Chapter XIX: Part 19

XII. As the returned exiles could not be withheld from attacking those whom they found in possession of their property, and by doing so seemed likely to bring the state to ruin, Aratus, thinking that nothing but the kindness of Ptolemy could save his country, started upon a voyage to Egypt, to beg the king to furnish him with a sum of money, by means of which he might persuade the contending parties to come to an amicable agreement. He started from the port of Mothone, and sailed beyond Cape Millea, meaning to cross directly over the sea to Egypt. However, the sea was very rough, and the wind contrary, which, caused the captain of the ship to bear up, and run along the coast until, with great difficulty, he reached Adria,[589] which was an enemy's country, for it was in the possession of Antigonus, who had placed a Macedonian garrison in it. Aratus contrived to keep out of the way of the garrison, and, leaving the ship, proceeded a long way inland, accompanied by one single friend, named Timanthes. They concealed themselves in a thick wood, and passed the night as best they could. Shortly afterwards the Macedonian officer in charge appeared, and endeavoured to find Aratus, but was put off the scent by the slaves of Aratus, who had been instructed to say that their master, as soon as he left them, had sailed in another vessel bound to Euboea. However, the Macedonian declared the cargo, the vessel, and the slaves to be a lawful prize, as being enemy's property, and detained them as such. A few days after this, when Aratus was almost at his wit's end, by good fortune a Roman ship touched at the place where he was spending his time in looking out for means of escape by sea, and in trying to conceal himself from his enemies on land. The ship was bound for Syria, but Aratus would not sail in it until he had persuaded the captain to land him in Karia. On his voyage thither he again encountered great dangers: but at length he succeeded in obtaining a passage from Karia to Egypt, where he was warmly received by the king, who had always had a favourable opinion of him, and who had lately received from him many drawings and paintings by Greek artists. Aratus, who had considerable taste in these matters, constantly purchased and collected the works of the most skilful and famous painters, especially those of Pamphilus and Melanthus, and used to send them as presents to King Ptolemy.

XIII. At that time the Sikyonian school of painting was still celebrated throughout Greece, and was thought more than any other to have preserved the purity of the ancient style. Even the great Apelles, when already famous, had come to Sikyon and paid a talent for some lessons from the masters there, although by doing so he hoped to increase his reputation rather than to improve his art. When Aratus set the city free, he at once destroyed all the portraits[590] of the despots, except that of Aristratus, who flourished in the time of Philip,[591] about which he hesitated for a long time; for the picture in which Aristratus was represented standing beside the chariot which won him a prize in the games, was the joint work of all the pupils of Melanthus, and we are told by Polemon the geographer, that some parts of it were painted by Apelles himself. The execution was so admirable that Aratus for a moment relented, but soon afterwards his fierce hatred of all the despots made him order it to be destroyed. However, Nealkes the painter, who was a friend of Aratus, interceded for the picture with tears, and as he could not move Aratus, at last said, "We ought to make war against despots themselves, but not against their surroundings. Let us leave the chariot and the figure of Victory, and I will deliver up Aristratus to you, by wiping him out of the picture." Aratus allowed Nealkes to do this, and he effaced the figure of Aristratus, and painted a palm tree in its place, without venturing to add anything else. It is said that after destroying the figure of Aristratus, the painter forgot his feet, and that they were still to be seen under the chariot. By presents of such paintings as these Aratus had already disposed Ptolemy to regard him with favour; and when they met, Aratus so charmed the king by his conversation that he received from him a present of one hundred and fifty talents for the use of his native city. Aratus carried forty talents home with him at once to Peloponnesus, and afterwards received the rest of the sum in instalments from the king.

XIV. It was a truly great action for Aratus to bestow so much money upon his fellow-countrymen, especially at a time when for much smaller sums the kings were usually able to bribe the other chiefs and popular leaders to betray their native cities and sacrifice their constitutional liberties; but it was even more admirable that by means of this money he reconciled the rich and the poor, and saved the state from all the danger of revolution, while his own conduct was marked by the greatest moderation in spite of his enormous power. When he was appointed as sole arbitrator with unlimited authority, to decide upon the claims of the exiled families to their inheritances, he refused to act alone, and associated fifteen of the other citizens with himself, with whose help, after much labour and difficulty, he restored peace and union amongst his countrymen. For these services the state bestowed upon him fitting honours, but in addition to these the exiles gave him a special mark of their regard by erecting a brazen statue, upon which was inscribed the following verses:--

"For wisdom, valour, and great deeds in war
Thy fame, Aratus, has been noised afar.
We, that unhappy exiles were of late,
Brought home by thee, this statute dedicate
To all the gods who helped thee to restore
Peace and goodwill amongst us as before."

XV. By this important measure Aratus so thoroughly earned the gratitude of his countrymen as to be placed above the reach of party jealousy; but King Antigonus was much displeased at his success, and with the object either of making him his friend, or of causing him to be distrusted by Ptolemy, bestowed upon him several marks of favour, and when sacrificing to the gods at Corinth even sent some of the meat of the victim to Sikyon as a present for him. At dinner that evening he said aloud in the hearing of many guests: "I thought this young Sikyonian was merely a well-bred and patriotic youth; but it seems that he is a very shrewd judge of the lives and politics of us kings. At first he used to despise me, and looked beyond me to Egypt, because he had heard so much about the elephants and fleets of Ptolemy, and about the splendour of his court, but now that he has been admitted behind the scenes there and has discovered it to be all empty show and parade, he has thrown himself into my arms without reserve. So now I receive the youth into my own service, and shall employ him in all my affairs; and I beg you all to treat him as a friend."

All those who were jealous of Aratus and who wished him ill, as soon as they heard these words, vied with one another in sending letters to Ptolemy, full of abuse of Aratus, until at length Ptolemy himself wrote to Aratus and reproached him for his disloyalty. So much jealousy and ill-feeling does the friendship of kings produce among those who most eagerly struggle to gain it.

XVI. Aratus, who was now for the first time elected general of the Achæans, invaded and plundered the countries of Kalydonia and Lokris on the other side of the Corinthian gulf, but though he marched with ten thousand men to help the Boeotians he came too late to take part in the battle, in which they were defeated near Chæronea by the Ætolians. In this battle a thousand Boeotians perished, amongst whom was Aboeokritus the Boeotarch himself. Next year Aratus was again chosen general, and began to arrange his plot for the capture of the Akrocorinthus, or citadel of Corinth. He made this attempt not to benefit the Achæans, or his own city of Sikyon, but solely with the object of driving out the Macedonian garrison, which was established there as the common despot over all Greece. The Athenian Chares, after gaining some success in battle over the generals of the King of Persia, sent home a despatch to the Athenian people in which he declared that he had won the sister victory to that of Marathon: and this exploit of Aratus may be most truly described as sister to those of Pelopidas the Theban and of Thrasybulus the Athenian, in which they each killed the despots of their respective cities; except that this assault was not delivered against Greeks, but against a foreign and alien sovereignty. Now the isthmus, which bars out the two seas, connects together the two parts of our continent; but the Acrocorinthus, which is a lofty mountain placed in the middle of Greece, if it be held by an armed force, cuts off the land beyond the isthmus from all intercourse with the rest of Greece, whether for warlike or commercial purposes, and places the whole country at the mercy of the commander of its garrison; so that the younger Philip was not in jest but in earnest when he called the city of Corinth the "key of Greece."

XVII. The possession of this place was always coveted by all princes and rulers, but the desire of Antigonus for it became a frantic passion, and his whole thoughts were occupied with plots to obtain it by stratagem, since it was hopeless to attempt to take it by force. After the death of Alexander,[592] who originally held it, and who, it is said, was poisoned by Antigonus, his wife Nikæa succeeded to his kingdom, and held the Acrocorinthus. Antigonus now at once sent his son Demetrius to her, and by holding out the dazzling prospect of a royal alliance and a handsome young husband to a woman somewhat past her prime, made a conquest of her by means of his son, whom he employed without scruple to tempt his victim. As, however, she would not give up the citadel, but kept it strongly guarded, Antigonus pretended to be indifferent to it, and prepared a wedding feast in Corinth, spending the whole day in attendance at spectacles and in wine-drinking, as if he had entirely given himself up to pleasure and enjoyment. When the time drew near for the attempt, he himself accompanied Nikæa to the theatre to hear Amoebeus sing. They were carried together in royal state in a splendidly ornamented litter, and she was delighted at the respect which he showed her, and was as far as possible from guessing his real purpose. When they arrived at the point where the road turned off towards the citadel, he begged her to proceed alone to the theatre, and without troubling himself further about Amoebeus or the marriage, ran up to the Acrocorinthus faster than one would have expected in a man of his age. Finding the gate shut, he knocked at it with his stick, bidding the garrison open it; and they, astounded at his audacity, threw it open. When he had thus obtained possession of the place he could no longer restrain himself, but although he was now an old man, and had experienced great vicissitudes of fortune, he drank wine and jumped for joy in the streets, and swaggered riotously across the market-place, crowned with flowers, and accompanied by singing-girls, greeting and shaking hands with every one whom he met. So true it is that unexpected joy disturbs the right balance of the mind more than either grief or terror.

XVIII. Now Antigonus, having, as above related, gained possession of the Acrocorinthus, entrusted the place to some of his most faithful officers, among whom was Persæus the philosopher. Aratus, during the life of Alexander, had begun to form a plan for surprising the citadel, but desisted from his plot when Alexander became an ally of the Achæans. He now began to form fresh schemes, in the following manner:--There were in Corinth four brothers, Syrians by birth, one of whom, named Diokles, was serving in the garrison, and quartered in the citadel. The other three, having robbed the king's treasury, came to Sikyon to dispose of the plunder to a banker named Ægias, who was well known to Aratus from having had dealings with him. They disposed of a considerable part of their plunder at first, and afterwards, one of them, named Erginus, came quietly over from time to time with the remainder. In this way he became intimate with Ægias, and, being led on by him to talk about the citadel, said that when going up the hill to visit his brother, he had noticed a narrow path on one side, which led to the lowest part of the wall of the fortress. On hearing this, Ægias laughingly said to him, "My good sir, why do you rob the king's treasury to gain such pitiful sums of money, when you might gain great riches in a single hour? Do you not know that burglary and treachery are alike punished with death?" Erginus smiled at this, and agreed to sound his brother Diokles upon this point; for he could not, he said, place much confidence in the other two.

In a few days he returned, undertook to lead Aratus to a part of the wall which was not more than fifteen feet high, and arranged that both he and his brother Diokles would do all in their power to assist him.

XIX. Aratus promised that he would give them sixty talents if successful, and that, in case of failure, if he and they survived, he would give each of them a house and a talent. As the money had to be deposited with Ægias for the satisfaction of Erginus, Aratus, who did not possess the sum necessary, and who did not wish to lead others to suspect his design by borrowing, took the greater part of his own plate and his wife's jewels, and pledged them with Ægias for the money. Indeed, he was of so lofty a soul, and so passionately desirous of glory, that although he knew that Phokion and Epameinondas had gained the reputation of being the most just and noble of the Greeks, by refusing large bribes and not sacrificing honour to money, he preferred to expend his fortune secretly in enterprises in which he alone risked his life on behalf of the many, who did not even know what he was doing. Who, even in our own day, could refrain from admiring and longing to share the fortunes of a man who bought for himself so great a danger at so high a price, and who pawned the most valuable of his possessions in order that he might make his way into the fortress of his enemies by night and fight for his life there, gaining by his deposit the hope of glory, but nothing else?

XX. The plot, dangerous enough in itself, was rendered even more so at its very outset by a blunder. Technon, the servant of Aratus, was sent to examine the wall together with Diokles. He had never before met Diokles, but imagining that he knew his appearance from Erginus's description of him as a man with close curly hair, a dark complexion, and no beard, went to the rendezvous, and waited outside the city, near the place called Ornis, for Erginus, who was to meet him there with his brother Diokles. In the meantime the brother of Erginus and Diokles, named Dionysius, who was not in the plot, and knew nothing of what was going on, happened to come up. He was very like Diokles, and Technon, influenced by the likeness, inquired of him if he were in any way connected with Erginus. As he answered that he was his brother, Technon was quite certain that he was addressing Diokles; and without asking his name or waiting for any further proof of identity he gave him his hand, spoke of the compact with Erginus, and asked him questions about it. He cleverly encouraged Technon in his error, agreed to everything that he said, and, turning round, walked with him towards the city without exciting his suspicions. When he was close to the gate, and had all but inveigled Technon through it, it chanced that Erginus met them. Perceiving the trick which his brother had played, and the danger in which Technon was placed, he warned him by a sign to make his escape, and both of them, running away at full speed, got safe back to Aratus. Yet he did not despair, but at once sent Erginus to take some money to Dionysius, and to beg him to hold his tongue. Erginus accomplished his commission, and brought Dionysius back with him to Aratus. When he arrived there they would not let him go again, but kept him a close prisoner, while they themselves prepared to make the attempt.

XXI. When all was ready, Aratus ordered the greater part of his force to pass the night under arms, and himself with a chosen body of four hundred men, few of whom were in the secret, proceeded towards the gates of Corinth, near the temple of Hera. The time was the height of summer. The moon was at the full, and as the night was clear and cloudless, they began to fear that the light gleaming from their arms would betray them to the sentinels. However, when the leading men were near to the wall a fog came up from the sea, and enveloped the whole city and its neighbourhood. Now, the men all sat down and took off their shoes; for men who mount ladders with naked feet make very little noise and are not so liable to slip. Meanwhile Erginus, with seven youths dressed as wayfaring men, made his way up to the gate unsuspected. They killed the keeper of the gate, and the guard: while at the same time the scaling-ladders were placed against the walls. Aratus hastily crossed the walls with a hundred men. Bidding the remainder follow as fast as they could, he ordered the ladders to be drawn up, and, followed by his hundred men, ran through the town to the citadel, overjoyed at having got so far without raising an alarm, and already certain of success. While they were still some distance off, they met a patrol of four men carrying a light. These men could not see them because they were in the shadow of the moon, but the four men were clearly visible as they marched straight towards them. Aratus now drew his force a little aside among some ruins and low walls, so as to form an ambush, and set upon the men. Three were killed on the spot, but the fourth, though wounded in the head by a blow from a sword, ran away shouting that the enemy were within the walls. Soon after this trumpets were sounded, the whole city was disturbed, and all the streets became thronged with men running to and fro, while many lights appeared, some in the lower town, and some in the citadel above, and a confused murmur of voices was heard on every side.

XXII. While this was going on, Aratus persevered in his march, and was toiling laboriously up the cliff. At first he proceeded slowly and with difficulty, without making any real progress, because he had entirely missed the path, which wound about under the shadow of the precipitous rocks by many turnings and windings up to the citadel. At this moment it is said that the moon shone through the clouds and threw her light upon the most difficult part of the ascent in a wonderful manner, until Aratus reached the part of the wall of the citadel which he wished to attack. When he was there, she again concealed and shaded her rays behind a barrier of clouds. While this was being done, the three hundred men of Aratus's force, who had been left outside the gate near the temple of Hera, when they made their way into the city, which was now full of confusion and lights, were not able to find the same path which had been followed by the others, or any trace of the way by which they had gone, and so in a body crouched down in a dark corner in the shade of a cliff, and waited there in great anxiety and alarm: for now the party led by Aratus was being shot at by the garrison of the citadel, and was fighting with them hand to hand, and the shouts of the battle could be plainly heard below, though the echoes of the mountains made it impossible to tell from what quarter the noise proceeded. While they were at a loss to know which way to turn, Archelaus, the leader of the Macedonian troops, marched out with a large force, with loud shouts and trumpets sounding, to attack the party under Aratus, and marched past where the three hundred lay as it were in ambush. They rushed out, charged the Macedonians, killed the first of them, and drove Archelaus and the remainder before them panic-stricken, until they dispersed themselves about the city. No sooner had this victory been won, than Erginus arrived from the citadel, announcing that Aratus was engaged with the enemy, who were offering a stubborn resistance, that a great battle was going on at the wall itself, and that immediate assistance was required. They at once bade him lead them, and mounted the hill, shouting to their friends to let them know who they were, and to encourage them. The full moon, too, as it shone upon their arms, made their numbers appear greater to the enemy on account of the length of the path, and the midnight echoes made their shouts appear to come from a much larger party of men. At last they joined their friends above, and by a united effort drove out the enemy, won the heights, and gained possession of the citadel just as day was dawning. Soon the sun rose upon their victory, and the remainder of Aratus's force from Sikyon came up, and was welcomed by the Corinthians, who opened their gates to them, and assisted them to capture the soldiers of the Macedonian garrison.

XXIII. When all appeared to be safe, Aratus descended from the citadel to the theatre, where an enormous multitude of persons was collected, eager to see him and to hear the speech which he was about to address to the Corinthians. He placed a guard of Achæans on each side of the stage, and himself appeared in the middle, still wearing his corslet, and pale with the labours of a sleepless night, so that the triumph and delight which he felt were weighed down by sheer bodily lassitude. His appearance was greeted with enthusiastic applause, and, shifting his spear into his right hand, and slightly leaning his body against it, he stood for a long time silent, receiving the plaudits and shouts of those who praised his courage and congratulated him on his good fortune. When they had ceased and resumed their seats, he drew himself up and made them a speech worthy of the occasion, on behalf of the Achæan league, in which he prevailed upon the Corinthians to join the league, and gave up to them the keys of their gates which now came into their possession for the first time since the days of king Philip. He dismissed Archelaus, who had been taken prisoner, but put Theophrastus to death because he refused to leave his post. Persæus, when the citadel was taken, escaped to Kenchreæ. Afterwards it is said that in philosophic conversation, when some one said that he thought that the philosopher was the only true general, he answered, "By heaven, this once used to please me more than any other of Zeno's aphorisms, but I have changed my mind since the refutation of it which I received from a young man of Sikyon." This anecdote of Persæus is related by most historians.

XXIV. Aratus now at once made himself master of the temple of Hera, and of Lechæum, where he seized a fleet of five-and-twenty ships belonging to King Antigonus, and sold five hundred horses and four hundred Syrians whom he found there. The Achæans now garrisoned the citadel of Corinth with a force of four hundred heavy-armed soldiers, and with a pack of fifty hounds and as many huntsmen, who were all kept in the citadel.[593]

The Romans in their admiration of Philopoemen used to call him the last of the Greeks, as though no great actions were performed in Greece after his time: but I should be inclined to say that this was both the last and the most remarkable of all the great achievements of the Greeks, for both in the daring with which it was accomplished, and the good fortune with which it was attended, it will bear comparison with the noblest of deeds, as was at once proved by its results. Megara revolted from Antigonus and joined Aratus, Troezene and Epidaurus became members of the Achæan league, and Aratus made his first campaign by an expedition into Attica, in the course of which he crossed into Salamis and laid it waste, being able to make what use he pleased of the power of the Achæan league, now that it was no longer, as it were, locked up in Peloponnesus. He sent back all the freemen whom he captured to Athens without ransom, hoping to rouse them to revolt against the Macedonians. He also brought Ptolemy into alliance with the Achæan league, and constituted him commander-in-chief of their forces by land and by sea. His influence with the Achæans was so great, that, since it was illegal to elect him as their chief every year, they elected him every other year, while practically they followed his advice in all their transactions; for they saw that he preferred neither wealth, nor fame, nor the friendship of kings, nor the advantage of his own native country to the furtherance of the prosperity of the Achæans. He conceived that cities which by themselves were weak might obtain safety by means of one another, bound together by their common interest, and that just as the various parts of the human body live and move when connected with one another, but waste away and perish when cut asunder, so cities are ruined by isolation, and prosper by confederation, when they form parts of one great body, and adopt a common line of policy.

XXV. Observing that the most famous of the neighbouring cities were independent, he became grieved that the Argives lived under the rule of a despot, and began to plot the destruction of Aristomachus, their ruler; wishing also to bestow its freedom upon the city to which he owed his education, and to gain it over to the Achæan league. Men were found who dared to make the attempt, chief among whom were Æschylus and Charimenes the soothsayer, but they had no swords, because the despot had prohibited the possession of arms to the citizens under severe penalties. However, Aratus prepared at Corinth a number of small daggers, which he caused to be sewn up in pack-saddles. He then placed the saddles on pack-horses and sent them to Argos, laden with ordinary merchandise.

But Charimenes the soothsayer took another person into the plot, which so enraged Æschylus and his party that they determined to act alone, and would have nothing more to do with Charimenes. In anger at this treatment he betrayed his comrades just as they were on the point of attacking the despot, yet most of them had time to make their way out of the market-place and escape to Corinth. Shortly afterwards Aristomachus was assassinated by his own servants, and was immediately succeeded by Aristippus, a more cruel tyrant than himself. Aratus upon hearing of this at once made a hurried march to Argos at the head of as many Achæans as he could collect, hoping to find the city ready to join him. As, however, most of the Argives were now accustomed to the loss of their liberty, and no one answered his appeal, he retired, having done no more than expose the Achæans to the charge of making a warlike invasion in time of peace. For this they were tried before the Mantineans as judges, and, as Aratus did not appear, Aristippus, who was prosecutor, won his cause and got a fine of thirty minæ laid upon the Achæans. As he both hated and feared Aratus himself, he now, with the connivance of King Antigonus, endeavoured to have him assassinated; and they soon had their emissaries everywhere, watching their opportunity. There is, however, no such certain safeguard for a ruler as the love of his people; for when both the masses and the leading men have learned not to fear their chief, but to fear for him, he sees with many eyes, hears with many ears, and soon gains intelligence of any conspiracies. And in this place I wish to stop my narrative for a moment, and describe the mode of life which Aristippus was compelled to lead in consequence of being a despot, and possessing that position of absolute ruler which men are wont so greatly to admire and envy.

XXVI. Aristippus had Antigonus for his ally, kept a large force on foot for his own protection, and left none of his enemies alive in the city of Argos. He used to make his bodyguard and household troops encamp in the porticoes outside his palace, and always, after supper, sent all his servants out of the room, locked the door himself, and betook himself with his mistress to a little upper chamber which was reached by a trapdoor, upon which he placed his bed and slept, as one may expect, a disturbed and frightened sleep. His mistress's mother used to take away the ladder by which they mounted, and lock it up in another room. At daybreak she used to bring it back again, and call down this glorious monarch, who came out like a snake out of his den.

Aratus, who dressed in the plainest of clothes, and was the declared enemy of despots wherever they were to be found, gained for himself a lasting command, not by force of arms, but by legal means by his own courage, and has left a posterity which even at the present day enjoys the greatest honour in Greece; whereas of all those men who seized strongholds, kept bodyguards, and protected their lives with arms and gates and trapdoors, few escaped being knocked on the head like hares, and no one has left either a palace, or a family, or a monument to do honour to his memory.

XXVII. Aratus made many attempts, both by intrigues and open violence, to overthrow Aristippus, and take Argos. Once he succeeded in placing scaling-ladders against the walls, ascended them recklessly with a few followers, and killed the soldiers who came from within the city to oppose him. Afterwards, when day was breaking and the troops of the despot were attacking him on all sides, the people of Argos, just as if they were sitting as judges at the Nemean games, and the battle was not being fought on behalf of their liberty, sat by with the utmost calmness, like impartial spectators. Aratus fought bravely, and though wounded in the thigh by a spear, yet succeeded in effecting a lodgement in the city and in spite of the attacks of the enemy held his ground until nightfall. If he could have found strength to remain and fight during the night also, he would not have failed in his attempt; for the despot was already making preparations for flight and had sent on much of his property to the sea-coast: but as no one brought news of this to Aratus, and water failed him, while his wound incapacitated him for any personal exertions, he drew off his forces.

XXVIII. He now gave up this method of attack, and openly invaded the Argive country with an army and laid it waste. At the river Chares he fought a desperate battle with Aristippus, and was thought to have given up the contest too soon, and lost the victory; for when the other part of his army had decidedly won the day and forced their way a long distance forward, he himself, not so much overpowered by the forces opposed to him as hopeless of success and fearing disaster, lost his presence of mind, and led his men back into their camp. When the others returned from their victorious charge, and complained bitterly that, after having routed the enemy, and slain many more men than they themselves had lost, Aratus had allowed the vanquished to erect a trophy, he was stung to the quick, decided to fight rather than to allow the trophy to be erected, and after an interval of one day again led out his forces. When, however, he learned that the troops of the despot had been largely reinforced, and were full of confidence, he did not venture to risk a battle, but made a truce for the recovery of the dead, and retired. Yet he continued to repair this fault by his diplomatic skill and persuasive powers, for he won over the city of Kleonæ to the Achæan league, and held the Nemean festival at Kleonæ, declaring it to be the privilege of its citizens to do so by right of descent. The Argives also celebrated the festival, and on this occasion for the first time the right of safe-conduct of the competitors was violated, for the Achæans seized and sold for slaves all who passed through their territory on their return from the games at Argos. So stern and inexorable was Aratus in his hatred of despots.

XXIX. Shortly after this, hearing that Aristippus was meditating an attack upon Kleonæ, but feared him, because he was living at Corinth, he ordered an army to be mustered. Bidding his men collect provisions for several days, he marched as far as Kenchreæ, hoping to draw out Aristippus to attack Kleonæ during his absence, as indeed happened. Aristippus at once came from Argos with his entire force; but Aratus meanwhile returned by night to Corinth from Kenchreæ, and, having placed guards upon all the roads, led the Achæans by so swift, well-managed, and orderly a march, that while it was still dark he not only reached Kleonæ, but drew up his men in order of battle before Aristippus discovered their presence. At daybreak the city gates were thrown open, and charging with loud shouts to the sound of the trumpet, he at once routed the enemy, and pursued in the direction in which he thought Aristippus most probably was fleeing, the country being full of ways to escape pursuit. The chase was kept up as far as Mykenae, where the despot was overtaken and slain by a Cretan named Tragiskus, according to the historian Deinias. With him fell more than fifteen hundred of his men. Yet, Aratus, after gaining such a brilliant success without losing one of his own soldiers, did not take Argos or restore it to liberty, as Agias and Aristomachus the younger marched into the town with some Macedonian troops and seized the government.

However, by this action, Aratus pretty well silenced the ill-natured joke, which had been made about himself, and the stories, invented by the courtiers of despots; for they described the general of the Achæans as being subject to violent internal disorders during a battle, and said that as soon as the trumpeter appeared he became faint and dizzy, and that, after having arrayed his forces, given the word, and inquired of his lieutenants and officers whether they had any further need of his presence, when the die was finally cast, he used to retire and await the result at a distance. These stories had such an extensive currency, that even philosophers in their studies when discussing whether violent beating of the heart, changing of colour, and the like in time of danger be a mark of cowardice or of distemperature and of a cold habit of body, always mention Aratus as being a good general, but always being affected in this manner when in battle.

XXX. When he had slain Aristippus, he at once began to plot against Lydiades of Megalopolis, who had made himself despot of his native city. Lydiades was naturally of a noble and ambitious nature, and had not, like so many despots, been led to commit the crime of enslaving his fellow-citizens by any selfish desire of money or of pleasure; but when a young man he had become inflamed with a desire of distinguishing himself, and listening to all the vain and untrue talk about despotic power being so fine and happy a thing, he, like a high-spirited youth, made himself despot, and soon became overwhelmed with the cares of state. As he now both envied the happiness of Aratus and feared the results of his plots, he adopted a new and most glorious course, which was first to set himself free from hatred and terror and soldiers and life-guards, and next to become the benefactor of his country. He sent for Aratus, gave up his rule, and united the city to the Achæan league. The Achæans admired his conduct in this matter so much that they elected him general. He now at once began to strive to outdo Aratus in glory, and engaged in many unnecessary enterprises, one of which was a campaign against the Lacedæmonians. Aratus opposed him, and was therefore thought to be jealous of him; yet Lydiades was a second time elected general, in spite of the open opposition of Aratus, who used all his influence on behalf of another candidate. Aratus himself, as has been said, was general every other year. Lydiades continued in the full tide of success and was elected general alternately with Aratus up to his third year of office; but as he made no secret of his hatred for Aratus, and often attacked him in the public assembly of the Achæans, they cast him off and would not listen to him, thinking that his good qualities were but counterfeit when compared with the genuine virtues of Aratus. Just as Æsop tells us in his fables that when the cuckoo asked the little birds why they fled from him, they answered that some day he would be a hawk, so it seems that, even after he had given up his despotism, some blighting suspicion always clung to the character of Lydiades.

XXXI. Aratus gained great glory also in the Ætolian war, because when the Achæans were eager to join battle with the Ætolians on the Megarian frontier, and Agis the King of Lacedæmon had arrived with a large force and urged the Achæans to fight, he opposed it, and in spite of being reproached, abused, and jeered at as a coward, refused to be led astray by any high-flown ideas of honour from the course which he had decided upon as the best, made way for the enemy, and without striking a blow permitted them to cross Geranea and pass into Peloponnesus. When, however, they marched by him and suddenly seized Pellene, he was no longer the same man. He would not wait until his entire force was assembled, but with what troops he had with him at once marched against the enemy, who, after their victory, were easily conquered on account of their want of discipline and licentiousness. As soon as they made their way into the city of Pellene, the soldiers dispersed themselves among the various houses, driving each other out of them and fighting one another for the plunder, while the chiefs and generals were occupied in carrying off the wives and daughters of the citizens. They took off their own helmets and placed them on the heads of these women, in order that no one else might take them, but that the owner of each one might be known by the helmet which she wore. While they were thus engaged the news suddenly came that Aratus was about to attack. A panic took place, as one might readily expect, with such want of discipline, and before all of them heard of the danger, the foremost, meeting the Achæans near the gates and suburbs of the city, lost heart and fled away at once, and in their frantic haste threw into disorder those who were forming to come to their support.

XXXII. During this tumult one of the captive women, the daughter of an eminent citizen named Epigethus, who herself was remarkably tall and handsome, happened to be sitting in the temple of Artemis, where she had been stationed by the commander of a picked company of soldiers, who had placed upon her head his own helmet with its triple plume. She, hearing the disturbance, suddenly ran out, and as she stood at the door of the temple, looking down upon the combatants, with the triple-plumed helmet upon her head, she appeared even to her own countrymen to be something more glorious than a mere mortal, while the enemy, who imagined that they beheld an apparition, were struck with terror and affright, so that none of them attempted to offer any resistance. The people of Pellene themselves say that the wooden statue of the goddess is never touched except when it is carried out by the priestess, and that then no one dares to look upon it, but all turn their faces away; for the sight of it is not only fearful and terrible for mankind, but it even makes the trees barren and blights the crops through which it is carried. This it was, they say, which the priestess carried out of the temple on this occasion, and by continually turning the face of the figure towards the Ætolians, made them frantic and took away their reason. Aratus, however, in his memoirs makes no mention of anything of the kind, but says that he routed the Ætolians, broke into the city together with the fugitives, and killed seven hundred of them. The exploit became celebrated as one of his most glorious actions, and the artist Timanthes has painted an admirable picture of the battle.

XXXIII. However, as many nations and princes were combining together against the Achæans, Aratus at once made peace with the Ætolians, and with the assistance of Pantaleon, the most powerful man in Ætolia, even made an alliance between that country and the Achæans. He was anxious to set free the Athenians, and was severely reproached by the Achæans because, during a cessation of arms, when they had made a truce with the Macedonians, he attempted to seize Peiræus. In the memoirs which he has left Aratus denies this, and throws the blame of it upon Erginus, with whose aid he seized the citadel of Corinth. This man, he says, attacked Peiræus on his own responsibility, and when the scaling-ladder broke and he was forced to fly, frequently called on Aratus by name as though he were present, and by this artifice deceived the enemy and escaped. This justification does not, however, seem a very credible one. There was no probability that Erginus, a private man and a Syrian, should have ever thought of such an enterprise, if he had not been urged to it by Aratus, who must have supplied him with the necessary forces and pointed out the proper opportunity for the attack. And Aratus himself proves this to be true by having not merely twice or thrice, but frequently, like a rejected lover, made attempts upon Peiræus, and not being disconcerted by his failures, but ever gathering fresh hopes by observing how nearly he had succeeded. On one of these occasions he sprained his leg in a hasty retreat across the Thriasian plain. Several incisions had to be made to cure it, and he was obliged for a long time to be carried in a litter when conducting his campaigns.

XXXIV. When Antigonus died and Demetrius[594] succeeded to the throne, Aratus was more eager than ever to gain over Athens, and began to treat the Macedonians with contempt. When he was defeated in a battle which he fought against Bithys, a general of Demetrius, and many rumours were current that he had been taken prisoner or had been slain, Diogenes, the commander of the garrison of Peiræus, sent a letter to Corinth bidding the Achæans leave that city now that Aratus was dead. When this letter arrived Aratus himself was present in Corinth, and the messengers of Diogenes had to return after having afforded him much amusement. The King of Macedonia also sent a ship, on board of which Aratus was to be brought back to him in chains. But the Athenians, outdoing themselves in levity and servility to the Macedonians, crowned themselves with garlands when they heard the news of his death. Enraged at this Aratus at once invaded their country, and marched as far as the Academy, but there he suffered his anger to be appeased, and did no damage. The Athenians did, nevertheless, appreciate his courage, for when on the death of Demetrius, they attempted to regain their freedom, they invited him to assist them. Although Aratus was not at that time general of the Achæans, and was confined to his bed with a long illness, yet he responded to this appeal by proceeding to Athens in a litter, and prevailed upon Diogenes, the chief of the garrison, to surrender Peiræus, Munychia, Salamis, and Sunium to the Athenians for the sum of one hundred and fifty talents, twenty of which he himself contributed. The states of Ægina, and Hermione now joined the Achæan league, and the greater part of Arcadia contributed to it; for the Macedonians were engaged in wars with their neighbours, and the Achæans, with the help of their allies, the Ætolians, now gained a large accession of force.

XXXV. Aratus was still true to his original principles, and, grieving at the spectacle of a despotism established in the neighbouring state of Argos, sent to Aristomachus, and endeavoured to persuade him to give up his authority, bring the city over to the Achæan league, and imitate Lydiades by becoming the glorious and respected general of so great a people rather than remain exposed to constant danger as the hated despot of one city. Aristomachus acceded to these proposals of Aratus, but asked him for the sum of fifty talents, for the payment of the mercenaries whom he was to disband. While the money was being procured, Lydiades, who was still in office as general, and wished to gain the credit of this negotiation for himself, told Aristomachus that Aratus was really the bitter and implacable foe of all despots, persuaded him to intrust the management of the affair to himself, and introduced Aristomachus to the Achæan assembly. On this occasion the Achæan representatives gave Aratus a notable proof of their love and confidence in him; for when he indignantly opposed the proposition they drove away Aristomachus; and yet, when Aratus had become his friend and again brought forward the matter, they readily accepted his proposal, admitted the cities of Argos and Phlius into the league, and the following year elected Aristomachus general. Aristomachus, finding himself cordially received by the Achæans, and wishing to invade Laconia, sent for Aratus from Athens. Aratus replied by a letter in which he dissuaded him from making this campaign, being unwilling to involve the Achæans in hostilities with Kleomenes, who was a bold general and had already gained surprising successes. As, however, Aristomachus was determined to begin the war, Aratus returned, and made the campaign with him. When near Pallantium they met Kleomenes, and Aratus was reproached by Lydiades for restraining Aristomachus from joining battle. The year after, Lydiades stood against Aratus as a candidate for the office of general, when Aratus was chosen general for the twelfth time.

XXXVI. During this term of office Aratus was defeated by Kleomenes near Mount Lykaeum, and took to flight. He lost his way during the night, and was supposed to have fallen. The same rumours now again ran through Greece about him; but he got safely away, and having rallied his men was not satisfied with retiring home unmolested, but making an admirable use of his opportunity, as no one expected an attack, he suddenly fell upon the Mantineans, who were the allies of Kleomenes. He took the city, placed a garrison in it, and insisted on the resident foreigners being admitted to the franchise, thus alone gaining for the Achæans after a defeat, a success which they could hardly have obtained by a victory. When the Lacedæmonians marched against Megalopolis, Aratus came to the assistance of that city. He would not fight with Kleomenes, though the latter endeavoured to entice him into a battle, but he kept back the men of Megalopolis who were eager to fight; for he was at no time well-fitted for the direction of pitched battles, and on this occasion was inferior in numbers, besides being opposed to a young and daring antagonist, while he himself was past the prime of life, and inclined to fail in spirit. He thought, too, that while it was right for Kleomenes to gain glory by daring, it was best for him to be careful to keep the glory which he had already obtained.

XXXVII. Though the light-armed troops ran out to meet the Spartans, drove them back to their camp, and even fought round their tents, yet Aratus would not move on with the heavy-armed force, but halted them behind a water-course which he forbade them to cross. Lydiades, irritated at this, reproached Aratus, called upon the cavalry to follow him and reinforce the victorious light troops, and not to lose the victory or desert him when he was fighting for his country. Many brave men joined him, and with them he charged the right wing of the enemy, overthrew them, and pursued with reckless ardour until he became entangled in difficult ground, full of fruit trees and wide ditches, where he was attacked by Kleomenes, and fell fighting bravely in the noblest of causes, at the very gates of his native city. His companions fled back to the main body, where they disordered the ranks of the hoplites, and brought about the defeat of the entire army. Aratus was greatly blamed, because he was thought to have left Lydiades to perish. The Achæans angrily retired to Ægium, and forced him to accompany them. There they held a meeting, at which it was decided that he should not be supplied with any money nor any mercenary troops maintained for him, but that if he wished to go to war he must furnish them for himself.