XXI.  When the Achaean cities heard of his death, they went into a general mourning for him.  The men of military age assembled at Megalopolis without delay, chose Lykortas as their leader, invaded the Messenian territory, and ravaged it until the Messenians came to their senses and made terms with the Achaeans.  Deinokrates escaped his merited fate by suicide, as did those who had advised that Philopoemen should be put to death, while those who had advised that he should be tortured were themselves reserved for a death of torture by Lykortas.  They burned his body and collected the ashes into an urn, not carelessly, but mingling a sort of triumphal pomp with his funeral procession.  There one might see men crowned with garlands but weeping at the same time, and leading along his enemies in chains.  The urn itself, which was scarcely to be seen for the garlands and ribbons with which it was covered, was carried by Polybius, the son of the Achaean commander-in-chief, accompanied by the noblest of the Achaeans.  The soldiers followed in complete armour, with caparisoned horses, not cast down, but yet too sad to feel any pride in their victory.  As they passed through the towns and villages on their way the inhabitants came out as if to welcome him on his return from a successful campaign, laid their hands on his urn, and joined in the procession to Megalopolis.  When here the old men, women, and children joined them, a wail of distress ran through the whole army for the unhappy city which was mourning for its hero, and which thought itself to have lost, by his death, the first place in Greece.  He was buried with great honour, as we may well believe, and round his tomb the Messenian captives wore stoned to death.  Many statues were made of him, and many honours voted to him by the Greek cities, which afterwards during that unfortunate time for Greece when Corinth was destroyed, a Roman proposed to destroy, accusing Philopoemen, as if he had been yet alive, of being always an enemy to the Romans.  But after Polybius had answered this contemptible fellow, neither the consul Mummius nor his lieutenants would suffer him to deface and take away the honours done in memory of so famous and worthy a man, although he had frequently offered great opposition both to Flamininus and to Manius.  They distinguished properly between honour and expediency, rightly thinking that men should reward those who benefit them, but that the brave should always be honoured by all brave men.  Thus much have I to tell about Philopoemen.

LIFE OF TITUS FLAMININUS.