Plutarch: Lives of the noble Grecians and Romans
defender. But he, having comforted and encouraged them as well
as he could, got on horseback, and being accompanied with ten
of his friends and his son, then a youth, got away to the
sea-side, and finding vessels there waiting off the shore, went
on board of them and sailed to Aegium to the assembly; in which
it was decreed that Antigonus should be called in to their aid,
and should have the Acro-Corinthus delivered to him. Aratus
also sent his son to him with the other hostages. The
Corinthians, extremely angry at this proceeding, now plundered
his property, and gave his house as a present to Cleomenes.
Antigonus being now near at hand with his army, consisting of
twenty thousand Macedonian foot and one thousand three hundred
horse, Aratus, with the Members of Council, went to meet him by
sea, and got, unobserved by the enemy, to Pegae, having no great
confidence either in Antigonus or the Macedonians. For he was
very sensible that his own greatness had been made out of the
losses he had caused them, and that the first great principle of
his public conduct had been hostility to the former Antigonus.
But perceiving the necessity that was now upon him, and the
pressure of the time, that lord and master of those we call
rulers, to be inexorable, he resolved to put all to the venture.
So soon, therefore, as Antigonus was told that Aratus was coming
up to him, he saluted the rest of the company after the ordinary
manner, but him he received at the very first approach with
especial honor, and finding him afterwards to be both good and
wise, admitted him to his nearer familiarity. For Aratus was
not only useful to him in the management of great affairs, but
singularly agreeable also as the private companion of a king in
his recreations. And therefore, though Antigonus was young,
yet as soon as he observed the temper of the man to be proper
for a prince's friendship, he made more use of him than of any
other, not only of the Achaeans, but also of the Macedonians
that were about him. So that the thing fell out to him just as
the god had foreshown in a sacrifice. For it is related that,
as Aratus was not long before offering sacrifice, there were
found in the liver two gall-bags enclosed in the same caul of
fat; whereupon the soothsayer told him that there should very
soon be the strictest friendship imaginable between him and his
greatest and most mortal enemies; which prediction he at that
time slighted, having in general no great faith in soothsayings
and prognostications, but depending most upon rational
deliberation. At an after time, however, when, things
succeeding well in the war, Antigonus made a great feast at
Corinth, to which he invited a great number of guests, and
placed Aratus next above himself, and presently calling for a
coverlet, asked him if he did not find it cold, and on Aratus's
answering "Yes, extremely cold," bade him come nearer, so that
when the servants brought the coverlet, they threw it over them
both, then Aratus remembering the sacrifice, fell a laughing,
and told the king the sign which had happened to him, and the
interpretation of it. But this fell out a good while after.
So Aratus and the king, plighting their faith to each other at
Pegae, immediately marched towards the enemy, with whom they had
frequent engagements near the city, Cleomenes maintaining a
strong position, and the Corinthians making a very brisk
defense. In the meantime, Aristoteles the Argive, Aratus's
friend, sent privately to him to let him know, that he would
cause Argos to revolt, if he would come thither in person with
some soldiers. Aratus acquainted Antigonus, and, taking fifteen
hundred men with him, sailed in boats along the shore as quickly
as he could from the Isthmus to Epidaurus. But the Argives had
not patience till he could arrive, but, making a sudden
insurrection, fell upon Cleomenes's soldiers, and drove them
into the citadel. Cleomenes having news of this, and fearing
lest, if the enemy should possess themselves of Argos, they
might cut off his retreat home, leaves the Acro-Corinthus and
marches away by night to help his men. He got thither first,
and beat off the enemy, but Aratus appearing not long after, and
the king approaching with his forces, he retreated to Mantinea,
upon which all the cities again came over to the Achaeans, and
Antigonus took possession of the Acro-Corinthus. Aratus, being
chosen general by the Argives, persuaded them to make a present
to Antigonus of the property of the tyrants and the traitors.
As for Aristomachus, after having put him to the rack in the
town of Cenchreae, they drowned him in the sea; for which, more
than anything else, Aratus was reproached, that he could suffer
a man to be so lawlessly put to death, who was no bad man, had
been one of his long acquaintance, and at his persuasion had
abdicated his power, and annexed the city to the Achaeans.
And already the blame of the other things that were done began
to be laid to his account; as that they so lightly gave up
Corinth to Antigonus, as if it had been an inconsiderable
village; that they had suffered him, after first sacking
Orchomenus, then to put into it a Macedonian garrison; that they
made a decree that no letters nor embassy should be sent to any
other king without the consent of Antigonus, that they were
forced to furnish pay and provision for the Macedonian soldiers,
and celebrated sacrifices, processions, and games in honor of
Antigonus, Aratus's citizens setting the example and receiving
Antigonus, who was lodged and entertained at Aratus's house.
All these things they treated as his fault, not knowing that
having once put the reins into Antigonus's hands, and let
himself be borne by the impetus of regal power, he was no longer
master of anything but one single voice, the liberty of which
it was not so very safe for him to use. For it was very plain
that Aratus was much troubled at several things, as appeared by
the business about the statues. For Antigonus replaced the
statues of the tyrants of Argos that had been thrown down, and
on the contrary threw down the statues of all those that had
taken the Acro-Corinthus, except that of Aratus, nor could
Aratus, by all his entreaties, dissuade him. Also, the usage of
the Mantineans by the Achaeans seemed not in accordance with the
Grecian feelings and manners. For being masters of their city
by the help of Antigonus, they put to death the chief and most
noted men amongst them; and of the rest, some they sold, others
they sent, bound in fetters, into Macedonia, and made slaves of
their wives and children; and of the money thus raised, a third
part they divided among themselves, and the other two thirds
were distributed among the Macedonians. And this might seem to
have been justified by the law of retaliation; for although it
be a barbarous thing for men of the same nation and blood thus
to deal with one another in their fury, yet necessity makes it,
as Simonides says, sweet and something excusable, being the
proper thing, in the mind's painful and inflamed condition, to
give alleviation and relief. But for what was afterwards done
to that city, Aratus cannot be defended on any ground either of
reason or necessity. For the Argives having had the city
bestowed on them by Antigonus, and resolving to people it, he
being then chosen as the new founder, and being general at that
time, decreed that it should no longer be called Mantinea, but
Antigonea, which name it still bears. So that he may be said to
have been the cause that the old memory of the "beautiful
Mantinea" has been wholly extinguished, and the city to this
day has the name of the destroyer and slayer of its citizens.
After this, Cleomenes, being overthrown in a great battle near
Sellasia, forsook Sparta and fled into Egypt, and Antigonus,
having shown all manner of kindness and fair-dealing to Aratus,
retired into Macedonia. There, falling sick, he sent Philip,
the heir of the kingdom, into Peloponnesus, being yet scarce a
youth, commanding him to follow above all the counsel of Aratus,
to communicate with the cities through him, and through him to
make acquaintance with the Achaeans; and Aratus, receiving him
accordingly, so managed him as to send him back to Macedon both
well affected to himself and full of desire and ambition to take
an honorable part in the affairs of Greece.
When Antigonus was dead, the Aetolians, despising the sloth and
negligence of the Achaeans, who, having learned to be defended by
other men's valor and to shelter themselves under the Macedonian
arms, lived in ease and without any discipline, now attempted to
interfere in Peloponnesus. And plundering the land of Patrae
and Dyme in their way, they invaded Messene and ravaged it; at
which Aratus being indignant, and finding that Timoxenus, then
general, was hesitating and letting the time go by, being now on
the point of laying down his office, in which he himself was
chosen to succeed him, he anticipated the proper term by five
days, that he might bring relief to the Messenians. And
mustering the Achaeans, who were both in their persons
unexercised in arms and in their minds relaxed and averse to
war, he met with a defeat at Caphyae. Having thus begun the
war, as it seemed, with too much heat and passion, he then ran
into the other extreme, cooling again and desponding so much,
that he let pass and overlooked many fair opportunities of
advantage given by the Aetolians, and allowed them to run riot,
as it were, throughout all Peloponnesus, with all manner of
insolence and licentiousness. Wherefore, holding forth their
hands once more to the Macedonians, they invited and drew in
Philip to intermeddle in the affairs of Greece, chiefly hoping,
because of his affection and trust that he felt for Aratus, they
should find him easy-tempered, and ready to be managed as they
pleased.
But the king, being now persuaded by Apelles, Megaleas, and
other courtiers, that endeavored to ruin the credit Aratus had
with him, took the side of the contrary faction, and joined them
in canvassing to have Eperatus chosen general by the Achaeans.
But he being altogether scorned by the Achaeans, and, for the
want of Aratus to help, all things going wrong, Philip saw he
had quite mistaken his part, and, turning about and reconciling
himself to Aratus, he was wholly his; and his affairs now going
on favorably both for his power and reputation, he depended upon
him altogether as the author of all his gains in both respects;
Aratus hereby giving a proof to the world that he was as good a
nursing father of a kingdom as he had been of a democracy, for
the actions of the king had in them the touch and color of his
judgment and character. The moderation which the young man
showed to the Lacedaemonians, who had incurred his displeasure,
and his affability to the Cretans, by which in a few days he
brought over the whole island to his obedience, and his
expedition against the Aetolians, so wonderfully successful,
brought Philip reputation for hearkening to good advice, and to
Aratus for giving it; for which things the king's followers
envying him more than ever and finding they could not prevail
against him by their secret practices, began openly to abuse and
affront him at the banquets and over their wine, with every kind
of petulance and impudence; so that once they threw stones at
him as he was going back from supper to his tent. At which
Philip being much offended, immediately fined them twenty
talents; and finding afterwards that they still went on
disturbing matters and doing mischief in his affairs, he put
them to death.
But with his run of good success, prosperity began to puff him
up, and various extravagant desires began to spring and show