Philopoemen - The End

Philopemon is in prison, having been captured, and he asks the man if the horsemen got off, and the man said yes, mostly, and Philopemon says" It is well that we have not been every way unfortunate" and he drinks a cup of poison! He died in a few minutes.
I think him has always cared for others, and wants to make sure that people were safe. However, he was often mean, too.

The End
Bell 

A study of Titus and Philopoemen

Titus                                                                                
Failings:  Ambition and greed for honor.  
Strengths: Caution, loyal to friends, merciful, generous.
       Philopoemen 
Failings: Obstinacy, greed for honor, and Ambition, lack of caution, often mean and cruel. (See my posts on him.)
Strengths: Valour, did many brave things, had it in him to command, in or out of office.

A bit about them: Titus was not in battle, but he did command his men well. Do you think he should get less credit for having his army ready made? I don't think so. He could have wrecked the whole thing, even though it was already there. Have you ever seen a well-run organization have a change in management, and the whole thing goes downhill? That could have happened. He still had to run it well. Just having it there did not make it easy.
Philopoemen was very brave, but he often put himself first. He was often very mean to conquered people. He did have to build his army up, and keep it going, and he had to have a lot of courage, more so than Titus, to oppose Rome. He was not nice, however, and did not act with discretion in war, but wasted away his life by acting prematurely. He prodigalled away his life, by acting with haste, not like Titus, who acted with caution, as did Fabius, yet Titus moved, and did fight many battles. So I think better of Titus. Titus was kind, and combined the good points of Fabius with the good points of a "fights lots of battles" general. If you want to learn more about Philopoemen, look at my posts about him, under the label "Plutarch." I wrote them a long time ago, so they are not the best. However, Philopoemen was very honest. He changed, however, and was very mean to the Spartans.

The End
Bell  

If, Part 2

If you can wait, and not be tired by waiting,
Be lied about, don't deal in lies, 
Be hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good or talk to wise,


More later,
Bell

Titus Flamininus

Titus is getting old, and he has a fault of pride. When he went to a country as an ambassador, he was not happy when he found that Hannibal was there. Hannibal was old, and was harmless. But it angered Titus to find him still alive. He filled the tunnels that Hannibal had made for escape with men, and Hannibal killed himself. The Romans were greatly angered, and got mad at Titus. They compared him to a man who had won many victories against Hannibal, and had been kind to him as well. I think that Titus should have controlled his anger, but the Romans should have reacted that way. Titus was brave, and he had done many great things, too. It was not one man who had defeated Hannibal, but many men.

More later,
Bell

If, a poem by Rudyard Kipling-Part One

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust your self when all men doubt you,
Yet make allowance for your doubting too,

More later,
Bell