Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/132

 124 DEMETRIUS. belied his years. Yet it would seem to be true, that if Antigonus could only have borne to make some trifling concessions, and if he had shown any moderation in hia passion for empire, he might have maintained for hi:n- self till his death, and left to his son behind him, the first place among the kings. But he was of a violent and haughty spirit ; and the insulting words as well as actions in which he allowed himself could not be borne by young and powerful princes, and provoked them into combining against him. Though now when he was told of the con- federacy, he could not forbear from saying that this flock of birds wovdd soon be scattered by one stone and a sin- gle shout. He took the field at the head of more than seventy thousand foot, and of ten thousand horse, and seventy-five elephants. His enemies had sixty-four thou- sand foot, five hundred more horse than he, elephants to the number of four hundred, and a hundred and twenty chariots. On their near approach to each other, an alteration began to be observable, not in the purposes, but in the presen- timents of Antigonus. For whereas in all former cam- paigns he had ever shown himself lofty and confident, loud in voice and scornful in speech, often by some joke or mockery on the eve of battle expressing his contempt and displaying his composure, he was now remarked to be thoughtful, silent, and retired. He presented Deme- trius to the army, and declared him his successor ; and what every one thought stranger than all was that he now conferred alone in his tent with Demetrius ; whereas in former time he had never entered into any secret con- sultations even with him ; but had always followed his own advice, made his resolutions, and then given out his commands. Once when Demetrius was a boy and asked him how soon the army would move, he is said to have answered him sharply, " Are you afraid lest you, of all the army, should not hear the trumpet ? "