Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/399

 ARATUS. 391 Aristippus, a Avorse tyrant than he, seized the govern- ment. Upon this, Aratus, mustering all the Achaeana present that were of age, hurried away to the aid of the city, believing that he should find the people ready to join with him. But the greater number being by this time habituated to slavery and content to submit, and no one coming to join him, he was obliged to retire, having moreover exposed the Achjeans to the charge of com- mitting acts of hostility in the midst of peace ; upon which account they were sued before the Mantineans, and, Aratus not making his appearance, Aristippus gained the cause, and had damages allowed him to the value of thirty minte. And now hating and fearing Aratus, he sought means to kill him, having the assistance herein of king Antigonus ; so that Aratus was pei'petually dogged and watched by those that waited for an oppor- tunity to do this service. But there is no such safeguard of a ruler as the sincere and steady good-will of his subjects, for, where both the common people and the principal citizens have their fears not of but for their governor, he sees with many eyes and hears with many ears whatsoever is doing. Therefoi'e I cannot but here stop short a little in the course of my narrative, to describe the manner of life which the so much envied arbitrary power and the so much celebrated and admired pomp aud pride of absolute government obliged Aristip- pus to lead. For though Antigonus was his friend and ally, and though he maintained numerous soldiers to act as his body-guard, and had not left one enemy of his alive in the city, yet he was forced to make his guards encamp in the colonnade about his house ; and for his servants, he turned them all out immediatelj^ after supper, and then, shutting the doors upon them, he crept up into a small upper chamber, together with his mistress, through a trap-