Page:Plutarch's Lives (Clough, v.5, 1865).djvu/427

 ARATUS. 419 the month of his birth, which is still remembered. Now the first of these was performed by the priest of Jupiter Soter, the second by the priest of Aratus, wearing a band around his head, not pure white, but mingled with purple. Hymns were sung to the harp by the singers of the feasts of Bacchus ; the procession was led up by the president of the public exercises, with the boys and young men ; these were followed by the councillors wearing garland,«, and other citizens such as pleased. Of these observances, some small traces, it is still made a point of religion not to omit, on the appointed days ; but the greatest part of the ceremonies have through time and other interveninjj accidents been disused. And such, as history tells us, was the life and manners of the elder Aratus. And for the yoimger, his son, Philip, abominably wicked by nature and a savage abuser of his power, gave him such poisonous medicines, as though they did not kill him indeed, yet made him lose his senses, and run into wild and absm-d attempts and desire to do actions and satisfy appetites that were ridiculous and shameful. So that his death, which happened to him while he was yet young and in the flower of his age, cannot be so much esteemed a misfortune as a de- liverance and end of his misery. However, Philip paid dearly, all through the rest of his life, for these impious violations of friendship and hospitality". For, being over- come by the Romans, he was forced to put himself wholly into their hands, and, being deprived of his other domin- ions and surrendering all his ships except five, he had also to pay a fine of a thousand talents, and to give his son for hostage, and only out of mere pity he was suf- fered to keep Macedonia and its dependences; where continually putting to death the noblest of his subjects and the nearest relations he had, he filled the whole king- dom with horror and hatred of him. And whereas