a celebrated general of the Achaean League, was born about 252 B.C., in Megalopolis, a city of Arcadia, in Peloponnesus, and from his very infancy discovered a strong inclination to the profession of arms. Having been nobly educated by Cassander of Mantinea, he was no sooner able to bear arms than he entered amongst the troops which the city of Megalopolis sent to make incursions into Laconia, and in these inroads never failed to give some remarkable instance of his prudence and valour. After signalizing himself in various services, he was appointed general of the Achaean forces, and applied himself to re-establish military discipline amongst the troops of the republic, strove to rouse the courage of his countrymen, and laboured to put them into a condition to defend themselves without the assistance of foreign allies. With this view, he made great improvements in the Achaean discipline, changing the manner of their exercise, as well as their arms, which were both very defective. After eight months of hard discipline, news reached him that Machanidas was advancing, at the head of a numerous army, to invade Achaea. He met the enemy in the territories of Mantinea, where a decisive battle was fought, about 204 B.C., in which the Achaeans were completely victorious. But what most contributed to raise the fame and the reputation of Philopemen was his uniting the powerful city of Lacedemon to the Achaean commonwealth, by which means the Achaeans were enabled to eclipse all the other states of Greece. (See Achaeans.) Philopemen attacked the Messenians, but was wounded, taken prisoner, and poisoned by the magistrates; and thus died one of the greatest heroes whom Greece or any other country had ever produced. Philopemen was called the last of the Greeks, as Brutus was afterwards styled the last of the Romans. (See Army.)