Plutarch's Lives, Vol. 1

Nonfiction | Biography | Adult | Published in 100

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Chapters 27-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 27 Summary: “Philopoemen”

Plutarch begins his biography of Philopoemen by describing his background, characteristics, and goals. Philopoemen is born into a good family from Megalopolis, but he loses his father when he is young and is brought up by his father’s friend Cassander. From a very early age, Philopoemen is determined to become a great general. When Philopoemen is 30 years old, the Spartan king Cleomenes takes Megalopolis in a surprise attack. The Macedonians agree to help the Achaeans of Megalopolis retake their city. Antigonus, the Macedonian king, is annoyed that Philopoemen monopolizes command, but admits that he is professional and skilled as a general.

Philopoemen declines an offer to join Antigonus’s army as a commander. He spends some time in Crete gaining military experience. When he returns home, the Achaeans make him a cavalry commander. Philopoemen instills discipline and passion, first in his men and then in all the citizenry of Megalopolis. The people even melt down their household utensils to make new weapons. With morale at an all-time high, the Achaeans are confident that they will win their war against the Spartans and regain their former glory. Philopoemen faces the Spartans at the Battle of Mantinea, where his skill wins an important victory. He even kills the enemy leader Machanidas himself. The Achaeans are so impressed with Philopoemen that they set up a statue of him at Delphi.

Philopoemen becomes famous throughout the Greek world, and the Achaeans refuse to fight under any other commander; yet Philopoemen’s vanity is a serious weakness and leads him to make some mistakes, such as when he leaves his own country vulnerable to help the Cretans.

Philopoemen leads the Achaeans in another war against the Spartans, this time against Nabis. Philopoemen is defeated in a naval engagement, as he is not experienced as a naval officer, but he redeems himself soon after when he scores a few important land victories against the Spartans. The Achaeans make peace with Nabis. Soon after, when Nabis is assassinated and Sparta falls into disarray, Philopoemen seizes the city and forces them to join the alliance of the Achaean League. This arrangement increases Philopoemen’s reputation and also pleases the Spartans, at least initially. When the Spartans commit a misdemeanor against the alliance, Philopoemen punishes them severely, destroying their walls and abolishing their traditional laws.

When he is 70, Philopoemen is elected general of the Achaeans for the eighth time. During this generalship, one of Philopoemen’s enemies, a Messenian named Dinocrates, revolts against the Achaean League. Though he is sick, Philopoemen leads an Achaean army against the Messenians. He meets Dinocrates in battle, where he is defeated and captured. Dinocrates has him drink poison soon after.

The Achaeans are very upset when they learn of Philopoemen’s death and set out to avenge him. Under their general Lycortas, they invade Messenia and wreak havoc. Dinocrates, realizing he is defeated and knowing that the Achaeans will punish him severely if they capture him, chooses to end his own life. Many of his supporters follow suit. Philopoemen’s remains are conveyed to his homeland and he is given a public funeral.

Chapter 28 Summary: “Flamininus”

Titus Flamininus undergoes the same military training as most Roman young men of his period. Flamininus, however, is unusually skilled and determined. When he is just 20, Flamininus serves as tribune under Marcellus during the Second Punic War. A little later, Flamininus is appointed governor of Tarentum after it is recaptured from Hannibal, the enemy commander. Flamininus proves himself an effective administrator.

Flamininus becomes so confident in himself and his abilities that he decides to run for the highest office of the Roman Republic, the consulship, even though he has never served in public office before. This is highly unusual, as it was traditional for public figures to serve in lesser offices before running for the consulship. Though some Romans are not pleased with Flamininus’s ambition, he is elected.

As consul, Flamininus is sent to deal with Macedon. The gentle and diplomatic Flamininus is perfect for this post, as his natural qualities are exactly what the Romans need to win the Greeks to their side in their conflict with the Macedonians. Flamininus first sails to Epirus and faces the enemy in an indecisive engagement. Using a mountain pass, Flamininus is able to take the high ground from the enemy and seizes their camp. Flamininus passes in an orderly fashion through Epirus, and many of the Greeks surrender to him. The Greeks are impressed with the intelligent and just Flamininus, especially when he refuses to make peace with Philip until the Greeks are given their freedom.

Flamininus marches to Thessaly, winning important Greek allies as he goes. Eventually, Flamininus and Philip meet in battle. Flamininus breaks Philip’s formation by attacking from the side, winning the battle, and killing and imprisoning many enemy soldiers. The battle leads to a rift, however, between the Romans and their Aetolian allies, who try to take credit for the victory. The Aetolians even try to turn the other Greeks against Flamininus, but Flamininus proves his loyalty to the Greek cause by demanding the freedom of the Greeks as part of his peace terms with Philip. The Greeks are so thankful to Flamininus that they honor him publicly at the Isthmian Games. The successful war greatly enriches the Romans. A little later, Flamininus returns to Greece to fight against Antiochus and is again successful.

Flamininus eventually receives the celebrated office of censor. When his brother Lucius is punished for a disgraceful act, however, Flamininus fails to display his usual good sense and opposes his punishment. Flamininus is censured for this, and is also censured for another cruel action, namely, pressuring the king of Bithynia to have Rome’s old enemy, Hannibal, killed when he sees that he is his guest. Plutarch speculates, however, that it was not Flamininus’s idea to have Hannibal killed, but rather the senate that sent to have him killed. Flamininus dies a peaceful death a little later.

Chapter 29 Summary: “The Comparison of Philopoemen with Flamininus”

Flamininus, Plutarch reflects, did more good for the Greeks than even Philopoemen. Both men had their flaws: Flamininus was very ambitious, while Philopoemen was stubborn and vain. Flamininus was more level-headed than Philopoemen overall, and more constant to his friends and allies. Plutarch sees Philopoemen as the better general of the two, but Flamininus as the more just.

Chapters 27-29 Analysis

Plutarch’s decision to link his biographies of Philopoemen and Flamininus is noteworthy for a few reasons. First, the two men were contemporaries, and Plutarch even claims that they knew each other. The pair of Philopoemen and Flamininus also represents the power shifts of the third and second centuries BCE, as Greek independence finally began to give way to Rome’s supremacy in the Mediterranean. Philopoemen is thus “the last of the Greeks” (484), while Flamininus is one of the first people to extend Roman influence into Greece.

With Plutarch’s biographies of Philopoemen and Flamininus, the larger historical forces act through individual figures: In many ways, it is history that shapes the characters of Philopoemen and Flamininus rather than vice versa, adding a new angle to The Influence of Character on History. Philopoemen’s achievements occur against the backdrop of the rivalry between the Achaean League and the Spartans in the Peloponnese; Flamininus’s achievements, meanwhile, reflect Rome’s desire to weaken their enemy Macedon by depriving them of their hold over the city-states of Greece.

Though Philopoemen and Flamininus are both, in a way, cogs within a larger machine, they are also important in their own rights because of the high moral values they exemplify. It is precisely the good qualities of Philopoemen and Flamininus—their justice, discipline, and leadership—that enables both of them to make such meaningful contributions to their respective states, speaking to The Role of Leadership and Morality in Public Life. In one anecdote about Philopoemen, Plutarch reflects on the timelessness of morality and virtue: Long after Philopoemen’s death, after the Romans had conquered Greece, some people wanted to take down Philopoemen’s statues and monuments from Megalopolis, as Philopoemen was not always on the best terms with the Romans during his own life. Others opposed this motion vigorously, because “they justly distinguished […] betwixt usefulness and virtue—what is good in itself, and what is profitable to particular parties—judging thanks and reward due to him who does a benefit from him who receives it, and honor never to be denied by the good to the good” (498).

Virtue, in other words, is non-partisan: It is a person’s conduct, not the party or state they serve, that determines whether they are good or evil. Philopoemen and Flamininus, though not always on the same side, were both virtuous men, and for this reason both are worthy—in Plutarch’s estimation—of being studied and even emulated.