<head>Expedition of Philopoemen against Nabis</head>Philopoemen, after calculating the distances of all the Achaean cities and from which of them troops could reach <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> by the same road,
proceeded to write letters to all of them . . . .
In the first letters he wrote to the commanding officers as follows: "On receiving this you will make all of military age assemble at once in the market-place for five days. As soon as all those present in the town are collected you will mr them to the next city, and on arrival there you will hand the letter addressed to it to their commanding officer and obey the instructions contained in it."
The contents in this letter were the same as those of the former one except that the name of the city to which they were to advance was different.
This proceeding being repeated in city after city, it resulted in the first place that none knew for what action or what purpose the preparations were being made, and next that absolutely no one was aware where he was marching to but simply the name of the next city on the list, so that all advanced picking each other up and wondering what it was all about.
As the distances of <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> from the most remote cities differ, the letters were not delivered to them simultaneously but at a date in proportion to the distance.
The consequence was that without either the people at <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> or those who arrived there knowing when was contemplated, all the Achaean forces with their arms marched into <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Tegea&groupId=1011&placeId=1780">Tegea</a> by all the gates simultaneously.
Walbank Commentary