, who covered the flank of the allies.  Their orders were to remain in reserve until they saw a red flag raised upon a pike by king Antigonus on the other wing.  The generals of the allies attacked the Lacedaemonians with the Illyrian troops, but Eukleides, the brother of Kleomenes, perceiving that by this movement the foot were completely severed from the horse, sent the swiftest of his light-armed troops to outflank them and cut them off.  When this was done, and the Illyrians were thrown into great disorder, Philopoemen saw that the cavalry could charge the Lacedaemonian light troops with great effect, and pointed this out to Antigonus’s generals.  Meeting with a scornful refusal, as his reputation was not yet sufficiently great to warrant his suggesting such a manoeuvre, he collected his own fellow-countrymen and charged with them alone.  At the first onset he threw the light-armed troops into confusion, and presently routed them with great slaughter.  Wishing to encourage the allies and to come more quickly to blows with the retreating enemy, he dismounted, and with great difficulty, encumbered by his heavy horseman’s cuirass and accoutrements, pursued over a rough piece of ground full of water-courses and precipitous rocks.  While struggling over these obstacles he was struck through both thighs by a javelin with a strap attached to it, a wound which was not dangerous, though the javelin struck him with such force as to drive the iron head quite through.  This wound for the time rendered him helpless, as it bound both his legs as if with a chain, while the strap made it hard to pull the javelin out again through the wound.  As his friends hesitated, not knowing what to do, while the battle now at its height, excited his courage, and made him long to take part in it, he violently strained one leg forward and the other back, so as to break the javelin in the middle, after which the pieces were pulled out.  Being thus set free, he drew his sword, ran through the first of the combatants and attacked the enemy, animating all his men and setting them on fire with emulation.  After the victory was won Antigonus enquired of the Macedonians why the cavalry had charged without orders.  They answered that they were forced to charge against their will by a young citizen of Megalopolis, who attacked on his own account.  Antigonus smiled, and answered, “That young man acted like a veteran commander.”