Fall of Machanidas
Philopoemen recognised Machanidas by his purple
note
cloak and the trappings of his horse. He at
once left Anaxidamus, with orders to guard the
bridge with vigilance, and give no quarter to
any of the mercenaries; because they were the men on whom
the despots of Sparta always depended for supporting their
power. Then taking Polyaenus of Cyprus and Simias, who were
attending on him at the time, he rode along the edge of the
ditch opposite to that in which the tyrant and his attendants
were; for Machanidas had still two men with him, Arexidamus
and one of the mercenaries. As soon as Machanidas had found
a spot in the dyke which could be crossed, he put spurs to his
horse, and tried to force it to go on and get over. Then
Philopoemen turned suddenly round upon him and dealt him
a mortal wound with his spear, and a second with a stab from
the spike at the butt end of it, and thus killed the tyrant in a
hand-to-hand encounter. Those who were riding with him
did the same to Arexidamus; but the third man seeing their
fall gave up the idea of crossing the dyke and escaped. Simias
immediately stripped the bodies of the two who had fallen,
and with their armour carried off also the tyrant's head, and
then hurried off to overtake the pursuing party; being eager to
give the soldiers ocular evidence of the fall of the enemy's
commander, that they might continue the pursuit of their
opponents with all the more confidence and spirit right up
to Tegea. And this in fact added so greatly to the spirit of
the men that it contributed more than anything else to their
carrying Tegea by assault, and pitching their
camp next day on the Eurotas, undisputed
masters of all the open country. note For many
years past they had been vainly trying to drive the enemy
from their own borders, but now they were themselves devastating Laconia without resistance, without having lost any
great number of their own men in the battle; while they had
killed not less than four thousand Lacedaemonians, taken even
more prisoners, and possessed themselves of all their baggage
and arms.
