In the following year, n.c. 195, Flamininus was entrusted with the war against tyrant of Lackremon, who had treacherously seized the city of Argos. Flamininus advanced ioto Laconia and laid siege to Sparta, but he met with a brave resistance, and at last agreed to grant peace to Nabis ou condition that he should give up Argos and all the other places which he had usurped, and restore the descend ants of the 3lessenians to their lands. His motives for granting peace to Nabis were, he said, partly to prevent the destruction of one of the most illustrious of the Greek cities, and partly because of the great preparations which Antiochua, king of Syria, was then making on the coast of Asia. Livy suggests, as another probable reason, that Flami ninue wished to terminate the war himself, and not to give time to a new consul to supersede him in his command and reap the honours of the victory. The senate confirmed the peace with Nabis, and in the following year, B.C. 194, Flamininus having settled the affairs of Greece prepared to return to Italy. Having repaired to Corinth, where depu tations from all the Grecian cities had assembled, he took a friendly leave of them, signifying to them that ho was going to withdraw all his army and garrisons, and leave them to themselves; advising them at the same time to make a temperate use of that liberty which the Roman, had been the means of restoring to them, and above all to preserve concord in their councils, as civil factions would certainly lead to the loss of their independence; for those who find themselves the weaker at home are apt to apply to strangers for support. Ile accordingly delivered the citadel of Corinth to the Achreans, withdrew his garrisons from Demetrius, Chaleia, and the other towns of Eubcoa, and having broken up his camp at Matta in l'hocis, he sent the soldiers to embark on the coast of Epirus, whilst he repaired to Thessaly to settle the internal affairs of that country, which were in a state of great confusion. He organised the various towns, choosing the magis trates and senate from among the wealthier class. Ho then repaired to Oricum, on the coast of Epirus, where he embarked for Brundiaium. In Italy both he and his soldiers were received with great demoustra tion, of joy, and the senate decreed him a triumph of three days. On the first day were displayed the arms and the statues of brass and marble taken from the enemy ; on the second the silver and gold, whether coined or in vases, shields, and various ornaments; and on the third the golden crowns, the gift of the liberated cities. Before the car of Flamininus appeared the captives and hostages, and among the latter Demetrius, son of l'hilip, and Armenes, son of Nabis, and in the rear followed the Roman prisoners who had been sold as slaves to the Greeks by Hannibal during the second Punic war, and whose liberation Flamininus had obtained from the gratitude of the Greek states. The Adman, alone are said to have liberated 1200, for whom they paid 100 talents as compensation money to their masters. Alto gether there never was perhaps • Roman triumph so satisfactory as this to all parties, and so little offensive to the feelings of humanity. In the year D.C. 183, Flamininus was sent ta Prusias, king of Bithynia, upon the dishonourable mission of demanding the person of Hannibal, then, in his old age, a refugee at the court of Prusias. Hannibal how. ever, by taking poison, avoided being given up. In n.c. 166 Flamininus was made augur In the room of C. Claudius deceased (Livy, xlv. 44), after which he is no longer mentioned in history.
FLAMSTIiED, JOHN. The life of the first astronomer royal was known to the world chiefly by the results of his labours, until the 1332, since which time his private affairs have been brought to t in an unexpected manner, and have excited great interest, not without creating some party feeling among those who cultivate the sciences connected with astronomy. In 1832 Mr. Francis Daily dis covered that a considerable collection of Flamsteed's letters was iu the hands of a private individual ; which, on being examined, was found to contain much that was not generally known. On search ing the observatory at Greenwich, Mr. Bally found a vast mass of manuscript observations, letters, and other documents, in the hand writing of Flameteed and his friends, containing the curious history of which we shall give a brief abstract. The result of this discovery was
a representation to the Board of Visitors of the Royal Observatory, who recommended the republication of the British Catalogue,' with extracts from the papers of Flamsteed. The Lords of the Admiralty having decided to print this at the public expense, Mr. Bally under took the preparation of the work, which appeared In 1835, under the title of ' An Account of the Rev. John Flamsteed,ito. &c., to which is added his British Catalogue of Stars, corrected aud enlarged.' From this work, which is certainly the most remarkable acientifio biography of the present century, we have given Flameteed's view of his own case. The original account is iu part drawn by Mr. Daily from a manuscript by Flamateed, headed 'Self Inspections, by J. F.,' which is a very interesting autobiography.
John Flamsteed was born at Denby, near Derby, August 19, 1640. His father was in some business, it has been said that of a maltster ; he lost his mother when very young. At the age of fourteen he caught cold while bathing, which produced a weakness in the joints, from which he never recovered. He began his mathematical and astrono mical stndies at a very early age, and showed talents for conatrueting astronomical instruments. lu 1665 he visited Ireland for the purpose of consulting a Mr. Grestrakes, who professed to cure disorders by the touch, and of whose experiments in London a curious account exists. [Bourse., ItonEnr.] No effect being produced on him by this treat ment, he returned to Derby, where his father lived, and where he had received his education. Here he continued his studies till 1069, and with great success. lu or before 1607 he discovered the real causes of the equation of time, and wrote a tract on the subject, which was afterwards appended by Dr. Wallis to his edition of the works of Horrox, published in 1673. In 1669 he made an astrono mical communication to the Royal Society through Oldenburg, their secretary, concealing his name under the anagram this same anagram appears in the title-page of the tables appended to the doctrine of the sphere in Sir Jonas Moore's system of mathematics, in the preparation of which Flamsteed had a share. An answer from Oldenburg, addressed to himself, showed him that he was discovered, aud from that time, or rather from the date of a visit which ha very shortly afterwards paid to Loudon, he was in correspondence with many scientific men, but particularly with Sir Jonas Moore, who, in 1674, proposed to establish Flamsteed in a private observatory, which he intended to build at Chelsea. In the meantime however the fact of the very large errors to which astronomical tables were subject came to the notice of Charles IL, on the occasion of a proposal made by a French gentleman for finding the longitude, and that king determiued to establish an observatory. Flamsteed was appointed astronomer royal, or, as the warrant ran, "astronomical observator," and carried on his observations at the queen's house, in Greenwich Park, until the observatory was ready, which was in July 1676. From this time Mr. Bally dates the commencement of modern astronomy ; nor can such chronology be disputed if we consider that we now return to limn steed's observations as the earliest with which it is desirable to com pare those of our day, and also that Flameteed's catalogue is the first which attained a precision comparable to that of later times. Main steed was In fact Tycho BraluS with a telescope : there was the same capability of adapting instrumental means, the same sense of the inadequacy of existing tables, the same long-continued perseverance in actual observation. But Tycho limbo, • rich noble, found his exchequer in a king's purse; while Flarnateed, a poor clergyman, defrayed the expenses of his instruments himself, upon an ill-paid Wary of 1001. a year. Up to the year 1684 ho had imposed ou him the task of instructing two boys from Christ's Hospital, as one of the duties of his post; aud, besides this, he was obliged to have recourse to private teaching, to meet the charges of carrying on his observa tions. At the very same time, that part of the public which eared about the matter were beginning to require that he should print his observations.