Philopoemen - Philopoemen's Final Years

Philopoemen's Final Years

These actions provoked opposition even from Philopoemen’s supporters in Sparta. As a result, his opponents in Sparta appealed directly to the Roman Senate, which repeatedly suggested solutions to the disagreements, all of which Philopoemen and his supporters rejected. In fact, Philopoemen and his supporters refused to recognise any Roman role in Achaean internal affairs as they argued that Rome had previously recognised the Achaean League’s independence through a formal treaty.

This aggressive attitude towards Sparta and towards Rome split Achaean politics. However, Philopoemen died before these matters were resolved.

In 183 BC, Dinocrates, who strongly opposed Philopoemen, encouraged Messene to revolt against the League. After Dinocrates announced that he would capture Colonis, Philopoemen decided that he needed to subdue the rebellion.

In the ensuing battle, Philopoemen found himself behind the enemy's lines and was captured by the Messeneans after his horse threw him. He was then invited to drink poison to allow him to have what was then regarded as an honourable death.

On hearing of his death, the members of the Achaean League joined forces to capture Messene.

With his death, Philopoemen's body was cremated. At his public funeral, the historian Polybius carried the urn with Philopoemen's ashes and later wrote a biography and defended his memory in his Histories. Pausanias wrote that after Philopoemen's death, 'Greece ceased to bear good men'.