Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/108

 100 DEMETRIUS. tells us, out of liking and dislike, there spring up contention and warfare, and all the more, the closer the contact, or the nearer the approach of the objects, even so the perpetual hostilities among the successors of Alexander were aggravated and inflamed, in partic- ular cases, by juxtaposition of interests and of terri- tories ; as, for example, in the case of Antigonus and Ptolemy. News came to Antigonus that Ptolemy had crossed from Cyprus and invaded Syria, and was ravaging the country and reducing the cities. Kemaining, there- fore, himself in Phrygia, he sent Demetrius, now twenty- two years old, to make his first essay as sole commander in an important charge. He, whose youthful heat outran his experience, advancing against an adversary trained in Alexander's school, and practised in many encountei's, incurred a great defeat near the town of Gaza, in which eight thousand of his men were taken, and five thousand killed. His own tent, also, his money, and all his private eflfects and furniture, were captured. These, however, Ptolemy sent back, together with his friends, accompany- ing them with the humane and courteous message, that they were not fighting for any thing else but honor and dominion. Demetrius accepted the gift, praying only to the gods not to leave him long in Ptolemy's debt, but to let him have an early chance of doing the like to him. He took his disaster, also, with the temper not of a boy defeated in his attempt, but of an old and long-tried gen- eral, familiar with reverse of fortune ; he busied himself in collecting his men, replenishing his magazines, watch- ing the allegiance of the cities, and drilling his new recruits. Antigonus received the news of the battle with the re- mark, that Ptolemy had beaten boys, and would now have to fight with men. But not to humble the spirit of his son, he acceded to his request, and left him to com- mand on the next occasion.