21. While war was pending between the Romans and Antiochus, Philip, in the character of one of the numerous allies of Rome, ventured to increase his territory at the expense of the Athamanes, Thracians, and Thessalians. To keep him in good humour he was permitted to effect those conquests; but after the termination of the war the oppression of Rome became so galling, that it could not be otherwise than that all his thoughts should centre in revenge, and all his exertions be directed towards the recovery of power. Meanwhile the violent measures adopted for repeopling his exhausted kingdom--such is the punishment of ambition which usually awaits even the victorious!--the transplantation of the inhabitants of whole cities and countries, and the consequent and unavoidable oppression of several of his neighbours, excited universal complaints; and where was the accuser of Philip to whom Rome would not now lend a ready ear?--His younger son, Demetrius, the pupil of Rome, and by her intended, it is probable, to succeed to the crown, alone diverted the impending fate of Macedonia. But after the return of that prince from his embassy, the envy of his elder and bastard brother, Perseus, grew into an inveterate rancour, such as could not be quenched but by the death of the younger. The lot of Philip was indeed hard, compelled as a father to judge between his two sons; but the measure of human woe was filled, when after the death of his favourite child he discovered that he was innocent; are we to wonder that sorrow should soon have hurried him to a premature grave! 22. The same policy which was observed by the Romans towards Philip, they pursued towards the Achaeans, with whom, since the termination of the war with Antiochus, they had assumed a loftier tone; and this artful game was facilitated by the continual quarrels among the Greeks themselves. Yet the great Philopoemen, worthy of a better age, maintained the dignity of the league at the very time that the Romans presumed to speak as arbitrators. After his decease they found it easy to raise a party among the Achaeans themselves, the venal Callicrates offering his services for that purpose. The Achaeans was continually embroiled either with Sparta or with Messene: the grounds of difference were, that in both of those states there were factions headed by persons who, out of personal motives, and for the most part hatred to Philopoemen, wished to secede from the league; on the other hand, the prevailing idea among the Achaeans was, that this league ought to comprise the whole of the Peloponnesus. In the war against the Messenians, 183, Philopoemen, at the age of seventy, was taken prisoner by the enemy and put to death. PLUTARCHI, _Philopoemen_. Nearly the whole of which is compiled from the lost biography of Polybius.