Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/128

 120 DEMETRIUS. Molossiaiii?, and sister of Pyrrhus. At Sicyon he told the people they had put the city just outside of the city, and, persuading them to remove to where they now live, gave their town not only a new site but a new name, Demetrias, after himself A general assembly met on the Isthmus, where he was pi'oclaimed, by a great concourse of people, the Commander of Greece, like Philip and Alexander of old ; whose superior he, in the present height of his prosper- ity and power, was willing enough to consider himself; and, certainly, in one respect he outdid Alexander, who never refused their title to other kings, or took on him- self the style of king of kings, though many kings re- ceived both their title and their authority as such from him; whereas Demetrius used to ridicule those who gave the name of king to any except himself and his father ; and in his entertainments was well pleased when his followers, after drinking to him and his father as kings, went on to drink the healths of Seleucus, with the title of Master of the Elephants ; of Ptolemy, by the name of High Admiral ; of Lysimachus, with the addition of Treasurer ; and of Agathocles, with the style of Governor of the Island of Sicily. The other kings merely laughed when they were told of this vanity ; Lysimachus alone expressed some in- dignation at being considered a eunuch ; such being usually then selected for the office of treasurer. And, in general, there was a more bitter enmity between him and Lysimachus than with any of the others. Once, as a scoff at his passion for Lamia, Lysimachus said he had never before seen a courtezan act a queen's part ; to which Demetrius rejoined that his mistress was quite as honest as Lysiraachus's own Penelope. But to proceed. Demetrius being about to return to Athens, signified by letter to the city that he desired im- mediate admission to the rites of initiation into the Mys- teries, and wished to go through all the stages of the