Phile'menus
（
*Filh/menos), a noble youth of Tarentum, who took a leading part in the conspiracy to betray that city into the hands of Hannibal, B. C. 212. Under pretence of pursuing the pleasures of the chase, he used frequently to go out of the city and return in the middle of the night, and thus established an intimacy with some of the gate keepers, so that they used to admit him on a private signal at any hour. Of this he availed himself on a night previously concerted with the Carthaginian general, and succeeded in seizing on one of the gates, by which he introduced a body of 1000 African soldiers into the city, while Nicon admitted Hannibal himself by another entrance (
Plb. 8.26-
32;
Liv. 25.8-
10). When Tarentum was recovered by Fabius, B. C. 209, Philemenus perished in the conflict that ensued within the city itself; but in what manner was unknown, as his body could never be found. (
Liv. 27.16.)
[
E.H.B]
