Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/407

 ARATUS. 399 that his missmg his hopes but narrowly was an incen- tive to him to proceed the more boldly in a new trial. One time amongst the rest, in making his escape through the Thriasian plain, he put his leg out of joint, and was forced to submit to many operations with the knife before he was cured, so that for a long time he was carried in a litter to the wars. And when Antigonus -^ was dead, and Demetrius suc- ceeded him in the kingdom, he was more bent than ever upon Athens, and in general quite despised the Macedo- nians. And so, being overthrown in battle near Phylacia by Bithys, Demetrius's general, and there being a very strong report that he was either taken or slain, Diogenes, the governor of the Pira3us, sent letters to Corinth, commanding the Achaeans to quit that cit}^ seeing Aratus was dead. When these lettei's came to Corinth, Ai-atus happened to be there in person, so that Diogenes's mes- sengers, being sufficiently mocked and derided, were forced to retm'n to their master. King Demetrius him- self also sent a ship, wherein Aratus was to be bi'ought to him in chains. And the Athenians, exceeding all possible fickleness of flattery to the Macedonians, crowned them- selves with garlands upon the first news of his death. And so in anger he went at once and invaded Attica, and penetrated as far as the Academy, b ut then suffering him- self to be pacified, he did no further act of hostility. And the Athenians afterwards, coming to a due sense of his virtue, when upon the death of Demetrius they attempted to recover their liberty, called him in to their assistance ; and although at that time another person was general of the Achaeans, and he himself had long kept his bed with a sickness, yet, rather than fail the city in a time of need, • Antigonus Gonatas, the son of philosophy, was succeeded by De- Demetrius Poliorcetes, and friend metriu?, his son. of Zeno, the founder of the stoic