Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/105

 DEMETRIUS. 97 virtues. Both alike were amorous and intemperate, war» like and munificent, sumptuous in their way of living, and overbearing in their manners. And the likeness of their fortunes carried out the resemblance in their char- acters. Not only were their lives each a series of great successes and great disasters, mighty acquisitions and tre- mendous losses of power, sudden overthrows, followed by unexpected recoveries, but they died, also, Demetrius in actual captivity to his enemies, and Antony on the verge of it. Antigonus had by his wife, Stratonice, the daughter of Corrhceus, two sons ; the one of whom, after the name of his uncle, he called Demetrius, the other had that of his grandfather Philip, and died young. This is the most general account, although some have related, that Deme- trius was not the son of Antigonus, but of his brother ; and that his own father dying young, and his mother being afterwards married to Antigonus, he was accounted to be his son. Demetrius had not the height of his father Antigonus, though he was a tall man. But his countenance was one of such singular beauty and expression, that no painter or sculptor ever produced a good likeness of him. It com- bined grace and strength, dignity with boyish bloom, and, in the midst of youthful heat and passion, what was hard- est of all to represent was a certain heroic look and air of kingly greatness. Nor did his character belie his looks, as no one was better able to render himself both loved and feared. For as he was the most easy and agreeable of companions, and the most luxurious and delicate of princes in his drinking and banquetting and daily pleas- ures, so in action there was never any one that showed a more vehement persistence, or a more passionate en- ergy. Bacchus, skilled in the conduct of war, and after VOL. v. 7