Plutarch's Lives
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ARATUS
The philosopher Chrysippus, O Polycrates, quotes an ancient
proverb, not as really it should be, apprehending, I suppose,
that it sounded too harshly, but so as he thought it would run
best, in these words,
Who praise their father but the generous sons?
But Dionysodorus the Troezenian proves him to be wrong, and
restores the true reading, which is this, --
Who praise their fathers but degenerate sons?
telling us that the proverb is meant to stop the mouth of those
who, having no merit of their own, take refuge in the virtues of
their ancestors, and make their advantage of praising them.
But, as Pindar hath it,
He that by nature doth inherit
From ancestors a noble spirit,
as you do, who make your life the copy of the fairest originals
of your family, -- such, I say, may take great satisfaction in
being reminded, both by hearing others speak and speaking
themselves, of the best of their progenitors. For they assume
not the glory of praises earned by others out of any want of
worth of their own, but, affiliating their own deeds to those of
their ancestor, give them honor as the authors both of their
descent and manners.
Therefore I have sent to you the life which I have written of
your fellow-citizen and forefather Aratus, to whom you are no
discredit in point either of reputation or of authority, not as
though you had not been most diligently careful to inform
yourself from the beginning concerning his actions, but that
your sons, Polycrates and Pythocles, may both by hearing and
reading become familiar with those family examples which it
behooves them to follow and imitate. It is a piece of
self-love, and not of the love of virtue, to imagine one has
already attained to what is best.
The city of Sicyon, from the time that it first fell off from
the pure and Doric aristocracy (its harmony being destroyed, and
a mere series of seditions and personal contests of popular
leaders ensuing), continued to be distempered and unsettled,
changing from one tyrant to another, until, Cleon being slain,
Timoclides and Clinias, men of the most repute and power amongst
the citizens, were chosen to the magistracy. And the
commonwealth now seeming to be in a pretty settled condition,
Timoclides died, and Abantidas, the son of Paseas, to possess
himself of the tyranny, killed Clinias, and, of his kindred and
friends, slew some and banished others. He sought also to kill
his son Aratus, whom he left behind him, being but seven years
old. This boy in the general disorder getting out of the house
with those that fled, and wandering about the city helpless and
in great fear, by chance got undiscovered into the house of a
woman who was Abantidas's sister, but married to Prophantus, the
brother of Clinias, her name being Soso. She, being of a
generous temper, and believing the boy had by some supernatural
guidance fled to her for shelter, hid him in the house, and at
night sent him away to Argos.
Aratus, being thus delivered and secured from this danger,
conceived from the first and ever after nourished a vehement and
burning hatred against tyrants, which strengthened with his
years. Being therefore bred up amongst his father's
acquaintance and friends at Argos with a liberal education, and
perceiving his body to promise good health and stature, he
addicted himself to the exercises of the palaestra, to that
degree that he competed in the five games, and gained some
crowns; and indeed in his statues one may observe a certain kind
of athletic cast, and the sagacity and majesty of his
countenance does not dissemble his full diet and the use of the
hoe. Whence it came to pass that he less studied eloquence than
perhaps became a statesman, and yet he was more accomplished in
speaking than many believe, judging by the commentaries which he
left behind him, written carelessly and by the way, as fast as
he could do it, and in such words as first came to his mind.
In the course of time, Dinias and Aristoteles the logician
killed Abantidas, who used to be present in the marketplace at
their discussions, and to make one in them; till they, taking
the occasion, insensibly accustomed him to the practice, and so
had opportunity to contrive and execute a plot against him.
After him Paseas, the father of Abantidas, taking upon him the
government, was assassinated by Nicocles, who himself set up for
tyrant. Of him it is related that he was strikingly like
Periander the son of Cypselus, just as it is said that Orontes
the Persian bore a great resemblance to Alcmaeon the son of
Amphiaraus, and that Lacedaemonian youth, whom Myrsilus relates
to have been trodden to pieces by the crowd of those that came
to see him upon that report, to Hector.
This Nicocles governed four months, in which, after he had done
all kinds of mischief to the city, he very nearly let it fall
into the hands of the Aetolians. By this time Aratus, being
grown a youth, was in much esteem, both for his noble birth and
his spirit and disposition, which, while neither insignificant
nor wanting in energy, were solid, and tempered with a
steadiness of judgment beyond his years. For which reason the
exiles had their eyes most upon him, nor did Nicocles less
observe his motions, but secretly spied and watched him, not out
of apprehension of any such considerable or utterly audacious
attempt, but suspecting he held correspondence with the kings,
who were his father's friends and acquaintance. And, indeed,
Aratus first attempted this way; but finding that Antigonus, who
had promised fair, neglected him and delayed the time, and that
his hopes from Egypt and Ptolemy were long to wait for, he
determined to cut off the tyrant by himself.
And first he broke his mind to Aristomachus and Ecdelus, the one
an exile of Sicyon, the other, Ecdelus, an Arcadian of
Megalopolis, a philosopher, and a man of action, having been the
familiar friend of Arcesilaus the Academic at Athens. These
readily consenting, he communicated with the other exiles,
whereof some few, being ashamed to seem to despair of success,
engaged in the design; but most of them endeavored to divert him
from his purpose, as one that for want of experience was too
rash and daring.
Whilst he was consulting to seize upon some post in Sicyonia,
from whence he might make war upon the tyrant, there came to
Argos a certain Sicyonian, newly escaped out of prison, brother
to Xenocles, one of the exiles, who being by him presented to
Aratus informed him, that that part of the wall over which he
escaped was, inside, almost level with the ground, adjoining a
rocky and elevated place, and that from the outside it might be
scaled with ladders. Aratus, hearing this, dispatches away
Xenocles with two of his own servants, Seuthas and Technon, to
view the wall, resolving, if possible, secretly and with one
risk to hazard all on a single trial, rather than carry on a
contest as a private man against a tyrant by long war and open
force. Xenocles, therefore, with his companions, returning
having taken the height of the wall, and declaring the place not
to be impossible or indeed difficult to get over, but that it
was not easy to approach it undiscovered, by reason of some
small but uncommonly savage and noisy dogs belonging to a
gardener hard by, he immediately undertook the business.
Now the preparation of arms gave no jealousy, because robberies
and petty forays were at that time common everywhere between one
set of people and another; and for the ladders, Euphranor, the
machine-maker, made them openly, his trade rendering him
unsuspected, though one of the exiles. As for men, each of his
friends in Argos furnished him with ten apiece out of those few
they had, and he armed thirty of his own servants, and hired
some few soldiers of Xenophilus, the chief of the robber
captains, to whom it was given out that they were to march into
the territory of Sicyon to seize the king's stud; most of them
were sent before, in small parties, to the tower of Polygnotus,
with orders to wait there; Caphisias also was dispatched
beforehand lightly armed, with four others, who were, as soon as
it was dark, to come to the gardener's house, pretending to be
travelers, and, procuring their lodging there, to shut up him
and his dogs; for there was no other way of getting past. And
for the ladders, they had been made to take in pieces, and were
put into chests, and sent before hidden upon wagons. In the
meantime, some of the spies of Nicocles appearing in Argos, and
being said to go privately about watching Aratus, he came early
in the morning into the market-place, showing him self openly
and conversing with his friends; then he anointed himself in the
exercise ground, and, taking with him thence some of the young
men that used to drink and spend their time with him, he went
home; and presently after several of his servants were seen
about the marketplace, one carrying garlands, another buying
flambeaus, and a third speaking to the women that used to sing
and play at banquets, all which things the spies observing were
deceived, and said laughing to one another, "Certainly nothing
can be more timorous than a tyrant, if Nicocles, being master of
so great a city and so numerous a force, stands in fear of a
youth that spends what he has to subsist upon in his banishment
in pleasures and day-debauches;" and, being thus imposed upon,
they returned home.
But Aratus, departing immediately after his morning meal, and
coming to his soldiers at Polygnotus's tower, led them to Nemea;
where he disclosed, to most of them for the first time; his true
design, making them large promises and fair speeches, and
marched towards the city, giving for the word Apollo victorious,
proportioning his march to the motion of the moon, so as to have
the benefit of her light upon the way, and to be in the garden,
which was close to the wall, just as she was setting. Here
Caphisias came to him, who had not secured the dogs, which had
run away before he could catch them, but had only made sure of
the gardener. Upon which most of the company being out of heart
and desiring to retreat, Aratus encouraged them to go on,
promising to retire in case the dogs were too troublesome;
and at the same time sending forward those that carried the
ladders, conducted by Ecdelus and Mnasitheus, he followed them
himself leisurely, the dogs already barking very loud and
following, the steps of Ecdelus and his companions. However,
they got to the wall, and reared the ladders with safety. But
as the foremost men were mounting them, the captain of the watch
that was to be relieved by the morning guard passed on his way
with the bell, and there were many lights, and a noise of people
coming up. Hearing which, they clapped themselves close to the
ladders, and so were unobserved; but as the other watch also was
coming up to meet this, they were in extreme danger of being
discovered. But when this also went by without observing them,
immediately Mnasitheus and Ecdelus got upon the wall, and,
possessing themselves of the approaches inside and out, sent
away Technon to Aratus, desiring him to make all the haste he
could.
Now there was no great distance from the garden to the wall and
to the tower, in which latter a large hound was kept. The hound
did not hear their steps of himself, whether that he were
naturally drowsy, or overwearied the day before, but, the
gardener's curs awaking him, he first began to growl and grumble
in response, and then as they passed by to bark out aloud. And
the barking was now so great, that the sentinel opposite shouted
out to the dog's keeper to know why the dog kept such a barking,
and whether anything was the matter; who answered, that it was
nothing, but only that his dog had been set barking by the
lights of the watch and the noise of the bell. This reply much
encouraged Aratus's soldiers, who thought the dog's keeper was
privy to their design, and wished to conceal what was passing,
and that many others in the city were of the conspiracy. But
when they came to scale the wall, the attempt then appeared both
to require time and to be full of danger, for the ladders shook
and tottered extremely unless they mounted them leisurely and
one by one, and time pressed, for the cocks began to crow, and
the country people that used to bring things to the market would
be coming to the town directly. Therefore Aratus made haste to
get up himself, forty only of the company being already upon the
wall, and, staying but for a few more of those that were below,
he made straight to the tyrant's house and the general's office,
where the mercenary soldiers passed the night, and, coming
suddenly upon them, and taking them prisoners without killing
any one of them, he immediately sent to all his friends in their
houses to desire them to come to him, which they did from all
quarters. By this time the day began to break, and the theater
was filled with a multitude that were held in suspense by
uncertain reports and knew nothing distinctly of what had
happened, until a public crier came forward and proclaimed that
Aratus, the son of Clinias, invited the citizens to recover
their liberty.
Then at last assured that what they so long looked for was come
to pass, they pressed in throngs to the tyrant's gates to set
them on fire. And such a flame was kindled, the whole house
catching fire, that it was seen as far as Corinth; so that the
Corinthians, wondering what the matter could be, were upon the
point of coming to their assistance. Nicocles fled away
secretly out of the city by means of certain underground
passages, and the soldiers, helping the Sicyonians to quench the
fire, plundered the house. This Aratus hindered not, but
divided also the rest of the riches of the tyrants amongst the
citizens. In this exploit, not one of those engaged in it was
slain, nor any of the contrary party, fortune so ordering the
action as to be clear and free from civil bloodshed. He
restored eighty exiles who had been expelled by Nicocles, and no
less than five hundred who had been driven out by former tyrants
and had endured a long banishment, pretty nearly, by this time,
of fifty years' duration. These returning, most of them very
poor, were impatient to enter upon their former possessions,
and, proceeding to their several farms and houses, gave great
perplexity to Aratus, who considered that the city without was
envied for its liberty and aimed at by Antigonus, and within was
full of disorder and sedition. Wherefore, as things stood, he
thought it best to associate it to the Achaean community, and
so, although Dorians, they of their own will took upon them the
name and citizenship of the Achaeans, who at that time had
neither great repute nor much power. For the most of them lived
in small towns, and their territory was neither large nor
fruitful, and the neighboring sea was almost wholly without a
harbor, breaking direct upon a rocky shore. But yet these above
others made it appear that the Grecian courage was invincible,
whensoever it could only have order and concord within itself
and a prudent general to direct it. For though they had
scarcely been counted as any part of the ancient Grecian power,
and at this time did not equal the strength of one ordinary
city, yet by prudence and unanimity, and because they knew how
not to envy and malign, but to obey and follow him amongst them
that was most eminent for virtue, they not only preserved their
own liberty in the midst of so many great cities, military
powers, and monarchies, but went on steadily saving and
delivering from slavery great numbers of the Greeks.
As for Aratus, he was in his behavior a true statesman,
high-minded, and more intent upon the public than his private
concerns, a bitter hater of tyrants, making the common good the
rule and law of his friendships and enmities. So that indeed he
seems not to have been so faithful a friend, as he was a
reasonable and gentle enemy, ready, according to the needs of
the state, to suit himself on occasion to either side; concord
between nations, brotherhood between cities, the council and the
assembly unanimous in their votes, being the objects above all
other blessings to which he was passionately devoted; backward,
indeed, and diffident in the use of arms and open force, but in
effecting a purpose underhand, and outwitting cities and
potentates without observation, most politic and dexterous.
Therefore, though he succeeded beyond hope in many enterprises
which he undertook, yet he seems to have left quite as many
unattempted, though feasible enough, for want of assurance. For
it should seem, that, as the sight of certain beasts is strong
in the night but dim by day, the tenderness of the humors of
their eyes not bearing the contact of the light, so there is
also one kind of human skill and sagacity which is easily
daunted and disturbed in actions done in the open day and before
the world, and recovers all its self-possession in secret and
covert enterprises; which inequality is occasioned in noble
minds for want of philosophy, a mere wild and uncultivated fruit
of a virtue without true knowledge coming up; as might be made
out by examples.
Aratus, therefore, having associated himself and his city to the
Achaeans, served in the cavalry, and made himself much beloved
by his commanding officers for his exact obedience; for though
he had made so large an addition to the common strength as that
of his own credit and the power of his country, yet he was as
ready as the most ordinary person to be commanded by the Achaean
general of the time being, whether he were a man of Dymae, or of
Tritaea, or any yet meaner town than these. Having also a
present of five and twenty talents sent him from the king, he
took them, but gave them all to his fellow-citizens, who wanted
money, amongst other purposes, for the redemption of those who
had been taken prisoners.
But the exiles being by no means to be satisfied, disturbing
continually those that were in possession of their estates,
Sicyon was in great danger of falling into perfect desolation;
so that, having no hope left but in the kindness of Ptolemy, he
resolved to sail to him, and to beg so much money of him as
might reconcile all parties. So he set sail from Mothone beyond
Malea, designing to make the direct passage. But the pilot not
being able to keep the vessel up against a strong wind and high
waves that came in from the open sea, he was driven from his
course, and with much ado got to shore in Andros, an enemy's
land, possessed by Antigonus, who had a garrison there. To
avoid which he immediately landed, and, leaving the ship, went
up into the country a good way from the sea, having along with
him only one friend, called Timanthes; and throwing themselves
into some ground thickly covered with wood, they had but an ill
night's rest of it. Not long after, the commander of the troops
came, and, inquiring for Aratus, was deceived by his servants,
who had been instructed to say that he had fled at once over
into the island of Euboea. However, he declared the chip, the
property on board of her, and the servants, to be lawful prize,
and detained them accordingly. As for Aratus, after some few
days, in his extremity by good fortune a Roman ship happened to
put in just at the spot in which he made his abode, sometimes
peeping out to seek his opportunity, sometimes keeping close.
She was bound for Syria; but going aboard, he agreed with the
master to land him in Caria. In which voyage he met with no
less danger on the sea than before. From Caria being after much
time arrived in Egypt, he immediately went to the king, who had
a great kindness for him, and had received from him many
presents of drawings and paintings out of Greece. Aratus had a
very good judgment in them, and always took care to collect and
send him the most curious and finished works, especially those
of Pamphilus and Melanthus.
For the Sicyonian pieces were still in the height of their
reputation, as being the only ones whose colors were lasting; so
that Apelles himself, even after he had become well known and
admired, went thither, and gave a talent to be admitted into the
society of the painters there, not so much to partake of their
skill, which he wanted not, but of their credit. And
accordingly Aratus, when he freed the city, immediately took
down the representations of the rest of the tyrants, but
demurred a long time about that of Aristratus, who flourished in
the time of Philip. For this Aristratus was painted by
Melanthus and his scholars, standing by a chariot, in which a
figure of Victory was carried, Apelles himself having had a
hand in it, as Polemon the geographer reports. It was an
extraordinary piece, and therefore Aratus was fain to spare it
for the workmanship, and yet, instigated by the hatred he bore
the tyrants, commanded it to be taken down. But Nealces the
painter, one of Aratus's friends, entreated him, it is said,
with tears in his eyes, to spare it, and, finding he did not
prevail with him, told him at last he should carry on his war
with the tyrants, but with the tyrants alone: "Let therefore the
chariot and the Victory stand, and I will take means for the
removal of Aristratus;" to which Aratus consenting, Nealces
blotted out Aristratus, and in his place painted a palm-tree,
not daring to add anything else of his own invention. The feet
of the defaced figure of Aristratus are said to have escaped
notice, and to be hid under the chariot. By these means Aratus
got favor with the king, who, after he was more fully acquainted
with him, loved him so much the more, and gave him for the
relief of his city one hundred and fifty talents; forty of which
he immediately carried away with him, when he sailed to
Peloponnesus, but the rest the king divided into installments,
and sent them to him afterwards at different times.
Assuredly it was a great thing to procure for his
fellow-citizens a sum of money, a small portion of which had
been sufficient, when presented by a king to other captains and
popular leaders, to induce them to turn dishonest, and betray
and give away their native countries to him. But it was a much
greater, that by means of this money he effected a
reconciliation and good understanding between the rich and poor,
and created quiet and security for the whole people. His
moderation, also, amidst so great power was very admirable. For
being declared sole arbitrator and plenipotentiary for settling
the questions of property in the case of the exiles, he would
not accept the commission alone, but, associating with himself
fifteen of the citizens, with great pains and trouble he
succeeded in adjusting matters, and established peace and
good-will in the city, for which good service, not only all the
citizens in general bestowed extraordinary honors upon him, but
the exiles, apart by themselves, erecting his statue in brass,
inscribed on it these elegiac verses: --
Your counsels, deeds, and skill for Greece in war
Known beyond Hercules's pillars are;
But we this image, O Aratus, gave
Of you who saved us, to the gods who save,
By you from exile to our homes restored,
That virtue and that justice to record,
To which the blessing Sicyon owes this day
Of wealth that's shared alike, and laws that all obey.
By his success in effecting these things, Aratus secured himself
from the envy of his fellow-citizens, on account of the benefits
they felt he had done them; but king Antigonus being troubled in
his mind about him, and designing either wholly to bring him
over to his party, or else to make him suspected by Ptolemy,
besides other marks of his favor shown to him, who had little
mind to receive them, added this too, that, sacrificing to the
gods in Corinth, he sent portions to Aratus at Sicyon, and at
the feast, where were many guests, he said openly, "I thought
this Sicyonian youth had been only a lover of liberty and of his
fellow-citizens, but now I look upon him as a good judge of the
manners and actions of kings. For formerly he despised us, and,
placing his hopes further off, admired the Egyptian riches,
hearing so much of their elephants, fleets, and palaces. But
after seeing all these at a nearer distance, perceiving them to
be but mere stage show and pageantry, he is now come over to us.
And for my part I willingly receive him, and, resolving to make
great use of him myself, command you to look upon him as a
friend." These words were soon taken hold of by those that
envied and maligned him, who strove which of them should, in
their letters to Ptolemy, attack him with the worst calumnies,
so that Ptolemy sent to expostulate the matter with him; so much
envy and ill-will did there always attend the so much contended
for, and so ardently and passionately aspired to, friendships of
princes and great men.
But Aratus, being now for the first time chosen general of the
Achaeans, ravaged the country of Locris and Calydon, just over
against Achaea, and then went to assist the Boeotians with ten
thousand soldiers, but came not up to them until after the
battle near Chaeronea had been fought, in which they were beaten
by the Aetolians, with the loss of Aboeocritus the Boeotarch,
and a thousand men besides. A year after, being again elected
general, he resolved to attempt the capture of the
Acro-Corinthus, not so much for the advantage of the Sicyonians
or Achaeans, as considering that by expelling the Macedonian
garrison he should free all Greece alike from a tyranny which
oppressed every part of her. Chares the Athenian, having the
good fortune to get the better, in a certain battle, of the
king's generals, wrote to the people of Athens that this victory
was "sister to that at Marathon." And so may this action be
very safely termed sister to those of Pelopidas the Theban and
Thrasybulus the Athenian, in which they slew the tyrants;
except, perhaps, it exceed them upon this account, that it was
not against natural Grecians, but against a foreign and stranger
domination. The Isthmus, rising like a bank between the seas,
collects into a single spot and compresses together the whole
continent of Greece; and Acro-Corinthus, being a high mountain
springing up out of the very middle of what here is Greece,
whensoever it is held with a garrison, stands in the way and
cuts off all Peloponnesus from intercourse of every kind, free
passage of men and arms, and all traffic by sea and land, and
makes him lord of all, that is master of it. Wherefore the
younger Philip did not jest, but said very true, when he called
the city of Corinth "the fetters of Greece." So that this post
was always much contended for, especially by the kings and
tyrants; and so vehemently was it longed for by Antigonus, that
his passion for it came little short of that of frantic love; he
was continually occupied with devising how to take it by
surprise from those that were then masters of it, since he
despaired to do it by open force.
Therefore Alexander, who held the place, being dead, poisoned by
him, as is reported, and his wife Nicaea succeeding in the
government and the possession of Acro-Corinthus, he immediately
made use of his son, Demetrius, and, giving her pleasing hopes
of a royal marriage and of a happy life with a youth, whom a
woman now growing old might well find agreeable, with this lure
of his son he succeeded in taking her; but the place itself she
did not deliver up, but continued to hold it with a very strong
garrison, of which he seeming to take no notice, celebrated the
wedding in Corinth, entertaining them with shows and banquets
everyday, as one that has nothing else in his mind but to give
himself up for awhile to indulgence in pleasure and mirth. But
when the moment came, and Amoebeus began to sing in the theater,
he waited himself upon Nicaea to the play, she being carried in
a royally-decorated chair, extremely pleased with her new honor,
not dreaming of what was intended. As soon, therefore, as they
were come to the turning which led up to the citadel, he desired
her to go on before him to the theater, but for himself, bidding
farewell to the music, farewell to the wedding, he went on
faster than one would have thought his age would have admitted
to the Acro-Corinthus, and, finding the gate shut, knocked with
his staff, commanding them to open, which they within, being
amazed, did. And having thus made himself master of the place,
he could not contain himself for joy; but, though an old man,
and one that had seen so many turns of fortune, he must needs
revel it in the open streets and the midst of the market-place,
crowned with garlands and attended with flute-women, inviting
everybody he met to partake in his festivity. So much more does
joy without discretion transport and agitate the mind than
either fear or sorrow. Antigonus, therefore, having in this
manner possessed himself of Acro-Corinthus, put a garrison into
it of those he trusted most, making Persaeus the philosopher
governor.
Now Aratus, even in the lifetime of Alexander, had made an
attempt, but, a confederacy being made between Alexander and the
Achaeans, he desisted. But now he started afresh, with a new
plan of effecting the thing, which was this: there were in
Corinth four brothers, Syrians born, one of whom, called
Diocles, served as a soldier in the garrison, but the three
others, having stolen some gold of the king's, came to Sicyon,
to one Aegias, a banker, whom Aratus made use of in his
business. To him they immediately sold part of their gold, and
the rest one of them, called Erginus, coming often thither,
exchanged by parcels. Becoming, by this means, familiarly
acquainted with Aegias, and being by him led into discourses
concerning the fortress, he told him that in going up to his
brother he had observed, in the face of the rock, a side-cleft,
leading to that part of the wall of the castle which was lower
than the rest. At which Aegias joking with him and saying, "So,
you wise man, for the sake of a little gold you have broken into
the king's treasure; when you might, if you chose, get money in
abundance for a single hour's work, burglary, you know, and
treason being punished with the same death," Erginus laughed and
told him then, he would break the thing to Diocles (for he did
not altogether trust his other brothers), and, returning within
a few days, he bargained to conduct Aratus to that part of the
wall where it was no more than fifteen feet high, and to do what
else should be necessary, together with his brother Diocles.
Aratus, therefore, agreed to give them sixty talents if he
succeeded, but if he failed in his enterprise, and yet he and
they came off safe, then he would give each of them a house and
a talent. Now the threescore talents being to be deposited in
the hands of Aegias for Erginus and his partners, and Aratus
neither having so much by him, nor willing, by borrowing it from
others, to give anyone a suspicion of his design, he pawned his
plate and his wife's golden ornaments to Aegias for the money.
For so high was his temper, and so strong his passion for noble
actions, that, even as he had heard that Phocion and Epaminondas
were the best and justest of the Greeks, because they refused
the greatest presents and would not surrender their duty for
money, so he now chose to be at the expense of this enterprise
privately, and to advance all the cost out of his own property,
taking the whole hazard on himself for the sake of the rest that
did not so much as know what was doing. And who indeed can
withhold, even now, his admiration for and his sympathy with the
generous mind of one, who paid so largely to purchase so great a
risk, and lent out his richest possessions to have an
opportunity to expose his own life, by entering among his
enemies in the dead of the night, without desiring any other
security for them than the hope of a noble success.
Now the enterprise, though dangerous enough in itself, was made
much more so by an error happening through mistake in the very
beginning. For Technon, one of Aratus's servants, was sent away
to Diocles, that they might together view the wall. Now he had
never seen Diocles, but made no question of knowing him by the
marks Erginus had given him of him; namely, that he had curly
hair, a swarthy complexion, and no beard. Being come,
therefore, to the appointed place, he stayed waiting for Erginus
and Diocles outside the town, in front of the place called
Ornis. In the meantime, Dionysius, elder brother to Erginus and
Diocles, who knew nothing at all of the matter, but much
resembled Diocles, happened to pass by. Technon, upon this
likeness, all being in accordance with what he had been told,
asked him if he knew Erginus; and on his replying that he was
his brother, taking it for granted that he was speaking with
Diocles, not so much as asking his name or staying for any other
token, he gave him his hand, and began to discourse with him and
ask him questions about matters agreed upon with Erginus.
Dionysius, cunningly taking the advantage of his mistake, seemed
to understand him very well, and returning towards the city, led
him on, still talking, without any suspicion. And being now
near the gate, he was just about to seize on him, when by chance
again Erginus met them, and, apprehending the cheat and the
danger, beckoned to Technon to make his escape, and immediately
both of them, betaking themselves to their heels, ran away as
fast as they could to Aratus, who for all this despaired not,
but immediately sent away Erginus to Dionysius to bribe him to
hold his tongue. And he not only effected that, but also
brought him along with him to Aratus. But, when they had him,
they no longer left him at liberty, but binding him, they kept
him close shut up in a room, whilst they prepared for executing
their design.
All things being now ready, he commanded the rest of his forces
to pass the night by their arms, and taking with him four
hundred chosen men, few of whom knew what they were going about,
he led them to the gates by the temple of Juno. It was the
midst of summer, and the moon was at full, and the night so
clear without any clouds, that there was danger lest the arms
glistening in the moonlight should discover them. But as the
foremost of them came near the city, a mist came off from the
sea, and darkened the city itself and the outskirts about it.
Then the rest of them, sitting down, put off their shoes,
because men both make less noise and also climb surer, if they
go up ladders barefooted, but Erginus, taking with him seven
young men dressed like travelers, got unobserved to the gate,
and killed the sentry with the other guards. And at the same
time the ladders were clapped to the walls, and Aratus, having
in great haste got up a hundred men, commended the rest to
follow as they could, and immediately drawing up his ladders
after him, he marched through the city with his hundred men
towards the castle, being already overjoyed that he was
undiscovered, and not doubting of the success. But while still
they were some way off, a watch of four men came with a light,
who did not see them, because they were still in the shade of
the moon, but were seen plainly enough themselves as they came
on directly towards them. So withdrawing a little way amongst
some walls and plots for houses, they lay in wait for them; and
three of them they killed. But the fourth, being wounded in the
head with a sword, fled, crying out that the enemy was in the
city. And immediately the trumpets sounded, and all the city
was in an uproar at what had happened, and the streets were full
of people running up and down, and many lights were seen shining
both below in the town, and above in the castle, and a confused
noise was to be heard in all parts.
In the meantime, Aratus was hard at work struggling to get up
the rocks, at first slowly and with much difficulty, straying
continually from the path, which lay deep, and was overshadowed
with the crags, leading to the wall with many windings and
turnings; but the moon immediately and as if by miracle, it is
said, dispersing the clouds, shone out and gave light to the
most difficult part of the way, until he got to that part of the
wall he desired, and there she overshadowed and hid him, the
clouds coming together again. Those soldiers whom Aratus had
left outside the gate, near Juno's temple, to the number of
three hundred, entering the town, now full of tumult and lights,
and not knowing the way by which the former had gone, and
finding no track of them, slunk aside, and crowded together in
one body under a flank of the cliff that cast a strong shadow,
and there stood and waited in great distress and perplexity.
For, by this time, those that had gone with Aratus were attacked
with missiles from the citadel, and were busy fighting, and a
sound of cries of battle came down from above, and a loud noise,
echoed back and back from the mountain sides, and therefore
confused and uncertain whence it proceeded, was heard on all
sides. They being thus in doubt which way to turn themselves,
Archelaus, the commander of Antigonus's troops, having a great
number of soldiers with him, made up towards the castle with
great shouts and noise of trumpets to fall upon Aratus's people,
and passed by the three hundred, who, as if they had risen out
of an ambush, immediately charged him, killing the first they
encountered, and so affrighted the rest, together with
Archelaus, that they put them to flight and pursued them until
they had quite broke and dispersed them about the city. No
sooner were these defeated, but Erginus came to them from those
that were fighting above, to acquaint them that Aratus was
engaged with the enemy, who defended themselves very stoutly,
and there was a fierce conflict at the very wall, and need of
speedy help. They therefore desired him to lead them on without
delay, and, marching up, they by their shouts made their friends
understand who they were, and encouraged them; and the full
moon, shining on their arms, made them, in the long line by
which they advanced, appear more in number to the enemy than
they were; and the echo of the night multiplied their shouts.
In short, falling on with the rest, they made the enemy give
way, and were masters of the castle and garrison, day now
beginning to be bright, and the rising sun shining out upon
their success. By this time, also, the rest of his army came up
to Aratus from Sicyon, the Corinthians joyfully receiving them
at the gates and helping them to secure the king's party.
And now, having put all things into a safe posture, he came down
from the castle to the theater, an infinite number of people
crowding thither to see him and to hear what he would say to the
Corinthians. Therefore drawing up the Achaeans on each side of
the stage-passages, he came forward himself upon the stage, with
his corslet still on, and his face showing the effects of all
his hard work and want of sleep, so that his natural exultation
and joyfulness of mind were overborne by the weariness of his
body. The people, as soon as he came forth, breaking out into
great applauses and congratulations, he took his spear in his
right hand, and, resting his body upon it with his knee a little
bent, stood a good while in that posture, silently receiving
their shouts and acclamations, while they extolled his valor and
wondered at his fortune; which being over, standing up, he
began an oration in the name of the Achaeans, suitable to the
late action, persuading the Corinthians to associate themselves
to the Achaeans, and withal delivered up to them the keys of
their gates, which had never been in their power since the time
of king Philip. Of the captains of Antigonus, he dismissed
Archelaus, whom he had taken prisoner, and Theophrastus, who
refused to quit his post, he put to death. As for Persaeus,
when he saw the castle was lost, he had got away to Cenchreae,
where, some time after, discoursing with one that said to him
that the wise man only is a true general, "Indeed," he replied,
"none of Zeno's maxims once pleased me better than this, but I
have been converted to another opinion by the young man of
Sicyon." This is told by many of Persaeus. Aratus, immediately
after, made himself master of the temple of Juno and haven of
Lechaeum, seized upon five and twenty of the king's ships,
together with five hundred horses and four hundred Syrians;
these he sold. The Achaeans kept guard in the Acro-Corinthus
with a body of four hundred soldiers, and fifty dogs with as
many keepers.
The Romans, extolling Philopoemen, called him the last of the
Grecians, as if no great man had ever since his time been bred
amongst them. But I should call this capture of the
Acro-Corinthus the last of the Grecian exploits, being
comparable to the best of them, both for the daringness of it,
and the success, as was presently seen by the consequences. For
the Megarians, revolting from Antigonus, joined Aratus, and the
Troezenians and Epidaurians enrolled themselves in the Achaean
community, and issuing forth for the first time, he entered
Attica, and passing over into Salamis, he plundered the island,
turning the Achaean force every way, as if it were just let
loose out of prison and set at liberty. All freemen whom he
took he sent back to the Athenians without ransom, as a sort of
first invitation to them to come over to the league. He made
Ptolemy become a confederate of the Achaeans, with the privilege
of command both by sea and land. And so great was his power
with them, that since he could not by law be chosen their
general every year, yet every other year he was, and by his
counsels and actions was in effect always so. For they
perceived that neither riches nor reputation, nor the friendship
of kings, nor the private interest of his own country, nor
anything else was so dear to him as the increase of the Achaean
power and greatness. For he believed that the cities, weak
individually, could be preserved by nothing else but a mutual
assistance under the closest bond of the common interest; and,
as the members of the body live and breathe by the union of all
in a single natural growth, and on the dissolution of this, when
once they separate, pine away and putrefy, in the same manner
are cities ruined by being dissevered, as well as preserved
when, as the members of one great body they enjoy the benefit of
that providence and counsel that govern the whole.
Now being distressed to see that, whereas the chief neighboring
cities enjoyed their own laws and liberties, the Argives were in
bondage, he took counsel for destroying their tyrant
Aristomachus, being very desirous both to pay his debt of
gratitude to the city where he had been bred up, by restoring it
its liberty, and to add so considerable a town to the Achaeans.
Nor were there some wanting who had the courage to undertake the
thing, of whom Aeschylus and Charimenes the soothsayer were the
chief. But they wanted swords; for the tyrant had prohibited
the keeping of any under a great penalty. Therefore Aratus,
having provided some small daggers at Corinth and hidden them in
the pack-saddles of some pack-horses that carried ordinary ware,
sent them to Argos. But Charimenes letting another person into
the design, Aeschylus and his partners were angry at it, and
henceforth would have no more to do with him, and took their
measures by themselves, and Charimenes, on finding this, went,
out of anger, and informed against them, just as they were on
their way to attack the tyrant; however, the most of them made a
shift to escape out of the marketplace, and fled to Corinth.
Not long after, Aristomachus was slain by some slaves, and
Aristippus, a worse tyrant than he, seized the government.
Upon this, Aratus, mustering all the Achaeans present that were
of age, hurried away to the aid of the city, believing that he
should find the people ready to join with him. But the greater
number being by this time habituated to slavery and content to
submit, and no one coming to join him, he was obliged to retire,
having moreover exposed the Achaeans to the charge of committing
acts of hostility in the midst of peace; upon which account they
were sued before the Mantineans, and, Aratus not making his
appearance, Aristippus gained the cause, and had damages allowed
him to the value of thirty minae. And now hating and fearing
Aratus, he sought means to kill him, having the assistance
herein of king Antigonus; so that Aratus was perpetually dogged
and watched by those that waited for an opportunity to do this
service. But there is no such safeguard of a ruler as the
sincere and steady good-will of his subjects, for, where both
the common people and the principal citizens have their fears
not of but for their governor, he sees with many eyes and hears
with many ears whatsoever is doing. Therefore I cannot but here
stop short a little in the course of my narrative, to describe
the manner of life which the so much envied arbitrary power and
the so much celebrated and admired pomp and pride of absolute
government obliged Aristippus to lead.
For though Antigonus was his friend and ally, and though he
maintained numerous soldiers to act as his body-guard, and had
not left one enemy of his alive in the city, yet he was forced
to make his guards encamp in the colonnade about his house; and
for his servants, he turned them all out immediately after
supper, and then shutting the doors upon them, he crept up into
a small upper chamber, together with his mistress, through a
trapdoor, upon which he placed his bed, and there slept after:
such a fashion, as one in his condition can be supposed to
sleep, that is, interruptedly and in fear. The ladder was taken
away by the woman's mother, and locked up in another room; in
the morning she brought it again, and putting it to, called up
this brave and wonderful tyrant, who came crawling out like some
creeping thing out of its hole. Whereas Aratus, not by force of
arms, but lawfully and by his virtue, lived in possession of a
firmly settled command, wearing the ordinary coat and cloak,
being the common and declared enemy of all tyrants, and has left
behind him a noble race of descendants surviving among the
Grecians to this day; while those occupiers of citadels and
maintainers of bodyguards, who made all this use of arms and
gates and bolts to protect their lives, in some few cases
perhaps escaped, like the hare from the hunters; but in no
instance have we either house or family, or so much as a tomb to
which any respect is shown, remaining to preserve the memory of
any one of them.
Against this Aristippus, therefore, Aratus made many open and
many secret attempts, whilst he endeavored to take Argos, though
without success; once, particularly, clapping scaling ladders in
the night to the wall, he desperately got up upon it with a few
of his soldiers, and killed the guards that opposed him. But
the day appearing, the tyrant set upon him on all hands, whilst
the Argives, as if it had not been their liberty that was
contended for, but some Nemean game going on for which it was
their privilege to assign the prize, like fair and impartial
judges, sat looking on in great quietness. Aratus, fighting
bravely, was run through the thigh with a lance, yet he
maintained his ground against the enemy till night, and, had he
been able to go on and hold out that night also, he had gained
his point; for the tyrant thought of nothing but flying, and had
already shipped most of his goods. But Aratus, having no
intelligence of this, and wanting water, being disabled himself
by his wound, retreated with his soldiers.
Despairing henceforth to do any good this way, he fell openly
with his army into Argolis, and plundered it, and, in a fierce
battle with Aristippus near the river Chares, he was accused of
having withdrawn out of the fight, and thereby abandoned the
victory. For whereas one part of his army had unmistakably got
the better, and was pursuing the enemy at a good distance from
him, he yet retreated in confusion into his camp, not so much
because he was overpressed by those with whom he was engaged, as
out of mistrust of success and through a panic fear. But when the
other wing, returning from the pursuit, showed themselves
extremely vexed, that though they had put the enemy to flight
and killed many more of his men than they had lost, yet those
that were in a manner conquered should erect a trophy as
conquerors, being much ashamed he resolved to fight them again
about the trophy, and the next day but one drew up his army to
give them battle. But, perceiving that they were reinforced
with fresh troops, and came on with better courage than before,
he durst not hazard a fight, but retired, and sent to request a
truce to bury his dead. However, by his dexterity in dealing
personally with men and managing political affairs, and by his
general favor, he excused and obliterated this fault, and
brought in Cleonae to the Achaean association, and celebrated
the Nemean games at Cleonae, as the proper and more ancient
place for them. The games were also celebrated by the Argives at
the same time, which gave the first occasion to the violation of
the privilege of safe conduct and immunity always granted to
those that came to compete for the prizes, the Achaeans at that
time selling as enemies all those they caught going through
their country after joining in the games at Argos. So vehement
and implacable a hater was he of the tyrants.
Not long after, having notice that Aristippus had a design upon
Cleonae, but was afraid of him, because he then was staying in
Corinth, he assembled an army by public proclamation, and,
commanding them to take along with them provision for several
days, he marched to Cenchreae, hoping by this stratagem to
entice Aristippus to fall upon Cleonae, when he supposed him far
enough off. And so it happened, for he immediately brought his
forces against it from Argos. But Aratus, returning from
Cenchreae to Corinth in the dusk of the evening, and setting
posts of his troops in all the roads, led on the Achaeans, who
followed him in such good order and with so much speed and
alacrity, that they were undiscovered by Aristippus, not only
whilst upon their march, but even when they got, still in the
night, into Cleonae, and drew up in order of battle. As soon as
it was morning, the gates being opened and the trumpets
sounding, he fell upon the enemy with great cries and fury,
routed them at once, and kept close in pursuit, following the
course which he most imagined Aristippus would choose, there
being many turns that might be taken. And so the chase lasted
as far as Mycenae, where the tyrant was slain by a certain
Cretan called Tragiscus, as Dinias reports. Of the common
soldiers, there fell above fifteen hundred. Yet though Aratus
had obtained so great a victory, and that too without the loss
of a man, he could not make himself master of Argos nor set it
at liberty, because Agias and the younger Aristomachus got into
the town with some of the king's forces, and seized upon the
government. However, by this exploit he spoiled the scoffs and
jests of those that flattered the tyrants, and in their raillery
would say that the Achaean general was usually troubled with a
looseness when he was to fight a battle, that the sound of a
trumpet struck him with a drowsiness and a giddiness, and that,
when he had drawn up his army and given the word, he used to ask
his lieutenants and officers whether there was any further need
of his presence now the die was cast, and then went aloof, to
await the result at a distance. For indeed these stories were
so generally listened to, that, when the philosophers disputed
whether to have one's heart beat and to change color upon any
apparent danger be an argument of fear, or rather of some
distemperature and chilliness of bodily constitution, Aratus was
always quoted as a good general, who was always thus affected
ill time of battle.
Having thus dispatched Aristippus, he advised with himself how
to overthrow Lydiades, the Megalopolitan, who held usurped power
over his country. This person was naturally of a generous
temper, and not insensible of true honor, and had been led into
this wickedness, not by the ordinary motives of other tyrants,
licentiousness and rapacity, but being young, and stimulated
with the desire of glory, he had let his mind be unwarily
prepossessed with the vain and false applauses given to tyranny,
as some happy and glorious thing. But he no sooner seized the
government, than he grew weary of the pomp and burden of it.
And at once emulating the tranquillity and fearing the policy of
Aratus, he took the best of resolutions, first, to free himself
from hatred and fear, from soldiers and guards, and, secondly,
to be the public benefactor of his country. And sending for
Aratus, he resigned the government, and incorporated his city
into the Achaean community. The Achaeans, applauding this
generous action, chose him their general; upon which, desiring
to outdo Aratus in glory, amongst many other uncalled-for
things, he declared war against the Lacedaemonians; which Aratus
opposing was thought to do it out of envy; and Lydiades was the
second time chosen general, though Aratus acted openly against
him, and labored to have the office conferred upon another. For
Aratus himself had the command every other year, as has been
said. Lydiades, however, succeeded so well in his pretensions,
that he was thrice chosen general, governing alternately, as did
Aratus; but at last, declaring himself his professed enemy, and
accusing him frequently to the Achaeans, he was rejected, and
fell into contempt, people now seeing that it was a contest
between a counterfeit and a true, unadulterated virtue, and, as
Aesop tells us that the cuckoo once, asking the little birds why
they flew away from her, was answered, because they feared she
would one day prove a hawk, so Lydiades's former tyranny still
cast a doubt upon the reality of his change.
But Aratus gained new honor in the Aetolian war. For the
Achaeans resolving to fall upon the Aetolians on the Megarian
confines, and Agis also, the Lacedaemonian king, who came to
their assistance with an army, encouraging them to fight, Aratus
opposed this determination. And patiently enduring many
reproaches, many scoffs and jeerings at his soft and cowardly
temper, he would not, for any appearance of disgrace, abandon
what he judged to be the true common advantage, and suffered the
enemy to pass over Geranea into Peloponnesus without a battle.
But when, after they had passed by, news came that they had
suddenly captured Pellene, he was no longer the same man, nor
would he hear of any delay, or wait to draw together his whole
force, but marched towards the enemy with such as he had about
him to fall upon them, as they were indeed now much less
formidable through the intemperances and disorders committed in
their success. For as soon as they entered the city, the common
soldiers dispersed and went hither and thither into the houses,
quarreling and fighting with one another about the plunder; and
the officers and commanders were running about after the wives
and daughters of the Pellenians, on whose heads they put their
own helmets, to mark each man his prize, and prevent another
from seizing it. And in this posture were they when news came
that Aratus was ready to fall upon them. And in the midst of
the consternation likely to ensue in the confusion they were in,
before all of them heard of the danger, the outmost of them,
engaging at the gates and in the suburbs with the Achaeans, were
already beaten and put to flight, and, as they came headlong
back, filled with their panic those who were collecting and
advancing to their assistance.
In this confusion, one of the captives, daughter of Epigethes, a
citizen of repute, being extremely handsome and tall, happened
to be sitting in the temple of Diana, placed there by the
commander of the band of chosen men, who had taken her and put
his crested helmet upon her. She, hearing the noise, and
running out to see what was the matter, stood in the temple
gates, looking down from above upon those that fought, having
the helmet upon her head; in which posture she seemed to the
citizens to be something more than human, and struck fear and
dread into the enemy, who believed it to be a divine apparition;
so that they lost all courage to defend themselves. But the
Pellenians tell us that the image of Diana stands usually
untouched, and when the priestess happens at any time to remove
it to some other place, nobody dares look upon it, but all turn
their faces from it; for not only is the sight of it terrible
and hurtful to mankind, but it makes even the trees, by which it
happens to be carried, become barren and cast their fruit. This
image, therefore, they say, the priestess produced at that time,
and, holding it directly in the faces of the Aetolians, made
them lose their reason and judgment. But Aratus mentions no
such thing in his commentaries, but says, that, having put to
flight the Aetolians, and falling in pell-mell with them into
the city, he drove them out by main force, and killed seven
hundred of them. And the action was extolled as one of the most
famous exploits, and Timanthes the painter made a picture of the
battle, giving by his composition a most lively representation
of it.
But many great nations and potentates combining against the
Achaeans, Aratus immediately treated for friendly arrangements
with the Aetolians, and, making use of the assistance of
Pantaleon, the most powerful man amongst them, he not only made
a peace, but an alliance between them and the Achaeans. But
being desirous to free the Athenians, he got into disgrace and
ill-repute among the Achaeans, because, notwithstanding the
truce and suspension of arms made between them and the
Macedonians, he had attempted to take the Piraeus. He denies
this fact in his commentaries, and lays the blame on Erginus, by
whose assistance he took Acro-Corinthus, alleging that he upon
his own private account attacked the Piraeus, and, his ladders
happening to break, being hotly pursued, he called out upon
Aratus as if present, by which means deceiving the enemy, he got
safely off. This excuse, however, sounds very improbable; for it
is not in any way likely that Erginus, a private man and a
Syrian stranger, should conceive in his mind so great an
attempt, without Aratus at his back, to tell him how and when to
make it, and to supply him with the means. Nor was it twice or
thrice, but very often, that, like an obstinate lover, he
repeated his attempts on the Piraeus, and was so far from being
discouraged by his disappointments, that his missing his hopes
but narrowly was an incentive to him to proceed the more boldly
in a new trial. One time amongst the rest, in making his escape
through the Thriasian plain, he put his leg out of joint, and
was forced to submit to many operations with the knife before he
was cured, so that for a long time he was carried in a litter to
the wars.
And when Antigonus was dead, and Demetrius succeeded him in the
kingdom, he was more bent than ever upon Athens, and in general
quite despised the Macedonians. And so, being overthrown in
battle near Phylacia by Bithys, Demetrius's general, and there
being a very strong report that he was either taken or slain,
Diogenes, the governor of the Piraeus, sent letters to Corinth,
commanding the Achaeans to quit that city, seeing Aratus was
dead. When these letters came to Corinth, Aratus happened to be
there in person, so that Diogenes's messengers, being
sufficiently mocked and derided, were forced to return to their
master. King Demetrius himself also sent a ship, wherein
Aratus was to be brought to him in chains. And the Athenians,
exceeding all possible fickleness of flattery to the
Macedonians, crowned themselves with garlands upon the first
news of his death. And so in anger he went at once and invaded
Attica, and penetrated as far as the Academy, but then suffering
himself to be pacified, he did no further act of hostility. And
the Athenians afterwards, coming to a due sense of his virtue,
when upon the death of Demetrius they attempted to recover their
liberty, called him in to their assistance; and although at that
time another person was general of the Achaeans, and he himself
had long kept his bed with a sickness, yet, rather than fail the
city in a time of need, he was carried thither in a litter, and
helped to persuade Diogenes the governor to deliver up the
Piraeus, Munychia, Salamis, and Sunium to the Athenians in
consideration of a hundred and fifty talents, of which Aratus
himself contributed twenty to the city. Upon this, the
Aeginetans and the Hermionians immediately joined the Achaeans,
and the greatest part of Arcadia entered their confederacy; and
the Macedonians being occupied with various wars upon their own
confines and with their neighbors, the Achaean power, the
Aetolians also being in alliance with them, rose to great
height.
But Aratus, still bent on effecting his old project, and
impatient that tyranny should maintain itself in so near a city
as Argos, sent to Aristomachus to persuade him to restore
liberty to that city, and to associate it to the Achaeans, and
that, following Lydiades's example, he should rather choose to
be the general of a great nation, with esteem and honor, than
the tyrant of one city, with continual hatred and danger.
Aristomachus slighted not the message, but desired Aratus to
send him fifty talents, with which he might pay off the
soldiers. In the meantime, whilst the money was providing,
Lydiades, being then general, and extremely ambitious that this
advantage might seem to be of his procuring for the Achaeans,
accused Aratus to Aristomachus, as one that bore an
irreconcilable hatred to the tyrants, and, persuading him to
commit the affair to his management, he presented him to the
Achaeans. But there the Achaean council gave a manifest proof
of the great credit Aratus had with them and the good-will they
bore him. For when he, in anger, spoke against Aristomachus's
being admitted into the association, they rejected the proposal,
but when he was afterwards pacified and came himself and spoke
in its favor, they voted everything cheerfully and readily, and
decreed that the Argives and Phliasians should be incorporated
into their commonwealth, and the next year they chose
Aristomachus general. He, being in good credit with the
Achaeans, was very desirous to invade Laconia, and for that
purpose sent for Aratus from Athens. Aratus wrote to him to
dissuade him as far as he could from that expedition, being very
unwilling the Achaeans should be engaged in a quarrel with
Cleomenes, who was a daring man, and making extraordinary
advances to power. But Aristomachus resolving to go on, he
obeyed and served in person, on which occasion he hindered
Aristomachus from fighting a battle, when Cleomenes came upon
them at Pallantium; and for this act was accused by Lydiades,
and, coming to an open conflict with him in a contest for the
office of general, he carried it by the show of hands, and was
chosen general the twelfth time.
This year, being routed by Cleomenes near the Lycaeum, he fled,
and, wandering out of the way in the night, was believed to be
slain; and once more it was confidently reported so throughout
all Greece. He, however, having escaped this danger and rallied
his forces, was not content to march off in safety, but, making
a happy use of the present conjuncture, when nobody dreamed any
such thing, he fell suddenly upon the Mantineans, allies of
Cleomenes, and, taking the city, put a garrison into it, and
made the stranger inhabitants free of the city; procuring, by
this means, those advantages for the beaten Achaeans, which,
being conquerors, they would not easily have obtained. The
Lacedaemonians again invading the Megalopolitan territories, he
marched to the assistance of the city, but refused to give
Cleomenes, who did all he could to provoke him to it, any
opportunity of engaging him in a battle, nor could be prevailed
upon by the Megalopolitans, who urged him to it extremely. For
besides that by nature he was ill-suited for set battles, he was
then much inferior in numbers, and was to deal with a daring
leader, still in the heat of youth, while he himself, now past
the prime of courage and come to a chastised ambition, felt it
his business to maintain by prudence the glory, which he had
obtained, and the other was only aspiring to by forwardness and
daring.
So that though the light-armed soldiers had sallied out and
driven the Lacedaemonians as far as their camp, and had come
even to their tents, yet would not Aratus lead his men forward,
but, posting himself in a hollow watercourse in the way thither,
stopped and prevented the citizens from crossing this.
Lydiades, extremely vexed at what was going on, and loading
Aratus with reproaches, entreated the horse that together with
him they would second them that had the enemy in chase, and not
let a certain victory slip out of their hands, nor forsake him
that was going to venture his life for his country. And being
reinforced with many brave men that turned after him, he charged
the enemy's right wing, and routing it, followed the pursuit
without measure or discretion, letting his eagerness and hopes
of glory tempt him on into broken ground, full of planted fruit
trees and cut up with broad ditches, where, being engaged by
Cleomenes, he fell, fighting gallantly the noblest of battles,
at the gate of his country. The rest, flying back to their main
body and troubling the ranks of the full-armed infantry, put the
whole army to the rout. Aratus was extremely blamed, being
suspected to have betrayed Lydiades, and was constrained by the
Achaeans, who withdrew in great anger, to accompany them to
Aegium, where they called a council, and decreed that he should
no longer be furnished with money, nor have any more soldiers
hired for him, but that, if he would make war, he should pay
them himself.
This affront he resented so far as to resolve to give up the
seal and lay down the office of general; but upon second
thoughts he found it best to have patience, and presently
marched with the Achaeans to Orchomenus and fought a battle with
Megistonus, the step-father of Cleomenes, where he got the
victory, killing three hundred men and taking Megistonus
prisoner. But whereas he used to be chosen general every other
year, when his turn came and he was called to take upon him that
charge, he declined it, and Timoxenus was chosen in his stead.
The true cause of which was not the pique he was alleged to have
taken at the people, but the ill circumstances of the Achaean
affairs. For Cleomenes did not now invade them gently and
tenderly as hitherto, as one controlled by the civil
authorities, but having killed the Ephors, divided the lands,
and made many of the stranger residents free of the city, he was
responsible to no one in his government; and therefore fell in
good earnest upon the Achaeans, and put forward his claim to the
supreme military command. Wherefore Aratus is much blamed, that
in a stormy and tempestuous time, like a cowardly pilot, he
should forsake the helm, when it was even perhaps his duty to
have insisted, whether they would or no, on saving them; or if
he thought the Achaean affairs desperate, to have yielded all up
to Cleomenes, and not to have let Peloponnesus fall once again
into barbarism with Macedonian garrisons, and Acro-Corinthus be
occupied with Illyric and Gaulish soldiers, and, under the
specious name of Confederates, to have made those masters of the
cities whom he had held it his business by arms and by policy to
baffle and defeat, and, in the memoirs he left behind him,
loaded with reproaches and insults. And say that Cleomenes was
arbitrary and tyrannical, yet was he descended from the
Heraclidae, and Sparta was his country, the obscurest citizen of
which deserved to be preferred to the generalship before the
best of the Macedonians by those that had any regard to the
honor of Grecian birth. Besides, Cleomenes sued for that
command over the Achaeans as one that would return the honor of
that title with real kindnesses to the cities; whereas
Antigonus, being declared absolute general by sea and land,
would not accept the office unless Acro-Corinthus were by
special agreement put into his hands, following the example of
Aesop's hunter; for he would not get up and ride the Achaeans,
who desired him so to do, and offered their backs to him by
embassies and popular decrees, till, by a garrison and hostages,
they had allowed him to bit and bridle them. Aratus exhausts
all his powers of speech to show the necessity that was upon
him. But Polybius writes, that long before this, and before
there was any necessity, apprehending the daring temper of
Cleomenes, he communicated secretly with Antigonus, and that he
had beforehand prevailed with the Megalopolitans to press the
Achaeans to crave aid from Antigonus. For they were the most
harassed by the war, Cleomenes continually plundering and
ransacking their country. And so writes also Phylarchus, who,
unless seconded by the testimony of Polybius, would not be
altogether credited; for he is seized with enthusiasm when he so
much as speaks a word of Cleomenes, and as if he were pleading,
not writing a history, goes on throughout defending the one and
accusing the other.
The Achaeans, therefore, lost Mantinea, which was recovered by
Cleomenes, and being beaten in a great fight near Hecatombaeum,
so general was the consternation, that they immediately sent to
Cleomenes to desire him to come to Argos and take the command
upon him. But Aratus, as soon as he understood that he was
coming, and was got as far as Lerna with his troops, fearing
the result, sent ambassadors to him, to request him to come
accompanied with three hundred only, as to friends and
confederates, and, if he mistrusted anything, he should receive
hostages. Upon which Cleomenes, saying this was mere mockery
and affront, went away, sending a letter to the Achaeans full of
reproaches and accusation against Aratus. And Aratus also wrote
letters against Cleomenes; and bitter revilings and railleries
were current on both hands, not sparing even their marriages and
wives. Hereupon Cleomenes sent a herald to declare war against
the Achaeans, and in the meantime missed very narrowly of
taking Sicyon by treachery. Turning off at a little distance,
he attacked and took Pellene, which the Achaean general
abandoned, and not long after took also Pheneus and Penteleum.
Then immediately the Argives voluntarily joined with him, and
the Phliasians received a garrison, and in short nothing among
all their new acquisitions held firm to the Achaeans. Aratus
was encompassed on every side with clamor and confusion; he saw
the whole of Peloponnesus shaking around him, and the cities
everywhere set in revolt by men desirous of innovations.
For indeed no place remained quiet or satisfied with the present
condition; even amongst the Sicyonians and Corinthians
themselves, many were well known to have had private conferences
with Cleomenes, who long since, out of desire to make themselves
masters of their several cities, had been discontented with the
present order of things. Aratus, having absolute power given
him to bring these to condign punishment, executed as many of
them as he could find at Sicyon, but going about to find them
out and punish them at Corinth also, he irritated the people,
already unsound in feeling and weary of the Achaean government.
So collecting tumultuously in the temple of Apollo, they sent
for Aratus, having determined to take or kill him before they
broke out into open revolt. He came accordingly, leading his
horse in his hand, as if he suspected nothing. Then several
leaping up and accusing and reproaching him, with mild words and
a settled countenance he bade them sit down, and not stand
crying out upon him in a disorderly manner, desiring, also, that
those that were about the door might be let in, and saying so,
he stepped out quietly, as if he would give his horse to
somebody. Clearing himself thus of the crowd, and speaking
without discomposure to the Corinthians that he met, commanding
them to go to Apollo's temple, and being now, before they were
aware, got near to the citadel, he leaped upon his horse, and
commanding Cleopater, the governor of the garrison, to have a
special care of his charge, he galloped to Sicyon, followed by
thirty of his soldiers, the rest leaving him and shifting for
themselves. And not long after, it being known that he was
fled, the Corinthians pursued him, but not overtaking him, they
immediately sent for Cleomenes and delivered up the city to him,
who, however, thought nothing they could give was so great a
gain, as was the loss of their having let Aratus get away.
Nevertheless, being strengthened by the accession of the people
of the Acte, as it is called, who put their towns into his
hands, he proceeded to carry a palisade and lines of
circumvallation around the Acro-Corinthus.
But Aratus being arrived at Sicyon, the body of the Achaeans
there flocked to him, and, in an assembly there held, he was
chosen general with absolute power, and he took about him a
guard of his own citizens, it being now three and thirty years
since he first took a part in public affairs among the Achaeans,
having in that time been the chief man in credit and power of
all Greece; but he was now deserted on all hands, helpless and
overpowered, drifting about amidst the waves and danger on the
shattered hulk of his native city. For the Aetolians, affected
whom he applied to, declined to assist him in his distress, and
the Athenians, who were well affected to him, were diverted from
lending him any succor by the authority of Euclides and Micion.
Now whereas he had a house and property in Corinth, Cleomenes
meddled not with it, nor suffered anybody else to do so, but
calling for his friends and agents, he bade them hold themselves
responsible to Aratus for everything, as to him they would have
to render their account; and privately he sent to him Tripylus,
and afterwards Megistonus, his own stepfather, to offer him,
besides several other things, a yearly pension of twelve
talents, which was twice as much as Ptolemy allowed him, for he
gave him six; and all that he demanded was to be declared
commander of the Achaeans, and together with them to have the
keeping of the citadel of Corinth. To which Aratus returning
answer that affairs were not so properly in his power as he was
in the power of them, Cleomenes, believing this a mere evasion,
immediately entered the country of Sicyon, destroying all with
fire and sword, and besieged the city three months, whilst
Aratus held firm, and was in dispute with himself whether he
should call in Antigonus upon condition of delivering up the
citadel of Corinth to him; for he would not lend him assistance
upon any other terms.
In the meantime the Achaeans assembled at Aegium, and called for
Aratus; but it was very hazardous for him to pass thither, while
Cleomenes was encamped before Sicyon; besides, the citizens
endeavored to stop him by their entreaties, protesting that they
would not suffer him to expose himself to so evident danger, the
enemy being so near; the women, also, and children hung about
him, weeping and embracing him as their common father and
defender. But he, having comforted and encouraged them as well
as he could, got on horseback, and being accompanied with ten
of his friends and his son, then a youth, got away to the
sea-side, and finding vessels there waiting off the shore, went
on board of them and sailed to Aegium to the assembly; in which
it was decreed that Antigonus should be called in to their aid,
and should have the Acro-Corinthus delivered to him. Aratus
also sent his son to him with the other hostages. The
Corinthians, extremely angry at this proceeding, now plundered
his property, and gave his house as a present to Cleomenes.
Antigonus being now near at hand with his army, consisting of
twenty thousand Macedonian foot and one thousand three hundred
horse, Aratus, with the Members of Council, went to meet him by
sea, and got, unobserved by the enemy, to Pegae, having no great
confidence either in Antigonus or the Macedonians. For he was
very sensible that his own greatness had been made out of the
losses he had caused them, and that the first great principle of
his public conduct had been hostility to the former Antigonus.
But perceiving the necessity that was now upon him, and the
pressure of the time, that lord and master of those we call
rulers, to be inexorable, he resolved to put all to the venture.
So soon, therefore, as Antigonus was told that Aratus was coming
up to him, he saluted the rest of the company after the ordinary
manner, but him he received at the very first approach with
especial honor, and finding him afterwards to be both good and
wise, admitted him to his nearer familiarity. For Aratus was
not only useful to him in the management of great affairs, but
singularly agreeable also as the private companion of a king in
his recreations. And therefore, though Antigonus was young,
yet as soon as he observed the temper of the man to be proper
for a prince's friendship, he made more use of him than of any
other, not only of the Achaeans, but also of the Macedonians
that were about him. So that the thing fell out to him just as
the god had foreshown in a sacrifice. For it is related that,
as Aratus was not long before offering sacrifice, there were
found in the liver two gall-bags enclosed in the same caul of
fat; whereupon the soothsayer told him that there should very
soon be the strictest friendship imaginable between him and his
greatest and most mortal enemies; which prediction he at that
time slighted, having in general no great faith in soothsayings
and prognostications, but depending most upon rational
deliberation. At an after time, however, when, things
succeeding well in the war, Antigonus made a great feast at
Corinth, to which he invited a great number of guests, and
placed Aratus next above himself, and presently calling for a
coverlet, asked him if he did not find it cold, and on Aratus's
answering "Yes, extremely cold," bade him come nearer, so that
when the servants brought the coverlet, they threw it over them
both, then Aratus remembering the sacrifice, fell a laughing,
and told the king the sign which had happened to him, and the
interpretation of it. But this fell out a good while after.
So Aratus and the king, plighting their faith to each other at
Pegae, immediately marched towards the enemy, with whom they had
frequent engagements near the city, Cleomenes maintaining a
strong position, and the Corinthians making a very brisk
defense. In the meantime, Aristoteles the Argive, Aratus's
friend, sent privately to him to let him know, that he would
cause Argos to revolt, if he would come thither in person with
some soldiers. Aratus acquainted Antigonus, and, taking fifteen
hundred men with him, sailed in boats along the shore as quickly
as he could from the Isthmus to Epidaurus. But the Argives had
not patience till he could arrive, but, making a sudden
insurrection, fell upon Cleomenes's soldiers, and drove them
into the citadel. Cleomenes having news of this, and fearing
lest, if the enemy should possess themselves of Argos, they
might cut off his retreat home, leaves the Acro-Corinthus and
marches away by night to help his men. He got thither first,
and beat off the enemy, but Aratus appearing not long after, and
the king approaching with his forces, he retreated to Mantinea,
upon which all the cities again came over to the Achaeans, and
Antigonus took possession of the Acro-Corinthus. Aratus, being
chosen general by the Argives, persuaded them to make a present
to Antigonus of the property of the tyrants and the traitors.
As for Aristomachus, after having put him to the rack in the
town of Cenchreae, they drowned him in the sea; for which, more
than anything else, Aratus was reproached, that he could suffer
a man to be so lawlessly put to death, who was no bad man, had
been one of his long acquaintance, and at his persuasion had
abdicated his power, and annexed the city to the Achaeans.
And already the blame of the other things that were done began
to be laid to his account; as that they so lightly gave up
Corinth to Antigonus, as if it had been an inconsiderable
village; that they had suffered him, after first sacking
Orchomenus, then to put into it a Macedonian garrison; that they
made a decree that no letters nor embassy should be sent to any
other king without the consent of Antigonus, that they were
forced to furnish pay and provision for the Macedonian soldiers,
and celebrated sacrifices, processions, and games in honor of
Antigonus, Aratus's citizens setting the example and receiving
Antigonus, who was lodged and entertained at Aratus's house.
All these things they treated as his fault, not knowing that
having once put the reins into Antigonus's hands, and let
himself be borne by the impetus of regal power, he was no longer
master of anything but one single voice, the liberty of which
it was not so very safe for him to use. For it was very plain
that Aratus was much troubled at several things, as appeared by
the business about the statues. For Antigonus replaced the
statues of the tyrants of Argos that had been thrown down, and
on the contrary threw down the statues of all those that had
taken the Acro-Corinthus, except that of Aratus, nor could
Aratus, by all his entreaties, dissuade him. Also, the usage of
the Mantineans by the Achaeans seemed not in accordance with the
Grecian feelings and manners. For being masters of their city
by the help of Antigonus, they put to death the chief and most
noted men amongst them; and of the rest, some they sold, others
they sent, bound in fetters, into Macedonia, and made slaves of
their wives and children; and of the money thus raised, a third
part they divided among themselves, and the other two thirds
were distributed among the Macedonians. And this might seem to
have been justified by the law of retaliation; for although it
be a barbarous thing for men of the same nation and blood thus
to deal with one another in their fury, yet necessity makes it,
as Simonides says, sweet and something excusable, being the
proper thing, in the mind's painful and inflamed condition, to
give alleviation and relief. But for what was afterwards done
to that city, Aratus cannot be defended on any ground either of
reason or necessity. For the Argives having had the city
bestowed on them by Antigonus, and resolving to people it, he
being then chosen as the new founder, and being general at that
time, decreed that it should no longer be called Mantinea, but
Antigonea, which name it still bears. So that he may be said to
have been the cause that the old memory of the "beautiful
Mantinea" has been wholly extinguished, and the city to this
day has the name of the destroyer and slayer of its citizens.
After this, Cleomenes, being overthrown in a great battle near
Sellasia, forsook Sparta and fled into Egypt, and Antigonus,
having shown all manner of kindness and fair-dealing to Aratus,
retired into Macedonia. There, falling sick, he sent Philip,
the heir of the kingdom, into Peloponnesus, being yet scarce a
youth, commanding him to follow above all the counsel of Aratus,
to communicate with the cities through him, and through him to
make acquaintance with the Achaeans; and Aratus, receiving him
accordingly, so managed him as to send him back to Macedon both
well affected to himself and full of desire and ambition to take
an honorable part in the affairs of Greece.
When Antigonus was dead, the Aetolians, despising the sloth and
negligence of the Achaeans, who, having learned to be defended by
other men's valor and to shelter themselves under the Macedonian
arms, lived in ease and without any discipline, now attempted to
interfere in Peloponnesus. And plundering the land of Patrae
and Dyme in their way, they invaded Messene and ravaged it; at
which Aratus being indignant, and finding that Timoxenus, then
general, was hesitating and letting the time go by, being now on
the point of laying down his office, in which he himself was
chosen to succeed him, he anticipated the proper term by five
days, that he might bring relief to the Messenians. And
mustering the Achaeans, who were both in their persons
unexercised in arms and in their minds relaxed and averse to
war, he met with a defeat at Caphyae. Having thus begun the
war, as it seemed, with too much heat and passion, he then ran
into the other extreme, cooling again and desponding so much,
that he let pass and overlooked many fair opportunities of
advantage given by the Aetolians, and allowed them to run riot,
as it were, throughout all Peloponnesus, with all manner of
insolence and licentiousness. Wherefore, holding forth their
hands once more to the Macedonians, they invited and drew in
Philip to intermeddle in the affairs of Greece, chiefly hoping,
because of his affection and trust that he felt for Aratus, they
should find him easy-tempered, and ready to be managed as they
pleased.
But the king, being now persuaded by Apelles, Megaleas, and
other courtiers, that endeavored to ruin the credit Aratus had
with him, took the side of the contrary faction, and joined them
in canvassing to have Eperatus chosen general by the Achaeans.
But he being altogether scorned by the Achaeans, and, for the
want of Aratus to help, all things going wrong, Philip saw he
had quite mistaken his part, and, turning about and reconciling
himself to Aratus, he was wholly his; and his affairs now going
on favorably both for his power and reputation, he depended upon
him altogether as the author of all his gains in both respects;
Aratus hereby giving a proof to the world that he was as good a
nursing father of a kingdom as he had been of a democracy, for
the actions of the king had in them the touch and color of his
judgment and character. The moderation which the young man
showed to the Lacedaemonians, who had incurred his displeasure,
and his affability to the Cretans, by which in a few days he
brought over the whole island to his obedience, and his
expedition against the Aetolians, so wonderfully successful,
brought Philip reputation for hearkening to good advice, and to
Aratus for giving it; for which things the king's followers
envying him more than ever and finding they could not prevail
against him by their secret practices, began openly to abuse and
affront him at the banquets and over their wine, with every kind
of petulance and impudence; so that once they threw stones at
him as he was going back from supper to his tent. At which
Philip being much offended, immediately fined them twenty
talents; and finding afterwards that they still went on
disturbing matters and doing mischief in his affairs, he put
them to death.
But with his run of good success, prosperity began to puff him
up, and various extravagant desires began to spring and show
themselves in his mind; and his natural bad inclinations,
breaking through the artificial restraints he had put upon them,
in a little time laid open and discovered his true and proper
character. And in the first place, he privately injured the
younger Aratus in his wife, which was not known of a good while,
because he was lodged and entertained at their house; then he
began to be more rough and untractable in the domestic politics
of Greece, and showed plainly that he was wishing to shake
himself loose of Aratus. This the Messenian affairs first gave
occasion to suspect. For they falling into sedition, and Aratus
being just too late with his succors, Philip, who got into the
city one day before him, at once blew up the flame of contention
amongst them, asking privately, on the one hand, the Messenian
generals, if they had not laws whereby to suppress the insolence
of the common people, and on the other, the leaders of the
people, whether they had not hands to help themselves against
their oppressors. Upon which gathering courage, the officers
attempted to lay hands on the heads of the people, and they on
the other side, coming upon the officers with the multitude,
killed them, and very near two hundred persons with them.
Philip having committed this wickedness, and doing his best to
set the Messenians by the ears together more than before, Aratus
arrived there, and both showed plainly that he took it ill
himself, and also he suffered his son bitterly to reproach and
revile him. It should seem that the young man had an attachment
for Philip, and so at this time one of his expressions to him
was, that he no longer appeared to him the handsomest, but the
most deformed of all men, after so foul an action. To all which
Philip gave him no answer, though he seemed so angry as to make
it expected he would, and though several times he cried out
aloud, while the young man was speaking. But as for the elder
Aratus, seeming to take all that he said in good part, and as if
he were by nature a politic character and had a good command of
himself, he gave him his hand and led him out of the theater,
and carried him with him to the Ithomatas, to sacrifice there
to Jupiter, and take a view of the place, for it is a post as
fortifiable as the Acro-Corinthus, and, with a garrison in it,
quite as strong and as impregnable to the attacks of all around
it. Philip therefore went up hither, and having offered
sacrifice, receiving the entrails of the ox with both his hands
from the priest, he showed them to Aratus and Demetrius the
Pharian, presenting them sometimes to the one and sometimes to
the other, asking them what they judged, by the tokens in the
sacrifice, was to be done with the fort; was he to keep it for
himself, or restore it to the Messenians. Demetrius laughed and
answered, "If you have in you the soul of soothsayer, you will
restore it, but if of a prince, you will hold the ox by both the
horns," meaning to refer to Peloponnesus, which would be wholly
in his power and at his disposal if he added the Ithomatas to
the Acro-Corinthus. Aratus said not a word for a good while;
but Philip entreating him to declare his opinion, he said "Many
and great hills are there in Crete, and many rocks in Boeotia
and Phocis, and many remarkable strong-holds both near the sea
and in the midland in Acarnania, and yet all these people obey
your orders, though you have not possessed yourself of any one
of those places. Robbers nest themselves in rocks and
precipices; but the strongest fort a king can have is confidence
and affection. These have opened to you the Cretan sea; these
make you master of Peloponnesus, and by the help of these, young
as you are, are you become captain of the one, and lord of the
other." While he was still speaking, Philip returned the
entrails to the priest, and drawing Aratus to him by the hand,
"Come, then," said he, "let us follow the same course;" as if he
felt himself forced by him, and obliged to give up the town.
From this time Aratus began to withdraw from court, and retired
by degrees from Philip's company; when he was preparing to march
into Epirus, and desired him that he would accompany him
thither, he excused himself and stayed at home, apprehending
that he should get nothing but discredit by having anything to
do with his actions. But when, afterwards, having shamefully
lost his fleet against the Romans and miscarried in all his
designs, he returned into Peloponnesus, where he tried once more
to beguile the Messenians by his artifices, and failing in this,
began openly to attack them and to ravage their country, then
Aratus fell out with him downright, and utterly renounced his
friendship; for he had begun then to be fully aware of the
injuries done to his son in his wife, which vexed him greatly,
though he concealed them from his son, as he could but know he
had been abused, without having any means to revenge himself.
For, indeed, Philip seems to have been an instance of the
greatest and strangest alteration of character; after being a
mild king and modest and chaste youth, he became a lascivious
man and most cruel tyrant; though in reality this was not a
change of his nature, but a bold unmasking, when safe
opportunity came, of the evil inclinations which his fear had
for a long time made him dissemble.
For that the respect he at the beginning bore to Aratus had a
great alloy of fear and awe appears evidently from what he did
to him at last. For being desirous to put him to death, not
thinking himself, whilst he was alive, to be properly free as a
man, much less at liberty to do his pleasure as a king or
tyrant, he durst not attempt to do it by open force, but
commanded Taurion, one of his captains and familiars, to make
him away secretly by poison, if possible, in his absence.
Taurion, therefore, made himself intimate with Aratus, and gave
him a dose, not of your strong and violent poisons, but such as
cause gentle, feverish heats at first, and a dull cough, and so
by degrees bring on certain death. Aratus perceived what was
done to him, but, knowing that it was in vain to make any words
of it, bore it patiently and with silence, as if it had been
some common and usual distemper. Only once, a friend of his
being with him in his chamber, he spat some blood, which his
friend observing and wondering at, "These, O Cephalon," said he,
"are the wages of a king's love."
Thus died he in Aegium, in his seventeenth generalship. The
Achaeans were very desirous that he should be buried there with
a funeral and monument suitable to his life, but the Sicyonians
treated it as a calamity to them if he were interred anywhere
but in their city, and prevailed with the Achaeans to grant them
the disposal of the body.
But there being an ancient law that no person should be buried
within the walls of their city, and besides the law also a
strong religious feeling about it, they sent to Delphi to ask
counsel of the Pythoness, who returned this answer: --
Sicyon, whom oft he rescued, "Where," you say,
"Shall we the relics of Aratus lay?"
The soil that would not lightly o'er him rest,
Or to be under him would feel oppressed,
Were in the sight of earth and seas and skies unblest.
This oracle being brought, all the Achaeans were well pleased at
it, but especially the Sicyonians, who, changing their mourning
into public joy, immediately fetched the body from Aegium, and
in a kind of solemn procession brought it into the city, being
crowned with garlands, and arrayed in white garments, with
singing and dancing, and, choosing a conspicuous place, they
buried him there, as the founder and savior of their city. The
place is to this day called Aratium, and there they yearly make
two solemn sacrifices to him, the one on the day he delivered
the city from tyranny, being the fifth of the month Daesius,
which the Athenians call Anthesterion, and this sacrifice they
call Soteria; the other in the month of his birth, which is
still remembered. Now the first of these was performed by the
priest of Jupiter Soter, the second by the priest of Aratus,
wearing a band around his head, not pure white, but mingled with
purple. Hymns were sung to the harp by the singers of the
feasts of Bacchus; the procession was led up by the president of
the public exercises, with the boys and young men; these were
followed by the councilors wearing garlands, and other citizens
such as pleased. Of these observances, some small traces, it is
still made a point of religion not to omit, on the appointed
days; but the greatest part of the ceremonies have through time
and other intervening accidents been disused.
And such, as history tells us, was the life and manners of the
elder Aratus. And for the younger, his son, Philip, abominably
wicked by nature and a savage abuser of his power, gave him such
poisonous medicines, as though they did not kill him indeed, yet
made him lose his senses, and run into wild and absurd attempts
and desire to do actions and satisfy appetites that were
ridiculous and shameful. So that his death, which happened to
him while he was yet young and in the flower of his age, cannot
be so much esteemed a misfortune as a deliverance and end of his
misery. However, Philip paid dearly, all through the rest of
his life, for these impious violations of friendship and
hospitality. For, being overcome by the Romans, he was forced
to put himself wholly into their hands, and, being deprived of
his other dominions and surrendering all his ships except five,
he had also to pay a fine of a thousand talents, and to give his
son for hostage, and only out of mere pity he was suffered to
keep Macedonia and its dependences; where continually putting to
death the noblest of his subjects and the nearest relations he
had, he filled the whole kingdom with horror and hatred of him.
And whereas amidst so many misfortunes he had but one good
chance, which was the having a son of great virtue and merit,
him, through jealousy and envy at the honor the Romans had for
him, he caused to be murdered, and left his kingdom to Perseus,
who, as some say, was not his own child, but supposititious,
born of a seamstress called Gnathaenion. This was he whom
Paulus Aemilius led in triumph, and in whom ended the succession
of Antigonus's line and kingdom. But the posterity of Aratus
continued still in our days at Sicyon and Pellene.
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