The Plutarch Podcast Philopoemen - The Last of the Greeks
Full Show Notes
Roman Parallel – Titus Flamininus
Important People
Epaminondas – A personal hero of Philopoemen’s; he can imitate him in nearly everything except his calmness (cf. Section 3). Epaminondas sets a high water mark for Theban military and political power which Philopoemen is not able to replicate with Megalopolis.
Nabis – Spartan tyrant
Machanidas – Spartan tyrant who dies in an epic one-v-one against Philopoemen.
Antigonus III Doson of Macedon (263-221 BC) – Second to last Macedonian King, winner of the battle of Sellasia, and the same guy whose death was reported towards the end of the Life of Cleomenes.
Philip V of Macedon (238-179 BC) – The last Roman king, whose defeat we will see in the Life of Aemilius Paulus
Antiochus III of Seleucid Empire (241 – 187 BC) –
Titus Flamininus – This pair of biographies marks the only time Plutarch chose to compare contemporaries. While the Roman certainly outshines the Greek, Plutarch wants to emphasize that it’s only because Titus out-Greeks (the virtues of human excellence, which the Greeks saw themselves originally as the sole source and only practicioners of) the Greeks while also out-Romaning them (i.e. larger, more disciplined, better supplied, better trained armies)
Important Places
Megalopolis – Philopoemen's hometown, and one that sees itself as the countebalance to Spartan hegemony in the Peloponnesus. Generally, the leaders of the Achaean League come from this city, the most famous of whom is, of course, Philopoemen.
Sparta – Cleomenes is king while Philopoemen is a young man, but soon Sparta will fall to greedy tyrants the last of whom will negotiate peace not with Philopoemen, but with the Romans.
Gythium – Philopoemen takes this key Spartan port through a marine maneuver that earns him much acclaim. This it he same Spartan port through which Cleomenes escaped to Egypt.
Messene – The next-door neighbor, and longtime subjugated polis, of Sparta. Philopoemen will free them, but their revolt towards the end of his life is the beginning of his undoing.
Key Vices and Virtues
Contentiousness (φιλονεικία) – A contentious word in the Greek, since it differs by only one letter from a love of victory (φιλονικία). Nevertheless, Philopoemen has a cantankerous outer shell that many find off-putting. Some come across that way, but we should be encourage by this life to look under the outer shell and see the character inside.
Anger (ὀργῆ) – It seems at time Philopoemen is motivated by anger more than justice. While Plutarch seems to overlook this flaw, it's an interesting one to note as Plutarch thought it has no place in the virtuous life.
Pausanias (Description of Greece) – Background of Philopoemen