Indeed some writers tell us that Epameinondas was unwilling that his countrymen should taste the advantages of the sea, and fearing that, as Plato says, they might from steady soldiers be transformed into licentious wandering sailors, purposely returned from the coast of Asia Minor and the islands without having effected anything. Philopœmen, imagining that his knowledge of war on land would enable him to fight equally well at sea, learned by experience how greatly practice assists men's courage, and how much their strength is increased by being trained to use it. Not only was he worsted in a sea-fight through inexperience, but having selected an old ship, which had once been a famous vessel, but now was forty years old, she leaked so much as to endanger the lives of those on board. After the action, finding that the enemy despised him, as though his ships had been entirely driven from the sea, and that they were ostentatiously besieging Gythium, he sailed straightway thither and found them quite unprepared, and with their discipline relaxed in consequence of their victory. He landed his men at night, burned the enemy's tents, and slew many of them. A few days afterwards, being surprised by Nabis in a mountainous spot, while all the Achæans gave themselves up for lost, despairing of extricating themselves from such a difficult position, Philopœmen, after a short survey of the country, proved that strategy is the greatest of military qualities. He quietly and steadily changed his front, manœuvred his army out of its disadvantageous position, attacked the enemy, and completely routed them. Perceiving that the fugitives did not make for the city, but scattered themselves all over the country, which was hilly and wooded, full of torrents and precipices, and impassable for cavalry, he made no pursuit, but encamped before dark. As he conjectured that the enemy after their rout would straggle back into the city by twos and threes under cover of the darkness, he concealed many of the Achæans, armed with daggers, in the rough ground near the city. By this stratagem Nabis's force suffered great losses, for as they did not retreat in a body, but each man as best he could, they fell into their foemen's hands at the city gate like birds into a snare.