FLAMININUS, TITUS QUTNCTIUS, 228-174 B.C. ; a • Roman general and statesman, the liberator of Greece. He came into public life as a tribune under Marcellus. In 199, he was made quwstor, and the next year rose to consul, in which capacity he was sent to Macedonia, where he conducted the war with Philip. Previous commanders had been dilatory and incompetent, but the new consul manifested the greatest energy and activity. In an engagement soon afterwards, he routed the Macedonians and became master of Epirus, making friends by his moderation. Step by step he won the several Grecian states, and in the spring of 197 B.C., betook the field with nearly the whole of Greece at his back. After a cavalry skirmish near Pherw, the main armies met at Cynoscephalfe, a low range of hills so called from a fanciful resemblance to dogs' heads. It was the first time that the Macedonian phalanx and the Roman legion had met in open fight, and the day decided which nation was to be master of Greece, and perhaps of the world. It was a victory of intelligence over brute force, and, where numbers and courage were equally matched, the superior strategy and presence of mind of the Roman general turned the scale. Theleft wing of the Roman army was retir ing in hopeless confusion before the deep and serried ranks of the Macedonian right, led by Philip in person, when Flamininus, leaving them to their fate, boldly charged the left wing under Niennor. which was forming on the heights. The phalanx was like a steam-hammer, irresistible if it hit its object, but moving only in one direction, and easily thrown out of gear. Before the left wing had time to form, Flamininus was upon them, and a massacre rather than a fight ensued. This defeat was turned into a general rout by a nameless tribune wh,o collected 20 companies and charged in rear the victorious Macedonian phalanx, which in its pursuit had left the Roman right far behind; 8,000 Macedonians were killed, and 5,000 taken prisoners, while the Romans lost only 700. Macedonia was now at the mercy of Rome, and Flamininns might have dictated what terms he liked, but he showed his usual moderation and far-sightedness in disregarding the root-and-branch politics of his Altolian fillies, whose heads were turned by the part which they had taken in the victory, and contenting himself with his previous demands. Philip lost all his foreign possessions, but retained his Mace• donian kingdom almost entire. Such a valuable bulwark against the outer world of Thracians and Celts was not lightly to be removed. Ten commissioners arrived from
Rome to final terms of peace, and at the Isthinian games which were cele brated at Corinth in the spring of 196, a herald proclaimed to the assembled crowds that "the Roman people, and Titus Quinctius, their general, having conquered king Philip and the Macedonians, declare all the Greek states which had been subject to the king henceforward free and independent." A shout of joy arose so loud that it was heard by the sailors in the harbor, and in Plutarch's time the legend told how birds flying over the course had dropped down stunned by the noise. The games were forgotten, and all crowded around the proconsul- eager to kiss the hands, of. the liberator of Greece, who was almost smothered Nilth and garlands. This day was indeed the olimax of Flamininug's career, of which even the stately triumph that two years later he obtained at Rome must have seemed but a pale reflection. His last act before returning home is characteristic of the man. Of the Achwans, who vied with one another in showering upon him honors and rewards, he asked but one personal favor— the redemption of the Italian captives who had been sold as slaves in Greece during the Hannibalic war. These to the number of 1200 were presented to him on the eve of his departure. and formed the chief ornament of his triumph. In 192, on the rupture between the Romans and Antiochus, Flamiuimis returned to Greece, this time as the civil representative of Rome. His personal influence and skillful diplomacy secured the wavering Achman states, cemented the alliance with Philip, and contributed mainly to the Roman victory of Therniopyl8e. In 189, he was made censor. In this office his fair name was sullied by an unseemly quarrel with Cato. Brotherly affection tempted him to shield from just punishment a dissolute and brutal ruffian. In 183, he under took an embassy to Prusias, to induce the king of Bithynia to deliver up Hannibal. Hannibal forestalled his fate by taking poison, and his justly stigmatized this pitiful victory over a defenseless and destitute old man. The only excuse for F. in this action is that it was prompted not by wanton cruelty or love of revenge—motives which were wholly alien to his character—but by restless ambition and inordinate love of glory. - The history of his later years is a blank, and we learn from his biographer Plutarch only that his end was and happy. (Chiefly from Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.)