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Demetrius
By Plutarch

(legendary, died 283 B.C.E.)


Translated by John Dryden

INGENIOUS men have long observed a resemblance between the arts and
the bodily senses. And they were first led to do so, I think, by noticing
the way in which, both in the arts and with our senses, we examine
opposites. Judgment once obtained, the use to which we put it differs
in the two cases. Our senses are not meant to pick out black rather
than white, to prefer sweet to bitter, or soft and yielding to hard
and resisting objects; all they have to do is to receive impressions
as they occur, and report to the understanding the impressions as
received. The arts, on the other hand, which reason institutes expressly
to choose and obtain some suitable, and to refuse and get rid of some
unsuitable object, have their proper concern in the consideration
of the former; though, in a casual and contingent way, they must also,
for the very rejection of them, pay attention to the latter. Medicine,
to produce health, has to examine disease, and music, to create harmony,
must investigate discord; and the supreme arts, of temperance, of
justice, and of wisdom, as they are acts of judgment and selection,
exercised not on good and just and expedient only, but also on wicked,
unjust, and inexpedient objects, do not give their commendations to
the mere innocence whose boast is its inexperience of evil, and whose
truer name is, by their award, simpleness and ignorance of what all
men who live aright should know. The ancient Spartans, at their festivals,
used to force their Helots to swallow large quantities of raw wine,
and then expose them at the public tables, to let the young men see
what it is to be drunk. And, though I do not think it consistent with
humanity or with civil justice to correct one man's morals by corrupting
those of another, yet we may, I think, avail ourselves of the cases
of those who have fallen into indiscretions, and have, in high stations,
made themselves conspicuous for misconduct; and I shall not do ill
to introduce a pair or two of such examples among these biographies,
not, assuredly, to amuse and divert my readers, or give variety to
my theme, but as Ismenias, the Theban, used to show his scholars good
and bad performers on the flute, and to tell them, "You should play
like this man," and, "You should not play like that," and as Antigenidas
used to say, Young people would take greater pleasure in hearing good
playing, if first they were set to hear bad, so, in the same manner,
it seems to me likely enough that we shall be all the more zealous
and more emulous to read, observe, and imitate the better lives, if
we are not left in ignorance of the blameworthy and the bad.

For this reason, the following book contains the lives of Demetrius
Poliorcetes and Antonius the Triumvir; two persons who have abundantly
justified the words of Plato, that great natures produce great vices
as well as virtues. Both alike were amorous and intemperate, warlike
and munificent, sumptuous in their way of living and overbearing in
their manners. And the likeness of their fortunes carried out the
resemblance in their characters. Not only were their lives each a
series of great successes and great disasters, mighty acquisitions
and tremendous losses of power, sudden overthrows followed by unexpected
recoveries, but they died, also, Demetrius in actual captivity to
his enemies and Antony on the verge of it. 

Antigonus had by his wife, Stratonice, the daughter of Corrhaeus,
two sons; the one of whom, after the name of his uncle, he called
Demetrius, the other had that of his grandfather Philip, and died
young. This is the most general account, although some have related
that Demetrius was not the son of Antigonus, but of his brother; and
that his own father dying young, and his mother being afterwards married
to Antigonus, he was accounted to be his son. 

Demetrius had not the height of his father Antigonus, though he was
a tall man. But his countenance was one of such singular beauty and
expression that no painter or sculptor ever produced a good likeness
of him. It combined grace and strength, dignity with boyish bloom,
and, in the midst of youthful heat and passion, what was hardest of
all to represent was a certain heroic look and air of kingly greatness.
Nor did his character belie his looks, as no one was better able to
render himself both loved and feared. For as he was the most easy
and agreeable of companions, and the most luxurious and delicate of
princes in his drinking and banqueting and daily pleasures, so in
action there was never any one that showed a more vehement persistence,
or a more passionate energy. Bacchus, skilled in the conduct of war,
and after war in giving peace its pleasures and joys, seems to have
been his pattern among the gods. 

He was wonderfully fond of his father Antigonus; and the tenderness
he had for his mother led him, for her sake, to redouble attentions,
which it was evident were not so much owing to fear or duty as to
the more powerful motives of inclination. It is reported that, returning
one day from hunting, he went immediately into the apartment of Antigonus,
who was conversing with some ambassadors, and after stepping up and
kissing his father, he sat down by him, just as he was, still holding
in his hand the javelins which he had brought with him. Whereupon
Antigonus, who had just dismissed the ambassadors with their answer,
called out in a loud voice to them, as they were going, "Mention,
also, that this is the way in which we two live together;" as if to
imply to them that it was no slender mark of the power and security
of his government that there was so perfect good understanding between
himself and his son. Such an unsociable, solitary thing is power,
and so much of jealousy and distrust in it, that the first and greatest
of the successors of Alexander could make it a thing of glory in that
he was not so afraid of his son as to forbid his standing beside him
with a weapon in his hand. And, in fact, among all the successors
of Alexander, that of Antigonus was the only house which, for many
descents, was exempted from crime of this kind; or to state it exactly,
Philip was the only one of this family who was guilty of a son's death.
All the other families, we may fairly say, afforded frequent examples
of fathers who brought their children, husbands their wives, children
their mothers, to untimely ends; and that brothers should put brothers
to death was assumed, like the postulate of mathematicians as the
common and recognized royal first principle of safety. 

Let us here record an example in the early life of Demetrius, showing
his natural humane and kindly disposition. It was an adventure which
passed betwixt him and Mithridates, the son of Ariobarzanes, who was
about the same age with Demetrius, and lived with him, in attendance
on Antigonus; and although nothing was said or could be said to his
reproach, he fell under suspicion, in consequence of a dream which
Antigonus had. Antigonus thought himself in a fair and spacious field,
where he sowed golden seed, and saw presently a golden crop come up;
of which, however, looking presently again, he saw nothing remain
but the stubble, without the ears. And as he stood by in anger and
vexation, he heard some voices saying Mithridates had cut the golden
harvest and carried it off into Pontus. Antigonus, much discomposed
with his dream, first bound his son, by an oath not to speak, and
then related it to him, adding that he had resolved, in consequence,
to lose no time in ridding himself of Mithridates, and making away
with him. Demetrius was extremely distressed; and when the young man
came, as usual, to pass his time with him, to keep his oath he forbore
from saying a word, but, drawing him aside little by little from the
company, as soon as they were by themselves, without opening his lips,
with the point of his javelin he traced before him the words "Fly,
Mithridates." Mithridates took the hint, and fled by night into Cappadocia,
where Antigonus's dream about him was quickly brought to its due fulfillment;
for he got possession of a large and fertile territory; and from him
descended the line of the kings of Pontus, which, in the eighth generation,
was reduced by the Romans. This may serve for a specimen of the early
goodness and love of justice that was part of Demetrius's natural
character. 

But as in the elements of the world, Empedocles tells us, out of liking
and dislike, there springs up contention and warfare, and all the
more, the closer the contact, or the nearer the approach of the objects,
even so the perpetual hostilities among the successors of Alexander
were aggravated and inflamed, in particular cases, by juxtaposition
of interests and of territories; as, for example, in the case of Antigonus
and Ptolemy. News came to Antigonus that Ptolemy had crossed from
Cyprus and invaded Syria, and was ravaging the country and reducing
the cities. Remaining, therefore, himself in Phrygia, he sent Demetrius,
now twenty-two years old, to make his first essay as sole commander
in an important charge. He, whose youthful heat outran his experience,
advancing against an adversary trained in Alexander's school, and
practised in many encounters, incurred a great defeat near the town
of Gaza, in which eight thousand of his men were taken and five thousand
killed. His own tent, also his money, and all his private effects
and furniture, were captured. These, however, Ptolemy sent back, together
with his friends, accompanying them with the humane and courteous
message, that they were not fighting for anything else but honour
and dominion. Demetrius accepted the gift praying only to the gods
not to leave him long in Ptolemy's debt, but to let him have an early
chance of doing the like to him. He took his disaster, also, with
the temper, not of a boy defeated in his attempt, but of an old and
long-tried general familiar with reverse of fortune; he busied himself
in collecting his men, replenishing his magazines, watching the allegiance
of the cities, and drilling his new recruits. 

Antigonus received the news of the battle with the remark that Ptolemy
had beaten boys and would now have to fight with men. But not to humble
the spirit of his son, he acceded to his request, and left him to
command on the next occasion. 

Not long after, Cilles, Ptolemy's lieutenant, with a powerful army,
took the field, and looking upon Demetrius as already defeated by
the previous battle, he had in his imagination driven him out of Syria
before he saw him. But he quickly found himself deceived; for Demetrius
came so unexpectedly upon him that he surprised both the general and
his army, making him and seven thousand of the soldiers prisoners
of war, and possessing himself of a large amount of treasure. But
his joy in the victory was not so much for the prizes he should keep,
as for those he could restore; and his thankfulness was less for the
wealth and glory than for the means it gave him of requiting his enemy's
former generosity. He did not, however, take it into his own hands,
but wrote to his father. And on receiving leave to do as he liked,
he sent back to Ptolemy Cilles and his friends, loaded with presents.
This defeat drove Ptolemy out of Syria, and brought Antigonus from
Calaenae to enjoy the victory and the sight of the son who had gained
it. 

Soon after, Demetrius was sent to bring the Nabathaean Arabs into
obedience. And here he got into a district without water, and incurred
considerable danger, but by his resolute and composed demeanour he
overawed the barbarians, and returned after receiving from them a
large amount of booty and seven hundred camels. Not long after, Seleucus,
whom Antigonus had formerly chased out of Babylon, but who had afterwards
recovered his dominion by his own efforts and maintained himself in
it, went with large forces on an expedition to reduce the tribes on
the confines of India and the provinces near Mount Caucasus. And Demetrius,
conjecturing that he had left Mesopotamia but slenderly guarded in
his absence, suddenly passed the Euphrates with his army and made
his way into Babylonia unexpectedly; when he succeeded in capturing
one of the two citadels, out of which he expelled the garrison of
Seleucus, and placed in it seven thousand men of his own. And after
allowing his soldiers to enrich themselves with all the spoil they
could carry with them out of the country, he retired to the sea, leaving
Seleucus more securely master of his dominions than before, as he
seemed by this conduct to abandon every claim to a country which he
treated like an enemy's. However, by a rapid advance, he rescued Halicarnassus
from Ptolemy, who was besieging it. The glory which this act obtained
them inspired both the father and son with a wonderful desire for
freeing Greece, which Cassander and Ptolemy had everywhere reduced
to slavery. No nobler or juster war was undertaken by any of the kings;
the wealth they had gained while humbling, with Greek assistance,
the barbarians, being thus employed, for honour's sake and good repute,
in helping the Greeks. When the resolution was taken to begin their
attempt with Athens, one of his friends told Antigonus, if they captured
Athens, they must keep it safe in their own hands, as by this gangway
they might step out from their ships into Greece when they pleased.
But Antigonus would not hear of it; he did not want a better or a
steadier gangway than people's good-will; and from Athens, the beacon
of the world, the news of their conduct would soon be handed on to
all the world's inhabitants. So Demetrius, with a sum of five thousand
talents, and a fleet of two hundred and fifty ships, set sail for
Athens, where Demetrius the Phalerian was governing the city for Cassander,
with a garrison lodged in the port of Munychia. By good fortune and
skilful management he appeared before Piraeus, on the twenty-sixth
of Thargelion, before anything had been heard of him. Indeed, when
his ships were seen, they were taken for Ptolemy's and preparations
were commenced for receiving them; till at last, the generals discovering
their mistake, hurried down, and all was alarm and confusion, and
attempts to push forward preparations to oppose the landing of this
hostile force. For Demetrius, having found the entrances of the port
undefended, stood in directly, and was by this time safely inside,
before the eyes of everybody, and made signals from his ship, requesting
a peaceful hearing. And on leave being given, he caused a herald with
a loud voice to make proclamation that he was come thither by the
command of his father, with no other design than what he prayed the
gods to prosper with success, to give the Athenians their liberty,
to expel the garrison, and to restore the ancient laws and constitution
of the country. 

The people, hearing this, at once threw down their shields, and clapping
their hands, with loud acclamations entreated Demetrius to land, calling
him their deliverer and benefactor. And the Phalerian and his party,
who saw that there was nothing for it but to receive the conqueror,
whether he should perform his promises or not, sent, however, messengers
to beg for his protection; to whom Demetrius gave a kind reception,
and sent back with them Aristodemus of Miletus, one of his father's
friends. The Phalerian, under the change of government, was more afraid
of his fellow-citizens than of the enemy; but Demetrius took precautions
for him, and out of respect for his reputation and character, sent
him with a safe conduct to Thebes, whither he desired to go. For himself,
he declared he would not, in spite of all his curiosity, put his foot
in the city till he had completed his deliverance by driving out the
garrison. So blockading Munychia with a palisade and trench, he sailed
off to attack Megara, where also there was one of Cassander's garrisons.
But, hearing that Cratesipolis, the wife of Alexander, son of Polysperchon,
who was famous for her beauty, was well disposed to see him, he left
his troops near Megara, and set out with a few light-armed attendants
for Patrae, where she was now staying. And, quitting these also, he
pitched his tent apart from everybody, that the woman might pay her
visit without being seen. This some of the enemy perceived, and suddenly
attacked him; and, in his alarm, he was obliged to disguise himself
in a shabby cloak, and run for it, narrowly escaping the shame of
being made a prisoner, in reward for his foolish passion. And as it
was, his tent and money were taken. Megara, however, surrendered,
and would have been pillaged by the soldiers, but for the urgent intercession
of the Athenians. The garrison was driven out, and the city restored
to independence. While he was occupied in this, he remembered that
Stilpo, the philosopher, famous for his choice of a life of tranquillity,
was residing here. He, therefore, sent for him, and begged to know
whether anything belonging to him had been taken. "No," replied Stilpo,
"I have not met with any one to take away knowledge." Pretty nearly
all the servants in the city had been stolen away; and so, when Demetrius,
renewing his courtesies to Stilpo, on taking leave of him, said, "I
leave your city, Stilpo, a city of freemen." "Certainly," replied
Stilpo, "there is not one serving man left among us all."

Returning from Megara, he sat down before the citadel of Munychia,
which in a few days he took by assault, and caused the fortifications
to be demolished; and thus having accomplished his design, upon the
request and invitation of the Athenians he made his entrance into
the upper city, where, causing the people to be summoned, he publicly
announced to them that their ancient constitution was restored, and
that they should receive from his father, Antigonus, a present of
one hundred and fifty thousand measures of wheat, and such a supply
of timber as would enable them to build a hundred galleys. In this
manner did the Athenians recover their popular institutions, after
the space of fifteen years from the time of the war of Lamia and the
battle before Cranon, during which interval of time the government
had been administered nominally as an oligarchy, but really by a single
man, Demetrius the Phalerian being so powerful. But the excessive
honours which the Athenians bestowed, for these noble and generous
acts, upon Demetrius, created offence and disgust. The Athenians were
the first who gave Antigonus and Demetrius the title of kings, which
hitherto they had made it a point of piety to decline, as the one
remaining royal honour still reserved for the lineal descendants of
Philip and Alexander, in which none but they could venture to participate.
Another name which they received from no people but the Athenians
was that of the Tutelar Deities and Deliverers. And to enhance this
flattery, by a common vote it was decreed to change the style of the
city, and not to have the years named any longer from the annual archon;
a priest of the two Tutelary Divinities, who was to be yearly chosen,
was to have this honour, and all public acts and instruments were
to bear their date by his name. They decreed, also, that the figures
of Antigonus and Demetrius should be woven, with those of the gods,
into the pattern of the great robe. They consecrated the spot where
Demetrius first alighted from his chariot, and built an altar there,
with the name of the Altar of the Descent of Demetrius. They created
two new tribes, calling them after the names of these princes, the
Antigonid and the Demetriad; and to the Council, which consisted of
five hundred persons, fifty being chosen out of every tribe, they
added one hundred more to represent these new tribes. But the wildest
proposal was one made by Stratocles, the great inventor of all these
ingenious and exquisite compliments, enacting that the members of
any deputation that the city should send to Demetrius or Antigonus
should have the same title as those sent to Delphi or Olympia for
the performance of the national sacrifices in behalf of the state
at the great Greek festivals. This Stratocles was, in all respects,
an audacious and abandoned character, and seemed to have made it his
object to copy, by his buffoonery and impertinence, Cleon's old familiarity
with the people. His mistress, Phylacion, one day bringing him a dish
of brains and neckbones for his dinner, "Oh," said he, "I am to dine
upon the things which we statesmen play at ball with." At another
time, when the Athenians received their naval defeat near Amorgos,
he hastened home before the news could reach the city, and having
a chaplet on his head, came riding through the Ceramicus, announcing
that they had won a victory, and moved a vote for thanksgivings to
the gods, and a distribution of meat among the people in their tribes.
Presently after came those who brought home the wrecks from the battle;
and when the people exclaimed at what he had done, he came boldly
to face the outcry, and asked what harm there had been in giving them
two days' pleasure. 

Such was Stratocles. And, "adding flame to fire," as Aristophanes
says, there was one who, to outdo Stratocles, proposed that it should
be decreed that, whensoever Demetrius should honour their city with
his presence, they should treat him with the same show of hospitable
entertainment with which Ceres and Bacchus are received; and the citizen
who exceeded the rest in the splendour and costliness of his reception
should have a sum of money granted him from the public purse to make
a sacred offering. Finally, they changed the name of the month of
Munychion, and called it Demetrion; they gave the name of the Demetrion
to the odd day between the end of the old and the beginning of the
new month; and turned the feast of Bacchus, the Dionysia, into the
Demetria or feast of Demetrius. Most of these changes were marked
by the divine displeasure. The sacred robe, in which, according to
their decree, the figures of Demetrius and Antigonus had been woven
with those of Jupiter and Minerva, was caught by a violent gust of
wind, while the procession was conveying it through the Ceramicus,
and was torn from the top to the bottom. A crop of hemlock, a plant
which scarcely grew anywhere, even in the country thereabouts, sprang
up in abundance round the altars which they had erected to these new
divinities. They had to omit the solemn procession at the feast of
Bacchus, as upon the very day of its celebration there was such a
severe and rigorous frost, coming quite out of its time, that not
only the vines and fig-trees were killed, but almost all the wheat
was destroyed in the blade. Accordingly, Philippides, an enemy to
Stratocles, attacked him in a comedy, in the following verses:-

"He for whom frosts that nipped your vines were sent, 
And for whose sins the holy robe was rent, 
Who grants to men the gods' own honours, he, 
Not the poor stage, is now the people's enemy." Philippides was a
great favourite with King Lysimachus, from whom the Athenians received,
for his sake, a variety of kindnesses. Lysimachus went so far as to
think it a happy omen to meet or see Philippides at the outset of
any enterprise or expedition. And, in general, he was well thought
of for his own character, as a plain, uninterfering person, with none
of the officious, self-important habits of a court. Once, when Lysimachus
was solicitous to show him kindness, and asked what he had that he
could make him a present of, "Anything," replied Philippides, "but
your state secrets." The stage-player, we thought, deserved a place
in our narrative quite as well as the public speaker. 

But that which exceeded all the former follies and flatteries was
the proposal of Dromoclides of Sphettus; who, when there was a debate
about sending to the Delphic Oracle to inquire the proper course for
the consecration of certain bucklers, moved in the assembly that they
should rather send to receive an oracle from Demetrius. I will transcribe
the very words of the order, which was in these terms: "May it be
happy and propitious. The people of Athens have decreed, that a fit
person shall be chosen among the Athenian citizens, who shall be deputed
to be sent to the Deliverer; and after he hath duly performed the
sacrifices, shall inquire of the Deliverer, in what most religious
and decent manner he will please to direct, at the earliest possible
time, the consecration of the bucklers; and according to the answer
the people shall act." With this befooling they completed the perversion
of a mind which even before was not so strong or sound as it should
have been. 

During his present leisure in Athens, he took to wife Eurydice, a
descendant of the ancient Miltiades, who had been married to Opheltas,
the ruler of Cyrene, and after his death had come back to Athens.
The Athenians took the marriage as a compliment and favour to the
city. But Demetrius was very free in these matters, and was the husband
of several wives at once; the highest place and honour among all being
retained by Phila, who was Antipater's daughter, and had been the
wife of Craterus, the one of all the successors of Alexander who left
behind him the strongest feelings of attachment among the Macedonians.
And for these reasons Antigonus had obliged him to marry her, notwithstanding
the disparity of their years, Demetrius being quite a youth, and she
much older; and when upon that account he made some difficulty in
complying, Antigonus whispered in his ear the maxim from Euripides,
broadly substituting a new word for the original, serve-

"Natural or not, 
A man must wed where profit will be got." Any respect, however, which
he showed either to Phila or to his other wives did not go so far
as to prevent him from consorting with any number of mistresses, and
bearing, in this respect, the worst character of all the princes of
his time. 

A summons now arrived from his father, ordering him to go and fight
with Ptolemy in Cyprus, which he was obliged to obey, sorry as he
was to abandon Greece. And in quitting this nobler and more glorious
enterprise, he sent to Cleonides, Ptolemy's general, who was holding
garrisons in Sicyon and Corinth, offering him money to let the cities
be independent. But on his refusal, he set sail hastily, taking additional
forces with him, and made for Cyprus; where, immediately upon his
arrival, he fell upon Menelaus, the brother of Ptolemy, and gave him
a defeat. But when Ptolemy himself came in person, with large forces
both on land and sea, for some little time nothing took place beyond
an interchange of menaces and lofty talk. Ptolemy bade Demetrius sail
off before the whole armament came up, if he did not wish to be trampled
under foot; and Demetrius offered to let him retire, on condition
of his withdrawing his garrisons from Sicyon and Corinth. And not
they alone, but all the other potentates and princes of the time,
were in anxiety for the uncertain impending issue of the conflict;
as it seemed evident that the conqueror's prize would be, not Cyprus
or Syria, but the absolute supremacy. 

Ptolemy had brought a hundred and fifty galleys with him, and gave
orders to Menelaus to sally, in the heat of the battle, out of the
harbour of Salamis, and attack with sixty ships the rear of Demetrius.
Demetrius, however, opposing to these sixty ten of his galleys, which
were a sufficient number to block up the narrow entrance of the harbour,
and drawing out his land forces along all the headlands running out
into sea, went into action with a hundred and eighty galleys, and,
attacking with the utmost boldness and impetuosity, utterly routed
Ptolemy, who fled with eight ships, the sole remnant of his fleet,
seventy having been taken with all their men, and the rest destroyed
in the battle; while the whole multitude of attendants, friends, and
women, that had followed in the ships of burden, all the arms, treasure,
and military engines fell, without exception, into the hands of Demetrius,
and were by him collected and brought into the camp. Among the prisoners
was the celebrated Lamia, famed at one time for her skill on the flute,
and afterwards renowned as a mistress. And although now upon the wane
of her youthful beauty, and though Demetrius was much her junior,
she exercised over him so great a charm that all other women seemed
to be amorous of Demetrius, but Demetrius amorous only of Lamia. After
this signal victory, Demetrius came before Salamis; and Menelaus,
unable to make any resistance, surrendered himself and all his fleet,
twelve hundred horse, and twelve thousand foot, together with the
place. But that which added more than all to the glory and splendour
of the success was the humane and generous conduct of Demetrius to
the vanquished. For, after he had given honourable funerals to the
dead, he bestowed liberty upon the living; and that he might not forget
the Athenians, he sent them, as a present, complete arms for twelve
hundred men. 

To carry this happy news, Aristodemus of Miletus, the most perfect
flatterer belonging to the court, was despatched to Antigonus; and
he, to enhance the welcome message, was resolved, it would appear,
to make his most successful effort. When he crossed from Cyprus, he
bade the galley which conveyed him to come to anchor off the land;
and, having ordered all the ship's crew to remain aboard, he took
the boat, and was set ashore alone. Thus he proceeded to Antigonus,
who, one may well imagine, was in suspense enough about the issue,
and suffered all the anxieties natural to men engaged in so perilous
a struggle. And when he heard that Aristodemus was coming alone, it
put him into yet greater trouble; he could scarcely forbear from going
out to meet him himself; he sent messenger on messenger, and friend
after friend, to inquire what news. But Aristodemus, walking gravely
and with a settled countenance, without making any answer, still proceeded
quietly onward; until Antigonus, quite alarmed and no longer able
to refrain, got up and met him at the gate, whither he came with a
crowd of anxious followers now collected and running after him. As
soon as he saw Antigonus within hearing stretching out his hands,
he accosted him with the loud exclamation, "Hail, King Antigonus!
we have defeated Ptolemy by sea, and have taken Cyprus and sixteen
thousand eight hundred prisoners." "Welcome, Aristodemus," replied
Antigonus, "but, as you chose to torture us so long for your good
news, you may wait awhile for the reward of it." 

Upon this the people around gave Antigonus and Demetrius, for the
first time, the title of kings. His friends at once set a diadem on
the head of Antigonus; and he sent one presently to his son, with
a letter addressed to him as King Demetrius. And when this news was
told in Egypt, that they might not seem to be dejected with the late
defeat, Ptolemy's followers also took occasion to bestow the style
of king upon him; and the rest of the successors of Alexander were
quick to follow the example. Lysimachus began to wear the diadem,
and Seleucus, who had before received the name in all addresses from
the barbarians, now also took it upon him in all business with the
Greeks, Cassander still retained his usual superscription in his letters,
but others, both in writing and speaking, gave him the royal title.
Nor was this the mere accession of a name, or introduction of a new
fashion. The men's own sentiments about themselves were disturbed,
and their feelings elevated; a spirit of pomp and arrogance passed
into their habits of life and conversation, as a tragic actor on the
stage modifies, with a change of dress, his steps, his voice, his
motions in sitting down, his manner in addressing another. The punishments
they inflicted were more violent after they had thus laid aside that
modest style under which they formerly dissembled their power, and
the influence of which had often made them gentler and less exacting
to their subjects. A single flattering voice effected a revolution
in the world. 

Antigonus, extremely elevated with the success of his arms in Cyprus,
under the conduct of Demetrius, resolved to push on his good fortune,
and to lead his forces in person against Ptolemy by land whilst Demetrius
should coast with a great fleet along the shore, to assist him by
sea. The issue of the contest was intimated in a dream which Medius,
a friend of Antigonus, had at this time in his sleep. He thought he
saw Antigonus and his whole army running, as if it had been a race;
that, in the first part of the course, he went off showing great strength
and speed; gradually, however, his pace slackened, and at the end
he saw him come lagging up, tired and almost breathless and quite
spent. Antigonus himself met with many difficulties by land; and Demetrius,
encountering a great storm at sea, was driven, with the loss of many
of his ships, upon a dangerous coast without a harbour. So the expedition
returned without effecting anything. Antigonus, now nearly eighty
years old, was no longer well able to go through the fatigues of a
marching campaign, though rather on account of his great size and
corpulence than from loss of strength; and for this reason he left
things to his son, whose fortune and experience appeared sufficient
for all undertakings, and whose luxury and expense and revelry gave
him no concern. For though in peace he vented himself in pleasures,
and, when there was nothing to do, ran headlong into any excesses,
in war he was as sober and abstemious as the most temperate character.
The story is told that once, after Lamia had gained open supremacy
over him, the old man, when Demetrius coming home from abroad began
to kiss him with unusual warmth, asked him if he took him for Lamia.
At another time, Demetrius, after spending several days in a debauch,
excused himself for his absence, by saying he had had a violent flux.
"So I heard," replied Antigonus; "was it of Thasian wine, or Chian?"
Once he was told his son was ill, and went to see him. At the door
he met some young beauty. Going in, he sat down by the bed and took
his pulse. "The fever," said Demetrius, "has just left me." "Oh yes,"
replied the father, "I met it going out at the door." Demetrius's
great actions made Antigonus treat him thus easily. The Scythians
in their drinking-bouts twang their bows, to keep their courage awake
amidst the dreams of indulgence; but he would resign his whole being,
now to pleasure, and now to action; and though he never let thoughts
of the one intrude upon the pursuit of the other, yet when the time
came for preparing for war, he showed as much capacity as any man.

And indeed his ability displayed itself even more in preparing for
than in conducting a war. He thought he could never be too well supplied
for every possible occasion, and took a pleasure, not to be satiated,
in great improvements in ship-building and machines. He did not waste
his natural genius and power of mechanical research on toys and idle
fancies, turning, painting, and playing on the flute, like some kings,
Aeropus, for example, King of Macedon, who spent his days in making
small lamps and tables; or Attalus Philometor, whose amusement was
to cultivate poisons henbane and bellebore, and even hemlock, aconite,
and dorycnium, which he used to sow himself in the royal gardens,
and made it his business to gather the fruits and collect the juices
in their season. The Parthian kings took a pride in whetting and sharpening
with their own hands the points of their arrows and javelins. But
when Demetrius played the workman, it was like a king, and there was
magnificence in his handicraft. The articles he produced bore marks
upon the face of them not of ingenuity only, but of a great mind and
a lofty purpose. They were such as a king might not only design and
pay for, but use his own hands to make; and while friends might be
terrified with their greatness, enemies could be charmed with their
beauty; a phrase which is not so pretty to the ear as it is true to
the fact. The very people against whom they were to be employed could
not forbear running to gaze with admiration upon his galleys of five
and six ranges of oars, as they passed along their coasts; and the
inhabitants of besieged cities came on their walls to see the spectacles
of his famous City-takers. Even Lysmachus, of all the kings of his
time the greatest enemy of Demetrius, coming to raise the siege of
Soli in Cilicia, sent first to desire permission to see his galleys
and engines, and, having had his curiosity gratified by a view of
them, expressed his admiration and quitted the place. The Rhodians,
also, whom he long besieged, begged him, when they concluded a peace,
to let them have some of his engines, which they might preserve as
a memorial at once of his power and of their own brave resistance.

The quarrel between him and the Rhodians was on account of their being
allies to Ptolemy, and in the siege the greatest of all the engines
was planted against their walls. The base of it was exactly square,
each side containing twenty-four cubits; it rose to a height of thirty-three
cubits, growing narrower from the base to the top. Within were several
apartments or chambers, which were to be filled with armed men, and
in every story the front towards the enemy had windows for discharging
missiles of all sorts, the whole being filled with soldiers for every
description of fighting. And what was most wonderful was that, notwithstanding
its size, when it was moved it never tottered or inclined to one side,
but went forward on its base in perfect equilibrium, with a loud noise
and great impetus, astounding the minds, and yet at the same time
charming the eyes of all the beholders. 

Whilst Demetrius was at this same siege, there were brought to him
two iron cuirasses from Cyprus, weighing each of them on more than
forty pounds, and Zoilus, who had forged them, to show the excellence
of their temper, desired that one of them might be tried with a catapult
missile, shot out of one of the engines at no greater distance than
six-and-twenty paces; and, upon the experiment, it was found that
though the dart exactly hit the cuirass, yet it made no greater impression
than such a slight scratch as might be made with the point of a style
or graver. Demetrius took this for his own wearing, and gave the other
to Alcimus the Epirot, the best soldier and strongest man of all his
captains, the only one who used to wear armour to the weight of two
talents, one talent being the weight which others thought sufficient.
He fell during this siege in a battle near the theatre. 

The Rhodians made a brave defence, insomuch that Demetrius saw he
was making but little progress, and only persisted out of obstinacy
and passion; and the rather because the Rhodians, having captured
a ship in which some clothes and furniture, with letters from herself,
were coming to him from Phila his wife, had sent on everything to
Ptolemy, and had not copied the honourable example of the Athenians,
who, having surprised an express sent from King Philip, their enemy,
opened all the letters he was charged with, excepting only those directed
to Queen Olympias, which they returned with the seal unbroken. Yet,
although greatly provoked, Demetrius, into whose power it shortly
after came to repay the affront, would not suffer himself to retaliate.
Protogenes the Caunian had been making them a painting of the story
of Ialysus, which was all but completed, when it was taken by Demetrius
in one of the suburbs. The Rhodians sent a herald begging him to be
pleased to spare the work and not let it be destroyed; Demetrius's
answer to which was that he would rather burn the pictures of his
father than a piece of art which had cost so much labour. It is said
to have taken Protogenes seven years to paint, and they tell us that
Apelles, when he first saw it, was struck dumb with wonder, and called
it, on recovering his speech, "a great labour and a wonderful success,"
adding, however, that it had not the graces which carried his own
paintings as it were up to the heavens. This picture, which came with
the rest in the general mass to Rome, there perished by fire.

While the Rhodians were thus defending their city to the utmost, Demetrius,
who was not sorry for an excuse to retire, found one in the arrival
of ambassadors from Athens, by whose mediation terms were made that
the Rhodians should bind themselves to aid Antigonus and Demetrius
against all enemies, Ptolemy excepted. 

The Athenians entreated his help against Cassander, who was besieging
the city. So he went thither with a fleet of three hundred and thirty
ships, and many soldiers; and not only drove Cassander out of Attica,
but pursued him as far as Thermopylae, routed him and became master
of Heraclea, which came over to him voluntarily, and of a body of
six thousand Macedonians, which also joined him. Returning hence,
he gave their liberty to all the Greeks on this side Thermopylae,
and made alliance with the Boeotians, took Cenchreae, and reducing
the fortresses of Phyle and Panactum, in which were garrisons of Cassander,
restored them to the Athenians. They, in requital, though they had
before been so profuse in bestowing honours upon him that one would
have thought they had exhausted all the capacities of invention, showed
they had still new refinements of adulation to devise for him. They
gave him, as his lodging, the back temple in the Parthenon, and here
he lived, under the immediate roof as they meant it to imply, of his
hostess, Minerva- no reputable or well-conducted guest to be quartered
upon a maiden goddess! When his brother Philip was once put into a
house where three young women were living, Antigonus, saying nothing
to him, sent for his quartermaster, and told him, in the young man's
presence, to find some less crowded lodgings for him. 

Demetrius, however, who should, to say the least, have paid the goddess
the respect due to an elder sister, for that was the purport of the
city's compliment, filled the temple with such pollutions that the
place seemed least profaned when his licence confined itself to common
women like Chrysis, Lamia, Demo, and Anticyra. 

The fair name of the city forbids any further plain particulars; let
us only record the severe virtue of the young Damocles, surnamed,
and by that surname pointed out to Demetrius, the beautiful; who,
to escape importunities, avoided every place of resort, and when at
last followed into a private bathing room by Demetrius, seeing none
at hand to help or deliver, seized the lid from the cauldron, and,
plunging into the boiling water, sought a death untimely and unmerited,
but worthy of the country and of the beauty that occasioned it. Not
so Cleaenetus, the son of Cleomedon, who, to obtain from Demetrius
a letter of intercession to the people in behalf of his father, lately
condemned in a fine of fifty talents, disgraced himself, and got the
city into trouble. In deference to the letter, they remitted the fine,
yet they made an edict prohibiting any citizen for the future to bring
letters from Demetrius. But being informed that Demetrius resented
this as a great indignity, they not only rescinded in alarm the former
order, but put some of the proposers and advisers of it to death and
banished others, and furthermore enacted and decreed, that whatsoever
King Demetrius should in time to come ordain, should be accounted
right towards the gods and just towards men; and when one of the better
class of citizens said Stratocles must be mad to use such words, Demochares
of Leuconoe observed he would be a fool not to be mad. For Stratocles
was well rewarded for his flatteries; and the saying was remembered
against Demochares, who was soon after sent into banishment. So fared
the Athenians, after being relieved of the foreign garrison, and recovering
what was called their liberty. 

After this Demetrius marched with his forces into Peloponnesus, where
he met with none to oppose him, his enemies flying before him, and
allowing the cities to join him. He received into friendship all Acte,
as it is called, and all Arcadia except Mantinea. He bought the liberty
of Argos, Corinth, and Sicyon, by paying a hundred talents to their
garrisons to evacuate them. At Argos, during the feast of Juno, which
happened at the time, he presided at the games, and, joining in the
festivities with the of the Greeks assembled there, he celebrated
his marriage with Deidamia, daughter of Aeacides, King of the Molossians,
and sister of Pyrrhus. At Sicyon he told the people they had put the
city just outside of the city, and, persuading them to remove to where
they now live, gave their town not only a new site but a new name,
Demetrias, after himself. A general assembly met on the Isthmus, where
he was proclaimed, by a great concourse of the people, the Commander
of Greece, like Philip and Alexander of old; whose superior he, in
the present height of his prosperity and power, was willing enough
to consider himself; and certainly, in one respect, he outdid Alexander,
who never refused their title to other kings, or took on himself the
style of king of kings, though many kings received both their title
and their authority as such from him; whereas Demetrius used to ridicule
those who gave the name of king to any except himself and his father;
and in his entertainments was well pleased when his followers, after
drinking to him and his father as kings, went on to drink the healths
of Seleucus, with the title of Master of the Elephants; of Ptolemy,
by the name of High Admiral; of Lysimachus, with the addition of Treasurer;
and of Agathocles, with the style of Governor of the Island of Sicily.
The other kings merely laughed when they were told of this vanity;
Lysimachus alone expressed some indignation at being considered a
eunuch, such being usually then selected for the office of treasurer.
And, in general, there was a more bitter enmity between him and Lysimachus
than with any of the others. Once, as a scoff at his passion for Lamia,
Lysimachus said he had never before seen a courtesan act a queen's
part; to which Demetrius rejoined that his mistress was quite as honest
as Lysimachus's own Penelope. 

But to proceed. Demetrius being about to return to Athens, signified
by letter to the city that he desired immediate admission to the rites
of initiation into the Mysteries, and wished to go through all the
stages of the ceremony, from first to last, without delay. This was
absolutely contrary to the rules, and a thing which had never been
allowed before; for the lesser mysteries were celebrated in the month
of Anthesterion, and the great solemnity in Boedromion, and none of
the novices were finally admitted till they had completed a year after
this latter. Yet all this notwithstanding, when in the public assembly
these letters of Demetrius were produced and read, there was not one
single person who had the courage to oppose them, except Pythodorus,
the torch-bearer. But it signified nothing, for Stratocles at once
proposed that the month of Munychion, then current, should by edict
be reputed to be the month of Anthesterion; which being voted and
done, and Demetrius thereby admitted to the lesser ceremonies, by
another vote they turned the same month of Munychion into the other
month of Boedromion; the celebration of the greater mysteries ensued,
and Demetrius was fully admitted. These proceedings gave the comedian,
Philippides, a new occasion to exercise his wit upon Stratocles-

"  -whose flattering fear 
Into one month hath crowded all the year." And on the vote that Demetrius
should lodge in the Parthenon- 

"Who turns the temple to a common inn, 
And makes the Virgin's house a house of sin." 

Of all the disreputable and flagitious acts of which he was guilty
in this visit, one that particularly hurt the feelings of the Athenians
was that, having given command that they should forthwith raise for
his service two hundred and fifty talents, and they to comply with
his demands being forced to levy it upon the people with the utmost
rigour and severity, when they presented him with the money which
they had with such difficulty raised, as if it were a trifling sum,
he ordered it to be given to Lamia and the rest of his women, to buy
soap. The loss, which was bad enough, was less galling than the shame,
and the words more intolerable than the act which they accompanied.
Though, indeed, the story is variously reported; and some say it was
the Thessalians, and not the Athenians, who were thus treated. Lamia,
however, exacted contributions herself to pay for an entertainment
she gave to the king, and her banquet was so renowned for its sumptuosity
that a description of it was drawn up by the Samian writer, Lynceus.
Upon this occasion, one of the comic writers gave Lamia the name of
the real Helepolis; and Demochares of Soli called Demetrius Mythus,
because the fable always has its Lamia, and so had he. 

And, in truth, his passion for this woman, and the prosperity in which
she lived were such as to draw upon him not only the envy and jealousy
of all his wives, but the animosity even of his friends. For example,
on Lysimachus's showing to some ambassadors from Demetrius the scars
of the wounds which he had received upon his thighs and arms by the
paws of the lion with which Alexander had shut him up, after hearing
his account of the combat, they smiled and answered, that their king,
also, was not without his scars, but could show upon his neck the
marks of a Lamia, a no less dangerous beast. It was also matter of
wonder that, though he had objected so much to Phila on account of
her age, he was yet such a slave to Lamia who was so long past her
prime. One evening at supper, when she played the flute, Demetrius
asked Demo, whom the men called Madness, what she thought of her.
Demo answered she thought her an old woman. And when a quantity of
sweetmeats were brought in, and the king said again, "See what presents
I get from Lamia!" "My old mother," answered Demo, "will send you
more, if you will make her your mistress." Another story is told of
a criticism passed by Lamia on the famous judgment of Bocchoris. A
young Egyptian had long made suit to Thonis, the courtesan, offering
a sum of gold for her favour. But before it came to pass, he dreamed
one night that he had obtained it, and, satisfied with the shadow,
felt no more desire for the substance. Thonis upon this brought an
action for the sum. Bocchoris, the judge, on hearing the case, ordered
the defendant to bring into court the full amount in a vessel, which
he was to move to and fro in his hand, and the shadow of it was to
be adjudged to Thonis. The fairness of this sentence Lamia contested,
saying the young man's desire might have been satisfied with the dream,
but Thonis's desire for the money could not be relieved by the shadow.
Thus much for Lamia. 

And now the story passes from the comic to the tragic stage in pursuit
of the acts and fortunes of its subjects. A general league of the
kings, who were now gathering and combining their forces to attack
Antigonus, recalled Demetrius from Greece. He was encouraged by finding
his father full of a spirit and resolution for the combat that belied
his years. Yet it would seem to be true, that if Antigonus could only
have borne to make some trifling concessions, and if he had shown
any moderation in his passion for empire, he might have maintained
for himself till his death and left to his son behind him the first
place among the kings. But he was of a violent and haughty spirit;
and the insulting words as well as actions in which he allowed himself
could not be borne by young and powerful princes, and provoked them
into combining against him. Though now when he was told of the confederacy,
he could not forbear from saying that this flock of birds would soon
be scattered by one stone and a single shout. He took the field at
the head of more than seventy thousand foot, and of ten thousand horse,
and seventy-five elephants. His enemies had sixty-four thousand foot,
five hundred more horse than he, elephants to the number of four hundred,
and a hundred and twenty chariots. On their near approach to each
other, an alteration began to be observable, not in the purposes,
but in the presentiments of Antigonus. For whereas in all former campaigns
he had ever shown himself lofty and confident, loud in voice and scornful
in speech, often by some joke or mockery on the eve of battle expressing
his contempt and displaying his composure, he was now remarked to
be thoughtful, silent, and retired. He presented Demetrius to the
army and declared him his successor; and what every one thought stranger
than all was that he now conferred alone in his tent with Demetrius;
whereas in former time he had never entered into any secret consultations
even with him; but had always followed his own advice, made his resolutions,
and then given out his commands. Once when Demetrius was a boy and
asked him how soon the army would move, he is said to have answered
him sharply, "Are you afraid lest you, of all the army, should not
hear the trumpet?" 

There were now, however, inauspicious signs, which affected his spirits.
Demetrius, in a dream, had seen Alexander, completely armed, appear
and demand of him what word they intended to give in the time of the
battle; and Demetrius answering that he intended the word should he
"Jupiter and Victory," "Then," said Alexander, "I will go to your
adversaries and find my welcome with them." And on the morning of
the combat, as the armies were drawing up, Antigonus, going out of
the door of his tent, by some accident or other stumbled and fell
flat upon the ground, hurting himself a good deal. And on recovering
his feet, lifting up his hands to heaven, he prayed the gods to grant
him, "either victory, or death without knowledge of defeat." When
the armies engaged, Demetrius, who commanded the greatest and best
part of the cavalry, made a charge on Antiochus, the son of Seleucus,
and gloriously routing the enemy, followed the pursuit, in the pride
and exultation of success, so eagerly, and so unwisely far, that it
fatally lost him the day; for when, perceiving his error, he would
have come in to the assistance of his own infantry, he was not able,
the enemy with their elephants having cut off his retreat. And on
the other hand, Seleucus, observing the main battle of Antigonus left
naked of their horse, did not charge, but made a show of charging;
and keeping them in alarm and wheeling about and still threatening
an attack, he gave opportunity for those who wished it to separate
and come over to him; which a large body of them did, the rest taking
to flight. But the old King Antigonus still kept his post, and when
a strong body of the enemies drew up to charge him, and one of those
about him cried out to him, "Sir, they are coming upon you," he only
replied, "What else should they do? but Demetrius will come to my
rescue." And in this hope he persisted to the last, looking out on
every side for his son's approach, until he was borne down by a whole
multitude of darts, and fell. His other followers and friends fled,
and Thorax of Larissa remained alone by the body. 

The battle having been thus decided, the kings who had gained the
victory, carving up the whole vast empire that had belonged to Demetrius
and Antigonus, like a carcass, into so many portions, added these
new gains to their former possessions. As for Demetrius, with five
thousand foot and four thousand horse, he fled at his utmost speed
to Ephesus, where it was the common opinion he would seize the treasures
of the temple to relieve his wants; but he, on the contrary, fearing
such an attempt on the part of his soldiers, hastened away, and sailed
for Greece, his chief remaining hopes being placed in the fidelity
of the Athenians, with whom he had left part of his navy and of his
treasures and his wife Deidamia. And in their attachment he had not
the least doubt but he should in this his extremity find a safe resource.
Accordingly when, upon reaching the Cyclades, he was met by ambassadors
from Athens, requesting him not to proceed to the city, as the people
had passed a vote to admit no king whatever within their walls, and
had conveyed Deidamia with honourable attendance to Megara, his anger
and surprise overpowered him, and the constancy quite failed him which
he had hitherto shown in a wonderful degree under his reverses, nothing
humiliating or mean-spirited having as yet been seen in him under
all his misfortunes. But to be thus disappointed in the Athenians,
and to find the friendship he had trusted prove, upon trial, thus
empty and unreal, was a great pang to him. And, in truth, an excessive
display of outward honour would seem to be the most uncertain attestation
of the real affection of a people for any king or potentate. Such
shows lose their whole credit as tokens of affection (which has its
virtue in the feelings and moral choice), when we reflect that they
may equally proceed from fear. The same decrees are voted upon the
latter motive as upon the former. And therefore judicious men do not
look so much to statues, paintings, or divine honours that are paid
them, as to their own actions and conduct, judging hence whether they
shall trust these as a genuine, or discredit them as a forced homage.
As in fact nothing is less unusual than for a people, even while offering
compliments, to be disgusted with those who accept them greedily,
or arrogantly, or without respect to the free-will of the givers.

Demetrius, shamefully used as he thought himself, was in no condition
to revenge the affront. He returned a message of gentle expostulation,
saying, however, that he expected to have his galleys sent to him,
among which was that of thirteen banks of oars. And this being accorded
him, he sailed to the Isthmus, and, finding his affairs in very ill
condition, his garrisons expelled, and a general secession going on
to the enemy, he left Pyrrhus to attend to Greece, and took his course
to the Chersonesus, where he ravaged the territories of Lysimachus,
and by the booty which he took, maintained and kept together his troops,
which were now once more beginning to recover and to show some considerable
front. Nor did any of the other princes care to meddle with him on
that side; for Lysimachus had quite as little claim to be loved, and
was more to be feared for his power. But not long after Seleucus sent
to treat with Demetrius for a marriage betwixt himself and Stratonice,
daughter of Demetrius by Phila. Seleucus, indeed, had already, by
Apama, the Persian, a son named Antiochus, but he was possessed of
territories that might well satisfy more than one successor, and he
was the rather induced to this alliance with Demetrius, because Lysimachus
had just married himself to one daughter of King Ptolemy, and his
son Agathocles to another. Demetrius, who looked upon the offer as
an unexpected piece of good fortune, presently embarked with his daughter,
and with his whole fleet sailed for Syria. Having during his voyage
to touch several times on the coast, among other places he landed
in part of Cilicia, which by the apportionment of the kings after
the defeat of Antigonus was allotted to Plistarchus, the brother of
Cassander. Plistarchus, who took this descent of Demetrius upon his
coasts as an infraction of his rights, and was not sorry to have something
to complain of, hastened to expostulate in person with Seleucus for
entering separately into relations with Demetrius, the common enemy,
without consulting the other kings. 

Demetrius, receiving information of this, seized the opportunity,
and fell upon the city of Quinda, which he surprised, and took in
it twelve hundred talents still remaining of the treasure. With this
prize, he hastened back to his galleys, embarked, and set sail. At
Rhosus, where his wife Phila was now with him, he was met by Seleucus,
and their communications with each other at once were put on a frank,
unsuspecting, and kingly footing. First, Seleucus gave a banquet to
Demetrius in his tent in the camp; then Demetrius' received him in
the ship of thirteen banks of oars. Meetings for amusements, conferences,
and long visits for general intercourse succeeded, all without attendants
or arms; until at length Seleucus took his leave, and in great state
conducted Stratonice to Antioch. Demetrius meantime possessed himself
of Cilicia, and sent Phila to her brother Cassander, to answer the
complaints of Plistarchus. And here his wife Deidamia came by sea
out of Greece to meet him, but not long after contracted an illness,
of which she died. After her death, Demetrius, by the mediation of
Seleucus, became reconciled to Ptolemy, and an agreement was made
that he should marry his daughter Ptolemais. Thus far all was handsomely
done on the part of Seleucus. But, shortly after, desiring to have
the province of Cilicia from Demetrius for a sum of money, and being
refused it, he then angrily demanded of him the cities of Tyre and
Sidon, which seemed a mere piece of arbitrary dealing, and, indeed,
an outrageous thing that he, who was possessed of all the vast provinces
between India and the Syrian sea, should think himself so poorly off
as, for the sake of two cities which he coveted, to disturb the peace
of his dear connection, already a sufferer under a severe reverse
of fortune. However, he did but justify the saying of Plato, that
the only certain way to be truly rich is not to have more property,
but fewer desires. For whoever is always grasping at more avows that
he is still in want, and must be poor in the midst of affluence.

But Demetrius, whose courage did not sink, resolutely sent him answer,
that, though he were to lose ten thousand battles like that of Ipsus,
he would pay no price for the good-will of such a son-in-law as Seleucus.
He reinforced these cities with sufficient garrisons to enable them
to make a defence against Seleucus; and, receiving information that
Lachares, taking the opportunity of their civil dissensions, had set
up himself as a usurper over the Athenians, he imagined that if he
made a sudden attempt upon the city, he might now without difficulty
get possession of it. He crossed the sea in safety with a large fleet;
but passing along the coast of Attica, was met by a violent storm,
and lost the greater number of his ships, and a very considerable
body of men on board of them. As for him, he escaped, and began to
make war in a petty manner with the Athenians, but, finding himself
unable to effect his design, he sent back orders for raising another
fleet, and, with the troops which he had, marched into Peloponnesus
and laid siege to the city of Messena. In attacking which place he
was in danger of death; for a missile from an engine struck him in
the face, and passed through the cheek into his mouth. He recovered,
however, and, as soon as he was in a condition to take the field,
won over divers cities which had revolted from him, and made an incursion
into Attica, where he took Eleusis and Rhamnus, and wasted the country
thereabout. And that he might straiten the Athenians by cutting off
all manner of provision, a vessel laden with corn bound thither falling
into his hands, he ordered the master and the supercargo to be immediately
hanged, thereby to strike a terror into others, that so they might
not venture to supply the city with provisions. By which means they
were reduced to such extremities that a bushel of salt sold for forty
drachmas, and a peck of wheat for three hundred. Ptolemy had sent
to their relief a hundred and fifty galleys, which came so near as
to be seen off Aegina; but this brief hope was soon extinguished by
the arrival of three hundred ships, which came to reinforce Demetrius
from Cyprus, Peloponnesus, and other places; upon which Ptolemy's
fleet took to flight, and Lachares, the tyrant, ran away, leaving
the city to its fate. 

And now the Athenians, who before had made it capital for any person
to propose a treaty or accommodation with Demetrius, immediately opened
the nearest gates to send ambassadors to him, not so much out of hopes
of obtaining any honourable conditions from his clemency as out of
necessity, to avoid death by famine. For among many frightful instances
of the distress they were reduced to, it is said that a father and
son were sitting in a room together, having abandoned every hope,
when a dead mouse fell from the ceiling; and for this prize they leaped
up and came to blows. In this famine, it is also related, the philosopher
Epicurus saved his own life, and the lives of his scholars, by a small
quantity of beans, which he distributed to them daily by number.

In this condition was the city when Demetrius made his entrance and
issued a proclamation that all the inhabitants should assemble in
the theatre; which being done, he drew up his soldiers at the back
of the stage, occupied the stage itself with his guards, and, presently
coming in himself by the actors' passages, when the people's consternation
had risen to its height, with his first words he put an end to it.
Without any harshness of tone or bitterness of words, he reprehended
them in a gentle and friendly way, and declared himself reconciled,
adding a present of a hundred thousand bushels of wheat, and appointing
as magistrates persons acceptable to the people. So Dromoclides, the
orator, seeing the people at a loss how to express their gratitude
by any words or acclamations, and ready for anything that would outdo
the verbal encomiums of the public speakers, came forward, and moved
a decree for delivering Piraeus and Munychia into the hands of King
Demetrius. This was passed accordingly, and Demetrius, of his own
motion, added a third garrison, which he placed in the Museum, as
a precaution against any new restiveness on the part of the people,
which might give him the trouble of quitting his other enterprises.

He had not long been master of Athens before he had formed designs
against Lacedaemon; of which Archidamus, the king, being advertised,
came out and met him, but he was overthrown in a battle near Mantinea;
after which Demetrius entered Laconia, and, in a second battle near
Sparta itself, defeated him again with the loss of two hundred Lacedaemonians
slain, and five hundred taken prisoners. And now it was almost impossible
for the city, which hitherto had never been captured, to escape his
arms. But certainly there never was any king upon whom fortune made
such short turns, nor any other life or story so filled with her swift
and surprising changes, over and over again, from small things to
great, from splendour back to humiliation and from utter weakness
once more to power and might. They say in his sadder vicissitudes
he used sometimes to apostrophize fortune in the words of Aeschylus-

"Thou liftest up, to cast us down again." And so at this moment, when
all things seemed to conspire together to give him his heart's desire
of dominion and power, news arrived that Lysimachus had taken all
his cities in Asia, that Ptolemy had reduced all Cyprus with the exception
of Salamis, and that in Salamis his mother and children were shut
up and close besieged; and yet, like the woman in Archilochus-

"Water in one deceitful hand she shows, 
While burning fire within her other glows." The same fortune that
drew him off with these disastrous tidings from Sparta, in a moment
after opened upon him a new and wonderful prospect, of the following
kind. Cassander, King of Macedon, dying, and his eldest son Philip,
who succeeded him, not long surviving his father, the two younger
brothers fell at variance concerning the succession. And Antipater
having murdered his mother Thessalonica, Alexander, the younger brother,
called in to his assistance Pyrrhus out of Epirus, and Demetrius out
of the Peloponnese. Pyrrhus arrived first, and, taking in recompense
for his succour a large slice of Macedonia, had made Alexander begin
to be aware that he had brought upon himself a dangerous neighbour.
And, that he might not run a yet worse hazard from Demetrius, whose
power and reputation were so great, the young man hurried away to
meet him at Dium, whither he, who on receiving his letter had set
out on his march, was now come. And, offering his greetings and grateful
acknowledgments, he at the same time informed him that his affairs
no longer required the presence of his ally, thereupon he invited
him to supper. There were not wanting some feelings of suspicion on
either side already; and when Demetrius was now on his way to the
banquet, some one came and told him that in the midst of the drinking
he would be killed. Demetrius showed little concern, but, making only
a little less haste, he sent to the principal officers of his army
commanding them to draw out the soldiers, and make them stand to their
arms, and ordered his retinue (more numerous a good deal than that
of Alexander) to attend him into the very room of the entertainment,
and not to stir from thence till they saw him rise from the table.
Thus Alexander's servants, finding themselves overpowered, had not
courage to attempt anything. And, indeed, Demetrius gave them no opportunity,
for he made a very short visit, and pretending to Alexander that he
was not at present in health for drinking wine, left early. And the
next day he occupied himself in preparations for departing, telling
Alexander he had received intelligence that obliged him to leave,
begging him to excuse so sudden a parting; he would hope to see him
further when his affairs allowed him leisure. Alexander was only too
glad, not only that he was going, but that he was doing so of his
own motion, without any offence, and proposed to accompany him into
Thessaly. But when they came to Larissa, new invitations passed between
them, new professions of good-will, covering new conspiracies; by
which Alexander put himself into the power of Demetrius. For as he
did not like to use precautions on his own part, for fear Demetrius
should take the hint to use them on his, the very thing he meant to
use was first done to him. He accepted an invitation, and came to
Demetrius's quarters; and when Demetrius, while they were still supping,
rose from the table and went forth, the young man rose also, and followed
him to the door, where Demetrius, as he passed through, only said
to the guards, "Kill him that follows me," and went on; and Alexander
was at once despatched by them, together with such of his friends
as endeavoured to come to his rescue, one of whom, before he died,
said, "You have been one day too quick for us." 

The night following was one, as may be supposed, of disorder and confusion.
And with the morning, the Macedonians, still in alarm, and fearful
of the forces of Demetrius, on finding no violence offered, but only
a message sent from Demetrius desiring an interview and opportunity
for explanation of his actions, at last began to feel pretty confident
again, and prepared to receive him favourably. And when he came, there
was no need of much being said; their hatred of Antipater for his
murder of his mother, and the absence of any one better to govern
them, soon decided them to proclaim Demetrius King of Macedon. And
into Macedonia they at once started and took him. And the Macedonians
at home, who had not forgotten or forgiven the wicked deeds committed
by Cassander on the family of Alexander, were far from sorry at the
change. Any kind recollections that still might subsist of the plain
and simple rule of the first Antipater went also to the benefit of
Demetrius, whose wife was Phila, his daughter, and his son by her,
a boy already old enough to be serving in the army with his father,
was the natural successor to the government. 

To add to this unexpected good fortune, news arrived that Ptolemy
had dismissed his mother and children, bestowing upon them presents
and honours; and also that his daughter Stratonice, whom he had married
to Seleucus, was remarried to Antiochus, the son of Seleucus, and
proclaimed Queen of Upper Asia. 

For Antiochus, it appears, had fallen passionately in love with Stratonice,
the young queen, who had already made Seleucus the father of a son.
He struggled very hard with the beginning of this passion, and at
last, resolving with himself that his desires were wholly unlawful,
his malady past all cure, and his powers of reason too feeble to act,
he determined on death, and thought to bring his life slowly to extinction
by neglecting his person and refusing nourishment, under the pretence
of being ill. Erasistratus, the physician who attended him, quickly
perceived that love was his distemper, but the difficulty was to discover
the object. He therefore waited continually in his chamber, and when
any of the beauties of the court made their visit to the sick prince,
he observed the emotions and alterations in the countenance of Antiochus,
and watched for the changes which he knew to be indicative of the
inward passions and inclinations of the soul. He took notice that
the presence of other women produced no effect upon him; but when
Stratonice came, as she often did, alone, or in company with Seleucus,
to see him, he observed in him all Sappho's famous symptoms,- his
voice faltered, his face flushed up, his eyes glanced stealthily,
a sudden sweat broke out on his skin, the beatings of his heart were
irregular and violent, and, unable to support the excess of his passion,
he would sink into a state of faintness, prostration, and pallor.

Erasistratus, reasoning upon these symptoms, and, upon the probabilities
of things, considering that the king's son would hardly, if the object
of his passion had been any other, have persisted to death rather
than reveal it, felt, however, the difficulty of making a discovery
of this nature to Seleucus. But, trusting to the tenderness of Seleucus
for the young man, he put on all the assurances he could, and at last,
on some opportunity, spoke out and told him the malady was love, a
love impossible to gratify or relieve. The king was extremely surprised,
and asked, "Why impossible to relieve?" "The fact is," replied Erasistratus,
"he is in love with my wife." "How!" said Seleusus, "and will our
friend Erasistratus refuse to bestow his wife upon my son and only
successor, when there is no other way to save his life?" "You," replied
Erasistratus, "who are his father, would not do so, if he were in
love with Stratonice." "Ah, my friend," answered Seleucus, "would
to heaven any means, human or divine, could but convert his present
passion to that; it would be well for me to part not only with Stratonice,
but with my empire, to save Antiochus." This he said with the greatest
passion, shedding tears as he spoke; upon which Erasistratus, taking
him by the hand, replied, "In that case, you have no need of Erasistratus;
for you, who are the husband, the father, and the king, are the proper
physician for your own family." Seleucus, accordingly, summoning a
general assembly of his people, declared to them, that he had resolved
to make Antiochus king, and Stratonice queen, of all the provinces
of Upper Asia, uniting them in marriage; telling them, that he thought
he had sufficient power over the prince's will that he should find
in him no repugnance to obey his commands; and for Stratonice, he
hoped all his friends would endeavour to make her sensible, if she
should manifest any reluctance to such a marriage, that she ought
to esteem those things just and honourable which had been determined
upon by the king as necessary to the general good. In this manner,
we are told, was brought about the marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice.

To return to the affairs of Demetrius. Having obtained the crown of
Macedon, he presently became master of Thessaly also. And holding
the greatest part of Peloponnesus, and, on this side of the Isthmus,
the cities of Megara and Athens, he now turned his arms against the
Boeotians. They at first made overtures for an accommodation; but
Cleonymus of Sparta having ventured with some troops to their assistance,
and having made his way into Thebes, and Pisis, the Thespian, who
was their first man in power and reputation, animating them to make
a brave resistance, they broke off the treaty. No sooner, however,
had Demetrius begun to approach the walls with his engines, but Cleonymus
in affright secretly withdrew; and the Boeotians, finding themselves
abandoned, made their submission. Demetrius placed a garrison in charge
of their towns, and, having raised a large sum of money from them,
he placed Hieronymus, the historian, in the office of governor and
military commander over them, and was thought on the whole to have
shown great clemency, more particularly to Pisis, to whom he did no
hurt, but spoke with him courteously and kindly, and made him chief
magistrate of Thespiae. Not long after, Lysimachus was taken prisoner
by Dromichaetes, and Demetrius went off instantly in the hopes of
possessing himself of Thrace, thus left without a king. Upon this,
the Boeotians revolted again, and news also came that Lysimachus had
regained his liberty. So Demetrius, turning back quickly and in anger,
found on coming up that his son Antigonus had already defeated the
Boeotians in battle, and therefore proceeded to lay siege again to
Thebes. 

But understanding that Pyrrhus had made an incursion into Thessaly,
and that he was advanced as far as Thermopylae, leaving Antigonus
to continue the siege, he marched with the rest of his army to oppose
this enemy. Pyrrhus, however, made a quick retreat. So, leaving ten
thousand foot and a thousand horse for the protection of Thessaly,
he returned to the siege of Thebes, and there brought up his famous
City-taker to the attack, which, however, was so laboriously and so
slowly moved on account of its bulk and heaviness, that in two months
it did not advance two furlongs. In the meantime the citizens made
a stout defence, and Demetrius, out of heat and contentiousness very
often, more than upon any necessity, sent his soldiers into danger;
until at last Antigonus, observing how many men were losing their
lives, said to him, "Why, my father, do we go on letting the men be
wasted in this way without any need of it?" But Demetrius, in a great
passion, interrupted him: "And you, good sir, why do you afflict yourself
for the matter? will dead men come to you for rations?" But that the
soldiers might see that he valued his own life at no dearer rate than
theirs, he exposed himself freely, and was wounded with a javelin
through his neck, which put him into great hazard of his life. But,
notwithstanding, he continued the siege, and in conclusion took the
town again. And after his entrance, when the citizens were in fear
and trembling, and expected all the severities which an incensed conqueror
could inflict, he only put to death thirteen and banished some few
others, pardoning all the rest. Thus the city of Thebes, which had
not yet been ten years restored, in that short space was twice besieged
and taken. 

Shortly after, the festival of the Pythian Apollo was to be celebrated,
and the Aetolians having blocked up all the passages to Delphi, Demetrius
held the games and celebrated the feast at Athens, alleging it was
great reason those honours should be paid in that place, Apollo being
the paternal god of the Athenian people, and the reputed first founder
of their race. 

From thence Demetrius returned to Macedon, and as he not only was
of a restless temper himself, but saw also that the Macedonians were
ever the best subjects when employed in military expeditions, but
turbulent and desirous of change in the idleness of peace, he led
them against the, Aetolians, and, having wasted their country, he
left Pantauchus with a great part of his army to complete the conquest,
and with the rest he marched in person to find out Pyrrhus, who in
like manner was advancing to encounter him. But so it fell out, that
by taking different ways the two armies did not meet; but whilst Demetrius
entered Epirus, and laid all waste before him, Pyrrhus fell upon Pantauchus,
and in a battle in which the two commanders met in person and wounded
each other he gained the victory, and took five thousand prisoners,
besides great numbers slain in the field. The worst thing, however,
for Demetrius was that Pyrrhus had excited less animosity as an enemy
than admiration as a brave man. His taking so large a part with his
own hand in the battle had gained him the greatest name and glory
among the Macedonians. Many among them began to say that this was
the only king in whom there was any likeness to be seen of the great
Alexander's courage; the other kings, and particularly Demetrius,
did nothing but personate him, like actors on a stage, in his pomp
and outward majesty. And Demetrius truly was a perfect play and pageant,
with his robes and diadems, his gold-edged purple and his hats with
double streamers, his very shoes being of the richest purple felt,
embroidered over in gold. One robe in particular, a most superb piece
of work, was long in the loom in preparation for him, in which was
to be wrought the representation of the universe and the celestial
bodies. This, left unfinished when his reverse overtook him, not any
one of the kings of Macedon, his successors, though divers of them
haughty enough, ever presumed to use. 

But it was not this theatric pomp alone which disgusted the Macedonians,
but his profuse and luxurious way of living; and, above all, the difficulty
of speaking with him or of obtaining access to his presence. For either
he would not be seen at all, or, if he did give audience, he was violent
and overbearing. Thus he made the envoys of the Athenians, to whom
yet he was more attentive than to all the other Grecians, wait two
whole years before they could obtain a hearing. And when the Lacedaemonians
sent a single person on an embassy to him, he held himself insulted,
and asked angrily whether it was the fact that the Lacedaemonians
had sent but one ambassador. "Yes," was the happy reply he received,
"one ambassador to one king." 

Once when in some apparent fit of a more popular and acceptable temper
he was riding abroad, a number of people came up and presented their
written petitions. He courteously received all these, and put them
up in the skirt of his cloak, while the poor people were overjoyed,
and followed him close. But when he came upon the bridge of the river
Axius, shaking out his cloak, he threw all into the river. This excited
very bitter resentment among the Macedonians, who felt themselves
to be not governed, but insulted. They called to mind what some of
them had seen, and others had heard related of King Philip's unambitious
and open, accessible manners. One day when an old woman had assailed
him several times in the road, and importuned him to hear her after
he had told her he had no time, "If so," cried she, "you have no time
to be a king." And this reprimand so stung the king that, after thinking
of it a while, he went back into the house, and setting all other
matters apart, for several days together he did nothing else but receive,
beginning with the old woman, the complaints of all that would come.
And to do justice, truly enough, might well be called a king's first
business. "Mars," as says Timotheus, "is the tyrant; but Law, in Pindar's
words, the king of all. Homer does not say that kings received at
the hands of Jove besieging engines or ships of war, but sentences
of justice, to keep and observe; nor is it the most warlike, unjust,
and murderous, but the most righteous of kings, that has from him
the name of Jupiter's "familiar friend" and scholar. Demetrius's delight
was the title most unlike the choice of the king of gods. The divine
names were those of the Defender and Keeper, his was that of the Besieger
of Cities. The place of virtue was given by him to that which, had
he not been as ignorant as he was powerful, he would have known to
be vice, and honour by his act was associated with crime. While he
lay dangerously ill at Pella, Pyrrhus pretty nearly overran all Macedon,
and advanced as far as the city of Edessa. On recovering his health,
he quickly drove him out, and came to terms with him, being desirous
not to employ his time in a string of petty local conflicts with a
neighbour, when all his thoughts were fixed upon another design. This
was no less than to endeavour the recovery of the whole empire which
his father had possessed; and his preparations were suitable to his
hopes and the greatness of the enterprise. He had arranged for the
levying of ninety-eight thousand foot and nearly twelve thousand horse;
and he had a fleet of five hundred galleys on the stocks, some building
at Athens, others at Corinth and Chalcis, and in the neighbourhood
of Pella. And he himself was passing evermore from one to another
of these places, to give his directions and his assistance to the
plans, while all that saw were amazed, not so much at the number,
as at the magnitude of the works. Hitherto, there had never been seen
a galley with fifteen or sixteen ranges of oars. At a later time,
Ptolemy Philopator built one of forty rows, which was two hundred
and eighty cubits in length and the height of her to the top of her
stern, forty-eight cubits; she had four hundred sailors and four thousand
rowers, and afforded room besides for very near three thousand soldiers
to fight on her decks. But this, after all, was for show, and not
for service, scarcely differing from a fixed edifice ashore, and was
not to be moved without extreme toil and peril; whereas these galleys
of Demetrius were meant quite as much for fighting as for looking
at, were not the less serviceable for their magnificence, and were
as wonderful for their speed and general performance as for their
size. 

These mighty preparations against Asia, the like of which had not
been made since Alexander first invaded it, united Seleucus, Ptolemy,
and Lysimachus in a confederacy for their defence. They also despatched
ambassadors to Pyrrhus, to persuade him to make a diversion by attacking
Macedonia; he need not think there was any validity in a treaty which
Demetrius had concluded, not as an engagement to be at peace with
him, but as a means of enabling himself to make war first upon the
enemy of his choice. So when Pyrrhus accepted their proposals, Demetrius,
still in the midst of his preparations, was encompassed with war on
all sides. Ptolemy, with a mighty navy, invaded Greece; Lysimachus
entered Macedonia upon the side of Thrace, and Pyrrhus, from the Epirot
border, both of them spoiling and wasting the country. Demetrius,
leaving his son to look after Greece, marched to the relief of Macedon,
and first of all to oppose Lysimachus. On his way, he received the
news that Pyrrhus had taken the city Beroea; and the report quickly
getting out among the soldiers, all discipline at once was lost, and
the camp was filled with lamentations and tears, anger and execrations
on Demetrius; they would stay no longer, they would march off, as
they said, to take care of their country, friends, and families; but
in reality the intention was to revolt to Lysimachus. Demetrius, therefore,
thought it his business to keep them as far away as he could from
Lysimachus, who was their own countryman, and for Alexander's sake
kindly looked upon by many; they would be ready to fight with Pyrrhus,
a new comer and a foreigner, whom they could hardly prefer to himself.
But he found himself under a great mistake in these conjectures. For
when he advanced and pitched his camp near, the old admiration for
Pyrrhus's gallantry in arms revived again; and as they had been used
from time immemorial to suppose that the best king was he that was
the bravest soldier, so now they were also told of his generous usage
of his prisoners, and, in short, they were eager to have any one in
the place of Demetrius, and well pleased that the man should be Pyrrhus.
At first, some straggling parties only deserted, but in a little time
the whole army broke out into a universal mutiny, insomuch that at
last some of them went up and told him openly that if he consulted
his own safety he were best to make haste to be gone, for that the
Macedonians were resolved no longer to hazard their lives for the
satisfaction of his luxury and pleasure. And this was thought fair
and moderate language, compared with the fierceness of the rest. So,
withdrawing into his tent, and, like an actor rather than a real king,
laying aside his stage-robes of royalty, he put on some common clothes
and stole away. He was no sooner gone but the mutinous army were fighting
and quarrelling for the plunder of his tent, but Pyrrhus, coming immediately,
took possession of the camp without a blow, after which he, with Lysimachus,
parted the realm of Macedon betwixt them, after Demetrius had securely
held it just seven years. 

As for Demetrius, being thus suddenly despoiled of everything, he
retired to Cassandrea. His wife Phila, in the passion of her grief,
could not endure to see her hapless husband reduced to the condition
of a private and banished man. She refused to entertain any further
hope, and resolving to quit a fortune which was never permanent except
for calamity, took poison and died. Demetrius, determining still to
hold on by the wreck, went off to Greece, and collected his friends
and officers there. Menelaus, in the play of Sophocles, to give an
image of his vicissitudes of estate, says- 

"For me, my destiny, alas, is found 
Whirling upon the gods' swift wheel around, 
And changing still, and as the moon's fair frame 
Cannot continue for two nights the same, 
But out of shadow first a crescent shows, 
Thence into beauty and perfection grows, 
And when the form of plenitude it wears, 
Dwindles again, and wholly disappears." 

The simile is yet truer of Demetrius and the phases of his fortunes,
now on the increase, presently on the wane, now filling up and now
falling away. And so, at this time of apparent entire obscuration
and extinction, his light again shone out, and accessions of strength,
little by little, came in to fulfil once more the measure of his hope.
At first he showed himself in the garb of a private man, and went
about the cities without any of the badges of a king. One who saw
him at Thebes applied to him, not inaptly, the lines of Euripides-

"Humbled to man, laid by the godhead's pride, 
He comes to Dirce and Ismenus's side." But ere long his expectations
had re-entered the royal track, and he began once more to have about
him the body and form of empire. The Thebans received back, as his
gift, their ancient constitution. The Athenians had deserted him.
They displaced Diphilus, who was that year the priest of the two Tutelar
Deities, and restored the archons, as of old, to mark the year; and
on hearing that Demetrius was not so weak as they had expected, they
sent into Macedonia to beg the protection of Pyrrhus. Demetrius, in
anger, marched to Athens, and laid close siege to the city. In this
distress, they sent out to him Crates the philosopher, a person of
authority and reputation, who succeeded so far, that what with his
entreaties and the solid reasons which he offered, Demetrius was persuaded
to raise the siege; and, collecting all his ships, he embarked a force
of eleven thousand men with cavalry, and sailed away to Asia, to Caria
and Lydia, to take those provinces from Lysimachus. Arriving at Miletus,
he was met there by Eurydice, the sister of Phila, who brought along
with her Ptolemais, one of her daughters by King Ptolemy, who had
before been affianced to Demetrius, and with whom he now consummated
his marriage. Immediately after, he proceeded to carry out his project,
and was so fortunate in the beginning that many cities revolted to
him; others, as particularly Sardis, he took by force; and some generals
of Lysimachus, also, came over to him with troops and money. But when
Agathocles, the son of Lysimachus, arrived with an army, he retreated
into Phrygia, with an intention to pass into Armenia, believing that,
if he could once plant his foot in Armenia, he might set Media in
revolt, and gain a position in Upper Asia, where a fugitive commander
might find a hundred ways of evasion and escape. Agathocles pressed
hard upon him, and many skirmishes and conflicts occurred, in which
Demetrius had still the advantage; but Agathocles straitened him much
in his forage, and his men showed a great dislike to his purpose,
which they suspected, of carrying them far away into Armenia and Media.
Famine also pressed upon them, and some mistake occurred in their
passage of the river Lycus, in consequence of which a large number
were swept away and drowned. Still, however, they could pass their
jests, and one of them fixed upon Demetrius's tent-door a paper with
the first verse, slightly altered, of the Oedipus:- 

"Child of the blind old man, Antigonus, 
Into what country are you bringing us?" 

But at last, pestilence, as is usual when armies are driven to such
necessities as to subsist upon any food they can get, began to assail
them as well as famine. So that, having lost eight thousand of his
men, with the rest he retreated and came to Tarsus, and because that
city was within the dominions of Seleucus, he was anxious to prevent
any plundering, and wished to give no sort of offence to Seleucus.
But when he perceived it was impossible to restrain the soldiers in
their extreme necessity, Agathocles also having blocked up all the
avenues of Mount Taurus, he wrote a letter to Seleucus, bewailing
first all his own sad fortunes, and proceeding with entreaties and
supplications for some compassion on his part towards one nearly connected
with him, who was fallen into such calamities as might extort tenderness
and pity from his very enemies. 

These letters so far moved Seleucus, that he gave orders to the governors
of those provinces that they should furnish Demetrius with all things
suitable to his royal rank, and with sufficient provisions for his
troops. But Patrocles, a person whose judgment was greatly valued,
and who was a friend highly trusted by Seleucus, pointed out to him
that the expense of maintaining such a body of soldiers was the least
important consideration, but that it was contrary to all policy to
let Demetrius stay in the country, since he, of all the kings of his
time, was the most violent, and most addicted to daring enterprises;
and he was now in a condition which might tempt persons of the greatest
temper and moderation to unlawful and desperate attempts. Seleucus,
excited by this advice, moved with a powerful army towards Cilicia;
and Demetrius, astonished at this sudden alteration, betook himself
for safety to the most inaccessible places of Mount Taurus; from whence
he sent envoys to Seleucus, to request from him that he would permit
him the liberty to settle with his army somewhere among the independent
barbarian tribes, where he might be able to make himself a petty king,
and end his life without further travel and hardship; or, if he refused
him this, at any rate to give his troops food during the winter, and
not expose him in this distressed and naked condition to the fury
of his enemies. 

But Seleucus, whose jealousy made him put an ill-construction on all
he said, sent him answer, that he would permit him to stay two months
and no longer in Cataonia, provided he presently sent him the principal
of his friends as hostages for his departure then; and, in the meantime,
he fortified all the passages into Syria. So that Demetrius, who saw
himself thus, like a wild beast, in the way to be encompassed on all
sides in the toils, was driven in desperation to his defence, overran
the country, and in several engagements in which Seleucus attacked
him, had the advantage of him. Particularly, when he was once assailed
by the scythed chariots, he successfully avoided the charge and routed
his assailants, and then, expelling the troops that were in guard
of the passes, made himself master of the roads leading into Syria.
And now, elated himself, and finding his soldiers also animated by
these successes, he was resolved to push at all, and to have one deciding
blow for the empire with Seleucus; who indeed was in considerable
anxiety and distress, being averse to any assistance from Lysimachus,
whom he both mistrusted and feared, and shrinking from a battle with
Demetrius, whose desperation he knew, and whose fortune he had so
often seen suddenly pass from the lowest to the highest.

But Demetrius, in the meanwhile, was taken with a violent sickness,
from which he suffered extremely himself, and which ruined all his
prospects. His men deserted to the enemy, or dispersed. At last, after
forty days, he began to be so far recovered as to be able to rally
his remaining forces, and marched as if he directly designed for Cilicia;
but in the night, raising his camp without sound of trumpet, he took
a countermarch, and, passing the mountain Amanus, he ravaged all the
lower country as far as Cyrrhestica. 

Upon this, Seleucus advancing towards him and encamping at no great
distance, Demetrius set his troops in motion to surprise him by night.
And almost to the last moment Seleucus knew nothing, and was lying
asleep. Some deserter came with the tidings just so soon that he had
time to leap, in great consternation, out of bed, and give the alarm
to his men. And as he was putting on his boots to mount his horse,
he bade the officers about him look well to it, for they had to meet
a furious and terrible wild beast. But Demetrius, by the noise he
heard in the camp, finding they had taken the alarm, drew off his
troops in haste. With the morning's return he found Seleucus pressing
hard upon him; so, sending one of his officers against the other wing,
he defeated those that were opposed to himself. But Seleucus, lighting
from his horse, pulling off his helmet, and taking a target, advanced
to the foremost ranks of the mercenary soldiers, and, showing them
who he was, bade them come over and join him, telling them that it
was for their sakes only that he had so long forborne coming to extremities.
And thereupon, without a blow more, they saluted Seleucus as their
king and passed over. 

Demetrius, who felt that this was his last change of fortune, and
that he had no more vicissitudes to expect, fled to the passes of
Amanus, where, with a very few friends and followers, he threw himself
into a dense forest, and there waited for the night, purposing, if
possible, to make his escape towards Caunus, where he hoped to find
his shipping ready to transport him. But upon inquiry, finding that
they had not provisions even for that one day, he began to think of
some other project. Whilst he was yet in doubt, his friend Sosigenes
arrived, who had four hundred pieces of gold about him, and, with
this relief, he again entertained hopes of being able to reach the
coast, and, as soon as it began to be dark, set forward towards the
passes. But, perceiving by the fires that the enemies had occupied
them, he gave up all thought of that road, and retreated to his old
station in the wood, but not with all his men; for some had deserted,
nor were those that remained as willing as they had been. One of them,
in fine, ventured to speak out, and say that Demetrius had better
give himself up to Seleucus; which Demetrius overhearing, drew out
his sword, and would have passed it through his body, but that some
of his friends interposed and prevented the attempt, persuading him
to do as had been said. So at last he gave way, and sent to Seleucus,
to surrender himself at discretion. 

Seleucus, when he was told of it, said it was not Demetrius's good
fortune that had found out this means for his safety, but his own,
which had added to his other honours the opportunity of showing his
clemency and generosity. And forthwith he gave order to his domestic
officers to prepare a royal pavilion, and all things suitable to give
him a splendid reception and entertainment. There was in the attendance
of Seleucus one Apollonides, who formerly had been intimate with Demetrius.
He was, therefore, as the fittest person, despatched from the king
to meet Demetrius, that he might feel himself more at his ease, and
might come with the confidence of being received as a friend and relative.
No sooner was this message known, but the courtiers and officers,
some few at first, and afterwards almost the whole of them, thinking
Demetrius would presently become of great power with the king, hurried
off, vying who should be foremost to pay him their respects. The effect
of which was that compassion was converted into jealousy, and ill-natured,
malicious people could the more easily insinuate to Seleucus that
he was giving way to an unwise humanity, the very first sight of Demetrius
having been the occasion of a dangerous excitement in the army. So,
whilst Apollonides, in great delight, and after him many others, were
relating to Demetrius the kind expressions of Seleucus, and he, after
so many troubles and calamities, if indeed he had still any sense
of his surrender of himself being a disgrace, had now, in confidence
on the good hopes held out to him, entirely forgotten all such thoughts,
Pausanias with a guard of a thousand horse and foot came and surrounded
him; and, dispersing the rest that were with him, carried him not
to the presence of Seleucus, but to the Syrian Chersonese, where he
was committed to the safe custody of a strong guard. Sufficient attendance
and liberal provisions were here allowed him, space for riding and
walking, a park with game for hunting, those of his friends and companions
in exile who wished it had permission to see him, and messages of
kindness, also, from time to time, were brought him from Seleucus,
bidding him fear nothing, and intimating that, as soon as Antiochus
and Stratonice should arrive, he would receive his liberty.

Demetrius, however, finding himself in this condition, sent letters
to those