Page:Plutarch - Moralia, translator Holland, 1911.djvu/256

234 from his head, and the princely chaplet or coronet which the Persian kings are wont to wear upright, he laid down, and went toward his brother to meet him upon the way, and with kind greeting embraced him: he sent also certain presents unto him, with commandment unto those that carried them to say thus: Xerxes thy brother honoureth thee now with these presents here, but if by the sentence and judgment of the peers and lords of Persia he shall be declared king, his will and pleasure is, that thou shalt be the second person in the realm and next unto him. Ariamenes answered the message in this wise: These presents I receive kindly from my brother, but I am persuaded that the kingdom of Persia by right belongeth unto me; as for my brethren, I will reserve that honour which is meet and due unto them next after myself, and Xerxes shall be the first and chief of them all. Now when the great day of judgment was at hand when this weighty matter should be determined, the Persians by one general and common consent declared Artabanus, the brother of Darius late departed, to be the umpire and competent judge for to decide and end this cause. Xerxes was unwilling to stand unto his award, being but one man, as who reposed more trust and confidence in the number of the princes and nobles of the realm; but his mother Atossa reproving him for it: Tell me (quoth she), my son, wherefore refusest thou Artabanus to be thy judge, who is your uncle, and besides, the best man of all the Persians? and why dost thou fear so much the issue of his judgment, considering that if thou miss, yet the second place is most honourable, namely, to be called the king's brother of Persia? Then Xerxes, persuaded by his mother, yielded; and after many allegations brought and pleaded on both sides judicially, Artabanus at length pronounced definitively that the kingdom of Persia appertained unto Xerxes: with that Ariamenes incontinently leapt from his seat, went and did homage unto his brother, and taking him by the right hand, enthronised and installed him king: from which time forward he was always the greatest person next unto his brother; and shewed himself so loving and affectionate unto him, that in his quarrel he fought most valiantly in the naval battle before Salaminas, where in his service and for his honour he lost his life. This example may serve for an original pattern of true benevolence and magnanimity, so pure and uncorrupt as it cannot in any one point be blamed or stained.

As for Antiochus, as a man may reprehend in him his ambitious mind and excessive desire of rule; so he may as well wonder