Flamininus   

What Titus Quintius [Flamininus], whom we select as a parallel to
Philopoemen, was in personal appearance, those who are curious may
see by the brazen statue of him, which stands in Rome near that of
the great Apollo, brought from Carthage, opposite to the Circus Maximus,
with a Greek inscription upon it. The temper of his mind is said to
have been of the warmest both in anger and in kindness, not indeed
equally so in both respects; as in punishing he was ever moderate,
never inflexible; but whatever courtesy or good turn he set about,
he went through with it, and was as perpetually kind and obliging
to those on whom he had poured his favours, as if they, not he, had
been the benefactors; exerting himself for the security and preservation
of what he seemed to consider his noblest possessions, those to whom
he had done good. But being ever thirsty after honour, and passionate
for glory, if anything of a greater and more extraordinary nature
were to be done, he was eager to be the doer of it himself; and took
more pleasure in those that needed, than in those that were capable
of conferring favours; looking on the former as objects for his virtue,
and on the latter as competitors in glory.
The manuscripts generally write the name incorrectly- Flaminius. Titus
was the name by which he was commonly known to the Greeks .
Rome had then many sharp contests going on, and her youth betaking
themselves early to the wars, learned betimes the art of commanding;
and Flamininus, having passed through the rudiments of soldiery, received
his first charge in the war against Hannibal, as tribune under Marcellus,
then consul. Marcellus, indeed, falling into an ambuscade, was cut
off. But Titus, receiving the appointment of governor, as well of
Tarentum, then retaken, as of the country about it, grew no less famous
for his administration of justice, than for his military skill. This
obtained him the office of leader and founder of two colonies which
were sent into the cities of Narnia and Cossa; which filled him with
loftier hopes, and made him aspire to step over those previous honours
which it was usual first to pass through, the offices of tribune of
the people, praetor and aedile, and to level his aim immediately at
the consulship. Having these colonies, and all their interest ready
at his service, he offered himself as candidate; but the tribunes
of the people, Fulvius and [Manius] and their party, strongly opposed
him; alleging how unbecoming a thing it was that a man of such raw
years, one who was yet, as it were, untrained, uninitiated in the
first sacred rites and mysteries of government, should, in contempt
of the laws, intrude and force himself into the sovereignty.
(Manius Curius is meant) .
However, the senate remitted it to the people's choice and suffrage;
who elected him (though not then arrived at his thirtieth year) consul
with Sextus Aelius. The war against Philip and the Macedonians fell
to Titus by lot, and some kind fortune, propitious at that time to
the Romans, seems to have so determined it; as neither the people
nor the state of things which were now to be dealt with were such
as to require a general who would always be upon the point of force
and mere blows, but rather were accessible to persuasion and gentle
usage. It is true that the kingdom of Macedon furnished supplies enough
to Philip for actual battle with the Romans; but to maintain a long
and lingering war he must call in aid from Greece; must thence procure
his supplies; there find his means of retreat; Greece, in a word,
would be his resource for all the requisites of his army. Unless,
therefore, the Greeks could be withdrawn from siding with Philip,
this war with him must not expect its decision from a single battle.
Now Greece (which had not hitherto held much correspondence with the
Romans, but first began an intercourse on this occasion) would not
so soon have embraced a foreign authority, instead of the commanders
she had been inured to, had not the general of these strangers been
of a kind, gentle nature, one who worked rather by fair means than
force; of a persuasive address in all applications to others, and
no less courteous and open to all addresses of others to him; and