XVIII.  When he was in his seventieth year, and eighth term of office as commander-in-chief, he might reasonably expect to finish not only his year of office, but also the rest of his life in peace; for just as in human bodies as their strength wastes away the violence of their diseases abates, so in the Greek states as their power failed their quarrels gradually ceased.  However some Nemesis overtook him, as it does a too successful athlete just at the termination of his course.  It is said that when some persons in society were praising a man who was thought to be a good general, Philopoemen said, “How can you think that man worth consideration, who was taken by his enemy alive.”

A few days after this Deinokrates of Messene, a personal enemy of Philopoemen, and one who was generally disliked because of his wicked and licentious life, caused Messene to revolt from the Achaean league, and was announced to be marching upon a village named Kolonis.  Philopoemen was at this time lying ill with a fever in the city of Argos, but on hearing this he proceeded at once to Megalopolis, a distance of four hundred furlongs, in one day.  From that city he set out straightway with a body of cavalry, composed of the noblest citizens, but mostly very young men, who were proud to serve as volunteers under Philopoemen.  They rode into the Messenian territory, met Deinokrates near the hill of Evander, and put him to flight.  However as the Messenian frontier patrol of five hundred men suddenly came up, the defeated body rallied again, and Philopoemen, fearing to be surrounded, and wishing to be careful of the lives of his men, retired into mountainous ground, himself protecting the rear, making frequent charges, and drawing the whole attack of the enemy upon himself.  They did not dare to encounter him personally, but clamoured and wheeled about at a distance.  In his eagerness to save each one of his young soldiers he ventured forward so often, to cover their retreat, that at last he found himself alone in the midst of his enemies.  None of them dared to meet him, but pelted him with stones and darts from a distance, so that he was with difficulty able to guide his horse over the rocky and precipitous ground, and fatigued the animal greatly.

His age was no hindrance to him, because of his habit of constant exercise, but unluckily he was weak from his sickness, and wearied by his long journey, so as to feel faint.  His horse at length stumbling threw him to the ground.  He fell heavily on his head, and lay speechless for some time, so that his enemies thought that he was dead, and began to turn over his body and strip it.  But when he raised his head and opened his eyes they fell upon him in a body, tied his hands behind his back, and led him away, jeering much at a man who never even dreamed that he could have been so triumphed over by Deinokrates.