Book 8
49.7
But Philopoemen was not likely to care much about Antigonus. Sailing across to Crete, where a civil war was raging, he put himself at the head of a band of mercenaries. Going back to Megalopolis, he was at once chosen by the Achaeans to command the cavalry, and he turned them into the finest cavalry in Greece. In the battle at the river Larisus between the Achaeans with their allies and the Eleans with the Aetolians,220-217 B.C who were helping the Eleans on grounds of kinship, Philopoemen first killed with his own hand Demophantus, the leader of the opposing cavalry, and then turned to flight all the mounted troops of Aetolia and Elis.
50.1
As the Achaeans now turned their gaze on Philopoemen and placed in him all their hopes, he succeeded in changing the equipment of those serving in their infantry. They had been carrying short javelins and oblong shields after the fashion of the Celtic “door” or the Persian “wicker”The θυρεός was so named from being shaped like a door, and the γέρρον was an oblong wicker shield covered with hide. Philopoemen, however, persuaded them to put on breast-plates and greaves, and also to use Argolic shieldsThe ἀσπίς was round in shape. and long spears.
