supplies by sea.  The praetor of the Achaeans, in respect of skill for conducting operations on land, was equal to any of the most celebrated commanders both in capacity and experience, yet with naval affairs he was quite unacquainted.  Being an inhabitant of Arcadia, an inland country, he was ignorant even of all foreign affairs, excepting that he had once served in Crete as commander of a body of auxiliaries.  There was an old ship of four banks of oars, which had been taken eighty years before, as it was conveying Nicaea, the wife of Craterus, from Naupactum to Corinth.  Led by the reputation of this ship, for it had formerly been reckoned a very famous vessel when in the king’s fleet, he ordered it, though now quite rotten, and falling asunder through age, to be brought out from Aegium.  The fleet sailed with this ship at its head, Tiso of Patrae, the commander, being on board it, when the ships of the Lacedaemonians from Gythium came within view.  At the first shock, against a new and firm vessel, that old one, which before admitted the water through every joint, was shattered to pieces, and the whole crew were made prisoners.  On the loss of the commander’s ship, the rest of the fleet fled as fast as each could by means of its oars.  Philopoemen himself made his escape in a light advice-boat, nor did he stop his flight until he arrived at Patrae.  This untoward event did not in the least damp the spirit of a man so well versed in military affairs, and who had experienced so many vicissitudes of fortune.  On the contrary, as he had failed of success in the naval line, in which he had no experience, he even conceived, thence, the greater hopes of succeeding in another, wherein he had acquired knowledge; and he affirmed, that he would quickly put an end to the tyrant’s rejoicing.

27.  Nabis, being both elated by this adventure, and entertaining a confident hope that he had not now any danger to apprehend from the sea, resolved to shut up the passages on the land also, by parties stationed in proper posts.  With this view, he drew off a third part of his forces from the siege of Gythium, and encamped them at Pleiae, a place which commands both Leucae and Acriae, on the road by which the enemy’s army seemed likely to advance.  While his quarters were here, and very few of his men had tents, (the generality of them having formed huts of reeds interwoven, and which they covered with leaves of trees, to serve merely as a shelter,) Philopoemen, before he came within sight, resolved to surprise him by an attack of such a kind as he did not expect.  He drew together some small ships in a remote creek, on the coast of the territory of Argos, and embarked on board them a body of light-armed soldiers, mostly targeteers, furnished with slings, javelins, and other light kinds of weapons.  He then coasted along the shore, until he came to a promontory near Nabis’s post.  Here he landed; and made his way, by night, through paths with which he was well acquainted, to