<head>Philip at Thermus</head><head>The Achaean Strategi and Philopoemen</head>There are three ways in which those who aim at acquiring the art of generalship may reasonably hope to do so, first by studying military memoirs and availing themselves of the lessons contained in them,
secondly by feeling the systematic instruction of experienced men, and thirdly by the habit and experience acquired in actual practice,
and in all three the present Achaean strategi were absolutely unversed. . . .
Most of them displayed an unhappy emulation of the inopportune pretentiousness of others.
They were particularly careful about their retinues and their dress, generally exhibiting a dandyism much in excess of what their fortunes permitted,
while as to their arms they paid not the least attention to them. . . .
Most men do not even attempt of imitate the essential characteristics of those who are favoured by fortune, but by striving to copy them in unessentials make a display of their own want of judgement. . . .
Walbank Commentary