"That he did not now govern affairs, but they | tus then took little notice of the saying, for he governed him." As there appeared an insincerity in this answer, Cleomenes entered the territories of Sicyon, and committed great devastations. He likewise blocked up the city for three months together; all which time Aratus was debating with himself whether he should surrender the citadel to Antigonus; for he would not send him succours on any other condition.

never put much faith in victims, nor indeed in predictions from any thing else, but used to depend upon his reason. Some time after, however, when the war went on successfully, Antigonus made an entertainment at Corinth, at which, though there was a numerous company, he placed Aratus next above him. They had not sat long before Antigonus called for a cloak. At the same time he asked Aratus, "Whether he did not think it very cold," and he answered, "It was extremely cold." The king then desired him to sit nearer, and the servants who brought the cloak, put it over the shoulders of both. This putting Aratus in mind of the victim, he informed the king both of the sign and the prediction. But this happened long after the time that we are upon.

While they were at Pegæ, they took oaths of mutual fidelity, and then marched against the enemy. There were several actions under the walls of Corinth, in which Cleomenes had fortified himself strongly, and the Corinthians defended the place with great vigour.

privately, with an offer of bringing that city to declare for him, if he would go thither in person with some troops. Aratus having acquainted Antigonus with this scheme, embarked fifteen hundred men and sailed immediately with them from the Isthmus to Epidaurus. But the people of Argos, without waiting for his arrival, had attacked the troops of Cleomenes, and shut them up in the citadel. Cleomenes having notice of this, and fearing that the enemy, if they were in possession of Argos might cut off his retreat to Lacedæmon, left his post before the citadel of Corinth the same night, and marched to the succour of his men. He reached it before Aratus, and gained some advantage over the enemy; but Aratus arriving soon after, and the king appearing with his army, Cleomenes retired to Mantinea.

Before he could take his resolution; the Achaans met in council at Ægium, and called him to attend it. As the town was invested by Cleomenes, it was dangerous to pass. The citizens entreated him not to go, and declared they would not suffer him to expose himself to an enemy who was watching for his prey. The matrons and their children, too, hung upon him, and wept for him as for a common parent and protector. He consoled them, however, as well as he could, and rode down to the sea, taking with him ten of his friends, and his son, who was now approaching to manhood. Finding some vessels at anchor, he went on board, and arrived safe at Egium. There he held an In the meantime, Aristotle a citizen of Arassembly, in which it was decreed that Antigo-gos, and friend of Aratus, sent an agent to him nus should be called in, and the citadel surrened to him. Aratus sent his own son amongst the other hostages; which the Corinthians so much resented, that they plundered his goods, and made a present of his house to Cleomenes. As Antigonus was now approaching with his army, which consisted of twenty thousand foot, all Macedonians, and of fourteen hundred horse. Aratus went with the Achæan magistrates by sea,* and without being discovered by the enemy, met him at Pegæ; though he placed no great confidence in Antigonus, and distrusted the Macedonians. For he knew that his greatness had been owing to the mischiefs he had done them, and that he had first risen to the direction of affairs in consequence of his hatred to old Antigonus. But seeing an indispensable necessity before him, such an occasion as those who seemed to command are forced to obey, he faced the danger. When Antigonus was told that Aratus was come in person, he gave the rest a common welcome, but received him in the most honourable manner; and finding him upon trial to be a man of probity and prudence, took him into his most intimate friendship: for Aratus was not only serviceable to the king in great affairs, but in the hours of leisure his most agreeable companion. Antigonus, therefore, though young, perceiving in him such a temper, and such other qualities as fitted him for a prince's friendship, preferred him not only to the rest of the Achæans, but even to the Macedonians that were about him, and continued to employ him in every affair of consequence. Thus the thing which the gods announced by the entrails of one of the victims, was accomplished: for it is said, that when Aratus was sacrificing not long before, there appeared in the liver two gall-bladders, enclosed in the same caul; upon which the diviner declared, that two enemies, who appeared the most irreconcileable, would soon be united in the strictest friendship. Ara

Upon this all the cities joined the Achæans again. Antigonus made himself master of the citadel of Corinth; and the Argives having appointed Aratus their general, he persuaded them to give Antigonus the estates of the late tyrants and all the traitors. That people put Aristomachus to the torture at Cenchree, and afterwards drowned him in the sea. Aratus was much censured on this occasion, for permitting a man to suffer unjustly, who was not of a bad character, with whom he formerly had connections, and who, at his persuasion, had abdicated the supreme power, and brought Argos to unite itself to the Achæan league. There were other charges against Aratus, namely, that at his instigation, the Achæans had given the city of Corinth to Antigonus, as if it had been no more than an ordinary vil lage; that they had suffered him to pillage Orchomenus, and place in it a Macedonian

* Plutarch seems here to have followed Phylarchus,

Polybius tells us that Aristomachus deserved greater punishment than he suffered, not only for his extreme eruelty when tyrant of Argos, but also for his abanThe magistrates called Demiurgi. See an account doning the Achæans in their distress, and declaring for their enemies.

of them before.

Sparta, and sailed to Egypt. As for Antigonus, after the kindest and most honourable behaviour to Aratus, he returned to Macedonia. In his sickness there, which happened soon after his arrival, he sent Philip, then very young, but already declared his successor, into Peloponnesus; having first instructed him above all things to give attention to Aratus, and through him to treat with the cities, and make himself known to the Achæans. Aratus received him with great honour, and managed him so well, that he returned to Macedonia full of sentiments of respect for his friend, and in the most favourable disposition for the interests of Greece.

garrison; that they had made a decree that their community should not send a letter or an embassy to any other king, without the consent of Antigonus; that they were forced to maintain and pay the Macedonians; and that they had sacrifices, libations, and games, in honour of Antigonus,-the fellow-citizens of Aratus setting the example, and receiving Antigonus into their city, on which occasion Aratus entertained him in his house. For all these things they blamed Aratus, not considering that when he had once put the reins in the hand of that prince, he was necessarily carried along with the tide of regal power: no longer master of any thing but his tongue, and it was dangerous to use that with freedom. For he was visibly After the death of Antigonus, the Etolians concerned at many circumstances of the king's despised the inactivity of the Achæans: for, conduct, particularly with respect to the sta- accustomed to the protection of foreign arms, tues. Antigonus erected anew those of the and sheltering themselves under the Macedotyrants which Aratus had pulled down, and nian power, they sunk into a state of idleness demolished those he had set up in memory of and disorder. This gave the Etolians room the brave men that surprised the citadel of to attempt a footing in Peloponnesus. By Corinth. That of Aratus only was spared, the way they made some booty in the counnotwithstanding his intercession for the rest. try about Patræ and Dyme, and then proceedIn the affair of Mantinea, too, the behavioured to Messene, and laid waste its territories. of the Achæans was not suitable to the Grecian humanity; for having conquered it by means of Antigonus, they put the principal of the inhabitants to the sword; some of the rest they sold, or sent in fetters to Macedonia; and they made slaves of the women and children. Of the money thus raised they divided a third part amongst themselves, and gave the rest to the Macedonians. But this had its excuse in the law of reprisals; for, however shocking it may appear for men to sacrifice to their anger those of their own nation and kindred, yet in necessity, as Simonides says, it seems rather a proper alleviation than a hardship, to give relief to a mind inflamed and aching with resentment. But as to what Aratus did afterwards with respect to Mantinea, it is impossible to justify him upon a plea either of propriety or necessity. For Antigonus having made a present of that city to the Argives, they resolved to re-people it, and appointed Aratus to see it done; in virtue of which commission, as well as that of general, he decreed that it should no more be called Mantinea, but Antigonea, which name it still bears. Thus, by his means, Mantinea, the amiable Mantinea, as Homer calls it, was no more; and in the place of it we have a city which took its name from the man who ruined its inhabitants.

Some time after this, Cleomenes being overthrown in a great battle near Sellasia,† quitted

* The Mantineans had applied to the Achæans for a Farrison to defend them against the Lacedæmonians. In compliance with their request, the Achæans sent then three hundred of their own citizens, and two hundred mercenaries. But the Mantineans soon after changing their minds, in the most perfidious manner massacred that garrison. They deserved, therefore, all that they are here said to have suffered; but Polybius makes no mention of the principal inhabitants being put to death; he only says, their goods were plundered, and some of the people sold for slaves.

† Cleomenes had entrenched himself so strongly near Sellasia, in a narrow pass between the mountains Eva and Olympus, that Antigonus did not think proper to attack him there. It is not easy to comprehend what could induce Cleomenes to come out of these intrenchments, and risk a pitched battle. His troops were not

Aratus was incensed at this insolence, but he
perceived that Timoxenus, who was then gen-
eral, took slow and dilatory measures, because
his year was almost expired. Therefore, as
he was to succeed to the command, he antici-
pated his commission by five days, for the sake
He assembled
of assisting the Messenians.
the Achæans, but they had now neither exer-
cise nor courage to enable them to maintain
the combat, and consequently he was beaten
in a battle which he fought at Caphyæ. Being
accused of having ventured too much on this
occasion, he became afterwards so cold, and
so far abandoned his hopes for the public, as
to neglect the opportunities which the
lians gave him, and suffered them to roam
about Peloponnesus, in a bacchanalian man-
ner, committing all the excesses that insolence
could suggest.

to

so numerous as the enemy's by one-third; and he was
supplied with all sorts of provisions from Sparta; what
then could make him hazard a battle, the event of
indeed, seems to insinuate the cause of his proceedings
which was to decide the fate of Lacedæmon? Polybius,
for he tells us, that Ptolemy, king of Egypt, who had
promised to assist him in this war, acquainted him that
he was not in a condition to make good his engage-
And as Cleomenes did not choose to try the
ments.
other alternative, that of suing to Antigonus for a
peace, he risked all upon the event of that day.

*Aratus was accused in this assembly, first of having taken the command upon him before his time. In the next place, he was blamed for having dismissed the Achæan troops, while the Etolians were still in the heart of Peloponnesus. The third article against him was, his venturing a battle with so few troops, when he might have made, with great ease, a safe retreat to the neighbouring towns, and there reinforced his army. The last and heaviest charge against him was, that after he had resolved to give the enemy battle, he did not, in the whole action, take one step that became a general of any experience: for he sent the cavalry and light-armed foot to attack the enemy's rear, after their front had gained the advantage; whereas he ought to have encountered the front at first with the advantage of having them on the declivity; in which case his heavy-armed infantry would have done him great service. However, he endeavoured to prove that the loss of the battle was not his fault; adding, that if he had been wanting in any of the duties of an able general,

On this account the courtiers envied him still more; and as they found that their private engines of calumny availed nothing, they began to try open battery, reviling and insult-him from the theatre to the castle of Ithome,* ing him at table with the utmost effrontery and lowest abuse. Nay, once they threw stones at him, as he was retiring from supper to his tent. Philip, incensed at such outrage, fined them twenty talents, and, upon their proceeding to disturb and embroil his affairs, put them to death.

Robbers, indeed, take to rocks and precipices | But the Sicyonians considered it as a misforfor security; but for a king there is no such for- tune to have him interred any where, but tress as honour and humanity. These are the amongst them, and, therefore, persuaded the things that have opened to you the Cretan sea, Achæans to leave the disposal of his body enthese have unbarred the gates of Peloponne-tirely to them. As there was an ancient law sus. In short, by these it is that, at so early a period in life, you are become general of the one, and sovereign of the other." Whilst he was yet speaking, Philip returned the entrails to the diviner, and taking Aratus by the hand, drew him along, and said, "Come on then, let us go as we came;" intimating that he had overruled him, and deprived him of such an acquisition as the city would have been.

that had been observed with religious care,
against burying any person within their walls,
and they were afraid to transgress it on this oc-
casion, they sent to inquire of the priestess of
Apollo, at Delphi, and she returned this answer:
Seek you what funeral honours you
shall pay

То

your departed prince, the small reward
For liberty restored, and glory won?
Bid Sicyon, fearless, rear the sacred tomb.
For the vile tongue that dares with impious breath
Offend Aratus, blasts the face of Nature,
Pours horror on the earth, and seas, and skies.

From this time, Aratus began to withdraw from court, and by degrees to give up all cor respondence with Philip. He refused also to accompany him in his expedition into Epirus, This oracle gave great joy to all the Achæans, though applied to for that purpose; choosing to particularly the people of Sicyon. They changstay at home, lest he should share in the disre-ed the day of mourning into a festival, and pute of his actions. But, after Philip had lost adorning themselves with garlands and white his fleet with great disgrace in the Roman war, robes, brought the corpse with songs and and nothing succeeded to his wish, he returned dances from Egium to Sicyon. There they to Peloponnesus, and tried once more what art selected the most conspicuous ground, and incould do to impose upon the Messenians. terred him as the founder and deliverer of their When he found that his designs were discov- city. The place is still called Aratium: and ered, he had recourse to open hostilities, and there they offer two yearly sacrifices; the one ravaged their country. Aratus then saw all on the fifth of the month Dæsius, (the Athehis meanness, and broke with him entirely. nians call it Anthesterion*) which was the day By this time, too, he perceived that he had dis- he delivered the city from the yoke of tyrants, honoured his son's bed; but though the injury and on which account they call the festival, lay heavy on him, he concealed it from his son; Soteria: the other on his birth-day. The first because he could only inform him that he was sacrifice was offered by the priest of Jupiter, abused, without being able to help him to the the Preserver, and the second by the son of means of revenge. There seemed to be a Aratus, who, on that occasion, wore a girdle, great and unnatural change in Philip, who, of not entirely white, but half purple. The music a mild and sober young prince, became a libid was sung to the harp by the choir that belonginous and cruel tyrant: but in fact it was not ed to the theatre. The procession was led up a change of disposition, it was only discover- by the master of the Gymnasium, at the head ing, in a time of full security, the vices which of the boys and young men; the senate folhis fears had long concealed. That his regard lowed, crowned with flowers, and such of the for Aratus had originally a great mixture of other citizens as chose to attend. Some small fear and reverence, appeared even in the meth-marks of the ceremonies observed on those od he took to destroy him. For though he was very desirous of effecting that cruel purpose, because he neither looked upon himself Such was the life and character that history as an absolute prince, or a king, or even a has given us of the elder Aratus. And as to freeman, while Aratus lived, yet he would not the younger, Philip, who was naturally wicked, attempt any thing against him in the way of and delighted to add insolence to cruelty, open force, but desired Phaurion, one of his gave him potions, not of the deadly kind, but friends and generals, to take him off in a pri- such as deprived him of his reason; insomuch vate manner, in his absence. At the same time that he took up inclinations that were shockhe recommended poison. That officer, according and monstrous, and delighted in things that ingly, having formed an acquaintance with him, gave him a dose, not of a sharp or violent kind, but such a one as causes lingering heats and a slight cough, and gradually brings the body to decay. Aratus was not ignorant of the cause of his disorder, but knowing that it availed nothing to discover it to the world, he bore it quietly and in silence, as if it had been an ordinary distemper. Indeed, when one of his friends came to visit him in his chamber, and expressed his surprise at seeing him spit blood, he said, "Such, Cephalon, are the fruits of royal friendship."

Thus died Aratus at Ægium, after he had been seventeen times general of the Achæans. That people were desirous of having him buried there, and would have thought it an honour to give him a magnificent funeral, and a monument worthy of his life and character.

days still remain, but the greatest part is worn out by time and other circumstances.

not only dishonoured but destroyed him. Death, therefore, which took him in the flower of his age, was considered, not as a misfortune, but a deliverance. The vengeance, however, of Jupiter, the patron of hospitality and friendship, visited Philip for his breach of both, and pursued him through life; for he was beaten by the Romans, and forced to yield himself to their discretion. In consequence of which, he was stripped of all the provinces he had conquered, gave up all his ships, except five, obliged himself to pay a thousand talents, and deliver his son as a hostage. He even held Macedonia and its dependencies only at the mercy of the conquerors. Amidst all these misfortunes, he was possessed only of one bless sing, a son of superior virtue, and him he put

• February.

to death, in his envy and jealousy of the hon-1 over him that Paulus Æmilius triumphed, and ours the Romans paid him. He left his crown, in nim, ended the royal race of Antigonus, to his other son, Perseus, who was believed whereas the posterity of Aratus remained to not to be his, but a supposititious child, born of our days, and still continues in Sicyon, and a sempstress, named Gnathænium. It was Pellene.

GALBA.

IPHICRATES, the Athenian general, thought | corrupted the army, and taught them to exthat a soldier of fortune should have an attach- pect so much upon the change of emperor, ment both to money and pleasure, that his pas- thus dishonouring a glorious action by mersions might put him upon fighting with more cenary_considerations, and turning the revolt boldness for a supply. But most others are of from Nero into treason. For Nymphidius Saopinion, that the main body of an army, like binus, who, as we observed before, was jointhe healthy natural body, should have no mo- ed in commission with Tigellinus, as captain tion of its own, but be entirely guided by the of the prætorian cohorts, after Nero's affairs head. Hence Paulus Æmilius, when he found were in a desperate state, and it was plain that his army in Macedonia talkative, busy, and he intended to retire into Egypt, persuaded the ready to direct their general, is said to have army, as if Nero had already abdicated, to degiven orders, "That each should keep his hand clare Galba emperor, promising every soldier fit for action, and his sword sharp, and leave of the prætorian cohorts, seven thousand five the rest to him." And Plato, perceiving that hundred drachmas, and the troops that were the best general cannot undertake any thing quartered in the provinces, twelve hundred and with success, unless his troops are sober, and sixty drachmas a man: a sum which it was imperfectly united to support him, concluded, possible to collect, without doing infinitely that to know how to obey, required as gener- more mischief to the empire than Nero had ous a disposition, and as rational an education, done in his whole reign. as to know how to command; for these advan- This proved the immediate ruin of Nero; tages would connect the violence and impetu- and soon after destroyed Galba himself. They osity of the soldier with the mildness and hu- deserted Nero in hopes of receiving the money, manity of the philosopher. Amongst other fatal and despatched Galba because they did not examples, what happened amongst the Ro- receive it. Afterwards, they sought for anmans after the death of Nero, is sufficient to other, who might pay them that sum, but they shew, that nothing is more dreadful than an ruined themselves by their rebellions and treaundisciplined army, actuated only by the im- sons, without gaining what they had been pulse of their own ferocity. Demades, seeing made to expect. To give a complete and exthe wild and violent motions of the Macedo- act account of the affairs of those times, benian army, after the death of Alexander, com-longs to the professed historian. It is, howpared it to the Cyclops,* after his eye was put But the Roman empire more resembled the extravagant passions and ravings of the Titans, which the poets tell us of, when it was torn in pieces by rebellion, and turned its arms against itself; not so much through the ambition of the emperors, as the avarice and licentiousness of the soldiers, who drove out one emperor by another.t

out.

ever, in my province, to lay before the reader the most remarkable circumstances in the lives of the Cæsars.

It is an acknowledged truth, that Sulpitius Galba was the richest private man that ever rose to the imperial dignity. But though his extraction was of the noblest, from the family of the Servii, yet he thought it a greater honour to be related to Quintus Catulus CapitoliDionysius, the Sicilian, speaking of Alex-nus, who was the first man in his time for virander, of Pheræ, who reigned in Thessaly only ten months, and then was slain, called him, in derision of the sudden change, a theatrical tyrant. But the palace of the Cæsars received four emperors in a less space of time, one entering, and another making his exit, as if they had only been acting a part upon the stage. The Romans, indeed, had one consolation amidst their misfortunes, that they needed no other revenge upon the authors of them, than to see them destroy each other; and with the greatest justice of all fell the first, who

tue and reputation, though he voluntarily left
to others the pre-eminence in power. He was
also related to Livia, the wife of Augustus,
and it was by her interest that he was raised
from the office he had in the palace, to the dig
nity of consul. It is said that he acquitted
hiinself in his commission in Germany with
honour; and that he gained more reputation
than most commanders, during his pro-consul
ate in Africa. But his simple parsimonious
way of living, passed for avarice in an emper
or; and the pride he took in economy and
strict temperance, was out of character.
He was sent governor into Spain by Nero

In the life of Nero, which is lost.