Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/388

 380 AR.TUS. But we this image, O Aratus, gave Of you who saved us, to the gods who save, By you from exile to our homes restored, That vij-tue and that justice to record. To which the blessiug Sicyou owes this day Of wealth that 's shared alike, and laws that all obey. By his success in effecting these things, Aratus secured himself from the envy of his fellow-citizens, on account of the benefits they felt he had done them ; but king Antigonus being troubled in his mind about him, and de- signing either wholly to bring him over to Iris i^arty, or else to make him suspected by Ptolemy, besides other marks of his favor shown to him, who had little mind to receive them, added this too, that, sacrificing to the gods in Corinth, he sent portions to Aratus at Sicyon, and at the feast, where were many guests, he said openly, "I thought this Sicyonian youth had been only a lover of liberty and of his fellow-citizens, but now I look upon him as a good judge of the manners and actions of kings. For formerly he despised us, and, placing his hopes fur- ther oflf^ admired the Egyptian riches, hearing so much of their elephants, fleets, and palaces. But after seeing all these at a nearer distance, perceiving them to be but mere stage show and pageantry, he is now come over to us. And for my part I willingly receive him, and, resolv- ing to make great use of him myself, command you to look upon him as a friend." These words were soon taken hold of by those that envied and maligned him, who strove which of them should, in their letters to Ptolemy, attack him with the worst calumnies, so that Ptolemy sent to expostulate the matter with him; so much envy and ill-will did there always attend the so much contended for, and so ardently and passionately aspired to, friendships of princes and great men. But Aratus, being now for the first time chosen general